You no doubt know about Sundance and maybe about Tribeca, but if you really care about Black images on the big and small screens, then you should find a way to support this effort, now in its 11th year.
There’s still time this weekend to check out some wonderfully engaging and thought-provoking film at the AMC 34th Street Theater (312 W. 34th St., between 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan). In my circles people are constantly complaining about the depiction of Blacks or the absence of Blacks on the screen. This festival showcases independent film that covers the range from serious to silly. Many of the films are about Blacks, but there are also films that cover others on the edges of recognition in this urban environment.
The website for learning about the schedule is: www.urbanworld.org. Some of the board members of the sponsoring organizations are Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Glover, Rosie Perez and Debbie Allen.
Beyond the festival, look for the films. Demand the films!
Here are descriptions of two:
DIVIDED WE FALL
Driven to action by the murder of a turbaned man in her community, a college student drives across America in the aftermath of 9/11 to discover stories that did not make the evening news. From the still-shocked streets of Ground Zero to the desert towns of the American West, Valarie Kaur’s inspiring journey uncovers remarkable stories of hate, violence, fear, and unspeakable loss – until she finds the heart of America halfway around the world.
761st
The 761st Tank Battalion became the first African-American armored unit to fight in WWII. Requested by General George S. Patton, they assisted in heavy combat during the famous Battle of the Bulge. Despite this, they faced racism at home and death overseas, fighting a war for many freedoms they did not enjoy back home in America. This is their story.
Showing posts with label Entertainment Industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Entertainment Industry. Show all posts
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
I'm Happy to Be Nappy
In the US -- as well as elsewhere in the African Diaspora -- Blacks have internalized the White racist notions of worthiness that have been part and parcel of this society since at least the 17th century.
Over time, we've learned that the closer you came to the White measure of normality and beauty, the more worthy you were for acceptance into some parts of mainstream society -- whether as field slave or house slave, mistress or butler or even leader of the Black race. Good hair. High yellow skin color. Proper manners. In elementary school I had big fights with girls who seemed to get a pass because they were the teachers' pets based on such characteristics while, I, an unmistakably nappy-haired brown-skinned girl had to work for everything I sometimes begrudgingly earned from some of those teachers.
When Imus thought he was being funny by characterizing a dignified group of college students as "nappy-headed ho's", he had no idea into what he was tapping. Nor did his core audience, I'm sure. Even this weekend, some of the elites who appeared on his show to talk about politics or their new books, say they never tuned in to the program long enough to know what he was all about. But he obviously counted on his core audience to know what he was about and to yuk it up with him. He miscalulated this time -- and, maybe, as a nation we will be the better for that.
"I did a bad thing, but I'm a good person," Imus keeps telling himself -- and all of US. Maybe he inadvertently did a good thing.
Now White people know that while Black people like me who long ago rejected the perm and are happy to be nappy, there are many others who are struggling with their identity within a US culture that uses terms like "all American" or "girl next door" when the images are of blonde White women -- most of whom are skinny to boot! Whether it is a reflection of liberation or denial, some Black women are now sporting blonde do's. And while ads are more cosmetically subtle than those in the 1950s that pushed bleaching creams for Blacks who wanted to lighten their skin, there is a market for such products even today.
The pain and complexity involved in "nappiness" may have been foreign to many in Imus's audience. BUT, it was the reference to these All-American young women, disciplined scholar-athletes who came close to winning a national championshp after exceeding all pre-season expectations that made it possible for ALL Americans, especially Whites in corporate America, to understand that Imus's version of humor is really cruelty that perpetuates stereotypes and demeans their own daughters. So many television executives and advertisers noted that they were the fathers of daughters!
Now they need to use that heightened sensitivity to take a next step: Pull out of the corporate support for the worst of rap music and rap videos that depict females as sex objects, liberally using the B-word and the H-word while showing young women shaking their booties. Corporate America -- including some entities that yanked their support for Imus In The Morning -- is making huge money from this.
I'll take it as a sign that the US is finally getting it, when corporate America -- led by all those fathers with daughters -- pulls its money from where its sensitivity now dictates and when mainstream media like NBC and Fox and CNN devote as much attention to those who among Black folks have been crusading against the hip-hop filth for at least two decades as they have devoted to asking if Imus is the victim of a double standard.
Over time, we've learned that the closer you came to the White measure of normality and beauty, the more worthy you were for acceptance into some parts of mainstream society -- whether as field slave or house slave, mistress or butler or even leader of the Black race. Good hair. High yellow skin color. Proper manners. In elementary school I had big fights with girls who seemed to get a pass because they were the teachers' pets based on such characteristics while, I, an unmistakably nappy-haired brown-skinned girl had to work for everything I sometimes begrudgingly earned from some of those teachers.
When Imus thought he was being funny by characterizing a dignified group of college students as "nappy-headed ho's", he had no idea into what he was tapping. Nor did his core audience, I'm sure. Even this weekend, some of the elites who appeared on his show to talk about politics or their new books, say they never tuned in to the program long enough to know what he was all about. But he obviously counted on his core audience to know what he was about and to yuk it up with him. He miscalulated this time -- and, maybe, as a nation we will be the better for that.
"I did a bad thing, but I'm a good person," Imus keeps telling himself -- and all of US. Maybe he inadvertently did a good thing.
Now White people know that while Black people like me who long ago rejected the perm and are happy to be nappy, there are many others who are struggling with their identity within a US culture that uses terms like "all American" or "girl next door" when the images are of blonde White women -- most of whom are skinny to boot! Whether it is a reflection of liberation or denial, some Black women are now sporting blonde do's. And while ads are more cosmetically subtle than those in the 1950s that pushed bleaching creams for Blacks who wanted to lighten their skin, there is a market for such products even today.
The pain and complexity involved in "nappiness" may have been foreign to many in Imus's audience. BUT, it was the reference to these All-American young women, disciplined scholar-athletes who came close to winning a national championshp after exceeding all pre-season expectations that made it possible for ALL Americans, especially Whites in corporate America, to understand that Imus's version of humor is really cruelty that perpetuates stereotypes and demeans their own daughters. So many television executives and advertisers noted that they were the fathers of daughters!
Now they need to use that heightened sensitivity to take a next step: Pull out of the corporate support for the worst of rap music and rap videos that depict females as sex objects, liberally using the B-word and the H-word while showing young women shaking their booties. Corporate America -- including some entities that yanked their support for Imus In The Morning -- is making huge money from this.
I'll take it as a sign that the US is finally getting it, when corporate America -- led by all those fathers with daughters -- pulls its money from where its sensitivity now dictates and when mainstream media like NBC and Fox and CNN devote as much attention to those who among Black folks have been crusading against the hip-hop filth for at least two decades as they have devoted to asking if Imus is the victim of a double standard.
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Imus Mess
I
IMUS was never a must for me
Imus is going down – at least on MSNBC on television and CBS on radio and with major advertisers and with politicians and journalists and other celebrities who’ve lent credibility to his show so many years.
I’ve never listened to or watched Imus or any other shock jock. Just as I refused to watch a sitcom that famously billed itself as a show about nothing (Seinfeld), I’ve refused to participate in the shock jock cult. There’s too much to be shocked about in the real world to support repugnant, outrageous, insulting commentary as entertainment, often at the expense of the underdog.
Why Imus and his producer felt the need to denigrate 10 young women who had overcome great odds to reach the final game in the NCAA basketball championship is beyond understanding. These young women, ages 18 to 20, were not “nappy headed” (Most seem to have perms, for god’s sake!). And there is absolutely nothing to indicate that these very disciplined, very academically sound young women are “whores”. (Definitions: “a prostitute; a person considered sexually promiscuous; a person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain”)
Hmmm. That last definition sounds more like Imus than the Rutgers team.
II
Where are White women?
Imus did not just insult Blacks, but also women. Quickly this became an Imus versus “the Black community” conflict. The sexism in his no-infamous line has pretty much been ignored except by a handful of Black women. And so I ask again: Where are White women?
III
There is power in protest
If anything, this fallout from Imus’s on-air idiocy has demonstrated the power of speaking out and of making economic demands that can influence social policy. It was one thing for the Rev. Al Sharpton to use his various bully pulpits to speak out; this went to a whole new level when major advertisers listened and decided to withdraw their support for Imus’s show.
Vote with your hands. Change the dial. Don’t listen to the Imuses of the airwaves. But if the other Imuses out there say something as despicable as he did, don’t fear to use the power of the purse. Encourage advertisers to withdraw their support.
I’m encouraged by this mobilization of this particular coalition of the willing. Now it needs to carry on to assault those aspects of hip-hop culture that have usurped that culture and turned it into something that makes an Imus comfortable with referring to Black women as whores. There are big corporate bucks out there behind this aspect of hip-hop. Let’s go after them.
IV
Post-embarrassment “therapy”
Imus didn’t rush into therapy for alcoholism or temporary mental illness or whatever the way other celebrities have done after getting caught with their inner-hatred unleashed and facing the loss of income.
But that 2 ½ hours at the New Jersey Governor’s Mansion with the Rutgers team and its coaches must have been more intense than anything Isaiah Washington or Mel Gibson experienced during their rush-to-therapy after expressions of homophobia (Washington of television’s Grey’s Anatomy) and anti-Semitism (Gibson, the actor, director and producer) or racism (Michael Richards, the comic most famous as a character on Seinfeld).
V
Once again Sen. McCain called it wrong
As various Imus regulars – politicians, journalists, etcetera – announced their intent to boycott Imus’s show, McCain said he accepted Imus’s apologies and would gladly return to Imus In the Morning.
He can’t get it right. Just a few days ago, after visiting a market in Baghdad surrounded by about 100 heavily-armed soldiers and with military helicopters hovering overhead and sharpshooters positioned on rooftops, he came back espousing the Bush administration party line: The streets are much safer in Baghdad these days; the war is being won.
And then he had to admit, after public humiliation by not just US bloggers but also by Iraqi civilians who know otherwise, that he’d been wearing rose-colored glasses and had “misspoke.”
Is this man ready for his closeup as a viable presidential candidate?
IMUS was never a must for me
Imus is going down – at least on MSNBC on television and CBS on radio and with major advertisers and with politicians and journalists and other celebrities who’ve lent credibility to his show so many years.
I’ve never listened to or watched Imus or any other shock jock. Just as I refused to watch a sitcom that famously billed itself as a show about nothing (Seinfeld), I’ve refused to participate in the shock jock cult. There’s too much to be shocked about in the real world to support repugnant, outrageous, insulting commentary as entertainment, often at the expense of the underdog.
Why Imus and his producer felt the need to denigrate 10 young women who had overcome great odds to reach the final game in the NCAA basketball championship is beyond understanding. These young women, ages 18 to 20, were not “nappy headed” (Most seem to have perms, for god’s sake!). And there is absolutely nothing to indicate that these very disciplined, very academically sound young women are “whores”. (Definitions: “a prostitute; a person considered sexually promiscuous; a person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain”)
Hmmm. That last definition sounds more like Imus than the Rutgers team.
II
Where are White women?
Imus did not just insult Blacks, but also women. Quickly this became an Imus versus “the Black community” conflict. The sexism in his no-infamous line has pretty much been ignored except by a handful of Black women. And so I ask again: Where are White women?
III
There is power in protest
If anything, this fallout from Imus’s on-air idiocy has demonstrated the power of speaking out and of making economic demands that can influence social policy. It was one thing for the Rev. Al Sharpton to use his various bully pulpits to speak out; this went to a whole new level when major advertisers listened and decided to withdraw their support for Imus’s show.
Vote with your hands. Change the dial. Don’t listen to the Imuses of the airwaves. But if the other Imuses out there say something as despicable as he did, don’t fear to use the power of the purse. Encourage advertisers to withdraw their support.
I’m encouraged by this mobilization of this particular coalition of the willing. Now it needs to carry on to assault those aspects of hip-hop culture that have usurped that culture and turned it into something that makes an Imus comfortable with referring to Black women as whores. There are big corporate bucks out there behind this aspect of hip-hop. Let’s go after them.
IV
Post-embarrassment “therapy”
Imus didn’t rush into therapy for alcoholism or temporary mental illness or whatever the way other celebrities have done after getting caught with their inner-hatred unleashed and facing the loss of income.
But that 2 ½ hours at the New Jersey Governor’s Mansion with the Rutgers team and its coaches must have been more intense than anything Isaiah Washington or Mel Gibson experienced during their rush-to-therapy after expressions of homophobia (Washington of television’s Grey’s Anatomy) and anti-Semitism (Gibson, the actor, director and producer) or racism (Michael Richards, the comic most famous as a character on Seinfeld).
V
Once again Sen. McCain called it wrong
As various Imus regulars – politicians, journalists, etcetera – announced their intent to boycott Imus’s show, McCain said he accepted Imus’s apologies and would gladly return to Imus In the Morning.
He can’t get it right. Just a few days ago, after visiting a market in Baghdad surrounded by about 100 heavily-armed soldiers and with military helicopters hovering overhead and sharpshooters positioned on rooftops, he came back espousing the Bush administration party line: The streets are much safer in Baghdad these days; the war is being won.
And then he had to admit, after public humiliation by not just US bloggers but also by Iraqi civilians who know otherwise, that he’d been wearing rose-colored glasses and had “misspoke.”
Is this man ready for his closeup as a viable presidential candidate?
Monday, April 2, 2007
Jazz Lovers Alert: Tribute Tonight to Michael Brecker
Brecker, a saxophonist, sideman and band leader, died in January. Tonight on WBAI-NY, 99.5 FM and via webcast (www.wbai.org [[The "Listen Now" icon on the upper right of the home page]) This takes place from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time.
From my friend Greg Thomas, comes this information: "In addition to performance examples over a quarter century span with Michael Brecker as a sideman and leader, we’ll hear his own voice in interviews, revealing a gentle and soulful man behind the astounding technique he displayed on tenor sax."
Special guests include:
· Alto saxophonist David Sanborn, long-time friend and colleague of Brecker, and
· Bret Primack, producer of a moving video tribute to Brecker on his Bird Lives videoblog. Bret also hosts the JazzVideoLand channel at YouTube.
From my friend Greg Thomas, comes this information: "In addition to performance examples over a quarter century span with Michael Brecker as a sideman and leader, we’ll hear his own voice in interviews, revealing a gentle and soulful man behind the astounding technique he displayed on tenor sax."
Special guests include:
· Alto saxophonist David Sanborn, long-time friend and colleague of Brecker, and
· Bret Primack, producer of a moving video tribute to Brecker on his Bird Lives videoblog. Bret also hosts the JazzVideoLand channel at YouTube.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
What Exactly Is Isaiah Washington Being "Treated" For??
This actor has checked himself into some program after making homophobic remarks about his Grey's Anatomy co-star. Is there a Betty Ford Clinic-style Stars-R-Us place for homophobes? This seems like a stupid public relations move that diminishes the seriousness of seeking treatment for the abuses of alcohol and drugs and such. Through Halle Berry's disastrous marriage to Eric Benet, we learned about the "need" for treatment for sexual addiction to women other than his wife. Mama would have a name for that -- and the Scriptures to back her up! Not to mention something to knock him in the head or whip his butt! There are legitimate reasons to seek treatment, but too often these folks in the public eye seem to equate "I'm going into therapy" with cleaning up their public images. Give us a break!
Homophobia exists in America and very much so in Black America. Washington needs to clean up his act but not pretend that going into therapy is the way ahead. Whatever this "therapy" is is merely the way to hold on to his acting gig on Grey's Anatomy.
Homophobia exists in America and very much so in Black America. Washington needs to clean up his act but not pretend that going into therapy is the way ahead. Whatever this "therapy" is is merely the way to hold on to his acting gig on Grey's Anatomy.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Academy Award Nominees
Congratulations!:
Dreamgirls for eight nominations
Will Smith for best actor in a leading role in The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker for best actor in a leading role in The Last King of Scotland
Jennifer Hudson for best actress in a supporting role in Dreamgirls
Eddie Murphy for best actor in a supporting role in Dreamgirls
Djimon Hounsou for best actor in a supporting role in Blood Diamond
What would Hattie McDaniel think! She, after all, was the first Black person to be nominated and to win the award for Best Supporting Actress for playing the role of Mammy in 1939's Gone With The Wind. A dignified woman, she had a retort to those who criticized her for playing so many roles as domestics. "I'd rather play a maid than be one."
Yet, even in honoring her, Hollywood dissed her: When the awards were presented, she was relegated to the back of the Coconut Grove, where the ceremonies took place. Bursting through racial barriers had its limits even among this artistic and self-congratulatory community.
Dreamgirls for eight nominations
Will Smith for best actor in a leading role in The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker for best actor in a leading role in The Last King of Scotland
Jennifer Hudson for best actress in a supporting role in Dreamgirls
Eddie Murphy for best actor in a supporting role in Dreamgirls
Djimon Hounsou for best actor in a supporting role in Blood Diamond
What would Hattie McDaniel think! She, after all, was the first Black person to be nominated and to win the award for Best Supporting Actress for playing the role of Mammy in 1939's Gone With The Wind. A dignified woman, she had a retort to those who criticized her for playing so many roles as domestics. "I'd rather play a maid than be one."
Yet, even in honoring her, Hollywood dissed her: When the awards were presented, she was relegated to the back of the Coconut Grove, where the ceremonies took place. Bursting through racial barriers had its limits even among this artistic and self-congratulatory community.
Ruth Brown: "A Very Special Lady"
Why does it often happen that we learn about the contributions and sacrifices people have made only after their deaths? I found myself asking that question yet again at a memorial service for the late Ruth Brown, the woman once credited with putting Atlantic Records on the map. That company, which will soon celebrate its 60th anniversary, was known in the 1950s as “The House That Ruth Built.”
At her memorial service at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church on Jan. 22d were performers ranging from Little Jimmy Scott to Bonnie Raitt to Chuck Jackson to Paul Shaffer – and Ruth Brown’s band. The Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts 3d described her as "a very special lady" and "one of the greatest entertainers of the last century."
John Sayles, the director, was there to show a preliminary recording session for a movie he’s making called Honeydripper, starring Danny Glover and Charles Dutton. She died shortly before scheduled to star as a kind of Ma Rainey character down on her luck in Alabama in the 1950s.
“She lived the songs that she sung,” her longtime musical director, Rodney Jones, said. That meant lots of blues amid the joy. For a time she worked as a domestic, too ashamed to tell her employers that some of the music they were listening to was her performing. She drove a school bus for a while. But after a fallow period as a singer, she made a comeback in the 1970s. She won a Tony for her performance in Black and Blue on Broadway. Find out more about her at this website: http://www.ruthbrown.net
What she was best appreciated for among her friends in the music industry was her fight for royalty reform so that all those pioneers of R & B and Rock & Roll stood a chance to be paid the money they were due. She eventually received money from Atlantic after a valiant fight. She was a founder of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation (www.rhythmblues.org) that continues as an advocate for not just the music but also the musicians. Sadly, she died within days of two others involved with the foundation, Ed Bradley of CBS News and the singer Gerald Levert.
Thanks Voza Rivers and thanks Chuck Jackson for putting together a great show – that memorial service – that did justice to the pioneer that Ruth Brown was. In the summer, Harlem will pay tribute to her and to James Brown during the Harlem Week festivities.
And more of us will learn more about what they went through to make their records, to gain airtime -- and to be reasonably compensated by the record companies that exploited them. May the current generation of entertainers not have to go through what they did because of WHAT they did.
At her memorial service at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church on Jan. 22d were performers ranging from Little Jimmy Scott to Bonnie Raitt to Chuck Jackson to Paul Shaffer – and Ruth Brown’s band. The Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts 3d described her as "a very special lady" and "one of the greatest entertainers of the last century."
John Sayles, the director, was there to show a preliminary recording session for a movie he’s making called Honeydripper, starring Danny Glover and Charles Dutton. She died shortly before scheduled to star as a kind of Ma Rainey character down on her luck in Alabama in the 1950s.
“She lived the songs that she sung,” her longtime musical director, Rodney Jones, said. That meant lots of blues amid the joy. For a time she worked as a domestic, too ashamed to tell her employers that some of the music they were listening to was her performing. She drove a school bus for a while. But after a fallow period as a singer, she made a comeback in the 1970s. She won a Tony for her performance in Black and Blue on Broadway. Find out more about her at this website: http://www.ruthbrown.net
What she was best appreciated for among her friends in the music industry was her fight for royalty reform so that all those pioneers of R & B and Rock & Roll stood a chance to be paid the money they were due. She eventually received money from Atlantic after a valiant fight. She was a founder of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation (www.rhythmblues.org) that continues as an advocate for not just the music but also the musicians. Sadly, she died within days of two others involved with the foundation, Ed Bradley of CBS News and the singer Gerald Levert.
Thanks Voza Rivers and thanks Chuck Jackson for putting together a great show – that memorial service – that did justice to the pioneer that Ruth Brown was. In the summer, Harlem will pay tribute to her and to James Brown during the Harlem Week festivities.
And more of us will learn more about what they went through to make their records, to gain airtime -- and to be reasonably compensated by the record companies that exploited them. May the current generation of entertainers not have to go through what they did because of WHAT they did.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Dreamgirls
Why is Dreamgirls only NOW being widely released? What was Paramount thinking in only releasing it – pre-Golden Globes – to a few hundred theaters? Why didn’t Paramount execs have confidence that such a stellar cast could WOW! the nation?' They obviously saw this as a Black film with no appeal to people who are not Black or are not interested in films involving Blacks.
Three Golden Globes awards later, Paramount is distributing the film to 2,000 theaters.
Hollywood should "Listen" to the film’s soundtrack. It is still “Steppin’ to the Bad Side” when it needs to “Move”.
Three Golden Globes awards later, Paramount is distributing the film to 2,000 theaters.
Hollywood should "Listen" to the film’s soundtrack. It is still “Steppin’ to the Bad Side” when it needs to “Move”.
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