The True Story Behind Viola Davis Character in Ma Rainey s Black Bottom Kayla Keegan
On December 18, Netflix released the new film
Ma Rainey s Black Bottom, a drama adapted from a play of the same name, written by late Pulitzer-winning playwright
August Wilson. Produced by
Viola Davis, the movie centers around real-life blues pioneer
Gertrude Ma Rainey, on the day that she and her band record a song called Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Watching Viola depict Ma, it s clear the Oscar-winning actress did a lot of preparation to portray the powerful, bawdy, and charismatic singer. Although Viola worried she wouldn t be able to sing well enough to play the iconic Mother of Blues, after reading the script she knew she had to get involved.
Black Film Directors Poised to Make History as Awards Season Nears
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Rolling Stone The Best Books About Billie Holiday
With Lee Daniels’ biopic on the legendary musician streaming on Hulu, these biographies and coffee table books will bring you closer to Lady Day
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With
The United States vs. Billie Holiday streaming on Hulu, both longtime and new fans will likely be clamoring for more of the legendary jazz singer, who died in 1959 at the age of 44. Born Eleanora Fagan, Billie Holiday was among the targets of Federal Bureau of Narcotics head Harry Anslinger, whose racist agenda fueled a so-called crackdown on marijuana and heroin. That torment, as well as the music icon’s life, is the subject of the upcoming Lee Daniels biopic starring Andra Day as Holiday and Trevante Rhod
It’s safe to say that the majority of present-day moviegoers steer clear of stage-to-screen adaptations. There are films in this subgenre that would be considered classics, like Elia Kazan’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Milos Forman’s “Amadeus” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” but there is something about the intimacy of watching the film version of a work originally performed as a stage play that turns many audiences off. This past month, though, I watched two films that stuck with me for weeks: George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and Regina King’s “One Night in Miami.” These two stories focus on different eras of Black history in America one set in 1927, the other in 1964 and their associated philosophies. Both of these adaptations are masterfully crafted, with excellent directing and performances that will speak to people in ways that other stage-to-screen adaptations in the past have been unable to achieve.
Wandaâs Picks for January 2021
Wandaâs Picks for January 2021
January 22, 2021
Photographer Alan Kimara Dixon, a longtime participant and documentarian of the Maafa Bay Area Commemoration, is featured in the Maafa@25 art exhibit.
by Wanda Sabir
Imani, or âFaith,â is the seventh principle of Kwanzaa, or Celebration of First Fruits. Everything starts with belief, and this belief is grounded in Imani, Nia (purpose) and Kujichagulia (self-determination). Once we know our purpose, everything else is possible.
Kujichagulia is the tenacity we hang onto even when we canât always see the road around the corner or how far it is to the ground.
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