Good Black News
Nzinga Knight and Fior Mendez at New York Fashion Week. (Photos: Getty Images)
Black American Muslim designer Nzinga Knight uses her designs to deliver a statement in fashion that few make: that a woman can dress modestly and still give full glamour. “My aesthetic was something really missing in the market,” she told the AFP news service.
The native New Yorker of Trinidadian and Guyanese decent started her clothing line in 2008 to bend the boundaries of feminine clothing. Mixing high style with the doctrines of her Muslim faith, “The look of my work is sensual, mysterious, innovative,” she stressed — without being overly revealing.
“It’s very distinct and can give me an edge,” Knight said of her fashion proposition.
Using the strength of her platform, Knight made another compelling — if unwitting — move: Launching a Dominican orphan’s modeling career. By casting Fior Mendez, 22, to walk in her New York Fashion Week show last Friday at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Knight helped to make a big dream come true.
Frederick Douglass (file photo)
The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday night approved a resolution that will move the bust of Frederick Douglass to the Capitol, making him only the third African-American to be so honored. The other two: Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth. There are 180 busts on display at the Capitol.
Taylor Townsend of the United States returns a shot against Anett Kontaveit of Estonia during their junior girls’ singles quarterfinal match on Day Twelve of the 2012 U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 7, 2012 in the Flushing neighborhood, of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images for USTA)
NEW YORK (AP) — Serena Williams says she’s alarmed by the U.S. Tennis Association’s decision to hold a top junior player out of competition over concerns about her fitness. Sixteen-year-old Taylor Townsend is the world’s top-ranked girl. The Wall Street Journal first reported last week that the USTA withheld funding her tournament appearances while she focused on getting in better shape.
“She’s so sweet and she works so hard,” she added. “For a female, particularly, in the United States, in particular, and African-American, to have to deal with that is unnecessary. … Women athletes come in all different sizes and shapes and colors and everything. I think you can see that more than anywhere on the tennis tour.”
Townsend played at the Open, winning the junior doubles title and reaching the quarterfinals in singles. “She’s still No. 1,” Williams said. “That’s saying something.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Willow Smith, Jaden Smith, producer Sidra Smith, director Shola Lynch, actors Will Smith, Angela Davis and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the ‘Free Angela & All Political Prisoners’ premiere during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
From Ebony.com: Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, a new film by Shola Lynch, in which Angela Davis, 68, speaks openly for the first time in forty years about the tumultuous events of her twenties, debuted at this week’s Toronto International Film Festival. Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, who introduced the doc at the festival, just announced that their Overbrook Entertainment have partnered with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation as executive producers of the documentary about the scholar who came to embody Black power and Black radical feminism.
Tracy Reese at Spring 2013 Fashion Week. (Photos: Getty Images)
Tracy Reese became instantly buzz-worthy last week when first lady Michelle Obama wore a custom-made dress by the designer to deliver her speech at the Democratic National Convention. The frock was so stunning that Reese had to rush the dress into mass production to meet consumer demand. A similar reaction followed her Spring 2013 Fashion Week showing in New York City among the fashion industry insiders who flocked to the tents for more of Reese’s magic.