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Floyd Mayweather Jr. to Earn Record-Breaking $41 Million For Next Boxing Match

By goodblacknews on September 5, 2013
Mayweather and Canelo face to face
Superstar boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is breaking the record for being the highest-paid boxer for one fight. He will reportedly net more than $41 million for facing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.  
Mayweather’s Money Team signed a very lucrative contract with Showtime Networks earlier this year. The network will broadcast six of his fights over 30 months and they are set to pay him a whopping $200 million. Mayweather’s fight against Alvarez is the second fight of the agreement. Mayweather’s $41 million payday breaks the record he set when he fought Miguel Cotto and Robert Guerrero in May of 2012 and May of this year respectively. Each of those fights added $32 million to Mayweather’s bank accounts.
While $41 million is a hefty sum of money, Floyd Mayweather could possibly earn more through pay-per-view. According to reports by ESPN.com, people do expect the Mayweather-Alvarez bout to match or surpass the record of 2.44 million purchases. 2.44 million people generated about $130 million for the 2007 match between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya. It’s very likely This fight will be more successful than the bout between De La Hoya and Mayweather because Golden Boy boxing promoter Richard Schaefer says the fight has already broken the all-time record for ticket sales for an MGM Grand boxing match.
The Mayweather-Alvarez fight will take place on September 14.
article by Johnathan Hailey via theurbandaily.com

Maya Angelou to Receive Honorary Book Award

By goodblacknews on September 5, 2013

Dr. Maya Angelou poses at the the Special Recognition Event for Dr. Maya Angelou � The Michael Jackson Tribute Portrait at Dr. Angelou's home June 21, 2010 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Ken Charnock/Getty Images)
Dr. Maya Angelou poses at the the Special Recognition Event for Dr. Maya Angelou The Michael Jackson Tribute Portrait at Dr. Angelou’s home June 21, 2010 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Ken Charnock/Getty Images)

The book world is finally honoring Maya Angelou.

The poet and author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will be this year’s recipient of the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community, the National Book Foundation announced today. It is the first major literary prize for the 85-year-old Angelou, who has been celebrated everywhere from the Grammy Awards to the White House. She has received three Grammys for best spoken word album, a National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

Speaking by telephone with The Associated Press, Angelou said she couldn’t wait to be in the same room as “some very big names in the literary world” and that the Literarian prize made her feel that she was “picking in high cotton.”

“Dr. Angelou’s body of work transcends the words on the page,” the book foundation’s executive director, Harold Augenbraum, said in a statement. “She has been on the front lines of history and the fight for social justice and decade after decade remains a symbol of the redemptive power of literature in the contemporary world.”

USC Offers Full-Ride Scholarships To Low-Income Students Who Commit to 7-year Program of Tutoring, Classes and Seminars

By goodblacknews on September 3, 2013
Tristan Baizar, Neighborhood Academic Initiative scholarship recipient, in his new dorm room, hugs his mother, Malva Yorke.

Flush with excitement, Tristan Baizar showed up on his USC move-in day even before the official 8 a.m. check-in time. His mom and girlfriend helped him unpack. It was a quick process — from past camps and programs, the 18-year-old South Los Angeles resident knew how to move into USC’s dorms. Except this was the real deal, the first step into his freshman year of college. Baizar met his new roommates, bought textbooks and soaked in the experience.

But later in the day, a few hours before his first dorm meeting, Baizar slipped away from campus. He drove across town to a small elementary school in Boyle Heights and an auditorium full of sixth-graders and their parents.  Baizar stood at the front of the room and flashed a smile. He hoped his presence would help pitch the program he credits for his new Trojan education.
More than two decades ago, USC designed a way to give low-income students in South Los Angeles a chance to attend the private university, free of charge, if they met several conditions.  Currently, students commit to a seven-year regimen of after-school tutoring and classes on Saturdays. Beginning in ninth grade, students also have to take weekday morning classes at USC. Parents must attend Saturday seminars.
Those who stay with the program from sixth grade through their senior year of high school and meet USC admission requirements receive a 4 1/2-year tuition scholarship to the university. The scholarship money applies only to USC, but officials say the program motivates students to attend four-year schools.  The first class of students graduated from the program in 1997. Of those original 43 graduates, 20 went to USC.
Today, the Neighborhood Academic Initiative boasts 745 graduates and a 99% graduation rate from the program, with 83% enrolling as freshmen at four-year colleges and universities and 35% as freshmen at USC.  About five years ago, officials began looking to move the program beyond South Los Angeles for the first time.
To the northeast sits USC’s 79-acre Health Sciences Campus. USC already had long-standing relationships with several neighborhood schools, said Kim Thomas-Barrios, executive director of USC Educational Partnerships.  “Logically, that was the best place for us to expand,” Thomas-Barrios said.  When USC officials approached the principals of Murchison and El Sereno elementary schools to determine interest in the program, they quickly agreed.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for our community,” said Margarita Gutierrez, the principal of Murchison.
Most families in the area live at or below the poverty line, and almost all of the students qualify for free- or reduced- priced lunch. Gutierrez said parent participation is low — so she was thrilled when two-thirds of sixth-grade parents showed up for an informational meeting last month.
Program manager Isabel Duenas, who took attendance at the meeting, entered the program as a sixth-grader at Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School in L.A.’s Mid-City neighborhood. When she was in high school, her family moved to Lynwood, and she commuted to classes at USC to keep her spot.
It paid off: She earned the scholarship to USC and graduated in 2010. She’s among the growing pool of graduates who return as teachers, mentors or coordinators.  Duenas will be busy the next few months. The East L.A. branch of the program is slated to launch Jan. 25, and before that, she’ll spend her time convincing students and parents to sign up, as she and eight other program graduates did at the meeting.
Baizar, the tallest, stood in the middle of the line of graduates. It seemed as if time had barely passed since he heard the same presentation as an overly talkative fifth-grader.  At the time, he had some taste of what to expect. His older sister also graduated from the program, falling short of the USC scholarship but doing well enough to attend Loyola Marymount. His mother, Malva Yorke, a single parent, had attended the years of Saturday seminars.
Baizar battled a lack of motivation at first. He got a few D’s and F’s midway through sixth grade and barely clung to his spot in the program. After that, he vowed he’d never get anything below a C.  When Baizar graduated from James A. Foshay Learning Center in South L.A. in the spring, he had a 3.7 GPA and a 1650 SAT score — good enough for admission to USC.  Baizar said the program gave him a shot at a campus that was probably otherwise out of reach.  “I feel like I would have been at a good university, like UC Irvine or Cal State Long Beach, but not as well-funded,” Baizar said. “I don’t believe USC would have been a possibility.”
His girlfriend, fellow program graduate Jessica Alcazar, wasn’t accepted to USC. But she described the process as a “win-win,” saying the classes and mentoring kept her grades high enough to earn admission to UC Irvine.  After the presentation at Murchison, excited chatter bounced around the auditorium as parents and students filled out applications. All 66 sixth-graders at Murchison will be able to participate, as well as 35 more from El Sereno Elementary. Officials said the program will eventually expand to about 600 students in East L.A.
Parent Morena Gonzales was all smiles. She said her oldest child finished only high school, and she didn’t pressure her to continue out of concern about costs.  “As a single parent, I wouldn’t even begin to figure out how to pay for my child’s education,” she said in Spanish. “My whole perspective has changed — I’m looking forward to learning more.”  After the meeting, her daughter Lilia, 11, said she wants to go to USC.
article by Devin Kelly via latimes.com

Idris Elba's Coat-Clad Superhero Series "Luther" Premieres 3rd Season Tonight

By goodblacknews on September 3, 2013

Idris Elba as "Luther"
Idris Elba as “Luther”

He wears a heavy tweed coat instead of a cape and a steely, brooding façade instead of a dark cowl, but for Luther star Idris Elba, his British copper might as well be London’s own Batman. “In concept, we straddle between detective and superhero. Although there aren’t any magic tricks or capes or anything like that, we put our central character through improbable — and probable — scenarios that ask the audience to suspend their belief,” says Elba, the British actor who returns as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther for a third installment of the series running Tuesday through Friday (10 ET/PT nightly, except at 9 ET/PT Wednesday) on BBC America.
Over the course of a trio of seasons since 2010, Luther has dealt with masked serial killers, pedophiles, twin killers, snipers and the psychopathically endearing murderer Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson), who’s gone from Luther’s arch-enemy to confidante.  That stuff is almost easiest for the grumpy lawman to deal with than other aspects of his life, like coming to grips with the death of his ex-wife and brandishing his own sense of justice that, while efficient, puts him at odds with most every other cop in town.
“He’s a spiritually wounded man, and one of the great malicious pleasures of writing for the character and this particular actor is what kind of hell can I put him through next?” says Luther creator and writer Neil Cross.

Redshirt-Turned-Starter Florida State QB Jameis Winston Near Perfect in 1st Half Against Pittsburgh

By goodblacknews on September 3, 2013
Florida State QB Jameis Winston totaled 4 touchdowns and just one incompletion first half of college football. (USATSI)
Jameis Winston totaled 4 touchdowns and just one incompletion in first half of college football. (USATSI)

Florida State’s quarterback competition lasted through spring practice and into fall camp, but all along there was a suspicion that redshirt freshman Jameis Winston would be the starter. In his college debut on Monday night against Pittsburgh, Winston didn’t just show why he was named starter — he showed why they call him “Famous Jameis.”  Winston completed 17 of 18 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns while adding a rushing touchdown to account for all scores in Florida State‘s 28-10 first half lead.
PIttsburgh actually struck first in the ACC opener. Former Rutgers quarterback Tom Savage led the Panthers down the field in nine plays for a touchdown on the game’s opening drive. Winston picked up a pair of first downs on the Seminoles first shot with the ball, but a quick shovel to Kelvin Benjamin on 3rd and 1 resulted in a loss and Florida State had to punt.
That would the last time Florida State punted in the half.  Winston was spectacular from that moment forward. Freshman defensive back Jalen Ramsey intercepted Savage and two plays later Winston threw a touchdown pass to tight end Nick O’Leary. The next time Florida State got the ball, Winston was perfect on an 81-yard touchdown drive.

15 Year-Old Jaylen Bledsoe Builds Multi-Million Dollar Tech Company in St. Louis

By goodblacknews on September 3, 2013

Jaylen Bledsoe in screengrab from According to msnnow.com, Jaylen Bledsoe is a 15-year-old sophomore at Hazelwood West High School in St. Louis who also happens to be the CEO and President of Bledsoe Technologies.  Bledsoe started his IT consultancy when he was 12 or 13, quickly growing it into the $3.5 million enterprise it is today.

He plans to attend Harvard after he graduates from high school and will be a presenter for a St. Louis youth entrepreneurship nonprofit Independent Youth at their annual TrepStart Day in September, as well as being a national speaker for the organization.  To see video of Bledsoe and his story, click here: [Source]
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson 

"Lee Daniels’ The Butler" Delivers Another #1 Showing at the Box Office

By goodblacknews on September 2, 2013

 oprah & forest (the butler)According to box office estimates, Lee Daniels’ The Butler the film beat out One Direction: This Is Us to win the Labor Day weekend box office race and become the first movie this year to finish No. 1 three consecutive weeks, according to TheWrap.

It appears the civil rights saga, starring Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker, will bring in a little more than $20 million over the four-day holiday weekend. After looking as if it was going to finish in the top spot, Sony’s boy band music documentary ended the Labor Day weekend with $18 million.
“We’re surprised,” The Weinstein Company’s distribution chief Erik Lomis told TheWrap, “and very proud. We weren’t expecting to come away with this one, especially after starting out $5 million behind ‘One Direction’ after Friday.”
Lomis said “The Butler,” which has now brought in nearly $80 million domestically, was continuing to broaden its demographic base by playing younger.
“With the kids getting back to school, we’re hoping the word of mouth gets even stronger,” said Lomis. There’s not much room to expand in terms of theaters; it’s on 3,330 screens and averaged just over $6,000.
Two other wide openers – the Selena Gomez-Ethan Hawke thriller “Getaway” and the Eric Bana spy tale “Closed Circuit” – were both non-starters. But “Instructions Not Included,” a family comedy starring Eugenio Derbez, recorded the biggest domestic opening ever for a Spanish-language movie – on just 347 screens – and finished fifth with $10 million for the four days.
Get the FULL story at TheWrap.

Remembering the Legacy of Union Leader A. Phillip Randolph on Labor Day

By goodblacknews on September 2, 2013

A. Phillip Randolph (AP Photo)
A. Phillip Randolph (AP Photo)

“We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom. This revolution reverberates throughout the land, touching every village where black men are segregated, oppressed and exploited,” the 74-year-old A. Philip Randolph told the estimated 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom fifty years ago on August 28, 1963.
Although today Dr. King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech often symbolizes the March for many, it was very much a stand for black workers with longtime labor leader Randolph at the forefront. He was so committed that neither advanced age nor the death of his wife shortly before the March could keep him home.
More than twenty years before, it was Randolph who had conceived the massive demonstration.  Scheduled to take place July 1, 1941, the original March was intended to protest discrimination against black employment in defense industries and federal bureaus and demand that President Franklin D. Roosevelt issue an Executive Order to end such practices.
So, on June 25, 1941, when Roosevelt, after exhausting all means, including personal appeals from his wife Eleanor to Randolph, to call off the march which anticipated 100,000 participants, issued Executive Order 8802 creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee and barring discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus, Randolph called off the March in victory.  Merging the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois by setting economic justice as the foundation of civil rights, Randolph would not stop or even begin here.
Born Asa Philip Randolph, the second of his parents’ two sons, on April 15, 1889 in Crescent, Fla, near Jacksonville where he later grew up, service was a consistent message in his childhood. His father, the Rev. James W. Randolph, in keeping with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) philosophy, ministered to his congregation’s social and spiritual needs. Rev. Randolph and his wife Elizabeth, who hailed from a once enslaved family who were also AME members, taught their sons racial pride and self-respect. Encouraging young Asa Randolph’s healthy thirst for knowledge, Rev. Randolph filled the family’s home.
Tall, handsome, popular and smart, Randolph sang in the choir, was a star baseball player and a great speaker. Despite graduating valedictorian from Cookman Institute (later incorporated into Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Fla.) in 1907, there was not suitable employment for him in Jacksonville. Not wishing to follow in his father’s footsteps as minister, Randolph hired himself out as a hand on a steamship and headed for New York City in 1911, shortly after he turned 22, with dreams of becoming an actor.
In New York, he worked several jobs, including elevator operator, porter and waiter, while also studying English Literature and Sociology at City College at night. Despite organizing the Shakespearean Society in Harlem and playing several roles, including Hamlet, Othello and Romeo, Randolph was clearly destined to make his mark on a different stage. With kindred spirit Chandler Owen, a Columbia University student, Randolph founded the employment agency, the Brotherhood of Labor, where the two tried to unionize black workers.

Hip-Hop Version of 'Othello' by Chicago Shakespeare Theater Resonates Behind Bars

By goodblacknews on September 2, 2013
Rapper Postell Pringle wears a wig as he performs a hip hop adaptation of William Shakespeare titled "Othello: The Remix" at the Cook County Jail in Chicago.
Rapper Postell Pringle wears a wig as he performs a hip hop adaptation of William Shakespeare titled “Othello: The Remix” at the Cook County Jail in Chicago. (M. SPENCER GREEN / AP)
CHICAGO — Act I, Scene 1: Four actors in well-worn coveralls and baseball caps take the stage at the county jail. They’re here to tell a tale of love, friendship, jealousy and betrayal. It’s the stuff of Shakespearean tragedy. The names and themes haven’t changed over the centuries, but the language has a modern beat:
“Othello never knew, He was getting schemed on by a member of his crew.”
This is “Othello-The Remix,” the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s hip-hop version of the tragedy about a valiant Moor deceived by the villainous Iago into mistakenly believing his wife has been unfaithful. After Othello smothers his beloved Desdemona, he discovers she has been true to him and he kills himself.
That’s how Shakespeare told the story 400 years ago. This modern version – performed this week for about 450 Cook County jail inmates – is a rhyming, rapping, poetic homage to the Bard. It has singing and dancing. Comic touches. Men playing women. Sexual talk. References to Eddie Murphy and James Brown. A throbbing beat, courtesy of an onstage DJ.
And a contemporary plot: MC Othello is a self-made rap star turned music mogul (think Jay-Z) who decides to promote Cassio, a middle-of-the-road rapper, by releasing his next album. That infuriates the edgy rapper, Iago, who vows revenge. “This is why I hate the Moor,” he fumes. “He never lets me get my foot in the door.” Desdemona is not seen, but heard, her ethereal golden pipes occasionally filling the air.
The Othello remix is the brainchild of two Chicago brothers and rappers – GQ and JQ, aka Gregory and Jeffrey Qaiyum. They wrote and directed the show, honing 40 or so drafts over eight months into a 75-minute rhyme-a-thon. It’s their third hip-hop translation of Shakespeare, following “The Bomb-itty of Errors” and “Funk It Up About Nothin.'”

Pharrell Williams Talks Music, Fiancée and Fatherhood on "Today" Show

By goodblacknews on September 2, 2013

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdv5FbuK4rY&w=420&h=315]
Even if Pharrell Williams isn’t a household name where you live, the music he’s had a hand in creating most likely is. He’s featured in this this year’s song of summer, “Blurred Lines,” Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” and he’s co-collaborated on songs such as Snoop Dogg’s “Drop it like it’s Hot” and Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.”
083013-music-pharrell-williams-today-showSixteen Grammy nominations (and three wins) later, the music producer-song writer-recording artist sat down with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie to talk about the path to getting to top of the Top 40. 
“I can write pretty much anywhere, but in the shower it’s, like, where it’s, like, really great,” Williams told Guthrie of where he’s come up with some of his best work, including “Hot in Herre” Nelly’s super-successful 1992 hit. 
But before he was sharing top billing with the likes of Nelly, Justin Timberlake and Ludacris, he was any other kid growing up in Virginia Beach, playing the drums and going to band camp. “Most of us were kinda nerdy,” Williams said. “Nobody sort of walked in, like, you know, Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl-cool.”  It was at that camp where Williams, then 12, met his producing partner Chad Hugo. By the time they were 19, the duo had helped write and produce the 1992 Wreckx-N-Effect hit song, “Rump Shaker.” 
Fast forward two decades and many successes, Williams says he can point to the singular best song he’s ever co-written. “My son,” he told Guthrie of Rocket, his little boy with new fiance Helen Lasichanh. “Every night’s like a sleepover,” he said of Lasichanh, who he calls his “bestie.”
So what else does the super-successful Williams hope to accomplish? “Honestly? It’s … more music,” he said.  That said, music isn’t the only thing on the artist’s plate: Beginning Nov. 5, Williams will appear as a mentor on Rihanna’s new fashion reality competition show “Styled to Rock” on the Style Network.
article by Courtney Hazlett via today.com