black excellence
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Chadwick Boseman to Portray Yasuke, Japan's First African Samurai
Wakanda may be forever, but Chadwick Boseman is stepping off the throne for a minute to secure his next bag. Boseman has been cast to portray Yasuke, the first African samurai to wield a sword in Japan. Doug Miro (Narcos) will be penning the script. Per Deadline: Erik Feig’s Picturestart has teamed with Mike De…
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2019 Tribeca Film Festival: Phillip Youmans Wins Best Narrative Feature for Burning Cane, 1st Black and Youngest-Ever Director to Win Top Prize
The 18th Annual Tribeca Film Festival is wrapping up on May 5, and I’m happy to report that black history has been made. I attended the awards ceremony on Thursday evening and I must say, experiencing the pure joy of creators being recognized for the blood, sweat and tears they injected into their work never…
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African American Film Critics Association Launching New Awards Show Honoring #BlackExcellence in TV
There’s so much to feel good about in the black TV world today. With showrunners like Shonda Rhimes, powerhouse talents like Issa Rae, black superheroes like Black Lightning, family tearjerkers prominently featuring black storylines like This Is Us, and so much more, the television landscape is looking mighty rich in expressing the diversity of black…
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Philly, Get Ready … VSB and The Glow Up Are 'Taking Charge'!
What do you do when you reach a plateau in life—or your career? How do get over it and move forward? How do you take charge? These are questions most of us will have to answer during the course of our lives, and ones we’ll be addressing at the next Toyota-sponsored VSB x The Glow…
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Oops Upside Your Head: 65-Year-Old Woman (and Her Bat) Give Burglar the Business
Clarese Gainey of Gainesville, Fla., is about that action. Most 65-year-old women (and men) would hide in the closet and call the police if they caught someone trying to break into their car, but ohhh not Clarese. You know what she did? “I grab my bat, I brace myself, and I ease the door open,”…
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The 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winners Are Brimming With Black Excellence—and a Posthumous Appearance by Aretha Franklin
A Pulitzer Prize is kind of a big deal. As the most prestigious award in American journalism, literature and music, it’s not quite a BET Hip-Hop Award (word to Iggy Azalea), but it sure as hell warrants an update to your Twitter bio—and your annual salary. Since its auspicious arrival in 1917, this distinction—named after…
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Peggy Alford Poised to Make History as Facebook Nominates a Black Woman to Its Board…Finally
On Friday, Facebook released a statement that Peggy Alford, a senior vice president at PayPal, has been nominated to have a seat at the table, a landmark step in diversifying its nine-member board of directors. If elected by shareholders, she would become the first black woman to sit on the board. Alford is no stranger…
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Applauding Our Own: The Black Design Collective Honors Ruth E. Carter
She’s been a force in the field of costume design for over three decades, but Ruth E. Carter is very much in her prime—and finally getting the recognition she deserves. In addition to her 2019 Oscar win and double awards for Black Panther and Lifetime Achievement from the Costume Designers’ Guild, the visionary designer’s next…
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A Legacy of Artistry: Ruth E. Carter, Tyler Mitchell and More Celebrate the Enduring Impact of Kwame Brathwaite
What best befits a celebration of iconic artistry? Being recognized by icons in the making. On Thursday, April 11 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter (Black Panther), fashion designer Mimi Plange and Tyler Mitchell, who made history last year as the first black photographer to cover Vogue,…
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'The Blackest Red Carpet': The NAACP Image Awards Celebrated Its 50th Year in Style
The only thing we love more than a blackety-black gathering is one where we’re dressed to the nines—and in its 50th year, the NAACP Image Awards did not disappoint. The Root’s entertainment writer, Tonja Stidhum was on site this year and rightly called it “the blackest red carpet.” We’re inclined to agree—and always welcome an…