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Posts tagged as “Vanessa Williams”

MUSIC: Celebrating the Season with “The Ultimate Soul Christmas Soundtrack” Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC: Celebrating the Season with “The Ultimate Soul Christmas Soundtrack” Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on November 28, 2020

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

I spotted Christmas decorations in Costco by early October and Hallmark Channel has been airing non-stop holiday movies already for weeks, but like many, our family has always marked Thanksgiving to be the point where we officially kick off the holiday season, including breaking out the yuletide tunes.

With that in mind, Good Black News is happy to offer the “Ultimate Soul of the Season Christmas Soundtrack” as a playlist to guide you through the holidays with ease.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:2FHQ8HVPzGR0pd9R4Tu1Zm”/]

This is a mega-playlist – 25 hours of music in honor of the 25 days of Christmas leading up to the big day.  It is not meant to be listened to all in one sitting – but rather to be just one-click away as your go-to soundtrack for the month. You can set it and forget it, or hit shuffle and mix it up.

Our inspiration was to capture the mood of those many radio stations around the country that turn to a festive Christmas musical format in the month of December – but with our own specific Good Black News twist.

In our playlist, ALL the songs are by or feature Black artists. Have it on in the background for decorating, cooking, wrapping presents, or just sitting in front of the fire sipping eggnog – and in the process you’ll be supporting Black artists through your streams.

Alfre Woodard Named Black Enterprise's Women of Power Legacy Award Recipient

By goodblacknews on February 3, 2016
uptown-alfre-woodard-
Alfre Woodard (photo via blackenterprise.com)

article by Safon Floyd via blackenterprise.com
It’s official! Esteemed actress, producer, and all-around favorite Alfre Woodard will be honored at the 2016 Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit as a highly regarded Legacy Award recipient.

Woodard joins Renee Powell, golf pioneer and first African American woman to be inducted into the Royal and Ancient Golf Club Saint Andrews; Vanessa Williams, actress, singer, and author; N. Joyce Payne, Ph.D., founder of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund; as this year’s Legacy Award recipients. Along with these women, Woodard has blazed trails in her industry and continues to inspire those who have come behind her.
With an extensive acting career spanning more than 39 years, Woodard stands as a versatile and accomplished actor with multiple memorable roles. Many may recall Woodard for her work on Hill Street Blues for which she earned her Primetime Emmy Award; L.A. Law; Cross Creek; The Piano Lesson; Down in the Delta; Star Trek: First Contact; State of Affairs; Love & Basketball; 12 Years a Slave; Desperate Housewives, American Violet; True Blood; BlackEnterprise.com personal fave, Crooklyn; and countless other film and television appearances. She is currently working on film drama, So B. It, based on the 2004 novel by Sarah Weeks and upcoming Web television series Luke Cage, developed for Netflix.
Woodard’s career accolades are bountiful and include an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actressfor Cross Creek, three Golden Globe nominations with one win for Best Actress in a Miniseries of Television Film for her work in Miss Evers’ Boys, 18 Primetime Emmy nominations with four wins, seven SAG Award nominations with three wins, 21 NAACP Image Award nominations with four wins, and many other honors. She received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Boston University.
Honor the legacies of these deserving women at the 2016 Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit, March 9-12 at the Hilton Diplomat Resort & Spa, Hollywood, Florida. Register now using code MLK16 for a special discounted rate.
For information on the 2016 Women of Power Summit including sessions, speakers and performers click here. Be sure to check back as updates are announced.
To read more, go to: http://www.blackenterprise.com/event/alfre-woodard-named-women-of-power-legacy-award-recipient/

Vanessa Williams Receives ‘Unexpected’ Apology at Miss America Pageant

By goodblacknews on September 14, 2015
Vanessa Williams received a public apology from the Miss America organization. (CreditMark Makela/Reuters)

Betty Cantrell of Georgia was crowned Miss America on Sunday, but an apology to Vanessa Williams stole the show.  In 1983, Ms. Williams, now 52, became the first African-American to win the Miss America pageant. She was forced to resign 10 months later after nude photographs of her surfaced.

She went on to enjoy a decades-long career in TV, film and music. But it was a particular redemption to return to Sunday’s pageant in Atlantic City as a celebrity judge.

After Ms. Williams sang a song, Sam Haskell, executive chairman of the Miss America pageant, apologized for the way the organization treated her three decades ago.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXOLd3G_AHY&w=560&h=315]

“I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less the Miss America you are and the Miss America you always will be,” Mr. Haskell said in an onstage apology.

Ms. Williams called the apology “so unexpected but so beautiful.”

Ms. Williams, who was 21 at the time, resigned after nude photos of her appeared in “Penthouse” magazine.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwBmoNXrr0w&w=420&h=315]

In her departing speech in 1984, Ms. Williams said that she had never consented to those photos being published; the magazine’s publisher responded by saying that the photos were an “interesting bit of highly newsworthy information and photographs,” and that the publication was carried out as an obligation to the magazine’s readers.

Ms. Williams’s return to the pageant was a happy one, and more than a little triumphant. In the days leading up to it, she shared photos of her Miss America crown and pin with her followers on social media.

article by Katie Rogers via nytimes.com

Vanessa Williams to Return to Miss America Pageant as Judge

By goodblacknews on September 8, 2015

Vanessa Williams (photo via deadline.com)
Vanessa Williams (photo via deadline.com)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Three decades after she gave up the crown amid a nude photo scandal, Vanessa Williams is returning to the Miss America pageant.
The Miss America Organization, Dick Clark Productions and the ABC television network announced Tuesday they are bringing back the award-winning actress and singer to serve as head judge for the 2016 competition. It begins Tuesday and culminates in the crowning of the next Miss America on Sunday.
Williams, the first African-American Miss America, won the title in 1984 but resigned after Penthouse magazine published sexually explicit photographs of her taken several years earlier.
She went on to have a successful career in film, television, music and Broadway.
“It was two drastically different images — that was the issue. It was Miss America, who is really kind of untouched and not reality, and then there was this woman in the picture that was the polar opposite of purity, and I was a normal kid in the middle,” Williams said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” ”That’s one of the problems I’ve had to deal with in my career, not only being a Miss America, but being a scandalous Miss America.”
Sam Haskell, executive chairman and CEO of the Miss America Organization, said his friendship with Williams predated the turmoil caused by the release of the photos.
“I have been friends with Vanessa for 32 years,” he told The Associated Press. “When the photos were published, there were people urging her to fight, but close supporters knew if she lost that fight that she would be completely removed from the history books.”
Haskell has been trying for a decade to bring Williams back to the Miss America stage, but this was the first year the logistics could be arranged.
“Vanessa’s career speaks for itself, with all the success that she has had,” Haskell said. “Her return as a huge success is a way for us all to move forward and put the past behind us. It’s truly an honor to welcome her back to the Miss America Pageant.”
Since her 1988 debut album, “The Right Stuff,” Williams has sold more than 7 million records worldwide and has scored No. 1 and Top 10 hits on various Billboard album and singles charts, including pop, dance, R&B, adult contemporary, holiday, Latin, Gospel and jazz.
Her work has been honored by 4 Emmy nominations; 17 Grammy nominations (of which 11 were for her individually); a Tony nomination, 3 Screen Actors Guild award nominations; 7 NAACP Image Awards; and a Golden Globe, Grammy and an Oscar for Best Original Song for her platinum single “Colors of the Wind,” from the Disney film “Pocahontas.”
She also starred on the TV shows “Ugly Betty” and “Desperate Housewives.”
Williams co-starred with Cicely Tyson and Cuba Gooding Jr. in Broadway’s “The Trip To Bountiful” in 2013. She returned to the Great White Way the next year in the musical “After Midnight.”
She joins pageant hosts Chris Harrison and Brooke Burke-Charvet, music curator Nick Jonas and celebrity judges Brett Eldredge, Taya Kyle, Danica McKellar, Kevin O’Leary, Amy Purdy and Zendaya.
article by Wayne Parry via bigstory.ap.org

Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams Return to Broadway in 'The Trip To Bountiful'

By goodblacknews on April 28, 2013

trip-to-bountifulAfter three weeks of previews, the Broadway production of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful starring Emmy winner Cicely Tyson, Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr., Emmy Award nominee Vanessa Williams and Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad, opened on Tuesday at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre to several rave reviews (see below). Directed by Michael Wilson and produced by Nelle Nugent, the 14-week limited engagement will end on June 30, so if you’re interested, get your tickets by clicking here.
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article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson