A new star on the Hollywood walk of fame
How quickly life has changed for Jonathan Majors. Last month he became the only actor in the history of the film business to have movies that were number 1 and number 2 in the same week at the box office. Now, the actor and his talent manager Entertainment 360 have parted ways, an insider told Variety. This occurred three weeks following the “Creed:III” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp:Quantumania” star’s arrest on charges of assault and harassment of a 30-year-old woman in New York City in late March. Majors has also been let go by his former public relations manager, the Lede Company. Lastly, according to JustJared.com, the actor and fashion house Valentino mutually agreed that he would not attend the prestigious Met Gala which takes place in Manhattan on May 1…..
In celebration of its two year anniversary and its commitment to support authentic Black content and creators, Comcast NBCUniversal’s Black Experience on Xfinity announced the winners of its $1 million in Emerging Black Filmmaker grants. Winners were selected for their ability to tell engaging and culturally relevant stories about the African, African American, or other Afro subculture experiences through a feature film, documentary, or web series, and were selected by an esteemed panel of diverse, entertainment-industry leaders, including Gil Robertson, Lyn Sisson- Talbert, and Yvette Miley……
Martin Lawrence is set to receive the 2,753rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 20, which is located at 6617 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. The revered actor will receive his star in the category of Television. Guest speakers will include Steve Harvey and Lynn Whitfield, who co-starred with Lawrence in the film “A Thin Line Between Love and Hate,” and also appeared on Martin. Lawrence and Will Smith were recently spotted in Atlanta, Georgia, filming the fourth installment of the “Bad Boys’ movie franchise, “Bad Boys 4.”…..
Media mogul, Porter & Craig Film and Media CEO, Sgt Major Keith L. Craig went from the military to Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, where he helped bring in a record $3.7 billion as Theatrical Sales and Distribution Manager for their Central Division working on blockbuster films like the game-changing “Black Panther,” “Lion King,” and Oscar winner “Coco.” Sgt Major Craig, aka the “Hollywood Whisperer” is poised to take film development and distribution to the next level with his new company Porter & Craig Film and Media Distribution and its release of 50 films on broadcast networks, digital platforms, and in theaters….
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Seun Kuti blends Afrobeats and activism at the Apollo
Seun Anikilapo Kuti brought his Egypt 80 energy and intertwined his infectious Afrobeats with his no-holds-barred politics, challenging activism, and international call for social justice to Harlem’s Apollo Theater on Saturday, April 15.
Seun, the youngest son of Fela Anikulapo Kuti brought his Egypt 80 band, and, like his father three decades prior, infused the Harlem air with their musical spirituality hitting the soul in his hour-plus-long show. “Love and Revolution” smashed the acoustics. Learning and listening were the patrons to “Political Statement Number 1” as they were with the melodic, all-powerful “Top, Top, Top -People Over Things.”
The band was tight despite a couple of technical difficulties that broke neither concentration nor flow. They were in tune with the maestro Kuti, the background singers and dancers, and each other—the beautifully loud and multifaceted horns, drums, bass, and guitar. Seun’s immaculate saxophone and keyboards bolstered an already eagerly anticipatory sold-out crowd.
The dope song “We Move” was not on the playlist, but it was felt in the motion onstage and in the crowd. “African Dreams” were satiated as concert-goers ‘sabi’ that Kuti’s missions are earthy musicality and people-centered political advancement. That was understood the very second the people entered the historic Apollo Theater. The excitement was palatable. The enjoyment was mandatory!
The very mixed audience, while lively and pleasantly interactive, were more subdued than some of the other New York City crowds who have all but stormed the stage once Kuti’s familiar beats burst through the sound system.
Obviously enjoying himself as he delved deep into the roots of his music, Kuti addressed everything from the recent Nigerian elections, to the beauty and resilience of the “Black Woman,” to what manhood should be in terms of protection and building.
Reintroducing himself as Pro-Tem Chairman of his father Fela’s revised Movement of the People, Seun dove into his thought-provoking catalog, whilst recalling that it was when he visited the Apollo 30 years ago with his dad Fela “that I decided I wanted to be a musician. So this is full circle.”
RELATED: Seun Kuti rocks Sony Hall
Like father, like son. Seun shows always have a Fela-like political purpose. They are known for slamming the professional and middle class as a “conduit of oppression” through the real estate agents, bankers, journalists, and lecturers upholding a status quo. The life-long activist told the press previously, “It is our duty to begin to align with our people.”
The Pro-Tem Chairman of the Movement of the People continued the Fela Kuti-like rhetoric of vocal political opposition to the ruling elite with his “People Over Things” ideology railing against “capitalistic tyranny.”With his forever ode to the Black woman, Kuti spoke of ego-driven manhood gone awry, telling his Apollo audience, “This is the power we are losing, by trying to show that we are strong by beating on the weak…to accumulate as much material things as possible.”
He berated male conspicuous consumption and the obsession with big cars and bigger money.
“This concept of masculinity is very dangerous..so we must recalibrate our thinking. We must reengage in protection,” he said between songs.
“Our strength is not for oppression as African men. It is to protect …the true strength of humanity, the African woman. And anything you are doing other than that, you are not masculine…this is the real copping out, where we are afraid to protect, to build, to envision, to be sovereign.”
All this Kuti-like analysis, sounding like his Father’s son, and then came the big tunes, with a great band, and energetic dancers and singers. Seun Kuti, just off yet another international tour, is cementing himself as the consummate activist artist.
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Hashing It Out: Legal cannabis’ public safety role still a work in progress
April 20 marked the first “4/20” since legal recreational cannabis dispensaries hit the “Big Apple.” But roughly five months since the first Manhattan location opened, licensed shops are still devoid north of 42nd Street.
Vladimir Bautista, co-founder of Latino-owned cannabis lifestyle brand Happy Munkey, says the lack of licensed recreational dispensaries uptown means Harlemites are stuck choosing between a long commute or just buying from an unlicensed seller.
“The reality is that if you are [far] away and you go on the site and there’s this…new cannabis space but [if] you [need] to drive [far], most people are not going to do that,” he said.
His company held a symposium with Community Board 9 on Columbia University’s campus to promote cannabis literacy this week. But Bautista says he’s still waiting for his Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD) license to be approved. He says businesses like his will be key to rooting out unlicensed retailers.
“I believe that what happens is the market corrects itself because then the community bands together around [people they’ve known for] the years [that] now they have a license,” said Bautista. “And that helps shake out the opportunists and helps the industry find out because at the end of the day, regulators can only do so much. The authorities can only do so much. The community also needs to have people that they respect running these organizations.”
This past February, Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg partnered up to crack down on unlicensed dispensaries. The D.A.’s Office sent more than 400 letters to shops around the borough warning them of potential eviction.
“Legalizing cannabis was a major step forward for equity and justice — but we’re not going to take two steps back by letting illegal smoke shops take over this emerging market,” said Adams back then.
The NYPD says it cannot stop unlicensed shops from displaying cannabis and its main tactic to curb them is through the nuisance abatement law, which allows police to label and penalize properties over alleged nuisance or illegal conduct.
“However, the nuisance abatement law does not authorize the closure of these unlicensed dispensaries until all parties have had an opportunity to present their case to the court,” said an NYPD spokesperson. “This can take weeks or months.”
But dispensaries, legal or illegal aren’t the only public safety concerns uptown faces in the wild, wild west of weed retail. Multiple shootings were reported in Harlem inside or nearby smoke shops over the past year. Earlier this month, a 36-year-old man was fatally shot inside of a store steps away from the prime intersection of 125th and Lenox. A former NYPD detective was struck by a stray bullet last October outside the same shop.
To be clear, the city is still in the early stages of rolling out these recreational dispensaries. So how do New Yorkers know if they’re purchasing licensed cannabis? Taylor Randi Lee— Public Affairs Coordinator for the NYS Office of Cannabis Management—says a list is currently on the agency’s website.
“In New York State, licensed dispensary owners must use the Display Verification Tool: a sticker issued by the New York State Office of Cannabis Management in the window of their shops near their main entrance for all cannabis consumers to see,” added Lee. “This Display Verification Tool will contain a QR code that is linked to the Office’s list of licensed adult-use cannabis dispensaries. Unlicensed and illegal dispensaries will not have access to the Display Verification Tool stickers and consumers will know that without that sticker, those dispensaries are selling untested products.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
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Barkley L. Hendricks photos on view
Last week the Jack Shainman Gallery premiered “Barkley L. Hendricks: Myself When I Am Real” a retrospective of the photographs of the late artist Barkley L. Hendricks.
Best celebrated for his paintings, Hendricks, who passed in 2017, is known for having reinterpreted the visual perceptions of African Americans.
Black people had been traditionally depicted by artists of different ethnicities as either viewed from afar or as embodying certain tropes which could then be comfortably understood by those observing them. Hendricks’ full-length portraits of various people helped transform Black visual culture: he allowed everyday Black Americans to express a sense of style and to stand before viewers with a distinct assurance. In his oil paintings from the 1960s and 1970s, Black Americans are seen presenting themselves as they wanted their presence to be understood and interpreted in the world.
The Shainman Gallery in Chelsea, which is representing Hendricks’ estate, presents some of the artists’ photos in this new exhibit. Photography was another medium he often turned to—these photos allow us to see the world and period of time he lived through, and to look at what caught his attention.
These photos range from the 1960s through the 1990s, important periods in African American history. These decades saw changes brought about by the Civil Rights Movement and a resultant political and social progress on the grassroots level. Hendricks’ Shainman Gallery photos show how he witnessed the way the lives of ordinary Black people changed, and the ways that even celebrated African Americans––from Martin Luther King Jr. to 1983’s Miss America Vanessa Williams to jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong to attorney Anita Hill and to the boxer Muhammad Ali––imprinted on U.S. society.
The gallery notes in its literature for the exhibit that Hendricks has many photos he took while at a bar near where he lived in Connecticut: “A series of television screens, another recurring theme that fascinated Hendricks throughout his practice, documents vignettes of popular culture, news, and public figures such as Anita Hill and Ronald Reagan. The images serve as a record of the American media landscape and Hendricks’ own surroundings; a large number were taken at the Dutch Tavern, a local establishment in New London, Connecticut, over the years. Covering a broad range of subject matter, the series demonstrates Hendricks’ keen eye for American life during the birth of media oversaturation and the shape of visual culture in its wake.”
These photos are not solely of African Americans. They show the world African Americans lived through—where other figures, like Salvador Dali and Richard Nixon and Judy Garland also made impacts. Swirling around this larger world, Black life in America is put in context.
“Barkley L. Hendricks: Myself When I Am Real” is on view through May 26 at the Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 W. 20th Street, Manhattan, NY. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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Nets, down 2-0, look to bounce back versus the 76ers in Brooklyn
Down 2-0, the Nets are in a must-win game tonight (Thursday) against the Philadelphia 76ers in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center in their opening round best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.
In Games 1 and 2 in Philadelphia, the Sixers, powered by this season’s Most Valuable Player finalist, center Joel Embiid, proved too much for the Nets to handle. The Nets fell 121-101 last Saturday, then 96-84 on Monday.
The Nets have no one capable of countering Embiid’s massive seven-foot, 280-pound frame. He posted 25 points in Game 1 and a commanding performance in Game 2, putting up Most Valuable Player stats of 20 points, 19 rebounds, seven assists, and three blocked shots. His one blemish was eight turnovers.
The defensive philosophy employed by the Nets in this series has been to double team Embiid for the majority of his touches. Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn employed that strategy for much of the first half of Sunday’s game, but went away from it in the second half. The Sixers then took over in the final two quarters after trailing 49-44 seeing the Nets’ offense falter.
“The only adjustment made was that the ball didn’t go in the hole for us,” Vaughn said afterwards. “We got open looks. They tried to go zone. We had enough shooting out there. The ball just didn’t go in.”
Embiid has had ample support. All-Star point guard James Harden and his emerging third-year backcourt mate Tyrese Maxey took turns being Embiid’s No. 2. Maxey was stellar on Monday, leading the Sixers with 33 points, and Harden controlled Game 1 with 23 points and 13 assists.
At the start of this season the Nets were betting favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Now they are led by Mikal Bridges, who was acquired in the February trade of Durant to the Phoenix Suns. Bridges was masterful in Game 1 with 30 points on 12-18 shooting. Forward Cam Johnson, who came with Bridges to the Nets from the Suns, had a team-high 28 points on 11-19 shooting in Game 2.
Game 3 is tonight (Thursday) at 7:30 p.m. at the Barclays Center, and Game 4 will be on Saturday in Brooklyn at 1 p.m.
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