Tracy Chapman, Luke Combs win big with ‘Fast Car’

Tracy Chapman largely keeps out of the public eye. It’s been 15 years since she released an album. But at the 2023 Country Music Association Awards, the singer-songwriter won the award for song of the year.


Tracy Chapman wins song of the year for ‘Fast Car’

On Nov. 8 — 35 years after its debut — Chapman’s hit “Fast Car” won song of the year, making Chapman the first Black artist in the award show’s 50-plus year history to take home the prize, Rolling Stone reported. She wasn’t there in person to accept the award, but that didn’t keep those who were in attendance from giving her a standing ovation.

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The history-making moment comes thanks to country star Luke Combs’ remake of “Fast Car,” which became a blockbuster this year, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country songs chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Combs’ revitalization of the 1980s classic made Chapman the first Black woman to have the sole songwriting credit on a No. 1 country hit, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Chapman doesn’t give a lot of interviews, but in a rare statement earlier this year, the blues/folk artist said, “I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there,” per Billboard. “I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”

At the CMA Awards, Chapman again expressed gratitude for Combs and fans of “Fast Car” — from 1988 up to now.

“It’s truly an honor for my song to be newly recognized after 35 years of its debut. Wow,” Chapman said in a pre-written statement read by CMA Awards co-presenter Sara Evans.

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Luke Combs wins single of the year for ‘Fast Car’

Combs also took home an award for “Fast Car,” winning single of the year. In his acceptance speech, the first thing he did was give credit to Chapman.

“First and foremost, I want to thank Tracy Chapman for writing one of the best songs of all time,” he said. “I just recorded it because I love this song so much, it’s meant so much to me throughout my entire life. It’s the first favorite song that I ever had, since I was 4 years old.”

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Combs has performed “Fast Car” at his shows for several years, but it wasn’t until he released his fourth album, “Gettin’ Old,” that he officially recorded it. Since his release of “Fast Car” in March, it has generated more than $500,000 in publishing royalties — with a significant portion going to Chapman, according to Billboard.

“‘Fast Car’ has surprised me more than you can imagine,” Combs told Billboard over the summer. “Tracy Chapman wrote this perfect song that that I first heard with my dad and it has stayed with me since. I have played it in my live show now for six-plus years and everyone — I mean everyone — across all these stadiums relates to this song and sings along. That’s the gift of a supernatural songwriter.

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“The success of my cover is unreal and I think it’s so cool that Tracy is getting recognized and has reached new milestones,” he continued. “I love that she is out here feeling all the love and that she gave me a shout-out! Thank you, Tracy!”

“Fast Car” was also a massive hit upon its initial release, reaching No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and earning Chapman the 1989 Grammy for best female pop vocal performance.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

One Night in a New Boutique Hotel From Baltimore’s Most Beloved Design Shop

Welcome to One Night In, a series about staying in the most unparalleled places available to rest your head.

I didn’t know what to expect last summer when I boarded a train from New York to Baltimore. I’d been invited to stay at Guesthouse, a new boutique hotel run by the couple behind Good Neighbor, which Dwell previously profiled as one of the best independent design shops in the United States, so I expected to have a nice place to lay my head, but beyond that, I had no idea. I’d never been to Charm City before, and I associated it with little more than The Wire and John Waters. I didn’t even know if people really call it Charm City. I still don’t.

But when I tell you that I was changed by what I saw there—yes, I’m being dramatic, but no, I’m not exaggerating. Baltimore took this jaded New Yorker, worn down by years in the Big Apple’s competitive, fame-fueled design scene, and gave me hope for what a collaborative creative community could achieve. And there was good food. After my two-day visit getting to know local designers and the spaces they’re building together in Baltimore, I was daydreaming about the life I could be living on my train ride home.

Guesthouse sits on top of Good Neighbor, and as its name suggests, the store and cafe’s relaxed hangout vibe makes for an easy welcome into town. Its enormous terraced yard hosts a design festival each summer where local luminaries give talks and lead workshops open to the community. If you don’t have owners Shawn Chopra and Anne Morgan to show you around like I did, the lineups from those events provide a cheat sheet to getting the lay of the land. And, as I learned quickly, there’s a lot in the city to enjoy.

The team behind Baltimore design shop-cum-cafe Good Neighbor opened Guesthouse, a boutique hotel with seven carefully curated, shoppable rooms, above the store in summer 2023. 

The team behind Baltimore design shop-cum-cafe Good Neighbor opened Guesthouse, a boutique hotel with seven carefully curated, shoppable rooms, above the store in summer 2023. 

Tuesday

1 p.m.: I get to Guesthouse in the early afternoon after a five-minute cab ride from Baltimore’s Penn Station. The hotel is on a side street in the Hampden neighborhood, where Waters shot many of his movies, but the hotel and its sibling cafe/shop are much more subdued than what you’d see in Hairspray. They’d be easy to miss if it weren’t for the terraced hillside next-door that’s both a space for Good Neighbor’s outdoor cafe seating and a kind of billboard of activity announcing that this is a place for the artfully dressed to congregate.

Walking up the steps to the hotel entry is transportive. First, a porch with big jute rugs and Donald Juddesque furniture, buffered from the street by weathered steel guardrails and loads of plants, provides a hint of what’s to come. Then, the lobby. It smells like a hike in the Sierra Nevadas the day after you got a raise. Visually, it has the same vibe, a kind of groovy wooden dream accented by a steel beam running overhead and a large, moody painting by longtime local and Michelle Obama portraitist Amy Sherald inset into the wall. It’s the sort of fancy space in which the Poughkeepsie kid in me feels instinctively like it doesn’t belong, but Justin Timothy Temple, good neighbor’s director of brand and marketing, is all smiles behind the light-brick front desk and puts me at ease.

Products sold at Good Neighbor populate the spaces, in addition to original artwork and ceramics by artists from Baltimore and India, where owner Shawn Chopra’s parents are from. 

Products sold at Good Neighbor populate the spaces, in addition to original artwork and ceramics by artists from Baltimore and India, where owner Shawn Chopra’s parents are from. 

While I’m getting set up, Chopra comes in to say hello, and he takes me on a tour of the hotel’s two floors, containing seven rooms in total. The rooms are decorated slightly differently, but they all continue the elevated earthy look and feel, outfitted with reclaimed hardwood floors and Hem furniture, and it continues to smell amazing, courtesy of Le Labo products throughout. Chopra and Morgan designed the spaces with Baltimore interior designer Ariana Grieu, and Good Neighbor’s in-house design team led by Alejandro Villasenor Garcia crafted the built-in furniture. Almost everything is shoppable; products from Good Neighbor populate the spaces, including some rippled glasses from Ferm Living and an Iris Hantverk wooden shoehorn. A couple windows in my room look out over the lawn, and after Chopra and I make plans for dinner and a tour of the city the next day, I head downstairs with my laptop to work for the afternoon.

With a gooey cheese sandwich from the cafe in hand, I find a seat in the shade by a collage mural by local artist SHAN Wallace and start triaging my inbox. It feels more like I’m in a calm public park than a cafe patio, a more pleasant place to work than the cramped Lower Manhattan coffee shops I’m used to.

6 p.m.: At dinner time, my city-envy grows when Chopra and Morgan take me to Clavel, a taqueria and mezcaleria opened by buzzy local restaurateur Lane Harlan and chef Carlos Raba closer to downtown. It has a stripped-back warehouse interior that’s warmer than the typical postindustrial food hall thanks to just the right amount of decorative baskets and textile wall art. Unfortunately, it’s full, but it has a takeout side next door with a small shop selling a selection of earthy ceramics and the like. A few marshmallowesque stools by local woodworker Kenny Johnston catch my eye and summarize the overall casual but considered aesthetic. We grab an assortment of tacos and mezcalitas and some space on the covered patio. It’s the sort of setup that would be twice as expensive and three times as crowded in New York, and I’d probably have to follow some obscure foodie Substack just to know how to get a reservation. But here, I sit back while the sun starts to set, and I feel my blood pressure slowly drop.

A mural by Baltimore artist SHAN Wallace overlooks Good Neighbor’s outdoor space.

A mural by Baltimore artist SHAN Wallace overlooks Good Neighbor’s outdoor space.

While we eat, Chopra and Morgan point out a massive brick block of a building across the street, which filmmakers and artists Maori Karmael Holmes, Elissa Blount Moorhead, and Terence Nance, among other Black creatives, are turning into a production facility called Lalibela. In a conversation with Solange Knowles for Interview, Nance said Lalibela will be “a well-equipped, sacred space to express cinema and all the other things we’re doing.” He’s also described it as part of “a generations-long process of intentional community” and a gradual congregation in Baltimore of Black creatives from around the country. It’s part of a growing number of Black-run art spaces that have opened across Baltimore the past few years. Scholar and curator Joy Davis opened Waller Gallery, which primarily features artists of color, in 2017, and The Last Resort Artist Retreat, founded by Baltimore native and artist Derrick Adams, opened earlier this year and hosts Black artists for residencies.

Chopra and Morgan tell me about their own route to Baltimore and becoming purveyors of fine design. Neither has a background in the field. Chopra was a physical therapist, and Morgan is still a dentist, and though they long had creative yearnings, they say their parents encouraged them into stable medical fields, which they both attribute to their parents’ immigrant anxieties and aspirations. Though neither grew up in Baltimore, they found themselves there for work and settled in well enough to be able to pivot professionally. I marvel that they’ve been able to create all this while raising a young child, and I struggle to find time to make dinner every night.

The small seating area at Clavel, a mezcaleria and taqueria in Baltimore’s Remington area, features marshmallowesque paulownia stools carved by local woodworker Kenny Johnston. 

The small seating area at Clavel, a mezcaleria and taqueria in Baltimore’s Remington area, features marshmallowesque paulownia stools carved by local woodworker Kenny Johnston. 

Wednesday

9 a.m.: The next morning, after enjoying a coffee in my room in a surprisingly comfortable donut-shaped Hem chair, I meet Chopra downstairs for our city tour. Joining us is Michael Haskins Jr., a Baltimore fashion and furniture designer who founded Currency Studio here in 2007 and is now working on opening his first brick-and-mortar store. He tells me how much Good Neighbor and its summer festivals have brought the local design scene together. It sounds nice, but to my jaded New York design editor ears, it also sounds a bit like the many press releases touting “community-oriented design” and $10,000 vases that have populated my inbox in the past couple of years. Surprise shooed away my skepticism while we were swinging by Good Neighbor’s workshop/office down the street and Academy Award–winning cinematographer Bradford Young stopped in to say hello. “Smalltimore,” Chopra tells me, is how people refer to this city where you can’t help but bump into your local Oscar winner on your way to work. Even if this run-in was orchestrated as part of a PR charm offensive, I’m getting more convinced that Chopra and Morgan are actually bringing people together.

10 a.m.: I’m even more persuaded when we stop by the studios of a few of the designers and artisans who helped put Guesthouse together. First we head to Union Collective, an old Sears warehouse now filled with a brewery, ice cream factory, wine bar, and workshops for specialty fabricator Luke Works and Area, a maker of wooden furniture. Mark Melonas and Kim Scott of Luke Works walk me through the mold-making and casting process for an intricate concrete sink that’s in one of the hotel’s powder rooms inspired by Indian stepwells. Chopra talks about how he brought in influences from his Indian background and Morgan’s Egyptian heritage while collaborating with Baltimore creatives on outfitting the hotel space. It’s a thread that continues at our next stop, Blue Light Junction, a natural dye studio in an old warehouse just north of downtown in the Station North Arts District.

Strings of drying marigolds hang over the workspace in Blue Light Junction.

Strings of drying marigolds hang over the workspace in Blue Light Junction.

11 a.m.: Walking into Blue Light Junction is one of those moments where I remember why I ever got into design. Its founder, Kenya Miles, brings us through an unassuming brick facade into a raw workspace where strings of drying indigo and marigolds dangle from the rafters, gentle daylight glowing through them from small skylights. More flowers fill a large table over which faceted fabric lamps hang. Haskins helps finish the scene by turning off the room’s large work lights, leaving only the hanging lanterns glowing through skins that I now see are dyed in Rorschach-like prints. Chopra tells me that Miles dyed papyrus that he and Morgan brought back from Egypt and used as cabinetry paneling in the guest rooms, another subtle way the couple mixed their backgrounds into the hotel.

Upstairs, we meet Jorgelina Lopez of La Loupe, which produced the pendants I’d been marveling over downstairs. Lopez and her partner, Marco Duenas, are designers in residence in a shared studio space where she tells me how the duo worked with Miles on dyeing their wares using flowers from the studio’s gardens and from elders throughout the area. I paw through scraps of silk turned golden, and Miles shows me some of her earlier textile designs featuring abstract blue line drawings on ocher backgrounds. The capitalist in me can’t help but urge her to make more and sell them online because they are the perfect thing to hang framed by my bed, but it’s refreshing to be in a design space where the pressures of profit seem less oppressive and the focus is more about people coming together to share their skills. (Still, my inner Adam Smith is eased when Miles tells me about Blue Light’s concept store, opening soon.)

12 p.m.: For lunch I split from the group and take Haskins’s suggestion to try Ekiben, an Asian fusion restaurant with three locations in the city, one in Hampden. The first location opened in 2016, founded by three friends who met at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. It’s not particularly design-y, but the fried chicken hits the spot, and the servings are generous even for someone who has been known to order two entrees for dinner.

A Frama shelf library system displays a curated selection of design books and objects in one of the guest rooms.

A Frama shelf library system displays a curated selection of design books and objects in one of the guest rooms.

1:30 p.m.: I meet Haskins for an afternoon walk around the Baltimore Museum of Art, the sort of encyclopedic museum where you could wander all day. We talk about the benefits of the gentler pace of creative industries in Baltimore compared to cities like New York or Los Angeles, as well as the challenges of working somewhere that design tastemakers often overlook. But as he talks about a couple local arts development projects he’s involved in and the ease with which he seems to find collaborators, I wonder if the grass really is greener here.

4 p.m.: My cynicism creeps a bit back in after I split with Haskins and head to the waterfront, where I catch a water taxi to Federal Hill, which overlooks the harbor. I’m too late to make it into the American Visionary Art Museum, but I bookmark it, along with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Walters Art Museum, and the historic Peabody Library, for my next visit. I am able to wander around Harborplace, the 1980s mall-like development that my grad school real estate professor regaled as a defining project of late 20th-century American urbanism. Now mostly empty, I appreciate it more as a place to quickly use a bathroom, and I hope that the community being built by Good Neighbor, Lalibela, and other creative hubs in Baltimore will prove more enduring than this Disneyfied harbor experience.

6 p.m.: My outlook improves again when I walk back downtown and stop for a martini at Ulysses, another new design hotel in the city, this one is from national hotelier Ash, which has also opened trendy spots in Detroit, New Orleans, and Providence, Rhode Island. Ash–Bar at Ulysses is sumptuous and kitschy, burl veneer covering the walls and bright-red embroidered cushions on banquettes—glam irony with an eclectic crowd. The martini goes down easy and I consider another but remember that this is a work trip, and my managing editor instincts scoot me along. Dinner is at Le Comptoir du Vin, a rustic wine bar recommended by Chopra. Not two, but three different tables in the small backyard patio happened to know each other. One of the tables is on a first date, and a kind of theatrical hush takes over the space while the potential couple chat about work and life and debate about where to find good pizza. Smalltimore, my gin-tinged brain reminds me. Charm city.

Good Neighbor’s in-house design team created the custom millwork and Maryland oak bed frames. The reclaimed Baltimore Douglas fir floors are by local retailer Brick + Board. 

Good Neighbor’s in-house design team created the custom millwork and Maryland oak bed frames. The reclaimed Baltimore Douglas fir floors are by local retailer Brick + Board. 

Thursday

9 a.m.: I wake up refreshed, thanks to my room’s Avocado mattress, but a little sad to be leaving so soon. I console myself with the thought that I can return; though this stay is comped, I check Guesthouse’s regular rates and see that they’re within the splurge-able range even for those of us not making six figures.

Just one field trip today, this one with designer Jesse Hill, who meets me downstairs and gives me a ride to his studio at Mill No. 1, one of a few redeveloped brick industrial buildings along Jones Falls, a stream that runs through town. Hill, who has his own eponymous studio, cut his teeth as a designer of DeWalt tools and Herman Miller furniture and still collaborates with brands around the world. We talk about how American design often still isn’t as respected internationally as, say, Danish or Japanese work despite a long history of high-quality manufacturing. Hill points to companies like Emeco, which started in Baltimore and helped foster a local network of technicians that can still whip things up for designers who know how to ask. It strikes me as a failure of branding as much as anything, and the failure of editors and writers like me who often focus narrowly on U.S. cities like L.A. and New York and only occasionally airdrop into other locations.

1 p.m.: The winds of work blow me back to Good Neighbor’s terraced yard, but before I crack open my laptop I check out Green Neighbor, the plant shop at the top of the hill. It’s a partnership with local plant stylist Hilton Carter, who became famous during the pandemic’s lockdown years when so many of us were noodling all day with our fiddle leaf figs. I have no room for more plants at home, but I pick up a couple clever pot trays from La Vie Botanique for friends.

6 p.m.: Eventually it’s time for me to check out, and assistant manager Stephanie Nesmith helps me. She’s relatively new to the city and we talk about how much she’s enjoying settling in. Earlier, Eliseba Osore, Good Neighbor’s director of operations and growth, helped me at the front desk and talked to me about how she previously started ShareBaby, a Baltimore-based diaper bank. I wonder if Chopra and Morgan’s relative newness to design is part of why they’ve been able to build connections across disciplines and bring people together in a less competitive way. I regret I can’t stay longer but I’m curious what I can do with this inspiration when I get back to New York.

On my train ride home, I look up the Charm City moniker and see it was a marketing invention of the same era that created the mall-ified Harborplace. Mental note not to use it in conversation. Fortunately, the charm of today’s Baltimore speaks for itself. 

 Top photo by Justin Timothy Temple, courtesy Good Neighbor

Related Reading:

At Yowie Hotel, an Overnight Stay Is Also a Crash Course in the Best Design You’ve Never Heard Of

One Night in a Tuscan Estate Reborn as a Hotel With an Artist Residency

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Pottery artist Kristina Batiste named 2023 Awardee of The Current, An Artist Award

Submitted by Tacoma Art Museum.

Kristina Batiste, 2023 awardee of The Current, An Artist Award from Tacoma Art Museum.

Kristina Batiste, a Tacoma artist in pottery and sculpture, is the 2023 awardee of The Current, An Artist Award at Tacoma Art Museum.

As the awardee, Batiste will receive a $15,000 unrestricted gift and available institutional resources from TAM.

The Current, An Artist Award is an annual award supporting a Black artist living and working in the Tacoma area. Darrell McKinney was the first awardee in 2022.

TAM plans to open an exhibition celebrating The Current, An Artist Award in June 2024.

Batiste was one of three nominees for The Current, An Artist Award. She, Kellie Richardson, and Le’Ecia Farmer were selected by three regional nominators: Anida Youe Ali, Trenton Quiocho, and Berette Macaulay. The awardee was selected by the final juror, Jas Keimig, a Seattle-based arts writer and critic.

“All artists engage with the ideas of form and design — but a potter must also think about functionality, the way their objects fit in with our daily lives,” Keimig said. “Kristina forges new paths in that respect, crafting her exquisite, minimalist work in such a way that makes the viewer think about how we imbue our own histories into the objects we use to eat, drink, and entertain.”

The Current, An Artist Award is designed and carried out by Victoria Miles, Artist Award manager at TAM. “The three nominees are amazing artists, with extraordinary talent and vision,” Miles said. “Each artist uniquely represents the qualities and values of The Current, An Artist Award through their spirit and artistic practice.”

Tacoma Art Museum is open Wednesday-Sunday at 1701 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma. More info: www.tacomaartmuseum.org, 253-272-4258.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

57th CMA Awards: Highlights and Low Points of Country Music’s Biggest Night

The 57th CMAs showcased several historic moments in country music. Lainey Wilson‘s win as Entertainer of the Year made her the first woman to achieve this since Taylor Swift in 2011. Tracy Chapman became the first Black artist to win CMA Song of the Year, and Chris Stapleton broke his own record with a seventh consecutive Male Vocalist victory.

The performances at the awards were also noteworthy. Stapleton’s performance and Kelsea Ballerini‘s were particularly memorable.

However, amidst the highlights, there were also low points and moments that left us questioning. Let’s take a closer look at the best and worst of the night.

The acceptance speeches at the CMAs are known for acknowledging country radio and God. This year, the speeches stood out for their inspiration, spontaneity, and grace. Luke Combs set the tone by graciously thanking Tracy Chapman for her song, which he won Single of the Year for. Chris Stapleton paid tribute to his late mentor Mike Henderson, and Lainey Wilson acknowledged the dreams of aspiring women country singers in her acceptance speech for Entertainer of the Year. Jelly Roll‘s passionate speech as Best New Artist was also a standout. However, the award for Best Speech goes to Brothers Osborne, who showed their down-to-earth personalities and word nerd humor.

Kelsea Ballerini’s absence from the Entertainer of the Year nomination was a disappointment. Despite her numerous achievements in the past year, including a successful album release and hometown arena show, Ballerini went home empty-handed, highlighting the ongoing issue of recognition for women in country music.

Dan + Shay delivered a powerful and spontaneous performance with their song “Save Me the Trouble.” Shay Mooney’s intense stage presence and Dan Smyers’ musicality captivated the audience.

The tribute to Jimmy Buffett was a heartwarming moment. Kenny Chesney and Mac McAnally’s duet on “A Pirate Looks at Forty” set the tone, and Zac Brown and Alan Jackson‘s sing-along of “Margaritaville” engaged the crowd, creating a fitting tribute to Buffett.

The Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, and Hardy collaboration fell short of expectations. The performance, which heavily featured songs by Joe Diffie, felt more like a promotional effort for Hardy’s mixtape rather than a memorable musical moment.

Ashley McBryde‘s simple yet heartfelt performance of “Light on in the Kitchen” stood out amidst the larger, more extravagant performances of the evening.

Zach Bryan‘s absence from the stage was a missed opportunity. With his rising popularity, a performance from him could have attracted new viewers and added variety to the show.

The CMAs missed the chance to showcase a cross-genre performance featuring Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves.

Overall, the 57th CMA Awards celebrated historic moments and impressive performances while also highlighting areas for improvement in recognizing diverse talents in country music.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Tracy Chapman Wins Accolades at the Country Music Awards for ‘Fast Car’

Photo Credit: Hans Hillewaert / CC by 4.0

Tracy Chapman wins accolades at the 2023 Country Music Awards for ‘Fast Car,’ 35 years after the folk song’s initial release, thanks to the phenomenal success of Luke Combs’ country cover.

Folk singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman is now a Country Music Award winner, thanks to Luke Combs’ smash hit cover of her 1988 track “Fast Car.” The sole writer of the song, she won the 2023 CMA for Song of the Year, which is given to the song’s writer, just after Combs won Single of the Year for his cover of “Fast Car.”



“I’m sorry I couldn’t join you all tonight. It’s truly an honor for my song to be newly recognized after 35 years of its debut,” writes the 59-year-old Chapman in her acceptance speech, read by presenter Sara Evans, announcing the win alongside country music legend Bill Anderson. “Thank you to the CMAs and a special thanks to Luke and all of the fans of ‘Fast Car.’”

“I want to thank Tracy Chapman for writing the best song of all time,” said Combs in his acceptance speech, prior to Chapman’s win. “I just recorded it because I love this song so much. It’s meant so much to me throughout my entire life. It’s the first favorite song that I ever had — since I was four years old.”

The 33-year-old Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” has enjoyed phenomenal success and has earned Chapman around $500,000 in publishing royalties within just a few months of its release. Chapman’s win makes her the first Black artist to take home the prize for Song of the Year at the CMAs.

The 1988 release from Chapman peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Combs’ 2023 cover has reached No. 2; it has topped the Hot Country Songs chart for four weeks. The cover has also helped drive a legion of new fans to discover Tracy Chapman’s music, as Combs’ fans tend to explore other genres more than other country singers’ fans.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Halfway to the end, or just part one of this story?

Darin's Point of No Return

One thing to know about me if you haven’t already guessed it is that if I like a joke, you will hear it more than once.

In fact, there’s a belief by some in my orbit that I’ve been training to be a father my entire life because I’ve always dabbled in the black arts of “Dad Jokes.” And there’s probably a little truth in that.

But, in my defense, I was raised by a man who would respond to one of his jokes falling flat by repeating it 15 times in two minutes until you finally laughed. It mattered not if it was a laugh based on humor or one simply generated by a burning desire to make him stop.

If you laughed, he won. And he won a lot.

One joke that I’ve made pretty regularly for the past, say, nine years, is that on the morning of my daughter’s 18th birthday, she will wake up to a hot breakfast, a kiss on the forehead and her suitcases packed and on the front porch. It always draws a sigh, a shake of the head and a comment about just how rude yours truly can be.

And now it draws a little hyperventilating on my end.

My daughter turns nine next week. I’m not sure exactly how that happened already, or if the next nine will go just as fast, but, somehow, we are halfway to the point when she can just wake up and decide she doesn’t want to live with me anymore. She can set her sights on the vast world before her, pack up every lesson and bit of advice my wife and I have ever shared with her and just… leave.

I know, I know. That’s still a long way to go, and I have to just “live in the now” and enjoy and treasure every moment I do have with her. But is it really that long away?

It still seems like yesterday I was stumbling into a store with little-to-no sleep to grab a can of formula or a pack of diapers or some Zarbee’s Baby Cough Syrup — because every slight clearing of her throat at that point made my wife and I go into instant hysterics over the worst of possibilities. Just the other night we were comforting her over a nightmare, and Tuesday evening saw her running around with friends without a care in the world as she did some Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood.

And I’m just supposed to accept that I’m potentially halfway done with living with her and sharing in her world? Sorry. I just can’t. Not with this one. Not with my princess.

It’s like I’ve entered a second phase of mid-life crisis, only it’s my midway-with-her crisis. No sports car will scratch this itch. There is no scratching this itch. It’s sheer panic over the possibility that I might be halfway done with kissing her goodnight before she falls asleep, cuddling up with her on the couch on a lazy Sunday morning or going on one of our Daddy-Daughter Date Days.

And it actively makes my heart hurt.

There’s an old expression that I’d heard long ago that I’m about to butcher, but it goes something like this: I never knew how much I loved her until I met her.

I was pretty deep into my 40s and fully enjoying my life before my daughter appeared. I didn’t feel “a void” from not having children. I wasn’t bitter for anybody else’s life who was raising a family. Life was good. My wife and I traveled quite a bit. We went out with friends. I often woke up with a headache and a sore neck because I fell asleep on a bottle of Bushmill’s the night before. You know — all the good stuff.

But then Nov. 9, 2014 came around, and I was holding a screaming little pile of person on my lap while the heroes in the maternity room were trying to teach me how to keep her head secure while I held a bottle to her mouth. There was unadulterated panic flowing through my veins, sound ceased to exist and I felt like everyone else in the room was outside of a tiny bubble that only contained my daughter and I at the time. She looked up at me, and for the first time I really saw her eyes.

That was it. I was a goner.

And I’ve been gone ever since. It’s almost surreal how much I ache for this little human being to have the best day of her life every single day, or feel torn inside when she is scared or cries. There’s little-to-no doubt in our house who the “soft touch” is when it comes to her.

A few weeks ago, she went over to her friend’s house to play for a few hours. I got a call from the mother later that evening, and she said my daughter wanted to ask me something.

“Can I stay an extra hour,” she asked.

“Sure. That’s fine with me.”

“I knew you’d say yes.”

Then laughter. Then she hung up. I had been played. And it made me laugh on my end because… well, because it was funny. There’s an old saying in poker: If you don’t spot the sucker at the table, you’re it.

It’s me. I’m the sucker. And I’ll probably continue to be for at least another nine years, if not more.

Happy Birthday, Princess.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Calida Rawles and Deborah Roberts Have Major New York Solo Shows This Fall. Here’s How They Arrived at Their Moment

calida-rawles-artist
Portrait of Calida Rawles by Marten Elder. Image courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin.

When Calida Rawles first turned to water, it was as a means of obfuscation. In her sprawling, eerily hyper-realistic paintings, Black women and children drift peacefully across the surface of water as if transported elsewhere, or submerge themselves into its crystalline depths to escape the eye. For Rawles, situating her subjects’ own bodies within bodies of water sparks a plurality of meanings—moments of catharsis and healing, or of confrontation and resistance.

Recently, however, Rawles’s water has transcended its role as a placid membrane between viewer and subject to become a weathervane—a reflection of the turbulence in the world outside of the work. “Most of these works—not all—have darker water that my figures are submerged in,” says the artist of her latest series of monumental paintings—her largest to date. “It’s me feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what’s happening in today’s world.” This fall, the series is on view as part of “A Certain Oblivion,” Rawles’s debut New York solo exhibition with Lehmann Maupin.

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Calida Rawles, Untethered, Twice Bold, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin.

To mark the occasion, Rawles sat down with mixed media artist Deborah Roberts, whose show, “What about us?” opened earlier this week at Stephen Friedman Gallery. With her first New York solo presentation in over five years, Roberts unveils her most ambitious collage works yet, a continuation of her inquiry into Black childhood that emphasizes physical gesture—a hand reaching toward the viewer, an arm raised over a subject’s eyes—to evoke a feeling of direct address or self-protection.

Like her Los Angeles-based peer, the Austin-based artist is showing some of her biggest works to date at Stephen Friedman, a mammoth undertaking that—for both artists—is as invigorating as it is exhausting. Here, Rawles and Roberts discuss the hidden benefits of painting on a deadline, carving out time for self-care, and making work that responds to the worlds trials and tribulations.

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Deborah Roberts, I come alone, 2023. Photography by Paul Bardagjy. Image courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Deborah Roberts: Rawles, I knew your work before I knew you, because you designed the cover of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book. We have a mutual friend in Amy Sherald. I finally met you at my reception two years ago.

Calida Rawles: I had the same thing. I remember you had a show years ago, with all these names, these common Black names that were misspelled but are common, like Keisha. I was blown away by the concept, I had never thought of how these names that are common in my community are “foreign” to our [larger] culture. I thought it was brilliant. That was the first time I said, “Who is that?”

It’s been a blessing to see your work grow and I’m so happy that the art world has caught up with you, and has recognized what you’re doing. I’m very excited that we’re both doing these November openings in New York. I wish I could have been [at your opening]. I was preparing for my own that’s coming right behind it!

Roberts: It’s overwhelming. I was talking to Amy, who was so happy that we didn’t schedule our two openings and dinners on the same night. I’m excited to come to yours. Having a fall show in New York is exciting in its own right. This is not your first show, right?

Rawles: This is the first big, big solo show.

Roberts: Get ready, it’s a lot. All the smiles, all the photos, all that. I saw it happen to Marilyn Minter, and thought, Okay, that’s not going to be me. There are so many people who really just want to wish you well and share the love, but it’s overwhelming. Are you very excited about the work? What’s the theme of your show?

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Deborah Roberts, Girl / woman forever a work in progress, 2023. Photography by Paul Bardagjy. Image courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Rawles: The title of the show is “A Certain Oblivion.” Most of the work, not all of it, has darker water that my figures are submerged in. It’s me feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what’s happening in today’s world. Yet they still have agency, strength, and power throughout. That’s what I’m always trying to convey.

The water is symbolic to me, it’s something that is dangerous, scary, overwhelming, and larger than us. At the same time, it feels good and refreshing. I use that positivity as an undercurrent in the show. I’m excited to see where I pushed the work in a new direction for people. I hope it will be received well, but even if not, it will be well received by me.

Roberts: People are intelligent, they will understand. Our first nine months of existence are in water. We are the most vulnerable in water. Next week when all the chaos is over, I’m going to California to seek the water, the calmness of the water. I think your play on dark and light makes sense—we are in dark times. It’s very anxious out there, and expressing that may lend itself to lots of conversations—and hugs—that we need to have right now.

Rawles: I appreciate you talking all about me and my water. Now tell me about your show!

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Calida Rawles, Above Yesterday, Beyond Tomorrow, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin.

Roberts: My stuff is different this time. I wanted to push the idea of collage and find out what my stopping point was. I did that. The show is called “What about us?” I chose to couch my argument in the subject matter of children, to see how a little kid navigates the trials of adulthood. All the problems that we have as women—how we’re treated, our efforts to exist and to be beautiful, our hair—when do we put on our gloves and fight for our own identity?

Some of the work speaks to what happened to Ralph Yarl when he walked up to that door and was instantly shot. There is also the notion of bringing people into the work—and keeping them out—with physical gestures. It was about protection and acceptance in that way. I was really happy with all the works but one. I think it’s ugly.

Rawles: Stop! I already know it’s not ugly. No, no, no, I’m not gonna let you diss your child with me around. That is your baby. Maybe you need more time away from it to appreciate it.

Roberts: And I got an ugly baby. [Laughs] No, all babies are beautiful. I accept that interpretation because as Black artists right now, we’re at the top of the game. That means there’s a lot of pressure—from the galleries and institutions—to get more work out. We don’t get to sit with it long enough because everything is so hot and people are after it. But you work slower, right? How many works do you have in this show?

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Deborah Roberts, Girl with the poofball hair and beautiful skin, 2022. Photography by Paul Bardagjy. Image courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Rawles: I do need time. There are 10 works in this show. Recently, I see that I’m moving faster, which is good and bad. Bad because I wish I had more time with them, good because I’m happy to push myself as a painter. Sometimes I get all caught up with my little brush, pushing my paint, when it isn’t necessary. It has become a fun exercise because now some of the work is more painterly.

Even though someone else might say, “It looks just like a photo,” I don’t see that. I see all the play, the pieces that I pushed further than you’d think. I do wish there was more time, but it is beautiful to be wanted like this, right? When no one wants the work, you’ve got all the time in the world.

Roberts: I know, and I’ve been there. It’s so amazing how our lives have changed in these last few years, just because the art world finally took a look at what we’ve been doing and saying. This is our moment. We can have all the time in the world and be worried about our light bill instead. But you still need to make time for that self-care.

Rawles: I have to do better at that. I got a Peloton, is that self-care? I run myself to death, so I don’t paint myself to death.

“A Certain Oblivion” by Calida Rawles is on view through Dec. 16, 2023 at Lehmann Maupin in New York. “What about us?” by Deborah Roberts is on view through Dec. 22, 2023 at Stephen Friedman Gallery in New York. 

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Taking Aim at Gum Disease: Preventing Tooth Loss for a Healthy Smile

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Nancy Cato helps us see ourselves through art

Nancy-Cato-SFPUC-mural-on-Evans-at-Sewage-Treatment-Plant-Jamaris-Journey, Nancy Cato helps us see ourselves through art, Culture Currents Featured Local News & Views News & Views
Construction fencing around the $3 billion Sewage Treatment Plant upgrade project provides display space for Nancy Cato’s 18-panel mural, “Jamari’s Journey.” It’s along Evans Avenue east of Third Street. The panel of Jamari meditating is the most popular panel, Cato reports.

by Zaire Saunders

Nancy Cato, cartoonist and painter, helped invite a new perspective into Bayview Hunters Point. Cato was given the opportunity to paint utility boxes on Third Street when she was referred by William Rhodes, who works at the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center. He is a sculptor and mixed-media artist – and he is amazing. 

“I have to thank him for getting me the gig because Building 180 reached out to him and he couldn’t do it so he asked if I wanted to do it and I was like yeah,” said Cato.  

This isn’t Nancy’s first time with her craft. Long before she was painting murals, Cato was learning to draw at 12 years old. Her work then was “tracing Peanut cartoons and comic book cartoons.” Her early art education was enhanced through her Uncle Donny’s art book. That book and another on stick figures, she said, were how she learned to understand the positionality of the body.

Then she was ready. “I really started to get into my art during the graffiti era of the ‘80s. Back in that time, people were writers or they did characters or both, and I liked characters. So a lot of my drawings were a lot of characters.”

Jamari-art-by-Nancy-Cato-Bayview-Hunters-Point, Nancy Cato helps us see ourselves through art, Culture Currents Featured Local News & Views News & Views
Jamari can be found on the utility box at Third and Shafter.

Whiteness, unfortunately, permeated the work. “None of them looked like Black people. They all favored Latinos or white people. And that’s common! A young Black artist who can actually draw people who look like them is amazing.”

According to Nancy, “We don’t see ourselves. We are inundated with white people and white faces. Whiteness is everywhere – we take it in.” Even in a post-Obama and George Floyd uprising era, where diversity and representation are becoming the norm, children are still faced with the white world. 

“They probably see themselves more than they did, but still I’ve worked with kids now at my son’s school and Black kids draw white boys and white girls. They favor white people. Even with a surge of representation, we still take in what is ‘preferred.’”

For Cato, it wasn’t until her tendency to draw non-Black people was pointed out that she was able to face the truth. She says, “I had to come out of myself and say, ‘I am drawing a lot of white people.’’’ Once she started to draw more Black people, she noticed an uptick of support: “I did start drawing Black people back then. You get a lot of attention from Black people because Black people start to see themselves.”

The project she dedicated two weeks to was inspired by this need to see ourselves. “Even when I was working on this mural, whether I was doing the raccoons or Jamari here, they’d be like ‘wow’ and I’m like ‘wow!’ because there are a lot of comic book artists. But to actually see a Black person in the midst of creating, I think it does something for them. I think it should happen more often.”

Admittedly, her ideas for the utility boxes were not appreciated by all in an instant. Her sketches of raccoons, a particular favorite of hers, garnered criticism. “I’ve gotten feedback from a friend, you know raccoons, us being considered coons by white people, like what’s going on with the raccoons?”

A-raccoon-lifting-weights-Bayview-Hunters-Point-art-by-Nancy-Cato, Nancy Cato helps us see ourselves through art, Culture Currents Featured Local News & Views News & Views
Meet the raccoons! This utility box can be found on Van Dyke.

Cato maintains her intentions were far from that and besides, her muse is the children: “You know, children in cars, children walking in the streets. I wanted them to see something a little bit funny. The raccoon series is called ‘caught in the act.’” Cato explained, “They are residents of San Francisco, and it’s just when we see them and they’re looking at us and we’re looking at them. It’s just this standoff, this staredown. And so, in this series we are catching them doing things we do: They’re on their phones – caught in the act. They’re doing Yoga – caught in the act.”

Another of her works is Jamari, a Black child in an astronaut suit floating and meditating through space. “I did Jamari because I did ‘Jamari’s journey.’ That was an 18-panel mural that was on Evans Avenue. I wanted to give Jamari another life, so I did the most popular panel, which is Jamari meditating. It’s loosely based on my son and the children of Hunters Point in hopes they seem themselves connected to the universe.”

 It hasn’t always been easy. Nancy is a working artist and parent. Better support for Black artists and engaging in a dialogue with their work is one end goal for Cato. “Ask for more art in your neighborhood! One of things I’ve realized is that you have a lot of elder artists or people who draw but maybe abandoned what they do for one reason or another, who have come up to me and asked, ‘How do I become a part of this?’ and I’m like I don’t even know where to begin!

“There needs to be a space for artists to live and work. Like born and raised – I’m not born and raised here – and I appreciate people sharing their stories. But some of these people have been painting or drawing most of their lives and it’d be good for them to have a box.”

Cato reflects fondly on the experience: “It’s been a blast creating these images in one of the Blackest parts of San Francisco. It’s an honor. I sat here and heard people tell stories. You got to hear stories in the background. A lot of sentiments were said. There were people shouting from their cars. People genuinely were appreciative that I was out there helping to make the Bayview liven up.”
Bay View writer and copy editor Zaire Saunders can be reached at zaire@sfbayview.com.

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Wynonna Judd responds to concerned fans after needing support on CMAs stage

Wynonna Judd has reassured fans after her performance at the Country Music Association Awards sparked concern.

Country star Judd appeared on stage with Jelly Roll (real name Jason Bradley DeFord) to perform the rapper’s hit single, “Need a Favor”.

However, Judd, 59, worried fans as she appeared to cling to DeFord’s sleeve for support while she sang.

“Something is wrong with her. Hope she is ok. Wynonna Judd is holding on to Jelly Roll for dear life,” one person wrote on Twitter/X after the performance.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday (9 November), Judd explained that her on-stage behaviour was due to extreme nerves.

“Okay so they say don’t read the comments – I’ve read the comments,” Judd said in the video post. “And I’m just gonna come clean with y’all – I was so freaking nervous. I got out there and I looked at Jelly Roll, I wanted it to be so good for him.”

She continued: “I could cry right now, but I’m not going to, because I’m such a fan of his, and he asked me to sing and I said absolutely.”

Addressing fans’ concerns about her, she said, “I got out there and I was so nervous that I just held on for dear life. And that’s the bottom line.”

The “Burnin’ Love” singer concluded by saying that she was en route to Texas for the next date on her Back to Wy Tour.

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“I’ll be on stage tomorrow night with the people I love the most, and with you, the fans I love the most,” she said. “And all is well.”

Elsewhere at the CMA Awards ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee, Tracy Chapman took home Song of the Year thanks to Luke Combs’s cover of “Fast Car”– 35 years after the song was originally released.

The win makes Chapman the first Black artist to take home the award for Song of the Year. In addition to her win, “Fast Car” also earned Combs, 33, an award as his cover was named Single of the Year.

Chapman spoke favourably of Combs’s cover when it reached No 1 position on the Country Airplay chart in the US back in July. With his rendition, she became the first Black woman to top this chart as a sole songwriter since it began in 1990.

“I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there,” the singer, who is rarely seen in public, said. “I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”

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