New York Fashion Week is once again underway as runway photos and street style shoots flood the Internet. It has only been a few months since September’s NYFW, when veteran supermodels and magazine bigwigs like Bethann Hardison, Iman, and Andre Leon Talleycalled the industry on the carpet for failing to showcase diversity. And it seems like things have changed, as fashion houses worldwide are seeing the beauty in brown skin.
Models of color like Cindy Bruna,Malaika Firth, and Liya Kebede have infiltrated even the most exclusive fashion houses. But considering that there are literally continents full of people of color, one face per spread might not be enough. Still, it’s a start. Flip through to see which Black beauties are striking a pose in the spring/summer 2014 campaigns. To see more of this article, go to uptownmagazine.com or click here.
Julia Roberts poses with (front left) Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba and George Clooney on the March cover of Vanity Fair. (ANNIE LEIBOVITZ EXCLUSIVELY FOR VANITY FAIR)
Vanity Fair released a sneak peek of its 20th annual Hollywood Issue on Monday, and it may be the most groundbreaking one yet. The magazine has apparently taken steps toward emphasizing the diversity of Hollywood. For the first time since it began putting out the annual special in 1995, six of the 12 celebrated thespians gracing the 2014 cover are not white. The magazine has come under fire in the past for an apparent lack of diversity. Just a few years ago, as Buzzfeed has pointed out, a 2010 the cover featured nine actresses — all white, thin and under 40 years old.
Over the years the annual selection has included one or two minority actors — such as Angela Bassett in 1995, and Lucy Liu and Salma Hayek in 2004 — but this year’s edition shows how expansive the African-American film scope has grown across several genres. From left: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts, Idris Elba, George Clooney, Michael B. Jordan, Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong’o, Naomie Harris, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Margot Robbie and Léa Seydoux. (ANNIE LEIBOVITZ EXCLUSIVELY FOR VANITY FAIR)
Among those featured on the three-panel foldout are many of Hollywood’s most heralded actors of the past year, including Oscar nominees Julia Roberts, for August: Osage County, Jared Leto, who is the front-runner in his Best Supporting Actor category for Dallas Buyers Club, and Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o from 12 Years A Slave.
Last year may have been the year of the historically black hack-a-thon. Several of the nations’ most prominent black colleges welcomed students of varying majors and interests to a whirlwind experience of innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and networking. Almost makes you wish there was an app for that, but that’s HBCU Hack-a-thons are all about; taking individuals with little-to-no tech or coding experience and pairing their creativity with tech savvy developers and marketers to make a new generation of black entrepreneurs in emerging tech markets.
Morehouse, Spelman, Clark Atlanta, Howard and Morgan State participated in the 2013 HBCU Hack-a-thon experience. Students compete for prizes, exposure, and for some, their first visions of owning their own company in a field in which they never imagined working.
“It sparks students from across all kinds of disciplines to come together to develop an idea that can be brought to the marketplace,” says Omar Muhammad, Director of the Entrepreneurial Development and Assistance Center of the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University. “They get hands on experience with working groups, and understanding what it means to start a business. The individuals who come in as entrepreneurs really help the students to learn how to move their businesses forward.”
Muhammad says the nature of hack-a-thons inspires collaboration, and melds ideas from different backgrounds, industries and social constructs to bring out the essence of innovation. The movement was started by the Black Founders, a group of working black tech professionals who wanted to spur more African-American ownership in tech industries. One of the Founders and University of Maryland Eastern Shore alumna, Hadiyah Mujhid, told Black Enterprise Magazine in 2013 about the importance of the hack-a-thon effort on HBCU campuses.
MONTGOMERY, AL – MAY 1956: Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. relaxes at home in May 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
PHOENIX (AP) — Mary Scanlon had no idea a $3 purchase from a Goodwill store in Phoenix would turn out to be a rare link to the civil rights movement’s most revered leader. Last April, Scanlon was at the thrift store when she spotted a pile of 35 vintage reel-to-reel tapes, including one labeled with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s name. Despite the moldy and torn packaging, she snapped up all of them. “I didn’t really necessarily have any expectation that this tape would be rare,” Scanlon said.
Arizona State University archivists have found that tape is the only known recording of speeches the slain civil rights leader gave at ASU and at a Phoenix church in June 1964. The hour-long audio has since been digitized and is now available for listening on ASU’s website through June 30.
The tape illustrates that King had been eager to visit supporters in Arizona, a state that would draw criticism more than 20 years later for rescinding the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Scanlon, who donated all the tapes to the school, said the find is one of the high points of her life. “To have anything about myself connected in any way to Martin Luther King, what more could a person ask for? I’m so proud,” Scanlon said.
Rob Spindler, a university archivist and curator, said it’s miraculous that the audio was still intact. When he first spoke with Scanlon, he immediately warned her not to try and play the tape. “When the material is that old, sometimes you only get one shot to preserve it,” Spindler said.
The tapes were taken from the Ragsdale Mortuary, which was owned by Lincoln Ragsdale, a civil rights leader in Phoenix who died in 1995, Goodwill employees said. Spindler sent the tapes to a company in Kentucky to copy them to a digital format. On May 17, Spindler, Scanlon, a university librarian and two ASU professors who have researched King gathered to listen to the recording for the first time. Hearing King’s voice brought most of them to tears.
“It answers a question we’ve had for decades,” said Spindler, who believes it was King’s first public appearance in Arizona. “What did Martin Luther King say to us that night and how did he arrive here in Phoenix? Now we have a much better idea of those things.”
Arizona was the last stop on a West Coast tour King had been doing, Spindler said. The university and the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People worked to get the preacher to come. About 8,000 people attended the June 3 speech at Goodwin Stadium that started about 8 p.m. In his remarks, King focused on the Civil Rights Act, which at the time was stuck in a filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
Numa Perrier and Desmond Faison star in “The Couple”
Aficionados of Black cinema and television arts are ecstatic about the announcement of a TV deal involving Black & Sexy TV’s hit web series The Couple and powerhouse cable television network HBO. Rumor has it the deal will also involve legendary filmmaker Spike Lee as an executive producer. Black & Sexy co-creator Numa Perrier recently confirmed to JETmag.com that the Web superstars did clinch a deal with HBO.
News first leaked Monday at Sundance Film Festival during the Blackhouse Digital Panel, which included Black & Sexy TV founders Dennis Dortch and Numa Perrier, actor Jay Ellis (The Game), Lena Waithe (Dear White People), Edwin Benton and was moderated by Brickson Diamond. The deal was revealed while Diamond and Dortch discussed the task of how to maneuver creative content to new platforms.
For those unfamiliar, the Black & Sexy TV original web series, starring Numa Perrier and Desmond Faison, follows a young Black couple, chronicling the everyday nuances of dating and living together in a hilariously fresh way. Some may recall the unprecedented 2012 Kickstarter campaign that surpassed an original $25,000 goal to raise more than $32,000 in an effort to turn the web series into a film.
Black & Sexy TV offers original programming that is intentionally and unapologetically for us and is responsible for creating breakout web series hits such as Roomieloverfriends—which is also produced by Awkward Black Girl’s Issa Rae, That Guy and a new docu-series Yellow, which explores the “pleasures and problems of the light skinned Black man.”
The development deal with HBO is said to still be in its early stages. article by Marissa Wallace via jetmag.com
The DJ that has brought dance music fans songs including “Feel So Close” and “We Found Love” is making a move towards the small screen. According to Variety.com, HBO is developing a half-hour comedy with Calvin Harris that takes place in the world of electronic music entitled Higher. Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh on board to write the pilot, with a starry lineup of executive producers including Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jay Z, James Lassiter, Tyran Smith, Miguel Melendez, Mark Gillespie and Dean Wilson, along with Harris.
No word yet on the plot of Higher, which will hail from Overbrook Entertainment, Three Six Zero Group and Marcy Media. Jay-Z and Will Smith have previously collaborated on the Broadway production Fela, and are also teamed on forthcoming feature musical Annie. article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
The stars of the Miami Heat and head coach Erik Spoelstra joined Michelle Obama at the White House to help promote her “Let’s Move” campaign.
LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen were on hand to film a short video, encouraging viewers to eat healthy. The group eats apples and drinks water throughout the promo, which is capped off with the first lady dunking a mini basketball into a hoop held by James.
Digital cameras make it easy to take way too many photos during the holidays or on that wonderful trip to Costa Rica. How do you keep them from becoming a growing electronic pile on your hard drive? We asked photographers, professional organizers and others how they manage.
1.Make time. Carve out a regular time to download new photos — daily (during prime-time TV) or weekly (first thing on Saturdays). Just make it routine. 2. Clean as you go. “As you upload, take the time to delete any photos that you are sure you will not want to keep,” said Suzanne O’Donnell of My LA Organizer. It could save you grief and hard drive space in the long run. 3. Back up and store long term. “Transfer photos off your computer to an external hard drive, cloud or online gallery to save space,” said Ashley Stanfield of Creatively Neat. Again, a routine is key. “I recommend twice a year, or every daylight savings.” 4. Develop a labeling system and stick to it. “Part of the organization is knowing beforehand how you’d like to divide up your images,” said Joey Honsa of Brass Tacks Organization in Los Angeles. Develop a naming system for photo folders. Many professionals start folder names with the year, month and date, then subject. Examples: 2013-12-25-Christmas-Morning or 20131210-tokyo. Start with the year, so when folders are sorted alphabetically, they will appear in chronological order. 5. Consider software. Our expertsrecommended Adobe Lightroom. Price: $149. There are free alternatives, but they aren’t as flexible or sophisticated. Windows users can rename files in batches by highlighting all the photos in a folder (or simultaneously pressing Control and F4). Right click on the first file and select “Rename.” Type in your new file name and hit Enter. All the highlighted photos will be renamed sequentially, as in: 131210-11 tokyo (1), 131210-11 tokyo (2), and so on.
Maria Shriver will launch Monday on TODAY #DoingItAll, a series aimed at helping women overcome challenges described in “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink,” published in partnership with Center for American Progress. LeBron James wrote the following essay for The Shriver Report. Photo courtesy of LeBron James / The Shriver Report Gloria James raised her only child and future NBA phenomenon alone after becoming pregnant at 16. LeBron says it is her love and devotion that made it possible for him to pursue his dreams.
I am honored to participate in a project that is trying to help single mothers who are struggling to make a living and raise their kids, because that perfectly describes my mother when I was growing up. You think LeBron James is a champion? Gloria James is a champion too. She’s my champion.
My mother really struggled. She had me, her only child, when she was just 16 years old. She was on her own, so we lived in her mom’s great big house in Akron, Ohio. But on Christmas Day when I was 3 years old, my grandmother suddenly died of a heart attack, and everything changed. With my mom being so young and lacking any support and the skills and education necessary to get ahead, it was really hard for us.
We lost the house. We moved around from place to place—a dozen times in three years. It was scary. It was catch as catch can, scraping to get by. My mom worked anywhere and everywhere, trying to make ends meet. But through all of that, I knew one thing for sure: I had my mother to blanket me and to give me security. She was my mother, my father, my everything. She put me first. I knew that no matter what happened, nothing and nobody was more important to her than I was. I went without a lot of things, but never for one second did I feel unimportant or unloved.
The nominees for the 45th NAACP Image Awards were announced on Jan. 9, and 12 Years A Slave and Lee Daniels’ The Butler lead the pack with seven nominations each, including nods in the coveted Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture categories. Other multiple nominees include the Kerry Washington-starrer Scandal and Kevin Hart‘s BET comedy Real Husbands of Hollywood, each coming in with five nods in the television drama and comedy categories. In addition to being nominated for her role as Olivia Pope on Scandal, Washington also received a nomination in the Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture category for her role in the film Tyler Perry Presents Peeples. Angela Bassett went one better and landed three acting nominations, for her film performance in Black Nativity, and her outstanding television work in Betty and Coretta and American Horror Story: Coven. Terrence Howard was the most-nominated male actor, grabbing dual nods for his performances in Lee Daniels’ The Butler and The Best Man Holiday.
In music, Robin Thicke garnered four nominations for Blurred Lines, including Outstanding Male Artist and Outstanding Album, while Janelle Monae was the most-nominated female artist, gaining honors in the Outstanding Female Artist, Outstanding Album and Outstanding Music Video categories.
The Image Awards are presented annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the group’s members select the winners. The 45th annual NAACP Image Awards is set to air on Feb. 22 on the TV One channel at 9 p.m. CT.
Check out the full list of nominations below: TELEVISION Outstanding Comedy Series
“House of Lies”
“Modern Family”
“Real Husbands of Hollywood”
“The Game”
“The Soul Man” Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
Andre Braugher – “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”
Cedric The Entertainer – “The Soul Man”
Don Cheadle – “House of Lies”
DuleHill – “Psych”
Kevin Hart – “Real Husbands of Hollywood” Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Aisha Tyler – “Archer”
Mindy Kaling – “The Mindy Project”
Niecy Nash – “The Soul Man”
Tasha Smith – “Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse”
Wendy Raquel Robinson – “The Game” Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Boris Kodjoe – “Real Husbands of Hollywood”
Jerry “J B Smoove” Brooks – “Real Husbands of Hollywood”
Morris Chestnut – “Nurse Jackie”
Nick Cannon – “Real Husbands of Hollywood”
Tracy Morgan – “30 Rock” Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Anna Deavere Smith – “Nurse Jackie”
Brandy Norwood – “The Game”
Nia Long – “House of Lies”
Rashida Jones – “Parks and Recreation”
Sofia Vergara – “Modern Family” Outstanding Drama Series
“Boardwalk Empire”
“Grey’s Anatomy”
“Scandal”
“The Good Wife”
“Treme” Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series
James Pickens, Jr. – “Grey’s Anatomy”
LL Cool J – “NCIS: Los Angeles”
Michael Ealy – “Almost Human”
Shemar Moore – “Criminal Minds”
Wendell Pierce – “Treme” Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series
Chandra Wilson – “Grey’s Anatomy”
Kerry Washington – “Scandal”
Khandi Alexander – “Treme”
Nicole Beharie – “Sleepy Hollow”
Regina King – “SouthLAnd” Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Columbus Short – “Scandal”
Guillermo Diaz – “Scandal”
Jeffrey Wright – “Boardwalk Empire”
Joe Morton – “Scandal”
Michael Kenneth Williams – “Boardwalk Empire” Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Archie Panjabi – “The Good Wife”
Debbie Allen – “Grey’s Anatomy”
Diahann Carroll – “White Collar”
Taraji P. Henson – “Person of Interest”
Vanessa L. Williams – “666 Park Avenue”
