Issue 22  |  September 2010

?uestlove of the Roots, producer of Broadway play Fela!

?uest is in the works of helping to bring a musical to life on Broadway. The percussionist from Philly is an associate producer for a new production called Fela!

Read full story at Hip Hop Wired

Review of Seize the Day at Tricycle

The Tricycle’s ambitious rep season of three new plays by leading black British dramatists continues with Seize the Day by Kwame Kwei-Armah. Directed by its author, the show begins in cracking style. Our hero, Jeremy Charles, is a former insurance executive who has become a celebrity after appearing on a TV reality show. He is now a television presenter himself, and the play begins with a video sequence showing him confronting a knife-brandishing black youth while filming in a London shopping centre.

Read full article at Telegraph

Brixton’s Black Archive Centre inches closer

PLANS to build a world-class heritage centre are about to enter a crucial stage. The artist’s impression shows how the UK’s first national black heritage centre could look if £6million in funding is secured. A funding bid has been prepared to bring the Black Cultural Archive to the site of the derelict Raleigh Hall in Brixton – next to Windrush Square.

Read full article at South London Press

Jay-Z to shoot new video in London?

Anthony Mandler, the director of Jay-Z’s “D.O.A” video, is teaming up again with the Brooklyn rapper for another video. Mandler revealed via his twitter that he will be linking up with Jay-Z to shoot the video for the song “Forever Young” which features Kanye West’s protégé, Mr. Hudson.

Read full article at Six Shot

Soul Train Awards 09 in pictures

Love, peace, and soul, plus Keri Hilson and Monica were in the building at the 2009 Soul Train Awards at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta on Tuesday (Nov. 3).

Read full story and see pics at Rap-Up

Sophie Okonedo on Race, Obama and film Skin

They say that in the specific you find the universal, and Sophie Okonedo can relate. The actress was raised in such a very unique household, having been born in London’s East End to a Nigerian and an Ashkenazi Jew, yet from those particular roots, Okonedo’s found herself able to play cultural realities that are very far afield from her, whether it’s a Tutsi wife (her Oscar-nominated role) in Hotel Rwanda, a genetically modified super-agent in Aeon Flux, or even Winnie Mandela in the upcoming film Mrs. Mandela.

Read full story at Movieline

Ol’ Dirty Bastard tribute film to premiere in New York

A documentary film about Wu-Tang rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard is scheduled to premiere at Harlem’s National Black Theatre on Tuesday, November 10.
‘Dirty: One Word Can Change the World’ was directed by ODB’s cousin, Raison Allah. The film chronicles the life of the gifted vocalist and hip-hop icon, and features interviews with members of the Wu, Sunz of Man, Killarmy, the Black Knights and the Brooklyn Zu.

Read full story at The Boombox

SA satirists pulling the string

Ten tortured years in the making, Za News, South Africa’s first real attempt at televised political satire, has finally begun full production. But it will not be seen on South African TV. Originally commissioned by public broadcaster the SABC, a pilot episode was made but they refused to put it on air.

Read full story at BBC

Kwame Kwei-Armah: ‘Our Obama moment will be electing a black Mayor’

Britain will experience the “Obama effect” in full when a black man or woman becomes Mayor of London, according to one of the country’s leading playwrights. Kwame Kwei-Armah believes the election of a black Mayor would be a “true symbol of progress” – as about 45 per cent of Londoners will be from an ethnic community by polling day in 2012.

Read the full story at London Evening Standard

Men In Black III is in the works

Back in April we reported on news from the Sony ShoWest presentation that the studio was developing a script for a third Men in Black movie, something which built on the rumors from over a year ago that franchise stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were interested in suiting up for some alien escapades once more. Fast forward to now and an update has come out that Men In Black 3 has found its writer in the form of Tropic Thunder screenwriter, Etan Cohen.

Real full story at Screenrant

Black horror film aiming to terrorize box-office rivals

In the Closet is a low-budget, futuristic, horror/serial-murder mystery that mixes blood and gore with interpretive biblical storytelling of fire and damnation. The movie, made for about $30,000 over a 10-year period, is a collaboration between the Coleman family, an African-American owned theater arts company (COLSAC) and two White actors turned producers, Colin Stewart and Kathy Krantz, of Biblical Films.

Read full article at LA Wave

Thandie Newton on Guy Ritchie, racism in Hollywood and why Oliver Stone is ‘crazy’

Thandie Newton is small boned, beautiful and looks as fragile as a bird of paradise but she’s certainly no pushover. For her role in disaster blockbuster 2012 – whose central premise is that the end of the world starts on December 21 2012, as predicted by the ancient Mayan civilisation – she had to spend days submerged in a water tank ‘the size of a swimming pool’, filming scenes of floods that follow devastating earthquakes when the planet’s tectonic plates shift.

Read full story at Mail Online

Harlem Fashion Row brings Harlem front row!

NEW YORK, Oct 29, 2009 / FW/ — A rainy, Thursday night brings fashion’s elite, to the historic Harlem Gatehouse on 135 Convent Ave, for Harlem Fashion Row. In the company of fashion icons like Mickel Angela Davis, Amanda Lepore, and guest of honor Stephen Burrows, designers like Lialia, Dinna Soliman, Jose Duran and Epperson, set the stage for a night of high fashion in Harlem.

Read the full story at Harlem Fashion Row

Idris Elba to star in new BBC Drama

Idris Elba will be playing a character on the right side of the law in a new BBC series called Luther.The Hackney actor, who played criminal mastermind Stringer Bell in cult series The Wire, will play a police detective alongside Steven Mackintosh in the new show.

Read the full story at Associated Press

Opinion: African History Month 2009 by Toyin Agbetu

Writer Toyin Agbetu examines African History Month (AHM) 2009 in the hope that of the events that occur, one will create a defining moment that inspires generations to come and positively reflect on the political maturity of Africans in Britain.

Read full story at Ligali