The interactive art pop-up 'The End of You' tackles the environmental crisis through a transhumanistic lens. It'll even let you morph into a tree. Well, sorta.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
Billy Porter gives advice to parents upset about him wearing a dress on ‘Sesame Street’
Earlier this month it was announced that Billy Porter will be one of the celebrity guest stars making an appearance during the 51st season of Sesame Street. Now the Pose star has some advice for all the parents who were appalled to discover he’ll be wearing a dress during the broadcast.
The beloved children’s television show recently posted photos on social media from a shoot featuring the Broadway star hanging out on the iconic set. In the snapshots the actor is very proudly rocking one of his most memorable red carpet looks, specifically the velvet gender-bending Christian Siriano tuxedo gown and jacket that he wore to the 2019 Oscars.
According to Paper Magazine, a tidal wave of outraged fans and concerned parents flooded the comments section of the post, threatening to no longer let their kids watch the show.
“So sad to see this on Sesame Street… this is not about acceptance or love. This is trying to force someone’s lifestyle onto our children, this is confusing and dangerous,” one user wrote.
Page Six also reported that a petition is also circulating that accuses Sesame Street of “[sexualizing] children using drag queens.”
READ MORE: ‘I would never’: Issa Rae shuts down rumors she’s remaking ‘Set It Off’
Porter responded to Page Six directly, pointing out, “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” He also added that he found it strange people related his Oscars dress to “perverted demon sex.”
“Like, what about me singing with a penguin [on the show] has anything to do with what I’m doing in my bedroom?,” he inquired. “The really interesting thing for me is that that’s what it’s all about when it comes to LGBTQ people — the first thing everyone wants to talk about is how we having sex.”
“Stay out of my bedroom and you will be fine — that is none of your business,” he concluded.
READ MORE: Rep. Ayanna Pressley responds after internet trolls call her “Mr. Clean”
The post Billy Porter gives advice to parents upset about him wearing a dress on ‘Sesame Street’ appeared first on TheGrio.
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Pete Buttigieg campaign claps back at Biden’s ‘attack’ on his race record
Former Vice President Joe Biden unleashed an attack ad Saturday on Pete Buttigieg’s accomplishments that pointed out that the South Bend, Indiana mayor had fired the Black police chief and Black fire chief during his time in office.
Buttigieg fired back that Uncle Joe is just salty because Buttigieg came in first place in the Iowa caucus, among the field of a dozen Democratic contenders, and that he had placed fourth.
READ MORE: Pete Buttigieg addresses low support among Black voters as primary season looms
“The vice president’s decision to run this ad speaks more to where he currently stands in this race than it does about Pete’s perspective as a mayor and veteran,” Buttigieg’s national press secretary said, according to the BBC.
Over the weekend, Biden and Buttigieg continued to exchange barbs during interviews on ABC’s This Week over the surprise campaign video that Biden put up on social media, which compares his record as vice president to Buttigieg’s accomplishments as mayor of South Bend. The video has so far been viewed 4.5 million times.
Former Mayor Pete doesn’t think very highly of the Obama-Biden record. Let’s compare. pic.twitter.com/132TB7MHaq
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) February 8, 2020
When Biden was asked on Sunday by ABC News whether he thought Buttigieg had a “race problem,” he responded: “No. I’m saying he hasn’t been able to unify the Black community, that’s what I’m saying.”
“Let’s get something straight here,” Biden added. “I didn’t attack Pete. Pete’s been attacking me. He’s been saying the reason we’re in the problem we’re in now is because of the recent past. That’s 8 years of Obama and me. I don’t get that.”
Biden also said that Buttigieg is “no Barack Obama.”
Buttigieg agrees.
“Well he’s right, I’m not Barack Obama, and neither is he. Neither is anyone running for president right now. And this isn’t 2008, it’s 2020, and this election is about where our country is headed next,” he said.
READ MORE: Joe Biden says he would like Michelle Obama to be his vice president
Buttigieg also addressed his need to attack Black supporters.
“I’m going to have to work to earn that vote, just as I did in South Bend,” Buttigieg said, according to the BBC. “We need to have a systemic vision for dismantling systemic racism,” he added.
Tomorrow, voters will select a Democratic candidate in New Hampshire, which marks the first primary of the election season.
The post Pete Buttigieg campaign claps back at Biden’s ‘attack’ on his race record appeared first on TheGrio.
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Will the Redskins hire the NFL’s first Black woman coach?
The Washington Redskins reportedly hope to hire Jennifer King and make her the NFL’s first Black female full-time assistant coach.
Multiple sources tell ESPN that King, who previously worked with Redskins Coach Ron Rivera, met with members of the organization before the Super Bowl to discuss an offensive assistant position. But even before this, she was hired by Rivera as a wide receiver coaching intern for the Carolina Panthers, where she worked the past two summers. Last fall, King worked as an offensive assistant with Dartmouth College.
READ MORE: High school football coach fired for allegedly telling players to ‘stop acting Black’
The opportunity to work full time in the NFL would be a dream come true for King, who told ESPN in 2018 that she’d ultimately like to work as a college or NFL offensive coordinator. She also recognized that this move would be historic for a Black female and said she wants to be a role model for girls.
“It’s kind of like the (movie) Black Panther,” King said to ESPN at the time. “There was never, like, a Black superhero, and now that there’s a Black superhero, it’s like, ‘Holy cow!’ For the little girls, that’s just what I want for them: To let them know, if this is what they want to do, they can do it.”
King formerly coached the women’s basketball team at Johnson &Wales, leading it to a Division II championship in 2018. She also played for the New York Sharks in the Women’s Football Alliance and previously worked as an assistant receivers coach for the Arizona Hotshots in the Alliance of American Football (AAF).
Two years ago, Rivera told ESPN that it was time for the NFL to bring a woman on board as a coordinator.
“Part of it, it’s all about the fan base,” Rivera told ESPN in 2018. “It’s also knowing the moms out there that understand the game. It’s important because they really do control as to whether their kids are going to play. This is something that has to be developed. It helps us in a lot of ways. It also shows everybody deserves an opportunity.”
Rivera also said women should be included in the head coach conversation, calling them an “untapped source,” at a Women’s Careers in Football Forum last year.
“There’s a lot of forward thinkers in this room. We’re in a production-based business. It’s all about winning, and we’ve got to create that opportunity to win,” Rivera said, according to ESPN. “It doesn’t matter who you are – if you bring something special to the table and help us, we most certainly want you.”
READ MORE: Excited football coach faces backlash for screaming: ‘White Power!” after a win, resigns
One former Redskins receiver is a fan of bringing King on board, having worked with her personally. When King worked in the AAF, she helped coach Rashad Ross, who now plays for the DC Defenders of the XFL.
“(King’s) knowledge of the game was impressive,” Ross told ESPN in 2019. “It’s a double standard when it comes to sports with females and men.”
The post Will the Redskins hire the NFL’s first Black woman coach? appeared first on TheGrio.
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‘Hair Love’ wins at the Academy Awards for Best Animated Short
Hair Love, the beautiful story about a Black father learning to fix his daughter’s natural hair, nabbed the Oscar for Best Animated Short.
Matthew A. Cherry, former NFLer, wrote and directed the film and Karen Rupert Toliver, along with Cherry, produced it. Other producers were actress Gabrielle Union and retired basketball player, Dwyane Wade. As the team’s guest, they brought DeAndre Arnold, the Texas teenager who was suspended from school and told he couldn’t walk in his graduation ceremony for refusing to cut his locks, to the Oscars ceremony with them.
Cherry dedicated the award to late NBA legend, Kobe Bryant, who himself won in the best animated short category two years ago for Dear Basketball. Cherry said he created the film “to see more representation in animation and to normalize black hair,” reported The Hollywood Reporter.
“We have a firm belief that representation matters deeply,” Rupert Toliver added on the Oscar stage.
Hair Love beat out Dcera (Daughter), Memorable, Sister and Kitbull.
One of the reasons why the celebrity duo, Union and Wade, invited Arnold and his mom to the Oscar ceremony was because they were impacted by his real-life Hair Love story.
“When we heard the amazing story of a young Black father with long beautiful locs just trying to figure out how to do his daughter’s hair, we knew that we had to support any way we could, we had to get involved any way we could — the same way as when we heard about your story and you just wanting to wear your hair the way you want at school,” Union said in a video she posted to social media.
Arnold came with his natural hair perfectly coiffed. He wore a black suit with stunning blue lapels.
READ MORE: Animated short ‘Hair Love’ is giving us all the feels
After winning the Oscar, Cherry explained that through the film, he hoped to open up the field of animation to more Black stories like Hair Love.
“This was kind of an opportunity, I think, to put a little bit of positivity in animation,” Cherry explained backstage, reported The Hollywood Reporter. “You know, back when we did the Kickstarter campaign back in 2017, there wasn’t a lot of representation in animation. And when I was coming across a lot of these viral videos of dads doing their daughter’s hair, they were just so inherently joyful. Our biggest challenge was just to maintain that joy that made people gravitate towards those videos in the first place. So to be here and doing something like this with black hair and black families, it’s just, it’s literally a dream. And I never would have thought in a million years we would win an Oscar for something like this.”
The post ‘Hair Love’ wins at the Academy Awards for Best Animated Short appeared first on TheGrio.
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Documentary ‘Building Atlanta,’ About Legendary Black Businessman Herman J. Russell, Premieres
Appearing during Black History Month, a new documentary film is being released on the inspiring life and legacy of iconic Atlanta businessman Herman J. Russell.
In the making for over a year, Building Atlanta: The Story of Herman J. Russell, is about the trailblazing entrepreneur who founded and built H.J. Russell & Co. into one of the nation’s largest black-owned commercial real estate development and construction firms. The nearly hour-long film premieres on ATL PBA on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 9 p.m. and re-airs at 9 p.m. on Feb. 23. The film includes interviews with notable people from Atlanta who knew Russell and witnessed some of his accomplishments.
Started in 1952 by the late Russell, the company has grown into a nationally known player in an industry dominated by white males. The firm evolved from its start as a plastering business into a builder that has transformed the skylines of American cities, particularly Atlanta. Among the high-profile projects built with Russell’s involvement were the $1.5 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Georgia Dome—the current and former homes of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
In 1979, Russell founded Atlanta-based Concessions International, the first African American-owned business to become a top airport concessionaire in America. That business today does about $50 million in annual revenue. But Russell’s journey was not easy. In his book, Building Atlanta: How I Broke Through Segregation to Launch a Business Empire, Russell talked about challenges his company faced and overcame during his business career. His entrepreneurial spirit lasted throughout his life until his passing in 2014.
Building Generational Success
“For our family, having our father’s and grandfather’s story told through the eyes and words of those who knew him best is a particularly impactful approach the filmmakers use,” said Herman J. Russell’s son, Michael B. Russell, CEO, H. J. Russell, in a press release.
“As humble as he was, I think he would enjoy seeing what his friends had to say about him in addition to seeing his life story on television. He would hope this documentary will inspire people, particularly young people, to strive even harder to reach their personal potential against all odds, and that’s what we hope it does too.”
Michael Russell, who became the company’s CEO in 2003, told Black Enterprise about how his father’s efforts laid the foundation to help H.J. Russell become the nation’s largest black-owned construction company. “He really established the reputation and brand from the results he produced over the 50 years he was involved with the business,” Russell says. “And from that, we’ve been blessed to be able to take that legacy. build upon it, do what we said we were going to do and execute at a high level.”
This year, the younger Russell projects the company’s revenue will rise slightly up to $180 million. With revenue around $178 million, H.J. Russell was No. 25 on the 2019 Top 100 list of the BE 100s, Black Enterprise’s annual ranking of America’s top black-owned businesses. The gain is expected to come from additional construction volume that H.J. Russell has been engaged in or will be engaged in 2020.
Leaving a Legacy of Entrepreneurship
In the documentary, the voices of Russell’s proteges are heard, along with business partners who witnessed firsthand his challenges. For instance, Robert “Bob” Holder, founder and chairman of Holder Construction, stated, “Herman and I were born within a month of each other, and within three miles of each other, but the two worlds could not have been more different. Everything I was born into was designed to make sure I succeeded; everything he was born into was designed to be sure he did not succeed. And Herman, in his lifetime, overcame all of that.”
As a lasting legacy to Russell, the Russell family has created the Russell Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, designed to encourage and support generations of entrepreneurs, especially black entrepreneurs, as he did throughout his life.
“The documentary is the inspirational back story on which the Russell Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (RCIE) is being created,” said Russell’s son and namesake, H. Jerome Russell Jr., who is chairman of the board of RCIE. “We want current and aspiring entrepreneurs to come to RCIE to reach their potential as entrepreneurs, and this film will help our members understand the legacy and foundation on which RCIE is built.”
The full documentary will be hosted on H. J. Russell & Co.’s YouTube channel and eventually on pba.org after the second airing.
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