By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Imagine being so close to Martin Luther King Jr. as he gives one of the world’s most famous speeches that you notice the creases in his face and then realize the late civil rights leader is looking you square in the eye. That’s the intense personal moment […]
Category: Arts & Culture
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, TV and Film
Review: ‘Driving While Black’ Opens Road to Civil Rights
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS Associated Press “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights,” Liveright/W.W. Norton, by Gretchen Sorin Chuck Berry had his Cadillac. Scholar W.E.B. Du Bois drove his 1920s convertible. African Americans in 1950s Pittsburgh overwhelming preferred their Buicks. This cover image released by Liveright/W.W. Norton shows “Driving While Black: […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Baltimore Community, Baltimore News, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS
The Black Vote Mural Project
By J. K. Schmid Special to AFRO Annapolis’s Banneker-Douglass Museum held the Grand Opening for “The Black Vote Mural Project” on Feb. 15. Set to run through to the end of December, the project will be exhibiting “Public Art + Black Voices + Civil Rights,” during a new election year where mainstream media narratives increasingly […]
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Film Review: ‘The Invisible Man’
By Dwight Brown NNPA News Wire Film Critic An old concept isn’t getting a noteworthy update and that problem doesn’t go away. The Invisible Man is a mainstay in the movie world, with origins dating back to the 1897 novel by H.G. Wells. A scientist with a focus on optics finds a way to change […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, LIFE & STYLE, Living, National News, NEWS, TV and Film, Washington D.C. News
Black Girls ‘Rock’ the Kennedy Center
By Micha Green AFRO D.C. Editor mgreen@afro.com For the second year in a row, BLACK GIRLS ROCK! (BGR!) teamed up with the Kennedy Center for a stellar lineup of events to empower Black Girls of all ages in all their glory. The 2020 BGR!FEST will be held at the Kennedy Center from March 5-8, and […]
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Nikki Giovanni’s Latest Poem: ‘Vote’
By Curtis Bunn Urban News Service, A Division of Zenger Nikki Giovanni is 74 years old now, a generation removed from the height of her poetic power. She remains fiery and talented and has a lot on her mind. The author of countless poems that center on love and civil rights, Giovanni wants a new […]
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Smith’s Legacy Sealed at 70
By Associated Press Barbara “B.” Smith, one of the nation’s top black models who went on to open restaurants, launch a successful home products line and write cookbooks, has died at her Long Island home at age 70 after battling early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Smith’s family announced on social media that she died the evening […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS, Prince George's County News, Religion
‘Race, Religion & Revolt’ at Local Museum
By Victoria Daniels Special to the AFRO Visual Artist David W.M. Cassidy’s exhibit, “Race, Religion & Revolt,” is dedicated to using art as a conversation starter for community and societal change. “It’s a pictorial of the political and social conditions in the African-American community,” said Cassidy, the self-taught artist from California. “Race, Religion & Revolt” […]
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AFRO Exclusive: Why D.C. Audiences Need the Amen Corner in 2020
By Micha Green AFRO D.C. Editor mgreen@afro.com One good way to celebrate Black History Month and the greatness and complexity that is Black Americanism, is by taking a visit to Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall for a production of James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner. Featuring a cast full of some of D.C.’s most celebrated […]
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‘Mother Road’ Offers a Way Out
By Micha Green AFRO D.C. Editor mgreen@afro.com If John Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath defined the American Dream, when published in 1939, Octavio Solis’ Mother Road modernizes the ideal with an examination of how shifting demographics, socio-economic times and racial perspectives play a role in living the dream. Arena Stage’s production of Mother Road is a spiritual […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Baltimore Community, Baltimore News, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS, Rambling Rose
RAMBLING ROSE: Baltimore Chamber Jazz Society Launches Great Music
By Rosa Pryor Mildred “Millie” Battle well-known jazz advocate and President of Left Bank Jazz Society and Board Member of Jazz Expressways Foundation, Inc passed away on Friday, February 21st from bladder cancer at Meadow Park Rehabilitation & Health Care Center on Rolling Road. Funeral Arrangements were not made by press deadline. For more information […]
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Lizzo, ‘Just Mercy’ Win Top Honors at NAACP Image Awards
By Andrew Dalton AP Entertainment Writer Lizzo was named entertainer of the year and “Just Mercy” won best motion picture, best actor and best supporting actor Feb. 22 at the NAACP Image Awards, as the show that recognizes entertainers of color ladled honors on the film that was snubbed by bigger shows throughout awards season. […]