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A Love Story Interrupted by 9/11
Dennis Shortt remembers that morning as if it were yesterday. Whenever he found himself on the East Coast side of their Chicago-New York City romance, he usually beat his fiancee, Sharon Moore, up in the morning, even though she was the first to leave their Jamaica Estates apartment in the city’s Queens borough for work.…
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With Atlanta and Queen Sugar, TV Gets a Dose of Real Southern Blackness
“I’m criminally Northern,” from black Twitter stalwart and cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux about the epic Tuesday night of black Southern intensity fueled by new TV shows Atlanta and Queen Sugar. Clearly, the Chicago native, who now calls New York City home, was not alone, as similar sentiments also showed up on Twitter. Those from the…
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Why Tika Sumpter Was So Nervous About Playing Future First Lady Michelle Obama
In coming months, we will be inundated with the endless highlights from our first black president’s historic two terms. One of the most delightful developments over the first family’s eight-year stay is the emergence of first lady Michelle Obama. Is there any doubt that she helped spark the #BlackGirlMagic that is our reality more and…
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20 Black Films Made After She’s Gotta Have It That You Should See
Spike Lee forever changed black film with the 1986 release of She’s Gotta Have It. Although a black-film movement had been afoot before Lee joined its ranks, his first independently produced feature film put Hollywood on high alert. As the modern godfather of black film, Lee ushered in a golden age of black cinema that,…
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Jesse Owens Wasn’t Alone: New Film Explores Untold Story of the 17 Other Black Olympians of 1936
Raise your hand if you knew that Jesse Owens wasn’t the only black athlete at the 1936 Olympics. Deborah Riley Draper is not ashamed to admit that there was a time she didn’t know, either. It’s precisely why she made her stunning documentary Olympic Pride, American Prejudice. “My entire life I thought Jesse was there…
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25 Years Later, the Power and Brilliance of Boyz n the Hood Still Resonate
“In any type of writing program, they say to write about what you know,” John Singleton told Walter Mosley during a conversation following a 25th-anniversary screening of his classic film debut, Boyz n the Hood, in New York in June. “When you’re a certain age, you only have a limited amount of life experience. I…
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Walter Mosley Refuses to Be Boxed In
Walter Mosley’s website lists books he’s written. Right now there are 48: 43 fiction and five nonfiction. And later this year, he’ll add to the list—a highly intellectual book titled, Folding the Red Into the Black: Developing a Viable Untopia for Human Survival in the 21st Century, which is due out in October. “It’s a…
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#OscarsNotSoWhite? Here’s a List of the Black Invitees to the Academy
Cheryl Boone Isaacs is one film industry leader who is taking the #OscarsSoWhite criticism to heart and instituting change. Back in January, Isaacs, president of the Oscar-granting Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, publicly announced the academy’s plan to double the number of women and members from diverse backgrounds by 2020. And on Wednesday, the…
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American Black Film Festival: 20 Years of Nurturing the Dreams of Black Filmmakers
Inspired by Sundance and the black film explosion of the 1990s, Jeff Friday set out to create a festival where both black filmmakers and film lovers could feel at home. The result is the American Black Film Festival. Known initially as the Acapulco Black Film Festival when it was first held in Mexico in 1997,…
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Adios, House of Lies. Thanks for All the Good Times!
It’s been a good run for Don Cheadle as the cool yet complicated management consultant Marty Kaan on Showtime’s hit series House of Lies. Marty helped Cheadle pick up four NAACP Image Award nominations, including two wins (2013, 2016); three Golden Globe nominations, including one win (2013); and four Emmy nominations. That’s in addition to…
