According to msnnow.com, Jaylen Bledsoe is a 15-year-old sophomore at Hazelwood West High School in St. Louis who also happens to be the CEO and President of Bledsoe Technologies. Bledsoe started his IT consultancy when he was 12 or 13, quickly growing it into the $3.5 million enterprise it is today.
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According to box office estimates, Lee Daniels’ The Butler the film beat out One Direction: This Is Us to win the Labor Day weekend box office race and become the first movie this year to finish No. 1 three consecutive weeks, according to TheWrap.
“We’re surprised,” The Weinstein Company’s distribution chief Erik Lomis told TheWrap, “and very proud. We weren’t expecting to come away with this one, especially after starting out $5 million behind ‘One Direction’ after Friday.”
Lomis said “The Butler,” which has now brought in nearly $80 million domestically, was continuing to broaden its demographic base by playing younger.
“With the kids getting back to school, we’re hoping the word of mouth gets even stronger,” said Lomis. There’s not much room to expand in terms of theaters; it’s on 3,330 screens and averaged just over $6,000.
Two other wide openers – the Selena Gomez-Ethan Hawke thriller “Getaway” and the Eric Bana spy tale “Closed Circuit” – were both non-starters. But “Instructions Not Included,” a family comedy starring Eugenio Derbez, recorded the biggest domestic opening ever for a Spanish-language movie – on just 347 screens – and finished fifth with $10 million for the four days.
Get the FULL story at TheWrap.
“Othello never knew, He was getting schemed on by a member of his crew.”
This is “Othello-The Remix,” the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s hip-hop version of the tragedy about a valiant Moor deceived by the villainous Iago into mistakenly believing his wife has been unfaithful. After Othello smothers his beloved Desdemona, he discovers she has been true to him and he kills himself.
That’s how Shakespeare told the story 400 years ago. This modern version – performed this week for about 450 Cook County jail inmates – is a rhyming, rapping, poetic homage to the Bard. It has singing and dancing. Comic touches. Men playing women. Sexual talk. References to Eddie Murphy and James Brown. A throbbing beat, courtesy of an onstage DJ.
And a contemporary plot: MC Othello is a self-made rap star turned music mogul (think Jay-Z) who decides to promote Cassio, a middle-of-the-road rapper, by releasing his next album. That infuriates the edgy rapper, Iago, who vows revenge. “This is why I hate the Moor,” he fumes. “He never lets me get my foot in the door.” Desdemona is not seen, but heard, her ethereal golden pipes occasionally filling the air.
The Othello remix is the brainchild of two Chicago brothers and rappers – GQ and JQ, aka Gregory and Jeffrey Qaiyum. They wrote and directed the show, honing 40 or so drafts over eight months into a 75-minute rhyme-a-thon. It’s their third hip-hop translation of Shakespeare, following “The Bomb-itty of Errors” and “Funk It Up About Nothin.'”
NEW YORK — For eight intense, entertaining games, Sloane Stephens stayed right with Serena Williams. For a 40-minute stretch in the fourth round of the US Open, the top two American women put on quite a show. Both hit serves topping 115 mph. Both whipped groundstrokes to the corners. Both covered a lot of ground, extending points with leg-churning defense. Both showed the occasional sign of nerves, reflecting what a big deal this was, in part because the 15th-seeded Stephens already was one of only three players to beat No. 1 Williams this season. Until, that is, the score was 4-all in the first set Sunday. That’s when Williams took over.
The 20-year-old Stephens’ time at the top of tennis may come. For now, the 31-year-old Williams is still as good as it gets. Taking eight of the last nine games, defending champion Williams returned to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows by beating Stephens 6-4, 6-1.
“When you give her that opportunity to take that step forward, she definitely makes her move,” Stephens said. “Unfortunately, today she made her move. I just couldn’t get back in.” Still, all in all, it was remarkably compelling and, within individual points, rather evenly played for what turned out to be such a runaway. “I definitely think it was a high-quality match,” said Williams, 64-4 with eight titles this year. “We both came out today to play.”
Director Ron Howard will debut the “Made in America” documentary about the Jay Z-curated music festival in Philadelphia Oct. 11 on Showtime.
Close to 50,000 fans attended Jay-Z’s “Budweiser Made in America” festival on Labor Day weekend last year. The two-day event included performers such as Pearl Jam, Drake, Run DMC, Skrillex, D’Angelo and Calvin Harris.
The year’s festival kicks of this weekend with performances from Beyonce, Nine Inch Nails, Imagine Dragons, Deadmau5, Kendrick Lamar and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Howard’s documentary serves as a backstage pass to the event, which showcases performers sharing stories of how they are “making it in America.”
It will debut Sept. 7 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
article via eurweb.com
Roberts revealed, “I’m really at peace now. I’m not as frightened. I feel 90 percent of myself again, and that’s a great feeling.” September 20th marks a full year since Roberts’ bone marrow transplant and she’s apparently feeling closer to her old self!
Recently getting back from a Maui vacation with a close group of friends, Roberts used that time to renew and reflect and called the trip meaningful. “To be able to feel stronger and a little more active, it’s great to feel that way again,” Roberts said of her trip. Roberts kept a photo of Maui up in her hospital room as motivation to get well. And it did the trick because we get to see her beautiful face every weekday morning. Welcome back Robin!
article by Danielle Young via blackamericaweb.com
Years later when he worked himself up from a low level job to one as a material analyst and senior contract administrator in the defense industry, he remembered those scenes at home. His reading and writing skills allowed him to easily understand systems and write proposals that suggested more efficient ways of operating, thus gaining him attention, respect and promotions from upper management. Oliver never forgot the connection between the rituals at his house and his success at work.
“The success of me being a success in corporate America is because of my reading,” he said. “Our house was full of newspapers and magazines,” he said.
Now a literary consultant, program manager and radio host in Little Rock, he devotes most of his life to developing programs that introduce black youth to literature and the importance of reading and writing well. In 1993, he founded “Say It Loud! Readers and Writers,” the nonprofit that provides opportunities for youth ages 10 – 18 to participate in literary arts activities and events designed to enhance their appreciation for literature as a tool for empowerment. Today, in addition to programs in Little Rock, he has partnerships with programs in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.