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06-09-09 EUR ALL ON ONE PAGE
WHITNEY CAMP WEIGHING INTERVIEW REQUESTS: But here's the catch – her drug drama is off the table.
*Whitney Houston's people are reportedly considering a flood of interview requests ahead of the Sept. 1 release of her first new studio
album since 2002's "Just Whitney."
But according to the New York Daily News, her handlers are only considering reporters who agree not to bring up her past drug use.
“They only want to let her talk to journalists who’ll agree not to ask about her substance abuse,” an unnamed source tells the paper's Gatecrasher column.
A rep for Houston calls speculation on any PR plans “premature.
Nothing has been set.” However, the TV morning shows, which are all angling to get her to perform live in addition to a sit-down, are said to be clear on what the conditions are.
“The deal is, if they want her, then Matt Lauer, Diane Sawyer or whoever isn’t supposed to ask her tough questions,” says the source.
PROBATION FOR DMX ON ASSAULT CHARGE: Rapper to spend 18 months on supervised probation for fracas with detention officer.
*Looks like DMX will not have to go right back to jail…at least for now.
An Arizona judge on Monday sentenced the rapper to probation for allegedly throwing a food tray at a detention officer during his recent stay at a Phoenix jail.
DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, will spend 18 months on supervised probation for the jailhouse altercation under the ruling by Judge Robert Gottsfield in Maricopa County Superior Court, reports the Associated Press. He is also required to attend counseling.
The artist pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault on May 22. Eight days earlier, he was released from the jail after serving 90 days on drug, theft and animal abuse charges.
In May 2008, the 38-year-old was arrested on drug and animal cruelty charges after sheriff's deputies raided his home and found dog carcasses and malnourished pit bulls.
NAS & KELIS ON FIRST COVER OF VIBE'S 'THE MOST': New tabloid has exclusive scoop about the divorce.
*Vibe Media Group's new tabloid offering The Most! features Nas and Kelis on its first cover and provides what it says is "exclusive inside scoop" behind their "shocking divorce announcement after eight years of marriage."
The magazine quotes insiders who say the couple has reportedly been weathering marital problems for quite some time.
"One minute he's very warm, loving, and endearing; the next minute he says horrible things for absolutely no reason," said one source, who also claimed that Nas once threw a glass of Patron in Kelis’ face before abandoning her at a London club.
The inaugural issue of The Most! also includes a feature about reality star Danger, one of the women competing on VH1's "For the Love of Ray J." She talks about a three-day ordeal three years ago when she was detained by local police for resisting a random cavity search at the Las Vegas airport security gate while on her way back home to California where she was a pre-med student.
"At the station my clothes were taken. I was touched and beaten, while I sat completely naked in the cell," she says.
The debut issue also features "Best I Ever Had" including T.I and Tiny, Beyoncé and Jay-Z; and an update on the one-time rising R&B star Houston, who made headlines a few years ago when he gouged his own eye out, in "Houston, We Have a Problem."
LIFETIME TAKES LATIFAH'S 'MONEY': Cable channel nabs right to entertainer's
2008 film with Holmes and Keaton.
*Lifetime has acquired the cable TV rights to "Mad Money," the January 2008 comedy starring Queen Latifah, Diane Keaton and Katie Holmes as a group of women who begin robbing a bank.
The movie was the first released by Overture Films, reports Variety.
The network will pay license fees to Overture of just under $4 million, some 20% of the film's $20 million domestic gross.
The deal was brokered by Starz Media, the parent company of Overture that handles the studio's domestic TV sales.
Lifetime can begin airing the film in the second quarter of 2010.
TERRENCE HOWARD STOPS CARS TO SAVE BIRD: Actor halts six lanes of traffic in Beverly Hills when creature wanders into the street.
*The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Terrence Howard went above and beyond to make sure that a tiny bird that had wandered into the street would not be run over and killed.
According to witnesses, the bird hopped out into traffic right in front of the Mikimoto jewelry store on Wilshire and Rodeo in Beverly Hills.
Howard, dressed in a charcoal suit, got his traffic cop on and quickly motioned for drivers to brake.
"Six lanes of traffic were stopped," said a spy for the column. "A baby bird was walking in front of a bus when someone from the store came out and tried to help it." The actor followed, "holding his hands up and stopping [traffic] until the bird was out of harm's way."
DEBORAH COX GOES 'GREEN' FOR LGBT EVENT: Singer appointed National Ambassador for initiative at LA PRIDE.
*Singer Deborah Cox has been named National Ambassador for the Green With Pride initiative, which will launch at the 39th annual Los Angeles LGBT PRIDE Celebration taking place in West Hollywood, June 12-14.
The multi-platinum singer/actress has been a supporter of the LGBT community for years. She also has been a believer when it comes to green issues and doing one's part to help the environment.
"Green With Pride presented by Clear2Go" is designed as a fun, accessible and "edutaining" experience that will feature sustainable products, services and easy-to-use green tips over the 2-day festival.
PRIDE attendees will get an exclusive chance to meet Cox during an autograph session in the "Green With Pride presented by Clear2Go" area on Saturday, June 13, from 5-6 p.m. next to the main stage.
"Thankfully I have a job that I absolutely love and a family that I am so blessed with but that means everything I do has to be efficient and I have to feel really good about it," said Cox. "I literally was just having the light bulbs changed out and I got a call from my friends at 'Green With Pride.' I was so excited about the initiative, and that the area is designed in a way that informs me and I don't have to turn my world upside down to make an impact; even one small change collectively makes a huge difference."
Click here for more details about LA PRIDE 2009: http://lapride.org/
VIVICA, MOS DEF, UNION IN DC FOR CONFERENCE: Russell Simmons co-hosts Children Uniting Nations event targeting at risk youth.
*Children Uniting Nations (CUN), a non-profit working with at-risk and foster youth in partnership with Russell Simmons' "Hip Hop Summit Action Network," will host celebrities and legislators at today's 4th Annual "Keeping the Promise to our Children" conference in Washington D.C.
Terrence Howard, David Archuleta, Gabrielle Union, Shawn King, Kristen Bell, Vivica A. Fox, Mos Def, Catherine Dent and many more will join key legislators in a morning press conference held at the House Capitol Building with panel discussions following in the Woodrow Wilson Plaza located in the Ronald Reagan Building and an evening gala at the State Department.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will preside over the press conference, while panel discussions throughout the day include "Student Loan Forgiveness in Exchange for Academic Mentoring of Foster Children,"
"Physical Health, Nutrition and Obesity in Youth," "Drugs & Drug Trafficking," "Mental Heath and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," " Impact of AIDS and HIV on African American Community" and "The Impact of Economic Decline on the Future of Our Children."
In the year since the last conference, Children Uniting Nations has seen significant legislative achievements in support of mentoring for at-risk children. An amendment to provide loan forgiveness to community college students who mentor at-risk youth in their communities was passed by the House as part of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act in 2008, and an amendment to support the mentoring of children in foster care was passed unanimously in the Senate as part of the recent Serve America Act (2009).
JEFFREY OSBORNE TO DROP FIRST LIVE ALBUM: Singer presents concert performance of his biggest hits.
*Jeffrey Osborne is gearing up to release his first ever concert album, "Greatest Hits Live!," on July 7 via E1 Music.
This comprehensive collection showcases live renditions of all the Osborne classics from his three decades as a solo artist, and includes songs by his former group, the legendary L.T.D.
Osborne began his professional singing career in 1969 with L.T.D., spending more than ten years fronting the band before leaving to pursue a solo career.
During this time, Osborne recorded five gold and platinum albums which spawned such Top 40 hits as "Don't You Get So Mad," "Stay With Me Tonight," and "Love Power," which he performed with Dionne Warwick. His single "On The Wings of Love" became an international hit in 1982.
TRACK LIST
1. We're Going All The Way
2. Don't You Get So Mad/Don't Need No Light 3. Only Human 4. We Party Hearty 5. Stranger 6. Stay With Me Tonight 7. Close the Door 8. On The Wings Of Love 9. Holding On 10. Concentrate On You 11. We Both Deserve Each Other's Love 12. Love Ballad 13. You Should Be Mine (The Woo Woo Song) 14. Back In Love Again 15. I'll Be Around
JAZZY JEFF SET CUT SHORT IN KANSAS CITY: DJ says he was asked to leave venue for being to hip hop heavy.
*DJ Jazzy Jeff has become the latest victim of racial controversy at a Kansas City entertainment venue that apparently has a reputation for discrimination against the black community – and against hip hop in particular.
The Kansas City Star is reporting that the Power & Light District
(http://www.powerandlightdistrict.com/) – an eight-block neighborhood in the heart of downtown, housing 45 retail outlets, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues – had an issue with its June 6 booking of DJ Jazzy Jeff that resulted in organizers cutting his set short and forcing him to leave.
The turntablist, born Jeff Townes, began his set spinning hip hop and pop favorites (Jay-Z, Biz Markie, Rihanna) as his MC, Skillz, hyped up the crowd. But after 15 minutes or so, in the middle of Ne-Yo's R&B hit “Miss Independent,” he was told to stop spinning by P&L President Jon Stephens.
“My road manager walked up to me and said they were having problems with the music I was playing,” Jeff told Kansas City Star writer Jenee Osterheldt. “I played three more songs and he comes back. I knew something was wrong. They said I had to kick Skillz off the stage, change the format of the music I was playing or quit. They said if I continued playing they had 30 cops ready to come escort me offstage. So I stopped.”
Stephens told the paper that Jeff's account is not true, and that the DJ was asked to leave because he wouldn't turn the volume down.
“The issue that arose with the performance last night was completely about the sound levels,” Stephens said Sunday. “His audio tech was maxing out the sound system to a point that risked damage to the speakers and sound system. His sound techs and management refused to bring the decibel level down. They were told to bring it down or cease performance. They refused to go on."
“Obviously we have a desire to book a diversity of acts,” Stephens continued. “We booked Jazzy Jeff on a Saturday night, the biggest night of the week in the district. We were excited to have him there. It’s unfortunate that his sound and management people had problems adhering to the sound and audio rules. We wanted him to play. That’s why we booked him.”
Jeff, however, maintains he was shut down because of the hip hop in his rotation, as well as the rough swagger of his hype man Skillz. Jeff said he was told by venue officials that his set "attracted the wrong kind of element."
“They said they didn’t like Skillz’s posture,” Jeff said. “They said he made gang-like signs and grabbed at his genitals.”
Osterheldt wrote: "Jeff felt it was wrong because Skillz is no gang member. He is a father. His hand gestures were the kind of movements you make to get the crowd excited."
CASSIE BLAMES GOOGLE FOR LEAKED PHOTOS: Singer says someone hacked into her Gmail and stole her naked pics.
*Singer Cassie is blaming her e-mail carrier for leaking semi-naked pictures of her to the Internet.
After images of her exposing her breasts hit the web last month, she quickly came out with a statement saying the pictures had been stolen from her email account, labeling the person behind the stunt "foul and evil."
The artist took to the airwaves over the weekend to put on blast both the unknown hacker and web mail company Gmail - owned by search engine giant Google.
"True (the snaps were leaked). Not by me. We're closer to an idea of who did it, yeah," she told Los Angeles radio jock JoJo Wright. "It's being somewhat investigated. But I think we're closer to finding out who it was.
"I wasn't sure what the situation was until we asked more questions and found out more things, but it was in an old email from like last year that I had. Actually it was GMail and sometimes GMail is the worst
"It was a year ago I took the pictures and sent them. I don't even have the pictures anymore, so that was the crazy part about it. I got a phone call about 11 at night and my stomach fell. I freaked out for a second and then, what can you do when that happens.
"A lot of people take pictures like that for their significant other and that's what it was for me, I had sent them to someone. Now I've learned not to use an email to send a picture obviously."
REV. WRIGHT SAYS OBAMA IS 'LIKE MY CHILD': President's former pastor makes latest comments during Saturday speech in Iowa.
*The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is talking about President Obama in public again, this time during remarks he made Saturday at the Methodist Federation for Social Action awards in Ames, Iowa.
According to the Associated Press, the former pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ said his one-time parishioner and mentee, Barack Obama, has made some mistakes, but he's “like my child,” and he’ll always love the president.
Saturday’s award ceremony before about 400 people honored those who helped immigrants or fought for the successful legalization of gay marriage in Iowa. Wright says the award winners show that not all Americans are “stuck on stupid.” He also joked that when Obama was considering a presidential bid, he told Wright not to say anything that would upset Iowa farmers.
Wright became a flashpoint in the presidential campaign when videos surfaced showing his sometimes provocative sermons. He agreed to take written-only questions after the talk, according to the Ames Tribune. He was asked why he remained defiant in his spring 2008 appearance before the National Press Club.
“I condensed 500 years of African church history into 30 minutes, and not one question I was asked afterward had anything to do with my paper,”
Wright was quoted as saying.
RAY NAGIN QUARANTINED IN CHINA: New Orleans mayor, his wife and security guard held after someone on his plane showed H1N1 symptoms.
*New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who traveled on Friday to Shanghai, China, on an economic development trip, was told early Sunday that a passenger on his commercial flight was confirmed to have swine flu symptoms.
Though he and the others are symptom-free, Shanghai was taking no chances. Officials there placed Nagin, his wife and one member of his executive protection unit in a designated quarantine location in the city as a precaution, reports the Associated Press.
As a result, the mayor's agenda is now on indefinite hold.
"Right now, everything is stopped and we will follow the lead of Shanghai medical officials," spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said at a City Hall news conference Sunday afternoon. "He seemed fine. Just following the procedure."
The passenger showing symptoms is undergoing both quarantine and treatment.
Nagin is being treated with the utmost courtesy by Chinese officials, the mayor's office said.
The mayor was notified of the situation on his Shanghai flight sometime overnight, his office said.
"The officials from the airline and the U.S. embassy then contacted everyone who was sitting within a certain distance of that passenger,"
Quiett said. "Mayor Nagin, his wife and members of his executive protection unit are all in quarantine. It is not the whole plane, just those who were sitting in close proximity of this passenger."
It was unclear how long the mayor will remain in quarantine. That is up to Chinese public health officials, but doctors in the U.S. usually monitor people for seven to 10 days.
R&B AND GOSPEL STARS RECORD MAZE TRIBUTE CD: Mary J. Blige, Musiq, DeVaughn, Clark Sisters and more sing Frankie Beverly classics.
*A who's who of R&B and gospel artists have recorded an all-star tribute album recognizing the nearly 40-year career, 12 albums and 30 hit singles of Maze featuring Frankie Beverly.
Mary J Blige, Musiq Soulchild, Raheem DeVaughn, Ledisi, Donald Lawrance and the Clark Sisters have been named as participants so far. More are to be announced in the coming weeks.
Due in August from Brantera Music Group and 101 Distribution, the 10-track project is being executive produced by Frankie Beverly's son, Anthony Beverly, to properly honor his father's contributions to the music industry in a way that has never been done before.
"Not only is this an accomplished group of artists with diverse and distinctive voices, they are all Frankie Beverly and Maze fans," said Anthony. "They come to this project with their own personal Frankie Beverly experiences which adds to the impact of the project. I am excited to pay tribute to my father's legacy by working with this incredible group of artists who embody the spirit, appreciation and talents consistent with Maze's sound and message."
Mary J. Blige sang "Before I Let Go," Musiq Soulchild is handling "Silky Soul" and Donald Lawrence is producing a gospel rendition of "I Wanna Thank You," originally released on Maze's 1983 "We Are One" LP.
This project marks the first time the Clark Sisters have recorded since July 2006, when they released their last album, "Live...One Last Time."
EUR DVD REVIEW: The International
DVD Wastes Watts and Owen in Political Potboiler
DVD Review by Kam Williams
*The only thing this overly-ambitious political potboiler starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts has going for it is the fact that it was shot on an array of exotic locations stretching from New York to London to Berlin to Potsdam to Milan to Istanbul.
It also features a life-size replica of the Guggenheim which provides the setting for a dizzying shootout inside the museum on its instantly-recognizable circular ramp.
The flick’s timely plotline revolves around the efforts of Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Owen) and Manhattan Assistant D.A. Eleanor Whitman (Watts) to crack an intercontinental money-laundering operation hatched somewhere inside a conglomerate called the International Bank of Business and Credit. Seems that the IBBC is about to broker an arms deal between China and some Middle East nations hostile to Israel.
The point of departure is Berlin where we find ready-to-rumble Salinger partnering-up with relatively-refined Whitman in the wake of the death of her partner (Ian Burfield) under suspicious circumstances. Turns out the dearly-departed wasn’t the first person investigating the IBBC to die in a freak accident.
What ensues is a globe-trotting game of cat-and-mouse which takes the pair to plenty of places where neither technically has jurisdiction to operate. After all, Salinger works for Interpol which in the real world is a fairly toothless outfit about a step above dogcatcher, while Whitman, as an attorney, isn’t even a law enforcement officer at all.
Nonetheless, he behaves like your classic gunslinging rogue who ignores the rules, much to the chagrin of the goons he bests with the help of cartoon physics and a body ostensibly impervious to bullets. Eleanor’s job is just to play the damsel-in-distress.
Perhaps because English is not the director’s native tongue, much of what’s supposed to pass for credible dialogue has the characters talking in trite, fortune cookie-speak, such as “Sometimes, the hardest thing in life is knowing which bridge to cross.” Yeah, and sometimes, the hardest thing in life is knowing which script to pass on.
Fair (1 star)
Rated R for profanity and graphic violence.
Running time: 118 minutes
Studi Sony Pictures Home Entertainment DVD Extras: Director’s audio commentary, a deleted scene, Sony trailers, “The Making of The International” plus three other featurettes.
To see a trailer for The International, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILj3HlaoOCg
EUR BOOK LOOK: I am Barack Obama
by Kam Williams
*“This book tells a story of how a child can change the world. It creates a space where children can experience the extraordinary life of President Barack Obama while imagining the possibilities for themselves. I am Barack Obama includes accounts of children already using this inspirational moment in history to imagine their futures in compelling ways, as captured by the powerful statement, ‘I am Barack Obama.’” -- Excerpted from the Preface (page 3)
Barack Obama’s ascendance to the Presidency was undoubtedly moving to anyone old enough to have endured Jim Crow segregation during those shameful days before black folks were allowed basic human rights like access to restaurants, hotels or even the voting booth.
Understandably, it might now be satisfying enough for elders who suffered such indignities simply to sit back and bask in the reflected glory of Obama’s historic achievement.
But that feat ought to have a very different meaning for children growing up today. For given Barack’s rise from some rather humble roots, his life story of beating the odds should serve as an inspiration to them and to impressionable young minds for generations to come that they can turn any dream into reality, however big, however improbable.
That’s precisely the message of I am Barack Obama, a priceless biography of our new President by Charisse Carney-Nunes, a mother of two who designed it for kids still in their formative years.
In the preface, we learn that the author also happens to know her subject personally, having attended Harvard Law School at the same time as Obama. In fact, there’s even a picture of them together, taken in April of 1991.
The tome’s uplifting narration, written in a bouncy rhyme, is not so much strictly about Barack as about the incredible potential inside each and every one of us which is waiting to be unlocked. But the book’s beautiful illustrations by Ann Marie Williams do feature familiar tableaus of Obama at every stage of his development, from learning to ride a tricycle all the way to his finally standing at a podium in front of the President Seal.
Fitfully, I am Barack Obama closes with over a dozen testimonials by children representing a diversity of ethnic backgrounds. Each one essentially affirms, as 10 year-old Raequan eloquently puts it, “No matter where you come from, when you put your mind to it, you can do or be anything.“
What more proof do you need that times have certainly changed?
I am Barack Obama
by Charisse Carney-Nunes
Illustrated by Ann Marie Williams
Brand Nu Words
Hardcover, $16.95
36 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-9748142-4-7
STEVEN IVORY: The Jones for "Jones"
*Tandy, effectively dreaded, tattooed and pierced, takes smug pride in being on music's "cutting edge." Post-this, Neo-that--as if there are any sharp edges at all left in popular music (and by the way, Tandy, it's ALL popular, even if you burrow so fashionably unfashionably [sic] underground for music that you end up in China).
So, the other afternoon, when the 1972 Billy Paul classic, "Me And Mrs. Jones," came wafting out the dashboard of her lime green Beetle, she turned it up just a bit and seemed to be waiting for me to respond. Finally she perked up: "Bet you didn't think I'd listen to something like this, did you?"
"Why not?" I replied nonchalantly, not mentioning that while I am certain they exist, I have yet to meet a grown woman, regardless of hue, age, cultural, economic background or musical taste who didn't sigh at the languid saxophone intro of "Me And Mrs. Jones."
Billy Paul's wistful lisp of the lyric, "We both know that it's wrong/but it's much too strong to let it go now," was working like a calming tonic on Tandy's nerves, which bustling noontime L.A. traffic had previously threatened to obliterate.
For decades, I'd stand by dumbfounded as "Jones" worked the same peculiar voodoo on other members of the female species. It goes against all wisdom, conventional or otherwise, that women, for whom the wish for infinite fidelity is an emotional trademark, would have such affection for a song about cheating.
However, the hell-rivaling fury of even the most scorned woman seems temporarily palliated by this mushy soul ballad outlining the surreptitious "thing goin' on" between a loving couple--married, just not to each other.
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, legendary producers and architects of the famed Philadelphia sound who penned the tune (with one Cary Gilbert), have said the song was inspired by a married friend of theirs involved in an affair. Regardless, Gamble and Huff had to know just what they'd crafted with "Jones."
It's a sucker punch right to wanton desires, really--the sexy, sauntering instrumental opening accented by that smoky, seductive sax (women love the sound of a sax. Change the a in sax to e and look what you've got) and Billy Paul's unambiguous, casual vocal.
Forget that for four weeks in December of '72 "Me And Mrs. Jones" was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (knocking out of the slot Helen Reddy's anthemic "I am Woman;" in turn, "Mrs. Jones" was pushed out of #1 by Carly Simon's "You're So Vain") or that it sold four million copies and earned Billy Paul a Best R&B Vocal Grammy. I still couldn't grasp why that song made ladies swoon.
Then, after years of HEARING it--the way men often hear girlfriends and wives, which is to say, depending on the topic, we take in a coherent line or two and the rest sounds like so much blah, blah, blah--I actually LISTENED to it. And, eureka! Turns out, women, in their emotionally creative way, interpret "Me And Mrs. Jones" not as a ditty about infidelity, but an epic of true, impassioned and unmitigated LOVE.
So what if the guy in the song and his mistress have "gotta be extra careful that we don't build our hopes up too high/because she's got her own obligations and so do I;" Theirs is an improbable, hand-holding, tragic, smoldering, right-out-of-a-romance novel, I-could-just-eat-you-up-right here love. For a woman, the idea of love, REAL love, can sometimes trump broke, butt-ugly, even infidelity.
The low down dirty dog as Sir Galahad is but one bizarre mystery among such Greatest Hits of Female Inconsistency as a woman's prerogative to change her mind (after it seems so settled); the good girl entranced by bad boys and the woman who eloquently says one thing but means something else entirely. Men love women. Always understanding them is another matter.
I turned to explain to Tandy my "Mrs. Jones" thesis, but Billy Paul had her in his sneaky clutches. I opted to let her have the dream for another city mile. Besides, the Nigerian punk band she'd been blasting would drive anyone to cheat.
Steven Ivory's book, FOOL IN LOVE (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster) is in stores now or at Amazon.com (www.Amazon.com) Respond to him via STEVRIVORY@AOL.COM.
THE BRIDGE: The Blame Game
By Darryl James
*"Being a Negro in America means trying to smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical life amid psychological death. It means having your legs cut off, and then being condemned for being a cripple. It means seeing your mother and father spiritually murdered by the slings and arrows of daily exploitation, and then being hated for being an orphan."
That quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is as relevant today as it ever was.
Our children are dying in the streets and in many ways, they are being blamed for their own deaths. They are being hated for the conditions they are born into.
When we talk of violence in the Black community, many people want to blame that violence on the young Black men and women who are victims of it.
People want to blame the youth for the guns and crack that are killing them.
Automatic weapons did not just walk into our neighborhood in the arms of Tyrone the drug dealer.
It is deceptive to espouse that Black men are somehow responsible for systematic racism and classism, but making such statements is easier than taking action, or facing one’s own responsibility.
More than half a million Americans are victimized in handgun crimes each year, and our community is the hardest hit:
3,792 children and adolescents under age 20 died in 1998 due to gun violence.
While 85% of all gun deaths of people under age twenty are males, the rate for Black males is 2.4 times higher than Hispanics and 15.3 times higher than for whites.
For black males, aged 15 to 19, firearm homicides increased 158 percent during the last decade of the old century, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
In the last decade, Black males, ages 15 to 24 accounted for nearly 60 percent of the victims of homicides involving firearms.
The total number of teen deaths due to gun violence has dropped, but, really not by much. By 2002, the above number from 1998 dropped to 3,012. That is still 3,012 too many.
We hear the term “Black on Black Violence,” and we assume that African Americans are in the streets hunting each other down. Many of us fail to realize that typically violent crimes happen close to home, which means that we tend to harm the ones closest to us. In other words, none of us are out looking to increase our own death rate.
There are myriad reasons why young Black males are being subject to gun violence and the fingers don’t all point to the young men themselves.
Society itself is to blame for conditions that facilitate crime and violence, yet, even many African Americans are quick to blame each other.
For everything.
In America, Blacks are often blamed for everything, from the high crime rate to the unemployment rate of poor whites.
Today, many African Americans are blaming poor African Americans.
Talk to the average educated African American and he or she is likely to tell you that Black men are going to prison at higher rates than whites because they are simply committing more crimes.
However, according to research by University of Washington sociologist Becky Pettit “the war on drugs and other changes in the penal code, coupled with the fact that education is far more important economically today than it was 20 years ago, may have led to the huge disparity” in Black and white imprisonment rates. "We are locking up men who are already disadvantaged at higher rates than 30 years ago," Pettit added.
The problem in the Black community is Black people who won’t look back, or who look back in disgust.
The sad fact is that many of us work in a world where there are few of us and live on a block where there are also few of us, yet we complain about what happens in areas where we do not travel as though the people are not a part of us and somehow to blame for their own condition.
We don't all go to the community church, the block party, the community park social or other community events that took place when we had real communities. Rarely do so-called "progressive" Blacks even attend community functions, where the perception is that people on “lower levels” of society will be in overwhelming numbers.
How many progressive” Blacks believe that the slums, projects and the ‘hood are all filled with crack-slinging undesirables who just need to go to college and stop being lazy? How many “progressive” Blacks believe that those undesirables made a choice to sling crack, tote guns and bring it into their neighborhoods?
Even if you believe these things, I only want to know what you have done to change it. Nothing? Then you are the worst thing to ever happen to Black people. Even worse than racism, crack, gun violence or Rush Limbaugh.
Fifty years ago, in the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the ruling stated that separating Blacks based on race, brings on feelings of "inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."
The oppression of a people leaves emotional scars, which run deep into the self-esteem of the oppressed, grows within the community and perpetuates itself as efficiently as folk tales, songs and disease.
If we think poorly about each other, our thoughts become reality, and prevent us from raising the condition of our sons and daughters.
I hear so-called middle class Blacks complain that Black people need to “stop whining,” about racism and “just stop being lazy.” They say that we need to stop selling crack and stop shooting each other and just get a job.
Now, I’ll ask you: if white men in America are having a hard time finding a job, can you really believe that Black men are just lazy?
Certainly, it is tiring to hear every thing blamed on “the white man,” but is the answer to now blame everything on the Black man? Have Black men become the new Boogeyman?
Whatever problems exist are the problems of us all. If we continue to talk about each other as opposed to working with each other, then what is left of our community in this nation will disintegrate and vanish.
Next Week: “Just Us.”
Darryl James is an award-winning author of the powerful new anthology “Notes From The Edge.” He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and will soon release his first full-length documentary. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.
THE JOURNAL OF STEFFANIE RIVERS: What Would Jesus Do?
*I always have said the life of every child is valuable. And when it comes to unborn children my sentiments are the same. That might lead some to conclude that I am against abortion. While I never want to see the life of a child end before it starts, I think a woman’s right to choose whether or not to bear her child is a personal one that should not be taken from her. If God gives everyone the free will to serve him or not, who are we to demand that a woman gives birth against her will?
If a woman wants to end her pregnancy because of rape, incest, medical complications or just plain old not being financially or emotionally prepared to become a parent, some might say conception was God’s will? But some of the same people who want to outlaw abortion are against their tax dollars being spent on government assistance to families with dependant children, not to mention the expense of foster care and the money spent on services for adopted children. Newborns create a picture of love and hope for the future. And as much as we would want a child to be raised in a nurturing household with enough money to cover expenses the reality is far different.
Millions of low-income working families with children that need assistance don’t get it because of insufficient funding for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). By 1996 the federal program, formerly known as Aid for Dependent Children, spent $24 billion each year for educational, medical and day care services, but it still wasn’t enough to go around.
More than 500,000 children in the United States currently reside in some form of foster care. And according to the Child Welfare League of America, half of those children are in foster care due to protective services reasons, 21 percent are because of parental absence or financial hardship and 13 percent for other state-defined reasons including family interaction problems and unwed motherhood. Various studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care tend to have limited education and job skills and perform more poorly educationally than children who are not in foster care.
Also, from daycare through high school research has shown that adopted children with special needs and their families need support throughout the life of their adoption. This is not to say that all foster and adopted children are doomed to failure. But if it takes $200,000 for birth parents to raise a child through college, imagine the cost for foster care and adopted children in that same time.
When families are forced to bear children they don’t want, it doesn’t punish birth parents. It hurts the children and creates a financial burden on everyone. A woman who makes an informed decision to accept the responsibilities of motherhood or – due to her own personal reasons – decides against it by choosing to terminate her pregnancy should be able to make her decision without feeling ridicule or extra guilt.
Steffanie Rivers is a free-lance journalist living in the Dallas, Texas metroplex. See the video version of her column at youtube.com/steffanierivers. To schedule speaking engagements or to send questions or comments email her at teamtcbadvertising@hotmail.com
PEOPLE OF NOTE: Jazz Greats Celebrate 30 Years of Jazz Forum
By Deardra Shuler
Mark Morganelli Photo by John Abbott
*Mark Morganelli and Jon Hendricks took time out from their busy planning of the 30th Anniversary of Jazz Forum slated for Monday, June 22, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. This musical festival comprised of nearly 20 artists is to be held at the Rose Theater, within Fredrick P. Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center, located at 60th Street and Broadway. Musicians such as Lou Donaldson, Cedar Walton, Buster Williams, Joe Lovano, George Mraz, Paquito D'Rivera, Barry Harris, Louis Hayes, Jimmy Cobb, Claudio Roditi, John Scofield, George Coleman, Rufus Reid, Al Foster, Leroy Williams, Ray Drummond, Mark Morganelli and Jon Hendricks will make this event a night to remember.
At 24 years of age, Mark Morganelli established Jazz Forum in the East Village in 1979. “I graduated in 1977 and immediately went on the road. Coming from a big band tradition, I hired a couple of guys from the Berkley School of Music who taught me bebop. I moved to NY and began working with the Bob January's Original Swing Era Orchestra at the Village Gate, playing all the stock Big Band charts. I started doing jam sessions and rehearsal big band dates. Before I knew it, I decided to buy a loft with a few musician buddies. We built bedrooms, sanded the floors and on June 17, 1979 opened the doors to the public with the great trumpeter Dizzy Reese and the house rhythm section and the following weekend with Clifford Jordan with the house rhythm section. We used the loft as a club. What made it a club I suppose is that I was selling beer and wine out of my refrigerator for a dollar,” chuckled Mark. “The Jazz Form was down at 50 Cooper Square on the northern part of the Bowery near Joseph Papp's Public Theater and between an Alcohol Rehabilitation Clinic and a Methadone Program,”continued the trumpeter and flugelhorn player.
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross started out in 1958/1959. Their first album, “Sing A Song with Basie” revolutionized Jazz singing and changed it forever via creating a style that became known as vocalese. “Vocalese became the name that represented putting words to jazz instrumentals and now vocalese is a recognized bona fide jazz culture art form,” explained Hendricks whose style inspired the Manhattan Transfer.
One of 17 children, Hendricks began singing at 7 years of age in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. Living 5 houses down from Art Tatum, he started working with Art at age 9. When he was 12, Art got Jon a job at the Waiters and Bellman's Club, an after hours club where Art accompanied him on piano for 2 years. “All the music I learned, I learned from Art even though I never learned to read music but I learned to hear around the corner,” remarked Jon who formed a collaboration with vocalist Dave Lambert wherein they re-recorded the song “Four Brothers,” in 1957, later joining up with Annie Ross giving birth to Lambert, Hendricks and Ross as a full-time act.
'What we are going to do at the June 22 concert is debut the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross redo. That same week Annie Ross and I are being honored by ASCAP. We debuted our redo at Milan, Italy at the Blue Note where we got a standing ovation. Everyone loves the sound of vocalese which is a potent force,” said Hendricks.
“We are starting the June 22nd show with Barry Harris the great Detroit BeBop professor who will be playing in a trio format with Ray Drummond on bass and drummer Leroy Williams who will ultimately be joined by the great Lou Donaldson. Jon will then come on with the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross Redo debut, then Cedar Walton, Louis Hayes and Buster Williams will perform as a trio. Afterwards, they will form a quartet with the great tenor player George Coleman who played with the great Miles Davis in the 1960s,” said Mark. “We will take a break and then return with a second set, opening up with a nod to Sonny Rawlins and the late John Coltrane who did these cordless trio performances at the Village Vanguard whereby Joe Lovano, George Mraz and Al Foster perform as a trio. Joe will go off stage and John Scofield will come out and perform with the trio. We will then add the New Orleans musician Donald Harrison who played the Jazz Forum with Art Blakey. Lastly, the final group will feature Kenny Barron, Rufus Reed and Jimmy Cobb who will ultimately be joined by Claudio Roditi and Paquito D'Rivera,” claimed Morganelli.
“I have been teaching for 8 years at the University of Toledo as a distinguished professor of Jazz Studies,” said Jon who believes that anyone involved with the medium of jazz programming should treat the jazz art form like the culture that it is. “For example, Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven have been dead 400 years, so why should the fact that Dizzy is not here, Duke Ellington is not here, Miles is not here, keep them off the air,” remarked Jon. “Seems to me that is motivation to keep their music on the air. You cannot treat art forms like they are contemporary only. People are going to get old and leave here and if they have done something of any merit, those who remain, have to play those people and perform their work to keep them alive. Jazz is the most vital art form on the planet and should be shown respect. It's America's art form, white or black,” said Hendricks with great emotion while encouraging all to come out on June 22 to help celebrate Jazz Forum's 30th Anniversary.
For tickets to the 30th Anniversary of Jazz Forum call CenterChange at 212-721-6500, see www.jalc.org or visit the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, on the Ground Floor, at 60th Street and Broadway.
InSyNc WITH D. YATES: Iphone 3.0 and Iphone 3Gs
Apple has shown up and showed out once again...now if only AT&T can catch up.
*Welcome back to this very special edition of InSynC. It’s a wonderful day in the world of gadgets. Today, Apple debuted its newest and greatest edition of the iPhone to date: Ladies and Gentleman… Iphone 3Gs... The “s” stands for speed.. This is the fastest and hottest iPhone available to the human race. Apple finally stepped it up and allowed for a Video Camera. They also have increased the CPU speed meaning faster speeds, faster downloads, faster everything! They have also lowered the price. You can now purchase and Iphone 3Gs for 99.00, for an 8gb model, 199.00 for the 16GB and 32GB for 299.00. They also claimed to have beefed up the battery life, but that has yet to be confirmed. Apple always says the battery life is more than what is… only time will tell.
I don’t know about ya’ll but I’m on cloud nine! Of course, it's still with AT&T, so you won’t be able to grab it without switching carriers or signing another two year contract, but hey, it’s the iPhone, what else do you need. One thing that kinda upsets me is that Picture Mail won’t be accessible until “early fall,” Which I don’t understand either. One more good thing to note is that the new iPhone will have the ability to tether, which means that you can use the iPhone as a modem, which is pretty damn cool.
The WWDC or Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference is AN annual event that Apple sponsors in order to give us gadgeteers something to drool over for a couple of months. At this event, Snow Leopard was also announced. If you own a newer Mac, then you already have Leopard, it’s the operating system that comes standard with the computer. Snow Leopard takes the operating system to another level by introducing some features that are going to be available on the iPhone such as Spotlight, which basically gives the you the option to search your whole computer for whatever you might need. This is just one of the features available. It's basically Leopard on steroids, and about the greatest thing ever is if you currently use Leopard, you can upgrade to Snow Leopard for the mere price of 29.00.
Another thing Apple did was to upgrade all of their MacBooks. They extended all the battery life and of course gave everyone Snow Leopard Standard. My only regret is that I didn’t wait until now to purchase my MacBook, but I guess 29.00 is a reasonable price to pay.
There is plenty more to talk about, but I’ll let you review it and tell me what you think. But the new update will be available as soon as June 17th. It will be free for all current iPhone users and 9.99 for all Ipod Touch owners, The new Iphone, which I will be in line to pick up, will come out just two days later.
Check out all there is to know about the Iphone 3Gs and the new Iphone 3.0
EUR MOTIVATIONAL NOTE
"I dream my painting and then paint my dream." — Vincent Van Gogh
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
June 9: Actress Gloria Reuben ("The Agency," "ER") is 45.
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Black College Wire news service promotes the journalistic work of
students (www.blackcollegewire.org).
Submit your favorite Web site to us along with a 15-20 word (or less) description to info@eurweb.com.
BLACK HISTORY
June 9, 1989: Congressman John Conyers D-Michigan announced a call for a reparations study. (Source: www.BlackFacts.com)
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