November 01, 2005
Book Party for Cheryl Boyce Taylor at the Schomburg Center Tonite
Come join us for a book release party UPTOWN!
Tue 11/1/05 — Book Release party
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Time: 6 — 8 pm
515 Malcolm X Blvd @ 135th Street
New York, NY 10037
(212) 491-2226
Opening act: Baron
This event is free. There will be books for sale at the event. And the beautiful Cheryl will be reading from her third book, Convincing the Body!
For more information visit Vintage Entity Press.
November 06, 2005
Boondocks Baby!
The Boondocks premieres tonite!
Based on Aaron McGruder's controversial comic strip, "The Boondocks" follows the lives of Huey and Riley Freeman, African-American brothers who move with their Granddad from the inner city to the suburbs. Huey is a self-styled revolutionary forever railing at the state of society, while yougner brother Riley is a wannabe gangsta.
I'll be taping the series for my baby. I'd love to meet Aaron in person. ;-)
November 10, 2005
Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa
Ken Wiwa: 'Committed to remembering' his father, writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa:
Looking back, the issues my father died for - greater political and ecological accountability in the oil industry - are now at the front and centre of international affairs with climate change and the war on terror dominating world affairs.
In a way, the future of the planet is very much at stake in these issues and I appreciate why so many people are committed to remembering my father.
On this tenth anniversary, around the world, thousands of people are actively preventing that erasure of memory; from the Remember Saro-Wiwa project in London to the vigils being held from Thailand to South Africa.
People are refusing to forget the name, Ken Saro-Wiwa.
As Milan Kundera wrote, "The struggle of humanity against power, is the struggle of memory against forgetting."
Cast of "The Color Purple" On Friday's Oprah
I were a semi-rich man, I'd actually go see this show.
The cast of "The Color Purple" will perform on The Oprah Winfrey Show on ABC this Friday, November 11th at 4:00pm! ABC is channel 7 in the New York/Tri-state area, otherwise check your local listings.
November 13, 2005
Taye Diggs Is Versatile
Taye Diggs, dancer? Well can he tap? 'Cuz he can tap my as..., er, nevermind.
Why Is Taye Diggs Getting His Groove On?
The foot traffic in Midtown Manhattan didn't come to a complete standstill as Taye Diggs strolled up Ninth Avenue, but the actor still managed to turn a few heads on a brisk weekday afternoon. "Just recently white people are starting to notice who I am," said Mr. Diggs, as he walked past a pair of middle-aged white women, both of whom did double takes. "In the black community of actors that's the gauge of how big you are, your real crossover appeal."
Since appearing in the Broadway phenomenon "Rent" nearly a decade ago, Mr. Diggs, 33, has moved easily between films ("The Best Man," "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"), stage ("Carousel," "Chicago") and television ("Ally McBeal," "Kevin Hill").
Audiences will be seeing even more of the genre-hopping actor in the near future. He's currently starring in the revival of "A Soldier's Play," Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a murder at a Louisiana Army base during World War II. And he is again playing the role of Benny, the slumlord, in the film adaptation of "Rent," which opens on Nov. 23. Four more films are already in the can.
As if that weren't enough, he recently helped found a modern dance troupe called dre.dance, in which he is the principal choreographer - a fact that is sure to surprise many of his fans.
"Nobody knows that between singing, acting and dancing, I enjoy dance the most," he said, beaming, while sitting in a lounge at the Second Street Theater (where "A Soldier's Play" is running) a few hours before he was due at dance rehearsal.
Mr. Diggs said he discovered a love of dance as a teenager at the Performing Arts High School in Rochester and had continued to take classes over the years, studying with the likes of Timothy Traper and the Garth Fagen dancers.
Until his movie career took off, he was quite serious about dance, said Andrew Palermo, a choreographer and high school buddy, the other founder of the troupe, which now has seven members and is being financed by the Dance Theater Workshop.
