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Taraji P. Henson and Idris Elba Thriller "No Good Deed" Earns Top Spot at Box Office with $24.5 Million Weekend

By goodblacknews on September 14, 2014

Taraji P Henson, Taraji P HensonIdris Elba, Idris Elba
“No Good Deed” lead the box office this weekend by taking in $24.5 million from 2,175 theaters, easily beating expectations.  Going into the weekend, analysts expected the home invasion thriller to hover around $20 million. Females made up the bulk of the audience, taking up 60% of the seats in theaters, and 41% of ticket-buyers were under 30 years old.
“It’s not a full reversal of the weakness at the box office, but it’s a step in the right direction,” said Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “It’s good to see new films enter the marketplace and do all right.”
“No Good Deed’s” success is a feather in the cap of stars Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson, both of whom actively hawked the film on social media.
“They absolutely elevated it,” said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures’ president of worldwide distribution. “They’re so hard working. It was a great collaboration.”
It also helps that “No Good Deed” cost a mere $13 million to produce.  “It’s going to be hugely successful for the studio,” said Bruer.

Both actors will likely see their stars rise as a result. Elba has had showy supporting roles in “Thor” and “Prometheus,” but hasn’t carried a film to these kind of heights on his own shoulders since 2009’s “Obsessed.” He retains a passionate following from his days playing a drug kingpin on HBO’s “The Wire.”
Henson has an Oscar nomination on her resumé thanks to 2008’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and was part of the “Think Like a Man” ensemble, but hasn’t been front-and-center in a promotional campaign like she was here.
“I wouldn’t call them full on movie stars in their own right,” said Phil Contrino, vice president and analyst with BoxOffice.com. “They’re not bankable on their own terms, but this could certainly change that. Sometimes all it takes is one film.”
The concept of movie stardom has taken its knocks in recent years, as Hollywood has tried and failed to launch a new generation of A-listers to rival the Tom Cruises and Julia Roberts of an earlier era. The old days where an actor’s name above the title was enough to guarantee a big opening weekend have vanished. However, pairing the right actor with the right vehicle can still reap dividends, as evidenced by Liam Neeson’s success playing avenging angels and Melissa McCarthy’s track record with R-rated comedies.
“Taraji and Idris are terrific actors and they both so own their roles in this film,” said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures’ president of worldwide distribution. “In spots and trailers, they delivered such a great intensity. It’s a terrific opening.”
Sony didn’t rely on star power alone to sell “No Good Deed.” It also orchestrated a clever social media campaign that unspooled across Twitter and Instagram.
On Twitter, the studio put a fresh spin on the Choose Your Own Adventure book series, presenting users with a set of challenges that dared them to outwit a murderer. For fans of Instagram, Sony created an interactive experience made up of images and videos that teased out parts of the film’s plot. That’s cheaper and potentially more potent than a costly television campaign.
“In this new world we live in, you want to be aggressive, and there are more means to do that and interact directly with fans than ever before,” said Contrino.
article by Brent Lang via variety.com (additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson)

Teen Siblings Ima, Caleb, Asha and Joshua Christian Create App to Document Police Interactions

By goodblacknews on August 31, 2014
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Five-O App Inventors Caleb, Ima, Joshua, and Asha Christian (Pine Tart)

Like everyone else in America, Ima Christian has been nervously watching the news unfold in Ferguson, Missouri. The 16-year-old resident of Stone Mountain, Georgia, says that she and her siblings have been in constant conversation with their parents about the recent deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner (who died last month in Staten Island) at the hands of police.
“Our parents try to put everything in context for us,” Christian says. “They try to tell us to focus on solutions.”
So they decided to build their own answer to police abuse. On Monday, Ima Christian (pictured, second from left) and her siblings—principally Caleb, 14, and Asha, 15, with the support of Joshua, 10—are launching a beta version of Five-O, an app that will enable users to rate their interactions with police and view aggregate scores for how law-enforcement agencies fare.
“As soon as we decided that we wanted to make an app, we threw the idea on the white board,” she says.

Ima Christian and her siblings decided to build their own answer to police abuse.

Here’s how Five-O works: Users log in to a dashboard, where they have several options. A Five-O user can create a detailed incident report and rate the professionalism and courtesy of the officer, using an A-F scale. Or they can view police stations by county or state to see how various departments rate. (Those A-F officer interaction scores are averaged out on a 4.0 scale—like a GPA for the fuzz.)
The app also allows people to post messages to a community board. There’s another function called “Know Your Rights,” a Q&A-formatted feature, “so you have your rights at your fingertips at any moment,” Christian says. The family drew the information from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Christian, a senior at Parkview High School, credits her brother Caleb for the idea to create an app for rating police interactions. They decided early on in the project planning stages that Five-O would focus on the good as well as the bad.
“I haven’t really heard of issues happening in Stone Mountain of the scale of what’s in the news,” she says. “I do have relatives who have had negative interactions with police.” She says that friends of the family include police officers, who offer a friendlier model for police interactions. “This is an app to offer up positive experiences. They can be an example.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-Veei0jQM&w=560&h=315]
This is the Christian family’s first app release, but it’s unlikely to be their last. Ima and her siblings are aggressive students of programming, especially for a mobile environment. She and her siblings Asha and Caleb have participated in programs such as MIT’s +K12, Scratch, and App Inventor programs. Ima and Asha Christian are both executive team members in the ProjectCSGirls computer science competition. And they were both 2014 #Include Fellows in the She++ program. Ima is a Codecademy alum as well, and has done coding programs through Stanford.Stanford, incidentally, is Ima’s reach school—she’s also got her sights set onWashington University in St. Louis, Brown, and Columbia—and the graduating senior has also done work at her top in-state choice, the Georgia Institute of Technology. (Ima’s siblings could not be reached for comment, as they were not yet home from school.)
Following Monday’s beta launch for Five-O, the Christian siblings are continuing work on two more projects: Coily, a review app for hair-care products for black girls and women, and Froshly, an app to facilitate meetings for in-bound college pre-freshmen, “so they can greet each other before they meet each other in school.” The Christian siblings started a company, Pine Tart, Inc., to advance their work.
“We don’t have any institutional support right now,” Ima Christian says. “It’s just us. We’re our own team.”
article by Kriston Capps via citylab.com

New Fellowship "Code For Progress" Prepares People of Color for Coding Careers

By goodblacknews on August 27, 2014

The 2014 graduating class of Code for Progress (Photo courtesy of Code for Progress)

The graduation ceremony started with a freedom chant led by fellow Angie Rollins, a member of the BYP100. The 40 plus people in attendance joined in, clapping and repeating the chorus: “What side are you on my people?/What side are you on?” It grounded the event in this political moment, referencing Michael Brown and Ferguson in the chant as they began. If you didn’t know better, you’d think this was a graduation for community organizers, or radical political educators. Instead, it was a graduation for 11 newly trained coders, finishing the first-ever Code for Progress (CFP) fellowship. They all spent the last four months in an intensive coding bootcamp in Washington, D.C., learning from instructor Aliya Rahman the basics of a handful of different coding languages, with the hopes of beginning their careers in technology.

The graduation was held at Google’s downtown Washington, D.C., offices, a fact that felt both fitting and somewhat ironic given recent conversations stirred up this summer with the release of Google’s, Apple, LinkedIn and Yahoo’s self-reported diversity statistics. Unlikely to be a surprise to anyone working within the  industry, the stats show abysmal representation for non-Asian people of color overall, and a poor showing for women as well. So for the 11 fellows, seven of whom are women of color, they are unlikely to find many peers in their future places of employment. The freedom chant, while distinctly out of place at Google, was actually quite fitting for the mission of CFP—its goal is to bring politically minded organizers into the tech industry.
The fellowship is a direct response to the lack of diversity in the tech field, and it also tries to address a root cause of these disparities: access to computer science education. “Folks who are in communities of color have a higher probability of going to a school that doesn’t teach computer science,” says Rahman. “Seven kids took the advanced placement computer science exam in Washington, D.C., [last year], compared to hundreds in Maryland and Virginia.”

Estella Pyfrom's "Brilliant Bus": a State of the Art Mobile Learning Center that Helps Underserved Students Learn Technology

By goodblacknews on August 26, 2014
Estella Brilliant Bus

If Estella Pyfrom looks familiar, it’s because she was recognized last year as a CNN Hero, a honor she received for the humanitarian genius behind her Brilliant Bus initiative, which really is quite brilliant.
Pyfrom, a retired 50-year veteran of Florida’s Palm Beach County School District, didn’t have any training in technology before she realized students in her district lacked the digital know-how to meet the demands of the 21st century workforce.  “The minute I decided that [in retirement] I wanted to continue what I was doing for 50 years [as a school administrator], I knew I needed to be creative, and I needed to understand it,” Pyfrom said in a phone interview.
So Pyfrom, who is now 76, brushed up on her tech skills in 2009 and emptied her pension to build a non-profit, state-of-the-art mobile learning center called Project Aspiration, which was later renamed Estella’s Brilliant Bus. She’s been offering free tutoring to students since 2011.
Students who were among the winners of the #YESWECODE Hackathon at the 2014 ESSENCE Festival for their GlucoReader app rode from Florida to New Orleans on Estella’s Brilliant Bus, and Pyfrom takes great pride in her affiliation with the winners.
And that’s just one of many success stories tied to Pyfrom and her work. She spoke to us about what’s next for her organization.
ESSENCE: Why did you decide to launch your Brilliant Bus?
Estella Pyfrom: I started Brilliant Bus in an effort to expose kids to technology. I became passionate about technology when I realized that it would give kids so much exposure and different ways to connect with the world. I also just looked at what was going on in the community.  When I was building my curriculum, I coordinated with area schools so that I could correlate what I was doing on the bus with what students were doing at school.  I started working with kids at day care centers, churches, schools and community centers, and I ended up being able to offer a program for kids at all levels to prepare them for standardized tests, readiness tests and GED tests.

ESSENCE: What’s special about this method of teaching?
EP: Not only is it unique and innovative, it’s an idea that works. The Brilliant Bus is customized and I built it from scratch. The bus is a mobile learning lab and it can do whatever a classroom can do. Instead of kids who live in undeserved neighborhoods finding me, I am able to take the learning to the neighborhoods.

ESSENCE: What do your students tell you is their favorite part of the Brilliant Bus?
EP: Kids will do anything to get out of the classroom. They say it’s like going on a field trip. One of the good things they tell me is that the activities [on the bus] are so much in sync with what they are doing in the classroom and that it’s a good supplement. Everything that I do with kids on the bus is grade and age level appropriate.

ESSENCE: What’s next for the bus? How will you expand on it?
EP: Brilliant Bus isn’t just a bus; it’s a movement. We plan on building these clubs in various communities. We’re conducting surveys now so that we can move beyond coding and into Robotics. We are going to get really creative with science and math so we can build robots.
Don’t forget to follow the #YESWECODE conversation on Twitter and keep up with Estella’s Brilliant Bus on Facebook.
article via essence.com

Dr. Sheena C. Howard Wins 2014 Comic Con Eisner Award for Book "Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation"

By goodblacknews on August 13, 2014
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Dr. Sheena C. Howard

More than 100,000 people attended the International Comic Convention (aka Comic Con) in San Diego this year, but only a few walked away winners of an Eisner Award, one of the most prestigious honors in the comics industry – an Eisner is equivalent to an Oscar. I was honored to be one of those winners, along with co-editor Ronald Jackson for the book, “Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation.”

In 2009 I embarked on writing my dissertation at Howard University on Aaron McGruder’s “The Boondocks” comic strip. Much to my dismay there were no published works that provided a historical account of the contributions of African-American cartoonists on the funny pages.Most books that dealt with the history of American comics, failed to even mention Black artists – this was the impetus for the book, “Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation.”

UnknownAdmittedly, I had not been an avid comic book or graphic novel reader as a child, but even so, as a critical media scholar I knew I needed to do whatever I could to fill this void within academic literature.When I first heard about the Eisner nomination for Best Academic/ Scholarly Work during the winter of 2014, I was amazed. Rarely, does an academic have the opportunity to cross over to the popular culture realm for an academic book. Since this was my first book, I was just happy to be nominated but did not expect to win.
On Friday July 25th, the Eisner award ceremony was held at the San Diego Hilton Bayfront hotel, with doors opening at 7:00 p.m. The ceremony consisted of fans seated in the back and Eisner nominees seated closest to the stage. Upon entering I immediately noticed the attendance of Jack Mendelsohn (writer for “Ninja Turtles”), Reginald Hudlin (Producer of “Django Unchained”) and Orlando Jones (actor).

20 Year-Old YouTube Sensation Marques Brownlee Known as "Best Technology Reviewer On The Planet"

By goodblacknews on August 7, 2014
marques-brownlee
YouTube Tech Reviewer Marques Brownlee (YouTube / MKBHD)

Marques Brownlee is just 20 years old, but there’s arguably no one better on the internet when it comes to explaining new technologies to the average consumer. Even former Google VP Vic Gundotra called him “the best technology reviewer on the planet right now.”

YouTubers have taken notice of the young man: Brownlee’s YouTube channel “MKBHD” has more than 1.5 million subscribers and nearly 130 million total views on his 640-plus videos.

Still, he’s no overnight success: Brownlee has been working tirelessly for more than five years, honing his craft by constantly producing and self-critiquing his videos to make the next ones easier to both make and watch.

But despite all of the work involved, “MKBHD” is, was, and will always be a solo effort.

“When I first started making the videos, I didn’t tell anyone about it,” he said in an interview with Business Insider. “Not [my family], not anyone. But after a while it was something that was pretty obvious, since I was making a whole bunch of videos … I just didn’t necessarily feel like telling people about what I was researching.”

Brownlee, a senior at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, said he always had a love for technology. His dad works in technology — information systems and programming, specifically — but Brownlee’s interests were more centered on consumer electronics, starting with computers and some of the old camcorders his parents had around. He said his first computer was a Dell desktop with a “big old 15-inch CRT monitor.”

“It was kind of a background hobby; I didn’t have a reason to tell anyone when I first started making the videos,” he said.

marques-brownlee-young
From one of Brownlee’s first YouTube videos. (YouTube / MKBHD)

When he entered high school, Brownlee said, he wanted to buy a laptop for school, so he researched various computers and watched tutorials on “how to do cool tricks and customizations.” And simply by watching others’ tutorials, Brownlee felt encouraged to make some tutorials of his own with some simple screencasting software.

Still, it would take a while to build an audience.

“It was super slow. The first few videos, there were no comments and no views,” he told BI. “But eventually, once someone would comment on the video, they asked about other things I could share.”

Brownlee started to gain a small following by answering users’ questions with his own handmade videos. By the time he reached his 100th video, he had only 78 subscribers. But Brownlee’s operation was not what it is today, and still very much a work in progress.

“Back then, it was all one take,” he said. “So when I’d make a video, I’d open the software, press record, talk two or three minutes to explain whatever I needed to explain, and I’d just stop and upload it to YouTube. That was it.

“I could make multiple videos in a day, but now, the videos are much more elaborate.”

Brownlee currently produces several different types of videos. He’s got his reviews, explainers, and impressions, but he’ll also throw in some special features and “advanced projects.” But with every video, a great deal of research is involved before Brownlee ever starts filming.

NBA Star Carmelo Anthony Co-Founds Venture Capital Firm M7 Tech Partners

By goodblacknews on July 25, 2014

Atlanta Hawks v New York KnicksBasketball star Carmelo Anthony got his max contract from the New York Knicks, now he’s looking much further ahead.
ESPN is reporting that Anthony announced the creation of M7 Tech Partners, a venture capital firm whose partners are Anthony and the former CEO of Bertelsmann, Stuart Goldfarb, who heads the world’s largest direct marketer of music, video and books.
“M7″ reportedly stands for “‘Melo Seven,” Carmelo’s nickname and jersey number with the New York Knicks.  The sports network also notes Anthony is intrigued with wearable and connected devices. A media statement says M7 will be an early-stage seed fund for digital media and consumer technology.
Anthony also tells them he’s been interested in tech devices “for as long as” he can remember and his firm will be on the lookout for ventures focused on leadership that resonates with clients.
Both Anthony and Goldfarb reportedly haven’t decided how much cash they will use to back ventures in the near future, however, news of the company’s creation came with another announcement; their firm is now an an equity partner with Hullabalu, an interactive children’s story company.
The Wall Street Journal says, “M7 will not have any limited partners or other outside investors, and does not plan to take a lead position in any future portfolio companies.”  Hullabalu was founded by Suzanne Xie in 2012. Biz Journal reports the company raised a $1.8 million seed round last year.
Anthony agreed to a $124 million deal with the Knicks a little over a week ago.
article by Richard Spiropoulos via blackenterprise.com

Former NASA Employee Katrina Parrott Launches New Diversity-Filled Emoji App

By goodblacknews on July 24, 2014

 
iDiversicons
What do you do when you become frustrated with Apple’s lack of diversity within their emojis? Well, Katrina Parrott, a former NASA employee, took it upon herself to create her own app filled with a variety of over 900 diverse emoticons.
According to Katrina, after her daughter noticed the lack of diversity within the system she knew it was time to take it into her own hands to do her best in launching her own system. This is when the birth of iDiversicons happened.
Katrina stated, “We wanted all people to be able to find an emoticon that looked like them.” Since Apple doesn’t seem to be in a major rush to implement the ethnicity update, we respect those who have taken it upon themselves to do their part in raising the bar to equality.
RELATED: African Company Oju Africa Beats Apple to Release First Black Emojis
smileyface_box3-1It’s not JUST an emoji, but has evolved into a big part of our societies culture used by many of us from coast to coast. When I reached out to Apple previously they told me, “Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.”
So then why are we still seeing the same emojis with no race update? We hear the rumor of the middle finger coming, or even a thermometer (WTF) emoji, but no diverse emojis! Come on, Apple, listen to the people and update this already!
Support Katrina’s mission by heading on over to iDiversicons to learn how to get started!
article via act.mtv.com

Miles Johnson, 16, Wins 1st Place at Youth Entrepreneur Camp with Financial Tracker App for Teens

By goodblacknews on July 17, 2014
As a boy, 16-year-old Miles Johnson‘s father taught him about the power of compound interest: If he had money and put it away, it would grow so that one day he’d be able to buy something he really wanted.  Steadily contributing to his savings account, he got a nice pair of headphones, a laptop for school and an idea — a mobile app that could help others from low-income backgrounds reach retirement and financial freedom.
His plan for the “Next Generation” mobile app took first place and won $1,000 at a business plan competition recently, part of the free Los Angeles BizCamp Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. The summer camp was created by the nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship in partnership with the Los Angeles Urban League.

Johnson was one of 21 underserved high school students from across Los Angeles who met with teachers and business mentors every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the two-week camp to find a problem in their communities and address it with a business solution.
Miles proposed a host of simple financial tools that help people, at the touch of a screen, check their budget daily, monitor their credit and access resources about getting out of debt.
“I thought this could help them and prevent them from being broke at 65 … or see how a car or house payment might fit in their budget,” said Miles, who now has a shot at competing on the national level for $25,000 with a free trip to Silicon Valley.
Adrian Griffin, his mother, described him as “completely self-motivated.”
“I can’t say whether I’m proud or embarrassed that I didn’t help at all,” said Griffin, who couldn’t attend the event because she was working. “I had a feeling that he was going to win, so that day I put my phone in my pocket, something I don’t usually do. I wanted to make sure he could get hold of me no matter what.”
At the event, the high schoolers studied concepts in finance, marketing and recognizing business opportunities. They put their knowledge into action by drafting plans for a music school for children with autism, a multicultural magazine to boost young women’s self-confidence, a healthy food truck for high school and college campuses, and more.

The competition gave students such as 16-year-old Mario Seki the chance to work on their own ideal careers. Moonlighting as a magician since the age of 6, Mario, now a student at the School of Arts and Enterprise in Pomona, said he hopes to expand his business, which already includes performing at birthday parties, and social and community events.
“Magic is a really nice form of medicine in a way. My mission is to make someone’s day better,” said Mario, who placed second at the BizCamp competition and won $750.
“I thought this is for him because he can really learn about running a business,” said Judy Seki of her son, the youngest of nine children. “Each one has a different interest and you just support them in any way you can. Part of that was finding this.”
Sisters Passion Lord, 15, and Dajah Blades, 14, saw their confidence skyrocket over the course of the camp as they developed presentation skills.  On competition day they fearlessly shared slices of lemon pie and their vision for “P and D’s Sweet Treats” to promote peace through pastries from around the world. They placed third and won $300.
“Why not do something that brings everyone together?” Dajah said.  “The secret ingredient is love,” Passion added.
“To see them light up and fill the room was phenomenal,” said Jessie Mosqueda, a community development officer for Citi, which sponsored the camp through its foundation’s commitment to spend $50 million over three years on programs for youths in low-income communities.
Romann Anderson, who will be a sophomore at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, won the BizCamp fast-pitch competition and $75. He impressed judges with his pitch for “Prism Gaming,” a compact video game console.  “I was very proud that he was able to tap into the business aspect as well as the fun,” said Stacy Beverly, Romann’s mom.
It’s a lesson Romann said he hopes to take with him going forward.  “If I go into business in something I’m passionate about, I won’t back down,” Romann said.
A 2013 NFTE research project found that alumni from their programs beat the national employment average of 69% — 88% of their participants are in the workforce. They’re also more likely to be self-employed: 22% of NFTE alumni have their own businesses, compared to the national average of 11%.
“It teaches them how to fish and build futures,” said Estelle Reyes, NFTE executive director.
With participants being tasked to deliver a 30-second elevator pitch and an eight-minute presentation by the program’s conclusion, BizCamp covered a curriculum that typically takes a full academic year, according to teacher Timothy Dura.
“It’s like taking someone, opening up their mouth, shoving in a fire hose and turning it on to see how much they absorb,” said Dura, who teaches at the Hawthorne Math and Science Academy. “They’ve done really, really well. I’m very proud of them.”
To learn more about BizCamp, visit http://www.tinyurl.com/2014BizCampApplication.
article by Sara Hayden via latimes.com

 

Marvel’s New Captain America Will Be African-American

By goodblacknews on July 17, 2014

African American Captain America

Marvel Entertainment has announced that a new Captain America will be African-American.  In an online article the character Sam Wilson, also known as The Falcon, was named as the replacement for Steve Rogers.  The move follows what is described as “a dire encounter with the Iron Nail” which left Rogers unable to carry on.

The post reads: “Robbed of his superior strength and vitality, Steve Rogers must surrender his blues for a sturdy cane.”

The change of character is only set to affect the Captain America comic book series.  Chris Evans, who has played him in The Avengers film, will also play the role in Avengers: Age of Ultron which is set for release in 2015.
Anthony Mackie played The Falcon, Sam Wilson, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but there are no plans for his character to become the Captain on the big screen.

Anthony Mackie
The Falcon was played by Anthony Mackie in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America writer Rick Remender wrote: “I think that different characters across the Marvel Universe are going to respond to Sam’s appointment in different ways.
“But he’s not a novice in his long history as the Falcon, he’s earned a reputation for integrity and honesty and backbone that most of the super hero community have a respect for.”
Captain America first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1941.
The news about Captain America comes a day after Marvel announced that Thor, the God of Thunder, would now be portrayed as a woman in that comic book series.
Talking about the alterations, Marvel comic editor Tom Brevoort said: “We’re not anywhere near finished.
“Change is one of the watchwords of the Marvel Universe, so there are even more startling surprises to come.”
article via bbc.co.uk