HARLEM’S roots run as wide as they are deep. The Apollo Theater is producing a four-day festival this weekend to highlight the neighborhood’s longstanding affinity with the motherland.
Apollo Theater sheds light on Harlem's South African roots
PETER WRIGHT
Thu, 09 Oct 2014 23:10:47 GMT
It’s a hard knock life for Black Annie!
Racists React To Quvenzhane Wallis Cast As Annie
Via NY Daily News reports:
No one understands that better than orphan “Annie” or rather Quvenzhané Wallis, who plays the lovable character in the film’s reboot.
The first trailer released for the highly anticipated movie, which hits theaters on Christmas Day, shows Wallis singing and dancing as her bright personality embraces her young life’s circumstances.
The overall story line is closely similar to the 1982 film, based on the Broadway musical, except its set in a modern era as opposed to the Depression era. Cameron Diaz, who plays the infamously grumpy Miss Hannigan, even makes a reference to Facebook in the film.
Another glaring difference is the replacement of Daddy Warbucks with Benjamin Stacks, a wealthy politician played by Jamie Foxx, who initially needs Annie to boast his career but ends up becoming emotionally attached.
Yesterday, Matthew Eliot cataloged Twitter responses to the trailer for the remake of Annie, which features Oscar-nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis in the titular role and Jamie Foxx as “Benjamin Stacks.”
Via Raw Story reports:
White people on Twitter reacted much as one might expect:
But some of these haters refuse to believe they are racists, they just don’t want a black Annie:
They turned Annie black. I have no problems with black people. I have a problem with a non-ginger Annie
— Sheryl (@shamy_feels) March 6, 2014Unless, that is, they’re playing traditionally white characters:
Black Annie…? No… Annie always will be and always should be a ginger! #notracist just traditional
— Sara Campos (@SaraCamposXD) March 6, 2014And some are even more traditional than others:
They’re redoing the Annie movie and making the little girl black. The fuck gonna be going on next? A black snow white????
— CFamulari (@CFamulari) March 6, 2014She is “the whitest of them all,” after all. Why, a black “Annie” would be like:
A black Annie- really? should we now have a white Aunt Jemima?
— Donna Latella (@logriffin) March 6, 2014Discuss…
Race Matters: Whites React To Quvenzhané Wallis Cast As Annie “She’s A Redhead, Not A Nappy Head N**ger!”
deolacola
Sun, 09 Mar 2014 15:28:47 GMT
The Dance Theater of Harlem is back after a brutal eight-year hiatus.
Dance Theater of Harlem back from the dead
LAIGNEE BARRON
Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:52:40 GMT
Monday marks the start of the seventh week in the federal trial against the New York City Police Department and its stop-and-frisk tactics. NY1's Criminal Justice reporter Dean Meminger takes a detailed look at a video shown in court to train officers on the controversial practice. | View the entire NYPD training video.
NYPD Makes Its Stop-And-Frisk Training Video Public
Sun, 28 Apr 2013 22:26:58 GMT
Actor Lou Myers, best known for his role as ornery restaurant owner Mr. Gaines on the television series "A Different World," has died. Tonia McDonald of Myers' nonprofit, Global Business Incubation Inc., said Myers died Tuesday night at Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia.
Lou Myers dead at 77
Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:21:12 GMT
This is an adaptation by Fabio Rubiano of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's story, "Chronicle of a Death Foretold." After marrying against her will, Angela Vicario's angry new husband returns her to her mother once he discovers she is not a virgin. Beaten by her mother, Angela is forced to name the man who deflowered her, prompting her brothers to undertake a murderous mission of revenge.
Jan 22, 2013: Cronica De Una Muerte Anunciada (Chronicle of A Death Foretold) at Gramercy Arts Theater (Repertorio Espanol)
Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:53:23 GMT
Boxers or briefs? Odd as it sounds, that nosy question resonates in not one but two politically and religiously charged new Off-Broadway plays that opened in the last week and a half.
Religion, race reverberate on New York stages
Joe Dziemianowicz
Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:00:51 GMT
READY OR NOT: HERE I COME (The Gospel Stage Play)
READY OR NOT: HERE I COME WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH...IT WILL MAKE YOU CRY...BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IT WILL MAKE YOU THINK! WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN GOD IS LEADING YOU ONE WAY BUT YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE PUL...
Event Date & Time: 06/10/2012 05:00 PM
Location: The Dempsey Theater, 127 W. 127th Street, New York, NY, 10027
READY OR NOT: HERE I COME (The Gospel Stage Play)
Sun, 10 Jun 2012 09:26:50 GMT
The HADLEY Players Present “THIS WAY FORWARD”
The Harlem School of the Arts Theatre 647 St. Nicholas Avenue, at 142nd St. New York, NY 10030 May 15th - Sunday May 27th 2012 Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30p.m., Sunday 2:30p.m. General Admission:...
Event Date & Time: 05/15/2012 07:30 PM
Location: The Harlem School of the Arts, 647 St. Nicholas Ave. at 142nd St., NY, 10030
The HADLEY Players Present “THIS WAY FORWARD”
Tue, 15 May 2012 08:33:02 GMT
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at Aaron Davis Hall
This electrifying drama, set in Chicago during the Harlem Renaissance, explores the blues, what it means to be an artist, and race relations in America. The play's epic voice speaks eloquently about the nature of our culture, the struggles of artists and how different generations have perceived the opportunities available to them: opportunities which reflected changes in the society with regard to power dynamics and race.
Jun 14, 2012: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at Aaron Davis Hall
Sat, 12 May 2012 03:42:09 GMT
HADLEY Players Presents "AYRE"
The H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players open their Winter production of "ARYE" a beautiful, dramatic story that traces the roots of a young Black woman's ancestry, focusing on three generations, from the coast of Af...
Event Date & Time: 02/28/2012 07:30 PM
Location: The Harlem School of the Arts, 647 St. Nicholas Ave. at 142nd St., New York, NY, 10030
HADLEY Players Presents "AYRE"
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:19:12 GMT
Zora Neale Hurston 'returns to Harlem'
Like many stories in the theater, this one begins with rejection. It was 1995 and budding New Orleans actress Antonia Badon auditioned to play Zora Neale Hurston in a show about the famous Harlem writer’s life. She didn’t get the part - but she never forgot Zora.
Zora Neale Hurston 'returns to Harlem'
HEIDI EVANS
Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:00:34 GMT
John Cassavettes, Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara attend the Annual Film Critics Awards at the Rainbow Grill at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in January 1969. Gazzara collaborated professionally with these celebrities, who were also his friends.
Actor Ben Gazzara and his wife, Elke, attend the 2011 National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in January 2011.
Manhattan-born theater and movie character actor Ben Gazzara died Friday night in New York. He was 81.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, according to his lawyer, Jay Julien.
Gazzara, a respected theater actor who studied under Lee Strasburg at the Actors Studio, is best known for minor movie roles he played as tough guys, pornographers and degenerates in the 1980s and 90s.
Notably he played the part of Brick in the original 1955 Broadway production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
Feb 19, 2012: Get an Insider’s Glimpse into Manhattan’s Historic Jazz Scene at The Apollo Theater
- Visit two drastically different jazz clubs on Manhattan’s West Side (cover charge included)
- Host Shirley Zafirau has been immersed in NYC’s jazz scene for the past 50 years
- Hear fascinating accounts of how jazz arrived and evolved in New York
Meet Shirley Zafirau, a woman who has been pursuing jazz into the early hours of the morning since the early 1960s. She’s witnessed the evolution of jazz in New York — from pop-up jam sessions at Harlem lofts and Miles Davis’ Upper West Side brownstone garden (they were neighbors for 20 years) to the gigs at clubs and concert halls throughout the city that are popular today.
Here’s your chance to experience jazz the way Shirley does. She’ll meet you outside the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem; telling her stories of the neighborhood’s history while you walk along the “Boulevard of Dreams” to an under-the-radar jazz club that boasts a Hammond B3 organ, some of the best soul food in the city and a lively bar. Shirley will then take you on the “A” train from jazz’s “brownstone basement” roots to its modern, polished presentation at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola on the 5th Floor of the Time Warner Center.
See how far the jazz scene has evolved as you listen to famous jazz veterans and popular newcomers perform with spectacular view of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. With a soulful menu that combines down-home inspired dishes with New York sophistication, Dizzy’s is a favorite hang for musicians. You never know who you might see ordering a drink at the bar.
The end time is approximate, as jazz sets don’t always start on time. There is some walking at the start of the SideTour, so dress appropriately for the weather. Don’t forget your metrocard. Dizzy’s has a $10 food/drink minimum (we recommend their mac & cheese).
Feb 19, 2012: Get an Insider’s Glimpse into Manhattan’s Historic Jazz Scene at The Apollo Theater
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:09:09 GMT
“Porgy and Bess”: Excerpts from the New York City Opera’s version of “Porgy and Bess,” produced by Sherwin M. Goldman. Includes “Summertime,” “Bess, You Is My Woman,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and others.
WHEN George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” — arguably the most important piece of American music written in the 20th century — first opened on Broadway in 1935, the opera’s libretto was littered with a word now shunned as an antiblack slur. The African-American residents of Catfish Row, the only slightly imaginary block in Charleston, S.C., where the opera is set, used it liberally, and so of course did the white characters during their occasional menacing visits.
Ray Albert (as Porgy) and Wilhelmenia Fernandez (as Bess) during a 1978 Houston Opera production at the Palais des Congrès de la Porte Maillot in Paris.
In the early 1940s, however, during a “Porgy and Bess” revival — which turned the opera into a more commercially viable musical, not unlike the current Broadway revival starring Audra McDonald — a singer named Etta Moten, hired to play Bess, refused to utter the word. Ira Gershwin, George’s brother, who co-wrote the lyrics with DuBose Heyward, revised the line. By 1951, according to Howard Pollack, the author of “George Gershwin: His Life and Work,” Ira Gershwin had “totally eliminated the word from the text, replacing it with such terms as tin horns, dummy, low-life, suckers, buzzard, andbaby.” That year, the producer Goddard Lieberson, who had just recorded “Porgy and Bess” for Columbia Records, said, “Sometimes, happily, times change, and with the times, ethical values. It seemed proper to eliminate certain words in the lyrics which, in racial terms, had proven offensive.”
December 17, 2011 11:35am | By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HARLEM—Despite having traveled around the world for the past 40 years relaying its mission of promoting Latino culture through dance, Ballet Hispanico has never performed at the Apollo Theater, just miles from its Upper West Side home.
All of that will change Saturday when the group debuts a 90-minute show at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. featuring three performances based on the music of two people who knew a little something about Harlem and the Apollo Theater, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz.
"We want to bring Ballet Hispanico to more of the people. We've had a wonderful run downtown but we need to be accessible to everybody and this is the kind of music and dancing that are community thrives on," said the group's artistic director Eduardo Vilaro.
Founded on the Upper West Side 41 years ago, Ballet Hispanico is a contemporary dance company that "fuses classical movement with Latino movement," said Vilaro, who was a dancer in the company in the 1980s.
"It's called Ballet Hispanico because ballet means dance in French but that doesn't mean we are just about tutu's," he said. "When you see a piece, you will see things that are recognizable to Latino culture and some of it not. It adds to the idea that culture is not static."
Vilaro will also debut his first original work for the company called "Asuka." The work, commissioned by Goya Foods to celebrate their 75th anniversary, honors the legacy of Cruz, who died in 2003 but was known as the "Queen of Salsa."
Why 'Stick Fly' Is Must-See Theater
Telling a "black" story that is free of stereotypes can be the most elusive project to undertake. When the story being told reflects the lives of the black elite, the challenges become even more daunting. This is why Stick Fly, at the Cort Theatre on Broadway, is such a hauntingly successful surprise. Well, in a way. When you take a moment to look at the making of this project, it makes sense that it would be better than good.
The writer, Lydia R. Diamond, proves herself to be smart, knowledgeable and pretty much great at storytelling. Veteran director Kenny Leon, who also helmed The Mountaintop -- which is currently running on Broadway -- displays a masterful command of the material and the actors. The ensemble cast? In a word: stellar.
Why 'Stick Fly' Is Must-See Theater
Harriette Cole
Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:18:00 GMT
Vy Higginsen Goes From Trailblazing To Helping The Youth
Vy Higginsen learned about the power of music growing up on West 126th street in Harlem, and now her work, located only seconds from the apartment she grew up in, touches young people from all over the city and theatergoers around the world.
One On 1 Profile: Vy Higginsen Goes From Trailblazing To Helping The Youth
Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:13:59 GMT
Motherf@*ker With The Hat Writer Blasts Casting Of White Actors As Puerto Ricans
Stephen Adly Guirgis's play The Motherf@*ker With The Hat was hands-down the funniest play on Broadway this year, and actors Bobby Cannavale and Elizabeth Rodriguez were unforgettable as the story's two star-crossed Latino lovers. They were both nominated for Tony Awards for their performances, and Big Ben Brantley at the Times wrote that "the broken, jagged heart of this production belongs to Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Cannavale, who turn their characters’ relationship into a bruising, tragicomic apache dance of love, betrayal and indecision." They're tough enough acts to follow for regional theater actors, but in Hartford the director has made matters worse by inexplicably casting two white actors in the parts. [ more › ]
Motherf@*ker With The Hat Writer Blasts Casting Of White Actors As Puerto Ricans
John Del Signore
Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:59:00 GMT
Award-Winning Film Portrays Black Father Molested By Son
A short film titled “Strange Thing About The Johnsons,” is raising eyebrows over its extremely controversial plot which involves molestation and homosexuality within an African-American family.
The story revolves around a father who is on the verge of revealing that he has been molested by his own son for years.
VIDEO (May not be suitable for children ):
The son, Isaiah, has been molesting the father, Sidney, since he was 15-years-old. Years later the father writes a memoir revealing the unlikely father-son relationship. The memoir could possibly destroy the family’s wholesome reputation forever.
Award-Winning Film Portrays Black Father Molested By Son
TheGrio
Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:01:24 GMT
