Meagan Good (Photo: Todd Williajson / Getty Images)
Paging all doctors—Boris Kodjoe and Meagan Good are reporting for duty.
The two stars are set to join the CBS primetime medical drama, CODE BLACK. Kodjoe will star as Dr. Will Campbell whose expertise and ego shake things up with the current surgical team. Meagan Good (Minority Report) joins the cast of in a recurring role as Dr. Grace Adams, an attending physician who returns to the OR after a year of humanitarian work in Haiti. Her return could reignite romance with a fellow doctor.
Both stars will begin their stints on the show in February. article by Lauren Porter via essence.com
Prince played his first ever solo piano show at his Paisley Park compound on January 21. (Photo: NPG Records)
Prince approached the piano, a purple baby grand. He landed a single chord, resonant and bassy. He stood. He walked away.
As we could have guessed, Prince’s first-ever (first ever?) solo show last night at Paisley Park, his home compound in suburban Minnesota, was no simple, straightforward affair. The 57-year-old funk-pop wizard approached the performance as a challenge, an opportunity to prove that he could deliver a full Prince show without much of anything we expect from a full Prince show: No powerhouse band, no impossibly lithe dancing, no masterful guitar fireworks. Just, as the show’s official title put it, “Piano & a Microphone.” And a lot of Prince. Maybe more Prince than he’s ever shared before.
Prince framed the evening as an autobiographical struggle, the story of how he mastered the piano and emerged from the shadow of his father, a jazz pianist. The set moved chronologically (with a few exceptions) through the first decade of Prince’s career, including at least one song from each of his first 10 albums. Familiar melodies splintered into virtuosic cascades for a dreamlike effect, as though Prince was remembering the birth of his career in real time.
The night began with some introductory psychodrama. Elegantly casual in his mauve pajamas, that enormous afro dominating his slim frame, Prince took a stage decorated sparsely with candles, befogged by a smoke machine, his personal glyph looming from behind, illuminated by kaleidoscopic patterns. His voice was doused in heavy echo as he expressed the dreams and doubts of a child who sneaks down without permission to play his father’s piano. “I can’t play piano like my dad. How does dad do that?” he wondered, while attempting improvisations that, at one point, suggested Thelonious Monk teaching himself the theme to Batman.
Then it got sexy. Prince’s fingers were everywhere during “Baby,” a ballad from his 1978 debut For You that served as foreplay to the full-body workouts “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and “Dirty Mind” before the ecstatic squeals of “Do Me, Baby” provided the climax. Multiple climaxes, even.
Prince moved between songs fluidly. He introduced the moving ballad “Free” by celebrating “the freedom to say no,” later interrupting the song to wipe a tear and briefly mourn David Bowie: “I only met him once. He was nice to me. He seemed like he was nice to everybody.” Before we knew it, he was in the middle of a gorgeous take on a longtime Prince favorite, Joni Mitchell‘s “A Case of You,” which transformed into a bluesy vamp that Prince used as a lesson in musicology. “The space between the notes — that’s the good part,” he said. “How long the space is — that’s how funky it is or how funky it ain’t.” And just like that, he was was moaning the spiritual lament “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.”
The intimate setting was ideal for falsetto-wrenched ballads like “Sometimes It Snows in April” and “The Breakdown,” one of a handful of newer songs inserted into the set. But Prince never forgot that the piano is a rhythm instrument. If the old-time boogie-woogie masters didn’t need drums to rock a party, well, neither did Prince. He remade “Paisley Park” as a bluesy, gutbucket romp, and his pumping left hand recalled Ray Charles, a debt he made clear when he ripped into the soul legend’s “Unchain My Heart,” a song he recalled playing with his father.
“I thought I would never be able to play like my dad,” he said. “And he never missed an opportunity to remind me of it.” But Prince’s playing belied his modesty. His florid right-hand runs had a little of the theatricality of Liberace in them, but with more tasteful jazz inflections as well. Paying tribute to his past collaborators Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, he credited Lisa with introducing him to the complex chording of jazzman Bill Evans then played the harpsichord part she wrote for “Raspberry Beret.” “That’s the whole song, right?”
LL Cool J Honored With Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame (Source: Albert L. Ortega / Getty) LL Cool J received Hollywood’s biggest honor by snagging a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. The rapper is being lauded for his career accolades, including being one of the first rappers to sell 10 consecutive platinum plus selling albums, the Los Angeles Times reports. Queen Latifah and Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs were in attendance speaking during the ceremony about what the actor/rapper’s career has meant to the entertainment industry.
Other notable attendees included Mike Tyson, Russell Simmons and Magic Johnson.
Congratulations, LL!
Watch the moment below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4b7yQ9FOxo&w=560&h=315] article by Keyaira Kelly via hellobeautiful.com
Teen Trayon Christian gets settlement from Barneys after being racially profiled (photo via pix11.com)
Barneys has reached a settlement with a Black teen who was racially profiled in the luxury department store and wrongfully arrested by the NYPD. Pix11reports Trayon Christian was awarded $45,000 from the company this week. The incident happened in April 2013, when the then 19-year-old went to the Manhattan location to purchase a $348 Ferragamo belt. Barneys employees allegedly believed he bought the belt with a fraudulent credit card.
Christian was approached by NYPD officers and subjected to a reported “stop-and-frisk” procedure before he was arrested. His attorney, Michael Palillo, claims the NYPD was called by personnel, however police say there were officers already present in the store.
Following Christian’s encounter, Barneys faced intense scrutiny and was fined $525 million for racially profiling Black and Latino shoppers. In Aug. 2014, Christian shared his thoughts on the matter with Pix11: “The settlement was in the best interest of the city,” a spokesperson for the city law department told PIX11 News. “It made me feel much better, like [they’re] actually on top of them about something.” That was Trayon Christian’s reaction to New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s announcement Monday morning that the state had fined Barneys $525 million after investigators found that the store had indeed profiled black and Latino shoppers. When asked if today’s ruling makes it a little bit easier? Christian said, “Yeah, it does, just a little bit.”
Details regarding Christian’s own lawsuit remain private. article by Desire Thompson via newsone.com
Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs (photo via hellobeautiful.com)
In a unanimous vote Thursday night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ 51-member board of governors approved a sweeping series of changes designed to diversify its membership, the academy said in a statement Friday.
The board committed to doubling the number of women and minority members in the academy by 2020.
AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the plan Friday after many of Hollywood’s A-listers slammed the organization for their all-white award nominees. “The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” she said in a statement.
The board approved reforms late Thursday to “begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition,” Isaacs explained.
It also approved a series of changes limiting members’ lifetime voting rights. “Beginning later this year, each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures during that decade,” the academy statement said. “In addition, members will receive lifetime voting rights after three 10-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award. We will apply these same standards retroactively to current members. In other words, if a current member has not been active in the last 10 years they can still qualify by meeting the other criteria. Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status. Emeritus members do not pay dues but enjoy all the privileges of membership, except voting. This will not affect voting for this year’s Oscars. ”
The swift and drastic change comes in response to a protest over an all-white slate of acting nominees for the second year in a row.
The move follows pledges by director Spike Lee and actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to stay home from the Oscar telecast on Feb. 28, and calls for a boycott of the show online.
For the last three years, the awards body has been in the midst of a push for more diversity, inviting larger and demographically broader groups to join its 6,261 voting members. But given the size of the academy, and the fact that members belong for life, any change to the organization’s overall demographics had been incremental.
The academy will also launch a campaign to identify and recruit new members who represent greater diversity, the statement said, and will add new members who are not governors to its executive and board committees to influence key decisions about membership. article by Rebecca Keegan via latimes.com; additions from Keyaira Kelly via hellobeautiful.com
(AllHipHop News) Michigan native Big Sean recently donated $10,000 to aid those suffering through the Flint Water Crisis. The “Blessings” MC recently joined forces with CrowdRise to create the #HealFlintKids Fundraiser. Sean’s altruistic action kicked off the grass-roots campaign.
In its premier press release Big Sean expressed his angst, “I am devastated by the water crisis that has put the entire city of Flint in a state of emergency. In recognizing the great work that the Community Foundation of Greater Flint Michigan has been doing, it is my hope we can help by raising the money needed to ensure that the children who have been hit the hardest receive the care that they need today and well into the future.”
Today (Jan. 21), the #HealFlintKids’ campaign started at noon. A variety of techniques are being used to persuade the public to donate. A $10 tax deductible pledge will earn someone the opportunity to win a pair of VIP tickets to an upcoming stateside show. For all the official details head over to CrowdRise.
In addition to linking up with CrowdRise, continues to use social media as a way to employ his voice. Located only an hour away from his hometown of Detroit, the Flint Water Crisis seems to truly be resounding with the Grammy-nominated lyricist. He has shared his compassion and lifted his concern. In a recent tweet concerning Rick Snyder, governor of Michigan, attempt to shirk his responsibility, Big Sean snapped.
Below check out the tweets.
This is not a natural disaster, this is not a mistake, this is clearly some real dirty work going on! unacceptable! Explain Governor? #Flint
Jesse Owens Collection by Adidas
Inspired by the triumph of an American sports and cultural hero, adidas celebrates Jesse Owens with its Black History Month footwear collection.
The facts are simple, Jesse Owens was the most famous track and field athlete of all time, and in 1950 when the Associated Press conducted a poll to determine the greatest track and field athlete of the first half of the twentieth century, the results didn’t even come close – Owens by a landslide. Olympic Gold Medalist Jesse Owens
Raised in Ohio with Alabama roots, it was in the span of 45 minutes on one single afternoon on May 25, 1935, at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan that Owens electrified the sports world with the greatest one-man, one-day performance the sport had ever known – breaking three world records and tying a fourth.
One year later, at the 1936 Berlin summer games, Owens became a groundbreaking athlete and symbol for social justice and equality after a historic performance where he became the first American track & field athlete to win four gold medals in a single games, all while under tremendous global tension.
Owens accomplished the feat in track spikes hand-crafted by adidas founder Adi Dassler, who carried the glove leather spikes from his workshop in Herzogenaurach, a Bavarian village just 300 miles to the South. Owens’ athletic performance, wearing the spikes of adidas, marked one of the most significant sports and cultural moments of the 20th century.
“The Owens family is pleased to partner with adidas for Black History Month with a commemorative basketball shoe. On the feet of athletes who compete in the spirit of Jesse’s historic accomplishments, these shoes encompass the significance of one of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen.”
Concurrently, the Focus Features Jesse Owens biopic “Race” will hit theaters on February 19.
The Los Angeles City Council agreed Tuesday to pay more than $24 million to settle lawsuits from two men who alleged that investigations by dishonest Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives led to their wrongful murder convictions and caused them to spend decades behind bars. Kash Delano Register, who won his freedom in 2013 after lawyers and students from Loyola Law School cast doubt on the testimony of a key prosecution witness, will receive $16.7 million — the largest settlement in an individual civil rights case in the city’s history, his attorneys said. Bruce Lisker, who was released from prison in 2009 after a Times investigation into his conviction, will get $7.6 million.
Though the cases were unrelated, both men contended that detectives ignored evidence of their innocence and fabricated evidence of their guilt.
City lawyers concerned about the police misconduct allegations recommended the settlements, saying in confidential memos to the City Council obtained by The Times that taking the cases to trial could be even more financially devastating.
“This is an extremely dangerous case,” city attorneys wrote of the Lisker case. And Register’s case was even “more problematic,” they said.
“Today’s action helps make amends for the many years these men will never get back, and for lives that will never be the same,” said Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Atty. Mike Feuer.
City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who heads the budget committee that weighs settlement payments, said the two cases were the “very unfortunate” result of police misconduct in the past, but did not reflect how the department operates today. “It’s just regrettable that these two individuals spent the better part of their lives in prison as a result of the inadequacy of the investigations that happened back then,” Krekorian said.
Register, who has always maintained his innocence, spent 34 years in custody after being convicted of the 1979 armed robbery and murder of Jack Sasson, 78. The case against Register was based on eyewitness testimony. No murder weapon was recovered and none of the fingerprints lifted at the West Los Angeles crime scene matched Register’s. Police seized a pair of his pants that had a speck of blood on them, but the blood type matched both Sasson’s and Register’s. Register’s girlfriend testified that he was with her at the time of the shooting.
A key prosecution witness in the case was Brenda Anderson, who told police she heard gunshots and saw Register sprinting away from the scene. She picked him out of a photo lineup, police said. But Anderson’s sisters said they told police that her account wasn’t true.
Dr. Jalaal Hayes (center) made DSU history by becoming the youngest-ever doctoral graduate at age 22. Dr. Hayes of Philadelphia was conferred a Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry during the Dec. 20 Commencement. Standing with Dr. Hayes are his advisor Dr. Andrew Goudy, professor of chemistry, and Dr. Cherese Winstead, chair of the DSU Department of Chemistry. (photo via desu.edu)
Delaware State University made history during its Dec. 20 Commencement Ceremony when it conferred a Ph.D. degree to its youngest-ever doctoral candidate. Dr. Jalaal A. Hayes, a 22-year-old resident of Philadelphia, Pa., proudly received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Applied Chemistry. In June 2015 he successfully defended his dissertation, entitled “Thermodynami and Kinetic Studies of Alkali Metal Doped-Lithium Amide-Magnesium Hydride Hydrogen Storage System.”
Dr. Hayes graduated from high school seven years ago in 2008 at the age of 15. He then earned bachelor’s degrees in History and General Science, graduating cum laude at age 18 in 2011 (within three years) at his parents’ undergraduate alma mater, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
While completing his doctorate at DSU, he lectured in Tuscany, Italy and Easton, Massachusetts as a Carl Storm Fellow while authoring several peer-reviewed journal articles and served on a team that obtained a United States patent for hydrogen research.
He completed a 2008 summer research internship at Howard University/NASA undergraduate Research Center before being enrolled in DSU’s graduate program in Applied Chemistry, where he worked with his advisor Dr. Andrew Goudy, professor of chemistry, in the Center for Hydrogen Storage Research.
While at DSU, he tutored students and was a member of the National Chemistry Honor Society, Gamma Sigma Epsilon, and served as the chapters’ parliamentarian.
His parents are librarians who model academic achievement; his mother is the recent School Librarian of the Year in Philadelphia and serves as a high school librarian, and his father serves as the Interim Dean of Library Services at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Maryland.
Dr. Hayes recently reflected on his unique educational accomplishments when he met the Rev. Bernice King (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King’s youngest daughter) at Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia. She asked him about his achievement and opportunities to which he shared with her, “my family and community set high expectations for me and I simply strived to meet those expectations; for I strive to model “to whom much is given, much is expected.” article via desu.edu
Hulu has picked up a comedy pilot from “Peebles” director Tina Gordon Chism, titled “Crushed,” with Regina Hall attached to star.
Tina Gordon Chism (photo via blogs.indiewire.com)
Produced by Chris Selak, “Crushed” is about an African American family who stumbles into a successful wine business in Napa. Described as a “fish-out-of-water story,” the series will follow the family’s unorthodox approach to wine making and their unique life style.
The project was initially set up at HBO in 2013 but the network didn’t pick it up. Lionsgate Television, who are producing, then shopped it elsewhere, with Hulu eventually snapping it up, ordering a pilot.
“Crushed” joins other new original projects in development for Hulu – the Netflix and Amazon Prime competitor co-owned by Disney, Fox, and NBCUniversal. article by Tambay A. Obenson via blogs.indiewire.com
