By MESFIN FEKADU, AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Janelle Monae doesn’t remember the first album she owned as a child, but the first one she spent her hard-earned money on? “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” “I just connected with Lauryn on many levels. The fact that she was a young black woman in America […]
Category: ENTERTAINMENT
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, Music
ASCAP Hosts All-Female Songwriting Camp to Improve Diversity
By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — In a spacious recording studio in Nashville, two singer-songwriters, Priscilla Renea and Jillian Jacqueline, were working through a song idea, trading suggestions for lyrics and melody on the theme of resurrection. “When you least expect it.,” Jacqueline started off. “Resurrection!” says Renea with a flourish. Shortly […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, National Sports, Sports, TV and Film
25 years After Spurning NBA Jam, Jordan Invests in Esports
By The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A quarter century after being famously excluded from the cult favorite video game NBA Jam, Michael Jordan is investing in esports. Jordan on Thursday was announced as an investor with aXiomatic, a major esports ownership group whose properties include powerhouse franchise Team Liquid. Former NBA star and […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, TV and Film
Author Ntozake Shange of ‘For Colored Girls’ Fame has Died
By MARK KENNEDY, AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Playwright, poet and author Ntozake Shange, whose most acclaimed theater piece is the 1975 Tony Award-nominated play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf,” died Saturday, according to her daughter. She was 70. Shange’s “For Colored Girls” describes the racism, sexism, […]
Posted inAfro Briefs, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, Music, POLITICS
Kanye West Makes Cameo Showing for Chicago Mayoral Hopeful
By The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Fresh off his bizarre Oval Office visit with President Donald Trump, hip-hop megastar Kanye West drew a crowd when he joined a Democratic mayoral hopeful and Chance the Rapper in a sidewalk appearance on Chicago’s South Side. West didn’t say anything during Amara Enyia’s event in Woodlawn Tuesday […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Baltimore News, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS, Washington D.C. News
Toby’s Dinner Theater a Local Treat for DMV Residents; ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ Musical Keeps Fats Waller Tradition Alive
By Timothy Cox, Special to The Afro COLUMBIA, MD — Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller was just 39 when he died in 1943. From Sept. 14 thru Nov 4, Toby’s Dinner Theater in Columbia, Maryland has featured a musical production dedicated to the music of Mr. Waller’s many compositions. ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ originally showed on the “Great White […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, Music
Childish Gambino Cancels Appearance at Voodoo Fest Show Due to Foot Injury
By The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Childish Gambino has canceled his Saturday appearance at the 2018 Voodoo Music + Arts Experience in New Orleans because of a foot injury he suffered last month. News outlets report Gambino’s 9:45 p.m. slot has been filled by rapper Travis Scott. In this Friday, Sept. 21, 2018 […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, National News, NEWS, TV and Film
NBC Cancels Megyn Kelly’s Show After Blackface Controversy
By LYNN ELBER and MARK KENNEDY, AP Entertainment Writers NEW YORK (AP) — Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News Channel personality who made a rocky transition to softer news at NBC, was fired from her morning show Friday after triggering a furor by suggesting it was OK for White people to wear blackface at Halloween. […]
Posted inArts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS, Washington D.C. News
Alice Walker Shares Wisdom on Several Subjects at Busboys and Poets
By Brianna McAdoo, Special to the AFRO Once again, the restaurant, community and cultural space, Busboys and Poets, facilitated a night to remember. On Oct. 15, Busboys and Poets hosted “Taking the Arrow Out of The Heart: An Evening with Alice Walker and Desert Rose,” with the poet, literary icon, and political activist Alice Walker. Established […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, Music, NEWS, Prince George's County News, Washington D.C. News
Remembering Hamiet Bluiett
By Nyame-Kye Kond, Special to the AFRO Dating back to the days of Black Broadway, When the U street corridor was an important destination for Black musicians, and later on when it became a poetry, and Go-Go hotspot in the 1990’s to the early 2000’s, Washington D.C. has always been an artistic mecca for progressive Black […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, BUSINESS, ENTERTAINMENT, TV and Film
Producer Brian Moreland Talks Broadway, His Taye Diggs Directed Play
By Nadine Matthews, Special to the AFRO Broadway producer Brian Moreland firmly believes that Black people saved Broadway. He explains that back in the twenties and thirties, “Off Broadway was where every Black performer was pushed, or forced off to. That’s where Black people were performing primarily.” As the economy tends to do, it had a […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Baltimore News, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS, TV and Film, Washington D.C. News
Smithsonian African American Film Festival
By Deborah Bailey, Special to the AFRO The Smithsonian is honoring African-American film and filmmaking this weekend at its inaugural African American Film Festival, Oct. 24-27. The festival, includes a celebration Oct. 25, hosted by the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “Our night at the Museum epitomizes what’s so special about this inaugural […]