By AFRO Staff Janet Jackson, Kevin Hart and Nicki Minaj are among the headliners announced March 3 for this summer’s Essence Festival of Culture, which returns to New Orleans after a two-year hiatus brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Others tapped to entertain June 30 through July 3 include New Edition, The Isley Brothers, Jazmine […]
Category: Arts & Culture
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Smithsonian, IF/THEN collaborate to celebrate women in STEM
By Micha Green, AFRO D.C. and Digital Content Editor, mgreen@afro.com With Women’s History Month in full swing, the Smithsonian Institution and Lydia Hill Philanthropies’ IF/THEN collaborated on an exhibit that showcases and celebrates women in STEM. The exhibit, called #IfThenSheCan, includes 120 full sized statues of women in STEM- highlighting these women scientists as true […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Wicked’ welcomes a pioneering good witch, Brittney Johnson
By Mark Kennedy, Associated Press While many people spent Valentine’s Day with the traditional flowers and chocolates, Brittney Johnson was making theater history. The young Broadway veteran was gently lowered onto the Gershwin Theatre stage to become the first Black actor to assume the role of Glinda full-time in “Wicked,” shattering a racial barrier on […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Museum begins honoring Black coachmen from the Jim Crow era
By Ben Finley, Associated Press News The Black men who drove horse-drawn carriages through the streets of Colonial Williamsburg, Va. were simultaneously invisible and omnipresent during the Jim Crow era. Their wooden coaches help conjure up images of the late 18th Century for visitors among the likes of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Winston Churchill and former […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
The Batman review
By Dwight Brown, NNPA News Wire film critic Crime is rampant in Gotham City. Murders. Manslaughter. Blood soaks the streets. Citizens live in terror and the police are stumped. On desperate nights a Batman signal lights up the sky and the caped man jumps into action, but even he can’t stem the tide: “It’s a […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Photographers present “Black Is” exhibition
By DeAnna Giles, Special to the AFRO A moment in Black history. “You would think that from the surface level, we don’t have anything in common. There was a particular older White gentleman who saw my images and afterwards, came to talk to me and just fell on my arms and cried. I didn’t know […]
Posted inBooks
Donna Storey taps into the power, history of waistbeads
By Nadine Matthews, Special to the AFRO Donna Storey’s waist bead journey began as a result of her weight loss journey. The Baltimore native, entrepreneur and author of “Waistbeads and Western Society: A Sisterhood…” told the AFRO, “It started off with me wanting to lose weight and needing a way to gauge when I was […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Arena Stage’s world premiere of Change Agent brings beautifully, diverse reimagined historic tale
By Micha Green, AFRO D.C. and Digital Editor, mgreen@afro.com In the United Kingdom it’s not hard to know who the royals are because they hold regal titles in front of their names, however, in the United States there’s a last name that connotes regality as well- Kennedy. Just like the British royals, despite famous public […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Demetria McKinney talks A House Divided, working in Hollywood
By Micha Green, AFRO D.C. and Digital Editor, mgreen@afro.com Though Demetria McKinney said that her original goal was to be singer not actor, the actress known for “House of Payne,” “A House Divided,” and “Motherland: Fort Salem,” is no stranger to Hollywood or the entertainment industry. However, having made it through the throws of the […]
Posted in!Front Page
Simmons takes audience on life’s ride, gets real with ‘Just Angela’
By Micha Green, AFRO D.C. and Digital Editor, mgreen@afro.com Actress, entrepreneur, mother, producer and designer Angela Simmons has spent much of her life in the limelight and being followed by cameras, but in her Aspire TV show Just Angela the daughter of rap royalty works to show us intimate aspects of her personal life journey […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Jamal Edwards, who nurtured UK musical talent, dies at 31
By Associated Press Jamal Edwards, a British music entrepreneur who championed U.K. rap and grime and helped launch the careers of artists including Ed Sheeran, Jessie J and Stormzy, has died due a heart attack. He was 31. His mother, broadcaster Brenda Edwards, said Feb. that her son died the day before after a sudden […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
At this Baltimore organization, art and healing go hand-in-hand
By Jannette J. WitmyerSpecial to the AFRO Paul Braswell is brimming with excitement about the work his nonprofit organization Art Health & Healing (AH&H) has been doing, using art as a source of healing, and how it all came to be. Actually, it was a natural fit. Braswell, a kidney transplant recipient who spent nine […]