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Stephen Bray
Stephen Pate Bray (born December 23, 1956) is an American songwriter, drummer, and record producer. He is best known for his collaborations with Madonna, being a member of the band Breakfast Club, and for winning the 2017 Grammy Award for the Best Musical Theater Album of the Tony Award-winning revival of '' The Color Purple''. Bray owns and operates Saturn Sound recording studios and the Soultone Records label. Career Bray began studying music through private instruction in Detroit, attended Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor. He continued his education at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1978. Collaborations with Madonna Bray dated Madonna before her fame when she was attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for dance in 1976. He moved to New York after receiving a call from Madonna in November 1980; at that time she was a member of the band Breakfast Club in Queens. Madonna wanted to form a new band and invited Bray to play the drums. They formed t ...
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Regina (American Singer)
Regina Marie Cuttita, also known as Regina Richards or simply Regina, is an American singer born in Brooklyn, New York. She began her career in the late 1970s as the frontwoman of the new wave band Regina Richards and Red Hot. She is perhaps best known for the hit single "Baby Love", which reached number 10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1986. "Baby Love" was her only song to chart on the Hot 100, making her a one-hit wonder. The song also reached number 50 on the UK Singles Chart that same year. Career Regina, who majored in theater at Marymount Manhattan College, began her music career in the late 1970s, recording and performing with the new wave band Regina Richards and Red Hot. The band regularly played New York City music venues such as CBGB, Max's Kansas City, and Irving Plaza. With the help of Richard Gottehrer, the band signed with A&M Records. The first single released was titled "Tyger", with "Tug of War" as the B-side. The second single "Don't Want You Back", ...
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University Of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Michigan is one of the earliest American research universities and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities. In the fall of 2023, the university employed 8,189 faculty members and enrolled 52,065 students in its programs. The university is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It consists of nineteen colleges and offers 250 degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The university is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2021, it ranked third among American universities in List of countries by research and development spending, research expe ...
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Black Snake Moan (film)
''Black Snake Moan'' is a 2006 American black comedy-drama film written and directed by Craig Brewer. The film stars Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson, and Justin Timberlake. Its plot focuses on a Mississippi bluesman who holds a troubled local woman captive in his house in an attempt to cure her of nymphomania after finding her severely beaten on the side of a road. The title of the film derives from the 1927 Blind Lemon Jefferson song. The film draws numerous references to the Mississippi Blues movement, particularly in its title and soundtrack. ''Black Snake Moan'' garnered mixed to positive reviews from critics, but was a box-office bomb, grossing only $10.9 million against a $15 million budget. Plot The film concerns two main characters: Lazarus Redd, a deeply religious farmer and former blues guitarist, and Rae Doole, a young sex addict. Lazarus' wife and his brother were having an affair, which has left him bitter and angry. Rae's boyfriend Ronnie Morgan leaves f ...
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Hustle & Flow
''Hustle & Flow'' is a 2005 American drama film written and directed by Craig Brewer. The film stars Terrence Howard as a Memphis hustler and pimp who dreams of becoming a rapper. The ensemble cast includes Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning, Taraji P. Henson, Paula Jai Parker, Elise Neal, DJ Qualls and Ludacris. Produced by John Singleton and Stephanie Allain, the film tells the story of one man's struggle to turn his life around through music. ''Hustle & Flow'' was released on July 22, 2005, by Paramount Classics, and received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances—particularly those of Howard and Henson—as well as Brewer's direction and the film's soundtrack. The film emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing $23.5 million against a production budget of $2.8 million. ''Hustle & Flow'' garnered several accolades, including two nominations at the 78th Academy Awards: Best Actor (Howard) and Best Original Song for Three 6 Mafia's ...
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Stephanie Allain
Stephanie Allain (born October 30, 1959) is an American film producer. Career She began her film career in 1985 at Creative Artists Agency, first as a script reader, then as a staff reader. As a story analyst, she worked for 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and finally in 1989, at Columbia Pictures. There, Allain was one of twelve readers at the studio, and one of only two African-American readers. She rose through the ranks to become Senior Vice President of Production and was influential in encouraging and developing an African-American filmmaking community in Hollywood in the 1990s. During her tenure at Columbia, Allain launched the careers of several young filmmakers including John Singleton, Robert Rodriguez and Darnell Martin. She personally pitched to Columbia's executives Singleton's ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991). The controversial film would become a critical and commercial hit, garnering Singleton two Academy Award nominations. Among the films under her supervision were ...
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Studio City, California
Studio City is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1927, now known as Radford Studio Center. History Originally known as Laurelwood, the area that Studio City occupies was formerly part of Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando. Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando was a Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California, granted in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to Eulogio F. de Celis. This land changed hands several times during the late 19th century, and eventually passed into the ownership of James Boon Lankershim (1850–1931) and eight other developers, who organized the Lankershim Ranch Land and Water Company. In 1899, the area lost most water rights to Los Angeles, so subdivision and sale of land for farming became untenable. Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct began in 190 ...
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Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The ceremony is usually held in June. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton. They are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel. The rules for the ...
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The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker that won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction."National Book Awards – 1983"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
(With essays by Anna Clark and Tarayi Jones from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
Walker won the 1983 award for hardcover Fiction.
From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Awards history there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories. Most of the p ...
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Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel '' The Color Purple''."National Book Awards – 1983"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 15, 2012. (With essays by Anna Clark and Tarayi Jones from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry. Walker, born in rural Georgia, overcame challenges such as childhood injury and
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Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), online streaming, and radio airplay in the U.S. A new chart is compiled and released online to the public by ''Billboard''s website on Tuesdays but post-dated to the following Saturday, when the printed magazine first reaches newsstands. The weekly tracking period for sales is currently Friday–Thursday, after being changed in July 2015. It was initially Monday–Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991. This tracking period also applies to compiling online streaming data. Radio airplay is readily available on a real-time basis, unlike sales figures and streaming, but is also tracked on the same Friday–Thursday cycle, effective with the chart dated July 17, 2021. Previously, radio was tracked Monday–Sunday and, before Ju ...
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Like A Prayer (album)
Like a Prayer may refer to: * ''Like a Prayer'' (album), a 1989 album by Madonna ** "Like a Prayer" (song), a 1989 song by Madonna, title track of the album * ''Like a Prayer'', a 1991 documentary film by ACT UP, an AIDS advocacy organization * "Like a Prayer", 2013 TV episode of ''Holby City ''Holby City'' (stylised on-screen as HOLBY CIY) is a British medical drama television series that aired weekly on BBC One. It was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a Spin-off (media), spin-off from the established BBC medical drama '' ...
'' {{Disambiguation ...
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Like A Virgin (album)
''Like a Virgin'' is the second studio album by American singer Madonna, released on November 12, 1984, by Sire Records. Following the success of her 1983 eponymous debut album, Madonna was eager to start working on its follow-up. She selected Nile Rodgers to produce the album due to his work on '' Let's Dance'' (1983) by David Bowie, which she was a fan of. To ensure it be exactly as she envisaged it, Madonna chose all the songs for the album: she penned five of her own, four of which were co-written with former boyfriend and collaborator Stephen Bray, and four were written by other artists. Recording sessions took place at Power Station studio in New York City. Rodgers enlisted the help of his former Chic bandmates Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson. Upon release ''Like a Virgin'' received mixed reviews from music critics: Rodgers's production received praise, but Madonna's vocals were criticized. It became Madonna's first number one album on the ''Billboard'' 200, as well as ...
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