Posts tagged as “Terry McMillan”

GBN’s Daily Drop: Good Black News Was Founded 12 Years Ago Today (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Good Black News Was Founded 12 Years Ago Today (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 18, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is all about… GBN! Good Black News was founded 12 years ago today, and I celebrate it and our volunteer contributors proudly in the Friday, March 18 entry from the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, March 18th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

On March 18, 2010, Good Black News was founded as a Facebook page. Within two years, it grew into goodblacknews.org –– a website dedicated to curating and creating posts focused on the good things Black people do, give, and receive all over the world. Reader support for the site across all forms of social media has led to the lovely calendar you are experiencing now, so thank you (or whoever gifted you) – and please continue to spread the word!

Okay, so what I just read was the calendar entry for this day, but I really have so much to add to it. Every year I write a post celebrating the date Good Black News was founded, reflecting on where Good Black News came from – and I’ll post a link to our origin story and how Good Black News was born from an off-hand conversation I had with Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back best-selling author and screenwriter Terry McMillan — and what we’ve most recently accomplished.

I’d say for this past year, seeing the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022 get published by Workman Publishing, and me starting this podcast based on it, are the biggest ways we’ve grown over the past 12 months. And I hope to grow even more and expand this podcast beyond the calendar when I have more time and opportunity to do so.

Good Black News also managed to get a little press in 2021 when we were featured in an abcnews10 piece on positive news. Also, last month I officially resumed the Q&A column I started in 2020 entitled “Dear Lori” where I respond to questions about white privilege and race that I’ve been asked by readers over the years.

But what truly keeps me, my co-editor Lesa Lakin and all of GBN’s wonderful volunteer contributors going is the outpouring of appreciation you’ve shown us over the years via follows, likes, comments, shares, reblogs, DMs and e-mails (even when we are overwhelmed and can’t respond to them all) and now, listens.

Ten Years Ago Today: Good Black News Was Founded

By goodblacknews on March 18, 2020

Although we as a species are currently going through unprecedented times of hardship and uncertainty as we grapple with a global pandemic, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the creation of Good Black News a decade ago on March 18, 2010.

You can read the detailed story of GBN’s inception and creation here, because what I want to celebrate today more than anything else is you, GBN’s loyal readers and followers, who, in concert with the Good Black News Team, have slowly but steadily built a strong, respectful, and loving community that is willing to celebrate positivity, action, achievement, humor and humanity on a daily basis.

This kind of energy and fellowship is what the world needs more of right now, and we are so happy to have seen it grow and flourish on our dedicated website, goodblacknews.org, as well as across our social media on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, RSS feed, and LinkedIn.

I will admit to having wanted to do more to celebrate ten years of GBN – offered a proper retrospective of our best stories, the times we’ve been news, big up our Top Fans, announce new plans for expansion, perhaps even throw a party! – but between personal and professional challenges this past year (sick family member, demanding day job), plus the current state of affairs due to coronavirus, these words I’m writing in this moment shall have to suffice.

Thank you for the appreciation you’ve shown GBN the past decade via follows, likes, comments, shares, reblogs, letters and e-mails, as they inspire me daily to keep GBN going.

Good Black News remains a labor of love for me and Lifestyle Editor Lesa Lakin, and we gratefully acknowledge the decade’s extraordinary volunteer contributors (in alphabetical order):

Rebecca Carpenter, Susan Cartsonis, Dena Crowder, Julie Bibb Davis, Alyss Dixson, Dan Evans, Gina Fattore, Julie Fishman, Michael Giltz, Eric Greene, Thaddeus Grimes-Gruczka, Skip Heller, Ashanti Hutcherson, Warren Hutcherson, Fred Johnson, Epiphany Jordan, Fabio Koelsch, Brenda Lakin, Joyce Lakin, Ray Lancon, John Levinson, Jason Lief, Neeta McCulloch, Hanelle Culpepper Meier, Jeff Meier, Catherine Metcalf, Minsun Park, Tajamika Paxton, Patrick-Ian Polk, Flynn Richardson, Rosanna Rossetto, Gabriel Ryder, Terry Samwick, Becky Schonbrun, Susan Shaffer, Kelly Spears, Callie Teitelbaum, Teddy Tenenbaum, Arro Verse, Marlon West, and Joshua A.S. Young.

You are all deeply, greatly appreciated.

Special thanks to Maeve Richardson for re-conceiving and redesigning all the GBN logos and banners across social media, designing the “Got Privilege” art for GBN’s 2016 viral “What I Said When My White Friend Asked For My Black Opinion on White Privilege” essay.

And extra special thanks to friend and best-selling author Terry McMillan for being the inspiration behind it all. P.S. GBN Patron Saint Terry has a new book arriving March 31. Consider checking out It’s Not All Downhill From Here! (amazon link)

Please continue to help us spread GBN by sharing, liking, re-tweeting and commenting, and consider following GBN on the main page, as well as wherever you are on social media.

Please also consider joining our e-mail list via our “Contact Us” tab on goodblacknews.org. We will only use this list to keep you updated on GBN and send you our upcoming weekly e-newsletter (which may finally launch for real for real, as we will soon have a lot more time to focus on it!) — nothing else. And, of course, you may opt out at any time.

Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to providing you with more Good Black News in the coming decade, and beyond!

Warmly,

*Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN Editor-in-Chief*

U.K.'s Positive.News Publishes Good Black News Feature – "Black News Matters: the Website Dedicated to Positive News about People of Color"

By goodblacknews on August 2, 2017

Good Black News Founder and Editor-in-Chief Lori Lakin Hutcherson (photo: Atsushi Nishijima)

interview by Lucy Purdy via positive.news
Lori Lakin Hutcherson was shocked when she was unable to find a website dedicated to positive news about black people. So she started one
Why did you start the Facebook page that became the website, Good Black News?
I actually started Good Black News by accident. It was 2010 and, in my work as a film and television writer and producer, I was collaborating with author Terry McMillan on the film adaptation of her new book. Before our writing session started one morning, she was telling me about a story she’d barely come across in the news: at an all-black academy in Chicago, 100 per cent of the seniors were accepted to college. Terry was wondering why there was no major news media coverage of this great achievement, and lamenting that the mainstream media primarily focused on negative news about African Americans. I figured that there must be a site dedicated solely to positive African American news, so searched the internet. To my shock, I couldn’t find one. In that moment I decided I had to create it, even if just a page on Facebook. So I did. And it slowly grew from there.
How do you think the mainstream media is biased towards people of colour? What damage can stereotypes do?
The media bias reflects the bias intrinsic in US culture and society. People of colour are often seen as threats or exceptions, but not commonly enough as typical human beings. More often than not, you’ll see adjectives or nouns that refer to someone’s ethnicity or skin colour rather than their name or age, or you will see images that are dour or intense instead of happy or light. The damage these micro-dehumanisations can do is reinforce prejudices about people of colour, as well as teach and perpetuate them. So every time I put up a positive story, I am conscious that I am combatting all of that, as well as offering a bit of uplift for anyone who comes across it.
What steps do you take with your stories; for example with headlines and photos, to make them more representative and balanced?
First of all, I make sure that they are accurate and informative, and properly credited and sourced. Secondly, I like to find the best image possible to represent the person or the subject of the story; if all anyone sees is the photo or the headline, I want to make sure either or both offer a story, as well as positive impact. Lastly, I like to put names in headlines. A person’s name offers individuality and acknowledgement that I think impresses on readers a level of humanity that descriptors just don’t. It may seem subtle, but to me, it’s not. Imagine, for example, the differing impact of The Autobiography of a Black Muslim v The Autobiography of Malcolm X or The Diary of a Jewish Girl v The Diary of Anne Frank.
What reactions have you had to Good Black News? Have any surprised you?
The majority have been positive, which isn’t surprising as much as it is heartwarming. It’s humbling knowing that what myself, my fellow editor Lesa Lakin and our volunteer contributors do is helping so many people access information and stories they might not otherwise have heard of. What has surprised me – even though, thankfully, it’s not a large number – is that there are people who spend their time trying to troll and mock and denigrate a site dedicated to sharing positive stories about people of colour. Each time I come across a wayward comment, reply or tweet and block it, I think ‘Who has time for this kind of vitriol in their life?
People of colour are often seen as threats or exceptions, but not commonly enough as typical human beings
Which sorts of stories are most popular?
Education stories. Whether it’s a boy or girl genius graduating college at 14, or a formerly homeless teen going to the Ivy League, or senior citizens finally getting their high school or college diplomas, education stories are always popular. Education has been the most accessible and democratic way people of colour have been able to improve their lives in the US. To go from it being a crime to learn to read and write, to earning PhDs and running universities – yeah, those stories always resonate.
To read rest of article, go to: Black news matters: the website dedicated to positive news about people of colour

'Hidden Figures' Tops 'Rogue One,' With $22.8M #1 Debut at Box Office

By goodblacknews on January 9, 2017

article by Scott Mendelson via forbes.com
With the always present caveat that “rank doesn’t matter,” it turns out that Hidden Figures was the top movie of the weekend, not Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. As you probably know, the weekend box office that everyone reports on Sunday is comprised of estimates and when the rankings are close the order can sometimes shift when the final numbers drop. So yeah, Hidden Figures earned a terrific $22.8 million, about $1m more than estimated, which is a sign that the film is building on its buzz and word-of-mouth.
Meanwhile, Rogue One had to settle for a $22m fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $477.3m. The story though, isn’t necessarily that Hidden Figures, which stars Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Mahershala Ali, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons and Kevin Costner, bested the fourth weekend of Star Wars (or the third weekend of Sing) in its wide release debut. No, it’s that Hidden Figures, a historical drama about female African-American NASA mathematicians whose skills were essential to putting Americans into space, earned $22.8 million on its opening weekend, bringing the domestic total for the $25m Fox 2000/Chermin release to $24.7m.
At the risk of stating the painfully obvious, the triumph of said Allison Schroeder/Ted Melfi-written studio programmer, based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s book, is a huge win for the notion that movies about women, women of color no less, can be not just critically acclaimed and award-worthy but also multiplex-friendly box office hits. This shouldn’t be a surprise. We should know this by now. The Help earned $169 million domestic in 2011, more than X-Men: First Class ($146m), and earned about as much worldwide ($216m) as the 3D/$200m+ Green Lantern ($219m).
Back in 1995, Waiting to Exhale made about as much domestically ($67.4m) as Bad Boys, Outbreak and Heat. The entire Tyler Perry media empire is built on audiences (black women and otherwise) going to movie theaters to see mainstream melodramas about African-American women. Hell, we forget about it now, but Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple earned $94.1 million domestic in 1985 ($216m in 2017 dollars). That doesn’t mean every Baggage Claim is going to break out, but if you treat movies like Hidden Figures like an event, the audience will show up.
To read more, go to: Box Office: ‘Hidden Figures’ Topped ‘Rogue One,’ But Its Real Victory Was That $22.8M Debut

AALBC.com’s 50 Favorite African-American Authors of the 20th Century

By goodblacknews on August 3, 2016

article via aalbc.com
1,826 readers cast votes back in 2001 for their favorite African-American authors. Here we share the 50 authors who received the most votes ranked in the order of the total number of votes received. Below are the top 15. To see the rest, go to: http://aalbc.com/authors/top50authors.php?
# 1 — (6.24%) Toni Morrison # 2 — (5.42%) Zora Neale Hurston # 3 — (4.82%) Maya Angelou # 4 — (4.71%) J. California Cooper # 5 — (4.33%) Alice Walker # 6 — (3.94%) Langston Hughes # 7 — (3.72%) E. Lynn Harris # 8 — (3.56%) James Baldwin # 9 — (3.23%) Terry McMillan # 10 — (3.18%) Bebe Moore Campbell # 11 — (2.74%) Richard Wright # 12 — (2.57%) Walter Mosley # 13 — (2.52%) Eric Jerome Dickey # 14 — (2.41%) Sheneska Jackson # 15 — (2.19%) Octavia Butler —Copyright AALBC.com.
Source: AALBC.com’s 50 Favorite African-American Authors of the 20th Century

Books by Black Authors to Look Forward to in 2016

By goodblacknews on February 14, 2016

2016_books — Black Deutschland, by Darryl Pinckney; Fuchsia, by Mahtem Shiferraw; Hunger, by Roxane Gay (MACMILLAN; NEBRASKA PRESS; HARPERCOLLINS)

article by Hope Wabuke via theroot.com
It is no secret that “African-American women are the largest group of readers in the country,” states Dawn Davis, head of Simon & Schuster’s 37 Ink imprint. It is also no secret that the publishing world is very, very white, with books by black authors published at an abysmal low, never rising above 10 percent of the industry’s output. Indeed, a recent survey by Lee & Low publishers found that “just under 80 percent of publishing staff and review journal staff are white,” with “Black/African Americans [at] 3.5 percent.”
But even with such conditions, key figures such as Chris Jackson, Dawn Davis and others have shepherded books by black authors through their fellow gatekeepers and to the public. Other organizations, like Cave Canem, the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction and the African Poetry Book Fund, support black literature by offering writing retreats, workshops and small-press publishing opportunities. Here are some of the wonderful titles by black authors that readers of all tastes can look forward to in 2016.
In fiction, Darryl Pinckney offers Black Deutschland, the story of a gay African-American man who escapes his troubles in Chicago to seek refuge in 1980s Germany. The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter, from playwright and TV writer Kia Corthron, is an ambitious, brilliantly executed tale of race and family across generations. There is also the latest installment of Rachel Howzell Hall’s Los Angeles-based Elouise Norton mystery thriller series, Trail of Echoes, which comes out in May.
Literary legend Terry McMillan publishes a new book in June titled I Almost Forgot About You, the story of Dr. Georgia Young, who one day decides that there’s more to life than what she has been doing—and decides to go find it. There is also The Underground Railroad, a novel from acclaimed author Colson Whitehead, which will be published in September. And in April, Diane McKinney-Whetstone is giving us Lazaretto, her fictional account of race, lies and murder that rock the close-knit community of the island-based Lazaretto quarantine hospital. In May, from Afro-Caribbean British writer Yvette Edwards, comes the riveting novel The Mother, which explores how one mother copes with the murder of her son—and the courtroom drama of the trial that follows.
Six strong fiction debuts from black American women are a high point of 2016. In June, Los Angeles-based writer Natashia Deon gives us Grace, a tale of the love between a mother and daughter set against American slavery and emancipation. Desiree Cooper’s Know the Mother, out in March, explores race and motherhood in a series of interconnected vignettes. Jamaican-American writer Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn crafts a tale of unforgettable Jamaican women fighting for selfhood and independence in Here Comes the Sun, due out in July.
Cole Lavalais pens a tale of love, redemption and self-discovery on the campus of a historically black college in Summer of the Cicadas due in the spring. In We Love You, Charlie Freeman, out next month, Kaitlyn Greenidge has created an absurdist social commentary on race in the form of an African-American family paid to adopt a chimpanzee as a member of their family and be observed by a scientific research institute during the process. And Fabienne Josaphat’s novel, Dancing in the Baron’s Shadow, is the riveting tale of a man trying to save his brother from unjust imprisonment during the brutal regime of Haitian dictator François Duvalier in 1965.
Nonfiction is equally strong. Memoirs from literary powerhouses Roxane Gay and Kiese Laymon, both meditating on blackness and the body, arrive in June. In Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Gay discusses her relationship with food, body image and self-care, a memoir couched in her usual honesty, vulnerability and depth of observation that have endeared her to so many readers. Laymon’s memoir, titled Stank: A Fat Black Memoir, is replete with his trademark wit and astute analysis. Out now is All Jokes Aside, a memoir by Raymond Lambert and Chris Bournea, which explores the rise of the African-American comedy scene centered at Lambert’s club.
To read more, go to: http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/02/books_by_black_authors_to_look_forward_to_in_2016.html

Watch Trailer for Terry McMillan's "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" Starring Whoopi Goldberg (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on March 17, 2014

Day late Dollar Short
Just in time for Easter, the Lifetime Channel will air the small screen adaptation of Terry McMillan‘s bestseller A Day Late and a Dollar Short. The film stars Whoopi Goldberg (who also executive produced) and Ving Rhames as an estranged couple, with Anika Noni Rose, Kimberly Elise, Tichina Arnold, and Mekhi Phifer playing their adult children.

The synopsis:

In A Day Late and a Dollar Short, when irascible matriarch Viola Price (Goldberg) learns that her next asthma attack will likely kill her, she is determined to fix her fractured family before she leaves this world, from her relationship with her husband (Rhames), to the lives of her four children and grandchildren. While on this quest, she must contend with sibling rivalry, teen pregnancy and prescription drug addiction – and that is only one child. Additionally, her jailbird son (Phifer) needs to learn how to be a better father, her granddaughter is in bigger trouble than her daughter is willing to admit and her estranged husband needs saving from his scheming younger girlfriend. It’s the kind of meddling that the Price family hasn’t experienced from Viola in decades, and she won’t have an easy time bending her loved ones to her will.

The film was adapted for television from McMillan’s novel by Shernold Edwards and directed by Stephen Tolkin. It will premiere on April 19 at 8/7C.
Watch a clip from the movie below:
http://youtu.be/jjCKQuR4FxM
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Happy 62nd Birthday, Acclaimed Novelist Terry McMillan

By goodblacknews on October 18, 2013

terrymcmillan13 Born on October 18, 1951 in Port Huron, Michigan, University of California, Berkeley graduate Terry McMillan‘s life-long interest in books and storytelling led her to publish her first book, Mama, in 1987 and her follow-up effort, Disappearing Acts, in 1989.
Her work is characterized by relatable female protagonists, received national attention in 1992 with her third novel, Waiting to Exhale, which remained on The New York Times bestseller list for 38 straight weeks. In 1995, Forest Whitaker directed a film version of Exhale starring Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Lela Rochon and Whitney Houston. In 1998, another of McMillan’s novels, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, was made into a successful movie starring Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs. McMillan’s novel Disappearing Acts was subsequently produced as a feature on HBO, starring Wesley Snipes and Sanaa Lathan. She also wrote the bestseller A Day Late and a Dollar Short, soon to be adapted into a Lifetime movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. The Interruption of Everything was published on July 19, 2005. Getting to Happy, the long-awaited sequel to Waiting to Exhale, was published on September 7, 2010, and her latest novel, Who Asked You? was recently published this fall. To learn more about McMillan and her work, visit her website, terrymcmillan.com or follow her on Twitter at @MsTerryMcMillan.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Celebrating Famous Black Lefties on International Left-Handers Day

By goodblacknews on August 13, 2013

Whoopi Goldberg to Star in Terry McMillan TV Movie for Lifetime

By goodblacknews on June 24, 2013

Whoopi Goldberg will star in and executive produce the film adaptation of Terry McMillan’s best-selling book, A Day Late and a Dollar Short. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film is slated to begin shooting this summer and will air on Lifetime in 2014. Goldberg is no stranger to Lifetime—she was the executive producer for Strong Medicine from 2000 to 2006.
The project also reunites McMillan with Goldberg, who co-starred with Angela Bassett in McMillan’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back. The Oscar winner and View co-host will play Viola Price, a woman who realizes that her next asthma attack could claim her life, so she sets out to fix her broken family.
“Terry McMillan is one of America’s most beloved writers and A Day Late and a Dollar Short combines her signature emotional storytelling with the complex characters viewers identify with and love,” said Lifetime General Manager, Rob Sharenow. “We are thrilled to be working again with Whoopi Goldberg, who will be emptying her enormous talents both in front of and behind the camera.”
article by Derrick Bryson Taylor via essence.com

Posts tagged as “Terry McMillan”

GBN’s Daily Drop: Good Black News Was Founded 12 Years Ago Today (LISTEN)

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Ten Years Ago Today: Good Black News Was Founded

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U.K.'s Positive.News Publishes Good Black News Feature – "Black News Matters: the Website Dedicated to Positive News about People of Color"

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'Hidden Figures' Tops 'Rogue One,' With $22.8M #1 Debut at Box Office

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AALBC.com’s 50 Favorite African-American Authors of the 20th Century

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Books by Black Authors to Look Forward to in 2016

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Watch Trailer for Terry McMillan's "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" Starring Whoopi Goldberg (VIDEO)

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Happy 62nd Birthday, Acclaimed Novelist Terry McMillan

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Celebrating Famous Black Lefties on International Left-Handers Day

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Whoopi Goldberg to Star in Terry McMillan TV Movie for Lifetime

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Posts tagged as “Terry McMillan”

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