Cable channel Oxygen has put into development a docuseries following renowned ballerina Misty Copeland.
The show, tentatively titled “The Misty Copeland Project,” follows talented hopefuls from diverse backgrounds as they descend upon New York to take on the next major step in their ballet careers. Who better to train and mentor them than Copeland — the celebrated ballerina who herself has defied all odds and shattered boundaries by overcoming the cultural pressures of professional ballet.
Copeland, who began taking ballet lessons on the basketball court of a Boys & Girls Club at age 13 and was considered a prodigy, made history by becoming the second African-American female soloist in the prestigious American Ballet Theatre. With the opportunity of a lifetime and chance to catapult to the top of the ballet world, these aspiring dancers’ passion, commitment and hard work will be center stage in Misty’s Master Class.
The show is one of four new reality programs added at the NBCUniversal-owned network as part of its rebranded push for young, multicultural women ages 18-34, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Other new shows follow young Americans teaching English abroad, aspiring celebrity vloggers and groups of friends dishing about current events during cocktail hour.
“From the unbelievably inspirational and talented Misty Copeland, to the bold young women experiencing life abroad, the new development slate appeals to a multitude of female viewers,” said Cori Abraham, senior vp development and international at Oxygen Media. “These projects embrace the new Oxygen programming filter, which focuses on real characters who are on a journey to seek out new experiences and follow their true passions in life.”
article via eurweb.com
Posts published in “Arts / Style”
From JetMag.com:
Like the late, great Whitney Houston so beautifully sang: We believe the children are our future. To that end, JET introduces you to Leah Flynn…a sweet, caring young violinist who wants to use her talents to improve the world around her.
Taking a break from her evening routine of violin lessons taught by her dad, seven-year-old, Leah Flynn energetically tells JET, “I want to go on national shows and play for millions of people so lots of children can see me play, then maybe they want to play an instrument!”
She’s ambitious and determined on her musical mission.
Practicing violin since she was five, Leah has performed in front of various audiences ranging from senior centers to churches located around her family’s Florida home. Her biggest audience thus far: during an appearance on the TV show, Good Day Orlando.
If you wonder what gives her the strength to show off her skills at a young age, her approach to overcoming nerves is simple, “All I do is take a deep breath and just focus on my violin while I’m playing.”
Leah’s music is more than a hobby, it’s a way of providing inspiration and a healing mechanism for the soul.
Growing up near the area where the devastating killing of Trayvon Martin took place and, most recently, watching from afar the unrest unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri, Leah confided something in her parents, Paula and Lennox Flynn.
She told them she wanted to offer those who suffered the soothing sound of violin strings. “Leah said, ‘Mommy, people are so sad and it’s not a good thing,” Paula Flynn recalls.
That conversation led to her father, a musician himself who started Leah on the piano, to teach her “Let There Be Peace On Earth,” so she could play for local residents. The pint-sized player hopes to perform for the Governor of Missouri and the people of Ferguson.
But while she waits for that opportunity, nothing is holding the energetic violinist back. She’s currently practicing Christmas carols to share with listening ears throughout the holiday season.
And JET wants to do our part to get her a national audience. Watch her performance of favorite song,”Let It Go” from the popular movie, “Frozen”. Enjoy and be sure to keep Miss Leah on your radar!
Like the late, great Whitney Houston so beautifully sang: We believe the children are our future. To that end, JET introduces you to Leah Flynn…a sweet, caring young violinist who wants to use her talents to improve the world around her.
Taking a break from her evening routine of violin lessons taught by her dad, seven-year-old, Leah Flynn energetically tells JET, “I want to go on national shows and play for millions of people so lots of children can see me play, then maybe they want to play an instrument!”
She’s ambitious and determined on her musical mission.
Practicing violin since she was five, Leah has performed in front of various audiences ranging from senior centers to churches located around her family’s Florida home. Her biggest audience thus far: during an appearance on the TV show, Good Day Orlando.
If you wonder what gives her the strength to show off her skills at a young age, her approach to overcoming nerves is simple, “All I do is take a deep breath and just focus on my violin while I’m playing.”
Leah’s music is more than a hobby, it’s a way of providing inspiration and a healing mechanism for the soul.
Growing up near the area where the devastating killing of Trayvon Martin took place and, most recently, watching from afar the unrest unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri, Leah confided something in her parents, Paula and Lennox Flynn.
She told them she wanted to offer those who suffered the soothing sound of violin strings. “Leah said, ‘Mommy, people are so sad and it’s not a good thing,” Paula Flynn recalls.
That conversation led to her father, a musician himself who started Leah on the piano, to teach her “Let There Be Peace On Earth,” so she could play for local residents. The pint-sized player hopes to perform for the Governor of Missouri and the people of Ferguson.
But while she waits for that opportunity, nothing is holding the energetic violinist back. She’s currently practicing Christmas carols to share with listening ears throughout the holiday season.
And JET wants to do our part to get her a national audience. Watch her performance of favorite song,”Let It Go” from the popular movie, “Frozen”. Enjoy and be sure to keep Miss Leah on your radar!
Read more: http://www.jetmag.com/news/leah-flynn-seven-year-old-violinist-mission/#ixzz3JHHhCHSi
Less glockenspiel, more drumming! A very different sort of “The Magic Flute” took the stage at the New Victory Theater on Sunday afternoon in front of an attentive and appreciative family audience. This two-hour adaptation of Mozart’s fairy tale opera was presented under the Xhosa title “Impempe Yomlingo” by the South African Isango Ensemble, a company that recruits performers from townships in the Cape Town area and presents classics from the Western canon in an updated, African context.
But perhaps “updated” isn’t quite the right word: In the program notes, the show’s director, Mark Dornford-May, relates a myth from the Tsonga tradition about the andlati birds that live high in the mountains and cause terrifying storms and lightning. Only a hero brave enough to seek them out with a magic flute can appease them and avert destruction.
“The story may never have reached Mozart, but the similarities are fascinating nonetheless,” Mr. Dornford-May writes. “Who knows? Maybe one of the greatest pieces of European opera had its roots and inspiration in a South African folk tale.”
Certainly, few productions can match the colorful exuberance and pulsating energy of this “Flute,” or field as versatile a cast as this, in which every member sings, dances and drums. The bare set evokes a township square. The traditional orchestra is replaced by eight marimbas, supplemented by an array of percussion, including djembes, oil barrels, hand clapping and — standing in for Papageno’s glockenspiel — suspended water bottles of graduated pitches. Tamino’s flute is a trumpet, played with jazzy vigor by Mandisi Dyantyis, the ensemble’s co-music director and conductor.
The vocal performances were a testament to South Africa’s deep pool of singing talent. The notes were all there — Pauline Malefane courageously scaled the heights of the Queen of the Night’s arias; Mhlekazi Mosiea was a dignified Tamino; Ayanda Eleki, a proud, patriarchal Sarastro — even if there were times when they audibly strained the limits of the singers’ technique. But the cast offered portrayals with ample personality and charisma, among them Zolina Ngejane’s superfeisty Pamina and Zamile Gantana’s bon-vivant Papageno.
But this African “Flute” is, above all, a story of community, and the music, too, is at its most convincing where it draws on South Africa’s glorious choral tradition. If that means taking liberties with Mozart’s score, fine: Tamino’s taming of Monostatos and his posse of slaves suffers no injury by the infusion of a bit of calypso rhythm. The celebrations that greet Sarastro’s first appearance — complete with ululating women — are a jubilant riot.
The communal aspect also raises the stakes for the lovers’ trials, which are presented as a series of tribal initiation rites, with Tamino’s face painted white, like that of a tribal youngster embarking on a circumcision ritual. In traditional productions, this is often the part of the opera where the tension slackens, but in this post-apartheid setting, the young people’s quest for dignity, wisdom and reconciliation is shown to be of vital importance to everyone.
“The story may never have reached Mozart, but the similarities are fascinating nonetheless,” Mr. Dornford-May writes. “Who knows? Maybe one of the greatest pieces of European opera had its roots and inspiration in a South African folk tale.”
Certainly, few productions can match the colorful exuberance and pulsating energy of this “Flute,” or field as versatile a cast as this, in which every member sings, dances and drums. The bare set evokes a township square. The traditional orchestra is replaced by eight marimbas, supplemented by an array of percussion, including djembes, oil barrels, hand clapping and — standing in for Papageno’s glockenspiel — suspended water bottles of graduated pitches. Tamino’s flute is a trumpet, played with jazzy vigor by Mandisi Dyantyis, the ensemble’s co-music director and conductor.
The vocal performances were a testament to South Africa’s deep pool of singing talent. The notes were all there — Pauline Malefane courageously scaled the heights of the Queen of the Night’s arias; Mhlekazi Mosiea was a dignified Tamino; Ayanda Eleki, a proud, patriarchal Sarastro — even if there were times when they audibly strained the limits of the singers’ technique. But the cast offered portrayals with ample personality and charisma, among them Zolina Ngejane’s superfeisty Pamina and Zamile Gantana’s bon-vivant Papageno.
But this African “Flute” is, above all, a story of community, and the music, too, is at its most convincing where it draws on South Africa’s glorious choral tradition. If that means taking liberties with Mozart’s score, fine: Tamino’s taming of Monostatos and his posse of slaves suffers no injury by the infusion of a bit of calypso rhythm. The celebrations that greet Sarastro’s first appearance — complete with ululating women — are a jubilant riot.
The communal aspect also raises the stakes for the lovers’ trials, which are presented as a series of tribal initiation rites, with Tamino’s face painted white, like that of a tribal youngster embarking on a circumcision ritual. In traditional productions, this is often the part of the opera where the tension slackens, but in this post-apartheid setting, the young people’s quest for dignity, wisdom and reconciliation is shown to be of vital importance to everyone.
In “Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3),” a new drama by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (“Topdog/Underdog”), Hero, a slave, is offered a deal by his master: Leave behind his family and fight for the Confederacy in exchange for his freedom. This decision and its implications are at the heart of this historical tale, whose first three parts open Tuesday at the Public Theater. If this work sounds too familiar to be a “world premiere,” as it is billed, that’s because it has been gestating for years, with workshop productions staged at the Public Lab in 2009 and this year. Sterling K. Brown (“The Brother/Sister Plays”) is Hero, and Jo Bonney directs. (425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, 212-967-7555, publictheater.org.)
article by Jason Zinoman via nytimes.com
On Wednesday, Oct. 8, first lady Michelle Obama hosted the White House’s first fashion education workshop to honor and recognize budding fashion designers, stylists, writers, and entrepreneurs.
Inviting students from 14 East Coast high schools and colleges, the FLOTUS spoke to the students about the importance of fashion education and the impact of the fashion industry.
“When it comes to the fashion industry, so often people think it’s all about catwalks and red carpets and ‘who wore it best,’ and whether some famous person wore the right belt with the right shoes,” said Mrs. Obama.
“Fashion is really about passion and creativity, just like music or dance or poetry,” added the first lady. “For so many people across the country, it is a calling; it is a career.”
Breaking the students into groups for workshop sessions on fashion inspiration, construction, journalism, entrepreneurship, and more, Mrs. Obama also invited leading influencers in the industry to mentor and educate the students on the ins and outs of the business. Some of the fashion notables included Tracy Reese, Jason Wu, Diane Von Furstenberg, Anna Wintour, and many more.
Wintour, who introduced the first lady at Wednesday’s event, credited her with changing the perception of fashion in the District of Columbia, while emphasizing the impact style has on society.
“Fashion can be a powerful instrument for social change… It allows us to think about who we are as individuals and as a society.”
To prove her support for student designers, Mrs. Obama donned a sleeveless navy dress at the event designed by New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology student Natalya Koval.
SOURCE: Washington Post
article by Courtney Connley via blackenterprise.com
New York City so knows how to lose — and save, and lose again — its history. Among notable rescues of the past several decades were material remains of the vanished 19th-century African-American village of Weeksville in Brooklyn, snatched from the jaws of 1960s urban renewal. Once in parts of what are now Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, the village is currently getting fresh and needed attention in an art project organized by the Weeksville Heritage Center and Creative Time called “Funk, God, Jazz & Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn,” which runs Friday through Sunday (October 10-12).
Spread over four sites, the project roughly maps the footprint of the original settlement. More important, it strengthens the memory of a local past that could easily be swallowed up by gentrification.
The village was named for James Weeks, an ex-slave from Virginia who came to New York in 1838. His intention was to create a community of landowning African-Americans at a time when such ownership was a requirement for voting. The plan took hold. By the time of the Civil War, the village had more than 500 residents, two churches, a school, an orphanage, an old-age home, a cemetery and its own newspaper, The Freedman’s Torchlight. Blacks fleeing the draft riots in Manhattan in 1863 sought refuge there and stayed. But after the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, with a swelling in the general population, Weeksville was gradually absorbed into newer communities that surrounded it.
In 1968, four of the village’s 19th-century wood-frame houses were rediscovered, in derelict shape, on an oddly angled street that had once been a section of Hunterfly Road in Weeksville, and before that, an American Indian trail. The area was scheduled for demolition, but after community pressure, the houses were declared city landmarks. Restored, they are now part of the Heritage Center, which encompasses vegetable and flower gardens and, as of 2013, an education building with an auditorium and classrooms.
Supporters of slain Missouri teen Michael Brown launched a peaceful protest during a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performance at Powell Symphony Hall.
The October 4 performance was interrupted suddenly when protestors located in the upper balcony unveiled banners—three in total—with written messages and artwork drawn in remembrance of the Ferguson youth fatally shot by a St. Louis police officer. The protest, launched during a performance of “Requiem” by Brahms, caused a minor delay in the orchestra’s performance. Some members of the protest also stood up in the lower seating sections, singing a tribute—set to the original Brahms’ piece—called “A Requiem for Mike Brown,” according to the title of one YouTube video of the event.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDc4Z-ex8sQ&w=560&h=315]
“Justice for Mike Brown,” the protestors can be heard singing in the video taken by one of the audience members, as the video pans towards the balcony, revealing two of the banners. The first is shown saying “Racism Lives Here,” with an arrow pointing to what appears to be a sketch of a city skyline; the second is a sketch of Michael Brown’s face, with “Requiem for Mike Brown” written, along with the dates 1996 – 2014, the years of the 18-year old Brown’s birth and death. The refrain of the protestors’ song was “which side are you on?”
The video later pans to the third banner, which also features a drawing of the young man’s face, as well as the dates.
A significant portion of the audience can be heard clapping, with some even cheering as the protestors sing the song for approximately a minute and a half. Some audience members however, can be seen with looks of shock and confusion at the sudden and surprising interruption.
After finishing their song, the protestors can be heard chanting “Black lives matter,” before many of them head towards the exits. No arrests were made in the protest, as the demonstrators left of their own accord in peaceful fashion.
The protest follows the continued national controversy surrounding the death of Michael Brown on August 9 in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri.
article via thegrio.com
For decades, the seven reels from 1913 lay unexamined in the film archives of the Museum of Modern Art. Now, after years of research, a historic find has emerged: what MoMA curators say is the earliest surviving footage for a feature film with a black cast. It is a rare visual depiction of middle-class black characters from an era when lynchings and stereotyped black images were commonplace. What’s more, the material features Bert Williams, the first black superstar on Broadway. Williams appears in blackface in the untitled silent film along with a roster of actors from the sparsely documented community of black performers in Harlem on the cusp of the Harlem Renaissance. Remarkably, the reels also capture behind-the-scenes interactions between these performers and the directors.
MoMA plans an exhibition around the work called “100 Years in Post-Production: Resurrecting a Lost Landmark of Black Film History,” which is to open on Oct. 24 and showcase excerpts and still frames. Sixty minutes of restored footage will be shown on Nov. 8 in the museum’s annual To Save and Project festival dedicated to film preservation.
“There are so many things about it that are amazing,” said Jacqueline Stewart, a film scholar at the University of Chicago. “It’s the first time I’ve seen footage from an unreleased film that really gives us insights into the production process.”
She added: “It’s an interracial production, but not in the way scholars have talked about early film history, in which black filmmakers had to rely on the expertise and money of white filmmakers. Here, we see a negotiation between performers and filmmakers.” Of the three directors of the film, one was black and two were white.
Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking choreopoem For Colored Girls is an introspective exhibition, i found god in myself, which is kicking off the fall season at The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from Sept. 19 to January 2015. Her work i found god in myself explores issues of femininity and gender, love and loss, empowerment and sisterhood.
Since its debut performance in California in 1974, Shange’s work has captivated, provoked, inspired and transformed audiences all over the world. Since, the work has remained a cornerstone of feminist, black, and LGBTQ-theory studies in colleges and theaters alike, both in the United States and abroad.
Shange is a past recipient of the The Women of Power Legacy Award, which recognizes outstanding impact, achievement and leadership by women in business, the arts, education, government and other influential industries. Black Enterprise recognized Shange in 2011 for her body of work as a playwright, poet, and self-proclaimed feminist who addressed issues relating to race and gender.
Turning to the choreopoem not simply as an engaging work of text or drama but as a well of social, political and deeply personal issues affecting the lives of women of color, the New York exhibition will feature 20 specially commissioned pieces in honor of each individual poem, additional non-commissioned artworks on display at satellite locations that address the work’s themes and archival material donated by Shange. The exhibition’s title is drawn from one of the last lines recited in the finale poem a laying on of hands. The title suggests that navigating through the complexities of what it means to be of color and female is only enlightened by an understanding, acceptance and appreciation of self. With self-empowerment comes the process of “…moving to the ends of their own rainbows.”
Shange is a past recipient of the The Women of Power Legacy Award, which recognizes outstanding impact, achievement and leadership by women in business, the arts, education, government and other influential industries. Black Enterprise recognized Shange in 2011 for her body of work as a playwright, poet, and self-proclaimed feminist who addressed issues relating to race and gender.
Turning to the choreopoem not simply as an engaging work of text or drama but as a well of social, political and deeply personal issues affecting the lives of women of color, the New York exhibition will feature 20 specially commissioned pieces in honor of each individual poem, additional non-commissioned artworks on display at satellite locations that address the work’s themes and archival material donated by Shange. The exhibition’s title is drawn from one of the last lines recited in the finale poem a laying on of hands. The title suggests that navigating through the complexities of what it means to be of color and female is only enlightened by an understanding, acceptance and appreciation of self. With self-empowerment comes the process of “…moving to the ends of their own rainbows.”