31 minute read
Lifestyle
Bill Duke Stars in ‘No Sudden Move,’ Launches YouNite Network
Eunice Moseley Special to The Washington Informer
“He is the head of a gang,” said Bill Duke, a legendary actor (“The Oval,” “Commando,” “Predator”) and director (“Fame,” “Hillstreet Blues”), about his new role in the Warner Bros. Picture presentation, “No Sudden Move,” premiering on HBO Max July 1.
“He’s competing with other gangs – that’s big in Detroit. He is one of many gang leaders.” “No Sudden Move” is a thriller crime drama starring Don Cheadle and Benicio del Toro with appearances by Matt Damon. It is directed by Academy Award-winning Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s franchise) and written by Ed Solomon.
Bill Duke’s character is called “OG,” the Original Gangster. “I’ve worked with Steven Soderbergh on other films,” Duke said about how he got on the project. “We heard of his film . . . reached out.” About enjoying the taping, he said, “Just working with Matt Damon and Don Cheadle was great. Don, off screen, is the funniest person you’d ever want to meet.” The New York native talked about filming the crime drama during the pandemic. “Yes, it was during the pandemic,” Duke said. “There were
STUDENT LOAN from Page 21
Since the pandemic began, the federal government froze student loan debt, resulting in borrowers saving about $2,000.
President Biden also suspended collections on loans in default to private lenders which has resulted in an estimated $72 billion in relief.
Still, many Democratic lawmakers have called on the president to cancel student loan debt. So far, Biden has canceled $1.5 billion in debt for those defrauded by for-profit schools.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) continues to lead a contingent of Democrats urging the president to do more. They want President Biden to cancel as much as $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower.
Biden, who pledged to cancel $10,000 per borrower when he took office, said he’s reluctant to forgive debt for those who went to expensive private schools like Harvard and Yale.
“For millions of student borrowers, one of the most difficult challenges is balancing their debt with their dreams of starting a career, starting a family, and buying a home,” Schumer said. “When the pandemic hit, these challenges magnified a hundredfold. Job opportunities disappeared and our economy came to a halt.”
“Even as the economy recovers, young people, borrowers with a load of debt will struggle more than most to get back on their feet. Why not give them a little more breathing room?” he suggested.
Jennifer Blatz, president and CEO of StriveTogether, offered that if the Biden-Harris administration remains serious about addressing significant threats to the nation’s economic viability and narrowing the racial wealth gap, reducing student loan debt should be among the tools they use.
“Its impact is immediate and measurable,” Blatz insisted.
“Loan forgiveness could address these racial inequities, which are getting even wider because of the pandemic. Student debt forgiveness, while providing stability to families and the economy in this immediate crisis, would give us an opportunity to step back and address the systems that have brought us to the moment of desperation,” she said.
Blatz added that taking a holistic view of racial and economic disparities remains tantamount including “inequities in postgraduate opportunities and employment.”
“Canceling student debt would help the nation reset to seek more sustainable solutions,” she said. WI @StacyBrownMedia
certain things we had to do. All the time we had a ‘Covid Team’ there on set, testing us several times a day.” Warner Bros. Pictures’ “No Sudden Move” also stars Ray Liotta, Jon Hamm, Brendan Fraser, David Harbour, Amy Seimetz, Kieran Culkin, Noah Jupe, Craig Grant, Julie Fox and Frankie Shaw. It takes place in 1954 in racially charged Detroit. A small gang has been set-up to take the fall. However, they escape and are now on a search for who hired them and to find out why. Before our interview ended Bill Duke said, “Tell your readers to check out my network, YouNite. It will be up pretty soon . . . second week in July. We will have something positive for the kids and its focus is on all the good.” The YouNite Network has been launched by Bill Duke’s company Duke Media Entertainment with an aim to provide inspiring, educational and entertaining projects.
Duke is also a producer (“Dark Girls”), author (“The Works of the Invisible Man”) and poet (“The Journey”).
Other credits include Steven Soderbergh’s “High Flying Bird,” “Black Lightening,” “Menace II Society,” “X-Men 3,” “Starsky & Hutch,” “Charlie’s Angels” and ”Sister Act 2.” He also has a
5 Bill Duke (Courtesy photo)
501 c3 Foundation, Duke Media Foundation, which exposes youth to new media tools.
For more information visit www.YouNiteNetwork.com www.DukeMediaFoundation.org www.WarnerBros.com
WI
EBOLA from Page 20
son announced up to 200,000 Ebola vaccine regimens would be made available as part of a WHO early access clinical program now underway in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone has prior experience administering the Johnson & Johnson Ebola vaccine in 2015 during the West African epidemic.
The country's Ministry of Health and the University of Sierra Leone collaborated with Johnson & Johnson on the first clinical study of the vaccine in an Ebola-affected country which took place in Sierra Leone's Kambia district.
“We are moving with urgency and purpose to bring all of our available resources to help prevent the spread of this latest Ebola outbreak in Guinea,” said Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, M.D., Ph.D., global head, Global Public Health Research and Development, Johnson & Johnson, in May.
“We believe that, through the preventive use of Ebola vaccines, the global health community can help protect vulnerable communities living under the threat of this disease,” she said. WI
The Concert Film We Have Been Waiting For
Six-Week-Long 1969 Music Festival Marked a Seminal Cultural Moment
Brenda C. Siler WI Contributing Writer
What was going on in the Summer of 1969? Woodstock, mankind’s first walk on the moon, the Manson murders and the Stonewall riots. Also, there was an important event blending music, comedy and togetherness at Mt. Morris Park in Harlem. “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)” is a documentary capturing the Harlem Cultural Festival, a free six-week event attracting 300,000 attendees. The film premieres July 2 streaming on Hulu and showing in theaters. Audiences saw performances by Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, The Chambers Brothers, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, Sly and the Family Stone, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, Mahalia Jackson, The Staple Singers, Moms Mabley and so many others. Nearly 70 acts performed at that one-of-a-kind festival.
Forty hours of film from this festival sat in a basement for 50 years. The footage was found producing partners of Amir-Khalib “Questlove” Thompson. Thompson is probably best known as co-founder of hip hop group “The Roots,” the house band for The Tonight Show. It took a while for Thompson to believe the footage existed. “What they showed absolutely blew me away,” said Thompson when his producers came to him in 2017 with some of the footage. “That’s when I realized this was serious.”
THE WORK BEGINS
From viewing 40 hours of raw footage, Thompson knew he had to be a part of the project. He was ready to come on board as a producer, but his producing partners wanted him to direct the film. In addition to The Roots, Thompson has authored books, produced projects for Broadway and is a respected musicologist. Film directing would be a new talent to add to his list of accomplishments.
In 1969, the country was recovering from assassinations of leaders important to the Black community. Violence ran rampant in our cities. There were more than 100 riots across the country during the 1960s. A marked change in Black American culture began in1969. The festival was at the right time and place to acknowledge that change.
“I always related summertime
5 The Fifth Dimension served as a top Black group in the 60's and 70's. (Courtesy photo)
to the potential of violence,” said Darryl Lewis, an attendee at the Harlem Cultural Festival who was interviewed by Thompson. “I was 19 when the festival took place. I was home from college. The goal of the festival may have been to keep Black folks from burning up the city in '69.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF SEEING US
Along with multiple genres of Black music, “Summer of Soul” looked like a fashion time cap-
SOUL Page 40
Traditional Fireworks Displays and Parades to Resume for Fourth of July, 2021
James Wright WI Staff Writer
Most Fourth of July activities will resume in the District after falling victim to COVID-19 in 2020.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has made it clear she wants visitors to come back to the nation’s capital to celebrate Independence Day.
“D.C. is open and ready to welcome back visitors to celebrate the way we came together as a city and as a nation this year,” the mayor said on June 16. “We have shown once again that when we come together, there is nothing we can’t do.”
Bowser’s call for visitors for July 4th came after she lifted coronavirus restrictions and fully relaxed public health restrictions on gatherings June 11. The mayor acted in concert with President Biden, who has also encouraged live July 4 events to mark the nation’s return to its routine after 16 months of coronavirus pandemic disruptions.
The mayor said the traditional Fourth of July fireworks will occur on the National Mall. Bowser didn’t support President Trump’s fireworks display last year because the pandemic still raged in the District and District officials didn’t receive any consultation from the White House on the matter.
While the fireworks will commence, the National Fourth of July parade which happens along Constitution Avenue in Northwest has been postponed this year.
“After much thought and consideration, the National Park Service and Diversified Events have cancelled this year’s National Independence Day Parade due to logistics and planning limitations,” the events’ website said. “The marching units that travel from across the country to participate in the parade have not had the necessary eight to 10 months to organize, rehearse and fundraise before making the trip, and most are still unable to travel due to COVID-19 restrictions. We are unable to stage a successful event without the excitement and sound provided by these high school bands, drill teams and other youth organizations. We share everyone’s disappointment in this decision and look forward to presenting this red, white and blue celebration of America’s birthday again on July 4, 2022.”
Biden announced last month he will host essential workers and military families on the South Lawn of the White House for an Independence Day celebration.
While the national parade has been suspended, the two local parades—The 19th Annual Capitol Hill Community Fourth of July Parade in the Barracks Row neigh-
5 Fireworks are expected to be on display on the National Mall in the District. (WI File Photo)
borhood in Ward 6 and the Palisades Citizens Association 55th Annual Parade in Ward 3—will proceed.
The Capitol Hill parade will start at Eighth and I Streets, S.E. at 10 a.m. and is to follow Eighth Street north to the Eastern Market Metro Plaza.
The Palisades Parade will start at noon at the intersection of Whitehaven Parkway and MacArthur Boulevard, N.W. and follow MacArthur north to the Palisades Palisades Recreation Center. where a community picnic is to occur. WI @JamesDCWrighter
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The Black Press of America Wraps its Up Annual Summer Convention
Theme, ‘The News We Cover Matters,’ Championed by President Biden
Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer
President Joe Biden helped to kick off the annual convention of the National Newspaper Publishers Association with a ringing endorsement of the Black Press of America.
The president, who campaigned on the promise of equity and inclusion and whose appointments, hires and policies have included uplifting Black and minority communities, praised the virtues of Black-owned newspapers and media companies.
“It’s an honor to join you and celebrate 194 years of the Black Press and 81 years of the NNPA,” the president stated.
“The theme of your conference this year, ‘Black Press Matters,’ could not be more fitting. The work you do at the NNPA matters,” he said.
Biden recalled visiting Tulsa, Okla. earlier this year on the anniversary of the Black Wall Street massacre.
“We would not have known nearly as much as what happened there if it were not for the Black Press,” he said. “The same is true of [other] stories of today. I know times are tough in the industry and every advertising dollar matters. We need your input and your important independent voices as much as ever,” he continued.
Biden thanked the leaders and staff of the Black Press for their commitment.
“Thank you for informing us all,” he said.
The conference kicked off with an exhibit of more than 100 front pages of African-American newspapers sponsored by the Google News Initiative.
NNPA Chair Karen Carter Richards, President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., and Convention Chair Terry Jones offered opening remarks.
At the same time, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky spoke on the importance of vaccinations and how vital the Black Press of America remains after 194 years.
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(Courtesy NNPA)
“The Black Press is critically important,” Dr. Fauci declared. “Medical comorbidities are particularly high in African-American communities and that is why getting the vaccine is so important.”
Racism remains at the root of many of the health disparities in America, declared Dr. Walensky.
“We must take action,” she insisted. “We are so grateful for [The Black Press’s] voice and to your reporting and commitment to truth.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and White House Senior Advisor and Director of Public Engagement Cedric Richmond also joined the conference to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to Black America and the NNPA.
The NNPA, the 81-year-old trade association representing the 230 African American-owned newspapers and media companies that comprise the Black Press of America, hosted the annual convention from June 23 to June 26.
While the convention regularly occurs in cities throughout the country, the pandemic forced the NNPA to hold the event virtually for the second consecutive year.
This year’s theme highlighted how significant the Black Press remains, its vitality in the many communities it serves and the transformative vision that has helped keep its millions of subscribers informed.
Pfizer Rare Disease, AARP, General Motors, Reynolds American, Comcast, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Education Trust, the Small Business Administration, Wells Fargo, American Petroleum Institute, Facebook Journalism Project and others hosted, sponsored, or participated on panels to provide vital information for publishers and the public-at-large.
Zillow, the Knight Foundation, U.S. Census, Comcast Universal, Molson Coors, Nissan, BHERC, Northrop Grumman and Nina Turner for Congress also counted among convention sponsors.
During the convention, the NNPA Fund hosted its annual Messenger Awards to recognize the outstanding work of journalists and newspapers in the Black Press.
Hosted by NNPA Fund Chair Pluria Marshall, Jr. and NNPA Fund Vice Chair Sonny Messiah Jiles, with special guests Stacey Abrams and the Rev. Al Sharpton, winners included the St. Louis American, Birmingham Times, Houston Forward Times, The Final Call, Richmond Free Press, Texas Metro News, The Afro American, Michigan Chronicle, New Pittsburgh Courier, Our Weekly Los Angeles, Houston Defender, Savannah Tribune, Atlanta Voice, Jackson Advocate and the Seattle Medium.
The recent winner of three Society of Professional Journalists Awards, the Washington Informer did not participate in this year’s Messenger Awards.
The NNPA also presented its annual Legacy Awards where Darnella Frazier, the Black teenager who courageously filmed a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, received the Ida B. Wells National Photojournalism Award. NNPA Page 40
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GRADUATON from Page 1
coursework and navigated the college application process, all while weathering the storm of a pandemic.
And as Bard graduate Darren Wright explained to The Informer, he and his classmates have received unprecedented insights on the college environment as they make the next step in pursuit of their chosen careers.
“Bard has prepared me [for college] by showing me how to write longer and capture an audience with my writing,” said Wright, 18, who will attend the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in the fall.
With his father’s support, Wright transferred to Bard from the Parkside campus of Cesar Chavez Public Charter School during his junior year. He and 19 other upperclassmen counted among the first students who matriculated through what Bard designates as Year 1 and Year 2 when students take college seminars taught by on-campus college educators.
While Wright, an aspiring sports journalist, couldn’t pinpoint a particular class that piqued his interest, he said the rigor of the coursework often stretched his ability to read long passages, write extensively and practice time management. He expressed plans to use the skills acquired at Bard in his pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in communications.
“Bard showed me how to think more and not just broadly [but] specifically about what I want to say [when] analyzing different things,” Wright said.
“I got to do that during my seminar classes and in some of my electives. I didn’t think I was a good writer because I didn’t get good grades for writing essays but my teachers showed me I could,” he said.
A commencement ceremony for Wright and his peers took place at Audi Field in Southwest on the evening of June 24. Ward 7 State Board of Education Representative Eboni Rose-Thompson opened the ceremony. D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee and Bard College President Dr. Leon Botstein, respectively, conferred high school diplomas and an associate degree to each graduate. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) served as commencement speaker.
Weeks earlier, as the 2020-2021 officers check transcripts to predict a student’s graduation without interruption, those who want to attend the District’s first wall-to-wall early college program don’t need to take entrance exams.
For Bard High School Early College DC Principal Vanessa Anderson, such conditions ensure that all students can matriculate at a high school which provides college education without cost.
It’s particularly meaningful for youth who live east of the Anacostia River whose experiences Anderson compared to her upbringing in the Brownsville community of Brooklyn, New York.
“It’s huge that there’s a selective high school and early college option east of the Anacostia River,” Anderson said. “This does so much to keep you connected to your neighborhood. When you’re connected, you begin to see all of the beauty that’s there despite how it may be characterized. You feel empowered to make your community the way you want it to be.”
WI @SamPKCollins
school year wrapped up, seniors at Bard had the opportunity to not only celebrate but to make up for face-toface time lost during the pandemic.
This fall, Bard along with other District public and charter schools, will conduct in-person learning at a time when those who enrolled in Bard’s inception as ninth graders will be immersed in the school’s first-ever pipeline college class. The course has been developed to ease their transition to Year 1 of the associate’s program.
As had been the case before the pandemic, high school and college courses will simultaneously be offered at Bard, along with several extracurricular activities.
The high school, currently located in the Benning Ridge community, has been slated to move to Congress Heights within the next few years.
Bard High School Early College DC serves as a tuition-free satellite campus of Bard College, based in Annandale, New York. The college was founded on the belief that young people can do college-level work at a younger age. Its launch in 2019 served as a partnership between DCPS and Bard College. Though admissions
5 The first commencement of Bard High School Early College graduates was held at Audi Field in Southwest on June 24. (Anthony Tilghman/The Washington Informer)
wi book review horoscopes
JULY 1 - 7, 2021
"Leaving Breezy Street: A Memoir" By Brenda Myers-Powell with April Reynolds c.2021, Henry Holt and Company $26.99 288 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer WI Contributing Writer
Sometimes, you just gotta get out.
You need a weekend in a remote cabin or high-end spa. You gotta get out of those clothes at day's end. You need a breath of fresh air, new scenery, something to distract you. Sometimes, you need to get out for your sanity. Other times, as in the new book "Leaving Breezy Street" by Brenda Myers-Powell (with April Reynolds), you need to get out for your life.
They told her that her mother loved her very much.
Little Brenda Myers had to take her aunts' words for it; her mother died before Brenda could walk, and so she was raised by her grandmother. Ma'Dea's home was safe and warm, nobody ever went hungry, but the woman couldn't keep Myers from being molested, starting when Myers was just 4 years old.
It continued: at 10, she was removed from Ma'Dea's house due to alcoholism and physical abuse; a year later, the uncle who took her in began molesting her. Myer returned to her grandmother's house, "from the frying pan to the fire," where she endured the least egregious trauma until she got pregnant.
At age 14, she realized that she needed money to raise an infant.
On Good Friday, 1973, she took the train to downtown Chicago and turned her first tricks. She came home with "almost four hundred dollars."
Ma'Dea, she says, "didn't ask one question."
That was the beginning of years of horrors. Myers was captured by a pair of "Gorilla pimps" who beat her to control her; though she was a minor, they took her across state lines and raped her until she didn't care. She escaped, returned to the streets, sold herself for cash, a place to stay, clothing and, eventually, drugs, when all she really wanted was nurturing. "Folks tell me, ain't all that happen to you," she says. "I wish it hadn't. … I wish to God I was lying my head off."
Here's a warning, so take it seriously: if you like your memoirs sweet and tender, back away from this one. "Leaving Breezy Street," the title of which refers to the alter ego and pseudonym author Brenda Myers-Powell used for work, is anything but warm and fuzzy.
It. Is. Brutal.
But then again …
At the risk of being a spoiler here, there's a happy ending or four in this memoir, including the empowering, steely and emotional update on Myers-Powell's life today, a tale-within-a-tale that'll make you teary-eyed. Those tears will happen partly out of relief because whew! what Myers-Powell tells is like some kind of horror story but the monsters are real — yet, curiously (and much to a reader's chagrin), she respects her past and leaves a lot unsaid.
That doesn't include celebrities, whose names pepper this memoir. Just bear in mind that this book is packed with profanity but there's also a laugh or two, in a dark kind of way. Still, if you want a tale that'll drop your jaw every few pages, "Leaving Breezy Street" is the book to get out.
WI ARIES A rendezvous in a strange location lends some excitement to the start of your week. You feel a bit like a character in a noir film or a journalist on an exotic assignment. The world around you is rich, and your interactions with others are charged. That charge launches you into Wednesday and Thursday, when you find yourself pursuing a hot new lead. Lucky Numbers: 3, 5, 24
TAURUS Be charming and diplomatic, but be firm. If you have control of the cockpit, don't get up to take a coffee break. You'll have plenty of time for coffee on Wednesday — you'll have time to take a swim in a river of coffee, if you want — and Thursday and Friday you should spend enjoying other people's ideas. Travel (perhaps by plane) may figure into your days. Lucky Numbers: 14, 35, 53
GEMINI If what you are saying just isn't getting through to you-know-whom, consider the way you're saying it. And then consider starting with a knock-knock joke. If you can get someone to laugh, you've got their attention. Wednesday through Friday you've got some business to attend to . But the weekend restores you. Lucky Numbers: 10, 13, 26
CANCER Your wattage might be running low on Monday and Tuesday, so do something chill: take lunch on your own, stop by the video store on your way home from work, get supplies for a bubble bath. The whole week you'll be in this mood — content, quiet, self-aware — and it may lead to a meaningful revelation or two, the kind you can't have when you're surrounded by buzz and chatter. Lucky Numbers: 18, 20, 31
LEO You are bounding down the street on Monday and Tuesday. Or perhaps down the highway. You have a passion for travel at the start of the week. Then again, what don't you have a passion for at the start of the week? It helps that your romantic life is going well. On Wednesday and Thursday you make a good impression without even trying, and Friday you do something healthy. Lucky Numbers: 12, 14, 23
VIRGO You'd love to stop the raft and change course, but these are some mighty fine rapids. The safest plan of action would be to see this through; once the river dies down a bit, you can regroup. Overcoming the tension from the start of the week will be key to enjoying the romance that kicks into high gear on Wednesday and lasts through the second half of the week. Lucky Numbers: 10, 29, 51
LIBRA Social experimentation at the start of the week totally pays off. You put the oddest ideas on the table and people take to them instantly (there is something offhandedly genius about the things that fall out of your mouth right now). Nevertheless, Wednesday and Thursday you have little time to be dazzling the masses with your thinking, as the home realm requires your attention. Lucky Numbers: 2, 11, 35
SCORPIO You find yourself at the start of the week feeling more identified with a group than you have in a while. It's nice to belong and it's nice to wind up involved in adventures you would never stumble into on your own, but don't forget to assert your own personality. Your self-control and shrewdness will be called upon, and Friday you may need to finesse something over the phone. Lucky Numbers: 3, 33, 39
SAGITTARIUS Good feelings and good will abound on Monday and Tuesday. It's sounds cheesy, but everyone you know has found a way to love one another, and it's putting you in a heck of a good mood. Wednesday you feel more moved by art and music than you have in a while. That's not to say you should rush out and buy some expensive art or a new music collection. Watching what you spend on Thursday and Friday — right down to packing your lunch — is a brilliant plan. Lucky Numbers: 20, 35, 55
CAPRICORN Anything is possible if you put your mind to it, but you also have to apply energy. You're at about normal energy levels on Monday and Tuesday, but come Wednesday you go on hyperdrive. Your radiance is turning heads on Thursday, and by Friday your demonstrated stamina will be downright jaw-dropping. As for those impossible things made possible? Well, nothing happens overnight, but don't be discouraged. Lucky Numbers: 23, 36, 43
AQUARIUS Your social group could use a few new members, so be open to unfamiliar faces on Monday and Tuesday. The start of the week is a time of expansiveness. Wednesday and Thursday, however, restriction is the order of the day, and discipline is important. That's a better tactic than flailing all around. Friday has you exhausted — it's been a long, busy week — but Saturday is a bend in the river: suddenly you're among a singing, dancing crowd. Lucky Numbers: 35, 41, 55
PISCES Monday is your lucky day. So is Tuesday, in fact. Don't rush out and buy a lottery ticket — it's not that kind of luck — but notice how the small things seem to be going your way? This is partly unrelated to you and it's partly a reflection of all the positive energy you've been putting out there lately. If someone needs your help on Wednesday, you're happy to give back. Drop whatever you're doing. Lucky Numbers: 17, 31, 42
