Lee Chavous was born in the U.S. whilst the end of the Civil Rights Movement. His parents were part of the great migration when African-Americans escaped the adversities of the Jim Crow era in th...
Raoul Peck’s complex body of work includes feature narrative films like The Man by the Shore, Lumumba, Sometimes in April, Moloch Tropical and Murder in Pacot. His documentaries include Lumumba...
Omar Sy is an award-winning actor, comedian, comic writer and television personality who has established himself as an international star. With over 30 screen credits on his impressive resume, Om...
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ONE ON ONE WITH THE OSCAR NOMINEE BEST ACTRESS
RUTH NEGGA
Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa on January 7, 1982 to an Irish mother and Ethiopian father. An only child, Ruth was raised in Limerick, Ireland from the age of 4, and attended Trinity College in Dublin where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Acting. Her body of work spans award-winning theatre productions, big-screen dramas, independent films, and innovative television series. She won the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of legendary singer Shirley Bassey in the telefilm Shirley.
INTERVIEW WITH THE OSCAR AND GRAMMY WINNER JOHN LEGEND
Ohio-born John Legend is an award-winning, platinum-selling singer/songwriter. His work has garnered him ten Grammy Awards, an Oscar and a Golden Globe, among others. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he studied English and African-American literature, John participated in a wide range of musical activities while in college. During that period, he was introduced to Lauryn Hill, who hired him to play piano on her track "Everything Is Everything." Shortly thereafter, he began to play shows around the Philadelphia area, eventually expanding his audience base to New York, Boston, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child Film Review
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was born in Brooklyn to a Puerto Rican mother and a father of Haitian extraction. Blessed with a rebellious nature, he ran away from home a lot during adolescence, finally leaving for good at 17. Moving to Manhattan, he dropped out of school to fritter away his days spray-painting his alias, "Samo," all over the place, because as he put it, "The whole object of doing graffiti is fame." Fortunately, some well-connected folks in the high-priced art world recognized that Jean-Michel Basquiat actually had some talent and convinced the kid to go legit. He agreed to give it a try, and watched with amazement as his paintings rapidly escalated in price from $200 to $30,000 a piece. It wasn't long before he found himself rubbing elbows with celebrated icons like Andy Warhol and Julian Schnabel.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ONE OF THE BEST CANADIAN SINGERS/SONGWRITERS: THE JUNO WINNER DIVINE BROWN
The dress is from Voluptuos Inc. and the photographer is Margaret Malandruccolo Divine Brown was born in Canada from Jamaican parents and grew up in Toronto. She comes from a family of twelve kids and is the middle child. Growing up, she loved hearing artists such as Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin and Deniece Williams. Divine Brown started singing in the 80s. More precisely, she began singing at age four and performing at age twelve. Therefore, she has been on stage with The Temptations, George Benson and the rapper KRS. Moreover, she opened for Brian Adams, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu. Her first album Divine Brown was on the market in 2005 via Universal Music Canada. Most of the songs were penned by Brown. The single “Old Skool Love” from this CD became the highest in the Canadian charts for a debut from an R&B performer. It reached the first position on the MuchMoreMusic chart; it was a top 10 for the MuchMusic (the Canadian MTV) chart. “Old Skool Love” became a certified Gold seller.
VIOLA IRENE DESMOND: A CANADIAN COLOSSUS
 Viola Irene Davis Desmond was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia on July 6, 1914, one of 15 children in what was an unlikely family in that era (White mother, Black father). Very early, she chose her path as a businesswoman. The Halifax of her childhood and youth showed a clear need for a Black beautician who devoted herself to the needs of Black women for skin and hair care. In spite of her intelligence, such employment was not permitted due to the color of her skin. In Nova Scotia at that time, the trade of beautician was forbidden to Black women. ONE ON ONE WITH THE TALENTED ACTOR
ALDIS HODGE
 Aldis Hodge is perhaps best known for his role as Alec Hardison on the TNT series Leverage which nabbed a People's Choice Award in 2013, in addition to his role as MC Ren in Straight Outta Compton. Furthermore, he starred in the Amazon pilot The After and enjoyed a recurring role on the AMC Revolutionary War drama Turn: Washington's Spies. Aldis Hodge appeared opposite Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page in the eco-terrorism thriller “The East.” And he appeared in A Good Day to Die Hard, the latest installment of the “Die Hard” franchise. |
