Sometimes stories emerge during March Madness that force you to put down your brackets and pay attention to what’s really important. The friendship between Michigan State basketball star Adreian Payne and 8-year-old Lacey Holsworth is one of those stories.
They met two years ago when the Spartans visited a hospital where Lacey was getting treatment for neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the nerve tissue. Their relationship has thrived, and they reportedly text every day.
As the Washington Post notes, Payne attended a fundraiser for Lacey, and Lacey, who was Payne’s guest on senior night, helped him cut down the net after Michigan State won the Big Ten tournament.
Now that Payne and Michigan State have advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament, the duo’s touching bond continues to move fans. A video posted by the Big Ten Network earlier this month covers Payne and Lacey in tear duct-draining detail (watch below).
“She’s like a sister to me,” Payne says in the segment. “I love him,” Lacey declares. If your favorite team has been eliminated, you might just cheer for Payne and Michigan State on the basis of the video alone.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBmEQlToMFA&w=560&h=315]
article by Ron Dicker via huffingtonpost.com
Posts published in “Videos”
Just in time for Easter, the Lifetime Channel will air the small screen adaptation of Terry McMillan‘s bestseller A Day Late and a Dollar Short. The film stars Whoopi Goldberg (who also executive produced) and Ving Rhames as an estranged couple, with Anika Noni Rose, Kimberly Elise, Tichina Arnold, and Mekhi Phifer playing their adult children.
The synopsis:
In A Day Late and a Dollar Short, when irascible matriarch Viola Price (Goldberg) learns that her next asthma attack will likely kill her, she is determined to fix her fractured family before she leaves this world, from her relationship with her husband (Rhames), to the lives of her four children and grandchildren. While on this quest, she must contend with sibling rivalry, teen pregnancy and prescription drug addiction – and that is only one child. Additionally, her jailbird son (Phifer) needs to learn how to be a better father, her granddaughter is in bigger trouble than her daughter is willing to admit and her estranged husband needs saving from his scheming younger girlfriend. It’s the kind of meddling that the Price family hasn’t experienced from Viola in decades, and she won’t have an easy time bending her loved ones to her will.
The film was adapted for television from McMillan’s novel by Shernold Edwards and directed by Stephen Tolkin. It will premiere on April 19 at 8/7C.
Watch a clip from the movie below:
http://youtu.be/jjCKQuR4FxM
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
http://youtu.be/-J8F61MdbUI
With Black History Month winding down, Fox Sports joined forces with poet Raliq Bashard for a sports-centric tribute to the legends who paved the way for today’s athletes. Check out the video above, put together by Fox and their partners at Relevant 24. To see the full written text of Bashard’s inspiring spoken-word testimonial, as well as specific stories about black sports figures such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Vonetta Flowers, Larry Doby and Wilma Rudolph, click here.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Jimmy Fallon loves the ’90s. Like, really, really loves the ’90s. After famously reuniting the casts of Saved by the Bell and Full House on Late Night, the 39-year-old comedian gave a nod The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air during his first-ever time hosting The Tonight Show Monday. Of course, he couldn’t have done it without a little help from his first guest, Will Smith.
Dressed in overalls and printed tees, the duo performed the “Evolution of Hip-Hop Dancing,” showing off moves ranging from the “Cabbage Patch” and the “Running Man” to the “Robot” and the “Pop and Lock.” Other signatures included “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” “Kid ‘N Play,” “MC Hammer” and “The Carlton.” Unfortunately, Smith’s Fresh Prince of Bel-Air costar Alfonso Ribeiro didn’t make a cameo.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTpn30Pms8I&w=560&h=315]
And while they both attempted to do the “Leg Thing No One Can Do,” it was the “Spank That” move that tripped Smith up. Fallon transitioned into “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” but Smith was still spanking it. The funnymen recovered and decided to “Make It Rain” before “Picking Up the Money Because That’s all You Had.” When Fallon began to demonstrate the “Twerk,” 45-year-old Smith bowed out and walked offstage.
The recurring bit is a fan favorite. During his tenure on Late Night, Fallon performed “The History of Rap” with Justin Timberlake; the singer later helped Fallon with his “Evolution of End Zone Dancing” tutorial. Fallon also once demonstrated “The Evolution of Mom Dancing” with First Lady Michelle Obama.
article by Zach Johnson via eonline.com
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyMplbQkEg0&w=560&h=315]
CHICAGO — If Baltimore native and Chicago transplant Savannah Wood has one regret, it’s that she didn’t take enough time to read all the books she said surrounded her as a youngster. Though the Chicago-based artist and Rebuild Foundation instructor said she was surrounded by incredible books, she laments that she didn’t stumble upon a book like Richard Wright’s 1940 novel Native Son, which she said she received as part of a book exchange while she was studying abroad in France as a student of the University of Southern California. Reading Native Son, which tells the story of a 20-year-old Chicago man feeling alienated like an expat in his own country, was an experience, she told The Huffington Post, that resonated deeply. “That was the beginning of my being interested in black literature as a reflection of black life, the positive imagery in black lit,” Wood said in a recent interview. “I want to share that with other people.”
Last week, Wood launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign for Black Ink Book Exchange, an initiative that will eventually become “not quite a library and not quite a bookstore” focused on works written by and about those from the African Diaspora and located inside the University of Chicago’s Arts Incubator in the city’s Washington Park neighborhood. Wood told HuffPost she was inspired to launch the pop-up exchange after working with renowned Chicago artist Theaster Gates to create a library focused on the works of black authors for a private client. With the Black Ink Book Exchange, she hopes to take that idea and make it publicly accessible in a way that serves as a focal point for the predominately black neighborhood to engage with the arts. She plans to open the space by spring and, during the summertime, move it to other locations on Chicago’s South Side.
“I’m hoping to really activate the space and give people a place they can feel they can take some ownership of,” Wood said. “It’s not just to be looked at, but handled.”
Part of the interactivity Wood is aiming for entails the offering of free creative writing and crafting workshops taught in the space by guest artists. Money donated to the project’s $6,000 fundraising goal will go toward paying the artists a stipend for their services, in addition to purchasing books to supplement donated books, furniture and covering administrative costs.
“You can get hands on and make things here too,” Wood said of what makes the exchange different from a traditional library or bookstore. “I’ve been making things my whole life and I think it’s an empowering skill to have to produce something and put it out into the world.”
Visit the Black Ink Book Exchange’s Indiegogo page for additional information about donating funds or books toward the project.
article by Joseph Erbentraut via huffingtonpost.com
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent and the first person of African-American descent to hold an international pilot license. Coleman was born in Atlanta,Texas, the tenth of thirteen children to sharecroppers George, who was part Cherokee, and Susan Coleman.
In 1915, at the age of 23, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers and she worked at the White Sox Barber Shop as a manicurist, where she heard stories from pilots returning home from World War I about flying during the war. She could not gain admission to American flight schools because she was black and a woman. No black U.S. aviator would train her either. Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckEiKzCBqc&w=560&h=315]
Coleman raised money, studied French, and then traveled to Paris on November 20, 1920. She learned to fly in a Nieuport Type 82 biplane, with “a steering system that consisted of a vertical stick the thickness of a baseball bat in front of the pilot and a rudder bar under the pilot’s feet.” On June 15, 1921, Coleman became not only the first African-American woman to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and the first American of any gender or ethnicity to do so, but the first African-American woman to earn an aviation pilot’s license. Determined to polish her skills, Coleman spent the next two months taking lessons from a French ace pilot near Paris, and in September 1921 sailed for New York. She became a media sensation when she returned to the United States.
To learn more about Coleman’s life and career, click here or watch the Smithsonian Channel video above.
article via wikipedia.com
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEJJFIM1m44&w=560&h=315]
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.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com
Last summer rapper Juicy J announced that he was giving away $50,000 in scholarship money. The initial Tweet stated, “I’m giving out a 50K scholarship to the best chick that can twerk” and it illicit a firestorm of response–and applications. After going through submissions Juicy has selected a winner, but insists that no twerking was required to win. “50K is a lot of money and I don’t want to waste it on some chick twerkin’ her ass,” he says. “Next time I send a Tweet out about a scholarship take it serious and read the words!”
The winner is 19-year-old Zaire Holmes, a mother and student at the State College of Florida who did read the rules and submitted a video explaining why she deserved the money. “I’m a biology major so the scholarship would be able to cover all of my lab expenses,” she said hopefully. “A lot of people thought you had to twerk, but you actually had to read the rules!”
Watch Juicy J present Holmes with the check:
http://youtu.be/9fc-vqqjZzs
article by Jerry L. Barrow via theurbandaily.com
It has been an underwhelming season for the Houston Texans, but eleven straight losses have not gotten in the way of wide receiver Andre Johnson’s yearly effort to bring some smiles to the faces of kids who could use them. Johnson has made an annual tradition out of giving twelve kids chosen by Child Protective Services in Houston on a shopping spree at Toys R Us. The kids have 80 seconds, in honor Johnson’s No. 80, to fill up carts with everything they can grab off the shelves. Every kid teamed up with a Texans cheerleader to race through the store and was guaranteed an entertainment system of their choice and two games in addition to anything else they grabbed.
“I remember times where I wasn’t able to get things that I wanted,” Johnson said, via the Texans website. “It just gives them a chance to go through the store and get whatever they want. They don’t have to ask anybody for it. Whatever they have on their Christmas list they can pick up.”
The Texans website has some great video from the event (seen below), which Johnson has hosted for seven years. The final tab for this year’s event was $17,352, which is a pretty impressive total given the short period of time the kids had to work even if it is a bit less than last year’s total.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A68znmdOaeI&w=560&h=315]
article by Josh Alper via profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9l2TaLb9Xs&w=560&h=315]
Darnell Barton, a bus driver in Buffalo, New York, was driving across a Buffalo highway express with 20 high school students in his bus when he spotted a woman who had crossed the guard rail and was leaning over the passing traffic below. Against his training as a bus driver, Barton stopped the bus and quickly phoned dispatch to send someone to help, then got out of the bus and approached the woman. The woman turned her head, then looked back down at the traffic below the bridge. Barton then quickly put her in a bear hug and asked her if she would like to come over the guard rail. The woman, who had up until this point been silent, said yes.
A corrections officer and female driver sat with the woman, along with Barton, until an ambulance arrived to take her for help. Barton then got back on the bus and continued his route. He received a standing ovation from the students aboard the bus, as well as other passengers who’d been watching the ordeal. He finished the day and wrote up the report.
“Being the humble individual that Darnell is, he didn’t write it in a way that was going to call attention to himself,” said C. Douglas Hartmayer, spokesman for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. “It was: I did it, got back on my bus and continued. That speaks volumes about his demeanor and character.”
Thanks to one man for taking the time out of his day to help someone who truly needed it. For more information about suicide prevention, visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. If you are in crisis, please call (800) 273-TALK (8255).
article via dailyoftheday.com