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Posts tagged as “Harlem”

Edouard E. Plummer Guides Young Scholars in Harlem Through Wadleigh Scholars Program for over 50 Years

By goodblacknews on June 10, 2014
Edouard E. Plummer (CreditDavid Gonzalez/The New York Times)

Edouard E. Plummer works out of a room inside a Harlem public school that would be spacious — if it were a storage closet. Still, he has found a way to pack its shelves and cover its walls with a growing testament to a half-century of achievements that rival those of headmasters at the swankiest prep schools.

He would know; he’s friends with a lot of them. Since 1964, he has taken promising poor and minority children and, in one intense year, given them the academic and social tools to get into — and thrive at — the nation’s leading schools and beyond.

“This one went to Lawrenceville, then Yale,” Mr. Plummer said, pointing a worn yardstick to old news clippings and fliers on the wall. “This one, Peddie. Hotchkiss, St. Paul’s. This one went to Harvard undergrad and Harvard Law. This one’s a doctor. He ran for Congress.”

His smile betrayed his satisfaction. His words, however, underscored that despite getting more than 500 young people into 108 different boarding and preparatory schools though the Wadleigh Scholars Program, more needed to be done.

When he first set out on his mission, memories of segregation were fresh in his mind. He had attended West Virginia State University and, in 1949, applied to the Foreign Service. Despite having done well in history, German and biology, he was rejected.  “They said, ‘Thank you, but we have nothing to offer you,’ ” he recalled. “You know why they did that. It was the color of my skin.”

Rapper Common Writes Moving Tribute to Dr. Maya Angelou

By goodblacknews on June 3, 2014

Common and Maya Angelou
The rapper remembers the poet who inspired him to write—and later became his friend. 
Since I was 5 years old I have loved reading good writing. I would read anything that my mother or the teachers I loved gave me. In the 2nd grade I came across an author named Maya Angelou and her poem Still I Rise, this incredible piece of art that I somehow knew came from her soul and touched my soul. A piece of art that I somehow knew would change and improve my life. It was through this writer that I gained the inspiration to be somebody in life and to be heard.
I didn’t know that it would be through hip hop and the gift of rap that I would open myself up and become a writer and MC. Through writing I would get the opportunity to travel and see the world—London, Sydney, Johannesburg, Osaka—and it was writing that brought me one October evening to a charity event in New York where we were blessed to have as our luminary for the night, Dr. Maya Angelou. Having her as our guest was a fluke of Divine Order and a true example of Ask and You shall receive.
What had happened was the poet we booked to perform dropped out last minute so my mother said, “I’m gonna try to get in touch with Dr. Maya Angelou.” I said, “Ma, are you crazy? Maya Angelou? How do you think we’re gonna get one of the greatest beings that ever graced this earth last minute? She doesn’t know who Common is.”
Well, to this day I don’t know if she had ever heard of Common before the call was made but somehow through God’s thread she said she would like to meet with me before she decided if she would do the event. So here I am headed to Harlem to meet her at her apartment, just got my hair cut, heart beating, I walk into her beautiful space that smelled like integrity, art, generosity, love, hope, inspiration, honesty, and home. We would sit for two and a half hours talking about writing, my daughter, San Francisco, and Tupac. And oh yeah, Paul Robeson.
The next night she did her thing at the event and embraced me as a young writer-artist, an important voice in hip hop and even flirted with me. Now that really made me feel special. She and I would go on to build a bond that not only would have us spreading love at events in Harlem, Chicago, and D.C., but I would be blessed to go visit her at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., and celebrate several birthdays with her where we had great times and I got to know her lovely family. It was always an honor to be in her presence and though she did feel like my mother, my grandma, and my friend. I would always Thank God for being there with her.
Every experience was unique, but every time I saw her I learned something about myself and about life, about humanity, about progress. And I was always reminded how we are true reflections of God, how much Light we do have, how great and dynamic Black Women are and how far Integrity, Self Love and Self Respect can take you. I don’t know if my words—or any words—can truly describe the experience of being in the atmosphere of Dr. Maya Angelou, someone you know is sent from the Creator to Give the World A Voice it has never heard, a brightness it has never witnessed, an energy that is Greatness, Divinity and Awakening all wrapped into one.

We would sit for two and a half hours talking about writing, my daughter, San Francisco, and Tupac. And oh yeah, Paul Robeson.

I awoke on May 28, 2014, ready for a powerful day of filming and to do some great work. I was stepping out of a van when I received the news that Dr. Angelou had made her transition and as I moved I felt like my soul was standing still. I hadn’t digested or processed it as I continued to go about the day. Of course I stopped and said a prayer but it wasn’t until the director of our film, Ava DuVernay, said, “We all know what has happened this morning and This Queen is one of the reasons why we can do this film and we will honor her and carry her with us as we proceed forward.” Right then I was able to let loose and cry and release some of the natural pain of losing someone you love and someone so great. And though I’m still in the process I also recognize that she will never be lost and how much we all have gained by having her touch this earth.
God gave us an Angel and we got to witness that Angel for a beautiful time of life. And though that Angel has returned to her maker, Her Work, Her Spirit, Her Words—aw man, Her Words—Her passion, Her heart, Her Love, Her Greatness, Her Royalty, Her Strength, Her Wisdom, Her Divinity, Her Angel will always be here with us. For my daughter’s daughters, your daughter’s daughters, and forever more. Love you, Dr. Maya Angelou.
Love, Common
article via thedailybeast.com

Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment and Sony Buy Film Rights to WWI Graphic Novel "The Harlem Hellfighters"

By goodblacknews on March 8, 2014
Harlem Hellfighter Book Cover - P 2014

Sony has picked up rights to The Harlem Hellfighters, Max Brooks‘ upcoming graphic novel based on the true story of an African American WWI Army infantry unit.  Caleeb Pinkett and James Lassiter will produce for Overbrook Entertainment.  Hitting stores on April 1st via Broadway Books, The Harlem Hellfighters is based on the Army’s 369th infantry division, an African-American unit fighting in Europe during World War I. Breaking down racial barriers, the unit spent more time in combat than any other American unit, never losing a foot of ground to the enemy, or a man to capture, and went on to win countless decorations.
Though they returned to the U.S. as heroes, the unit faced tremendous discrimination, even from their own government. The story chronicles their journey from the enlistment lines in Harlem to the training camp at Spartanburg, South Carolina, to the trenches in France.  The graphic novel was illustrated by Caanan White. Brooks will also adapt the script.
Brooks, the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, wrote the book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which was adapted for Paramount’s Brad Pitt-starring film that grossed $202 million domestically and $540 million worldwide. A sequel is currently in development.
article by Rebecca Ford and Borys Kit via hollywoodreporter.com

New Harriet Tubman Opera to Preview at Harlem's Schomburg Center on 12/9

By goodblacknews on December 1, 2013

Harriet Tubman

AOP (American Opera Projects), and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will co-present an evening of scenes from Nkeiru Okoye‘s folk opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom that tells of how a young girl born in slavery, becomes Harriet Tubman, the legendary Underground Railroad conductor. The musical excerpts will be followed by an artist Q&A moderated by WQXR’s Terrance McKnight. The concert will be presented on Monday, December 9, 2013 at 6:30 PM at the Langston Hughes Auditorium: 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801. General admission will be $10 ($8 for Schomburg Society Members) and available by calling (212) 491-2206 or visiting www.showclix.com/event/HarrietTubman.

Harriet Tubman will include performances by soprano Sumayya Ali (Lincoln Center, Berkshire Opera, Sarasota Opera), soprano Sequina DuBose (Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Memphis, PAB Theater), contralto Nicole Mitchell (Lincoln Center Festival, Sarasota Opera), tenor Clinton Ingram (Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Teatro Real), and baritone Damian Norfleet (Perseverance Theater, AMAS Musical Theater, Prospect Theater Company). The evening will feature a string ensemble with music direction by Mila Henry, stage direction by Beth Greenberg (New York City Opera) and WQXR’s Terrance McKnight moderating a Q&A with the artists.
Using a mixture of opera and vernacular folk music, featuring gospel spirituals, ragtime, early blues, minstrel songs, work songs, call and responses, and field hollers, Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom tells this important chapter of American history in the context of Tubman’s tight-knit family of lively characters and two sisters vowing that nothing but death will separate them, despite the slavery threatening to tear them apart. The work is in development at Brooklyn-based AOP who has featured music from Tubman at venues such as Galapagos Art Space, SUNY Albany, and the Brooklyn Public Library Main Branch.
A semi-staged performance of the entire Harriet Tubman opera will be presented by AOP in February 2014 at Brooklyn’s Irondale Center as part of Lines of Freedom, a theatrical celebration of African-American history. Presentations of Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works.
To learn more about the show, go to: broadwayworld.com
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Darren Walker to be Named President of the Ford Foundation

By goodblacknews on July 27, 2013

Darren Walker (pictured above)  was born in a charity hospital in Lafayette, La., and grew up in the 1960s in a single-parent household in rural Texas, where his mother worked as a nurse’s aide and he was enrolled in one of the first Head Start programs. He went on to the University of Texas at Austin with help from a Pell grant scholarship, awarded to low-income students based on financial need. He put in a few years at a prestigious Manhattan law firm and a Wall Street investment bank. Then he moved into the nonprofit world, first in Harlem, where, among other things, he worked on the project to build the first full-service supermarket there in a generation.
On Thursday, Mr. Walker, 53, will take the next step in a career that has taken him from Harlem to world-famous foundations five and a half miles away in Midtown Manhattan. He is to be named president of the Ford Foundation, the nation’s second-largest philanthropic organization. He will succeed Luis Ubiñas, who announced in March that he would step down. For Mr. Walker, the new job is a promotion. He has been a vice president at Ford since 2010, when Mr. Ubiñas hired him away from the Rockefeller Foundation, where Mr. Walker had worked for several years, also as a vice president.

EBC Suspends Summer Tournament To Host Trayvon Martin Invitational

By goodblacknews on July 23, 2013

A Black ANd White Photo Of Trayvon Martin
On Friday, July 26th the Entertainers Basketball Classic (EBC) will suspend their summer tournament for one weekend to host the Trayvon Martin Invitational in memory of the slain Florida teen.  In conjunction with Vibe Magazine and NYC radio station Hot 97, the tournament will host New York’s elite streetball teams (within the tri-state area), top NBA players and celebrities who will come together at the legendary Rucker Park. There will be 2 games every night at 6pm & 8pm with the winning teams of each game advancing toward the Invitational Championship game which takes place on Monday, July 29 at 8pm. Bringing young and old together, the EBC in conjunction with activist Kevin Powell will host community leaders at the park to speak to the Harlem fans and attendees.
CEO and founder of EBC, Greg Marius states “This is an extremely difficult time for many people, I can not begin to express my sympathy with Trayvon Martin’s family but only show my support by joining together as a community to make a difference. If we do not make a stand for all the injustices now, who will?”

Rhys Powell's Successful Harlem Startup Red Rabbit Aims to Fix America's Food System One School at a Time

By goodblacknews on July 18, 2013
NYC PAPERS OUT. Social media use restricted to low res file max 184 x 128 pixels and 72 dpi
Red Rabbit founder Rhys Powell at the company’s commercial kitchen on Park Ave. and 121 St.

If Rhys Powell gets his way, every student in America will be eating freshly prepared, nutritious meals and snacks – and his company, Harlem-based Red Rabbit, will be doing a lot of the serving.  Red Rabbit’s already making some big leaps in that direction. Launched in 2005, Powell’s startup is quickly becoming a force in the healthy food for kids biz.  This coming school year, Red Rabbit will be preparing and delivering 20,000 meals a day to students in more than 100 private and charter schools in the New York area.
That means many children from low-income communities will be munching on healthy items like mango yogurt parfaits and fresh fish, instead of chicken nuggets and frozen pizza.  Sales at Red Rabbit are expected to double in the 2013 school year to $10 million. Two years ago, the company moved to a 10,000 square-foot facility at 121st St. and Park Ave., where Powell, 33, employs 130 workers, many of them Harlem residents.
Those kind of strides have put Powell in the spotlight: On Monday the city is set to name Red Rabbit the Manhattan Small Business of the Year in its annual Neighborhood Achievement Awards.  “We are a young, entrepreneurial company that is trying to improve the food system in America, one community at a time,” Powell said during an interview at his Harlem offices.

Blogging While Brown 2013: Conference Creates Innovative Atmosphere for Blacks in Online Media

By goodblacknews on June 25, 2013
agirltravels: #bwbnyc panel
agirltravels: #bwbnyc panel – #harlem #nyc #agirltravels #traveler #travelblogger #outandabout #blogger #blogging #bloggingwhilebrown #igers #igdaily #igaddict #instadaily #follow #necolebitchie #concreteloop (Instagram)

What do you get when you take a group of stylish, ambitious black women and place them together in a room? Given all the debates currently taking place about the image of black women in media, particularly reality television, unsavory images might be the first (unfortunately) to come to mind. But, this past weekend’s Blogging While Brown conference, which just wrapped its sixth year in New York City, was an oasis of truth demonstrating the power, positivity and true sisterhood of African-American women interested in blogging and technology.
“Unfortunately, we as black women carry a stereotype of being loud, catty, and constantly trying to outdo one another,” said Karla Trotman, the Philadelphia-based proprietress of Bellybuttonboutique.com, a site that helps mothers and moms-to-be with supportive products related to pregnancy. “But this conference draws out women, all of whom were coming from a place of abundance. The sharing of information and the openness was so refreshing. The connections, discussions, and fellowship were all incredible. I felt truly filled by the experience.”
While Blogging While Brown is not geared to black women specifically — and there were many men, other people of color, and whites who attended and sat on panels — the overwhelming percentage of the 300-plus assemblage consisted of African-American women. This setting, far from being limiting, made Blogging While Brown a refreshing sanctuary for people seeking exposure to interesting individuals and fresh information with a result that was truly enlightening. Even for black women, it was like getting to know a whole new tribe.

The Art of Being Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2013
Thelma Golden. (Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)
Thelma Golden. (Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)
If Thelma Golden didn’t exist, you would want to invent her. As director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, Golden brings her unique passion, commitment, style and laser-focus to every project she touches.

Being so good at what one does almost always stems from true love, and Golden has always been smitten with art. “When I was about 10 years old, a family friend gave my brother and I the board game Masterpiece, which involved figuring out who had stolen a great work of art,” the Queens-born Golden told theGrio. “The game included cards that represented the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, and those deeply engaged me in the idea of a museum.”
However, it was her elementary teacher, Lucille Buck, who really brought her into the study of art history. “Mrs. Buck was an art aficionado and felt strongly that we should not only visit museums, but also learn about the art, artists and artworks we were going to see before our visits. She began my lifelong love of learning about art.”
Golden takes the art world by storm
Armed with a B.A. in Art History and African-American Studies from Smith College, Golden actually started her career at the Studio Museum in 1987, prior to joining the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1988. She spent ten years at the Whitney. Her first big exhibition as curator was the 1993 Whitney Biennial (always a provocative seasonal show), but she really made her mark in 1994 when she organized the controversial exhibition Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art.
The show ruffled the feathers of black and white viewers — and critics — alike, but opened up new dialogues. Golden says that in many ways, it was her dream show. “By having been fortunate enough to do that so early on in my career, it has really freed me to be truly curatorially curious. I had the great advantage to make an exhibition so wholly influential to my thinking and the ideas that I was engaged with that it has let me, in the intervening twenty years, follow my mind and my heart around the art and artists that I love.”

Born On This Day in 1921: Boxing Legend Sugar Ray Robinson

By goodblacknews on May 3, 2013
Sugar Ray Robinson
 Born Walker Smith Jr. on May 3, 1921 in Ailey, Georgia, boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson is often regarded as the greatest boxer in history. Robinson began his boxing career at 19 after moving to New York City with his family as a teenager. Using the borrowed Amateur Athletic Union boxing card of a friend named Ray Robinson, he began to practice regularly at a Harlem gym where his talent was recognized. Robinson earned the moniker “Sugar” from his coach George Gainford, who characterized the boxer’s style as being “sweet as sugar.”  In just six years, he became the world welterweight champion, boasting an 91 fight winning-streak. He held the title from 1946 to 1951. At the height of his career, Robinson’s record was 128-1-2 with 84 knockouts.  To learn more about Robinson’s life and career, click here and watch video footage of Robinson below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VLWBVpL23k&w=560&h=315]
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson