Jody-Ann Maxwell the first Black winner of the Spelling Bee
Marcus Rashford Feeding Britain’s Children Vol. 2 Issue 47, 16th – 22th July 2021
in conjunction with
Credit: code.likeagirl.io
From the
Editor’s desk
“You cannot get rid of racism in football as long as it exists in society. Because football is a part of society.” John Barnes Former England Footballer All correspondence to: admin@butterflymagazine.net For Advertising enquiries contact: sales@butterflymagazine.net Butterfly Magazine is published by The Lion and the Lamb Media House Ltd, 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE , UK. Tel: (44) (0) 203 984 9419 Butterfly ™ 2015 is the registered trademark of THE LION AND THE LAMB MEDIA HOUSE LIMITED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction in whole orin part is prohibited without written permission fromthe publishers THE LION AND THE LAMB MEDIA HOUSE LIMITED. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Fayida’s Black History in 60 Seconds
West Indian Soldier Exhibition Discover the shared military heritage between the UK and the Caribbean in this special exhibition exploring the role of West Indian soldiers in the British Army.
Matthew Henson: The First Black Man In The North Pole
Economic Hitmen & Jackals Transform your viewing...
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Cover
Credit: Hume Johnson
Story
Marcus James Jamaican Actor Stars With Vivica A. Fox In Lifetime Movie Network Series By Cecilia Campbell-Livingston
O
n Thursday, July 8 at 8 pm, Caribbean nationals tuned in to Lifetime Movie Network to check out one of their own – Jamaican Marcos James. James stars alongside film industry alum Vivica Fox as William French in the three-part movie series Keeping Up With the Joneses which will conclude on Thursday, July 22 .
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According to James, who was personally chosen by Vivica A. Fox for his role, his character of William in Keeping Up With The Joneses is a definite change of pace from several roles he has played in the past. “Many of the characters I’ve played before, in productions such as Game of Thrones and The Mahabharata were warriors in epic, otherworldly productions- men expressing strength along with hints of vulnerability. But while William in Keeping Up With The Joneses is just as complex, it was new and intriguing to navigate his ideas around life and success within a modern day context. I had great fun playing him and audiences who tune in will see exactly why,” he shared.
The movie is produced Fox herself and sees her starring in the major role where she is the matriarch of a flourishing African-American family company after her husband passes away. She has four accomplished stepdaughters. One of them is William’s fiancée. When confronted by family and business, she and her four daughtersin-law will stop at nothing to protect themselves and everything they hold. The role will be James’ biggest break to date as he portrays the role of William French, the fiancé of Fox’s stepdaughter Kayla Jones (Shellie Sterling, Snowfall). The production also features David Hector Jr, Ted McGinley, Arie Thompson, Ciarra Carter, Jasmine Aivaliotis, and Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Eric Roberts (Runaway Train, The Dark Knight). James has also done recurring roles in Game of Thrones and he has also been featured in British television productions including Mummy Mysteries and Reunion. Born in Kingston, the Calabar High School and University of the West Indies alum got his early start in theatre as a member of Cathi Levi’s Little People and Teen Player’s clubs. After earning his UWI degree James relocated to the United Kingdom where he studied film production at the University of Bristol.
Jamaican actor and performer, Marcos James talks personal branding, Game of Thrones and trying to make it in Hollywood. This is part of Hume Johnson Consulting’s Brand YOU Lab virtual roundtable series.
Marcos James is known for his recurring role as White Rat in Game of Thrones (Season 5), as well as principal roles in Escape the Night (2019), Reunion (Screened at the London Film Festival) and Love. Among the others roles that James has been played are Akhenaten in the internationally broadcast docuseries Mummy Mysteries, as well as a pivotal role in the production, Shared Human Experience. James has not only made his mark on the big screen, but has also been featured in theatrical productions such as Walt Disney (The Lion King, West End) and according to his profile on Imdb he has worked as an actor in varying high profile productions for The Royal Opera House, including, Death In Venice (2019) and Aida (2010/2011), as well as varying theatrical and screened productions for English National (Carmen 2020, Carmen 2015 and others). Additional work include, featured roles in varying commercial projects, as well as theatrical runs at venues including The Royal Albert Hall. Keeping Up With The Joneses is part of LMN’s popular “WRONG” franchise, a series of movie dramas often dealing with mystery, romance, crime and betrayal. Transform your viewing...
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Professor William ‘Lez’ Henry’
Time to
Get Up, Stand Up and Stop Taking
The Knee (Part Two)
Y
ou can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Abraham Lincoln
So now we see the light; what you gonna do? We gonna stand up for our rights. Oh, you better Get up, stand up, in the morning get it up. Stand up for your rights… Get up, stand up. Don’t give up the fight! Bob Marley and The Wailers The above perfectly capture my thoughts on what needs to be done, nationally at least, in the aftermath of the England football team’s loss in a penalty shootout in the 2020 European Championship, against Italy last night. We need to get away from the symbolic, as witnessed in the ‘taking the knee’ as a personal choice for a few seconds before matches, not just because of the booing by large sections of the crowd (skilfully muted by the broadcasters) but because it means 6 Transform your viewing...
absolutely nothing. Any purpose it served, if in my humble opinion it ever did, has gone and the reactions to the loss speak to this reality, ‘as you cannot fool all the people all the time’. And that is what is really happening here. Our intelligence as members of the human family is being collectively insulted, on a daily basis, where we are supposed to accept symbolic gestures as exemplars of meaningful change. If ‘taking the knee’ was to have any real impact on a structural level whatsoever, the first thing that would have been pointed out to the masses, via the mainstream media and social media outlets, the government, the opposition, the Football Association (FA); any of those in positions of power, was why blacks found it necessary to do so in the first place. Perhaps in the USA, where Colin Rand Kaepernick, an exemplar of ‘moral courage’, knelt during the USA National Anthem in 2016, before a National Football League (NFA) game, many would have known the history of that choice. That very conscious choice, as a protest against police brutality, white supremacist thought and action in an anti-racist context is rooted back to Dr Martin Luther King Jnr and the Civil Rights movement. Dr Martin Luther King Jnr knelt while leading a prayer on February 1, 1965, outside the
Dallas County Alabama Courthouse, along with several other civil rights marchers. The march was held over the right to vote, and the prayer and kneeling occurred after the group of about 250 was arrested for parading without a permit. The point is that the decision to kneel in 1965, transcended the symbolic as the right to vote is premised on the need for structural changes in society. Kaepernick’s stance, 56 years, later was fashioned from the same revolutionary fire that is necessary to forge an equitable society premised in fundamental civil and human rights. This is what needs to be at the forefront of these discussions on the role and purpose of movements like ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM), or in conversations around critical race theory and deliberations of the pervasive and pernicious nature of white privilege; that which was created to disenfranchise and disaffect racialised ‘others’ in Europe’s New, Western World, centuries ago. I state the above unequivocally here because there is not one person of any so-called race, gender, sexuality, age, etc. etc., that I know who was remotely surprised by the backlash and unbridled racist abuse meted out to the black players who represented ‘their country’. Not one. Not a single soul. We knew that in the build up to the match, we would experience a spate of items and features across platforms ‘celebrating’ black footballers like the much targeted and blatantly disrespected ‘boy from Brent’, Raheem Sterling; reminding the nation that these are ‘our
Took my last name, called me Henry, because they knew it would be easier to send me, to fight some battle, fi queen an country, good ol’ England, I use the term loosely. When I’m in ah kit, I’m a good ol’ brit, when I take it off, I’m treated like shit, in my face you spit at every opportunity, and tell me to get ‘black’ to my community… Lezlee Lyrix (1989) In sum: So now we see the light; what you gonna do? We gonna stand up for our rights! Credit:Bob Marley
Credit: Huffington Post
The History of Taking the Knee
lads’, ‘our players’. We knew the black players would be singled out and vilified and the fact that three of the penalty takers were black, just added more fuel to the fire. We knew that the England manager and other celebrities would come out in support of the black players, expressing their shock and horror that ‘our brave lads’ can be the victims of the ‘mindless idiots, the ‘vile bigots,’ blah blah. But crucially, we also said that social media outlets, the mainstream press and the current Government, who blatantly disregard their seminal role in tolerating and perpetuating this vile, racist abuse, would literally do ‘Sweet FA’ about it. So, time to stop the pretence and face the reality of how systemically and institutionally racist this country is, whilst acknowledging that the required changes to foster the development of an equitable society are structural, not symbolic, as suggested in the following extract:
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FROM WORLD CLASS
Jody-Ann Maxwell
Credit: Jamaica Gleaner
from Jamaica was the first Black winner of the Spelling Bee in 1998 One of our national treasures, Jody-Anne Maxwell, a 12-year-old student at Ardenne High School who won The Gleaner’s Children’s Own Spelling Bee Competition in 1998, dominated that year’s Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee Competition in Washington, DC. Jody-Ann became the Bee’s first foreign champion in the competition’s 71-year history. 8 Transform your viewing...
Credit: Gleaner
SPELLER TO LAWYER
Congratulations Zaila! Zaila Avant Garde first African American to win Spelling Bee. In 1998 Jamaica sent three contestants to the competition, then named the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee: Jody-Anne Maxwell, Bettina McLean and Haydee Lindo with coach Rev Glenn Archer.
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Cinema/
Video
W
n o s ’ t a h
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t
e h
r c S
? n ee
Marcus Rashford: Feeding Britain’s Children Documentary about footballer Marcus Rashford’s campaign for free school meals Credit: BBC
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Kiri Kiri goes missing on an unsupervised visit to her birth family arranged by her social worker, Miriam. Credit: Hulu
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Cinderella Disney’s “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” featuring singer Brandy as Cinderella & the late Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother. Credit: Disney+
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The Proud Family Movie Credit: Disney +
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The Haitian Revolution - Documentary (2009) The Blackest Panther
Divided Island: How Haiti and the DR Became Two Worlds One island, two worlds. Credit:Vox
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Will Smith Brings Kevin Hart to the Red Table Credit: Red Table Talk
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Baggage Claim While searching for “Mr Right”, flight attendant Montana Moore travels more than 30,000 miles and faces countless comedic encounters as she attempts to get engaged before her youngest sister’s wedding. Credit:Searchlight Pictures
Are you a UK-based 18-25 year old who loves writing about film? Apply now for @edfilmfest’s Young Critics Programme - an amazing opportunity that supports the next generation of film journalists! Deadline: 9 am Mon 26 July More info: https://bit.ly/ EIFFYoungCritics2021
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Uprising Credit: BBC
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Sport
This is my
England.
You choose Yours. By Anon
Zara Sultana MP Transform your viewing...
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This is England
Raheem Sterling
Whose big sister would go with him to training and back every day, three buses each way, and never once complained. Raheem Sterling, who called the day he bought his mum a house ‘the best day of my life.’
Marcus Rashford
Who secured free school meals for vulnerable kids during school holidays after the government had refused to extend the programme. Marcus Rashford, who lives by the words of his mother Melanie: ‘take pride in knowing that your struggle will play the biggest role in your purpose.’
Jordan Henderson
Who spent most of the first lockdown last year organising the other 19 Premiership captains to help raise money for the NHS.
Declan Rice
Who would play cage football in New Malden every day after school and all day on Saturdays, not because he was the best but because he wasn’t.
Kieran Trippier
Who still speaks regularly to his old teachers at Woodhey High School in Bury because they looked out for him and his brothers. Kieran Trippier, who every day has cause to reflect on the truth of the inscription by the school gates: ‘where dreams may grow.’
Gareth Southgate
Who until recently was most famous for missing a penalty he had the balls to volunteer for even though he’d never taken one before, because he knew what Teddy Roosevelt meant when he talked about the man in the arena.
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Mason Mount
Who gave the shirt he’d worn in the semi-final victory over Denmark to a 10-year-old girl called Belle in the crowd, and in doing her made her smile a smile so incandescent it could melt the Siberian permafrost.
Tyrone Mings
Who spent part of his childhood in a homeless shelter, who played non-league football while working as a barman and mortgage advisor, and who tells kids at the coaching camps he runs that the game is nothing unless they enjoy it. Tyrone Mings, who was taunted with monkey chants on his England debut against Bulgaria and didn’t pretend he hadn’t heard, who turned to the assistant referee and said, firmly but without aggression, ‘did you hear that?’ As in: we’ve got a problem here, you’re part of the officiating team, so this is your problem too and I’m not going to let you duck it, because though this was the most important match of his life there were some things which were more important still than that.
Luke Shaw
Who when playing for Southampton watched Liverpool players file unseeingly past two small boys waiting for their autographs, and who went over and said ‘I know I don’t play for your team, but will I do?’ and posed for a photo with them which they will never forget.
Kalvin Phillips
Whose mum worked two jobs while his dad was in and out of prison. One of those jobs was at Harpo’s Pizzas, where you can now order the Kalvin’s Special.
Bukayo Saka
Who got As and A*s in his GCSEs because his parents insisted that he work as hard inside the classroom as he did on the pitch. Bukayo Saka, whose Christian name in Yoruba means ‘adds to happiness.’
These, too, are England: an incompetent government and an ineffectual opposition; a system which rewards the venal, the vainglorious and the mendacious; tribes which assume the worst of each other and snipe over Brexit, lockdown and masks; public services creaking under the strain of decades of underfunding; kids getting stabbed and women getting attacked; morons who boo the opponents’ national anthems and shine laser pens at their goalkeepers; and so very, very much more. These too are England, and they will still be so next week, next month and next year. But, if only for today, there is an England of Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson, of Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount, of Tyrone Mings and Luke Shaw, of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, of Kieran Trippier and Kalvin Phillips, and of Gareth Southgate. If only for today. Transform your viewing...
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Credit: Jamaica Gleaner
IChurch
Kids Reaching Peers on Parents’ Gospel Radio with Their Own Show Credit:CindyTrimm/eTV
When Primrose Oliver parted ways with Irie FM in 2018, it presented an opportunity for her to start her own Internet radio station, Called Out Gospel Radio, with her husband Durville. And that’s what she did, over a year ago.
Think For A Change
THINK!
By Dr. Cindy Trimm
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Laughter
The Blushing Bride
Doggy Lifesaver
How not to behave if you are looking for a boyfriend!
A Jamaican Sat Nav! Where should she go? Transform your viewing...
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Last Word
Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover