Author: tourist_yp6g7u

On May 6, legendary actress, comedian, and EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg (née Caryn Johnson) appeared at 92nd Street Y to promote her new memoir, “Bits and Pieces.” Interviewed before a packed audience at the venue’s Kauffman Auditorium by award-winning playwright, television writer, producer, and novelist Adriana Trigiani, Goldberg opened up about the thing most important to her: family. Specifically, she discussed her memories of her mother Emma and brother Clyde and all they meant to her.

It’s clear that though Goldberg lost her mother and brother in 2010 and 2015, respectively, she still misses, perhaps even grieves, them. She shared that her mother kept an extremely neat home in the Chelsea-Elliott Houses where she grew up, and was an extraordinary person all around. Goldberg’s mother Emma started out as a nurse and pivoted to become one of the first teachers in the nation’s Head Start programs, which prepare children for school. 

“She became one of the great teachers for Head Start for kids,” Goldberg said. “It did amazing things for children.”

She also detailed some of her mother’s struggles, including with mental illness, and how they affected her. 

“I had to go through changes. My mother had a nervous breakdown. I was seven or eight and she disappeared from my life for two years.” Goldberg seemed to draw somewhat of a parallel between this experience with her mother and her own of raising her daughter as a single mom, working long days and often being away to build a career in Hollywood. “I know that most mothers would say let’s wait and it’ll come back around again, but I didn’t think that’s going to happen for me,” Goldberg revealed. 

Her daughter later opened up to her about her feelings around that decision. “My kid said ‘Hey, listen. I know when you left I got more than one pair of shoes. We ate, we did things, we went places. But I missed you.’ I said ‘Well, as strange as this is going to sound, I missed you too.’ And she said, ‘Not enough to stop what you were doing.’”

The advice she received from her mother even helps Goldberg navigate the challenges posed by today’s social media-dominated media landscape. “Social media is meant to f— up your day. Make you feel like you’re not enough. My mother always said, ‘Don’t let people throw you because people want to throw you. They want to make you uncomfortable.’ These people don’t know you and you give them the power to shut you down.”

Goldberg shared that she never attended high school but always believed in herself because of the confidence instilled in her at home. “The upbringing I had gave me the conditioning that I needed to never doubt that I was thinking smartly,” she said. 

As someone who once struggled with addiction, she was quick to add, however, that being “stoned” negatively impacted this otherwise steady self-assuredness.

Trigiani, whose love and respect for the comedian was evident throughout their conversation, called Goldberg her “heroine” and revealed that Goldberg got her through a rough time in her own life. Asked if she was always funny, Goldberg shared that she didn’t believe she was. 

“I don’t think I was funny in high school. But my mother and my brother and my aunt were funny,” she explained. “They were funny in the house, and whatever I have I stole from my mother and my brother and her cousin.” 

Whoopi added that she was entertained, as a child, by their imitations of the dialects from various people found in the environs of their Chelsea neighborhood. “They were doing ‘New York’ and they were irreverent. I wasn’t humorous, but people thought the stuff I was doing was funny so they labeled me as a comic.”

During the conversation, Goldberg displayed one of the best examples of how and why she has held steady as a sought-after celebrity, even after more than 40 years in the business. The famously picky eater did a five-minute long riff on the virtues (none) and flaws (too numerous to count) of food, setting them in the context of everything from candy stores to alien invasions.

Much of the conversation was centered around grief and the grieving process. Goldberg’s grieving process, she shared, was easier because of the relationship she had with her mother and brother while they were alive. She stated that after each died, she kept waiting for a big moment where she would be physically overwhelmed with the weight of it. “But that moment never came,” she said as if still surprised. “I didn’t understand why. And then like two weeks ago, I was like ‘Oh, I know why. It’s because you don’t have to.’ There was nothing left unsaid. They knew I knew how they felt about me. So there is none of that.”

The post Whoopi Goldberg promotes new memoir at 92NY appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Alabama born and raised author, screenwriter, director, and playwright LaDarrion Williams has given new meaning to the phrase carpe diem. Williams, who recently spoke to the AmNews in advance of his May 13 appearance at the 92nd Street Y (92NY), shared that he left his Alabama small town on a whim to strike out in pursuit of his lifelong dreams. “I was working at Taco Bell, depressed, and just wanted to get away. One night, my paycheck hit my direct deposit and I bought a $181 Southwest ticket. I’d never been on a plane before. It was a one-way ticket. I clicked to buy the ticket and I was like, ‘I guess I’m moving to LA!’”

Williams is promoting his soon-to-be-released YA Fantasy novel “Blood at the Root,” a book that appears to fulfill the dashed promises of the once highly anticipated film “The American Society of Magical Negroes (ASMN).” That story wasn’t about a Black Hogwarts as many assumed, but “Blood at the Root” in many ways, is. It chronicles the life of 17 year-old Malik as he tries to forget a traumatic past and begin a new life along with his younger foster brother. His journey brings him to a university, an HBCU in fact, that houses a community of people who, like him, harbor magical powers.

Williams recalls the flurry of activity among his peers when “ASMN” was initially announced. “That morning when I woke up my phone kept going off and there were all these texts and messages saying congratulations on the movie on Instagram and Tik Tok and what not. I was like, ‘Lord did they make my movie and not tell me? Or pay me?’” Williams was relieved, to say the least, when he realized “ASMN” was about something much different. “I was like, y’all, this ain’t my movie. This is not my story!”

Though Williams respects those involved with “ASMN,” the narrative isn’t something he is completely comfortable with, to the point that he decided not to see the film. “I’m at a point in my artistry where I want to consume something that’s going to uplift us though I’m not saying that story’s not uplifting for someone. But I can’t in my good conscience as a Black man and as a Black Fantasy writer who is out here fighting for my stories, go watch a movie where a Black character is only using his magic to help white people.”

Crushed hopes for the film were laid bare across social media after the trailer came out, the comments revealing, in no uncertain terms, the deep disappointment of many fantasy genre fans. “Black people are wanting to see us in a fantasy genre, because we have been excluded for years in the fantasy genre. Or we were only there as the sacrificial lamb. And so what people are really wanting and needing and what Hollywood and publishing needs to start realizing is that we want our own fantasy stories. We want our own Black magical stories.”

Williams’ plan for the story was originally as a film. In fact, the book was adapted from that now viral short film. “Blood at the Root wasn’t supposed to be a book. It was supposed to be a TV show. I wrote and I created a short film and the TV pilot. The reason I turned it into a book is because I had to pivot. Hollywood kept slamming their doors in my face.” His posts on X and TikTok have had tremendous engagement, including with popular existing trends like #BlackatHogwarts and #HBCUHogwarts. 

TV’s “Lovecraft Country” and music—Beyoncé’s music specifically—inspired Williams to write “Blood at the Root.” The song that propelled him was “Find Your Way Back,” the South African House  Music influenced track from “The Lion King: The Gift” album literally about reclaiming what one has lost. “It really sparked something for me,” Williams recalled. “Beyoncé created this beautiful story about a Black boy going from the Motherland all the way to here and the ancestry of it and I was like, I want to write that. That is going to be my mission.”

“Find Your Way Back” was also intensely personal for Williams. “I don’t know what that lady put in that song, but it really, it sparked something for me. It made me come to terms with not only myself but my childhood. My relationship with my father, my relationship with my mother, and my relationship with my hometown. We always talk about the inner child, but we never talk about the inner teenager because my teenage years were rough.”

Hippolyta’s (played by Aunjanue Ellis) mystical, galactic arc and the recreation of the events of the Tulsa Massacre as rendered in “Lovecraft Country” also catalyzed Williams’ writing of “Blood at the Root.” “She said I am—I am Hippolyta. I am.” Those are powerful words.”

Williams’ work contains some of the best examples of ways that popular entertainment can be lovingly referential, affirming, and uplifting. States Williams, “Those elements I took from “Lovecraft Country” and “Find Your Way Back” were like, yes, Blackness is magic. It’s Royal. It’s beautiful. It’s so badass! Beyoncé, thank you. Misha Green, the creator of “Lovecraft Country, Thank you.”

For more info, visit 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738959/blood-at-the-root-by-ladarrion-williams

The post New YA fantasy novel inspired by Beyoncé’s music appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

The nominations for the 77th Annual Tony Awards were announced and many Black folks are shining in the list of nominees. The Tony Awards will take place  on Sunday, June 16, live at the David H. Hoch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, from 8-11pm. A huge light has been turned on to “Hell’s Kitchen,” as the Alicia Keys musical has 13 nominations. Included in those nominations are best musical; best book of a musical—Kristoffer Diaz; best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical—Maleah Joi Moon; best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical—Brandon Victor Dixon; best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical—Kecia Lewis. 

There are nominations for best choreography for Camille A. Brown; best costume design of a musical—Dede Ayite, who is actually nominated for three different productions: Along with “Hell’s Kitchen,” Ayite is up for best costume design of a play for both “Appropriate” and “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.” “Hell’s Kitchen” is also nominated for best direction—Michael Greif; best scenic design of a musical—Robert Brill and Peter Nigrini; best sound design of a musical—Gareth Owen; Tom Kitt and Adam Blackstone for best orchestration; best performance by an actress for a featured role in a musical for Shoshana Bean; and best lighting design of a musical—Natasha Katz.

The beloved revival of the late Ossie Davis’ “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch” received six impressive nominations including best revival of a play; best direction of a play—Kenny Leon; best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play—Leslie Odom Jr.; best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play—Kara Young; best scenic design of a play—Derek McLane; and best costume design of a play—Emilio Sosa.

“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” received five Tony nominations for best play—Jocelyn Bioh; best direction of a play—Whitney White; best scenic design of a play—David Zinn; best costume design of a play—again, Dede Ayite; and best sound design of a play—Justin Ellington and Stefania Bulbarella.

“The Notebook” garnered a nomination for Dorian Harewood in the best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical. In the musical, “The Outsiders” Joshua Boone is nominated for best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical. In the musical “Suffs” Nikki M. James earned a nomination for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical. “Suffs” also earned a nomination for Paul Tazewell in best costume design of a musical.

When it came to plays, William Jackson Harper earned a nomination for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for his performance in “Uncle Vanya.” Quincy Tyler Bernstine is up for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play for “Doubt: A Parable.”

A play which is quite powerful to experience and is also up for best revival of a play is “Appropriate” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

The Black folks nominated in these categories delivered exceptional performances and displayed awe-inspiring talent. CBS, Channel 2 will run the production live and Paramount+ will have it on demand. This awards show always lets people see what Broadway has to offer, and right now that is certainly a lot. I’ll be at the awards covering it, and I hope you’ll be enjoying it at home.

For more info visit www.tonyawards.com

The post Black talent shines in this year’s Tony noms appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here