Tracy Morgan is in fair condition after the car accident that left him in critical, according to a statement from his representative Lewis Kay, issued late Monday.
“Happy to pass along that Tracy has been upgraded to fair condition, which is a great improvement,” the statement reads. “His personality is certainly starting to come back as well.”
According to the statement, Jeff Millea, Morgan’s 36-year-old assistant who was also in critical condition after crash, has been upgraded to fair condition as well. The last update on Morgan’s condition came last week, when it was reported that he was improving. His rep said that the medical team remained optimistic about his condition.
Early on June 7, a truck, driven by Kevin Roper, struck the limo carrying the “30 Rock” star, Millea and several others in New Jersey on the way back from one of Morgan’s standup comedy dates. Seven people were in the limo — Morgan, Millea and two others were injured, and comedian Jimmy McNair was killed.
Roper was dozing as he drove and failed to notice slow traffic ahead, according to reports. He struck the limo from behind, causing it to lose control and overturn.
article by Alex Stedman via Variety.com
Good Black News
He led a tough life. The odds were stacked against him and, at one time, it did seem that he wouldn’t be able to make it through high school. He, and almost everyone around him, just couldn’t imagine seeing him succeed.
But that is exactly what Festus Ohan, 22, did: he succeeded. Festus spent his teen years in foster care. He remembers the day his father left him.
“I went to bed in tears, crying, praying, [and] asking God ‘Why did this happen to me?’” Festus says. Over the years, he was passed on from one family to another, so many of them in fact, that even he isn’t sure about the exact number – seven or eight is his best estimate.
All he knows is that the time he spent in the foster care system “was the worst time” in his life. It didn’t help with his education either.
“Early on in high school, I got in trouble for fighting a lot,” Festus says, “and I was in a pre-expulsion contract.”
His ultimate dream was to become a doctor. But the life he was living almost made it impossible for him to keep that dream alive.
Those that were actually supposed to encourage him were the ones that were discouraging him. “Constantly hearing my foster parents throw statistics at me, about there’s only a 1 percent chance that a foster kid will even graduate college, let alone attend professional school, kind of impacted me in a way,” Festus says.
That’s all changed now. Festus is about to graduate from University of California, Riverside with a degree in neuroscience. He’s so good at his studies that, so far, he has been accepted to 7 medical schools all over the country: Northwestern University, Columbia University, Cornell University, University of California, San Francisco, University of Houston, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Southern California.
But Festus has made up his mind; he’s headed to UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine where he has been offered a fellowship that covers all expenses.
“I actually start Aug. 4, so I’ll have like a 6-week break,” Festus says, “but I’m excited for the next step in my journey.”
article by Liku Zelleke via themedicalblog.net
President Barack Obama plans to sign an order banning discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees by companies that do business with the federal government, a long-sought goal of gay rights organizations. After months of calling on Congress to pass a strong anti-discrimination law, Obama told his staff to come up with an executive order banning discrimination by federal contractors, a White House official said Monday.
The measure will prohibit those firms from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The move would implement on a limited scale what the White House would like to see Congress pass into law for everyone to follow. “This is consistent with the president’s views that all Americans, LGBT or not, should be treated with dignity and respect,” the official said.
Although several states have laws that ban discrimination against gays in the workplace, many do not. In those states, an employer can legally fire, demote or otherwise discriminate against a worker solely on grounds of sexual orientation.
Gay rights advocates say the executive order could provide employment protections for about 11 million workers who have none. The order comes after years in which the president has called on Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and thereby make it unlawful for any employer to fire or censure a worker based on sexual orientation.
Jimmy Scott, a jazz singer whose distinctively plaintive delivery and unusually high-pitched voice earned him a loyal following and, late in life, a taste of bona fide stardom, died on Thursday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 88.
The cause was cardiac arrest, his wife, Jeanie Scott, said.
Mr. Scott’s career finished on a high note, with steady work from the early 1990s on, as well as a Grammy nomination, glowing reviews and praise from well-known fellow performers like Madonna, who called him “the only singer who makes me cry.” But the first four decades of his career were checkered, with long periods of inactivity and more lows than highs.
After enjoying sporadic success in the 1950s, he had almost none in the 1960s. Albums he recorded for major labels in 1962 and 1969, which might have jump-started his career, were quickly withdrawn from the market when another company claimed to have him under contract. He virtually stopped performing in the 1970s and made no records between 1975 and 1990.
The fact that both men and women considered themselves Mr. Scott’s disciples is not surprising: because of a rare genetic condition called Kallmann syndrome, which caused his body to stop maturing before he reached puberty, Mr. Scott’s voice never changed, and he remained an eerie, androgynous alto his whole life.
Standing 4-foot-11, with a hairless face to match his boyish voice, he was originally billed as Little Jimmy Scott, and he was presented to audiences as a child until well into his 20s. In his mid-30s he unexpectedly grew eight inches taller and, although he otherwise remained physically unchanged, doctors told him an operation might stimulate his hormonal development. He decided against it.
“I was afraid of entering uncharted territory,” Mr. Scott told David Ritz, the author of “Faith in Time: The Life of Jimmy Scott” (2002). “Besides, fooling with my hormones might mean changing my voice. Whatever the problems that came with the deficiency, my voice was the one thing I could count on.”
Mr. Scott’s condition left him incapable of reproduction.
James Victor Scott was born on July 17, 1925, in Cleveland. The third of 10 children, he lived in orphanages and foster homes after his mother was killed in a car accident when he was 13. After singing in local nightclubs for a few years, he went on the road in 1945 with a vaudeville-style show headed by Estella Young, a dancer and contortionist. He moved to New York City in 1947 and joined Lionel Hampton’s band a year later.
His 1950 recording of “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” with Hampton set the pattern for his later work. A mournful ballad of love gone wrong, the song was delivered with feverish intensity and idiosyncratic, behind-the-beat phrasing. The record was a hit, but because it was credited on the label simply to “Lionel Hampton, vocal with orchestra,” few people knew that Mr. Scott was the singer.
Last year’s “Man Of Steel” kicked off Warner Bros. current iteration of the DC-verse, but it’s 2016’s “Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice” that will really kick off the studio’s answer to Marvel’s wildly successful pictures. The movie looks to be the first in a run of as many as three movies a year, and aside from Henry Cavill‘s Superman, will also introduce Ben Affleck‘s Batman, Gal Gadot‘s Wonder Woman, and Cyborg, played by Ray Fisher.
“Game Of Thrones” actor Jason Momoa is now expected to appear in the movie as DC hero Aquaman.
The character perhaps is most famous as having been played by Vincent Chase in a long-running plotline on HBO’s “Entourage,” in a movie directed by James Cameron. There’s no word as to what kind of backstory the character will have here, but reportedly director Zack Snyder has already finalized the design of the character so he can appear in a cameo in ‘Batman V. Superman.’ And given Momoa’s size, it seems clear they’re adopting the more modern version of Aquaman (see the photo), who’s a buff king from Atlantis skeptical of humans moreso than traditional orange-suit wearing super hero.
article by Oliver Lyttleton via blogs.indiewire.com
The Mixed Remixed Festival, a family festival, hosts the largest Loving Day celebration on the West Coast at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles (100 N. Central Ave.) tomorrow, Saturday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Loving Day is officially held every year on June 12, the anniversary of the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen states.
The festival celebrates stories of the mixed experience and multiracial Americans, the fastest-growing demographic in the U.S., bringing together film and book lovers, innovative and emerging artists, and multiracial and multicultural families and individuals for workshops, readings, performances, and film screenings.
A fiscally-sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization, the festival is produced by New York Times best-selling writer Heidi Durrow and a talented staff of volunteers.
The event is free and open to the public. The complete festival schedule can be found at www.mixedremixed.org. Highlights include:
• The largest West Coast Loving Day celebration at 6:30 p.m. with the annual Storyteller’s Prize presentation and live show. The prize will go to Comedy Central’s hit comedic duo Key & Peele, award-winning writer Susan Straight, and Cheerios’ marketing team as part of a dynamic live show featuring comedians, musicians and spoken-word poets. This program is currently reserved at capacity, but any open seats near showtime will be offered to individuals on the wait list. Call (213) 293-7077 or email heidi@mixedremixed.org.
• Families can enjoy interactive craft activities all day as part of the Target Free Family Day; storytelling time with Sebastian Jones, co-author with actress Garcelle Beauvais of the children’s book “I Am Mixed”; and a writing workshop for kids with Lora Nakamura, author of “Bonsai Babes.”
• KPCC, Southern California’s largest public radio station, will produce a special panel called “#Multicultivate,” moderated by KPCC’s Josie Huang.
• Two award-winning feature films: “Sleeping with the Fishes” (directed by Nicole Gomez Fisher), winner of the Best New Director Award at the Brooklyn Film Festival, and “Closure” (directed by Bryan Tucker), a feature documentary about a transracial adoptee’s search for her biological parents. The latter screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker and transracial adoptees and activists. The festival will also present a program of several ground-breaking short films.
• Readings by Krista Bremer, author of the hit memoir about her bicultural marriage, “My Accidental Jihad” (Algonquin Books); Crystal Chan, author of “Bird”; Chris Terry, author of “Zero Fade”; and many others. Skylight Books is the Festival’s official bookseller.
• Acting and writing workshops will be led by published authors and professional actors. Award-winning poet Aaron Samuels, author of the prize-winning “Yarmulkes & Fitted Caps,” will present a poetry-writing workshop; celebrated voice-over artist and acting professor Rayme Cornell will lead a voice-over class; and Khanisha Foster will offer a Performer’s Bootcamp. A complete list of workshops appears on the festival website.
• More than a dozen esteemed panelists will speak on diverse topics related to the mixed experience. Panelists include scholar Marcia Dawkins, activist/filmmaker Thomas Lopez, and YouTube’s Channing Sargent.
Festival sponsors include: Cheerios (Silver Sponsor), Japanese American National Museum (www.janm.org), Zerflin.com, Pitfire Artisan Pizza, Miss Jessie’s, and Poets & Writers through a grant from the James Irvine Foundation.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
According to MTV Act, Beyoncé is donating $125,000 to Embrace Innovations, an organization that gives out little “sleeping bags” to keep alive underweight infants whose parents can’t afford (or don’t have access to) an incubator.
They aren’t actually sleeping bags, but they look like them, and they are lifesaving and easy to use. Thanks to Beyoncé, there will be pilot testing with these inventions in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda, and Beyoncé could be saving at least two thousand infants via her contribution. The baby warmers have already been used in some areas of the world, but this will ensure more parents are able to get them.
Beyoncé announced her donation while at Gucci’s Chime for Change anniversary party. Since Chime for Change is dedicated to helping women, it was great timing. Jane Chen, the TED Fellow and TED speaker behind the baby warmers, was thrilled by the support.
“She [Beyoncé] told me how incredible she thought the innovation was,” Jane said. “I think what struck me was how sweet and genuine she was—and just so excited about our work. One of my most memorable moments was getting to dance with her after we spoke.” Beyoncé’s publicist, who had given birth to a premature baby, also fully understood the importance of this invention.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
Apparently 50 Cent’s new STARZ series, “Power,” was a major hit. After just one episode, the cable network has announced that the series will be renewed for a second season, Deadline reports.
The fast-moving drama debuted last weekend “with 462,000 Live+same day at 9 PM, 1.27 million for the three Saturday night airings and 2.022 million for the nine weekend runs on Saturday and Sunday.” In case you’ve been out of the loop for a bit, the 50 Cent-produced series is “set in two different worlds, the glamorous New York club scene and the brutal drug trade” and follows the story of Ghost St. Patrick, a drug dealer and businessman with dreams of going legit. Stars include “Being Mary Jane” actor Omari Hardwick, Naturi Naughton and Lela Loren.
“Tasha St. Patrick, she’s crazy,” Naturi recently described her character to Shadow and Act. “She really is Ghost’s sidekick, the other half of Bonnie and Clyde. She came up from the streets, grew up in Queens, and had a rough life. She had desires to be a singer but those desires got cut short because she was pregnant at 19 with Ghost’s child. He’s trying to choose between going legit and staying in the drug game, and she’s pretty much the woman who’s like look, we’ve built this empire together, I’ll ride with you to the end. She’ll throw the gun away, she’ll tell you how to dump the body. She’s an edgy character and not afraid to do whatever it takes to keep the family together.”
Production for season two begins in September.
See more at: http://madamenoire.com/438064/starz-renews-50-cents-power-season-2-just-1-episode/#sthash.bcWJ1fZa.dpuf
Ruby Dee, best known for her role in 1961’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and latterly for her Oscar-nominated turn as Denzel Washington’s mother in 2007’s “American Gangster,” died Wednesday in New York. She was 91.
Dee’s Oscar nomination in 2008 for her performance as the feisty mother of a Harlem druglord played by Washington in Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster” was particularly impressive because the actress made an impression on the Motion Picture Academy with only 10 minutes of screen time. She won a SAG Award for the same performance. Dee also won an Emmy in 1991 for her performance in the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” movie “Decoration Day.”
She and her husband, Ossie Davis, who often performed together, were among the first generation of African-American actors, led by Sidney Poitier, afforded the opportunity for significant, dignified dramatic roles in films, onstage and on television.