entertainment
ANDRA DAY
tphsfalconer.com
Behind a podium stands a woman with red lipstick, large hoop earrings and hair in a tall, curly updo. She’s wearing a long and colorful dress as she graciously accepts Billboard’s Award for “Powerhouse” singer. This is Andra Day. Day is best known for her song “Rise Up” from her album “Cheers to the Fall,” a unique and artistic singer, her music style is described as R&B with her distinct jazz, blues and soul influences. Even her stage name, Andra Day, pays homage to the jazz singer Billie Holiday, who was often called Lady Day. Day, born Cassandra Monique Batie, had always been musically inclined and was drawn to performance arts at a young age. Since she was five, Day had taken dance classes and later started singing at the First United Methodist Church in Chula Vista alongside her participation in musical theater. What really drew her toward music, though, were her arts-oriented elementary school and exposure to her biggest influences — the jazz singers Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington — at the age of 11. In an article from The New York Times by Alexis Soloski, Day describes the first time she heard Holiday sing: “I heard ‘Sugar’ and then I heard ‘Strange Fruit.’ It changed my idea of what a great singer was.” She attended the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, however, it took her until 2010 to make her breakthrough when Stevie Wonder introduced her to producer Adrian Gurvitz, after Wonder’s wife at the time, Kai Millard Morris, saw a video of Day singing on YouTube. In an interview with Live Nation, Day described the first time Wonder called her: “I was living in a tiny little studio apartment with my mom…I didn’t believe it.” She ended up collaborating with Gurvitz for much of her debut album and was able to get an album deal with Warner Bros. Now a seasoned musician and actress, Day is still in contact with Wonder and she has many professional achievements under her belt. She performed at the White House, sang with Stevie Wonder and other artists and received many awards in both her singing
the falconer A19
and acting career. Some of these awards include nomination for the 2016 Grammys Award for Best R&B album for “Cheers to the Fall,” nomination for the 2016 Grammys Award for Best Performance and a Daytime Emmys Award for her performance of her song “Rise Up.” She was only the second Black woman in history to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture for Drama for her debut as Billie Holiday in the movie “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” in which she was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. San Diego raised, Day was awarded the key to the city by elected officials in 2021. In an article in The San Diego Union Tribune, Day said “This just means everything because I love my city…I will always have San Diego on my shoulders, on my back and in my heart.” A main reason Day makes music is to make an impact on people and help them through tough times. One strategy she uses to spread her message in her songs is to participate in campaigns. . According to Day in the article “San Diego Native Andra Day to Appear on 40 Million Coke Cups at McDonald’s” in the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint, her song “Rise Up” is a “simple reminder to persevere.” Through the Coke Campaign, she can spread this same message with her lyrics and the QR code to a short film inspired by her song on Coca-Cola cups at McDonald’s. This action carries out her purpose of helping others since “[“Rise Up” is] healing and encouraging and inspiring because I believe music in its purest form is a vessel of healing,” as Day said in an article from Billboard by Adelle Platon. This translates into her music through her distinctive and expressive voice and lyrics that convey true human e m o tion. Each song is filled with so much care and soul, making her discography worth listening to. by Sophia Gorba
PHOTO COURTESY OF VARIETY
HIS T O RY RY people, his work is comforting to people’s minds and souls, always highlighting a greater idea. This is executed flawlessly in one of his illustrations for Scholastic, “Read Every Day.” The illustration depicts a little boy reading a huge book with reverence. A sun shines from behind his head, symbolizing his mind “being brightened, illuminated by what he’s reading,” according to the same Scholastic interview. As Nelson’s work began to reach the public eye, The New Yorker Magazine began displaying his work on their front covers that reflected the ideas of justice. His art is richly colorful and eye-catching and is beyond any words The New Yorker could ever put on their covers. Many of his portraits illustrate people in real time, which is why they are so eye-catching; viewers can relate to them. His portraits portray the way the world was, is, and will be. They speak both good and bad, but they also speak for change. Nelson’s work became world-renowned, so much so that he has illustrated album covers for both Michael Jackson’s “Michael” album and Drake’s “Nothing Was The Same” album. Nelson’s illustrations have been presented in over 25 books, including one of his most famous, “We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball”. Nelson endeavors to bring comfort to those that seek it, and joy to those that need it. A San Diego native, he has received worldwide recognition with awards such as the Caldecott Medal, Coretta Scott King Author and Illustrator Awards, the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, several NAACP Image Awards, and arguably the coolest of all, an Olympic Art Bronze medal. Nelson has become one of the masters in his field, as he stands as one of today’s most noteworthy turn-of-the-century artists. by Elsa Goodman
PHOTO COURTESY OF KADIR NELSON
KADIR NELSON
Before Kadir Nelson could read, sing or spell he began his journey as one of today’s most brilliant oil painters. The Black Art Depot, an art gallery in Georgia that sells Nelson’s and other talented black artists’ work, briefly shares Nelson’s life story, where he states that “[art is a] part of my DNA”. Growing up, Nelson’s knowledge of the world of art and its culture was influenced by his uncle. “My uncle gave me my foundation in art,” Nelson said on The Black Art Depot’s website. Under his uncle’s wing, Nelson was able to experiment with many different forms of art, specifically in drawing and painting. At age 16, Nelson began oil painting, quickly growing attached to the art form. Nelson also received mentoring from his high school art teacher at Will C. Crawford Senior High School in El Cerrito, San Diego. Nelson’s art was later recognized by the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York through which he received a scholarship to attend. “My art is inspired primarily by great stories,” Nelson said in an interview with Scholastic. “I really like the story of being able to overcome great odds, becoming the hero or the hero to ourselves that we know we can be.” Nelson’s realist art celebrates and echoes African American culture, specifically in terms of his figurative paintings that focus on past and present Black narratives. His art is presented in places all around the world and in many different forms, from magazines to books to album covers. “I feel that art’s highest function is that of a mirror, reflecting the innermost beauty and divinity of the human spirit; and is most effective when it calls the viewer to remember one’s highest self,” Nelson said in an interview with Reading Rockets, a national public media literacy initiative. Nelson concentrates his work on the illumination of the best in