“Donayle Lunawas the first Black woman to be on the cover of Vogue. Why don’t we know more about her?”
This pointed question from the recently released trailer for Donyale Luna: Super Model will hopefully no longer be relevant after the feature-length documentary about Luna’s life and career debuts on HBO September 13.
Born Peggy Anne Freeman in Detroit, Donyale Luna went on to revolutionize the fashion industry in the 1960s and 1970s, becoming the muse to some of the foremost photographers of the 20th century until her untimely death at the age of 33 in 1979.
Though Luna was one of the first Black models who graced the covers of both Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in Europe, today, most people have never heard of her.
Directed by Nailah Jefferson, produced by Melissa Kramer, Isoul H. Harris, Melanie Sharee and executive produced by Jonathan Chinn, Simon Chinn, Jeff Friday, Dream Cazzaniga, participants in the doc include Luna’s daughter, Dream Cazzaniga, husband, Luigi Cazzaniga, supermodels Beverly Johnson and Pat Cleveland; Vogue global editor-at-large Hamish Bowles; photographers David Bailey, David McCabe, and Gideon Lewin; and many more.
Today, GBN celebrates the accomplishments and legacy of NBA champion, Olympic Gold medalist, Academy Award winner and philanthropist Kobe Bryant. To read about Bryant, read on. To hear about him and some of his wise words, press PLAY:
[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:
Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Monday, April 18th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Dear Basketball, thank you for five-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic Gold medalist, NBA MVP, Academy Award winner, career Los Angeles Laker, shooting guard, multilingual philanthropist, author, husband and father –the one and only “Black Mamba” — Kobe Bean Bryant.
He lives on through his countless fans, three daughters, and his wife Vanessa, whom he married on this day in 2001. Though it is still hard to believe that such a legend was taken from us so soon, his impact will never be forgotten.To learn more about Kobe Bryant, read 2018’s The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant, 2022’s The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality by Mike Sielski. Watch the 2015 documentary Kobe Bryant’s Muse, now streaming on Showtime, the 2019 All the Smoke video podcast episode featuring one of his final interviews, also currently on Showtime.
https://youtu.be/98wR6-r2bbI
Check out Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel‘s retrospective on Kobe Bryant from 2020, which you can watch on Facebook. And, of course watch the Oscar-winning short, Dear Basketball. You can also listen to Kobe Bryant’s family-oriented podcast The Punies about a group of friends who play sports, have adventures and learn valuable life lessons along the way.
There’s also a few podcasts dedicated to collecting and sharing Kobe Bryant’s various interviews, which you can find through listennotes.com. Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
In fact, we’ll leave you with a clip from one of the Kobe Bryant Getting Interviewed podcasts where Bryant speaks about his life as a student of the sport he loved and his work ethic:
Kobe: Everything was done to try to learn how to become a better basketball player, everything, everything. And so when you have that point of view, then literally, the world becomes your library to help you to become better at your craft.
Interviewer: So, because you know what you want, the world’s giving you exactly the information?
Kobe: One hundred percent. Because you know what you’re looking for.
Interviewer: So many guys tell stories about your work ethic? What was really your work ethic like and for how long did you stay disciplined?
Kobe: Well, I mean, I mean, every day, I mean, since 20 years, it was an everyday process and trying to figure out strengths and weaknesses. For example, jumping ability, my vertical was a 40 wasn’t a 46 or a 45. My hands are big, but they’re not massive. So, you’ve got to figure out ways to strengthen them so your hands are strong enough to be able to palm a ball and do the things that you need to do. Quickness… I was quick, but not insanely quick. I was fast, but not ridiculously fast. Right? So, I had to rely on skill a lot more. I had to rely on angles a lot more. I had to study the game a lot more. But I enjoyed it though. So, like from the time I was… I can remember when I started watching the game. I studied the game and it just never changed.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by yours truly, Lori Lakin Hutcherson. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
We close out #WomensHistoryMonth with Mary Lou Williams, one of the most talented and revered pianists, composers, and arrangers in jazz music history.
Williams, who grew up in Pittsburgh, was a self-taught musical prodigy who cited Lovie Austin, who we did a daily drop on yesterday, as her greatest influence.
Since 1996, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC has held an annualMary Lou Williams Jazz Festival – this year’s will be held in May. To hear our Drop on her, press play:
You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, still a little stuffed up, but here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Thursday, March 31st, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
One of the first renowned female players, composers and arrangers in jazz, Williams was a working musician by the age of 15, and by 18 had joined the Andy Kirk Orchestra based out of Kansas City, Missouri.By the 1940s she had her own weekly radio show, Mary Lou Williams’s Piano Workshop, where she mentored Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
In 1945, Williams composed one of her most noted works, Zodiac Suite, which she said was inspired by the astrological signs of famous friends in the jazz world. “Aries” which you are hearing now, was inspired by Billie Holiday and Ben Webster.
[Excerpt from “Aries”]
After converting to Catholicism in the 1950s, Williams quit performing to aid musicians with addictions, even turning her home into a halfway house.
When she returned to music years later, Williams composed sacred works such as 1971’s acclaimed Mary Lou’s Massand supported musicians in need by tithing her proceeds for the rest of her life.
Even with her self-imposed break, in her lifetime, Williams composed over 350 songs and recorded over 35 albums. Williams passed in 1981 and in 1983, Duke University established the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.
And since 1996, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC has held an annual Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival. The next one will be held this May.
And if you really want to deep dive, like I know I do, you can listen to and read all seven tapes and transcripts of Mary Lou Williams’ interviews from the 1973 Jazz Oral History project where her archives are stored at Rutgers University.
And, of course, you can buy or stream her music on Apple Music or Spotify. Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.
Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
Excerpts from “Aries” from Zodiac Suite and “Credo” (Instrumental) from Mary Lou’s Mass by Mary Lou Williams are included under fair use.
If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
There was a great moment that happened at last night’s Academy Awards, but because it happened directly after a shocking moment, it’s not getting the all the flowers and love it should.
So for this #MusicMonday, we are fully celebrating the fact that Summer of Soul, the feature documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival directed by The Roots co-founder and musical impresario Questlove, won a much-deserved Oscar. And if you (like so many of us) missed his acceptance speech, here it is:
https://youtu.be/IPbOF4wpEVw
Still streaming on Hulu and available on DVD, Summer of Soul is an education and gift to the eyes and ears and if you don’t currently have access to Summer of Soul, the movie, listening to the music from the acts featured in the film is the next best thing:
I’ve included the playlist of the official soundtrack album along with an extended playlist.
From Sly and the Family Stone to the Fifth Dimension,Stevie Wonder,Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, The Staples Singers, Mongo Santamaria,David Ruffin,Mahalia Jackson,Mavis Staples and others, the music on display and the stories behind the event are close to (if not completely) mind-blowing.
And if you need another push to check it out (or revisit it), here’s the trailer of the documentary:
Thank you, again, Questlove and all the artists involved that helped bring the “Summer of Soul” into our lives for all seasons. You all truly made — and resurrected — important cultural history.
Today, on St. Patrick’s Day, GBN Daily Drop podcast features journalist, producer, activist and philanthropist Soledad O’Brien, who in 2016 explored her Irish, Scottish and Afro-Latina heritage on the PBS show Finding Your Roots.
You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Thursday, March 17th, 2022 — also known as St. Patrick’s Day — based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Journalist and activist Soledad O’Brien not only celebrated her Irish, Scottish and Afro-Latina heritage as a 2016 guest on Henry Louis Gates’ PBS show Finding Your Roots, the honorary Delta Sigma Theta member also hosted the critically acclaimed 2007 Black in AmericaCNN special.
The Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien executive producer and host also routinely pays it forward by mentoring college-bound women through her PowHERful Foundation… and through her super tight Twitter game where she often calls out shoddy, inaccurate and biased reporting in the media.
O’Brien is also a correspondent for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and produces the HBO documentary series Black and Missing, which streams on HBOMax.
O’Brien also hosted the 2021 BET series Disrupt and Dismantle, which sheds light on how systems are the root of injustice and what people can do to change them.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
I include that, as well as a bit more historical context and links to sources, which can be found in the show’s transcript below.
(Btw, GBN’s Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 is 50% off at workman.com with code:50CAL until 2/28/22!)
You can also follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, February 8th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Today, on #OperaDay, we offer an inspirational quote from famous contralto Marian Anderson, the first Black performer to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
In addition to her commanding voice, Anderson is widely known for singing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday in 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution enforced their segregationist beliefs and denied Anderson the opportunity to sing to an integrated audience at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Roosevelt supported Anderson, and over 75,000 people showed up to watch her outdoor concert. To quote Anderson:
“Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.”
You can also watch Voice of Freedom, the 2021 PBS documentary about Anderson. Links to these sources provided in today’s show notes.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022, published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.
Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
According to Variety.com, Academy Award winning filmmaker Spike Lee is directing a multi-episode documentary on former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick for ESPN Films.
Production has commenced on the documentary, which was first announced in July 2020 as part of Kaepernick’s production deal with Walt Disney through his company, Ra Vision Media.
“Kaepernick, who has never given a full, first-person account of his journey, is collaborating closely with Lee who plans to use extensive new interviews and a vast never-before-seen archive to help Kaepernick tell his story from his perspective,” the press release states.
Kaepernick recently executive produced and starred in the Netflix series Colin in Black & White, which premiered on the streamer in October. Starring Jaden Michael as a young Kaepernick, the show chronicles the athlete’s formative years, focusing on how he navigated obstacles of race, culture and class as a Black child adopted into a white family.
In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback began to kneel during the national anthem in order to protest police brutality and systemic racism in America. After that season ended, Kaepernick became a free agent and went unsigned by any other NFL team. In November 2017, the former player filed a grievance with the NFL, claiming that they were conspiring to keep him out of the league. In February 2019, he reached a settlement with the NFL and remains a free agent.
Lee, who won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for 2019’s “BlacKkKlansman,” has directed and produced documentaries such as 1997’s “4 Little Girls”, “When The Levees Broke” and the HBO series “NYC Epicenters: 9/11 – 2021½.”
ESPN Films will executive produce the documentary, in association with 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. Jemele Hill will also serve as a producer on the project.
American Cinema Editors (ACE) announced today that film editor Lillian E. Benson, ACE the first woman of color invited to join ACE, will receive the institution’s Career Achievement Award for her outstanding contributions to film editing at the 72nd Annual ACE Eddie Awards on March 5.
Benson has been an integral part of the organization and its growth. She has served on its Board of Directors for over two decades and has been instrumental in helping ACE expand and diversify its reach.
An Emmy® nominee for the Peabody, Dupont and Emmy® Award-winning PBS documentary series “Eyes on the Prize,” which chronicled the civil rights movement from 1952-1985, Benson is currently editing the highly successful procedural “Chicago Med,” which she has been working on for six seasons.
Other notable documentary projects Benson has edited include “Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater,” “Motown 40: The Music is Forever,” “A Century of Living,” “Conscience and the Constitution,” “Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” “Craft in America” and “All Our Sons: Fallen Heroes of 9/11.”
In 2016 Benson edited “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” about the American poet’s resiliency in life and her impact on America.
Other credits include “Greenleaf” for OWN, Debbie Allen’s “Old Settler,” and “Life is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story,” the Showtime series “Soul Food” and the feature film “All About You.”
Benson’s personal favorite in her rich career was editing “John Lewis: Get in the Way.” Benson said, “This documentary is the thing I love the most of anything I’ve ever done. I feel I was born to cut it. It was released a couple of years before he died and was the first documentary done about his life. I love Lewis because he was a warrior his entire life. He never wavered. He did what he could. He forgave people; people I couldn’t forgive. He always had the bigger picture in mind.”
Richard Chew, ACE (photo courtesy ACE)
Richard Chew, ACE will also be receiving the Career Achievement Award at the 2022 ceremony. Chew’s body of work includes“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Star Wars” (for which he won the Oscar® for Best Film Editing with his co-editors Marcia Lucas and Paul Hirsch, ACE), “Risky Business, “Mi Vida Loca, “Waiting to Exhale,” “Hope Floats,” “That Thing You Do!” and “Shanghai Noon.”
“Lillian and Richard are rock star editors and represent the very best of our craft and profession,” stated ACE president Kevin Tent, ACE. “Just look at those credits! Not only have they had incredibly prolific careers, but they’ve given back to our community in many ways, not the least of which by mentoring the next generation of editors. We are thrilled to honor these two special editors and look back at their amazing careers.”
About American Cinema Editors American Cinema Editors (ACE) is an honorary society of motion picture editors founded in 1950. Film editors are voted into membership on the basis of their professional achievements, their dedication to the education of others and their commitment to the craft of editing.
The objectives and purposes of the AMERICAN CINEMA EDITORS are to advance the art and science of the editing profession; to increase the entertainment value of motion pictures by attaining artistic preeminence and scientific achievement in the creative art of editing; to bring into close alliance those editors who desire to advance the prestige and dignity of the editing profession.
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee will be honored with the lifetime achievement award for his contributions to motion picture direction from the Directors Guild of America (DGA), according to Variety.com. The award is the organization’s top hono\.
“Icon. Trailblazer. Visionary. Spike Lee has changed the face of cinema, and there is no single word that encapsulates his significance to the craft of directing,” said Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the DGA. “From his groundbreaking Do the Right Thing, BlacKkKlansman and everything in between — to his signature ‘double dolly’ shot, Spike is an innovator on so many levels. His bold and passionate storytelling over the past three decades has masterfully entertained, as it held a stark mirror to our society and culture.”
New York University film school alum Lee began his motion picture directing career by helming the independently produced She’s Gotta Have It, released in 1986, which in 2017 was adapted into a series for Netflix and in n 2019, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Some of Lee’s other notable films are School Daze, Mo Better Blues, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, He Got Game, Clockers, Inside Man, Girl 6, Get on The Busand his most recent release, Da 5 Bloods on Netflix.
Lee has also directed several award-winning documentaries, including 1997’s 4 Little Girlsabout the Alabama church bombings in 1963, and 2006’s When the Levees Broke, about Hurricane Katrina and the injustices and devastation it wrought on New Orleans and its Black and low-income communities.
Only 35 directors have been honored with the DGA lifetime achievement award since it started in 1953 (Cecil B. DeMille was the first recipient).
Lee is the first Black director to receive the award which will be given at the DGA’s 74th annual awards ceremony on March 12.
The award-winning documentary series America ReFramed, a co-production of WORLD Channel and American Documentary, Inc., launches its landmark tenth season with the world premiere of Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, a portrait of the fearless Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist.
The season begins with a special presentation on PBS on Tuesday, February 22, 9:00 to 10:30 p.m. ET, followed by its broadcast on WORLD Channel on Thursday, February 24.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America focuses on the incredible life of one of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest grassroots leaders, Fannie Lou Hamer, and the injustices that made her work essential.
Airing during Black History Month, the film is produced by Hamer’s great-niece Monica Land and Selena Lauterer and directed by Joy Davenport. This special is a copresentation with PBS and Black Public Media.
“Fannie Lou Hamer’s America is a powerful film, one that illustrates the challenges and sacrifices so many faced in fighting for the right to vote,” said Sylvia Bugg, Chief Programming Executive & General Manager at PBS. “We are excited to work with WORLD Channel to bring this exceptional America ReFramed documentary, that highlights contributions of women of color both on screen and behind the camera, to audiences.”
This marks the weekly series’ move to its new Thursday time slot, with many titles available to stream beginning February 22 on worldchannel.org, WORLD Channel’s YouTube Channel and on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video app, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO.
To learn more about Kobe Bryant, read 2018’s 
By the 1940s she 
