Quantia "Key" Fletcher, who joined Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in 2008, has been named as museum director as an expansive Smithsonian exhibit gets installed across two floors of the museum.
Apr 22, 2021 5:11 PM EDT
When Tina Turner, years before she became rock ‘n’ roll royalty, lent her iconic voice to Phil Spector’s “River Deep, Mountain High” in 1966, the single ranked at No. 3 on the UK charts. But, on U.S. Billboard charts that same year, it didn’t get higher than 88.
In the recent HBO documentary “Tina,” an archival clip of Ike Turner, who shares a credit for the song, explained that the song didn’t hold up in America because, during that time, “Black artists had to go Top 10 on the R&B charts before the top radio stations would touch it.” In the film, Ike added that the adventurous song, with its complex orchestration and lush, pop sound, was “too white for Black jockeys and too Black for white jockeys” in the U.S.
8 Mar 2021
Kelli Amirah, an actress hired to play the younger version of a cast member on HBO’s thriller series
Lovecraft Country, claims her skin was darkened against her will by a makeup artist. HBO apologized to Amirah and insisted it is “taking steps to ensure this doesn’t occur again in the future.”
HBO said it is “very disappointed” to learn of Amirah’s experience while filming an episode of the series after she went public with her claims on a TikTok video posted last month.
The young actress said that she overheard the makeup artists talking about how her natural skin is a bit too light for the part she was hired for. Makeup was purportedly added to darken Amirah’s skin. Before long, Amirah says that she “noticed my foundation is getting darker and darker.”
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To full comprehend the hard road Billie Holiday traveled in her final years, see if you can get your hands on Lady in Autumn: The Best of The Verve Years. More than merely a compilation, these songs gleaned from sets recorded between 1946 and 1959, the year she died at age 44, create an unsparing biography of decline told through Holiday s voice. You can hear the ways that substance abuse and despair ravaged her voice, and you can also sense the spirit beneath it remained unbowed through those final sessions.
Whether Andra Day listened to this collection to inform her performance in The United States vs. Billie Holiday isn t stated in the press notes, but I hope she did because the story that collection tells is the one she s channeling onscreen. Like the life chapters each of those songs represents, the energy she delivers is extraordinary, soul-wrecking and undeniably true.
This is stand-up comedian Ramy Youssef s second Golden Globe nomination. Last year he won the category Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. The series centres on Ramy Hassan, a young Muslim American who struggles to find his place in the world.
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