Several years ago, at a private dinner during the March on Washington Film Festival, I heard Dr. Clarence Jones, personal attorney, and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. tell this story. Jones, Harry Belafonte, and Stanley Levison were among King’s closest advisors, helping to plan strategy, write speeches, organize events and raise funds. They…
Two recent events taking place a world apart, have propelled my thoughts back several decades. They speak to the interconnection of art, culture, and politics. What links them are a film festival and the synchronicity of time. One is the publication of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker’s diaries, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire. The other is…
Painting and protest. Art and activism. Singular style; multidisciplinary approach. The exhibit at the New Museum of works by Faith Ringgold heralds all of this and more. It encompasses three floors and six decades of her paintings, multimedia story quilts, and craft-based soft sculptures. That it is the first full retrospective of the 90-year old…
She was crazy. Until very recently, that was all most of us knew about Louise Little, mother of Malcolm Little, aka Malcolm X and later, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written with Alex Haley, we learned that she suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to a mental institution after her…
Jeen-yus: A Kanye Trilogy is a documentary that follows two decades in the life of the artist formerly known as Kanye West, Yeezy, and now legally known as Ye, American music producer, rapper and fashion designer. There is not much I need to say about him. Ye speaks for himself under his many names, professions…
The stained cotton sack dates back to the mid-1800s. From 2016 to 2021, it was displayed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, on loan from Middleton Place, a historical landmark in South Carolina. According to the description embroidered on the sack by a Ruth Middleton in 1921: “My great grandmother Rose…
It takes many hours to click one’s way through the New York Times online, especially on the weekends. And with this being African American History Month, there is a treasure trove of articles and profiles to explore. One can burrow down a warren of links and prompts through literary riches. A series of Times articles,…
They met in 1962, in the Albany, GA jail, two of the hundreds of marchers, including the largest mass arrest of religious leaders, all protesting segregation. When Rabbi Seymour “Si” Dresner reached through the bars of the adjoining cells to shake hands with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a lifelong camaraderie was born. (Dresner…
One of the benefits of the recent December holiday, coupled with the restrictions of a resurging pandemic, was lots of free time to stay in and catch up on my TV viewing. One of the series in which I indulged was The Chef’s Table. It took me a long time to tune in. I…
With the recent passing of Sidney Poitier, tributes and reflections have been pouring in for this man among men. I, too, have a Sidney Poitier story. The year was 1992. I was a young mid-level executive at Sony Pictures Entertainment in Culver City, CA. That was the year that the American Film Institute gave Mr.…