Apocalyptic vaudeville

There’s a long tradition of Black American playwrights and filmmakers subverting the tropes of vaudeville and other popular entertainments to critique white supremacy and its violent power structures—power structures that of course also include American theater and filmmaking. 

Douglas Turner Ward’s 1965 satire Day of Absence (which led to the creation of the Negro Ensemble Company) used Black actors in whiteface to portray the racist residents of a town where all the Black people had mysteriously disappeared, forcing the white folks to do all their own work for once. (And—perhaps even more enraging for the racists—leaving them with no marginalized group to attack as a way of assuring themselves of their superiority.) Suzan-Lori Parks’s 2002 Pulitzer Prize–winning Topdog/Underdog featured Black brothers named Booth and Lincoln, the latter of whom earns a living by wearing whiteface and letting people pretend to shoot him in an arcade. Spike Lee’s 2000 cinematic satire, Bamboozled, followed a modern-day, televised minstrel show and the violent fallout resulting from its disturbing success. 

White artists have also gotten into the act, so to speak. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s 2010 musical The Scottsboro Boys used the format of a minstrel show to critique the infamous racist railroading of nine Black teenagers in 1931 Alabama who were falsely accused of raping two white women. Two of the characters, Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones, are based on stock characters from minstrel shows. Those characters were traditionally played, of course, by white actors in blackface on the minstrel show circuit, but by Black actors in Kander and Ebb’s musical—a choice that was not without controversy at the time.

Tambo & Bones
Through 11/11: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, refractedco.com, $25

Dave Harris’s Tambo & Bones takes the concept even further by starting out with the title characters literally trapped inside a minstrel show, like Estragon and Vladimir in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. (Beckett’s masterpiece also inspired in part Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, produced at Steppenwolf in 2018 in a production eventually filmed by Lee.) 

Tambo and Bones escape the trap of minstrelsy to find huge success as rap stars—but that brings its own set of existential traps. Even a future seemingly devoid of white people due to a genocide can’t stop the inexorable pull and aura of violence and inherited trauma that tears at the two men. 

Now in its local premiere with Refracted Theatre Co. under the direction of Mikael Burke, Harris’s play in three acts is bold, disturbing, raw, messy, sardonic, angry, and thought-provoking—polemical without offering any easily digestible bromides about ending racist oppression and its legacy in America. Featuring hypnotic performances from William Anthony Sebastian Rose II as Tambo and Patrick Newson Jr. as Bones, it’s a piece that interrogates itself with the same degree of pitilessness as it does its audience. (The “playwright,” in the form of a life-sized puppet seated in the front row, is disemboweled onstage by his characters at one point.)

The first scene is a traditional minstrel setting, complete with deliberately primitive painted backdrops and footlights. (Sydney Lynne and Eric Watkins deserve plaudits for their work designing the set and lights, respectively, which incorporate huge tonal shifts between the discrete acts in the intimate Bookspan space at the Den, enhanced by Eme Ospina-López’s projections.) Rose’s Tambo just wants to snooze under a cutout of a cardboard tree, but Newson’s Bones is bent on collecting quarters—if not from his friend Tambo, then from the audience. Tambo joins him in the quest for coins, but cautions Bones that if you’re going to get money from white audiences as a Black artist, “You’ve gotta deliver a treatise on race in America.”

There is an inherent binary viewpoint built into Harris’s play, with Tambo representing the conscious artist and Newson the crass capitalist. On the surface, that split may seem to provide a critique that’s too dramaturgically easy and schematic—low-hanging fruit on a cardboard tree. But particularly in the second act, where we see the two men as a monumentally successful hip-hop duo performing in concert, Harris complicates the narrative. How do you confront audiences (especially white audiences) about the truth of Black lives without exploiting trauma? Who owns these stories?

In a 2020 interview for Playwrights Horizons, where Tambo & Bones premiered in 2022, Harris said, “I literally ask myself: what am I doing here besides trying to gain the currency of laughter, or the currency of someone thinking that I’m cool for writing this? Am I putting this up for an audience just because I want an audience?” 

And if you’re actually advocating as an artist to burn it all down, what happens next? That’s the chilling last part of Harris’s triptych, which takes an unexpected (for me, anyway) turn into sci-fi dystopia that questions the meaning of being human beyond racial conflict (while still inextricably tied into the stories inherited through that conflict).

In this last act (which takes place after a brief intermission), Rose and Newson appear as “themselves,” giving us the history that led to the eradication of white people from America. But being the top dogs, in effect, doesn’t mean that new underdogs won’t emerge, clamoring to be recognized as fully human in their own right. 

Newson and Rose are in magnificent synchronicity throughout Burke’s production, from the stereotypical minstrel tropes in the first scene to the passionate rap performance in the second part of the triptych, to the third leg (which is disarmingly chilly and distanced—until it isn’t). In addition to the previously mentioned design elements, the costumes by Kotryna Hilko and sound and music by Ethan Korvne add visual and aural verisimilitude and texture.

The ending of Tambo & Bones is abrupt and unsettling. But then again, an insistence on tidy-bow narratives is its own form of oppression. Harris’s play is notable for the ways in which nobody gets away clean, or cleansed of collective guilt and confusion about their motivations.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Bettye LaVette Savors Another Moment

photo: Danny Clinch

***

“If you know anything about my career, you know how many times it’s been over. I feel like it’s over every time,” Bettye LaVette reveals.

Yet the vocalist’s artistry and resilience has predominated. That audacity and fire is encapsulated by the title of her new studio album, LaVette!

The singer had just turned 16 in 1962 when Atlantic released her debut single, “My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man.” She continued recording and performing over the decades to follow, slowly but steadily winning eyes and ears, before achieving breakthrough success with her 2003 album, A Woman Like Me. The record also supplies the title of her 2012 memoir, written with David Ritz, which shares her extraordinary narrative. That story has included a series of ANTI- releases, as well as two recent albums for Verve, produced by Steve Jordan, who worked with her yet again on LaVette!

The core band on the record features Jordan on drums, along with guitarist Larry Campbell, keyboardist Leon Pendarvis and bassist Pino Palladino. Guests include: Steve Winwood, John Mayer, Jon Batiste, Ray Parker Jr. and Pedrito Martinez.

Jordan heaps praise on LaVette, describing her “as a combination of Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis.”

“I haven’t seen Steven since I read that, so I’m slapping him,” LaVette says with a laugh. “But really, I was just so flattered because I think so much of him and I know how he listens.”

Jordan affirmed his commitment to LaVette by releasing LaVette! on Jay-Vee Records, the label he founded with his wife Meegan Voss.

 “I’m 77 years old and do you know anyone else who has somebody spending $200-300,000 on them at this age?” LaVette asks. “It’s not, ‘Every time I quit, they pull me back in.’ It’s ‘Every time I think I’m just worthless, somebody does something astounding.’ When Steven offered to pay for it, I couldn’t say anything, which he was well aware doesn’t happen to me often.”

Following an album of Dylan songs [Things Have Changed], then a record honoring iconic black female singers [Blackbirds], what led you to focus on Randall Bramblett compositions this time around?

After Verve said, “It’s been large, but you can go now,” Steve Jordan suggested, “Why don’t you find a writer that you like and have him write you some songs?” I thought about this for minute and I said, “I have this writer that I met and I’ve already recorded two of his songs.”

Randall had opened for me, and as I was coming into the gig, I could hear his melodies and loved them. So I invited him to my dressing room and asked, “Do you write these for other people or do you just do them for yourself?” He said, “I write them for anybody that will do them.” I said, “Would you send me something?” So he sent me a batch and I chose those two, one of which then came out [“Where a Life Goes” on 2015’s Worthy]. Joe Henry produced it, and it’s just a beautiful song where I’m talking to my dead sister. He was talking to his mother, but he’s just such a clever writer.

So when Steve told me to find a writer, I reached out to Randall and I ended up sending Steve about 18 songs. Randall’s songs are vignettes. They’re little movies and pictures.

Has the process of recording gotten any easier over the span of your career?

I hate recording and I hate rehearsing because I have the attention span of a child. So it has gotten much easier now because when I tell producers, “I’m gonna sing this once for me and once for you,” they trust me. When I was younger and I did “My Man,” I stood there with Johnnie Mae Matthews and she went through it with me, line by line.

But I haven’t sung anything more than twice in 40 years. I practice in my head. My husband hates that because he thought that when he married me, he’d be getting all these free shows. [Laughs.] But I don’t sing in the shower. I don’t sing around the house. I’m singing all of the time in my head, though, so when I’m getting ready to do something, that’s how I’m practicing. It still amazes my husband that he doesn’t hear me sing anything, and then I go on the stage or I go in the studio and it’s there. But I didn’t just do it; it’s been in my head all the time.

Unless I’m in the studio or on stage I feel kind of silly acting like that or going through it all. That’s why it’s been so hard for me to audition. Then everybody’s so surprised when I do the performance. Jim Lewis [her longtime mentor] said, “If you come and see her rehearse, you will never come and see here again.” But when I’m on stage it’s another thing altogether.

My husband constantly says, “You have to see her. You have to see her.” Everybody that saw me signed me.

What are your memories of your initial live gig?

The first time I ever stepped up to a microphone, I was singing “My Man.” I had never been to a show. I had never been on a stage. The few things that I sung in church—just two or three things—I had sung a cappella with no microphone.

The very first time I went onstage was after “My Man” came out and I was doing promotion around the city. This was in Detroit for a DJ—it was like a record hop. Marvin Gaye was there because I think “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” came out the same weekend.

When I went on the stage, the band said, “Count it off,” but I had never heard those words before in my life. So Marvin Gaye kicked it off on the side of the stage because I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. I knew how to sing it when it got going, but I didn’t know how to get it going. [Laughs.]

How has your approach changed, if at all?

These days I’m so relaxed. I used to lose my voice all the time. For one thing, I felt like I had to hit all these high Etta James things when I first started singing. If it was a three day gig, I usually did two shows a night. The first night I’d do the two. Then the next night I could only do one and next night I couldn’t talk at all.

I later found out that most of it was due to the fact that I was singing too hard and that when I was finished with the show, I should just shut up and go to bed. [Laughs.]  But now, when I go on the stage I remember all the things that Jim had been trying to teach me. When I was trying to sing a particular way, he said, “You can sing, just let it come out however it comes out.”

To this day, over 30 years since he passed away, you continue to acknowledge Jim Lewis and his role. You thank him on LaVette!

There’s nothing that comes out of my mouth that doesn’t make me think of him. He’d say, “Stop attacking the tune, just relax. Let the tune come to you.”

He wasn’t trying to show me how to be flashy. He was trying to show me how to be an upstanding citizen who sung like Louis Armstrong would’ve liked.

As I said in the book, he put me out of the car one night because I said I didn’t like Sarah Vaughan. I meant he literally did so on the freeway. [Laughs.] I wasn’t that far from my house, though.

I had never belonged to a union. I belonged to four of them when I was with him. I never had any insurance. Just a myriad of things. He said, “These are the things that make you an honorable person.”

He didn’t care if I could pack Yankee Stadium or not. He made me such a unique artist because he wanted me to just be that—an artist. He could hear this thing that I work so hard on now to keep preserving. I could not hear it then. I just thought that if I was as good as my contemporaries, then that was as good as I wanted to be.

In your book, you mention that despite the frustrations and near-misses early in your career, you decided you couldn’t get cynical because if you did, it would turn up in your music. At this point I imagine you can explore the full gamut of emotions given what you’ve been through, as people certainly understand and maybe even expect that of you. Does it free you up to express different sentiments that you didn’t feel comfortable with when you were younger?

The only things I didn’t feel comfortable with when I was younger were songs like “Lush Life.” If you remember the part in book about when I was in living in Muskegon, my family had this jukebox, and there were these songs—I didn’t know if they were country songs or blues songs or pop songs, they were just songs.

I knew a song by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. I knew one by Gene Autry because my father loved him. My mother loved all the country western singers, so I knew a song by Red Foley. My sister was 13, so I knew songs by her new artists, which were B.B. King, Little Lester and people like that. Those were the first songs I ever learned.

Jordan and LaVette discuss LaVette! at New York City’s Greene Space in conjunction with the Americana Music Foundation on May 31, 2023. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

By this point you have such familiarity with Steve, Larry and the other musicians. How did that impact the record?

Well, one big difference is when we got the ready to lay the tracks down, I caught COVID. [Laughs.] That weekend I had done this concert with all these various people and I caught it. Then we were gonna go in the studio a couple days later.

I’m so glad that we had already gotten together here at the house. I cooked them jambalaya or something like that. Then me and [Leon] Pendarvis, Steven and Larry, we worked out what it is I wanted it to be.

Larry Campbell was the first person I knew who had that COVID when it first started. I asked him, “How long was it before you were in control of your voice?” He said, “About six months.” Well I had days. [Laughs.] It’s not like being hoarse, it’s like you don’t have possession of your voice. You reach for it and it’s not there.

Thankfully the guys knew what I had in mind and we did it on Zoom so they all had my face before them. Steven had me plugged into his headsets and everybody else did. That was the way we laid down the tracks because they’ve worked with me before, they’ve been in my home and they’re such sensitive musicians that they were able to lay down these tracks. It turned out to be intimidating. I told them they were trying to outplay me. I said, “Y’all got me in a weakened state and you decided to jump on.” [Laughs.]

You mention Larry, who is both a badass musician and an affable, unassuming person.  

Have you ever met a nicer person in your entire life? I swear to you, he and Tina Turner and Freda Payne, those are the nicest people I have ever met in my entire life. Also, Smokey Robinson’s first wife, Claudette. I’ve never met anyone as nice as they are.

Both Larry and Penn both, they know that I adore what they play. It’s not even adoration anymore. It’s like, “You know what’s in my heart, play it.” [Laughs.]

Sometimes my mind goes back to the questions of “If I’d had these guys all the time, would the records have been better? Would they have been bigger?” But I’m glad I have them now. They’re everything an old woman needs. They’re cute and they play good. [Laughs.]

How did you first come to work with Steve?

The Verve deal was such a strange thing. My album covers before that were done by a woman named Carol Friedman, who is just a fabulous photographer and music enthusiast. She said, “I would love to hear you do some Bob Dylan tunes.” I told her, “I would love to do them if you can somehow find someone who will pay for them.” [Laughs.]

So she took the whole deal to Verve—the Bob Dylan idea with Steve Jordan producing it and Larry Campbell playing on it. I didn’t know Steve Jordan and I didn’t know Larry Campbell and I didn’t like Bob Dylan but I wanted to be on Verve. If Jim had known that I was on Verve and he wasn’t dead, this would have killed him. [Laughs.] He loved Verve and he was a musician during the time that Verve was recording all the black artists.

Verve liked the idea even if I didn’t at first. But I liked the money and I immediately liked the musicians. They let me pick the tunes, so I figured I could find 10 songs that I liked.

What was that process like?

Kevin [Kiley, LaVette’s husband and manager] listened to like a thousand songs and he narrowed it down to a hundred for me and said, “I think you might like these.” I can’t sit and listen to music like that. With Kevin, you could pipe it into his coffee and he could drink it. Oh God, he loves music. I couldn’t have made a better choice. To this day he keeps files for me. If we’re randomly in a restaurant and I say, “I really like that tune,” he’ll look up who did it or who wrote it.

He’s everything that I’m not musically. He even likes music more than I do. [Laughs.] He also likes all the people, so he remembers all their names. It took me 50 years to find him but I made a perfect choice.

In A Woman Like Me you describe winning a contest to sing the Schaefer Beer jingle—“Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one” a slogan that likely wouldn’t pass muster these days. At the very end of the book you mention that you were looking for audio of the ad. That was over ten years ago, did anything turn up?

Not yet. We have looked so hard, and Kevin is still looking, because the other day he found an article about the winners. You know, that happened through a contest, and he found an article about the winners of the contest and he tried to contact them to see if they had anything else. But we haven’t been able to find it. I really do not know what happened to it.

I’ve devoted a great deal of time and thought—sober and drunk—trying to think of the arranger’s name because he went on and did other things in popular music. I can’t think of his name, though, for anything. I can see him so clearly in my head and I was thinking he may have copies of it.

I didn’t even know that I had won a Clio award for it. When Kevin and I got married, he chased them down religiously and I got my little statue. When Kevin found the award, I was just stunned. It was the first award I won in my life and did not know I had won it for 30 years. [Laughs.]

You’ve been singing “Let Me Down Easy” for over 50 years and your performance remains moving and powerful. Does your head go to the same place every time?

It’s like when my dog Mickey got hit by a car. It hurts exactly like it did when I saw that happen. When I go on the stage, I go to places like that.

“Let Me Down Easy” is never a happy song. When I was recording it, I was looking at the guy that I was singing to. That doesn’t happen anymore but I know how that felt and I will never get over that feeling. There’s no other way I can feel when I sing that song.

On this new record, “It’s Alright” is another tune that just breaks my heart. When we were recording it, that one was actually a three-fer because I cried so much during the whole thing. I sounded just like a drunk crying, which is what I was. I told Steven, “I’m getting sober and I’m doing this tune, even though it hurts me.”

Is there another song from the record that you’re eager to share live for one reason or another?

I want to go out there and dance to “Mess About It.” This arthritis is jumping on my ass and trying to beat me up, but I’ve got me some boxing gloves and I’m fighting it. I won’t be able to move to it in the heels that I like to wear, so I’ve lowered the heels. I may even have to lower them to flats, but I want to dance to that tune. “Plan B” reminds me of Johnny “Guitar” Watson and I want to be able to walk to that in time. The arthritis doesn’t want my legs to bend when I want ‘em to bend but I am working on this. I love these tunes so much, I want to stride along. This ain’t a matter of dedication, it’s a matter of arrogance. [Laughs.]

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Exclusive: National Black Arts Festival Honors Will Packer With ‘Trailblazer In The Arts Award’

Will Packer was recently honored by the National Black Arts Festival with the “Trailblazer In The Arts Award.”

The fundraising “Gala- Mahogany: A Celebration of Black Arts,” was a night of celebrating Black artistic excellence. It also featured dinner curated by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson. 

During his acceptance speech, Packer shared his story of moving to Atlanta and following his dreams.

“I moved to Atlanta straight out of FAMU,” Packer said. “My brother Rob Hardy and I had a U-haul truck. We had $257 and we had a dream and Atlanta was the place where our dream came to thrive. Atlanta is the place where your dreams can come true. And I will say that if I’m in this room, I will say that if I’m in another room in this country. I’ll say it in any room around the world because it’s the truth. And Atlanta has been a foundation for me. It allows me to thrive in the way that I am thriving in my career.”

Packer continued by discussing the importance of art. “We live in a very polarizing time right now,” he said. “We live in a time where you have to pick a side. You got to pick an ideology. You got to pick a political affiliation. We hate our neighbors. When we don’t even know why we hate. We are so divided right now. You know art has the power to connect people. It has the power to change perspectives. Art allows us to see the world through somebody else’s prism. Art allows us and brings us into worlds that we otherwise would not even know exist. And that’s why the work of this foundation is so vitally important.

Packer wrapped his speech by discussing NBAF and why attendees of the event should continue to give back to the foundation. 

“Each and every one of you that are here are supporting this organization,” he said. “You’re supporting the mission of what these fine folks are doing. I’m so honored to be chosen this year to be a part of this. I want it to continue. I will do my part to help it continue and I want everybody in this room to know that when you are supporting art, you are supporting humanity. You are supporting the future. We need it to survive.”

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Going Dark: New Guggenheim Exhibit Curated By Its First Black Woman Curator

Going Dark: New Guggenheim Exhibit Curated By Its First Black Woman Curator
Installation view, Going Dark: The
Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,
October 20, 2023–April 7, 2024. Photo:
Midge Wattles © Solomon R. Guggenheim
Foundation

For Dr. Ashley James’ second exhibit at the renowned Guggenheim Museum, it was important for her to center the work of Black and female artists.

“My identity as a Black woman is relevant in everything I do, though I would say my identity as a Black feminist perhaps even more so as it relates to this exhibition,” James told ESSENCE.

“To me, Black feminism means to question power – how it’s constructed, in what ways, and to what ends. And I think many of the artists in the shower are troubling power,” James added.

When contemplating the name of the exhibition, she landed on “Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility.”

James said she was typing ideas into her Notes app, telling The Cut, “We know if somebody says, ‘You went dark on me,’ they’re saying, ‘You didn’t reply to my text.’

“It’s also resonant in terms of darkness as a concept. The darkness that is literally Blackness. I’m well aware of the cheekiness of ‘going dark’ and what it means for it to be a Black rotunda show in the museum that does not have a track record of having Black artists at all, let alone in the rotunda. It clicks,” said James.

Going Dark: New Guggenheim Exhibit Curated By Its First Black Woman Curator

What does it mean to be visible? This is the very question James attempts to explore, especially as it relates to being seen and how one is seen by the world.

“I think people who have been made less visible are going to be more conscious of calling attention to it,” said James.

“The show takes on many aspects of visibility across the spectrum — from something that is quite specific to Black women and the sense of a double marginalization that comes with race and gender, to the question of surveillance and what it means to be hyper visible in our ever-increasing technological surveillance state, which is something that everyone is thinking about to some degree,” continued James. “It just makes sense that marginalized peoples would be the first ones to kind of call it to attention, and that is reflected in the grouping.”

Museumgoers can view this exhibition, which opened Friday, Oct. 20 until April 7, 2024. It occupies the quintessential part of what makes up the Guggenheim—the rotunda. You can experience more than 100 works by nearly 30 artists, presenting “art that feature partially obscured or hidden figures, thus positioning them at the ‘edge of visibility.’”

James is a graduate of Columbia University and received her Ph.D. from Yale University in English literature and African American studies. She became the Museum’s first Black curator in 2019. This is her second exhibit at the Guggenheim following 2021’s “Off the Record.”

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Essence Fashion Digest: Rihanna’s Loewe Super Bowl Outfit Launch, Ksubi’s New Artist Program, And More

Essence Fashion Digest: Rihanna’s Superbowl Outfit Is Now Available For Purchase, Champion’s Latest Campaign Highlights Black Artists, And More 
Getty Images

This week in fashion has been an exciting one. For instance, you can now purchase Rihanna’s Super Bowl outfit from this year. If you’re a die-hard when it comes to stylish, spot-on Halloween costumes and don’t mind forking out nearly $3,000 to have the artist’s Loewe jumpsuit you can pick it up online. This week, Ksubi launched a new creative program, “Blank Canvas.” It highlights up-and-coming artists and for its first installment, the program highlights Buffalo-based artist Wasabi who customizes painted pieces in a capsule collection. 

In New York City, the flagship store le PÈRE hosted its grand opening this week. This event was accompanied by the brand’s release of its Fall/Winter 2023 collection. Champion has also released a campaign highlighting Black and brown creatives.

Lastly, it wouldn’t feel like a complete roundup of fashion news without a collaboration. Maison Margiela and Salomon have announced a collaborative sneaker that is quite stylish. This pair of sneakers is very true to Salomon’s design ethos as it arrives in a vibrant blue colorway. 

If you’re curious to see about these new launches and how to purchase Rihanna’s Super Bowl look, keep scrolling. 

Rihanna’s Super Bowl Outfit Is Available For Purchase 

This year’s Super Bowl performance by Rihanna was an iconic moment for the singer, but also for the fashion industry. She performed “Work” and other hits in a $2,900 Loewe jumpsuit. Now you can have this jumpsuit too. The luxury brand has come out with a three-piece capsule that includes the utilitarian-inspired piece in fiery red and in black. It comes with front jet pockets, zipped ankle cuffs, and removable D-ring straps. The collection also includes a pair of utilitarian trousers. 

The Loewe capsule collection is available now on loewe.com

Ksubi Launches Creative Program “Blank Canvas” With Contemporary Artist Wasabi

Ksubi has launched a creative program called “Blank Canvas” and in the first iteration, a collection with Buffalo-based artist Wasabi. The collection features denim and pieces like T-shirts and hoodies as the artist’s canvas of choice. Pairs of jeans include hand-made paintings on them that feature cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Goofy. The artist opens up the floor for the next generation of Sydney-based artists and the brand’s initiative to give these emerging artists a voice is commendable.

Ksubi’s capsule collection created with Wasabi is now available on ksubi.com. Prices range from $120 to $195. 

le PÈRE Opens Its First Brick-And-Mortar  In New York City 

The le PÈRE which was founded in 2022 by a community of creators has officially opened its first store. The  opening was accompanied by the brand’s Fall/Winter 2023 collection entitled “And Sometimes Boys.” The line features pieces that are heavily inspired by Korean artist June Paik. Selects like classic branded jerseys, hoodies, and printed fleece sweatsuits create a cohesive and artsy collection, which is to be expected from such a creative group. 

Champion’s Latest Campaign Highlights Black Artists And Designers

From rappers to athletes to artists, the latest Champion campaign was made to connect, collaborate, and push boundaries between different creatives and did so flawlessly. The sportswear brand is redefining the word champion with its new campaign that highlights young Black and brown artists and designers. The campaign entitled “Champion What Moves You” celebrates individuality. The brand amplified a deaf rapper Signkid, in particular, who performed at a recent event. The rapper realized there was no sign for the word “champion” as a verb so he created one. 

Maison Margiela X Salomon Release A Collaborative Sneaker 

A luxury sneaker never looked so good. The blue sneaker called the “ASC Pro” is perhaps the two collaborators’ most practical and wearable shoe yet. Available in black and cream, the different hues of blue complement each other beautifully. This shape is also quite practical and wearable but will be released about a month after the “ASC Pro,” according to Highsnobiety

The Maison Margiela X Salomon “ASC Pro” is available on StockX.com

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Museum Of African American Art: SoCal Spotlight

Museum Of African American Art: SoCal Spotlight – CBS Los Angeles

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The Museum of African American Art is a nonprofit museum located at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw in Los Angeles. The unique art space allows them to exhibit the work of acclaimed and emerging artists and it is free for visitors.

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Google Doodle Celebrates Jazz Singer Adelaide Hall’s 122nd Birthday

Today’s Google Doodle is celebrating American-born, UK-based jazz singer Adelaide Hall on what would have been her 122nd birthday. Hall, who has been chosen in honor of UK Black History Month, is widely recognized for introducing scat singing during the Harlem Renaissance.

Adelaide Hall’s career spanned eight decades, from 1921 until her death in 1993. In 2002, she was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most enduring recording artist. Born on this day in 1901 in Brooklyn, New York, Hall’s father, a piano teacher, began teaching her at a young age. Unfortunately, he died when Adelaide was 15.

Tragedy struck again when Adelaide’s sister, Evelyn, died from influenza three years later. This left Adelaide to support herself and her mother. She began her career singing in the chorus line for Shuffle Along, a popular all-black musical on Broadway in 1921. The success of Shuffle Along helped establish African-American show business and gave Hall the opportunity to appear in several other musicals.

In 1925, Adelaide Hall joined a European tour for a show called Chocolate Kiddies, which featured songs by Duke Ellington. Performing in cities including Hamburg, Geneva, Paris, and Vienna, the show became a resounding international success, furthering Hall’s own career. She later returned to Manhattan, where she performed in shows such as Tan Town Topics, Small’s Paradise, and Desires of 1927 on Broadway.

However, Hall’s true breakout moment came when she hummed wordless vocals on “Creole Love Call” and “The Blues I Love to Sing” with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. The following year, “Creole Love Call” became a global hit, giving both Ellington and Hall recognition around the world. Hall’s humming on the track is widely considered to be the birth of scat, and it soared in popularity after this.

The story behind her inclusion on the track somewhat by chance. She and Ellington were appearing together in Dance Mania in Harlem, and Ellington was performing “Creole Love Call” as part of his set. Hall recounted, “I was standing in the wings behind the piano when Duke first played it. I started humming along with the band. He stopped the number and came over to me and said, ‘That’s just what I was looking for. Can you do it again?’ I said, ‘I can’t because I don’t know what I was doing?’ He begged me to try. Anyway, I did, and sang this counter melody, and he was delighted and said, ‘Addie, you’re going to record this with the band’. A couple of days later I did.”

Following the success of “Creole Love Call,” Adelaide Hall joined the cast for Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1928. The musical ran for over 500 performances and attracted more than a million people before moving to the Moulin Rouge in Paris. She also performed in shows including Brown Buddies and Stormy Weather Revue, as well as her own world concert tour, before deciding to move to the UK in 1938.

In the UK, Hall remained and recorded music for over seven decades. She performed live on BBC radio for troops during the Second World War and was one of the first entertainers to enter Germany before the war officially ended. Hall made more than 70 records for Decca and had her own BBC Radio series, Wrapped in Velvet, making her the first black artist to have a long-term contract with the BBC.

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‘Being authentically you’: Director gets to the heart of ‘The Color Purple,’ Techmoja’s latest musical

“The Color Purple” will be staged at Thalian Hall for the next two weekends. (Courtesy photo)

WILMINGTON — The last time Kevin Lee-y Green staged the musical “The Color Purple,”  his favorite number was the big gospel opener “Mysterious Ways.” Eleven years later, it has shifted to the penultimate, self-reflective “I’m Here.” 

“It’s interesting,” he told Port City Daily earlier in the week. “Back then, I didn’t have a care in the world, right? Everything was where I wanted it to be.”

In 2012, Green and his mom, Donna Joyner Green, were opening the musical in Brunswick County’s Odell Williamson Auditorium through their theater and dance company, Techmoja. The Greens founded the organization in 2009, with the goal to provide actors of color and disenfranchised talent a place in the theater world.

Green is reprising the show on Thalian Hall’s main stage, only this time he is going about it solo. His mother passed away in 2014.

“I wish my mom was here, her physical presence, to see everything I’ve accomplished — things she told me would happen for me,” Green said earlier in the week.

Since its founding, Techmoja has staged roughly 75 productions, including this year’s “West Side Story.” This time around with “The Color Purple” musical — based on the Alice Walker 1982 novel and subsequent Steven Speilberg film, and a new movie-musical set to debut Christmas Day — Green finds himself digging deeper into its meaning. 

The director and choreographer has reflected on its script and characters through the lens of his own life’s trials and tribulations and the women who have supported him along the way. The number “I’m Here” is about discovering a newfound confidence, a discovery of self-love and acceptance.

“I have dealt with a gamut of things — from homelessness, due to the great loss of my house burning down, to having to find my way without my mom, to financial struggles,” Green said. “But all of it is so beautiful in the timeline of my life, and it was so important and needed. And with all that, I’ve also had moments of triumph and prosperity. Through it all, God was the constant.”

“The Color Purple” touches on the same message. The story takes place between 1910 and 1940 in Georgia, told through letters written to God and between its sisters, Celie and Nettie. The plot highlights traumas and hardships of four Black women who endure rape, incest, domestic abuse, poverty, sexism and racism, but resilience always stands tall. 

“It is a story specific to a Black woman, but the themes are universal,” Diedre Parker, who plays Sofia, said. “Secrets, lies, betrayal, abuse — it’s all in there, things that happen regardless of socioeconomic status, race, gender, or ethnicity. I believe that if the audience finds the place where their story connects with that of the characters, they will see the humanity of others and will enter into creation with empathy and compassion.”

Green has also cast Denise Jackson (Celie), Rayana D. Briggs (Nettie), Adrienne DeBouse (Shug), Adriana Hough (Sofia) and Breonna Bowenas (Squeak) as female characters. The male counterparts include George Maize (Mister), Brandon Bradley (Harpo) and Maxwell Paige (Ol’ Mister). Their lives intersect in various ways, though at the heart of the story is Celie. 

As a 14-year-old, Celie has faced years of sexual abuse from her stepfather. He has taken one baby from her and now another, after finding out she’s pregnant again with his child. Her sister, Nettie, is perhaps one of Celie’s most beloved confidantes, a cheerleader and protector. Celie thinks her sister and children have passed away.

“Nettie represents my mother,” Green said. “I see that now after having had that great loss in my life since I did the show last time. There’s a feeling like the only person in the world who truly understood you and loves you is taken away from you and there’s nothing you can do about it — I mean, it really hurts.”

Celie’s story is told over many years until she’s 54. Jackson, who is performing the character, was an “American Idol” contestant and traveled from Texas to do the show. She’s coming off of the same role in August, as “The Color Purple” was staged at the Jubilee Theater of Arts in Dallas. The audience watches as Celia overcomes many harm and poverty without sacrificing perseverance or forgetting those who helped her along the way. It’s evident in the song “Miss Celie’s Pants.”

“After all of the mountains she had to cross over and all of the valleys she had to struggle through, she is wearing the pants,” Jackson described as one of her favorite numbers. “This show is important to Black arts because of its message of forgiveness and triumph.” 

Yet, she said it’s throughline — “that there are never losses but lessons” — will appeal to the human experience overall. 

Throughout the show, Celie’s acquaintances mirror attributes she learns from. There is Shug Avery, a prominent performer of the era, fulfilling many roles in Celie’s life — providing motherly guidance and becoming a love interest. She teaches Celie about self-worth.

DeBouse is returning to the stage to perform as the flamboyant blues singer, outspoken and confident. Despite her success, she is still judged by others as promiscuous and of low morality. DeBouse last took on the role in 2012 for the company and said she is drawn to her character’s honesty.

“She embodies what it means to endure hardships and prejudice, even from her own people, and still has the will to push forward and love herself,” DeBouse said.

The actress equates Shug’s real-life appeal to author Alice Walker’s astute insight into defining feminism — or as she writes “Womanist” — in myriad ways. Shug reaches a modicum of fame, something of which most Black community members in the South had little chance of doing at the time. 

“She was able to rise above the low expectations for our people of that era,” DeBouse said. “She was a self-made business woman who also opened up business opportunities for others. That I would define as exceptional.”

Green said part of Shug’s achievements came by adapting to her surroundings — putting on airs in different company and having to perform, not just to entertain but to acclimate. Yet, he said audiences see her truth shine when she settles into a juke joint and can “be free and sassy.” Green called the survival technique “code switching.”

“It’s when a person of color might be in the company of people who don’t look like them  and they feel like they can’t be physically themselves,” he said. “They may carry themselves a certain way in order to feel safe.”

It’s a concept he’s been familiar with in his own life and watched other Black friends and performers endure.

“We’re always taught to just keep pushing through,” he said. “It took me a long time to get to the point where I understood I don’t have to code switch to be liked and being authentically you is important.”

Green remembers doing the musical “Brigadoon” as a child — a story about a mythical village in the Scottish Highlands. He was the only Black child participating in a sword dance onstage and thought: “I don’t truly fit with any of these families.”

It didn’t deter him because his pursuit of the arts was one of pure love and passion, which his family’s support continued to nurture. His mother was the director at the Hannah Block USO and Community Arts Center and oversaw its Broadway on Second Street Camp.

Having grown up in Bolivia, Green performed in numerous productions locally during youth. He remembers it wasn’t until he saw “Jesus Christ Superstar” as a child with Boise Holmes as a Black lead playing Jesus a shift in perspective happened.

It’s one of the reasons Techmoja was founded, Green clarified: to amplify Black stories and show representation. In 2010, the production company did “Jesus Christ Superstar” with a full Black cast. Green is clear, however, the company’s goal isn’t to ostracize audiences or actors but add to the humanity that live theater emotes — particularly by telling stories that pinpoint the Black experience. 

“When I’m speaking about the importance of Black voices, people don’t tend to understand that it’s not coming from a place of separation or prejudice,” he said. “It’s coming from a place of: ‘I’ve lived this my entire life and I understand it,’ so for it to be told through the lens of someone who has actually been in and dealt with it is important.”

Green explained he leaned more into his own vulnerability directing the show and encouraged the actors to do so to capture the characters’ spirits. He directed them to tap into their personal lives.

“When you do, that’s when you get authenticity,” Green said. 

While misdeeds acted upon the characters and their resulting pain can easily propel anger, distrust and even minimizing one’s own strength, Green wanted to push beyond surface reactions. At some point, he said, peace has to come.

“You have to be able to move on with your life,” he said. 

That’s evident in Sofia, for instance, a fighter who teaches Celie about standing up for herself and learning when to let go.

Two actresses, Hough and Baker, are taking on the roles on different nights.

Parker played Sofia in 2012 for Techmoja. Her favorite track in the show is “Hell No” — focused on courage to choose survival and self-preservation.

“I wish I heard this song when I was an impressionable teenager,” Parker said. “It gives me courage to try things — to live fully understanding that I’m here because there is value in me. I’m not afraid to say it out loud.”

The Sofia character refuses to be a maid for white people and will not be subservient to her Black husband. She’s beaten by her husband yet manages to never lose hope, belittle herself or succumb to fear. The plot line is parallel to the fight Black people have had to content with and continue to, Parker noted.

“Death is not only physical,” she described, meaning a person’s character can always falter under the weight of mistreatment. “We [Black people] have to fight for body autonomy. We have to fight to wear our hair the way it comes out of our head. We are hypersexualized and over-policed. We even have to fight to own our emotions lest we be deemed ‘angry’ or ‘threatening.’ Sofia never gave up.”

That courage and vigor, in different ways, inspired the actresses performing as Sofia. The character is mostly recognized for her ability to soldier forth unflinchingly —  “being Black sometimes mean we are not taken seriously and we have to be stern on what we say and never step down,” Hough said. But Sofia’s softness is also apparent when analyzing how she fights for love.

“She was a jellybean: hard on the outside, soft and sweet inside,” Parker said. “This show covers the human condition in all its beauty and all of its ugliness. It tells the story of people who are oppressed but still find ways to live into their full humanity.”

For Green, “The Color Purple” musical is a full-circle moment, from its grassroots founding to recent expansion. His dance leg of the company began national tours in the last few years, with the goal to grow international Green has participated in panels at conferences with some of the nation’s best choreographers and his work can be seen on the big screen or streaming from one’s living room as well, such as a dance scene his choreographed for season two of Amazon’s locally filmed “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”

“It’s just mind-blowing because you always say these are the things you want,” Green said. “But when they come, you still realize, it’s just another day.”

“The Color Purple” opens Thursday night and runs through Sunday through Oct. 29, with showtimes at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday. A full orchestra brings to life sounds of the time, including ragtime, jazz, gospel and blues. Dances including Lindy Hop, African dance and liturgical moves, often experienced during worship — “all the things that speak to Black experience and culture,” Green said.

The show is at Thalian Hall, 310 Chestnut St.; tickets start at $37.


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Q BBQ Fest at Folsom Field and other events for today

Today

Q BBQ Fest Boulder: 5 p.m. Friday, Folsom Field, 2400 Colorado Ave., Boulder. The best in BBQ descend on Boulder for a feast at Folsom Field. The Q BBQ Fest brings together legendary pit-masters from across the country to serve award-winning BBQ with live music, cold beer and drinks, BBQ tutorials, live demonstrations and more. Choose from a pay-as-you-go ticket, or upgrade to VIP and enjoy all you can eat and drink. $20-$109, 303-492-3213, qbbqboulder.com.

First Bite dining events: 8 a.m. Friday, multiple locations, Boulder. Connect with community this fall as First Bite’s 18th annual dining event kicks off. From Friday to Oct. 29, celebrate Boulder County’s incredible dining scene — everything from best-kept secrets to fine dining. Diners experience a true celebration of the culinary creativity of the season’s best ingredients. Visit the website for a complete line-up. Free, firstbiteboulder.com.

Nick Critchlow Duo at BOCO Cider: 6 p.m. Friday, BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Boulder. The Nick Critchlow Duo is a singer-songwriter acoustic group from Fort Collins consisting of Nick Critchlow and violinist Thomas Viney. Nick Critchlow has been a NoCo musician for over a decade, playing his original acoustic tunes up-and-down the Front Range. His biggest musical influences are Gregory Alan Isakov, Nick Drake, Fleet Foxes and Jack Johnson. Thomas Viney is a seasoned violinist who has played in various orchestras and music groups for the past 15 years. Free, 720-938-7285, bococider.com.

Phoebe Robinson at Boulder Theater: 7 p.m. Friday, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Phoebe Robinson is a standup comedian, best-selling author, producer, actress and publisher. Robinson is also the co-creator and co-star of the podcast “2 Dope Queens” and HBO series of the same name. Other onscreen work includes the TV adaptation of “Everything’s Trash” and the standup special “Sorry, Harriet Tubman,” both of which are produced by her company, Tiny Reparations. She most recently received the Variety’s Comedy Innovator Award for her work and continued contribution in comedy. $35-$55, z2ent.com.

“Revel” — An evening of works presented by MFA candidates in dance: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Charlotte York Irey Theatre, University Theatre Building, 261 University of Colorado, Boulder. Experience the thesis work of MFA candidate Katarina Lott, as well as works in progress by first, second and third year MFA candidates. $20, 303-492-8008, cupresents.org.

Black Opry at The Dairy: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Black Opry is a home for Black artists and Black fans of country, blues, folk and Americana music. Country music has been made by and loved by Black people since it’s conception. Offered in two formats, writers rounds and festival sets, the Black Opry Revue showcases the diversity in sound and stories that Black artists offer to these genres. $28, 303-444-7328, thedairy.org.

Upcoming

“Detective Duck” book signing: 11 a.m. Saturday, Unity of Boulder Church, 2855 Folsom St., Boulder. Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver will speak about and sign their new book “Detective Duck: The Case of the Strange Splash”. $5-$14.99, boulderbookstore.net.

Halloween Laser Magic & Mysterious Moons of the Solar System: 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Fiske Planetarium, 2414 Regent Drive, Boulder. Enjoy this family-friendly treat (no tricks) at Fiske. Wear a costume and explore the most bizarre, eerie and otherworldly moons of the Solar System. Then, groove to the laser Halloween magic of Monster Mash, Jaws, Weird Science, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Superstition, Wizard of Oz, Time Warp and more. $8-$12, 303-492-1411, calendar.colorado.edu.

Día de los Muertos Community Installation opening reception: 5 p.m. Saturday, Boulder Museum Of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St., Boulder. BMoCA welcomes community members to celebrate and honor the memories of ancestors and loved ones with an exhibition of ofrendas, each made by a local community group in partnership with the museum. Bring the entire family and enjoy music, dance and traditional foods, including pan de muerto. Free, 303-443-2122, bmoca.org.

Hazel Miller at Roots Music Project: 7 p.m. Saturday, Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl, Suite V3A, Boulder. Hazel Miller and the Collective is a highly popular and in-demand band in Colorado. The band plays an eclectic mix of jazz, R&B, blues and original music that is guaranteed to make the audience dance and sing along. $20-$225, eventbrite.com.

Steely Dead at The Fox Theatre: 8 p.m. Saturday, The Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Hailing from the vibrant music scene of Denver, Steely Dead is a national touring band that has satisfied the curiosity of music lovers with their unique blend of Grateful Dead and Steely Dan. Comprised of four talented musicians — Dave Abear on guitar, Matt Abear on bass, Chris Sheldon on drums and Dylan Teifer on keys — Steely Dead has gained a dedicated following with their electrifying performances and soulful interpretations of classic tunes. $10, z2ent.com.

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