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Associated Press expands Race and Ethnicity Reporting Team Under Editor Sonya Ross

By goodblacknews on March 15, 2016
Race and Ethnicity Editor Sonya Ross. (AP Photo)
Race and Ethnicity Editor Sonya Ross. (AP Photo)

article via ap.org
NEW YORK — The Associated Press is significantly expanding its coverage of race and ethnicity issues and their impact on the United States, the news cooperative announced today.
The existing team, under the direction of Race and Ethnicity Editor Sonya Ross, will increase in number with reporters, photographers, videographers and others from across the country dedicated to delving more deeply into the race issues of the day, including a sharp focus on the 2016 campaign and its impact on people of color.
“Events of the past year have underscored just how much this coverage matters. There is an increased industry demand for it, and we intend to meet that demand,” said Ross.
The team is comprised of veteran journalists based in Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., who consistently break news and produce well-received enterprise on trends and issues.
Ross will be assisted by Pauline Arrillaga, AP’s national enterprise editor in Phoenix, and Amanda Barrett, who drives enterprise planning at AP’s global Nerve Center in New York.
“There are few issues that demand more interest and attention in the U.S. in 2016 than race and ethnicity,” said Sarah Nordgren, director of U.S. news operations. “By adding resources to our already strong journalistic team, we believe we will be in an exceptional position to tell the most important stories for our AP news consumers.”
About AP
The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats.
To read more, go to: http://www.ap.org/Content/Press-Release/2016/AP-expands-race-and-ethnicity-reporting-team

Nate Parker to Write Paralympic Wrestling Movie "Carry On" for Walden Media

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2016
Nate Parker Paralympic wrestling movie
Writer/Director/Actor Nate Parker (ROB LATOUR/ VARIETY/ REX/ SHUTTERSTOCK)

article by Dave McNary via Variety.com
“The Birth of a Nation” filmmaker Nate Parker will write the movie adaptation of the inspirational wrestling story “Carry On.”  Walden Media will develop, finance and produce “Carry On,” based on Lisa Fenn’s memoir that’s due to be published by HarperCollins in August.
Parker wrote, directed and starred in “The Birth of a Nation,” which debuted at Sundance in January and won the audience award and grand jury prize.
Fenn is an ESPN producer who went back to her hometown of Cleveland in 2009 to pursue a story about two disabled wrestlers who attended an impoverished public high school. Dartanyon Crockett, legally blind yet the best wrestler on the team, would carry Leroy Sutton, who had lost both his legs in a train accident when he was 11, to practices and meets.
Fenn formed a connection with the two young men and dedicated the next six years of her life to ensuring their success. Sutton graduated from college and Crockett won a bronze medal at the 2012 Paralympic Games.
To read more, go to: http://variety.com/2016/film/news/nate-parker-paralympic-wrestling-movie-carry-on-1201729655/

The Return of Black Panther: A Look at the Revival of Marvel’s 1st Black Superhero

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2016
Marvel / The Atlantic

article by Ta-Nehisi Coates via theatlantic.com

Last year I was offered the opportunity to script an 11-issue series of Black Panther, for Marvel. The Black Panther—who, when he debuted in an issue of Fantastic Four, in 1966, was the first black superhero in mainstream American comics—is the alter ego of T’Challa, the king of Wakanda, a mythical and technologically advanced African country.

By day, T’Challa mediates conflicts within his nation. By night, he battles Dr. Doom. The attempt to make these two identities—monarch and superhero—cohere has proved a rich vein for storytelling by such creators as Jack Kirby, Christopher Priest, and Reginald Hudlin. But when I got the call to write Black Panther, I was less concerned with character conflict than with the realization of my dreams as a 9-year-old.

The September 1976 cover of Jungle Action, the first Marvel series starring the Black Panther (Marvel Entertainment)

Some of the best days of my life were spent poring over the back issues of The Uncanny X-Men and The Amazing Spider-Man. As a child of the crack-riddled West Baltimore of the 1980s, I found the tales of comic books to be an escape, another reality where, very often, the weak and mocked could transform their fallibility into fantastic power. That is the premise behind the wimpy Steve Rogers mutating into Captain America, behind the nerdy Bruce Banner needing only to grow angry to make his enemies take flight, behind the bespectacled Peter Parker being transfigured by a banal spider bite into something more.
But comic books provided something beyond escapism. Indeed, aside from hip-hop and Dungeons & Dragons, comics were my earliest influences. In the way that past writers had been shaped by the canon of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wharton, I was formed by the canon of Claremont, DeFalco, and Simonson. Some of this was personal. All of the comics I loved made use of two seemingly dueling forces—fantastic grandiosity and ruthless efficiency. Comic books are absurd. At any moment, the Avengers might include a hero drawn from Norse mythology (Thor), a monstrous realization of our nuclear-age nightmares (the Hulk), a creation of science fiction (Wasp), and an allegory for the experience of minorities in human society (Beast).

Justin Cornwell Cast as Co-Lead in CBS's "Training Day" Pilot

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2016
Cornwell
Justin Cornwell (photo via deadline.com)

article by Nellie Andreeva via deadline.com

Young Chicago actor Justin Cornwell has landed the co-lead opposite Bill Paxton in CBS’ drama pilot Training Day.

Written by Will Beall and directed by Danny Cannon, Training Day is a present-day reimagining of Antoine Fuqua’s acclaimed 2001 feature. Set 15 years after the film left off, the show centers on a bright, gung-ho, idealistic young African-American police officer, Kyle Craig (Cornwell), who is appointed to an elite squad of the LAPD where he is partnered with seasoned, morally ambiguous detective Frank Rourke (Paxton).
Cornwell’s Kyle is one of the good guys — an LAPD cop who is fearless in the face of terrible odds and driven to avenge the murder of his father, also a cop. Tapped to go undercover, Kyle is reassigned to the Special Investigation Section, where he’s supposed to take down rogue cop Rourke.
Cornwell, who started his acting career at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, is a local actor who has done guest stints on two series that film in the Windy City —  Fox’s Empire and NBC’s Chicago P.D. He also had a small part in Spike Lee Chicago-themed movie Chi-Raq.
To read more, go to: http://deadline.com/2016/03/training-day-justin-cornwell-cast-cbs-pilot-kyle-1201719908/

This Artist's Drawing of The Obamas Is Absolute Perfection – Clutch Magazine

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2016


We’ve been a fan of Nicholle Kobi’s art for a while now, but her recent drawing of the Obamas at the recent White House State Dinner is absolute perfection.
Source: This Artist’s Drawing of The Obamas Is Absolute Perfection – Clutch Magazine

Funlayo Alabi Tackles Female Poverty in Northern Nigeria With Skin Care Company Shea Radiance

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2016

Shea Radiance CEO Funlayo Alabi (photo via inc.com)

article by Hadassah Egbedi via venturesafrica.com
Besides passion, a common reason often given by entrepreneurs when asked why, or how they started their businesses often entails discovering a gap in the market, which is often in the process of trying to solve a problem of their own. The background story of Funlayo Alabi, CEO of Shea Radiance, is not any different.
Mrs Alabi currently runs a multi-million dollar skin care company from her kitchen, one she started by chance. Her son was suffering from severe eczema, so she sought a more natural alternative to deal with it. “We had him on steroids. I thought to myself, “This boy is going to live on steroids if I don’t find a more natural alternative,” she told Inc. Alabi who hadn’t been a fan of shea butter as a kid, reluctantly called her mother and asked her to bring some on her next visit to the States.
Found in the tropics of Africa, and only recently discovered by the West, the benefits of Shea Butter have been known to Africans for centuries as it has been used through generations. In Nigeria, it is not uncommon to have someone prescribe the multi-purpose butter which contains unique healing properties to you if you have any skin or hair issues. The site africansheabutter.org provides a long list of conditions shea acts a remedy for including dry skin, rash, blemishes, wrinkles, sunburn, chest cold, and dermatitis.

“I really do believe that a jar of cream is not just a jar of cream. It can change the world.”- Funlayo Alabi

Once Alabi put the shea to use, her son’s skin got better and felt better, plus it had a “beautiful, warm glow.” The woman soon realized the value of what she had on her hands and the largely untapped market that exists. This was about seven years in 2008. So she got right to work, mixing and making shea butter lotions and shampoos in her kitchen. “I have always had a business mind and knew that we could develop high-quality shea butter products and sell them.” Thus, her company, Shea Radiance, was born in Ellicott City, Maryland.

How Four Black Women in Entertainment Created a Film Scholarship to Foster New Voices

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2016

Four Sistersarticle by Paula Rogo via essence.com

When Dehanza Rogers first heard of the Four Sisters Endowed Scholarship, she wondered at the meaning of the name.

“I mean what sisters are we talking about?” she remembers thinking to herself. “It could have meant any number of things.”
Then a first-year MFA student at the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television, the 2014 graduate applied for the scholarship to help fund her thesis film years late.
But when she saw the names behind the scholarship, she knew what sistas they were actually talking about: Sara Finney-Johnson, Mara Brock Akil, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Felicia D. Henderson. From Being Mary Jane and Moesha to Love & Basketball and Soul Food: The Series, these four women have created some of the most important talking points in Black television and film lexicon.
Indeed, for decades, they have consistently been telling stories of the Black experience, navigating an industry that is notorious as much for its lack of diversity in storytelling as its storytellers. Each had her share of pushback and difficulties. And it was from these experiences that the idea —- to endow a scholarship towards filmmakers wanting to create African-American themed projects  — was born. And the four friends agreed to endow it in a place that molds future industry influencers:  film school.

Here are 20 Africans That Should Inspire Your 2016 – The Nerve Africa

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2016


article via thenerveafrica.com
The Africa rising narrative has been called into question several times. It was called a myth by former deputy governor of Nigeria’s central bank, Kingsley Moghalu and Tanzanian millionaire Ali Mufuruki called it false.
Although the old clichés of Africa being a continent where war and poverty reign with pestilence have not completely changed as several parts of the continent still grapple with poverty, as well as war and terror, but the continent has one thing going for it,  which makes the hopeful ‘Africa rising’ narrative bold enough to hold on to; its people.
Even if Africa is not rising as claimed by Mufuruki, Africans are rising and are impacting the continent and the world at large. Their lives inspire other Africans to follow their dreams and they are moving Africa closer to the future we all hope for, one step at a time.
Patrick Njoroge
Patrick Njoroge  
When Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Patrick Njoroge as central bank governor, he was relatively unknown, so the president was criticized over his choice. But getting to know Njoroge changed everything. What struck Kenyans was not his PhD in Economics. It was also not his years of experience working for global lender International Monetary Fund (IMF). What was captivating for most Kenyans was his modest lifestyle. Who rejects the perks of public office? Patrick Njoroge said no to three official cars and a palatial apartment.
It is just six months into his reign as central bank governor but the impact of his ingenuity is already being felt. He brought inflation under control in his first month and helped stabilise the shilling. Banks in Kenya know he is not going to overlook any incontinence and flouting of the law. Two banks have been hammered already. He is not the typical African public office holder. He made Africa proud in 2015.
Akinwumi Adesina
Akinwumi Adesina 
Adesina’s story is a story of sheer determination to succeed. Born to a farmer in southwestern Nigerian State, Ogun, he didn’t quite leave the path he knew from infancy; agriculture was everything. But he would not be the type of farmer his father was, he wanted more and Agricultural Economics seemed perfect. He stayed true to his dream and saw it through.

Warner Bros. to Address Hollywood Diversity Issue with New Directors Workshop

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2016
warner bros WP Warner Brothers
(COURTESY OF WB)

article by Justin Kroll via Variety.com
Warner Bros. is continuing its efforts to tackle Hollywood’s diversity problem by launching an emerging film directors workshop, a talent incubator designed to give access and voice to new and underrepresented talent.  The studio will begin accepting applications next month and hopes to have the workshop up and running by the end of the third quarter.
The emerging film directors workshop will provide aspiring helmers from underrepresented communities with the opportunity to showcase their work to the film world after an intensive nine-month fellowship at Warner Bros. participants will be partnered with a Warner Bros. executive mentor as they work through the entire film production process, from pitch to final cut to premiere. The inaugural class will have five filmmakers.
“Our emerging film directors workshop continues Warner Bros.’ commitment to being the industry’s most talent-focused studio,” said Greg Silverman, Warner Bros.’ president of creative development and worldwide production. “There are so many bright, creative individuals at the threshold, who just need access to bring their vision and voice to a bigger audience. By providing that access, as well as a professional network and funding for a short film, Warner Bros. will play a small part in developing the next generation of great storytellers, whether they work in film or television, at our studio or elsewhere.”
Silverman came up with the plan and spearheaded the program, which has been in development for about two years.
Designed to re-create the features production process on a micro level, the workshop will have participants pitch, write or work with a screenwriter, and develop a script for a short film that’s three to 10 minutes long and budgeted at $100,000. Once they have a final screenplay, filmmakers will work with physical production to prep, create a budget, cast, shoot on the lot and edit with a full post-production process. Warner Bros. will cover all production costs and salary for filmmakers for the duration of the workshop.
The workshop will culminate in a film festival showcasing the directors’ work that will be held for agents, managers, producers and film executives from across the industry. More information on the program and the application process can be found here.
To read more, go to: http://variety.com/2016/film/news/warner-bros-film-directors-workshop-1201727406/

Obama Announces ConnectALL Initiative to Close the Technology “Homework Gap”

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2016
President Barack Obama (photo via newsone.com)
President Barack Obama (photo via newsone.com)

article by Nigel Roberts via newsone.com

Teachers increasingly give assignments that require online access, a task that’s becoming ever more difficult for scores of students from low-income families.

How big is this problem? The Pew Research Center estimated last year that about 5 million households with school-age children can’t afford Internet service. Not having broadband at home creates a so-called “homework gap,” which the researchers say disproportionately affects Black and Latino children.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced ConnectALL, an initiative to enable all Americans to afford broadband. It seeks to eliminated the digital divide—an ongoing problem that captures the public’s attention from time-to-time.
In a recent article, the New York Times shined a spotlight on the issue. The paper told the story of a sister and brother—Isabella and Tony Ruiz—who routinely stand outside an elementary school near their home to use its wireless hot spot.
With their parents struggling to make ends meet, Isabella, 11, and her 12-year-old brother don’t have Internet service at home. By standing outside the school building, Isabella was able to watch her teacher’s math guide on the family’s mobile phone.
The article drew a Facebook comment from President Obama:
“All of America’s students should be able to get online, no matter where they live or how much their parents make.”