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Posts published by “goodblacknews”

Happy 80th Birthday, Music Impresario Quincy Jones

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2013
Music producer and Ahmet Ertegun Award recipient Quincy Jones attends the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2013 Inductees announcement at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on December 11, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Music producer and Ahmet Ertegun Award recipient Quincy Jones attends the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2013 Inductees announcement at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on December 11, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Legendary producer and musician Quincy Jones was born 80 years ago today. Jones, known as “The Dude” or sometimes simply as “Q,” is an American music impresario. He brought black music to the forefront of popular culture through his long career as a conductor, producer, arranger, composer and performer.
Jones’ career began in 1956, when he toured as a trumpeter for the Dizzy Gillespie Band. For years, he dedicated his energies to performing jazz. His work as a film composer began in 1964, when he scored his first of 33 motion pictures. He would go on to compose scores for films like The Color Purple, The Wiz and In the Heat of the Night.
His work has spanned media platforms as the composer of TV themes like Sanford and Son, producer of shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and the founder of VIBE magazine. Jones has won an astonishing 27 Grammy Awards in his career and shows no signs of slowing down.
article by Donovan X. Ramsey via thegrio.com
 
Related Articles:
Quincy Jones Creates Music Ed Application “Playground Sessions”
Quincy Jones Accepts Montblanc Lifetime Achievement Award

12-year-old Chef Haile Thomas "Living her Dream" Helping Kids Eat Healthy

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2013

Haile Thomas, 12, cooks on TODAY with Al Roker.

Most kids can’t even spell “quinoa,” let alone cook it; but most kids aren’t 12-year-old Haile Thomas. The Tucson, Ariz., native blew TODAY away Tuesday morning with her absolutely delicious black bean and corn quinoa salad with garlic shrimp and avocado, a dish she recently cooked up for first lady Michelle Obama as part of the first Kids’ State Dinner.
“That was very exciting to have the first lady enjoy my food!” she told Al.  As a tween, Haile’s credentials are more impressive than most 30-year-olds, and she’s hobnobbed with the likes of Tom Colicchio, Alice Waters and even Bill Clinton. Cooking since the age of five by helping her mother in the kitchen, Haile’s interest was piqued by watching food documentaries.

Film Independent + FOX HBCU Media Alliance Award Nekisa Cooper Inaugural Fellowship, Grant

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2013
It was exactly a month ago when it Fox announced what it called “a transformative new partnership” with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) designed to further the development of diverse voices across the company’s entertainment businesses.

Called the FOX/HBCU Media Alliance (FHMA), the union would bring HBCU students, faculty and alumni together with executives from Fox’s media and entertainment businesses in an effort to build a stronger pipeline for students interested in pursuing careers in the film and TV industry, and advance the careers of HBCU alumni already working in media and entertainment within Fox businesses.
As part of that partnership, FOX Audience Strategy established and funded the first-of-its-kind Fox Film Grant that will enable one FHMA member to participate in Project Involve, the year-long program of Film Independent.
A month later, it’s been announced today that producer Nekisa Cooper (Pariah) will be the first recipient of this newProject Involve Fellowship, which comes with a $10,000 production grant from FHMA that will go towards production of a feature film she’s producing (to be directed by her Pariah collaborator, Dee Rees) titled Bolo, described as a Southern crime thriller about a Memphis police detective who investigates a murder in her community, which in turn challenges her notion of home, human nature, and the difference between right and wrong.

Born On This Day In 1774: Rose Fortune, Canada’s 1st Female Police Officer

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2013

Rose FortuneCanada’s first female police officer, Rose Fortune (pictured), was born in to slavery in Virginia on this day in 1774, marking the start of what would become a remarkable journey. Fortune’s parents were slaves that lived in a British colony, but escaped during the height of the American Revolutionary War and emigrated when she was 10 years of age to Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. The Valley was a known locale for “Black Loyalists,” African-American inhabitants of British America who sided with British forces in promises for freedom during the war.
Although Black Loyalists were free, opportunities for employment were scarce for them. Fortune didn’t rest on her laurels, though. Instead, she started a baggage and luggage delivery business in 1825 using little more than a wheelbarrow. As her delivery business grew, Fortune later started an alert “wake-up call” service for passengers at inns who needed to make it to the docks for departing ships. As a result of her work on the docks, she began to monitor activity on the wharves.
Setting curfews at the wharves and surrounding areas, Fortune effectively appointed herself as Annapolis Royal’s police officer, making her the first female police officer in Canada.
Fortune’s delivery service continued to thrive, expanding in 1841 to include horse-driven wagons instead of her customary wheelbarrow. After Fortune passed in 1864, her grandson Albert Lewis took over the business and family descendants continued the service until 1980.
Daurene Lewis Nova Scotia
In Fortune’s honor, the Association of Black Law Enforcers began a scholarship in her name. Fortune’s descendant, Daurene Lewis (pictured), would eventually become Canada’s first Black female mayor in 1984. Lewis would pass away January 26th of this year.
article by D.L. Chandler via newsone.com

116 Years Ago Today: Historically Black College Langston University was Founded

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2013

Langston University was founded in Langston, Oklahoma, on March 12, 1897.  It is Oklahoma’s only historically Black college or university. Because African-Americans were not allowed to attend colleges and universities in the state, the Black settlers of Langston raised the money to build an instruction where their children could learn and grow.  

Originally founded as the Colored Agricultural and Normal University, the school operated with the mission to instruct both male and female students in the fields of agriculture, mechanics and industrial arts. On September 3, 1898, the school officially opened in a Presbyterian church in with an enrollment of 41 students.  Today, Langston University boasts an undergraduate enrollment of 2,379 students.
article by Britt Middleton via bet.com

Happy 80th Birthday, Former U.N. Ambassador, Congressman and Mayor Andrew Young

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2013

Andrew Young Birthday
Andrew Young (pictured throughout) has not been in public office since 1990, but his contributions as a politician to the Civil Rights Movement and his service as an elected official have catapulted him to legendary status. Even after a failed gubernatorial bid, Young has gone on to do amazing work as a private citizen. Today, NewsOne celebrates another milestone of Young as he reaches the rich age of 80 today.
Born in 1932 in New Orleans to parents Andrew Sr., a dentist, and Daisy Fuller, a schoolteacher, Young benefited from a middle-class upbringing that was rare for many African Americans during the Great Depression. By Young’s own admission, he didn’t take advantage of his good fortunes and nearly failed out of Howard University but eventually graduated in 1951. It was expected that Young would enter the dentistry field, but he went on to obtain a divinity degree from Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut.
Young’s path to becoming the pastor of Bethany Congregational Church in Thomasville, Ga., in 1955 also placed him squarely in the mix of the burgeoning fight for equal rights. Although the times were turbulent, Young organized voting registration drives and other activities centered on civil rights despite the obstacles faced.

Delta Pilot Retires After 45 Years, Never Missed Day Of Work

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2013

calvin-flanigan
Captain Calvin “Cal” Flanigan (pictured) retired from Delta Airlines last Friday, after devoting 45 years of service to the airline. Thirty-seven of those years were served as a pilot for the company. And, to top off his incredible career, he never missing a day of work, according to KTFW-TV Fox 4 News.
Flanigan told Fox 4 that he knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a pilot. “Even as a little kid watching airplanes take off when I was 9 or 10 years old, I knew I wanted to fly,” he said.  When he began his career at Delta, Flanagan started from the ground floor as an airline mechanic back in 1968. But he knew that one day he would be sitting in the cockpit. Eight years later, Flanigan achieved his dream.

Berry Gordy to be Honored by Songwriters Hall of Fame

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2013
Berry Gordy poses in the press room during the 27th Annual Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Public Hall on April 14, 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

Berry Gordy poses in the press room during the 27th Annual Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Public Hall on April 14, 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

As the head of Motown, Gordy helped establish careers and hits for Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, and Michael Jackson and The Jackson Five. A Broadway musical about Gordy’s life, “Motown: The Musical,” debuted this week.  Previously announced inductees include Tony Hatch, Mick Jones and Lou Gramm, Holly Knight, JD Souther, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com

How Chi McBride Changed the Direction of CBS’ ‘Golden Boy’

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2013

goldenboy
Three episodes into the new CBS drama “Golden Boy” and it’s already apparent that the show’s main storyline – a young NYPD officer’s road to becoming the city’s youngest police commissioner – are at times upstaged by the relationship between the cop (Theo James) and his partner, played by Chi McBride.
Their partnership was never supposed to be a major part of the series, according to CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler. In fact, McBride was not even supposed to share top billing.
“When we bought the show last year, it was really designed and developed as a single-star vehicle, telling the story of a young man’s meteoric rise from a beat cop to the Police Commissioner of New York,” Tassler explained to journalists in January. “When we watched the pilot shoot, there was a palpable chemistry between Theo James and Chi McBride. So it was during shooting of the pilot, watching the shooting of the first episode, that you could see that this show was evolving into a different kind of show. A mentor/mentee relationship.
“You’ll see, it’s turned into a two-hander between these two actors. It’s extraordinary.”

Oprah, Deepak Chopra Launch 21-Day Meditation Challenge

By goodblacknews on March 11, 2013

oprah deepak-chopra
Oprah Winfrey is teaming with her go-to guru Deepak Chopra to launch “Oprah’s Lifeclass and Deepak Center Present: Oprah & Deepak 21-Day Meditation Challenge – Perfect Health,” a free online, interactive meditation experience on Oprah.com beginning today.
This first “Oprah’s Lifeclass” branded program is designed to introduce users to the benefits of regularly practiced meditation. Interested participants can register now for the three-week course on www.oprah.com/DeepakChopra to join the challenge and receive 21 days of guided meditations from Winfrey and Dr. Chopra.
Over the next three weeks, participants will receive a daily email with a link to access the day’s meditation, as well as an inspiring message and tips for creating a powerful meditation practice.
Participants will be guided through the audio meditation by The Voice of Winfrey and Chopra. Through the course, which will focus on meditation for 15-minutes a day, participants will have the opportunity to learn more about the many benefits of this practice.