By The Associated Press A lawsuit from a Los Angeles woman who alleged music mogul Russell Simmons raped her is being dropped. A federal court filing Wednesday says the two sides have agreed that the suit, filed in January, should be dismissed. It says both will bear their own attorneys’ fees, but gives no other […]
Category: ENTERTAINMENT
Posted inENTERTAINMENT
Tekashi 6ix9ine Makes Money Rapping the N-Word. He’s Not Black.
By Lisa Snowden, Special to the AFRO A few weeks ago my son, who recently turned 10, sat down next to me on the bed where I’d been working. “Mommy, I want to be a Soundcloud rapper,” he said. My husband and I closely monitor his internet usage (or at least we thought we did), but […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Founding Member of Celebrated Go-Go Band Rare Essence Remembered
By Micha Green, AFRO Washington, D.C. Editor, mgreen@afro.com About 2 a.m. on April 20, Rory Felton, better known as “DC”, founding member of the famed go-go band Rare Essence, was found dead of stab wounds in an apartment in Southwest, Washington, D.C. The Washington Post reported Felton, 57, was discovered in the Bellevue neighborhood with at […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Turning the Memphis Sanitation Strike into Art
By J. K. Schmid, Special to the AFRO Angela Wilson, playwright and founder and president of the AngelWing Project, wrote and directed a play about the 1968 Memphis sanitation worker’s strike that will debut this weekend in Anne Arundel County. “Tears of the Soul” tells the story of a Black family in 1968’s Memphis, during the […]
Posted inAfro Briefs, Media, National News
Jury to Deliberate after Cosby Painted as Predator, Victim
By The Associated Press Jurors at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial are poised to start deliberating after a marathon day of closing arguments that portrayed the comedian both as a calculating predator who’s finally being brought to justice and the victim of a multimillion-dollar frame-up by a “pathological liar.” The seven men and five women […]
Posted inAfro Briefs, Arts & Culture, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT
Is Kanye OK?
By Micha Green, Washington, D.C. Editor, mgreen@afro.com Since last week, Kanye West has been a trending topic on Twitter. It all started on April 17 when he began a few-days-long Twitter rant which peaked on April 19 with an announcement that he would be releasing a solo album in addition to another with rapper, Kid Cudi. “My […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
In Closing, Defense Calls Cosby Accuser ‘Pathological Liar’
By The Associated Press Bill Cosby’s lawyers urged a jury Tuesday to acquit the 80-year-old comedian of sexual assault charges they said were based on “flimsy, silly, ridiculous evidence,” arguing he was falsely accused by a “pathological liar” scheming for a big payday. The first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era was nearly in […]
Posted inNational News
Jack Whitten, Artist as Sojourner and Refugee, on Display at BMA
By J. K. Schmid, Special to the AFRO Jack Whitten, the distinguished contemporary Black artist, premieres at the the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) this weekend. “Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963-2017” features 40 works of an artist whose career spanned five decades. Part exhibition, part biography, the BMA display presents a uniquely physical encounter with the […]
Posted inMedia
Baltimore’s Gervonta Davis Becomes Youngest Two-Time World Champion
By Perry Green, AFRO Sports Editor Gervonta “Tank” Davis became the youngest two-time world champion after beating former champion Jesus Cuellar to earn the WBA Super Featherweight title on April 21 at the Barclays Center in New York. Davis, 23, earned a TKO victory over Cuellar as referee Benjy Esteves was forced to stop the fight […]
Posted inENTERTAINMENT
Defense Says Schedules Show Cosby Wasn’t Around for Assault
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and CLAUDIA LAUER, The Associated Press Jurors got a look April 20 at Bill Cosby’s travel records as his lawyers made the case that he never visited his suburban Philadelphia mansion in the month he is accused of drugging and molesting a woman there. Cosby’s lawyers say the alleged assault on Andrea Constand […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Chadwick Boseman of ‘Black Panther’ to Deliver Howard’s Commencement Address
By Lenore T. Adkins, Special to the AFRO The “Black Panther” is taking over Howard University, delivering the Washington, D.C. school’s commencement address on May 12. Chadwick Boseman, an actor and Howard alum, will also receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the ceremony, the school announced April 18. The honorary degree represents the […]
Posted inINTERNATIONAL
First Saudi Cinema Opens with Popcorn and ‘Black Panther’
By The Associated Press The lights dimmed and the crowd of men and women erupted into applause and hoots April 18 evening as Hollywood’s blockbuster “Black Panther” premiered in Saudi Arabia’s first movie theater. Though it was a private, invitation-only screening, for many Saudis it marked one of the clearest moments of change to sweep […]