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Kamilah Forbes
Kamilah Forbes is an American curator, producer, and director. She created and directed the Hip Hop Theater Festival from 2000 to 2016. She has held directing roles for television and theater productions such as ''Holler if Ya Hear Me'', ''The Wiz Live!'', and the 2014 revival of Lorraine Hansberry's ''A Raisin in the Sun''. Forbes was named executive producer of the Apollo Theater in 2016. Early life and education Forbes was born and raised in Chicago to Jamaican immigrant parents. She attended Howard University with the intention of attending medical school but changed her major to theater to pursue acting. While at Howard she met Chadwick Boseman and they collaborated on a play about their generation. Career Theater In 2000, Forbes wrote and directed ''Rhyme Deferred'', a play that used a mythic fairy tale format to explore the existential nature of hip-hop. That year, she also created the Hip Hop Theater Festival in 2000 citing the need to feature work created for and b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Tracing its history to 1867, from its outset Howard has been nonsectarian and open to people of all sexes and races. It offers undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in more than 120 programs, more than any other historically black college or university (HBCU) in the nation. History 19th century Shortly after the end of the American Civil War, members of the First Congregational Society of Washington considered establishing a theological seminary for the education of black clergymen. Within a few weeks, the project expanded to include a provision for establishing a university. Within two years, the university consisted of the colleges of liberal arts and medicine. The new institution was named for Gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Def Poetry Jam
''Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry'', better known as simply ''Def Poetry Jam'' or ''Def Poetry'', is a spoken word poetry television series hosted by Mos Def and airing on HBO between 2002 and 2007. The series features performances by established and up-and-coming spoken word poets. Performances also include special appearances by well-known actors and musicians, as well as occasional performances by Mos Def himself. Co-created by Bruce George, Danny Simmons, Deborah Pointer, Stan Lathan, and Russell Simmons, the show is a spin-off of the popular ''Def Comedy Jam'' which began airing on HBO in the 1990s. As with ''Def Comedy'', Simmons appears at the end of every episode to thank the audience. The series included historical legendary poets such as, The Last Poets, Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka and Sonya Sanchez. It also featured poets, Saul Williams, J. Ivy, Jessica Care-Moore and Lemon. Though technically not a poetry slam, ''Def Poetry'' has become heavily associated wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NAACP Image Awards
The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to other awards, like the Oscars and the Grammys, the over 40 categories of the Image Awards are voted on by the award organization's members (in this case, NAACP members). Honorary awards (similar to the Academy Honorary Award) have also been included, such as the President's Award, the Chairman's Award, the Entertainer of the Year, and the Hall of Fame Award. History The award ceremony was first organized and presented on August 13, 1967, by activists Maggie Hathaway, Sammy Davis Jr. and Willis Edwards, all three of whom were leaders of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood NAACP branch. While it was first taped for television by NBC (which broadcast the awards from 1987 to 1994 in January, on weeks when ''Saturday Night Live'' wasn't airing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Root (magazine)
''The Root'' is an African American-oriented online magazine. It was launched on January 28, 2008, by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Donald E. Graham. History It was owned by Graham Holdings Company through its online subsidiary, The Slate Group. In 2015, Graham Holdings sold ''The Root'' to Univision Communications. The site was subsequently re-launched under the Kinja platform used by other Gizmodo Media Group (formerly Gawker Media) websites. GMG was later succeeded by G/O Media as owner of ''The Root''. In July 2017, the blog ''Very Smart Brothas'', co-founded by Damon Young and Panama Jackson, became a vertical of ''The Root''. Danielle Belton was editor-in-chief at ''The Root'' between 2017 and 2021, when she was appointed editor of HuffPost. On April 14, 2021, it was announced that Vanessa De Luca had been appointed editor-in-chief. Since April 2021 ''The Root'' has seen substantial staff turnover with 15 out of the 16 full-time staffers resigning following internal tensi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Black Theatre Festival
The National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF) was founded in 1989 by Larry Leon Hamlin in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Serving as its executive director, Hamlin’s goal in creating the Festival was "to unite black theatre companies in America to ensure the survival of the genre into the next millennium." Held biennially since 1989 for six days, the NBTF showcases the best in African-American theater. Beginnings As he was doing research for a magazine article in the late 1980s, Hamlin discovered a disconnect between the number of black theatre companies at that time. He concluded that a festival could serve as a method to bring these companies together, and he contacted renowned author and poet Maya Angelou for support. Together, they raised $500,000 in grants and contributions to finance the festival's operating costs. The first Festival attracted 10,000 people and offered 30 different performances by 17 of America’s best professional black theatre companies. Its theme was "An In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voice Vote
In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vocally. The voice vote is considered the simplest and quickest of voting methods used by deliberative assemblies. The presiding officer or chair of the assembly will put the question to the assembly, asking first for all those in favor of the motion to indicate so orally ("aye" or "yea"), and then ask second all those opposed to the motion to indicate so verbally ("no" or "nay"). The chair will then make an estimate of the count on each side and state what they believe the result to be. Voice votes have inherent disadvantages and the method has major shortfalls in close contests. The volume of the voices are typically only estimated and not actually measured with sound level meters, giving a chair enough plausible deniability to falsify ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The Senate is composed of senators, each of whom represents a single state in its entirety. Each of the 50 states is equally represented by two senators who serve staggered terms of six years, for a total of 100 senators. The vice president of the United States serves as presiding officer and president of the Senate by virtue of that office, despite not being a senator, and has a vote only if the Senate is equally divided. In the vice president's absence, the president pro tempore, who is traditionally the senior member of the party holding a majority of seats, presides over the Senate. As the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate has several powers o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plan B Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment, Inc., more commonly known as Plan B, is an American production company founded in November in 2001 by Brad Grey, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Kristin Hahn. In 2005, after Pitt and Aniston divorced, Grey became the CEO of Paramount Pictures and Pitt became the sole owner of the company. The president of the company was for many years Dede Gardner, but she and Pitt named Jeremy Kleiner co-president with Gardner in 2013. Three of the production company's movies, ''The Departed'', '' 12 Years a Slave'' and ''Moonlight'', have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Pitt, Gardner and Kleiner received the Producers Guild of America's David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures in 2020. This name was previously used for an unrelated production company that was headed by Bruce Berman from 1996 to 1997. On October 30, 2022, it was reported that Mediawan was in talks to acquiring in a significant stake of the studio. Production deals Active ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harpo Films
Harpo Productions (or Harpo Studios) is an American multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey and based in West Hollywood, California. It is the sole subsidiary of her media and entertainment company Harpo, Inc. The name "Harpo" is "Oprah" spelled backward, and it was also the name of her on-screen husband in ''The Color Purple''. History The company's origins can trace back to 1985 when Oprah appeared in ''The Color Purple''. Winfrey founded her own company in 1986. Oprah Winfrey got her roots in 1988 when Harpo Productions had to acquire her eponymous talk show from ABC O&O WLS-TV in Chicago, and automatically renewed its deal with King World Productions, who held minority interest, which was set to expire in 1991. Harpo Productions' subsidiaries consist of Harpo Print, the company's publishing house, and a minority interest in cable network Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Harpo originally owned 50% of OWN along with Discovery Communications, which purchased 24. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Water Dancer
''The Water Dancer'' is the debut novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates, published on September 24, 2019, by Random House under its One World imprint. It is a surrealist story set in the pre–Civil War South, concerning a superhuman protagonist named Hiram Walker who possesses photographic memory, but who cannot remember his mother, and, late in the novel, is able to transport people over long distances by using a power known as "conduction". This power is based in the power of memory and storytelling and can fold the Earth like fabric and allows him to travel across large areas via waterways. The novel debuted at number one on ''The New York Times'' fiction best-seller list and was selected for the revival of Oprah's Book Club. Plot Hiram Walker was born into slavery during the Antebellum South on a declining tobacco plantation in Virginia named Lockless. He is the mixed-race son of a white plantation owner and a black mother who was sold away by his father when Hiram was young. The local ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
