Ghana's president has declared the Year of Return targeting the African diaspora a great success - but is he right?
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
SUNDANCE 2020: Taylour Paige brings viral ‘Zola’ story to life in hilarious and devastating comedy thriller
“Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.”
Thus began the odyssey of one A’Ziah King, aka Zola. From acclaimed writer/director Janicza Bravo, Zola’s stranger than fiction saga, which she first told in a now-iconic series of viral, uproarious tweets, comes to dazzling cinematic life.
On October 27, 2015, enthralling readers with a whopper of a tale that quickly went viral with its raw, rollicking, and raunchy account of female friends on a trip to Tampa gone awry. The 144-tweet thread known as #TheStory began— fittingly—in a Detroit Hooters, where then-20-year-old A’Ziah “Zola” King was working as a waitress when her life changed dramatically following a chance encounter with a customer known as Jessica.
Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted
In the film, Zola (Taylour Paige), a Detroit waitress, strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani (Riley Keough), who seduces her to join a weekend of dancing and partying in Florida. What at first seems like a glamorous trip full of “hoeism” rapidly transforms into a 48-hour journey involving a nameless pimp, an idiot boyfriend, some Tampa gangsters, and other unexpected adventures in this wild, see-it-to-believe-it tale.
The highly-anticipated film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to raucous applause four years after the Twitter thread went viral. The film’s director, Janicza Bravo (Lemon) infused her unique vision into the project and managed to make it feel just as entertaining as the original tweets while highlighting the more sinister parts of the story. Let’s be clear: there’s nothing funny about realizing just how degrading sex work can be, and Bravo walks the line between comic relief and intensely realistic scenes.
“Humor, in general, is something that everybody can relate to — we can heal through laughter,” says King. “I tried to intertwine a serious topic with a sense of humor, and it became relatable to people even if they thought something like this only happens in movies, or could never happen to them. The humor made them want to dig deeper into the story, and they realized it’s something that could happen in their backyard — I was their waitress. I was the girl they walked past in the grocery store or hotel lobby.”
The casting couldn’t have been better. Taylour Paige proves she can carry a film on her back and shows off some skills that make stripping look like it should be an Olympic event. Riley Keough is flawless as the obnoxious, deceitful prostitute with a mean blaccent and Colman Domingo is spot-on in his portrayal of an undercover pimp. Nicholas Braun (Succession) is hilarious as a gullible moron and the chemistry between the cast is palpable.
The film also features Jason Mitchell in a pretty prominent role, but the actor who has been the subject of sexual misconduct allegations was noticeably absent from the film’s premiere and production notes. Still, his performance strengthens the film and is worth noting.
WATCH: Jason Mitchell denies sexual misconduct and opens up about being fired from ‘The Chi’
The Sundance Film Festival is still in full effect but the film ‘s international distribution rights have already been purchased by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA). According to Deadline, the SPWA will distribute the film in all territories except North America, China and Japan. VVS films has also acquired distribution rights in Canada. A24 is planning a summer release of the film.
The post SUNDANCE 2020: Taylour Paige brings viral ‘Zola’ story to life in hilarious and devastating comedy thriller appeared first on TheGrio.
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Ellen DeGeneres Gives $20,000 Scholarship To Black Teen Who Was Told To Cut His Dreads
DeAndre Arnold, a high school senior from Texas, was given a $20,000 scholarship by Ellen DeGeneres. Arnold made national headlines when it was reported that he would have to cut his dreadlocks to be allowed to walk in his high school graduation.
In an episode of “Ellen” on Wednesday, Arnold got to discuss the situation with the Barbers Hill Independent School District (ISD) in Mont Belvieu, Texas.
“I’m sure this is not easy or comfortable for you,” DeGeneres said referring to his appearance on television. “But I want you to just relax and know that I’m here for you.”
“You get good grades,” she said. “You’ve never been in trouble, ever. This is the first time anything has come up. And now, you haven’t been in school for weeks because of this situation.”
Arnold informed DeGeneres and the audience that he has been suspended from school for violating the district’s hair length policy.
“Every day I would go to school, I would be in dress code,” Arnold told DeGeneres. “But the thing with them is, if it was let down, I would be out of dress code.”
DeAndre deserves better. pic.twitter.com/f06bVcm74X
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) January 29, 2020
“I just personally think you should be able to wear your hair however you want, especially if there’s girls with long hair,” DeGeneres said. “What’s the difference if girls have long hair and if guys have long hair?”
“It’s really important to me because my dad is from Trinidad,” Arnold told her, discussing that the way he wears his hair is part of his culture and heritage. “I really wish the school would kind of be open to other cultures and just, at least let us try to tell you some things. Don’t just shut us out.”
After coming back from commercial, DeGeneres made a plea to the Barbers Hill Independent School District to reconsider their decision and “do the right thing”. After that, she surprised Arnold with a $20,000 scholarship, presented by Alicia Keys.
“I want to tell you that, I couldn’t believe the story when I heard it,” Keys told Arnold. “And I’m super proud of you for standing up for what you know is right. And I know that the school needs to do the right thing.”
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Vanessa Bryant breaks silence after tragic loss of husband Kobe and daughter Gianna
Just three days after losing her husband Kobe Bryant and 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Bryant in a tragic helicopter crash, Vanessa Bryant broke her silence on social media, thanking the public for their support.
Wednesday, the grieving wife and mother unlocked her previously private Instagram account, giving the public access to dozens of photos of her family, and changed her profile picture to a touching photo of her husband and daughter embracing.
READ MORE: What Kobe Bryant’s death has taught me about how Black men mourn
Later that evening she also posted a gorgeous picture of her, the late Los Angeles Lakers superstar, and their four daughters, the late Gianna, Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri who is only 7 months old.
“My girls and I want to thank the millions of people who’ve shown support and love during this horrific time. Thank you for all the prayers. We definitely need them,” the lengthy caption began. “We are completely devastated by the sudden loss of my adoring husband, Kobe — the amazing father of our children; and my beautiful, sweet Gianna — a loving, thoughtful, and wonderful daughter, and amazing sister to Natalia, Bianka, and Capri.”
“We are also devastated for the families who lost their loved ones on Sunday, and we share in their grief intimately,” she continued. “There aren’t enough words to describe our pain right now. I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved. We were so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives. I wish they were here with us forever. They were our beautiful blessings taken from us too soon.”
READ MORE: Alicia Keys and Boyz II Men deliver touching tribute to Kobe Bryant
“I’m not sure what our lives hold beyond today, and it’s impossible to imagine life without them. But we wake up each day, trying to keep pushing because Kobe, and our baby girl, Gigi, are shining on us to light the way. Our love for them is endless — and that’s to say, immeasurable. I just wish I could hug them, kiss them and bless them. Have them here with us, forever.”
“Thank you for sharing your joy, your grief and your support with us. We ask that you grant us the respect and privacy we will need to navigate this new reality,” she concluded before informing followers that, “the Mamba Sports Foundation has set up the MambaOnThree Fund to help support the other families affected by this tragedy. To donate, please go to MambaOnThree.org.”
Fans were also encouraged to, “further Kobe and Gianna’s legacy in youth sports, please visit MambaSportsFoundation.org.”
The heartfelt message ended with several hashtags including #GirlsDad which has gone viral this week after ESPN anchor Elle Duncan shared a personal story about the first time she met Bryant back in 2018 and watched him gush about how proud he was to be a “girl dad.”
READ MORE: Kobe Bryant ‘girl dad’ viral clip inspires men to share father-daughter pictures
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Powering the planet
Before Fikile Brushett wanted to be an engineer, he wanted to be a soccer player. Today, however, Brushett is the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Chair, and associate professor of chemical engineering. Building 66 might not look much like a soccer field, but Brushett says the sport taught him a fundamental lesson that has proved invaluable in his scientific endeavors.
“The teams that are successful are the teams that work together,” Brushett says.
That philosophy inspires the Brushett Research Group, which draws on disciplines as diverse as organic chemistry and economics to create new electrochemical processes and devices.
As the world moves toward cleaner and sustainable sources of energy, one of the major challenges is converting efficiently between electrical and chemical energy. This is the challenge undertaken by Brushett and his colleagues, who are trying to push the frontiers of electrochemical technology.
Brushett’s research focuses on ways to improve redox flow batteries, which are potentially low-cost alternatives to conventional batteries and a viable way of storing energy from renewable sources like wind and the sun. His group also explores means to recycle carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — into fuels and useful chemicals, and to extract energy from biomass.
In his work, Brushett is helping to transform every stage of the energy pipeline: from unlocking the potential of solar and wind energy to replacing combustion engines with fuel cells, and even enabling greener industrial processes.
“A lot of times, electrochemical technologies work in some areas, but we'd like them to work much more broadly than we've asked them to do beforehand,” Brushett says. “A lot of that is now driving the need for new innovation in the area, and that's where we come in.”
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Florida third-grader charged with attempted murder after admitting to stabbing his 5-year-old sister with kitchen knife
An Ocala, Fla., boy is facing charges of attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed his little sister with a kitchen knife while chanting “die, die, die.”
In an alleged incident so horrific that some of the police who responded are receiving counseling, a 9-year-old third-grader appeared in court Tuesday to face charges related to his attack of his 5-year-old sister, WESH is reporting. The incident took place Monday at an apartment complex in Ocala, Fla., where the family lives. The little girl is expected to survive, although details on her condition were not available.
READ MORE: Rae Sremmurd’s stepdad was reportedly murdered by their half-brother
Police said everything unfolded after the children’s mother left them alone in the apartment for a few minutes to get the mail and collect some candy for them from a neighbor, according to the news organization. When she returned, she found her son in the bedroom stabbing the little girl with a large kitchen knife, WESH reported.
The mother struggled to breathe as she frantically called 9-1-1.
“An emergency, emergency,” WESH reports she said to the dispatcher. “My daughter —my son stabbed my daughter.”
Police said the boy told them that he had been thinking about killing his little sister for two days. He tried to get the thought out of his head but he couldn’t, he told them.
The boy grasped his moment at a point when the little girl was bent over and trying to show him something on the floor, police said. He “grabbed his sister by the back of her neck” and “began stabbing her” as he repeated “die, die, die,” WESH reports police said.
READ MORE: Gifted student fatally stabbed over boy at school
A judge is ordering psychological evaluation for the boy, who is in juvenile detention. Doctors, lawyers, representatives with the Florida Department of Children and Families and family members are working together to figure out what happened and what would be a productive next step for the child, according to WESH.
The boy’s next appearance in court will be next week.
The post Florida third-grader charged with attempted murder after admitting to stabbing his 5-year-old sister with kitchen knife appeared first on TheGrio.
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Aaron Hernandez’s fiancee says she would have accepted his bisexuality
Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, the fiancee of late New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, has some choice words for the recently released Netflix docuseries about the football player’s murder of Odin Lloyd.
The grieving girlfriend and mother of Hernandez’s daughter told ABC’s Good Morning America that Netflix should have been careful about exploring questions of Hernandez’s sexuality without him around to respond. She said she never had any indication that he might be gay or bisexual, or that he might be trying to figure out his sexuality.
READ MORE: Family of Aaron Hernandez’s victim reportedly being harassed in wake of Netflix doc
“If he did feel that way or if he felt the urge … I wish that I was told,” said Jenkins-Hernandez, 30, as she fought back tears. “I wish that he would have told me because I would not have loved him any differently. I would have understood. It’s not shameful. I don’t think anybody should feel shameful for who they are inside, regardless of who they love. I think it’s a beautiful thing. I just— I wish I was able to tell him that.”
She continued, “It would’ve been hard to watch somebody walk away or to live a different life, but it’s not shameful.”
ABC News released the segment of Jenkins-Hernandez’s interview on social media, and the full interview was to air Wednesday morning.
“You can’t describe someone’s sexuality without them being there,” she said.
In the past, Jenkins-Hernandez has expressed harsh words about those questions, and once said that she would have “disowned him” if he told her he was gay.
Netflix released Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez on Jan. 15 amid much fanfare. The docuseries explores the life of Hernandez and alleges he engaged in a same-sex relationship before he committed suicide in 2017. Hernandez was convicted of the 2013 murder of soccer player Odin Lloyd in 2015. Two years later, he hanged himself in his prison cell. He was 27.
READ MORE: Ex-Patriots’ Aaron Hernandez reportedly sexually abused, beaten as a child
Netflix so far has not released any comment on Jenkins-Hernandez’s interview. The organization indicates on its website that the three-episode series was built from interviews with “friends, players and insiders.”
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Walmart Pays Homage the Legacy of HBCU Football at the Celebration Bowl
There’s no experience like sitting in the stands at an HBCU football game. It is a sporting event, concert, fashion show, and family reunion all wrapped up into one affair. Every year in December, two HBCU football teams go head-to-head at the Celebration Bowl.
And for the coaches, players, and fans alike; it is more than just a game. It’s about honoring the legacy of those who came before them.
The Celebration Bowl is a post-season college football game featuring the conference champions from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The event’s mission is to provide the schools, alumni, fans, and sponsors with a first-class bowl experience while continuing to celebrate the heritage, legacy, pageantry, and tradition of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). It is managed by ESPN Events, a subsidiary of ESPN, which owns and operates a large portfolio of collegiate sporting events worldwide, including 13 post-season bowl games.
Related: 5-Year-Old Drummer Receives Full Band Scholarship To HBCU
On Dec. 27, 1892, the journey to The Celebration Bowl and its trophy began when the first black intercollegiate football game was played between Biddle College (now Johnson C. Smith University) and Livingstone College. On the snowy front lawn of Livingstone College in North Carolina, the teams played for nothing more than the love of the game. The young women of Livingstone’s industrial department made the players’ uniforms and equipped their street shoes with cleats. The two teams put their money together to purchase a regulation football. The Celebration Bowl trophy is a symbol of the HBCU football tradition that was started on that day. The trophy commemorates the inaugural game, its players: J.W. Walker (captain); W.J. Trent (manager); R.J. Rencher; Henry Rives; C. N. Garland; J. R. Dillard; J.B.A. Yelverton; Wade Hampton; Charles H. Patrick; J.J. Taylor; and F.H. Cummings, and those who continue the tradition of HBCU Football.
Related: Jemele Hill Suggests Black Athletes Leave White Colleges to Attend HBCUs
This year, Walmart was a proud sponsor of the event. And as a part of their participation in the Bowl, Tony Waller, senior director of Constituent Relations at Walmart, sat down with Samuel Lee Washington Jr., head coach at North Carolina A&T State University; Fred McNair, head coach at Alcorn State University; Jory Luster, CEO of Luster’s Curls; and Dr. Charles McClelland, commissioner of SWAC for the “Real Talk at the Barber Shop” series.
In their own words, each of the men shares what the legacy of historically black colleges and universities and the Celebration Bowl means to them.
Take a look:
Dr. Charles McClelland, Commissioner of SWAC
Samuel Lee Washington Jr., Head Coach at North Carolina A&T State University
Fred McNair, Head Coach at Alcorn State
Related: 5-Year-Old Drummer Receives Full Band Scholarship To HBCU
Jory Luster, CEO of Luster’s Curls
Congratulations to the North Carolina A&T Aggies on winning the 2019 Celebration Bowl Championship!
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Michelle Obama Won Her First Grammy Award
Michelle Obama just can’t lose these days! The former first lady won a Grammy Award for her audiobook Becoming on Sunday.
Obama was in competition with the Beastie Boys, Eric Alexandrakis, John Waters, and Sekou Andrews & The String Theory. This is Obama’s first Grammy win and her second nomination. She was previously nominated for 2013’s American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America.
“Thank you to the Recording Academy for this honor! I had plenty of doubts about sharing so much of myself in Becoming, but this moment is another reminder that when we own the truth of who we are, we give ourselves the chance to connect with others in real, meaningful ways.” Obama says in a press release.
Since Becoming was released on Nov. 13, 2018, it has “sold more than 12 million units worldwide across print, digital, and audio formats, including more than 7.5 million units in the U.S. and Canada alone, and has been published in 46 languages. The audiobook has also been on the New York Times Audio Nonfiction Best Seller List for 14 straight months since its publication, including 7 months in the #1 slot.”
Obama’s latest book, Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice, was released on Nov. 19 as a companion piece to her critically-acclaimed memoir, Becoming, and features an “intimate introduction” from Obama, herself.
The Becoming journal includes more than 150 inspiring questions and quotes that resonate with key themes in Obama’s memoir. It was also designed to help readers reflect on their personal and family history, goals, challenges, dreams, motivation, hopes, and what future they imagine for themselves and their community.
In a statement, Obama explained that she hopes people will use the Becoming journal, “to write down your experiences, thoughts, and feelings, in all their imperfections, and without judgment.” She continued, “We don’t have to remember everything. But everything we remember has value.”
Obama was recently named the “most admired woman” in the world for the second time in as many years in the annual Gallup Poll. The former first lady was also named one of the 2019 People of the Year by People magazine.
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