HATEWATCH: WOULD-BE KILLER WANTS TATTOOS ALTERED BEFORE HEADING TO PRISON

Would-be killer wants tattoos altered before heading to prison

• Associated Press
• Posted July 10, 2010 at midnight

Daniel Cowart (in a photo from a MySpace page) has asked to have the swastika tattoo on his shoulder as well another tattoo altered before he goes to prison.

JACKSON, Tenn. — A West Tennessee man who pleaded guilty in a plot to assassinate President Barack Obama wants to undergo surgery to alter his tattoos before he is sent to federal prison.

Daniel Cowart, 21, of Bells, pleaded guilty in March to eight federal charges. His sentencing scheduled for Thursday has now been postponed until Aug. 13.

Cowart and 19-year-old Paul Schlesselman of Helena-West Helena, Ark., were charged in October 2008 with plotting a robbery and killing spree across several states that was intended to end with the assassination of then-candidate Obama.

Schlesselman is serving a 10-year prison term after pleading guilty.

The Jackson Sun newspaper reported that pictures of Cowart show a swastika on his right shoulder and an iron cross on his chest. Federal investigators have said Cowart and Schlesselman are white supremacist skinheads.

The reason for Cowart’s request for the tattoo alteration was not clear, as his motion is still under seal. However, an unsealed response from U.S. Atty. Lawrence Laurenzi said that allowing Cowart to have the surgery would create a difficult precedent for the U.S. Marshals Service.

Cowart’s lawyer, Joe Byrd Jr., declined to talk to the newspaper about his motion, but said the government response should have been sealed as well.

The response from the government said any surgery poses some risk of infection or other adverse outcomes and the Marshals Service doesn’t want to be liable.

Prosecutors also opposed the motion on the basis he would have to be moved from the Obion County Jail to the Madison County Jail for the surgery. “The Marshals Service is wary of setting a precedent whereby they are obligated to devote substantial resources to transporting and escorting inmates between facilities for the purposes of voluntary cosmetic surgery,” Laurenzi said.

Laurenzi also noted that the Bureau of Prisons, which handles federal inmates after sentencing, takes tattoos into account when deciding where they will be placed.

SOURCE

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First:

The federal government and the prison system should not allow him to have his tattoos removed at taxpayer’s expense. Also, it would set a dangerous precedent: If he can have his tattoos removed, then what is to stop other inmates from requesting the same thing and more?

So, no, he should not receive any special treatment for the removal of his tattoos:

Second:

No, Mister. Keep your tattoos.

Man up, grow some balls, accept what you have done, and face the music.

Too late to change your tattoos. You had no problem getting them, you were proud and happy with your racist tats, you had no problem seeking to assassinate President Obama. Now you want to turn gutless.

So, it’s your bed—————-you’ve made it.

Get ready to lie in it.

ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JULY 14

#1 R&B Song 1979:  “Ring My Bell,” Anita Ward

Born:  Clifford & Claude Trenier, 1919; Lowman Pauling (the “5” Royales), 1926; Ty Hunter (the Voice Masters), 1940

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1954   Lillian Leach & the Meadows recorded their doo-wop standard, “Smoke From Your Cigarette,” now a $250 collector’s item.

1956   One of the first R&B vocal groups to successfully cross over to pop, The Platters charted, reaching #7.

The same day, their single, “My Prayer” (originally done by the Mills Brothers) charted on its way to #1 pop (two weeks) and #1 R&B (five weeks).

It was their third-million seller out of only four releases. The group, led by the pristine tenor of Tony Williams (who was working as a parking-lot attendant when he first started), was the most popular group of the ’50s.

They went on to have almost twice as many pop hits as R&B (forty to twenty-one)through 1967.

1958   The Drinkard Singers’ (RCA) spiritual 45, “Rise, Shine,” was issued. The group consisted of Dionne Warwick, Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mother), Dee Dee Warwick (Dionne’s sister), and Judy Clay.

1984   Prince’s Purple Rain album, from the film of the same name, charted on its way to #1 pop for an astounding twenty-four weeks. It would go on to sell more than 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.

1992   Aretha Franklin sang “The Star-Spangeled Banner” at the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

1992   The Pointer Sisters performed at the Valley Forge Music Fair in Devon, PA.

THE COMING OF JANE CROW

Everyone has heard the news by now.

Yep, America is a post-racial nation.

What?

Can’t ya tell?

Don’t you realize that the infamous vicious regime know as Jim Crow died, and that all Americans are living in a Kumbaya-Shangrila-Utopia of racial bliss? Haven’t got the news yet, eh?

Well, truth be told, Jim Crow never left the building.

Jim Crow, or rather, Jane Crow, as I will call it, never died. It just was eradicated on paper, and continued a life of subterfuge, subtlety, and racial code words and behaviour.

Many people have been lulled into the insanity that a black man (considered black because he has an African/Luo/Kenyan Father and a White American mother), is now the saviour of America, and now all is right with the world. First off, presidents do not have the clout that people give them. In reality, presidents are just figureheads of government. The real power lays elsewhere.

It is Congress that has the clout, and more importantly, it is the United States Supreme Court that really codifies into effect the laws that affect all of our American lives.

But, I digress.

So many are clamoring to sing that America is now a post-racial country.

It is not.

Racial hatred, racial ethnic cleansing, racial apathy comes and goes in cycles, and in a few decades hell will break loose for Black Americans.

Hope that got your attention. Yes, things will become more than bleak for Black Americans, while life continues to rise for others. If anything, Black Americans will face a Nazi/Holocaust life in the near future. Black Americans have been castigated with a pariah status, and the worship of whiteness has yielded a racial hierarchy in this country. Segregation still exists. It exists in the marginalizing of Black people.

We people who are darker than blue, will find ourselves will see more of what our Black great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents lived under, during the height of Jane Crow.

Black Americans people will have a more hellish time finding jobs, regardless of how well-qualified they are for the job or position.

Black American people will continue to suffer from sub-standard non-existent educations.

Black American people will continue to be shunned in the dating and marriage market by non-Black Americans.

Black American people will continue to be closed off from opportunities that would afford them a better and more thriving life, and this will be a blow to many of them. It is seen in how a White male felon can be given a job over a qualified, college-educated Black applicant; it is seen in how a black person can be denied a loan by a bank, even if that Black person has a good credit rating. It is seen in how a Black person seeks to buy a home in a predominantly White neighborhood or to rent an apartment, and they are denied access to said residential area. It is seen in how Blacks are not called back for job interviews because their names sound black.

You see, it will not just be poor Black Americans who will suffer under the blatant comeback Jane Crow, it will be all Black Americans, no matter their status/education/social standing in life:  middle class, as well as poor.

Life will depreciate, life will worsen, life will become more deadly for Black Americans.

What the hell, life already is deadly, only in the near future, it will be all-out war against Black Americans, and once again, the rest of America will stand by and watch it happen.

Don’t think it cannot happen here in the good ‘ol USA?

It happened in Nazi Germany.

German citizens who stood by, who sat by, and watched Jewish neighbor after Jewish neighbor carted off by the SS, and those German citizens did nothing…………..nothing…………to defend their Jewish neighbors in any way, with the exceptions of a few Miep Gies/Schindlers in their midst. Many had not the guts, backbones, nor souls to question why a neighbor here, why a neighbor there, suddenly disappeared————–and never returned. Many gave not a damn.

The same thing happened in America, albeit under different scenarios.

Many Whites who cared nothing for the humanity of Black Americans, stood by and watched the institution of race-based slavery grow, and grow, and grow, until it was positioned to expand westward, with the vicious bloodletting that occurred in Nebraska and “Bleeding” Kansas; the Whites who saw free Blacks kidnapped into a life of slavery by the Patty Cannons of the North; Whites who stood by and during Reconstruction, who saw the cruelty and murderous rampage of the KKK against recently freed ex-slaves and their few White allies.

The cycle continued into the era of Jane Crow segregation. Segregation, which I consider worse than slavery. Segregation where Black American women had to work as domestics and Black American men had to work as menials under conditions no better than slavery. Educated Black Americans who could only find jobs as janitors and wet nurses. Intelligent Black Americans whose knowledge and capabilities were disregarded as if their intelligence was some form of polydactylism.

Then again this cycle has occurred in America time and time again. It ebbs and flows. It surges, then submerges. It evolves, and morphs into more despicable forms. It goes dormant, then it becomes active, always all the time, with a brutal vengeance.

In the beginnings of indentured servitude, life for Blacks and indentured Whites was somewhat on a level par. Then that cycle ended with the crushing of Bacon’s Rebellion. Then in the early years of race-based slavery, slowly but surely, the vise was tightened on Black people and blackness, where with the more rigid creation of the “Peculiar Institution”, black skin became the badge of slavery in America.

Time and time again, vicious assaults against the intelligence, the humanity, the dignity, the worth of Blacks occurred, with the justification that “They were just those blacks! Who cares about them. Lynch them. Burn them. Commit pogroms against them. Take their properties under adverse possession.”

All the time, justify it with the belief in the volumes of lies that Blacks are sub-human. That Blacks have no rights that anyone is bound to respect. That Blacks are this nation’s proverbial scapegoat.

The mob mentality against Black Americans never went away. It never died. It slowed down, gathered its thoughts, and began a new attack against Blacks, only not so obvious to the blind and disbelieving.

The mob mentality against Black Americans still reigns, and make no mistake about it, it will not be just enraged poor Whites who will be roaming into predominantly Black neighborhoods when the festering. swelling pus-sore of racial rage commences; it will also be many of the middle class Whites as well. When the economy becomes destitute and economically depressed, people show their true colors, and this has been evident throughout America’s history with Blacks facing the brunt of much of America’s vicious race murdering history.

During the destruction of Reconstruction, many ex-slaves were acquiring a new life (learning to read and write, finding and marrying loved ones they were separated from), the creation of the Freedmen Bureau to help ex-slaves do for themselves), but, this was destroyed by many Whites who feared their domination of former slaves was eroding.

During the Chicago 1919 Red Summer, America was reeling from a depressed economy, and who did non-Blacks take their rage and hate out on? Blacks.

During the Massacre of East St. Louis in 1917, who did the enraged non-Blacks take their venom out on? Black women and children.

During the 1890 Spring Valley Race Riots (Massacre), who did the non-Blacks take their monstrous atrocities out on? Their fellow Black citizens.

When Executive Order #11246 was signed into law by then President Lyndon Baines Johnson, it was meant to give a leg up for Black Americans, but, time and time again, it was gutted and circumvented to where now, in 21ST century America, it is White American women who are the biggest beneficiaries of this law.

White rage, as seen with the Tea Baggers, is spiralling out of control. Seeing their world falling apart, their country being taken from them, their way of life as they have come to know it, their numbers dwindling, angers and enrages many of them, and anyone who knows the history of Black life in America knows who the hammer is going to come down the hardest on.

Black Americans.

White/non-Black American’s rage will be directed against their fellow Black citizens, even though those Black citizens will not be the ones who sent jobs overseas; even though those fellow Black citizens will not be the ones who close down factories and plants that give jobs; even though those fellow Black citizens will not be the ones who sold this country out for the almighty dollar.

Face facts, America never had Black American’s economic and political power bases in mind for her vilified Black children. Such a reality terrified and sent America into paroxysms of fear and loathing. Black Americans were then, and still now, continue to be a threat to the white supremacy hegemony of white privilege, white power and white control. Anytime Blacks did too well, and especially too well in comparison to Whites, the madness of racial viciousness occurred. Black economic, political and social competition never did sit well with America concerning her Black citizens—-and it never will.

American still needs Black Americans as a dumping ground for all of her psychosis and neuroses.

The writing is on the wall.

America still continues segregation on a social, economic, residential and educational level with her Black American citizens.

There is no need for the Sundown Town signs of “Nigger, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On You”.

There is no need for the “Whites Only” signs.

There is no need for the “White Restroom” and “Colored Restroom”.

The mentality behind those signs still lives. Still exists.

Is there another Jane Crow coming?

The question is not is———-the question is not when———-the question is how soon?

Life for Black Americans is not getting better….it is getting worse.

Non-Blacks have sided against Black Americans on the side of whiteness. It has happened before, and it is still happening:  poor Whites who did not own slaves, who went off to fight the rich White slave owner’s war of secession during the Civil War; poor Whites throughout the 20TH Century who allowed themselves to be used against Blacks in labor disputes; poor Whites—North, South, East, and West—who reveled in their white skin, because that was the biggest bargaining chip they had against Black citizens; non-Blacks who see the wedge driven between their groups and their fellow Black citizens with code name terms such as “Honorary Whites”, and “Model Minority”.

Black Americans are America’s anti-citizen, American’s anti-neighbor, America’s Everlast punching bag for all of its sick, despotic racial effluvia.

The end of segregation? The end of Jane Crow?

Never happened.

Fasten your seatbelts. Because it is not going to be a bumpy ride.

It is going to be a hellish roller-coaster of a nightmare, and I pray to God that Black Americans be prepared as much as possible for the new racial hells that await them in the coming post-racial America.

“MULATTO”: A POEM

MULATTO

I am your son, white man!

Georgia dusk
And the turpentine woods.
One of the pillars of the temple fell.

You are my son!
Like Hell!

The moon over the turpentine woods.
The Southern night
Full of stars,
Great big yellow stars.

What’s a body but a toy?
Juicy bodies
Of nigger wenches
Blue black
Against black fences.
O, you little bastard boy,
What’s a body but a toy?

The scent of pine wood stings the soft night air.

What’s the body of your mother?

Silver moonlight everywhere.

What’s the body of your mother?

Sharp pine scent in the evening air.

A nigger night,
A nigger joy,
A little yellow
Bastard boy. Naw, you ain’t my brother.
Niggers ain’t my brother.
Not ever.
Niggers ain’t my brother.

The Southern night is full of stars,
Great big yellow stars.

O, sweet as earth,
Dusk dark bodies
Give sweet birth

To little yellow bastard boys.

Git on back there in the night,
You ain’t white

The bright stars scatter everywhere.
Pine wood scent in the evening air.

A nigger night,
A nigger joy. I am your son, white man!
A little yellow
Bastard boy.

MULATTO, by Langston Hughes, from Fine Clothes to the Jew, 1927.

ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JULY 13

#1 R&B SONG 1946: “The Gypsy,” the Ink Spots

Born:  Johnny Funches (the Dells), 1935

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1954   The Dominoes began a two-week stint at Las Vegas’ Sahara Hotel.

1959   The Eternals charted with their debut 45, “Rockin’ in the Jungle,” an eventual R&B novelty standard even though it only reached #78 pop.

1959   Sam Cooke’s dreamy yet bouncy ballad, “Only Sixteen,” reached its chart plateau at #28 pop, while peaking at #13 R&B. Still, it became one of his most popular songs and the epitome of ’50s culture. The song was written by Barbara Campbell, who wasn’t a writer. It was the odd pseudonym for Cooke, Herb Alpert, and Lou Adler, using Sam’s wife’s maiden name.

1963   Stevie Wonder’s The Twelve Year Old Genius charted, becoming #1 pop and making Stevie the first artist to top the album, R&B singles, and Hot 100 singles charts all at the same time.

1963   In an era when blues artists did not fare well on the pop album charts, Bobby “Blue” Bland landed there with his set Call on Me/That’s the Way Love is, which would eventually reach #11. Remarkably, the album never reached charted R&B. Bobby would put eleven albums on the pop charts through 1979.

1974   Gladys Knight & the Pips’ “On and On” became their fourth consecutive gold 45 when it peaked at #5 pop. It reached #2 R&B.

1985   B.B. King, Patti LaBelle, the Four Tops, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, David Ruffin, and Eddie Kendrick were among the stars who performed at Live Aid at Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium. Teddy Pendergrass also performed. It was his first live performance since being paralyzed in a car accident in 1982.

1993   Fats Domino and Ray Charles performed at the Westfalenhalle 1 in Dortmund, germany, on their European tour.

ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JULY 12

#1 R&B Song 1952:  “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” Llyod Price & His Orchestra

Born:  Sam “The Man” Taylor, 1934; Jay “Jaybird” Uzzell (the Corsairs), 1942; Jerry Williams Jr., 1942; Tracie Spencer, 1976

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1951   The Clovers recorded their soon-to-be second #1 R&B hit in a row, “Fool, Fool, Fool.”

1952   The Chicago vocal quartet the Four Blazes charted with “Mary Jo,” reaching #1 R&B for three weeks. But the B-side, a smooth version of “Mood Indigo,” was the real gem.

1956   Shirley & Lee sang at the Carrs Beach Amphitheater in Maryland along with the Teenagers, the Cleftones, Carl perkins and the Spaniels. More than 8,000 lucky fans got in to see them while an unlucky 10,000 were turned away.

1960   Frankie Lymon appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand for the first time since 1958, and without the Teenagers, as he sang “Little Bitty Pretty One.”

1980   Diana Ross bounced on to the Hot 100 with “Upside Down (#1). It was her fifth solo chart topper in ten years.

1989   The Disney Channel announced it was doing Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme. Included in the cast was Old King Cole himself, Little Richard.

1995   The O’Jays performed at the Universal Amphitheater in a benefit called Let’s Stamp Out AIDS.

IN REMEMBRANCE: 7-11-2010

JOYA SHERRILL, SINGER WITH DUKE ELLINGTON

By PETER KEEPNEWS

Published: July 8, 2010

• Joya Sherrill, who sang with Duke Ellington as a teenager, toured the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman and was one of the first African-American performers to host a children’s television show, died on June 28 at her home in Great Neck, N.Y. She was 85.

July 9, 2010

Stan Wayman, via Time Life Pictures—Getty Images

Joya Sherrill in the 1960s.

Her death was confirmed by her son, Richard Guilmenot III, who said she had been suffering from leukemia.

Born in Bayonne, N.J., on Aug. 20, 1924, Joya Sherrill originally aspired to be a writer. While she was still in high school, her father arranged through a mutual friend for her to meet Duke Ellington so she could sing him the lyrics she had written to his theme song, “Take the ‘A’ Train.”

Impressed by her performance, he asked her to “keep in touch” because he could “always use a good singer in the band,” she recalled in an interview with The New York Times in 1979. “I thought that was just flattery,” she said, but six months later he offered to hire her when she finished high school. She joined the band in July 1942.

She left briefly to attend Wilberforce University, but returned in 1944 and remained until 1946, when she left again to marry Richard Guilmenot, a construction superintendent.

Mr. Guilmenot died in 1989. In addition to her son, of Great Neck, she is survived by a daughter, Alice Richelle Guilmenot LeNoir, of Manhattan; a sister, Alice Kinnebrew of Atlanta; and two grandchildren.

Although she left the Ellington band and the road, her son said, Ms. Sherrill never stopped singing. She performed and recorded under her own name and continued to work with Ellington on occasion, most notably on his television special “A Drum Is a Woman” in 1957.

“I never really left the band,” she said in 1979. “Duke would call me for jobs once a year at least.”

In 1962, Ms. Sherrill was the singer in a band assembled by Benny Goodman that performed throughout the Soviet Union. The Goodman tour, sponsored by the State Department, was the first by an American jazz ensemble behind the Iron Curtain.

Ms. Sherrill’s rendition of a Russian folk song, “Katyusha,” was a regular feature of Goodman’s concerts and provoked some controversy. An audience in Georgia hooted its disapproval when she sang it, apparently because she was singing in Russian. The Soviet newspaper Izvestia printed a letter attacking her for singing the song in an “unduly familiar cabaret style.”

In 1970, Ms. Sherrill became the host of a children’s show on the New York television station WPIX, originally called “Time for Joya” and later revamped to emphasize education and retitled “Joya’s Fun School.” Although she taped only a few years’ worth of original episodes, the show continued to be seen in reruns until 1982.

“Time for Joya” was far from a prime-time network show, but it managed to snag at least one big-name guest: Duke Ellington, who played piano, told stories and joked with the studio audience of youngsters on a memorable episode in 1970. It was one of his last television appearances.

SOURCE

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ISRAEL HICKS, DIRECTOR OF AUGUST WILSON’S CYCLE

By BRUCE WEBER

Published: July 7, 2010

Israel Hicks, a prolific stage director who worked Off Broadway and in regional theaters across the country and who in 2009 completed a nearly 20-year project directing August Wilson’s entire decade-by-decade cycle about the black experience in 20th-century America, died on July 3 in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. He was 66 and lived in White Plains.

July 8, 2010

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Israel Hicks in August 1988.

The cause was cancer, said his wife, Renée Harriston-Hicks.

Though he had scant experience on Broadway and was not inclined to seek publicity, Mr. Hicks, as a former acting teacher and a longtime college administrator in addition to being a director, was an influential theatrical presence, especially among black theater artists.

“So many actors, directors and playwrights owe the start of their careers to him,” Stephen McKinley Henderson, who was nominated for a Tony Award for his supporting role in the current Broadway revival of Wilson’s “Fences,” wrote in an e-mail message after Mr. Hicks’s death. “Particularly those of color, who saw him as a role model as well as a leading figure in the field.”

As a director, Mr. Hicks worked at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Cleveland Play House, the Pittsburgh Public Theater, the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, the Pasadena Playhouse in California and Primary Stages in New York, among other theaters. But he was best known for his work with the Denver Center Theater Company at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, where, it is thought, he became the first person to direct all 10 plays of the Wilson cycle at the same theater.

After beginning with “Fences” in 1990, Mr. Hicks was approached by Donovan Marley, then the artistic director of the Denver company. “How would you like to do as many plays as August Wilson writes?” Mr. Marley asked, according to an account of the conversation in The Denver Post. To which Mr. Hicks replied, “Hell, yeah.”

While also directing myriad other shows at the Denver Center and elsewhere, Mr. Hicks proceeded through Wilson’s oeuvre, directing “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” in 1991, “The Piano Lesson” (1993), “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (1994), “Two Trains Running” (1996), “Seven Guitars” (1997), “Jitney” (2002), “King Hedley II” (2003), “Gem of the Ocean” (2006) and finally, last year, “Radio Golf.”

“I’ve seen his work literally across America,” said Kent Thompson, who succeeded Mr. Marley as the Denver company’s artistic director in 2006. “Israel had a cynical, slightly dour humor that a lot of people in theater have. But he had a remarkable ability with an ensemble, to bring it together, to elicit better performances from the actors than they often gave in other productions.”

Israel Theo Hicks was born in Orangeburg, S.C., on Aug. 23, 1943, and moved with his parents to New York at an early age. He grew up in Brooklyn, returning to South Carolina during the summers to work on his grandfather’s farm. It was a background, he said in a 2003 interview with The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that put him in sync with Wilson’s plays, mostly set in Pittsburgh, and his cast of characters, drawn from all segments of the Southern black migration. Wilson’s storytelling, his lyrical language, derived from a tradition Mr. Hicks was born into.

“To me, August’s plays are familiar clothing,” he said. “His characters are like members of my family, my uncles and aunts.”

Mr. Hicks’s first marriage ended with the death of his wife, Catherine. They had a daughter, Victoria, who was permanently injured in a 1993 automobile crash and remained in a persistent vegetative state until she died several years later. He is survived by his wife, whom he met in 2001.

Mr. Hicks graduated from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts in 1967 — he discovered theater in college, he said, when he fell in love with an actress — and received an M.F.A. from New York University. There he was influenced by Lloyd Richards, the director who was Wilson’s mentor and collaborator — Richards directed six Wilson plays on Broadway — and who in turn introduced Mr. Hicks to Wilson’s work. Mr. Hicks often wore a Pittsburgh Pirates cap as a tribute to the playwright and the plays. Wilson died in 2005 and Richards in 2006.

In addition to directing, Mr. Hicks taught acting at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1970s and served as dean of the Conservatory of Theater Arts at Purchase College, State University of New York. Since 2001 he was chairman and artistic director of the theater arts department at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers in New Jersey.

Mr. Hicks was the artistic director of the Ebony Repertory Theater, a Los Angeles troupe founded in 2007. He was scheduled to return to the Denver Center to direct the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage next year.

“Israel Hicks was one of the best directors I ever worked with as an actor, and there are a whole lot of people who feel the same way,” Mr. Henderson, a veteran of many Wilson productions, including Mr. Hicks’s “Fences” and “Seven Guitars” in Denver, said in his e-mail message.

“When Israel called,” he added, “we pretty much had to go.”

SOURCE

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ILENE WOODS, VOICE OF ‘CINDERELLA’ IN DISNEY’S ANIMATED CLASSIC

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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Ilene Woods, the voice of Cinderella in Disney’s animated classic, has died. She was 81.

Woods died Thursday of causes related to Alzheimer’s disease at a nursing home in Canoga Park, her husband, Ed Shaughnessy, tells the Los Angeles Times.

Woods was an 18-year-old radio singer in 1948 when she recorded a demo for an upcoming Disney feature. Two days later, Walt Disney himself auditioned her and she went on to voice the title character’s speaking and singing parts for 1950’s “Cinderella,” about a mistreated stepdaughter who finds her Prince Charming.

Woods sang on the Perry Como and Arthur Godfrey shows in the 1950s before retiring from show business in the early 1970s.

In addition to her husband of 47 years, she is survived by their son, a daughter from her first marriage, and three grandchildren.

SOURCE

ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JULY 11

#1 R&B Song 1970:  “The Love You Save,” the Jackson 5

 

Born:  Blind Lemon Jefferson, 1897; Thurston Harris, 1931; Bonnie Pointer (the Pointer Sisters), 1950; Lil’ Kim (Kimberly Jones), 1975

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1897   Blind Lemon Jefferson—an innovative blues musician and founder of the Texas blues style—was born today.

SOURCE

His formula was a combination of Tex-Mex flamenco guitar and a starting and stopping rhythm style mixed with Chicago blues. He was best remembered for songs like “Matchbox Blues,” “Mean Jumper Blues,” and “Jack of Diamonds.” Recording for Paramount, he had forty-three 78s released, a vast catalogue for the times. He is considered the first of the legendary male blues stars of the ’20s.

1953   The flip side of the Flamingos’ debut single (“If I Can’t Have You”), Somedya, Someway,” broke out in Los Angeles.

1987   The Temptations sang backup vocals for actor Bruce Willis’s passable version of the Drifters’ 1964 hit “Under the Boardwalk.: Though it only reached #59 pop in America, the brits loved it to the tune of #2.

1992   Jazz prodigy Patti Austin and Vanessa Williams performed at the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee fund-raiser.

1995   Donna Summer sang at the Nautica Stage in Cleveland, OH, at the start of a U.S. tour.

ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JULY 10

#1 Song 1961:  “Tossin’ & Turnin,’ ” Bobby Lewis

Born:  Bandleader Noble Sissle, 1899; Blues vocalist Ivie Anderson, 1905

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1954   WHBQ, a Memphis radio station, began playing Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s song “That’s All Right Mama” as recorded by a young singer named Elvis Presley, thus jump-starting the career of the most successful solo act in pop history. Presley later recorded Arthur’s “So Glad You’re Mine,” which Arthur had taken to #3 R&B in 1946.

1954   Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters reached #1 R&B with “Honey Love” despite the fact that several stations banned the record, including Memphis radio WDIA, for having “overtly sexual” lyrics.

1966   James Brown performed at the Los Angeles Sports Arena while a riot was in full swing outside because an overflow of fans was denied entry to the sold-out show.

1975   Gladys Knight & the Pips began their own four-week summer replacement TV show on NBC.

1989   The Shirelles appeared in Nashville, but not to sing  in the usual sense. They were in federal court suing local Gusto Records over improper payments of royalties on reissued hits. Ten months later they won.

1993   While on a European tour, Chaka Khan performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, and continued on to the JVC Jazz Festival in Nice, France, and then on to the  North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague, the Netherlands.

1993   Cypress Hill charted with “Insane in the Brain,” reaching #19 pop and #27 R&B, making it the most successful single of their career. The rap trio named themselves after a Los Angeles street.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: VIMBAYI KAJESE: AFRICAN NEWSCASTER IN CHINA

She is not the first Black to become a news broadcaster in China; that occurred with Tony Perkins. But, Ms. Vimbayi Kajese is the first African woman to broadcast news from China She now works as the early morning news presenter at CCTV-9, the English Channel of China Central Television.

 

 

Here is an article on this fascinating 26-year-old Zimbabwean young woman who traveled to China in 2004 on a scholarship, stayed on, and  obtained her Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy at China Foreign Affair’s University in Beijing. After graduating from CFAU, Vimbayi decided to stay in China and develop her career.

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VIMBAYI KAJESE: The Face of Africa for China and China for Africa

2009-12-15 14:15 BJT

28-year-old Zimbabwean Vimbayi Kajese first came to China for a visit in 2004, then moved to Beijing in 2006. She now works as the early morning news presenter at CCTV-9, the English Channel of China Central Television. She is the first African news presenter on the Chinese Mainland and perhaps the whole of Asia too. Her bright smile, eloquent diction and elegant demeanor have impressed millions of TV viewers and Internet users around the world. 

While doing her first degree in the U.S, Vimbayi Kajese won an all-expense paid scholarship trip to China. It was on this trip, in 2004 that she first fell in love with the country. She was fascinated by the culture, the food and of course the people. After completing her undergraduate degree, she chose to leave the United States and pursue a Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy at China Foreign Affair’s University in Beijing. After graduating from CFAU, Kajese decided to stay in China and develop her career. 

VK in the CCTV-9 studio

On November the 27th 2009, we sat down with Ms Kajese at CCTV.com’s headquarters to talk about her experiences. We got a chance to find out how this beautiful young lady views the world through some of the questions you the viewers have been asking about her. 

CCTV.com: When people think of Africa, they think jungle, heat and adventure. But what’s the first thing you tell people when they ask you about your continent? 

Vimbayi Kajese: You know, people normally associate Africa with wild life and the safaris. But the true essence of Africa that I’d like to stress first and foremost is the people. Unfortunately, through the one-dimensional lens of the media, we the people have been relegated to the background of the wild life spectacle. The real adventure and beauty of Africa is through engagement with us the people; understanding our vastness in terms of cultural, religious and racial diversity; it’s too grand to be summed up in a few words, let alone be represented by one person and or one nation alone.

CCTV.com: You’ve had a global upbringing. In all the countries you’ve lived in and traveled to, which one/ones do you like most?

VK: Besides my home country, I can’t say that I have a favorite; each country was pertinent for that stage of development I was in at the time.

For example: in Malawi – I was there as a 4 year old – my relationship with my siblings was solidified; In Belgium, I found my taste for classical & techno music, and my love affair with food especially French fries began; In Zimbabwe – as a teen – I was reconnected with my cultural values, my extended family, and in essence my ‘Zim’ identity; In the US, I truly found myself and honed my skills as a communicator and a writer; And in China, I feel here is where it’s all coming together. It’s a big deal for me now at this point in my life… to make China my second home away from Zimbabwe and truly base myself here.

(China is about the 8th country Kajese has lived in, out of almost 30 she’s traveled to.)CCTV.com: How did you get the job at CCTV?

VK: (Sighing) It took a lot of perseverance. While I was learning how to produce news pieces at one of the big international news agencies here in Beijing, I contacted CCTV in January this year, made calls and sent emails to let them know I was interested. My information got past around, and after many long silences, I wasn’t sure if they’d actually put me, a Black woman on the main news. In fact many people, even those that worked here (at CCTV) were skeptical and thought it was highly unlikely, because I was African and it had never been done before. But, after a few screen tests, voice training sessions, prayer, positive thinking and the opening up of this new morning shift (5am – 9am)…eight months later I was anchoring my first program.

VK in the make-up room

CCTV.com: What qualities do you think are necessary to have in order to be a news presenter?

VK: To do this job, it helps to love the news. And boy do I. I never get tired of talking about it. (Smiling) So now that I do it for a living, I can spare my friends having to sit through hours of my news monologues and current affairs opinions. It also takes a confident person who’s willing to put themselves out there and someone that speaks with a fairly clear and articulate accent. Being from Zimbabwe and having a Zimbabwean accent, definitely helps in this respect.

CCTV.com: What did you expect when you got job?

VK: I’ll tell you what I didn’t expect (laughing)… I didn’t expect that this schedule and literally ‘living in a parallel time zone’, would rule my life. And I must say, it’s not been easy on my friendships, and certain relationships, but the people close to me are very supportive and we’re slowly getting more in sync.

Also, I wasn’t expecting so much media attention, so soon. In the past month I’ve been inundated with interview requests and I’ve had to be quite selective with whom I talk to. I was very hesitant at first; I was even scared to tell my bosses because I’m still new, I’m still learning, I’m still figuring out my own style, and I have a long way to go before I feel I can be a credible spokeswoman for my role as the first African news anchor, let alone CCTV. CCTV has been here way longer than me. I just felt I needed more time to settle in before I deserved any acknowledgment. But, after getting my bosses ‘blessings’, per se to go ahead with the interviews – the reactions and responses have been so encouraging, especially from Chinese viewers and the African viewers that the interviews have attracted. I do feel now that I did the right thing by speaking to the media.

VK in the CCTV-9 studio

 

CCTV.com: You read the news very early in the morning. Can you describe your typical workday?

VK: (Smiling) I love talking about my schedule; it makes for great dinner party conversation, because I can’t believe how surreal my life is now. I broadcast between 5am and 9am on the hour, nearly every hour from Monday to Wednesday one week, and Monday to Thursday every other week.

So what this means is that I must be up and out of bed showering and eating breakfast between 2:00 – 3:00am.

3:40 – I’m in a taxi, telling a sleepy taxi driver to speed across the west side of town

4:00 – I’m in makeup

4:30 – If I’m lucky, I may have just a few minutes to check the script

4:50 – script gets printed

4:55 – script gets put in my hands

4:57- positioning myself in front of camera and going over stories with director through earpiece

5:00 – clearing my throat and reading headlines… making edits with my pen as I read the news to you. (Chuckling) Half the time I can’t even see the edits I’ve made on the teleprompter.

6:00 – 9:00 – the process repeats itself 30 minutes before every broadcast…

10:00 – 2:00pm – I arrive home from the subway, eat lunch do an interview, have a meeting or catch up with friends

2:00 – 5:00 – I’m in bed

5:00 – 9:00 – I work out, eat dinner, catch up with work and am back in bed

2:30 am – Wake up!

CCTV.com: What are your biggest challenges on the job?

VK: My biggest challenges are: One, managing my body clock and looking alert very early in the morning; Two, reading for extended periods at a time without a break to take a sip of water or clear my throat; Plus three, I don’t write my own scripts. That can be challenging when you don’t express yourself in the same way as the author of the script you’re reading. The CCTV newsroom is very international, I always joke it’s like having several dialects of English floating around. It definitely helps keep the writing varied and rich, and I’ve managed to identify a few writers that are familiar with the way I speak…so that helps make my presenting job easier.

VK at the office

 

CCTV.com: How has this job changed your lifestyle?

VK: These days I don’t take things for granted and I’m very thankful for everything. I know it took a lot of generous people, especially in China to get me where I am today. This means that I have to make my health a priority, especially since I’m working against nature’s clock.

I can’t afford to be sick and especially lose my voice; this means I can’t be around smokers during the week when I’m broadcasting. And if I feel a cold coming a long I rush to the doctor and sort it out immediately. Before I would wait it out, but when I get a sore throat, my voice normally disappears for a few days, especially with the air conditions in Beijing. I also work out and eat very healthy and have learnt to take much needed power naps in between those very early morning broadcasts.

Another big change, is I’m now a regular at massages, getting facials, buying tons of skin care products and worrying about pimples; these are things I normally wouldn’t have cared about until now.

CCTV.com: How do your parents feel about all this?

VK: My parents are the best parents anybody could ask for. My mom and dad have always been so proud and supportive of everything I do, even if what I’ve wanted to do in the past didn’t make sense to them at first. They watch my every broadcast, even the rebroadcasts. This means, because of the time difference with Zimbabwe, they start watching at 11pm and stay up till like 3 in the morning. (They wake up at 5 am to start their day). They’re hooked, and have everyone in ‘Zim’ AND the whole of Africa tuned into CCTV.

CCTV.com: CCTV International won a Hot Bird TV award and you were the one who got to broadcast this news. What does this prize mean to you, and to CCTV?

VK: You know I was so lucky and honored that that story came on my shift. I was so excited, and I’m sure it showed when I finally got to read it. I wanted to smile the whole broadcast through, but I couldn’t, because some of the stories before that were serious and sad. I felt so proud that I was part of something great. My parents were the first to send a congratulations message. It’s just a testament to the fact that CCTV is doing something right. Not everything about the channel is perfect; CCTV is transitioning and evolving, but that award is a definite indication that the channel is heading in the right direction.

I think this award should inspire all of us at CCTV to continuously better our game, so that we can be the first news destination people consider when they want news about China and Asia, and not turn to western media. It also means, being aware of where our audience is and who they are and making sure the ‘China story’ is made relevant to them. The reason I say this is because, China-Africa relations on a government to government level, far exceeds the reality on the ground, that is China-Africa relations on a people to people basis. We (Chinese and Africans) still don’t understand why we’re so important for each other or why we’re even in each other’s countries. So, we (the people) need to catch up with our countries’ bilateral relations and I see the media, especially CCTV playing a big role in this respect. To make the ‘China story’ relevant, for example, we could have an African cultural/travel show that showcases how different Chinese communities, have integrated in our (African) countries; their challenges, their hopes etc. This would be a great way to keep the different audiences engaged, learning about each other, and finding solutions to problems. Then the other side of this type of show could be African communities in different parts of China… the lists of how to make the ‘China story’ relevant are endless.

VK is tidying her locker

 

CCTV.com: How easy was it to stay rooted in your Zimbabwean culture while abroad and how do you feel about adopting another country’s culture as your own?

VK: It was easier for the first half of my life because, no matter where I was in the world, I always came home to a Zimbabwean home, to Zimbabwean food and to Zimbabwean values. So, although I was raised with many influences, my core, and the cultural lens through which these influences are filtered, is Zimbabwean. This is how I was raised. Now that I haven’t lived with my family for nearly 10 years, the best way for me to stay in rooted in my culture is to always to be in touch with home… to always go home. I try and do this twice a year, if I’m lucky. The reason why my siblings and I can even consider ‘Zim’ as our home, is because at some point in our lives, my parents decided to stop accepting job postings around the world, so that we kids could spend a significant time of our lives in a pure ‘Zim’ environment, reconnecting with the rest of our family.

As for adopting part of another country’s culture, I feel what’s the point in being in another country if you can’t integrate it with your own in some way? “When in Rome do as the Romans do”, right? This is why I wear traditional Chinese jackets on TV. It’s my way of showing the world my appreciation for Chinese fashion and culture, and making it a part of my daily life. I now have a lot of international viewers asking me where I get my clothes from, what’s the name of the cut, who the designer is etc.; I also have a Chinese name, ‘Kang Wen Ying’ (康雯颖) that I’ve used for the past six years. Creating these types of cultural intersections makes for great learning opportunities for those that want to learn more about China.

CCTV.com: Besides being the “Face of Africa for China and China for Africa”, what are your current endeavours and future plans to help promoting such relations?

VK: Well, I hope at some point my government sees it fit to post me here as Ambassador. (Laughing) I think I would have earned my ‘stripes’ by then. (Jokingly) It’s just a dream. In the meantime, I volunteer my time building certain organizations that are still in their embryonic stages. For example, I am the PR and Media Counselor for YAPS (Young African Professionals and Students). We essentially are one of those tools that I talked about earlier that can help China-Africa relations on the ground, catch up with the China-Africa relations at the top. We live the China experience, we speak Chinese and we have the technical skills and cultural know-how to work for China-Africa businesses as well as advise incoming delegations from our countries. If you think about it, we are Africa’s Ambassadors when we are here, and China’s Ambassadors when we go back to our countries. We want to promote everything positive about China-Africa relations, to help eliminate misunderstandings between our nations through interactive, entertaining and creative events.

At the entrance to the CCTV International office

 

I’ve also been asked to start an African Media Association here in China. We need to create a space to discuss how we are going to rebrand Africa in an alternative light to the media, to China and to the rest of the world.

I’m also involved in CSR, (corporate social responsibility) under the China-Africa umbrella. I volunteer my time with ‘The Charitarian’ magazine as a commentator. I think China is doing a lot to lead the way for emerging markets, and I enjoy thinking up ways and strategies, to advise companies here on how they can do business the right way: by engaging with communities; by developing communities… essentially making sure that the things that I’m passionate about, (woman’s issues, orphans, the environment etc) are taken care of. Eventually, these are the blueprints I hope to one day implement in my own country and others, when these same companies come a’ knocking.

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Here is a video on Vimbayi. She is such an accomplished, beautiful, determined young lady who is grounded.

 

Way to go for following your desires, Kimbayi.

Cheers!