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Good Black News

Wal-Mart Donates $1.75 Million to Boost African-American Achievement

By goodblacknews on February 25, 2014
470738483-wal-mart-truck-sits-outside-of-a-wal-mart-store-on
A Wal-Mart truck sits outside a Wal-Mart store on Feb. 20, 2014, in San Lorenzo, Calif. (JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES)
According to a press release, a $500,000 grant from Wal-Mart will go to the United Negro College Fund to help sixteen HBCUs gain financial stability to ensure their continued mission of providing black students with higher education. Grants of $1 million and $250,000 to the National Urban League and the NAACP respectively will help individuals secure and build successful careers through training and placement assistance and help businesses create more job opportunities. Wal-Mart is providing $1.75 million in grants through its foundation to three of the nation’s biggest civil rights organizations: the NAACP, National Urban League and United Negro College Fund.
“With today’s economic climate there is a growing need to empower individuals in communities nationwide with access to opportunities that will help them live better. Part of this work will come from helping businesses understand and unlock the powerful results that a more diverse workforce has to offer,” said Wal-Mart Senior Director of Corporate Affairs Tony Waller in the release. “By helping one individual at a time build a successful career, we are growing a more competitive work environment. A competitive environment ignites innovation, which helps build stronger communities and, ultimately, a stronger America.”
“Since 2006 we have been able to increasingly grow our workforce training program through ongoing support from the Walmart Foundation and subsequently have exceeded expectations of the number of individuals we’ve been able to serve,” Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the NUL, said in the press release. “This new grant will help us further strengthen our workforce development programs and continue helping African Americans and other communities of color across the United States secure economic independence and empowerment.”
article by Breanna Edwards via theroot.com

 

Audra McDonald to Play Billie Holiday on Broadway

By goodblacknews on February 25, 2014

Audra McDonald will be spending a lot of time on Broadway over the next couple of years. Weeks after announcing she will star in a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Night, Mother opposite Oprah Winfrey, McDonald is set to play Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.  The four-time Tony Award-winning actress will play the late jazz icon in the show, which is set in 1959 in a seedy Philadelphia bar, and relives Billie Holiday’s last performance, taking place only four months before her death at age 44.
Lady Day is set to go in front of audiences later this year, making it McDonald’s next turn on the stage. Night, Mother will debut in the 2015-2016 season.

article by Evelyn Diaz via bet.com

Artist Mickalene Thomas Debuts Her First Film on HBO

By goodblacknews on February 24, 2014
Artist Mickalene Thomas
Artist and Director Mickalene Thomas (Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO)

When Mickalene Thomas, 42, describes her short film, Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Girl, as a “moving portrait of my mother,” it’s meant both literally and figuratively. The 30-minute feature on Thomas’s mother, Sandra Bush, a beautiful statuesque preacher’s daughter from Camden, New Jersey, who has appeared in many of Thomas’s paintings, is rich in detail, provocative and endearing. It chronicles Bush’s life in her own words as she becomes a young mother and wife, a survivor of abuse and addiction, the reigning “mother of the art-world” and ultimately a warrior for her waning health.

“What I love about my mother is that she had a never give up spirit. Even when she was really sick and dying, you can see in the film that she didn’t want to die. She had hope and faith that she was going to survive,” says Thomas. Sandra Bush passed on November 7, 2012, shortly after Thomas’ first solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, where the Happy Birthday film debuted.
“The reason why I say this is a portrait of my mother is because for me it’s like looking at a painting—you don’t always have all of the answers, instead there’s lots of questions. It’s very open ended and that’s what makes life beautiful and mysterious and exhilirating and exciting and adventurous because it’s so tangible and intangible at the same time.”
Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Girl airs starting today on HBO.
article by Norell Giancana via bet.com
 

Michelle Obama’s "Let’s Move" Initiative Turns 4 Years Old

By goodblacknews on February 24, 2014

First lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative turns four years old this month, and by any measure it’s been a resounding success.  While critics cried “nanny state” when Mrs. Obama first proposed her campaign to focus on youth obesity, the program has undoubtedly raised awareness about a critical problem and affected our nation’s nutritional standards.  Thanks to the first lady’s efforts, our country’s school lunch program has been reformed and several major corporations have pledged to put more of an emphasis on fruits and veggies in their store chains.  Mrs. Obama has also practiced what she preaches, remaining physically fit and active at the age of 50.
article via thegrio.com

Tamron Hall Officially Joins NBC's "Today" show as Co-Host

By goodblacknews on February 24, 2014

TODAY -- Pictured: (l-r) Tamron Hall, Willie Geist, Natalie Morales, Al Roker -- (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)
Tamron Hall appears Monday morning on ‘The Today Show’ with Willie Geist, Natalie Morales and Al Roker (NBC)

NBC News’ Tamron Hall has joined Today as an official co-host for the morning show.  Hall’s new gig was announced on the telecast Monday morning. She will join Al Roker, Natalie Morales and Willie Geist for morning show’s 9 a.m. hour.  Hall, a longtime MSNBC anchor and regular fill-in on the show, recently interviewed Hugh Jackman and Mariah Carey and has spent time in the Today social network-themed Orange Room.

“We’re really excited to officially welcome Tamron into the Today family,” said Don Nash, Executive Producer in a statement.  “She brings wit, enthusiasm and a keen sensibility to an all-around fantastic team, and I think Tamron, Al, Natalie and Willie will have a lot of fun together hosting the third hour.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/tameron-hall-joins-nbc-news-today-show-co-host-article-1.1699800#ixzz2uHMrLxJ2

Jason Collins, 1st Openly Gay NBA Player, Signs With Nets and Appears in Game

By goodblacknews on February 23, 2014
Jason Collins defending Lakers guard MarShon Brooks. Until Sunday night, no NBA game had taken place with an openly gay player on the floor. (Gary A. Vasquez/USA Today Sports, via Reuters)

LOS ANGELES — Jason Collins, a 35-year-old center, signed a 10-day contract with the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday afternoon and played against the Lakers hours later, appearing in an NBA uniform for the first time since last spring, when he announced that he was gay.  The signing represents a significant step toward transforming North American professional sports into a more welcoming environment for gay athletes. Until Sunday night, no NBA game had taken place with an openly gay player on the floor. The NFL, Major League Baseball and the NHL — the continent’s other three traditional major sports leagues — have never had a publicly gay participant.

The very act of Collins’s suiting up and stepping onto the court — he entered the game to warm applause in the second quarter — represented a milestone in the effort to change a sports culture that some feel has lagged far behind society at large in acceptance of gay people. Collins played 11 minutes in the Nets’ 108-102 victory, finishing with no points, two rebounds, a steal and five fouls.

Collins said he had little time to process it all. He awoke Sunday morning to text messages from his agent and Nets Coach Jason Kidd alerting him to the move, and hours later he was signing his contract. A few hours after that, he was taking his physical and preparing to play his first game since April 17.  “Right now, I’m focused on trying to learn the plays, the game plan assignment,” Collins, sitting at a lectern, said less than an hour before the game Sunday night. “I don’t have time to really think about history right now.”

Track Stars Lauryn Willams and Aja Evans Make History At Winter Olympics Winning Silver And Bronze Medals

By goodblacknews on February 23, 2014

Track star Lauryn Williams is the first American woman and the fifth athlete to medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics after winning a silver medal in the women’s two-person bobsled at the Sochi Games on Wednesday.
Williams joined the sport only seven months ago. The 30-year-old track and field sprinter of Trinidadian decent competes internationally for the United States.  She previously won gold as part of the women’s 4×100 relay in the 2012 London Games as well as a silver medal in the 100 meters at the 2004 Games in Athens.
Olympic Bobsled Team
“I didn’t come here to make history,” Williams said, as reported at TeamUSA.org. “I came here to help Team USA, and I feel like I did the best I could. I’m just happy to be here, and it wasn’t about history for me.”
Had Williams won gold, she would have become the first woman and only the second athlete ever to win a gold medal in the Olympic Winter and Summer Games. Eddie Eagan is the only other American to medal in both Olympics, winning gold in boxing in 1920 and in the four-man bobsled in 1932.
Chicago native and former Illinois track star Aja Evans took bronze in the women’s two-person bobsled, giving the US two medals in a bobsled event for the first time in history. A former Big Ten shot put champion, Evans also was a sprinter.  “You go into the competition setting goals for yourself, and the ultimate goal is to win gold,” Evans said. “But you go in with nothing, so to come out with a bronze, you’ve reached a goal, you’ve achieved a lot. I’m just as excited as if I’ve won gold.”
Track star Lolo Jones finished in 11th place. Jones, a two-time Olympic hurdler, joined Williams as the ninth and 10th American athletes to compete in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.  The U.S. is the only nation to medal in every women’s bobsled Olympic event since the discipline made its debut at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers won the inaugural women’s bobsled race in 2002, with Flowers becoming the first African-American ever to win a gold medal at the Winter Games.
article by Carolyn M. Brown via blackenterprise.com

Tracee Ellis Ross Lands Lead Opposite Anthony Anderson in ABC Comedy Pilot

By goodblacknews on February 23, 2014

Via Vibe
(Photo via Vibe)

One of our favorite girlfriends, Tracee Ellis Ross, may be heading back to primetime TV.  According to Deadline, Ross landed a lead role in an untitled ABC comedy pilot, which was written by Kenya Barris (The Game) and previously called Black-ish.  The pilot also stars Anthony Anderson, and will mark Ross’ return to TV since BET shelved her family comedy Reed Between the Lines.
Here’s a synopsis of the show:

An upper-middle-class black man (Anderson) struggles to raise his children with some sense of cultural identity despite constant contradictions and obstacles coming from his liberal wife (Ross), old-school father (reportedly Laurence Fishburne), and his own assimilated, color-blind kids.

The pilot is being produced by ABC studios, Fishburne’s Cinema Gypsy and Principato Young, and recently Larry Wilmore (The Bernie Mac Show) was brought on as executive producer/showrunner.
article by Britni Danielle via clutchmagonline.com

GBN FASHION FIND: Maggie London Scores with LBD

By goodblacknews on February 23, 2014

flat imageOn Trend and On Point

by Lesa Lakin
article by Lesa Lakin

Here at GBN we just can’t resist stylish function and practicality.  This Maggy London Illusion Dress does just that.   With a sheer neckline and slimming silhouette this take on the little black dress is a great addition to any wardrobe.  It’s reasonably priced ad we love that!  Check it out: www.maggylondon.com

Shaquille O'Neal Debuts Menswear Collection at Macy's

By goodblacknews on February 23, 2014

shaquille oneal for macysNEW YORK – Basketball and celebrity superstar Shaquille O’Neal and Peerless Clothing have partnered to create a new fashion menswear collection. O’Neal recently launched the line exclusively at Macy’s, offering a line that ranges in sizes from regular to, fittingly, big and tall.
shaq1The Shaquille O’Neal Collection, available at 100 Macy’s stores nationwide and online at www.macys.com, will include suit separates and sport coats and patterns will include traditional solids, stripes, and plaids as well as more modern and unexpected sharkskin in shades of black, navy, tan and gray. Retailing from $150 for pants to $400 for a jacket, The Shaquille O’Neal Collection will allow the 60XL guy to shop in the same store as his size 40R friend.
“Shaq is one of the biggest stars in sports with a huge fan base and following. A favorite celebrity and personality that is larger than life. Fans everywhere love Shaq for his athletic accomplishments, and his successful foray into music, movies, television shows and business. They love his style, passion and charisma,” said Ronny Wurtzburger, president of Peerless Clothing. “When it comes to fashion, Shaq is a trendsetter not only for big and tall and regular size men, but he also has strong consumer appeal among African- and Hispanic-Americans, moms who relate to Shaq’s dedication to providing quality products at affordable prices, and kids who see him as their ultimate role model.”
“My interest in developing a menswear collection was based on my frustration with the lack of fashion for big and tall customers and the higher prices for larger size suits,” O’Neal said. “I was frustrated that I had to go to a big and tall store rather than shop with my friends at the local department or specialty store. I originally wanted to develop a more fashion-forward menswear collection at an affordable price. Once Peerless and I developed the collection, the reaction from Macy’s was so positive that we decided to make the collection in all sizes.”