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RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Editorial: Taking Charleston’s MOJA Arts Festival to a new, higher level

The MOJA Arts Festival, which begins Thursday and runs through Oct. 8, has been an important fixture on Charleston’s cultural arts scene for more than 40 years, a celebration of African American and Caribbean culture including visual arts, classical music, dance, gospel, jazz, poetry, storytelling, theater, children’s activities, crafts, food and more.

There are several developments coming together soon that we hope will take MOJA to an even higher level, expanding its outreach, audience and artistic offerings. We urge everyone involved to make the most of this moment and ensure MOJA showcases our area’s best attributes.

The first change came last year, when Charleston City Council approved $300,000 more in accommodations tax revenue for the festival, essentially doubling its modest budget. The city, through its Office of Cultural Affairs, has provided crucial support since the festival’s origins in 1979 as the Black Arts Festival.

The second change came earlier this year, when Charlton Singleton, a two-time Grammy Award-winning trumpeter, composer and singer for the Gullah jazz quintet Ranky Tanky, was tapped as its first artistic director. Mayor John Tecklenburg has said he can’t think of a better artist to take the festival to the next level, and neither can we. While Mr. Singleton’s work began with this year’s festival, it won’t fully flower until next year’s event, given the lead time necessary for artistic planning and developing programs.

A third and equally significant change remains in the works. The MOJA Arts Foundation has been incorporated as a nonprofit independent from the city. Once its board is selected and gets to work in the coming months, it holds the promise of raising significant new financial support and helping the festival make more connections across the country and even across the globe. The Office of Cultural Affairs, while capable, constantly shifts its focus to the city’s next big event, and is less able to plan a year or two down the road.

The lack of such an independent board is one reason MOJA has not enjoyed nearly the level of support and investment as Spoleto Festival USA. The MOJA foundation’s inaugural board members, whoever they may be, should think big. A more prominent MOJA Arts Festival would be a natural complement to other recent milestones recognizing and celebrating black history and culture, most notably this year’s opening of the International African American Museum.

One challenge for the festival is whether it wants to stick with its traditional calendar and its sole focus on 11 days in the fall, which unfortunately coincides with the peak of hurricane season. Storms and the pandemic have combined to curtail MOJA’s offerings in seven of the past 10 years, so its future leaders will have some important discussions about what to do in future years. Perhaps they also can use the MOJA brand to serve as a reliable voice to showcase Charleston at its best, pointing out traditional, well-known African American cultural sites while also highlighting new discoveries.

As the festival evolves, it must ensure that it keeps its family friendly spirit as well as its important — if less visible — work with local schoolchildren. This has included distributing books to schools and bringing students to performances as well as letting them explore backstage, talk to the artists and witness how a production comes together.

The festival, named after the Swahili word for “one,” has operated for decades with periodic ups and downs. Now is the time to seize this moment to help MOJA grow and present some of the best of Charleston for the world to see.

Click here for more opinion content from The Post and Courier.

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RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

‘A rarity’: All-Black cast revels in Black Joy in ‘Five Guys Named Moe’

WEST PALM BEACH — The thumping, horn-filled songs of Louis Jordan fill The Rinker Playhouse, now transformed into The Funky Butt Jazz Club, a joint from the 1930s and 40s. On stage singing those hits are five guys who all happen to be named Moe, not one guy, not two guys, but five guys. 

“Five Guys Named Moe” is the title of one of Jordan’s signature songs and the title of the musical celebrating his work. In the span of 90 minutes, audiences get to sing along to the story of Nomax, who’s lost his lover and is down on his luck, while the Five Guys Named Moe sing their way through lessons of love, life, and music. 

Produced by MNM Theatre Company. the musical is playing at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday. It gets audiences dancing, with many members continuing to dance during intermission following the song “Push Ka Pi She Pie,” and it gets them singing to songs that haven’t charted since the 1930s. 

Jordan was known as “The King of the Jukebox,” doing notable work in the world of jazz and also creating popular songs that would help him cross over and gain appeal with white audiences. He would collaborate with musicians of the era including Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby. He even came to star in some Hollywood short films.

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Once “Five Guys Named Moe” hit Broadway and The West End of London in 1992, it led to modern audiences like the ones at the Kravis enjoying his songs.

“I watched the show the day I got proposed to, 31 years ago,” Annette Emanuel of West Palm Beach said after seeing the show Sept. 16. “When I saw that it was coming to town, I told my husband we had to go see it.” 

As much as this show means to its audience, it’s grown to mean much more for the men and women on stage and in the wings. For many of the cast and crew this is the first time they have played with an all-Black-led cast, which they say is a rarity in the theater world.

It’s also the first time they get to tell a story that isn’t centered on Black struggle, but rather one of Black joy.

‘Five Guys Named Moe’ is more than a show. It’s a brotherhood.

"Five Guys Named Moe," a musical that celebrates the work of Louis Jordan, the "King of the Jukebox" from the 1930s through the 1950s.

The Moes cast includes: Doriyan Caty is Eat Moe, Don Seward is No Moe, Michael Wallace is Four-Eyed Moe, TJ Pursley is Little Moe and Leo Jasper Davis is Big Moe. Alongside them is James White III, who plays Nomax, and Desir Dumerjuste, who is the swing actor for every position, meaning he is capable of subbing for every Moe and Nomax. 

The men, who range in age from 20 to 37, are all from Florida. They got their starts either performing as children or by singing in their church choir, which led them to theater. A few would enroll into performing arts schools, such as Dreyfoos School of the Arts, which Jasper attended. All pursued theater in college, with Caty, Pursley, and White III graduating from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Through these years they’ve all performed in numerous shows such as “Jekyll and Hyde,” “Dreamgirls” and “Something Rotten,” but this show marks a milestone for most of these men. This is the first time they’ve hit the stage with an all-Black cast and a majority-Black crew.

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“This is a rarity. You never get a whole production where it’s from top to bottom Black,” said White III. “I’ve only ever experienced this one other time, and a lot of times, some of these guys, they’ll never experience this again.” 

The cast of “Five Guys Named Moe” says this experience has formed a brotherhood among them. They understand one another, the personal and emotional, and it’s led to an onstage chemistry which is palpable.

Cast and crew talk about the importance of putting on "Five Guys Named Moe."

This connection shines through as Dumerjuste and Caty recall the first time Dumerjuste got to perform in the show. They all made sure he ended up in the right spots, gave him help with moving props, and promised to remind him of a dance move or two.

“It was very much like a soccer team, for those that know the show and were watching us step in and help Desir in ways you know that a normal audience member would not recognize,” Caty said. 

“I’ve never felt so safe and I’ve never felt so comfortable, being able to just be myself here with everybody on and off stage,” said Dumerjuste.

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For many of the cast and crew, this show is bigger than them. Some spoke of feeling judged or labeled at times because they are Black. Seward said that despite the stares he gets from being a tall, imposing Black man, “little do they know I do musical theatre. I’m the opposite. I’m so loveable.”  

On Sept. 22, they hosted a private showing for local performing arts schools, with the intent of showing kids that they can be and belong on this stage too. 

“Most of the time I only see one person who is my color or none at all, and I was like, ‘Well I feel like that’s not tangible,’” said Wallace. “Just knowing that I can be here on stage and people can see, makes other kids look at me and say I can be just like you.”

They knew there’d be scrutiny, and that they had to be ready.

Don Seward who plays No Moe in "Five Guys Named Moe," a musical that celebrates the work of Louis Jordan, the "King of the Jukebox" from the 1930s through the 1950s is overcome with emotion during an interview with the Palm Beach Post after his performance on Saturday September 16th, 2023 at the Kravis Center for Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. The musical will run from September 6-24th, 2023.

While they celebrate being an all-Black cast, they also are aware of the scrutiny they face.  

The show, on its own, is physically demanding. They dance to every song, and they do it all while dressed in full suits, emulating the high energy of the Motown bands. For many songs they move in sync, in others they do backup while one man sings the lead, but they are constantly moving around and encouraging the audience to do the same.  

“Saturday Night Fish Fry” may be the most physical song of them all. The audience sees The Moes taking over the entire stage as they jump and do line kicks, splits and more.  

Their director and choreographer, Jaques Linder-Long, is a Dreyfoos graduate. He ran them through the songs over and over to perfect their movements. He says that this effort was intentional: He didn’t want anyone to poke holes in their performances.

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“There was an interview that happened a while ago for the news and he was like, ‘Why are you so hard on them?’ ” said Linder-Long. “It’s because we are a group of Black men that don’t have representation in South Florida, and we wanted to make sure everything was precise.” 

His assistant director, Jazz Madison, concurred on the drive to present a refined production.

“Being a minority and people of color, sometimes you walk into spaces where people expect less. They expect worse or not good enough.” she said. “It’s an all-Black cast and an all-Black creative team. People want to focus on the negative, so it was that much more important for us to bring it to life in the best way possible.”

It doesn’t have to only be musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

James White III, star of the production "Five Guys Named Moe," a musical that celebrates the work of Louis Jordan, the "King of the Jukebox" from the 1930s through the 1950s, plays Nomax a drunken and broken man; the actor is pictured on Saturday September 16th, 2023 at the Kravis Center for Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. The musical will run from September 6-24th, 2023.

Linder-Long told Marcie Gorman, his old teacher at Dreyfoos who now runs the MNM Theatre Company and is the producer of “Five Guys Named Moe,” that he believed now is a crucial moment in history for a story like this, especially in South Florida.

Many of the cast and crew said they have followed the recent debates in Tallahassee, and in specific the new education standards regarding the teaching of Black history. Under the section on the slave trade, there is a benchmark clarification which states “how slaves developed skills, which in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” 

While the “Five Guys” production doesn’t touch upon the topic of slavery or highlight the political conflict in Florida, cast and crew are adamant that Black history be told and kept alive.

“Unfortunately, with the state that we live in, we have people at the top that don’t really believe in educating the children of what our culture, what Black culture, is about,” Davis said. 

Part of that Black culture is the history of Black artists and their contribution to modern music, he said. Jordan and other musicians of his time laid out a blueprint for many artists to follow and build upon. Because of jazz, there exists Motown, hip-hop and even rock ‘n’ roll.  

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Seward, who plays No Moe, wants to tell these stories before they are lost.

“We are now the modern-day storytellers to keep Louis Jordan alive,” he said.

It isn’t just about Black music but also Black joy. Many of the cast talk about the shows they were taught in school, noting most were written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, such as “The Sound of Music” and “Cinderella.”

The crew says that while these shows were important to the foundation of theater, there is an untapped well of Black shows that also were created in that era. One they pointed to is George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” 

They said “Five Guys Named Moe” stands apart from other shows written for Black casts that focus on the struggle of being Black in America. While it shows Nomax at a low point in his life, his story is uplifting in comparison.

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Each Moe takes a turn at singing Nomax a song about love and teach him to admit when he’s wrong. They look to help him out of a hard time but through tough love. In one scene, they even give Nomax a fresh shave and a new outfit, taking the idea that when you look good, you feel good, to a whole new level. 

“It’s important to see six Black men having fun and enjoying life and not talking about violence,” Seward said. He continues by saying this show is about “helping our fellow man, saying you got to get yourself together and you don’t have to be like this.”

The next stop isn’t Broadway. It’s local theater.

Michael and Annette Emanuel (seen receiving beads from Dorian De'Angelo Caty aka Eat Moe) attended the "Five Guys Named Moe musical to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of their engagement at the same play on Saturday September 16th, 2023 at the Kravis Center for Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. The musical will run from September 6-24th, 2023.

The show opened with Gorman welcoming everyone. She encourage all to sing and dance when the cast invited them and introduced the crew and the producers. 

The production company, MNM, hires only people from Florida, she said, giving actors options other than going straight to New York after college. Though many look for jobs on Broadway, the reality ends up being that they spend months working at restaurants as they wait for their “big break.” 

“This is professional. We get paid just like everybody else in New York, and it makes the art tangible,” White III said. “Everyone can’t afford to go to New York, so if you can bring those stories here, it gives them an outlet.” 

Linder-Long, the Dreyfoos graduate who attended school in the shadow of the Kravis Center, said there is an extra special reason to be involved in local theatre: hometown pride. 

“I had to do it here. I had to do it in my hometown before I went anywhere else. This was the first place I thought of.”

Arianna Otero is a breaking news reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aotero@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ari_v_oteroSupport local journalism: Subscribe today.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Funeral for JoAnne A. Epps, Temple University’s president, to be held on Friday

Funeral arrangements have been made for JoAnne A. Epps, Temple University’s president who died earlier this week after falling ill during a campus event, the university announced on Friday. 

Epps’ family and the Temple University community will honor the longtime educator’s life and legacy during public viewings at the Liacouras Center on Thursday, Sept. 28 from 1 to 7 p.m. and Friday, Sept. 29 from 8 to 10 a.m. Immediately after Friday’s viewing, Temple will hold a “celebration of life” at the Liacouras Center, officials said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

All undergraduate and graduate classes will be canceled on Friday, while some medical students should check with their schools regarding planned clinical activities, The Temple News reported. Complimentary parking will be offered in the Liacouras Center Garage and 15th Street Lot, according to university officials. 

On Wednesday, more than 1,000 people attended a vigil for Epps at Temple’s campus. Students, faculty, staff and alumni gathered to mourn and remember Epps’ contributions to the Temple community. There, Epps’ colleagues talked about her unwavering spirit and dedication to mentoring law students, young lawyers and recently-hired academic administrators. 

“We have all admired how she cared about the dignity of of every human being,” Temple Chancellor Richard Englert said during the vigil. “We loved her passion for social justice for everyone. We were attracted to her humility and her brilliance — a combination few people have. Her compassion for the most vulnerable persons in our society is legendary and she had the knack of being able to inspire all of us to higher levels. JoAnne would not want us to simply grieve. She would want us to carry on, to push Temple to new heights.” 

Epps, 72, died on Tuesday afternoon after falling ill during a campus memorial service for Charles L. Blockson, the curator of one of the most prestigious collections of African American artifacts in the country. After suffering a “sudden episode,” Epps received emergency medical services before being transported to Temple University Hospital.

Once she was taken to the hospital, resuscitation efforts continued but her unsuccessful, said Daniel del Portal, an emergency physician at Temple Health. Epps was pronounced dead around 3:15 p.m. 

Earlier this year, Epps was named acting president of the university following the resignation of Jason Wingard. During a scheduled meeting on Oct. 1, the university’s Board of Trustees will remove the “acting” from Epps’ title and recognize her as the 13th president of the university. An emergency meeting will also be held next week to determine the university’s next steps in choosing its 14th president. 

Epps, who graduated from Yale Law School in 1976, taught in Temple’s Beasley School of Law for more than three decades. She acted as dean of the school from 2008 until she was appointed to executive vice president and provost of Temple University in 2016. Prior to that, Epps served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia and a deputy city attorney in Los Angeles. 

“Like this special university that loved and shaped her, JoAnne Epps defies description,” Marylouise Esten, Temple’s chief of staff, said during Epps’ vigil. “She was a woman with intellect, integrity, good instincts and good judgement. She was also a person of great humility. She knew her strengths and recognized her limitations. She trusted and inspired those who worked with her to live up to her example.” 

Two scholarship funds — the JoAnne A. Epps School of Law Scholarship and the JoAnne A. Epps Undergraduate Scholarship — will be created to honor Epps’ legacy at Temple and support students living out the university’s mission, NBC10 reported.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Usher opens up about the Beckhams, Bieber… and how he’s swapped strip clubs for gardening as he talks about overcoming tragedy and temptation in an exclusive interview

It’s a quiet Thursday lunchtime at a cigar lounge in suburban Atlanta, just a few hundred feet from Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. 

Usher, one of the biggest R&B stars in the world, is telling me about his bromance with David Beckham.

‘David’s been to many shows of mine, he’s always been a fan,’ says the eight-time Grammy winner, puffing on a fat Cuban cigar. 

He adds, as if for balance, ‘And I’ve always been a fan of his, as a brand maker.’

Without missing a beat, the singer orders a glass of Rémy Martin XO, the cognac brandy he just happens to be an ambassador for. 

Usher, 44, one of the biggest R&B stars in the world, has repeatedly been declared the heir to Michael Jackson's throne by critics

Usher, 44, one of the biggest R&B stars in the world, has repeatedly been declared the heir to Michael Jackson's throne by critics

Usher, 44, one of the biggest R&B stars in the world, has repeatedly been declared the heir to Michael Jackson’s throne by critics 

He spends the next three and a half hours talking but not touching a drop.

Like Beckham, Usher has lived an extraordinary life of noughties male sex-symbol superstardom. 

His 2004 album, Confessions, about infidelity and steamy nightclub hookups, dominated pop for a decade, with its anthemic bangers like ‘Yeah!’. 

It sold 18 million copies worldwide and remains this century’s bestselling album by a black artist.

James Brown anointed him ‘the godson of soul’. Beyoncé called him the ‘Fred Astaire of our times’. 

Critics have declared him the heir to Michael Jackson’s throne so many times he’s practically lawfully entitled to a piece of Neverland Ranch.

So – at least to this nonplussed, out-of-town journalist – it seems odd that the 44-year-old heartthrob would want to spend the afternoon on a nondescript outdoor patio by a sports stadium, musing candidly about fatherhood, middle age and his newfound love of gardening. 

Usher, who picked this spot, arrives alone, without pushy retainers or hired muscle.

He’s dressed in an all-black uniform of angular puffer jacket by the Shanghai-based clothing brand Pet-Tree-Kor, Off-White trousers, Teyana Taylor x Air Jordan 1 sneakers, a pair of large diamond stud earrings in the conches of his ears and an oversized grey Hermès Birkin handbag.

It’s noon and the cigar bar has only just opened. We are so early that the waitress, who had barely unlocked the front door when we came in, appears rightfully confused as to why we’re here. 

The star has a residency in Las Vegas, which, after 144 sellout shows, often with A-list audiences, will come to an end in December

The star has a residency in Las Vegas, which, after 144 sellout shows, often with A-list audiences, will come to an end in December

The star has a residency in Las Vegas, which, after 144 sellout shows, often with A-list audiences, will come to an end in December 

She doesn’t even seem to recognise one of Atlanta’s most famous faces. (Usher lives in a two-storey European-style mansion in Roswell, an affluent town about a 20-minute drive away. His friend recommended our bar.)

It’s a long way from his glitzy residency in Las Vegas, which concludes in December after 144 sellout shows, with an eight-date interlude in Paris for Fashion Week, which kicks off today. 

In the steamy Vegas show, he regularly asks A-list women in the crowd – these have included supermodel Winnie Harlow and actor Keke Palmer – if he can serenade them.

Our interview is to promote his soon-to-be-released album – a paean to manhood and its everyday battles, Usher has said, ‘speaking specifically to men or for men’ – which is expected to be followed by a big international tour next year, including UK dates. 

And yet in the flesh, Usher seems more salt of the earth than high end. 

He tells me he is currently building a vegetable garden for his kids: he shares sons, 15-year-old Usher (AKA Cinco) V, and Naviyd Ely, aged 14, with his ex-wife Tameka Foster, as well as a daughter, Sovereign Bo (three) and a one-year-old son, Sire Castrello, with Jenn Goicoechea, his long-time girlfriend.

‘I have an incredible partner who helps point out to me when I am not handling things the right way,’ he says.

And gardening? ‘I love plants,’ he replies – ‘period.’

What I’m struck by, in the hours I spend with him, watching him puff his way through six cigars, is that he’s a mix of frank confessions and introspection: one minute parsing fluently in internet wellness speak, the next evoking the strutting Vegas heyday of Frank Sinatra.

These days, he says, exhaling a cloud of smoke, he typically bumps into Becks at pit stops on the international fashion front-row circuit, or at spin classes in Los Angeles. 

Usher's upcoming album, which the artist has said is a paean to manhood and its everyday battles, is expected to be followed by a big international tour next year

Usher's upcoming album, which the artist has said is a paean to manhood and its everyday battles, is expected to be followed by a big international tour next year

Usher’s upcoming album, which the artist has said is a paean to manhood and its everyday battles, is expected to be followed by a big international tour next year

Take a recent class taught by the motivational fitness coach Angela Manuel-Davis.

‘Angela decided that she wanted me to ride in the front, which is the hardest row,’ Usher says with a grin. 

‘So, here I am sitting on a bike next to David Beckham, who is still performing at the same rate as he was when he was kicking a ball.’ The singer couldn’t keep pace. ‘He busted my ass, man.’

He doesn’t buy into the world of A-list exclusivity. ‘I feel like I’m at the age where I’ve just now begun to curate my experience,’ he says. 

‘Everybody knows Atlanta is famous for strip clubs – and don’t get me wrong, I like to go to strip clubs here – but my experience is becoming a little bit different: older, more evolved and sophisticated.’

Perhaps that’s because he’s a small-town boy. He was born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Chattanooga, a mid-size city with a population of just over 184,000 in Tennessee, just across the border from Georgia, ‘always moving, dancing and surrounded by music’ as a child. 

Both his mother, Jonetta Patton, a medical technician and director at St Elmo Missionary Baptist Church, and ‘Nanny’ Nancy Ann Lackey, who he credits with allowing him to dream beyond ‘the harsh reality of living in the South and colour lines’, tipped him for greatness.

As his childhood singing career progressed, his mother left her job to become his full-time manager. 

Usher and his children on Instagram, June 2023. The artist shares sons, 15-year-old Usher (AKA Cinco) V, and Naviyd Ely, aged 14, with his ex-wife Tameka Foster, as well as a daughter, Sovereign Bo (three) and a one-year-old son, Sire Castrello, with Jenn Goicoechea, his long-time girlfriend

Usher and his children on Instagram, June 2023. The artist shares sons, 15-year-old Usher (AKA Cinco) V, and Naviyd Ely, aged 14, with his ex-wife Tameka Foster, as well as a daughter, Sovereign Bo (three) and a one-year-old son, Sire Castrello, with Jenn Goicoechea, his long-time girlfriend

Usher and his children on Instagram, June 2023. The artist shares sons, 15-year-old Usher (AKA Cinco) V, and Naviyd Ely, aged 14, with his ex-wife Tameka Foster, as well as a daughter, Sovereign Bo (three) and a one-year-old son, Sire Castrello, with Jenn Goicoechea, his long-time girlfriend

Aged 13, having appeared on the television show Star Search, he was spotted by music executive Antonio ‘LA’ Reid, who signed him to his LaFace Records label. 

The teenager then moved with his mother to Atlanta and was taken under the wing of up-and-coming mogul Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs.

Combs, who has described the singer as his ‘little brother’, welcomed him to stay at his house in New York. It didn’t take long before his name was being mentioned in the same breath as Prince. 

Meanwhile his father, Usher Raymond III, was a heavy drug user and absent for most of his life.

‘Because I didn’t have a relationship with my father, it made me feel like he had given me something – his name – that was very hard to walk around with and hold, because, well, my father wasn’t there,’ he says.

At the age of 28 he married his girlfriend of two years, his former stylist Tameka Foster, who worked with the likes of Lauryn Hill and Patti LaBelle. 

His mother did not approve of his relationship with a woman eight years his senior. She skipped her son’s wedding, prompting Usher to terminate their relationship as manager and client.

He wonders today if ‘women and men process things differently’. As he sees it, women ‘react to what they hear’, whereas men ‘react to what they see. We got two heads to manage,’ he adds. ‘So, I can’t even begin to help her understand how complicated it is.’

Indeed, Usher sounds like he’s still trying to figure out love and monogamy. He says his life revolves around the former, ‘but I can’t escape this reality of what I have to deal with: temptation; or loneliness; or the fact that you feel some sense of abandonment, because a lot of our mothers or fathers weren’t there when we needed them.

‘To walk away from temptation, that’s a heavy thing to deal with as a man. To women, it seems like men should just say no [to other women]’. For men it’s a lot.

Backstage with David Beckham at the O2, London, 2011. Usher admires the ex-footballer as a brand maker

Backstage with David Beckham at the O2, London, 2011. Usher admires the ex-footballer as a brand maker

Backstage with David Beckham at the O2, London, 2011. Usher admires the ex-footballer as a brand maker 

‘Men need some relief, an ability to go somewhere to express themselves and emote, with as much honesty and transparency as possible.’

One relationship that never healed was that with his father. In 2007, after the birth of his son, who he named Usher V (the family name for all firstborn sons) he immediately tried to track down his estranged father to mend their relationship. 

Usher found him – gravely ill in an intensive care unit, awaiting a liver transplant in a different hospital.

The singer’s friend, the rapper Nelly, encouraged him to be the bigger man: to pay the costs associated with whatever live-saving procedures were necessary. Usher agreed, but it was too late. After slipping into a coma during the transplant, his father died.

‘There were some very intimate moments that probably should be preserved in my life story, like looking at my father when he was unconscious in a coma, and then having to leave and go watch my [newborn] son. 

‘But I remember showing a picture of my son to my father, who was unconscious, saying “Look at this, this is Usher. This is the continuation of us.”’

It was only a year later, in 2008, that he took a 14-year-old Justin Bieber under his wing, after spotting how the teenager had amassed a huge following on YouTube, in part for his covers of Usher songs.

Usher signed him to his new joint venture, along with talent manager Scooter Braun. Was he thinking about his legacy?

‘I had seen something in him that he could see himself at the time,’ says Usher, who also paired Bieber up with his own mentor, LA Reid. And now? ‘I’m more invested in our friendship than just having the dynamic to create something together.’ 

Pictured at the Bianca Saunders show, Usher took an eight-day break from his Las Vegas residency to attend Paris Fashion Week.

Pictured at the Bianca Saunders show, Usher took an eight-day break from his Las Vegas residency to attend Paris Fashion Week.

Pictured at the Bianca Saunders show, Usher took an eight-day break from his Las Vegas residency to attend Paris Fashion Week. 

In 2008, Usher took a 14-year-old Justin Bieber under his wing, after spotting how the teenager had amassed a huge following on YouTube

In 2008, Usher took a 14-year-old Justin Bieber under his wing, after spotting how the teenager had amassed a huge following on YouTube

In 2008, Usher took a 14-year-old Justin Bieber under his wing, after spotting how the teenager had amassed a huge following on YouTube

Last year, Usher sold his share in Bieber’s catalogue for an amount estimated at $40 million.

The intervening years have brought more than their fair share of tragedy. In 2012, a jet ski struck and killed his 11-year-old his stepson Kile Glover, from his ex-wife Tameka Foster. 

The boy was on an inner tube being pulled by a pontoon boat in a lake when the accident occurred. By the time Usher, who had helped raise Kile since he was four, joined Foster at the hospital, the child was brain dead. 

Two weeks later he was taken off life support. The following year, Usher’s five-year-old son Usher Raymond V nearly drowned after his arm became caught in a pool drain.

‘I … waited so long to talk about what I was going through,’ he says now. ‘Divorce; a child that had a near-death experience; another child that passed, god rest his soul; a new marriage [to his second wife Grace Miguel, in 2015] that would eventually fail. 

‘There were more existential shifts, too: growing older; music changing; the standard and mandate of how people promote things changing.’

How has all this altered him? ‘When you get older, man, you begin to take the time to slow down, to reap the benefit of what you sow,’ he says. Hence the cigar smoking, Usher explains. 

The habit is a form of silent protest against today’s disembodied digital experiences. 

A huge fan of international fashion - Usher is pictured here at the recent Louis Vuitton show at Paris Fashion Week - the artist has discovered a love of gardening in middle age

A huge fan of international fashion - Usher is pictured here at the recent Louis Vuitton show at Paris Fashion Week - the artist has discovered a love of gardening in middle age

A huge fan of international fashion – Usher is pictured here at the recent Louis Vuitton show at Paris Fashion Week – the artist has discovered a love of gardening in middle age

‘In America, a lot of times, it’s about everything having more flavour, being bigger, the most violent. But this’ – he inhales the smoke – ‘is about nuanced tastes, subtleties and notes. Basically, the opposite of vape culture.’

‘I come from a time when things were more analogue,’ Usher explains. 

Fitness, for instance – ‘We all have a little extra now,’ he says, pointing to an invisible layer of fat over his washboard stomach – and finances.

UTTERLY USHER 

9

Number one hits. He’s also achieved 18 top 10 hits and a huge 52 songs in the Billboard Hot 100

1.1 million

Copies of his bestselling album Confessions (2004) sold in the first week of release

37

Music awards won

$180 million

Reported worth as of this year

11.7 million

Views of his most popular reel on Instagram, in which Usher is seen inline skating backstage in a lilac satin suit

30.3 million

Views of his TikTok challenge involving his two sons – while the lights are flipped off, Usher swaps outfits with his son, who’s wearing pyjamas

65 million

Albums sold worldwide

10

Outfit changes during February 2023 Paris Fashion Week (left). He attended all the big shows, showcasing different looks at each – with bold ensembles completed by a new orange hairdo

$9 million

Paid for a one percent share of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team in 2005

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New York is ‘unaffordable’, Usher says, even for him.

What does he want from life, this man who has performed everywhere from both of Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremonies to Michael Jackson’s funeral, and is now surfing the crest of a comeback? 

I get the impression he’s still trying to work himself out. In a sense, Vegas was a way for Usher to celebrate his evolution.

In 2021, when he first contemplated doing the residency, the world was in the throes of the pandemic. Six years had passed since he had last toured. 

‘I lost my footing,’ he says. ‘When you snap out of the light, you have no choice but to deal with all of the shadows.’

He pauses. ‘I had waited so long to talk about what I was going through. It might look easy, but sometimes people don’t realise the work and pain that goes into being an artist, or their idea of a personality.’

He reaches down into his designer bag on the floor and pulls out a plastic bag filled with ‘tubos’, individual Cuban cigars encased in tube-shaped aluminium packaging. 

He cracks a sheepish smile, as if to acknowledge the ridiculous dichotomy of Ziploc and Hermès handbag.

‘No one man is an island,’ he says. ‘It may seem that way. But if you take an incredible plant and then you look below the surface, there’s roots that ground it. 

‘That’s what makes me the artist that I am – the roots of my inspiration, the people that have supported, engaged and introduced me to the outer limits of what it is to be an artist.’

He looks down at the table, watching one of his cigars burn out. ‘I didn’t know all those performers or references. How could I have? What I did know is that I wasn’t afraid of the light,’ he says. 

‘I wanted it. I wanted to stand on a stage. I want you to see me. I want you to see what I have to offer. I want to dance for you. I want to perform for you. I want to make you smile. When I get in your face, I want you to know what I am saying.’

  • Usher plays Rendez-vous à Paris at La Seine Musicale, selected dates until 5 October; tickets available at livenation.co.uk 

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Jann Wenner’s Rock Hall is crumbling — is it worth fixing?

In the Old World, two titans who sought to make themselves gods conspired to control history and their place in it. They anointed themselves arbiters of sound — one an impresario, the other a scribe, both shadow figures in search of permanence. They devised a hall that would house The Greats and took turns inducting those they deemed worthy: above all else, those around them. And they did so in secret, away from prying eyes and pointed questions. They thought themselves enlightened men, bringing art appreciation to the philistines, when really they longed to be kingmakers, therein casting their shadows across an unwitting realm. They erected their tabernacle in Ohio.

In 2004, one of those titans, Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, inducted the other, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner, into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, another institution that they helped to co-found. Ertegun spoke of Wenner as the ultimate authority of popular music, uniquely attuned to the ways that it reflected American realities and uniquely qualified to be its judge. “More than anyone else, he first identified rock as a politically and socially evocative form of music that would change our world,” he said. Mick Jagger, among the greatest beneficiaries of Wenner’s particular judgment, added, “Jann almost single-handedly pioneered the idea of popular music and rock and roll in particular as a vibrant art form not just a collection of flash-in-the-pan mediocrities.” Perhaps Wenner did change the world but it kept on spinning, and when the asteroid struck, every subsequent decision he made carbon-dated him.

Wenner, who, for decades, oversaw the publication that established the world we now know as classic rock, has made himself the subject of ire while promoting his upcoming book, The Masters, which features conversations between Wenner himself and a few hand-picked artists: Jagger, John Lennon, Bono, Jerry Garcia, Pete Townshend, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. If you’re noticing a pattern, that’s part of the problem. When pressed, in conversation with David Marchese for The New York Times, on the exclusion of Black and women geniuses, Wenner defended the decision by saying none of the women he encountered while at the magazine were “articulate enough”; ditto for Black artists like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. Wenner, who stepped down as chairman of the Rock Hall nominating committee in 2019, was removed from the Hall’s board of directors shortly after the comments. His is a particular privilege: To still be in the Hall despite being complicit in denying so many artists far more deserving. He is, rightfully, being skewered from all angles, but Wenner is, and always has been, merely an avatar for a crumbling framework.


Wenner saying the quiet part out loud is a demonstration of how white male gatekeepers have stymied women artists and artists of color, up to the highest reaches of the most influential music magazine in American history, and within the inner circle of those who get to decide what music is enshrined. But this crude perspective had long been made baldly and painfully evident by his editorial decisions at the helm of said magazine and as the chairman of the Hall. Though warranted, they overlook several more important questions: Why is the Rock Hall the American public’s most widely recognized canon for popular music? Are its practices even in the best interest of preserving art? Moreover, is such a canon even needed?

To understand the Rock Hall’s vision, it is first important to understand its founding, and that it was built primarily by esteemed executives in a highly segregated music business, the kind of white men that 2015 inductee Bill Withers once referred to as “blaxperts” (self-proclaimed interpreters of Black culture socially removed from its community), with emphasis on competition and consecration. When Ertegun convened the key players — Seymour Stein of Sire Records, the entertainment attorney Allen Grubman and Wenner — he pitched them something akin to Cooperstown, the Baseball Hall of Fame. The initial ceremony, in 1986, was constructed around a lavish, exclusive black-tie dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria, $1000 a plate, according to famed critic Robert Hilburn.

With competition and elitism in mind, the selection process was cemented, and since then the system and its players have remained shrouded in secrecy. What we do know: Artists become eligible 25 years after their first recording. A nominating committee of 30 execs, lawyers and critics decide the yearly field of about 15 artists before another, larger committee chooses the final set of inductees. This kind of voting is common for award ceremonies. The Tony Awards have even smaller committees, but are much more transparent about who is participating. Award shows like The Grammys have categories, which, theoretically, makes the criteria more straightforward. Though genre categories get murkier every year, there is at least some understanding of what kind of thing should be nominated for the best album in each genre, and the existence of multiple categories should allow for coverage of the sprawl. There are longstanding questions about not only what is “rock” enough for the Rock Hall but also about what, exactly, qualifies an artist for inclusion. And while the purpose of an award ceremony and its show is to reward individual excellence and entertain, the Rock Hall has loftier objectives — not simply to honor but to immortalize.

Despite frequent protests to the contrary, the kind of artists that the Hall chooses to immortalize come from within Wenner’s narrow field of vision. Just as in rock itself, racism and sexism have been ugly blemishes on the rock press, and on Rolling Stone in particular, through its storied history. (It’s interesting that he did not see the irony of granting such a distinction to white practitioners of a Black-born art.) In an oral history of the women who transformed the magazine into a professional operation, former editor Barbara Downey Landau noted that there was a sign over the desk of Wenner’s secretary that said “Boys’ Club,” and a Black photographer didn’t shoot a cover until 2018. In Joe Hagan’s Wenner biography, Sticky Fingers, former Rolling Stone publisher Claeys Bahrenburg summarized Wenner’s ideals in the disco heyday of the late ’70s: “Every day it was strictly rock-and-roll white bands. He would no more put a black person on the cover than a man on the moon.” At the Rock Hall, these tendencies resurfaced. (Wenner once said Rolling Stone owned the Hall.) When he stepped down in 2019, he told the Times, “People are inducted for their achievements. Musical achievements have got to be race-neutral and gender-neutral in terms of judging them.”

Wenner’s comments and his subsequent expulsion from the Rock Hall come in the wake of significant criticism of the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame Foundation’s practices in recent years, and a public reevaluation of its canonizing. “If so few women are being inducted into the Rock Hall, then the nominating committee is broken,” longtime Hall critic Courtney Love wrote in a March op-ed for The Guardian. “If so few Black artists, so few women of colour, are being inducted, then the voting process needs to be overhauled. Music is a lifeforce that is constantly evolving — and they can’t keep up.”

The following month, one woman voting for Rock Hall inductees, Allyson McCabe (who contributes to NPR), echoed those sentiments in a very public resignation from the Foundation. Writing for Vulture, she called her invitation tokenism, adding that the process was opaque and the methodology seemed, at best, inconsistent and, at worst, biased and preferential. “I felt uneasy looking at the ballot each year, the way the genre’s definition seemed to be applied differently in the bios depending on who was doing the rocking. Implicitly, the ‘real’ rockers were still white guys with ‘real’ rock instruments,” she wrote.

With all of this condemnation swirling, it’s worth wondering what about enduring monuments like the Rock Hall keeps stirring people up. It’s easy to understand why artists care — if not for the sake of hagiography then for the approval — but what about us in the audience? If the thing is so broken, why do we continue to concern ourselves with the way it functions, or the results of its dysfunction? There is also a very human impulse to not only have others endorse the music we enjoy but to have its impact dignified in a way that feels meaningful. That goes even more so for music we believe expresses something profound about the human condition. We see it year after year with the Grammys, in various cycles of outrage: a need to see institutions validate our taste and its effect on the way we see our world, and, by extension, an equally powerful need to satiate our desire to argue. There is no version of the Hall that can be unanimously agreed upon. And even though we know it’s busted we don’t really know how to fix it. That’s because you can’t build a Hall without diminishing the impact of music that someone, somewhere finds sacred.

To build a Hall with only superiority as the defining principle is to misrepresent what art is for. It is something that makes sense for sports, which are defined by quantifiable metrics like wins and statistics, but not for music, which is incalculable. Music is something you feel and we already have a system for attempting to measure the music that is most popular for posterity: the Billboard charts. Some of Rolling Stone‘s own attempts at canonizing have shifted with its public (I was among the musicians, industry insiders and critics that voted for the updated Rolling Stone 500), as have the Rock Hall’s, demonstrating the slippery notion of any sort of definitive music valhalla.

There is a more attractive version of the Rock Hall that puts the museum before the haut monde, making itself out to be a curator of watershed moments from an important but specific period in rock history and not an authority on all of history. In that case, the Hall’s definition of rock can be whatever its committees want it to be, and the doors open more broadly to artists with a subtler impact. Instead, the Hall and its cabal want to have it both ways — venerate only what suits them but define American music’s legacy for everyone.

Somehow, despite the Hall’s objections to certain kinds of music, it has become cultural orthodoxy as popular music’s pantheon, a distinction it has leaned into consistently. In 2022, Dolly Parton asked to be removed from the ballot because she felt she wasn’t a fit. In response to her request, the Hall shared a broader mission statement: “From its inception, rock and roll has had deep roots in rhythm & blues and country music. It is not defined by any one genre, rather a sound that moves youth culture. Dolly Parton’s music impacted a generation of young fans and influenced countless artists that followed. Her nomination to be considered for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame followed the same process as all other artists who have been considered.”

If its goal truly has been to canonize a genreless sound that moves youth culture, the Rock Hall has resoundingly failed. Its considerations of R&B, country, pop and hip-hop have always felt warped. What’s more, beyond its marked inability to define rock’s relationship to other genres, the Rock Hall has done very little to make them feel at home and not like outliers. Nevertheless, it positions itself as a holistic institution that should be regarded as sacred. In truth, it was built to do exactly what it does: omit and disallow.


The canon and the Hall of Fame are not American inventions (though they are distinctly western constructions) but over the last century, the latter in particular has become as American as, well, baseball. In a 1986 Washington Post story called “Keepers of the Fame,” author Vance Packard told Michael Kernan, “Americans have a penchant for self-congratulation.” The Hall that Kernan called the “ur-Hall of Fame,” the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, established in 1901, was created entirely for functional reasons: to conceal an unsightly wall at New York University. Only after they discovered the need to fill space did they invent the use, modeled after religious sites in Europe. (Perhaps Bill Withers was onto something when he called Hall induction “a pre-obituary.”)

It has also always been an opportunity for self-mythologizing. “Like all Americans, he admired the use made of Westminster Abbey, and the Pantheon in Paris,” wrote NYU chancellor and Hall of Fame for Great Americans creator Henry Mitchell MacCracken of … himself. “But the American claims liberty to adopt new and broad rules to govern him, even when following on the track of his Old-World ancestors. Hence it was agreed that admission to this Hall of Fame should be controlled by a national body of electors, who might, as nearly as possible, represent the wisdom of the American people.”

This is the core myth at the center of the “Hall of Fame” — that its voting body can approximate public opinion. Since the advent of the sports Hall, that idea has shifted. The voting body, with its expertise, now supersedes public opinion. It’s worth noting that the Hall of Fame for Great Americans never became an important American institution and it held its last election a decade before the Rock Hall started. People stopped showing up, and busts of its final inductees were never finished. It’s a powerful reminder that these things are only as useful as their service to their public.

There were once smaller institutions that felt like correctives to the Rock Hall — alt-weeklies like The Village Voice, the pocket domains of indie music blogs and even TV and film that wasn’t produced by the subjects. As they continue to disappear, there is an ever more urgent need to fight off the RRHoF’s attempts to have the last word on what should matter, not simply for diversity’s sake, but for the sake of open-mindedness and intrigue. As a counterculture has become paradigm, it’s easy to see how the free-spirited ideals that govern classless ways of being can erode without accountability. The answer is not to create more Halls. After all, exclusion is at least half the point — not just being venerated but being separated from other artists by the velvet rope.

Instead, we should think of preserving music history as a collective responsibility. Critic Richard Brody recently wrote, “The archive of the future is decentralized, crowdsourced.” He’s right. I look at the Dance Music Archive, moves made to cache rap mixtapes online, and other attempts to represent not only impact but sprawl and not only “masters” but those thanklessly in service to communities. The Jann Wenners of the world shouldn’t ever dictate what gets deemed important again.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Defense carries Cazenovia football to win over Skaneateles

MORRISVILLE – Amid a unique setting and as part of a unique rivalry, the Cazenovia football team made sure that it did not get upended by those other Lakers to the west.

Cazenovia’s 14-12 victory over Skaneateles Friday night was almost entirely due to a defense that, at several key moments, forced turnovers or kept the visitors from crossing the goal line.

And it all took place on the newly-installed, one-of-a-kind black artificial turf at Morrisville State College’s Drake Field, which had only seen its first competition a week earlier when the host school lost to Catholic University.

Without a home field as Buckley-Volo Field gets its own turf installed (which will not be black), Cazenovia pulled out this victory despite getting outgained by more than a 2-1 margin.

The visiting Lakers had 309 total yards while its defense stifled Cazenovia most of the way. All that the host Lakers got was 128 yards – 88 on the ground, 40 through the air.

Yet Cazenovia did take care of the ball, something the other side could not as it was forced into four interceptions, two of which were grabbed by Taven Reilley.

Trailing 6-0 at halftime, Reilley put his team in position early in the third quarter. Then, on the Skaneateles nine-yard line, Bobby Livingston threw a swing pass to Reilley and he powered his way into the end zone, Cazenovia taking the lead with Connor Frisbie’s extra point.

Minutes later, with Skaneateles trying to drive it out of its own end, Reilley stepped in front of another pass and this time took it 27 yards for his second touchdown of the night.

Frisbie’s second PAT made it 14-6, and Cazenovia didn’t just lean on Reilley as two others, Jack Macro and Christian Schug, also earned interceptions to thwart Skaneateles drives.

When it wasn’t turnovers, it was the likes of Wyatt Scott amassing a team-best eight tackles, including a sack, while Macro contributed four tackles and an assist. Carter Bowden had three tackles and three assists.

Even with all this, Skaneateles still had a chance, and promptly netted a TD late in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to two. Needing a conversion for the tie, the visitors instead saw Jack Donlin break through the line and record a sack, ultimately preserving Cazenovia’s win.

Ranked no. 2 in the state in Class C going into this game, Cazenovia will get tested again next Saturday when it faces Solvay at 1 p.m. at Fayetteville-Manlius High School Stadium.

Meanwhile, Chittenango moved to 2-2 on the season with a 24-14 victory at Homer. The Bears play its next two games at home, starting next Friday against Mexico and continuing Oct. 6 against Institute of Technology Central.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

Controversies abound: Wenner book outrages as Jet lands in Hall of Fame

The co-founder of Rolling Stone has released a book being accused of racism and sexism, while the ARIA Hall of Fame has honoured a one-hit wonder. IA’s music reporter, David Kowalski, brings you the latest.

IN THE NEWS this week is the founder and former editor of Rolling Stone magazine, Jann Wenner, upon the launch of his new book, The Masters. The book features a series of interviews with a number of legendary musicians who happened to be ageing (or dead) White males such as Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan.

I have no issue with the artists he has chosen to feature in his book. I quite enjoy their music. However, he has been quoted in The New York Times as saying that artists like Stevie Wonder (a Black artist) and Joni Mitchell didn’t articulate themselves to the same “intellectual level” as someone like Bono or John Lennon, and it is at this that I must take umbridge.

Is this guy serious? For a person whose work changed the value and nature of music journalism, and could be regarded as an authority on rock music in the 20th Century, this is a bit beyond the pale. Joni Mitchell has proven time and time again in interviews and documentaries to be more than erudite and articulate enough to run rings around most people, especially someone like Bono.

What about Janis Joplin? PJ Harvey? Patti Smith? Tori Amos? All of them are brave, strong and intelligent women who could have given any of the aforementioned musicians a run for their money.

Even in his defence, he seemed to sweep the history of contributions from Black artists and women away to the side by saying:

“Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive] or whatever. I wish in retrospect I could have interviewed Marvin Gaye. Maybe he’d have been the guy. Maybe Otis Redding, had he lived, would have been the guy.”

At the end of the day, that’s a cop-out. If Mr Wenner had spent five minutes in conversation with either Harry Belafonte (God rest his soul), Little Richard or Chuck D from Public Enemy, I’m pretty sure he’d realise how wrong his assertion of what an articulate “master” is.

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The ARIA Hall of Fame for 2023

Also, this week is the startling news that Melbourne band Jet is being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2023. Cue the cries of What about [insert your favourite Australian band here]? The Hall of Fame award at the ARIAs has had a couple of years out of circulation due to COVID-19 and it returns this year as a singular addition to the long list of inductees.

To be fair, I think the critics have a point. Jet did have one massive single (Are You Gonna Be My Girl?), selling loads of records in America and Europe as well as getting the song used in a global advertising campaign for the Apple iPod in 2004. Beyond that initial flourish of success, there was… not much to write home about. A few mildly successful singles, two subsequent albums and then they went out with a whimper rather than a bang.

Hall of Fame worthy? Can a one-hit wonder really have a lasting influence on subsequent generations of Australian bands?

Perhaps I’m missing something that the ARIA selection committee has clearly picked up on. I would’ve argued that Jet deserve a place in the Hall at some stage in the future, but surely not before a trailblazing act like Warumpi Band gets a look in. And surely after such a long break in handing out the accolade, they could’ve found more than one artist to induct.

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Vale Paul Woseen, late of the Screaming Jets

It would be remiss of me, as a Novocastrian born and bred on Awabakal and Worimi land, not to remark on the passing of the bassist and songwriter for the Screaming Jets, Paul Woseen. The Jets were a staple of the Newcastle music scene in the ’90s and they were very much a product of the working-class nature of the city back then. They were a formative musical influence on me and many other young musicians in the Newcastle and Hunter Valley areas, as I’m sure they were to many others all over the country.

Paul was gifted with an amazing voice that always floated beautifully over the top of lead vocalist Dave Gleeson’s tenor on tracks like October Grey, Helping Hand and, of course, their biggest hit, Better.

Both powerful and subtle, turning from one to the other in a short breath, it’s perhaps no surprise then to find out that with a voice like his, Paul was a former choirboy at Newcastle’s Catholic Cathedral as a boy. I saw him perform a solo set at the 1997 (or was it 1998?) Dogbite Festival (the precursor to Groovin’ The Moo) at Maitland Showground and that voice was a thing of beauty, especially when he sang what is probably my favourite song of his, Think.

Even as late as January 2023, Paul was still doing acoustic sets at festivals all over the country, playing shows with the band as of early September, so this news has come as quite a shock. His songwriting and his talent will be dearly missed.

Thanks for the music, Paul.

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Melbourne band Feelds is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist James Seymour and the music he creates is a fantastic blend of warm emotions and conflicting sounds. Feelds’ second album, Brilliant Mud, has just dropped and is a varied collection that creates a world unto itself for the listener to immerse themselves deeply in. The lead single, Kaleidoscope, features brilliant duetting vocals with Katie Wighton, set against a dream-pop backdrop with some tasteful pedal steel blended in.

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LISTEN TO THIS WEEKS SPECIALLY CURATED PLAYLIST BELOW:

David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts ‘The Sound and the Fury Podcast’ and ‘Audio Cumulus’ can be heard exclusively here. You can follow David on Twitter @sound_fury_pod.

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  RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

‘Doors to Freedom’ monument adds to Valdosta public art

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) – Downtown Valdosta has become a popular destination for photos and videos as there is so much beautiful artwork, like the new Valdosta mural.

On Friday, the city unveiled the newest addition to public art. The “Doors to Freedom” monument which brings a piece of the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established to help enslaved African Americans escape into free states and then to Canada. The art depicts doors opening to a new future made possible by brave men and women who helped along the way.

The monument celebrates the strength, courage, resilience and unity of those who fought for their freedom.

“I think everybody should appreciate art and should be accessible to the community itself. Through the public arts advisory committee we hope that we can have more of this and inspire,” Steven Walker, “Doors to Freedom” artist, said. “I’m hoping that it will be here for a long time and I hope that will become a staple of the community in terms of a unifying piece of artwork,” he said.

The monument was a five-year collaboration effort between Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson, the Public Art Advisory Committee and Walker.

The monument was a five-year collaboration effort between Mayor Scott James Matheson, the Public Art Advisory Committee and Walker.

The project was postponed for nearly a year due to COVID-19, but Mayor Matheson says it was important for the city to commemorate important events, individuals, and ideas as a reminder for future generations.

“I think it really means a lot both to the city and the overall community showing a sign of unity,” Dr. Beverley Richardson-Blake, Turner Center for the Arts board member, said.

“It’s wonderful shining light on artist in this city, especially African American artist in Downtown with all the renovations and everything going on it’s beautiful to see,” Corey Wright, Valdosta community member, said.

The monument is the second art installation on the front lawn of city hall where the community is able to visit. Mayor Matheson says we can expect to see more public art as the city is moving towards making art accessible to the public.

“The wall on the side of Western Auto has been offered up for future use as well. Again, we are going to be aggressive some are going to be temporary pieces some are going to be permanent much like this,” Matheson said.

The city plans to add a QR code to the “Doors to Freedom” plaque for visitors to scan and learn about the history and significance of the Underground Railroad.

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment

The Black Girl’s Guide To Enjoying Portland

The Black Girl’s Guide To Enjoying Portland

Before I made the trip to Portland, Ore., I had quite a few misconceptions about the place. In my mind, it was solely a haven for bug-spray packing hikers who were perfectly fine going days without phone service. With that said, it wasn’t a city on my travel bucket list. But after seven days in the Pacific Northwestern locale, the sites, tastes and experiences available quickly opened my eyes to its greatness.

Rooftop coffee shops and chic cocktail bars populate the downtown area. Wine tasting in the Willamette Valley and soaking up the serenity of the Lan Su Chinese Garden is a perfect way to spend a solo trip. It is also a surprisingly walkable city, and I sure wandered through it, coming across street fairs and food trucks representing Portland’s artistic spirit.

I was so motivated by what I experienced that I opted to leave my comfort zone and go on a tour. The scenery filled with parks, paths, and incredible views was one of the best parts of the experience, and you did not have to be an experienced climber to get your trek on. You could also go whale watching and waterfall hunting without being a nature enthusiast and have a great time.

But that’s just a tiny bit of what made Portland a city to see. Check out the hangouts in and around the city that you must make it to.

STAY: Hotel Lucia

Hotel Lucia is quiet and stylish. Built in 1909, it is a historic property that sits within walking distance of great shopping and public transportation, and the staff was extremely helpful.

Their gym has Peleton bikes, so you don’t need to miss out on your Alex Toussaint and Ally Love fix during your stay.

A standard room worked well for a solo trip, but if you’re doubling up, you might want to consider upgrading to a suite. Rooms were also equipped with a Nespresso machine and a respectable selection of quality pods.

EAT: Deadstock Coffee Roasters

The coffee at Deadstock Coffee Roasters was exemplary, but it was the decor I couldn’t get enough of. Founded by a former Nike design employee, Ian Williams, they put Nike Dunk designs on their lattes.

But you don’t have to be a sneakerhead to appreciate the funky vibe of the place. It runs efficiently as well. There was a massive line, but I got right in and out on a busy morning.

The Black Girl’s Guide To Enjoying Portland

EXPERIENCE: Lan Su Chinese Garden

Walking distance from Williams’s coffee shop is the Lan Su Chinese Garden. It is the perfect place to spend a relaxed afternoon for a modest admission fee of $14. There is plenty of seating to take in the greenery, as the views of the botanical garden are breathtaking. Gaze at the lily pads from a bench by the pond, wander around while listening to the audio tour, or just sit with your journal and people-watch. An additional tip: Stop by their tea house for a cup of White Peony.

DRINK: The Society Hotel

The rooftop coffee bar at The Society Hotel is a must-visit. It is a cozy little place to hang out that allows you to see the entire downtown area from anywhere on the roof. If you sit in the right spot, you can view the Lan Su Chinese Garden, the Willamette River and the Cascade Mountains.

They do host events (there was a bachelorette party when I visited), but there’s also room to silo yourself off if you like.

The Black Girl’s Guide To Enjoying Portland

EXPERIENCE: Columbia River Gorge Waterfall Tour

You can be a nature novice and still enjoy this tour. The driver takes you to observation decks and over bridges that give you stunning views. There is a choice to be as involved as you like, and the vehicle is air-conditioned and comfortable.

EAT: Akadi

Stop by Akadi on a Wednesday night and enjoy live music with your West African cuisine.

Portland is one of the most literary loving places I have ever traveled to. The city boasts about its bookishness but seeing it in person is inspiring. Everywhere I went, people were flipping through pages in bars and at parks. They even have a book festival that takes place annually. If you’re traveling with little ones, the Black-owned Sunrise Books is a great option. Grabbing those Instagrammable tacos from Tight Tacos Authentic Street Taquero? Visit Third Street Books nearby and pick up something for yourself.

EXPERIENCE: Portland Art Museum

The permanent Portland Art Museum (PAM) collection includes a welcoming sculpture from recent U.S. State Department of the Arts medal recipient Hank Willis Thomas. In addition, Black Artists of Oregon is on display until March 17, 2024, and Africa Fashion, the exhibit bringing crowds to Brooklyn Museum in New York City, is headed there next.

EAT: Higgins Piggins

An offshoot of the Higgins restaurant chain, Higgins Piggins provides quality food in a cozy setting just steps from PAM and the Oregon Historical Society.

The Black Girl’s Guide To Enjoying Portland

EXPERIENCE: Wine Tasting in The Willamette Valley

Want to avoid the Napa crowds? There are plenty of vineyards in the area to visit. Compris and Chosen Family have beautiful views and friendly staff to walk you through the experience.

DRINK: Abbey Creek: The Crick PDX

Not interested in straying too far from town? Stop by Black-owned for Abbey Creek: The Crick PDX, a tasting room that goes straight from the vineyard to your glass.

EAT: Screen Door Pearl District

Brunch at the charming Screen Door, which is steps from the famed Powell’s Bookstore, was magnificent. Make sure you make a reservation ahead of time so you’re not stuck waiting on the sidewalk. If you forget to, the decadent smells coming from the kitchen will keep you company while you wait for a table.

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