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NFL Quarterback Cam Newton Spends Off-Season at College to Earn His Degree

By goodblacknews on February 11, 2015

Cam Newton (Image: Twitter)

With it now being NFL offseason, Carolina Panthers star quarterback Cameron Newton is returning to his old stomping grounds, Auburn University, to complete his degree.
After winning the BCS National Championship, Newton decided to forgo his senior year of college to start his career as a professional athlete. He was drafted first round in the 2011 NFL draft by the Carolina Panthers, which is the same year he was selected as the winner of the Heisman Trophy.
Now, returning to the university for the third straight spring semester, Newton is making strides to complete his sociology degree and is reportedly on track to graduate this coming May.
article by Courtney Connley via blackenterprise.com

SiriusXM Launches ‘African Ancestry Radio’ with Actor Louis Gossett Jr. As Guest

By goodblacknews on February 10, 2015

louis gossett jr.
NEW YORK –– SiriusXM announced the launch of “African Ancestry Radio,” a three-week series of live, call-in shows during which the hosts help listeners and celebrities of African descent in their quest to reconnect with their heritage.
Hosted by Gina Paige, co-founder of African Ancestry, and award-winning producer Shirley Neal, “African Ancestry Radio” launched live on Sunday, February 8 at 12:00 pm ET on SiriusXM Urban View channel 126 with Louis Gossett Jr. and Aunjanue Ellis as their first celebrity guests.  EURweb.com’s founder Lee Bailey also joins in each week as special entertainment correspondent.
Scheduled in celebration of Black History Month, the hosts lead conversations on ancestry and heritage and guide SiriusXM listeners who are looking to more accurately and reliably trace their African roots. Themed around music, the February 15 show will feature Grammy award-winners and alternative hip hop group Arrested Development.
In addition, “African Ancestry Radio” will feature discussions on how a person’s roots influence personality, who they are and how they act.  Each show will include at least one celebrity guest who has previously taken the tests and whose African ancestry will be revealed during the broadcast.
“‘African Ancestry Radio’ promises to be enlightening, empowering, and inspirational for SiriusXM listeners across the country,” said Dave Gorab, Vice President and General Manager, Talk Programming, SiriusXM. “We are pleased to present this exclusive series as part of our special programming commemorating Black History Month.”
After the broadcast, “African Ancestry Radio” will be available on SiriusXM On Demand for subscribers listening via the SiriusXM Internet Radio App for smartphones and other mobile devices or online at siriusxm.com.  Visit www.siriusxm.com/ondemand for more information.
Gina Paige is co-founder of African Ancestry, Inc., pioneering a new way of tracing African lineage using genetics.  Paige resides in Washington, D.C. and holds a degree in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Snoop Dogg's Youth Football League Produces 20 More Division-I Players

By goodblacknews on February 10, 2015

Don’t even attempt to front on Snoop Dogg’s Youth Football League.

After last week’s National Signing Day, Snoop’s gridiron program has churned out 20 more Division-I college football players, TMZ Sports is reporting. The group is led by nationally-recruited players such as defensive back Iman Marshall(USC) and Snoop’s own son, Cordell Broadus, a UCLA-bound wide receiver.
“I’m extremely proud to have coached and mentored these young men,” Snoop Youth Football League commissioner Haamid Wadood told TMZ Sports. “I speak on behalf of Snoop and my entire SYFL staff and all the coaches and volunteers. We just want to thank the parents for trusting in us and believing in us in building a foundation for these kids in giving them the opportunity for helping them achieve their goals on becoming a great player and teammates.”
Of course, these committed players will all be trying to work towards an NFL contract, the way that Snoop Youth Football League alum such as running backs Ronnie Hillman and De’Anthony Thomas along with cornerbacks Kam Jackson and Greg Ducre were able to accomplish.
With increasing success, nearly 1,700 players signed up to participate in the rapper’s football program last season alone. A complete list of the 20 Division-I players to come out of Snoop’s league this season could be found below.

  • Cordell Broadus—UCLA
  • Iman Marshall—USC
  • Donzell Roddie—Boise State
  • Kyahva Tezino—San Diego State
  • Jeremy Kelly—San Jose State
  • Damon Wright—Boise State
  • Kameron Powell—Washington State
  • Shawn Wilson—Oregon State
  • Malik Psalms—Cal Berkeley
  • Stanley Norman—Arizona State 
  • Cameron Hayes—Hawaii
  • Kenya Bell—San Jose State
  • Justin Calhoun—Montana State
  • Jeremy Calhoun—Montana State
  • Taj Jones—Idaho State
  • Mike Bell—Fresno State
  • Jericho Flowers—UNLV
  • Kevin Scott—USC
  • Dominique Davis—USC
  • Jaelon Barnwell—Alabama State University

article via bet.com

‘Selma’ Director Ava DuVernay To Direct CBS Pilot ‘For Justice’

By goodblacknews on February 10, 2015
Ava DuVernay
Director Ava DuVernay (JASON LAVERIS/FILMMAGIC)

Ava DuVernay has signed on to direct CBS’s “For Justice” drama pilot, Variety has learned.
From “Law & Order” veteran Rene Balcer, who’s serving as writer and executive producer, the pilot follows a female FBI agent working in the Criminal Section of the Department of Civil Rights Division who finds herself caught between her radical real family and her professional family.
The project, based on James Patterson’s novel “The Thomas Berryman Number,” also has Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, James Patterson, Bill Robinson and Leopoldo Gout attached to exec produce with Balcer. Berry Welsh will co-exec produce. CBS TV is the studio.
DuVernay is also creating an original television series for OWN with Oprah Winfrey, based on the novel “Queen Sugar.”
article by Elizabeth Wagmeister via variety.com

New Book "Envisioning Freedom" Shows African Americans Helped Invent the Movies

By goodblacknews on February 9, 2015
Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life

As centennial commemorations of DW Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” gear up, a new book by historian Cara Caddoo proves African Americans helped invent the movies a decade before the first Hollywood film. Published by Harvard University Press, “Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life” uncovers the forgotten history of black inventors, filmmakers, and exhibitors.

“A lot of people assume that African Americans just followed in the footsteps of white filmmakers,” says Caddoo, an Assistant Professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, “That’s really a whitewashing of American film history.”
Years before the 1915 debut of Griffith’s pro-KKK film, which is widely credited for inaugurating “modern American cinema,” African Americans produced their own films and built their own theaters. Caddoo explains that this began in the 1890s–more than a decade before Hollywood, and long before the rise of better-known black filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux.
The first African American films featured themes like the “American Negro and the Negro abroad.” In “The Devil’s Cook Kitchen,” a minister named H. Charles Pope used movies to highlight black contributions to American history, and to explain the “26 sins” involved in dancing.
Some black filmmakers were former slaves, others just a generation removed. Faced with racial discrimination and shoestring budgets, these black film pioneers relied on their wit. Segregation limited African Americans’ access to public space so they turned black churches, lodges, and schools into motion picture theaters during off hours.
“Envisioning Freedom” is packed with colorful characters such as Fleetwood Walker, the first–and last–major league baseball player before Jackie Robinson. Caddoo writes that Walker became an inventor and traveling motion picture exhibitor after his baseball career. One of his most important inventions was an alarm system that enabled film projectionists to switch seamlessly between reels of film.
When “Birth of a Nation” debuted, African Americans launched the first mass black protest movement of the twentieth century. By that time, motion pictures were deeply integrated into black life. African Americans had produced films and used them to fundraise, build businesses, construct theaters, and socialize in an era of racial segregation. Caddoo explains, “They were fighting to reclaim a form of popular culture that they had helped create. Tens of thousands of African Americans participated–housewives, gangsters, ministers, and schoolchildren, from Hawaii to Massachusetts, and from the Panama Canal to Canada.”
Pick up a copy of the book via Amazon here.
article by Tambay A. Obenson via blogs.indiewire.com

20 Years Ago Today: Bernard Harris Jr. Becomes 1st African American to Walk in Space

By goodblacknews on February 9, 2015

Bernard_Anthony_Harris_JrOn this day in 1995, Bernard Harris Jr. became the first African American to walk in space. After logging 198 hours and 29 minutes in space and completing 129 orbits, he traveled more than 4 million miles total throughout his career as an astronaut.
Harris was born in Temple, Texas, on June 26, 1956. He graduated from high school in San Antonio, and later went on to receive a Bachelor of Science from the University of Houston. He earned a doctorate in medicine at Texas Tech University in 1982. He also earned a master’s in biomedical science from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1996. Harris has won numerous awards and honors including the 1996 Honorary Doctorate of Science, Outstanding Young Men of America in 1984, the University of Houston Achievement Award in 1978, the National Research Council Fellowship in 1986 and 1987, and many, many more.
Harris joined the NASA Johnson Space Center as a scientist and flight surgeon after completing his fellowship in 1987; he held the title of project manager. He was selected by NASA in January 1990 to become an astronaut, and he qualified for a space mission. During his time on flight STS-63 that departed Feb. 2, 1995, and returned Feb. 11, he made by becoming the first African American to touch down and walk in space. He left NASA the following April; he is currently chief scientist and vice president of Science and Health Services.
article by Cristie Leondis via blackenterprise.com

"Staying Power": Photographs of Black British Experience on Exhibit in England Through May

By goodblacknews on February 9, 2015

Untitled, circa 1960s, from the portfolio Black Beauty Pageants
Untitled, circa 1960s, from the portfolio Black Beauty Pageants (Photograph: Raphael Albert/Victoria and Albert Museum)

“Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s” is the culmination of a seven-year collaboration between the Victoria & Albert Museum and Brixton’s Black Cultural Archive to increase the number of black British photographers and images of black Britain in the V&A collection. It aims to raise awareness of the contribution of black Britons to British culture and society, as well as to the art of photography.
Over the last seven years the V&A has been working with Black Cultural Archives to acquire photographs either by black photographers or which document the lives of black people in Britain. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the Museum has been able to collect 118 works by 17 artists. To complement the photographs, Black Cultural Archives have collected oral histories from a range of subjects including the photographers themselves, their relatives, and the people depicted in the images.
Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s is at the Black Cultural Archive (bcaheritage.org.uk) until June 30th and at the Victoria & Albert Museum from February 16th to May 24th (vam.ac.uk).  Some of the images on display follow below:
HD-1469 (Pineapple), 1969
HD-1469 (Pineapple), 1969 (Photograph: The Estate of J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere/Victoria and Albert Museum)

Miss Black & Beautiful, circa 1970s
Miss Black & Beautiful, circa 1970s (Photograph: Raphael Albert/Victoria and Albert Museum)

She Rockers (London Rap/Dance Crew), Shepherd’s Bush Green, London, 1988
She Rockers (London Rap/Dance Crew), Shepherd’s Bush Green, London, 1988 (Photograph: Normski/Victoria and Albert Museum)

4 Aces Club, Count Shelley Sound System, Hackney, London, 1974
4 Aces Club, Count Shelley Sound System, Hackney, London, 1974 (Photograph: Dennis Morris/Victoria and Albert Museum)

article via guardian.com; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow@lakinhutcherson)
 

In 5th Week of Airing, Fox’s "Empire" Breaks 23-Year Ratings Record

By goodblacknews on February 8, 2015

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Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard and creator/writer/executive producer Lee Daniels speak onstage during the ‘Empire’ panel discussion at the FOX portion of the 2015 Winter TCA Tour at the Langham Hotel on January 17, 2015 in Pasadena, Calif.

Empire, the hip-hop drama that stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, has broken a ratings record that stood for more than 23 years, according to Entertainment Weekly.

The show is averaging 14 million viewers and a strong 5.6 rating among adults 18-19, so far for the first two weeks of the season with total DVR data available, the report notes. Fox says the show is the only primetime scripted series to grow in total viewers over each of its first five telecasts since at least 1991 and is the strongest hour-long show this season, the news outlet reports.
While the record may have stood for longer than that, the report notes, Nielsen revised its measuring system 23 years ago “and so comparisons can only be properly calculated that far back.”
Further to its credit, Empire is technically the only series—not just scripted—to have earned such an accomplishment, the entertainment news site writes. ABC’s game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire grew through each of its first five telecasts in 1999, but they were technically considered “specials” when the show first started instead of regular episodes, according to the news outlet.
article by Lynette Holloway via theroot.com

Grammy Awards 2015 Winners List (So Far): Beyoncé and Pharrell Win Early!

By goodblacknews on February 8, 2015

Beyonce Pyramids 4-22
Before the show even started, a handful of winners have been announced for this year’s 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Beyonce, who has had a record-breaking 52 nominations, took home an early award in the Best Surround Sound Album category for her self-titled 2013 release. Beyonce has now won 18 Grammy’s but has yet to take home the Album of the Year title, an award she’s up for later tonight.
Meanwhile, Pharrell won another Grammy for himself in the form of Best Music Video with his wildly popular “Happy” visuals.
Ahead of the ceremony and performances, check out an early list of the winners and nominees below:
Album of the Year
Beck, Morning Phase
Beyonce, Beyonce
Ed Sheeran, x
Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour
Pharrell Williams, G I R L
Best New Artist
Bastille
Iggy Azalea
Brandy Clark
Haim
Sam Smith
Record of the Year
“Fancy,” Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX
“Chandelier,” Sia
“Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” Sam Smith
“Shake It Off,” Taylor Swift
“All About That Bass,” Meghan Trainor
Song of the Year
“Chandelier,” Sia
“All About That Bass,” Meghan Trainor
“Shake It Off,” Taylor Swift
“Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” Sam Smith
“Take Me to Church,” Hozier
Best Rap Album
The New Classic, Iggy Azalea
Because the Internet, Childish Gambino
Nobody’s Smiling, Common
The Marshall Mathers LP2, Eminem
Oxymoron, ScHoolboy Q
Blacc Hollywood, Wiz Khalifa
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
“Fancy,” Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX
“A Sky Full of Stars,” Coldplay
“Say Something,” A Great Big World ft. Christina Aguilera
“Bang Bang,” Ariana Grande, Jessie J & Nicki Minaj
“Dark Horse,” Katy Perry ft. Juicy J
Best Rap Performance
“3005,” Childish Gambino
“0 to 100/The Catch Up,” Drake
“Rap God,” Eminem
“i,” Kendrick Lamar
“All I Need Is You,” Lecrae
Best Alternative Music Album
This Is All Yours, alt-J
Reflektor, Arcade Fire
Melophobia, Cage the Elephant
St. Vincent, St. Vincent
Lazaretto, Jack White

Dartmouth College to Launch 10 Week #BlackLivesMatter Course

By goodblacknews on February 7, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-02-07 at 5.46.17 PM
#BlackLivesMatter grew from a hashtag to a movement and is now a college course at Dartmouth College.

This spring, the Ivy League college will offer a new class, “10 Weeks, 10 Professors: #BlackLivesMatter,” which will examine race, violence and inequality through current events and throughout history.

The 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York during confrontations with police sparked conversations on social media and protests around the world, including Dartmouth’s Hanover, New Hampshire, campus.

“Even though we might be sort of cloistered away in the ivory tower or something, we felt very much moved by, incited by, inspired by a lot of the activists’ work following the failure to indict Darren Wilson after the events in Ferguson,” said Aimee Bahng, an assistant professor of English at Dartmouth. “We wanted to not leave this behind after winter break.”

Then, around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Missouri Rev. Starsky Wilson, co-chairman of the Ferguson Commission, spoke with Dartmouth faculty about “teaching Ferguson.” By the end of Wilson’s two-hour workshop, faculty members were already brainstorming how to integrate the events and the response into coursework and campus life.

The result was a teaching collective that draws faculty from geography, history, English, math and other areas, and the idea for an interdisciplinary course crafted and taught by all of them. The course is also expected to draw outside speakers and to explore ways to engage the community beyond parading professors in front of lecture halls.

“There is a special energy around this,” said Abigail Neely, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth. “It’s designed to transgress the boundaries between disciplines in an effort to do some really deep, sustained critical thinking about some of the most important issues in the country and world at this moment.”

The course came together quickly with support from college leaders and Dartmouth’s African and African-American Studies Program, Neely and Bahng said. Enrollment opened on Friday, but faculty members are still finalizing the syllabus and deciding how many students will be admitted.

An early lesson is expected to focus on St. Louis and its racial history. Another will consider poetry, prose, music and religious sermons. Still others will look at how events in Ferguson were documented through different media and how black activism has evolved, “from hip-hop to hashtags.”

As word spread about the course, there’s been an outpouring of support on campus, Bahng and Neely said. Far more than 10 faculty have signed on — as of Wednesday, 21 are “thinking together, teaching together, working together” — and students have approached to ask whether they can sit in on the course, even if they aren’t enrolled.

In planning the course, “we’ve already begun the work as a teaching collective,” Neely said. “I’m so excited to see what happens when the students join.”

article by Jamie Gumbrecht via cnn.com