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On the Ground at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Opening in Jackson
It is debatable whether the unexpected snow hitting the South, including Jackson, Miss., affected attendance at the grand opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History more than Donald Trump’s appearance Saturday. Civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) were not the only ones…
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Donna Brazile in Atlanta: ‘Don’t Step on Me When I Tell You My Story’
It’s hard to miss Donna Brazile. She’s literally been all over the TV with her political tell-all, Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-Ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House, which debuted at No. 6 on the coveted New York Times best-seller list. But Sunday afternoon, she was in Atlanta, in…
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SNL Alum Jay Pharoah Is Ready to Become White Famous on Showtime
Fans who’ve missed comedian Jay Pharoah since his official exit from Saturday Night Live last year after six seasons now can have him all to themselves thanks to his new Showtime series, White Famous. Executive-produced by Jamie Foxx and Tim Story (director of Ride Along and Think Like a Man), White Famous puts Pharoah, a…
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Writer-Director Angela Robinson Tells the Story of How Psychology and Polyamory Created Wonder Woman
Even if you’re familiar with Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, the film about the man behind Wonder Woman, you might not know that a black woman wrote and directed it. Probably because most of Angela Robinson’s career has largely been in the shadows of television, directing and producing such hit series as The L…
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Meet the Tech Duo With the App That Lets You Grab the Styles You Love on Social Media
If you’ve ever admired someone’s shoes, wardrobe or general style on social media and wanted to grab it, the good news is there’s an app for that called CoSign. The greater news is that it’s a black creation courtesy of first-generation Nigerian Americans Esosa Ighodaro and Abiodun “A.J.” Johnson. When Johnson complimented Ighodaro’s outfit on…
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Whose Streets? A Ferguson, Mo., Documentary That Is Right on Time for Charlottesville, Va.
As the idiot known as the president continues to defend the tiki-torched, “alt-right,” neo-Nazi, white supremacist orgy that went down in Charlottesville, Va., resulting in one person’s death and several injuries, social media’s blood pressure has gone way up, with millions posting outrage. Outrage doesn’t always translate into a movement, but it can, and that’s…
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Jada Pinkett Smith’s Still in Her Feelings About That Tupac Film During an Atlanta Radio Interview
Jada Pinkett Smith’s outrage over the Tupac Shakur film All Eyez on Me has not subsided one bit. During an appearance Wednesday on The Ryan Cameron Morning Show With Wanda Smith on Atlanta radio’s V-103, while promoting her latest film, Girls Trip, with co-star Regina Hall and producer Will Packer, Pinkett Smith had a strong…
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John Singleton on How Crack Overtook L.A. in the New FX Series, Snowfall
Snowfall is proof that, more than 25 years after breaking through with his Oscar-nominated debut film, Boyz n the Hood, John Singleton hasn’t forgotten his roots or, most importantly, his responsibility. Different from Rebel, Singleton’s first scripted television show as an executive producer for BET earlier this year, Snowfall digs deep, very deep. Whereas Rebel,…
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All Eyez on Me Star Demetrius Shipp Jr. on Being Tupac, a Role He Seemed Destined to Play
To say that a Tupac biopic has been a long time coming is an understatement. Perhaps few know that as well as Demetrius Shipp Jr., the icon’s “blink twice” doppelgänger who was originally cast in the role in 2011 and waited through a handful of directors, including John Singleton and Carl Franklin, before Benny Boom,…
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Juice at 25: Director Ernest Dickerson Talks Tupac, Hip-Hop and the Film’s Enduring Legacy
Twenty-five years ago, longtime cinematographer Ernest Dickerson made a deep impression with his directorial debut, Juice, a hip-hop-era film noir revolving around four teenage boys growing up in Harlem at a time when crack and violence were first emerging as devastating norms for urban youths. Juice, released Jan. 17, 1992, introduced both Omar Epps (“Q”)…
