Entertainment

#OscarsSoWhite 2021?

In 2021, nine out of the 20 acting nominations went to people of color. It is an honor to be nominated and the honors need to be more racially diverse.

Published

4 years ago

March 23, 2021

Kiki

photo courtesy Twitter

Six years ago in 2015, April Reign created #OscarsSoWhite.

She is a former lawyer and now a speaker and inclusion consultant.

In January 2020 Reign published a column for Variety, “#OscarsSoWhite Creator: With a Mostly White Academy, What Could We Expect?”

According to Reign in 2015 the Academy membership was 92% white and 75% male. In 2020 the membership was 84% white and 68% male.

In 2021, nine out of the 20 acting nominations went to people of color. It is an honor to be nominated and the honors need to be more racially diverse.

There were notable snubs: In the Best Picture category, only a nomination for “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Nothing for Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods;” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” or Regina King’s directorial debut, “One Night in Miami.”

King was also snubbed in the best director category.

Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to be nominated for best director of “Nomadland”.

Chadwick Boseman was posthumously nominated for best actor. One of three men of color.

Andra Day and Viola Davis were nominated for best actress. It was Davis’ fourth nomination, making her the most nominated Black actress in the history of the Academy.

Black supporting actors grabbed three out the five nominations with both Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield for “Judas and the Black Messiah” and Leslie Odom Jr. for “One Night in Miami.”

The Academy’s diversity program doesn’t begin until 2024 and only the Best Picture nominations must meet a diversity and inclusion standard.

Anita Hill chaired a Hollywood Commission last year which found that white men had a 78% positive view of diversity within the industry vs. 47% of Black women.

Hill said: “[t]hat’s troubling in and of itself. But it’s also troubling because we know that if you look at the leadership in entertainment, that we know that they look like the group of people who believe that we’ve made significant progress. They don’t look like the people who have been marginalized historically.”

And a recent study from the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that the industry is losing $10 billion each year because of inequality.

The authors concluded: “[f]ewer Black-led stories get told, and when they are, these projects have been consistently underfunded and undervalued, despite often earning higher relative returns than other properties.”

The 93^rd Academy Awards airs Sunday, April 25 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. on ABC, postponed from February 28 because of the pandemic.

It has been postponed three other times most notably and ironically in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The Academy is no Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globes) with no Black members, but needs to do better with racial diversity.

USA Today, and Variety.com were sources for this story.

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Arts and Culture

Promise Marks Performs Songs of Etta James in One-Woman Show, “A Sunday Kind of Love” at the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley

“The (show) is a fictional story about a character named Etta, aka Lady Peaches,” said Marks. “She falls in love with Johnny Rhythm, leader of the Rhythm Players Band and headliners of Madam G’s Glitta Lounge.” Marks channeled the essence of Etta James, singing favorites such as “Sugar on the Floor” and “At Last.”

Published

6 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo Courtesy Of Promise Marks.

Special to the Post

It was “A Sunday Kind of Love” at the Black Repertory Group Theater in Berkeley on Saturday night, Dec. 7. The one-woman musical based on the music of Etta James featured the multi-talented singer Promise Marks

Marks, who wrote and directed the musical, also owns PM Productions.

Marks channeled the essence of Etta James, singing favorites such as “Sugar on the Floor” and “At Last.”

In between her soulful songs, Marks narrated impactful moments of the love story and journey of blues and forgiveness.

Marks sultry voice carried the audience back to an era that echoed with the power of Black music and a time of great change.

Marks said James shared love for the Black community by singing at gatherings during the Civil Rights Movement uplifting the people.

“She spoke to the movement, spoke to the people, and let her music speak for itself,” Marks said.

Backing the musical’s monologues, images and videos of Etta James are projected for the audience to view. While the production is fictional, Marks infused script with the unfairness and heartbreak James experienced while performing.

Marks performed gospel artist Donnie McClurkin’s “We Fall Down” as she narrated acts of reconciliation and forgiveness among the characters at Johnny Rhythm’s deathbed.

Marks, who regularly sings for the Miss America Pageant, was asked to perform as Etta James last year. “(At the event) a lady yelled out to me: ‘You’re Etta James!’ And then the audience went crazy. I said to myself, ‘I may have something here,’” she said.

Within 12 months, Marks created the musical production, which featured a dozen songs honoring “the great legacy of Etta James,” she said.

Marks says she was saddened to see how Etta James was often judged by the struggles in her life and wanted to offer attendees a more layered view.

“Etta’s life was so big. I want people to know that she was more than her drug addiction,” said Marks. “We can’t make that her legacy. Her catalog is too amazing. You can’t just be that and have the catalog that she (created). I don’t want the addiction to be the focus: I want her music, her element, her sassiness, and what she brought to be the focus – her woman-ness, that she was strong, and I wanted to honor that.”

Set Designer Nora Burnette says she created the set segments to mirror James’ life story. A set designer for BRG since 2016, she explained that her process of researching the scenario and the character serve as her inspiration for her design.

“I try to design a set as close to real life as possible so that the actress can deliver the performance sincerely,” said Burnette. “By creating the right setting, it helps the actors release the true essence of a character.”

The set brought the story to life and absolutely floored Marks. “Once Promise (Marks) saw the actual set, she understood my vision: ‘Wow, you get me. You get it,'” Marks told the designer.

Born Jamesetta Hawkins, Etta James, began her career in 1954 and gained fame with hits such “At Last” and “I’d Rather Go Blind.” She faced a number of personal problems, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album “Seven Year Itch.”

Co-producer and BRG Development Director, Sean Vaughn Scott, works with Overseer Production. According to producer Pamela Spikes, “Marks talent truly does Etta’s life story justice.”

Pam Jacobs of Hercules, a friend of Marks’ mom, Jackie Smith, said, Marks “was fabulous and sang all of those songs flawlessly.”

“I’m so proud of my daughter,” said Smith.

Marks, who has served as an instructor for BRG, will return on Feb. 21- 23 for an encore run of the musical.

“It’s an honor to be a part of the BRG (Black Repertory Group) family and continue our executive director Dr. Mona Vaughn Scott’s vision for the Black Repertory Group theater,” said Marks.

The Black Repertory Group Theatre is located at 3201 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA 94703. For information, visit: BlackRepertoryGroup.com

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Oakland Post: Week of December 11 – 17, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 11 – 17, 2024

Published

5 days ago

December 13, 2024

Oakland Post

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Activism

Black Talk Radio Network’s Recent Podcast Offers Perspective on Nov. 5 Election

“Time for an Awakening” is a Black Talk Radio Network program that runs on Sundays from 7-9 p.m. According to the program’s website, past guests have included Dr. Molefi Asanta, BaBa Ashra Kwesi, BaBa Runoko Rashidai, Dr. Leonard Jeffies, Michelle Alexander. Boyce Watkins, State of Black Farmers series and many others.

Published

1 week ago

December 8, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Gerald Horne, left, Obi Egbuna Jr., right. Courtesy image.

Special to The Post

University of Houston Professor of African American Studies Professor Dr. Gerald Horne and renowned speaker and advocate for Pan-African unity, Obi Egbuna Jr, were in conversation on the podcast “Time for an Awakening” hosted by Bro. Elliott and Bro. Richard on Dec. 1.

“Time for an Awakening” is a Black Talk Radio Network program that runs on Sundays from 7-9 p.m.

According to the program’s website, past guests have included Dr. Molefi Asanta, BaBa Ashra Kwesi, BaBa Runoko Rashidai, Dr. Leonard Jeffies, Michelle Alexander. Boyce Watkins, State of Black Farmers series and many others.

With the election in the rearview mirror, Horne, a historian, and author of “The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism” and “Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music,” raised the idea of a Black International Front Conference.

He described proposed locations and the need for independent political organizing in Black communities across the country, with a focus on local elections and alternatives to the direction of Black political leadership.

Joining the conversation in the second hour with valuable information was the External Relations officer to the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association, and former correspondent to the Herald, Zimbabwe’s national newspaper, Obi Egbuna Jr. A poet and playwright, Egbuna is most known for his passion in creating ties within and among the people and nations of the African diaspora.

He has organized chapters of the Pan African Student Youth Movement in St. Louis, Missouri, Seattle Washington, Charlottesville Virginia and Chicago, Illinois, Egbuna has also written several Resolutions to the United Nations covering a wide range of issues, including HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and Police Brutality issues in the United States.

To listen to the podcast, please go to https://timeforanawakening.com/?powerpress_pinw=111154-podcast.

Sources for this story include Wikipedia and Time for an Awakening media.