Don Cornelius was a class act… a strong black man with dignity and character and integrity… “Love! Peace! And Soooooouuuuuul!” I loved to hear him say that… With Soul Train, we saw ourselves looking good and feeling good. And what enhanced it so much was its creator… He provided the entertainment, but he also doled […]
Author Archives: Kam Williams
Special to the AFRO
Posted inMovie Reviews
Ex-Con Opens Chess Club for At-Risk Kids in Inner-City Biopic
Eugene Brown (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) was so worried about returning to his neighborhood in inner-city Washington, DC after serving 17 years for bank robbery that he shared his concern with his cellmate Searcy (Dennis Haysbert). The wise, old elder responded by making an analogy between life and the game of chess amounting to the simple […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
Soul Mate Discovered in Faith-Based Romantic Romp
Robert’s (Darrin Dewitt Henson) whole world collapses the day he’s fired from the business founded by his late father only to come home to an unsympathetic girlfriend (Erica Hubbard) who has decided to dump him because he can’t afford to take care of her. To add insult to injury, Mita drops the bomb that she’s […]
Posted inBooks
Speed Facing Our Addiction to Fast and Faster– and Overcoming Our Fear of Slowing Down
“This is a book about a new kind of addiction that I believe has taken hold in our culture… I call it the addiction to speed… I’m talking about a culture-wide phenomenon that is snatching people up and carrying them along, convincing them that doing ‘more, better, and faster’ is the path to happiness. Some […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
Troubled Teen Transforms in True Tale of Redemption
James Burns (Spencer Lofranco) ended up behind bars in spite of his frustrated mother’s (Mary-Louise Parker) best efforts to keep him on the straight and narrow path. When he was 14, she took him down to the police station for a good talking to after she found a pistol in his possession. But that early […]
Posted inMovie Reviews
Mark Wahlberg in Memoir about Ambush of Navy SEALs in Afghanistan
On June 28, 2005, a team of Navy SEALs based in Afghanistan were issued orders in accordance with Operation Red Wings to locate and terminate a Taliban leader whose militia had been targeting coalition troops in the Kush Mountains of Kunar Province. The four were then dropped by helicopter line into rugged terrain outside the […]
Posted inBooks
The Global Obama Crossroads of Leadership in the 21st Century
What a paradox. The first Black president, loved by people around the world, yet struggling for approval for his policies at home—whether it be the healthcare initiative, the stimulus to bail out the economy, or his ‘leading from behind’ on foreign policies. Clearly, part of Obama’s worldwide appeal is due to his international biography… Barack […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Kam’s Annual Assessment of the Cream of the Cinematic Crop
While 2013 may be remembered for black-themed films like 42, The Butler, Fruitvale Station and early Oscar favorite 12 Years a Slave, there were plenty of other excellent offerings released over the course of the year. The summer season alone featured a trio of outstanding horror flicks in The Conjuring, You’re Next and The Purge. […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Taking Stock of the Status Flo
Flo Anthony is a syndicated celebrity radio host, columnist. The first African-American woman to work in the sports, entertainment and the renowned Page Six departments of the New York Post, as well as the first African American to pen a column in the National Examiner, her work currently appears in the New York Daily News, […]
Posted inBooks
The 10 Best Black Books of 2013 (Non-Fiction)
The 10 Best Black Books of 2013 (Non-Fiction) 1. (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race Edited by Yaba Blay, Ph.D. with photography by Noelle Theard 2. Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities by Craig Steven Wilder 3. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Kam’s Kapsules: Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
BIG BUDGET FILMS 47 Ronin (PG-13 for intense violence, disturbing images and mature themes) Martial arts saga, set in 18th C. Japan, about a biracial outcast (Keanu Reeves) who joins a group of grieving samurai seeking vengeance for the murder of their sensei. With Ko Shibasaki, Hiroyuki Sanada and Min Tanaka. (In English and Japanese […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
The Young and Restless Angell
Angell Conwell was born in Orangeburg, S.C., Aug. 2, 1983, but raised in nearby Columbia. At 17, she made her big screen debut in the gritty, John Singleton drama Baby Boy opposite Tyrese, Taraji P. Henson and Snoop Dogg. She followed that outing with well-received supporting roles in such feature films as The Wash, Soul […]