In this file photo taken July 11, 2010 former South African President Nelson Mandela, left, with his wife Graca Machel, right, attends the final of the FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament in Johannesburg, Mandela’s last public appearance. Mandela, now old and frail, lives in seclusion in his Johannesburg home. Beyond the high walls of the house, the fighting over his image and what he stood for has already begun (AP Photo/Martin Meissner-File)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela, old and frail, lives in seclusion in his Johannesburg home. Beyond the high walls of the house, the fighting over his image and what he stood for has already begun.

The sense of possibility that Mandela embodied is fading as a gulf between rich and poor widens. Many South Africans believe their leaders are out to help themselves and not the nation, which showed such promise when it broke the shackles of apartheid by holding the first all-race elections in 1994 and putting Mandela, who had been jailed for 27 years by the country’s racist leaders, into the presidency.

In a remarkable achievement, South Africa has held peaceful elections since the end of apartheid. But it is struggling on other fronts.

Last year, corruption deprived the country of nearly 1 billion rand ($111 million) in taxpayers’ money, according to a recent report. In one of the latest scandals to shake South Africans’ confidence in their government, authorities let a chartered plane carrying about 200 guests from India land at a South African air force base ahead of a lavish wedding hosted by a politically connected family.

South Africans, worried about graft, high unemployment and other problems, tend to compare their current leadership with the virtually unassailable record of Mandela as a freedom fighter and South Africa’s first black president. No small wonder, then, that politicians and even family members are moving to use that image for their own benefit.

Mandela no longer speaks publicly. He retired after a single term as president that ended in 1999 then worked for some years as an advocate for peace, awareness for HIV/AIDS and other causes. His last public appearance on a major stage was in 2010, when South Africa hosted the soccer World Cup.

Last month, President Jacob Zuma and other leaders of the ruling African National Congress party visited Mandela. After the encounter at Mandela’s home, Zuma cheerily said the 94-year-old was up and about, in good spirits and doing well. But the images carried by state TV showed Mandela sitting with a blanket covering his legs, silent and unmoving with his cheeks showing what appear to be marks from a recently removed oxygen mask. Mandela did not acknowledge Zuma, who sat right next to Mandela.

The footage unsettled some viewers who considered the visit to be a stunt to make Zuma look good. A cartoon in The Star newspaper depicted a leering Zuma holding a clothes hanger from which the once robust Mandela dangled limply, eyelids sagging. The ANC insisted it had no ulterior motive ahead of elections next year, and that it was only showing respect for a living national treasure.

For their part, ANC supporters said the opposition was crassly capitalizing on the Mandela name to get support when the Democratic Alliance party published a pamphlet showing an old photograph of Mandela embracing Helen Suzman, an anti-apartheid activist whose party was a forerunner of the DA.

Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who like Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize for being a leader in the struggle against apartheid, later clashed swords with the ANC when he spoke about Mandela’s eventual passing.

“The best memorial to Nelson Mandela would be a democracy that was really up and running; a democracy in which every single person in South Africa knew that they mattered, and where other people knew that each person mattered,” The Mail Guardian, a South African newspaper, quoted Tutu as saying in a May 10 article.

Tutu said South Africa needs political change and that criticism of the ANC has so far been muted because South Africans felt it would be a “slap in the face to Mandela” who once headed the liberation movement-turned political party.

The ANC’s youth league disputed Tutu’s assertion that the ruling party had failed to deliver.

“Young people, who constitute a large voting bloc in the country, expect the Archbishop and other leaders to speak truth anchored by reality and facts and not anecdotal information based on creativity and imagination,” the league said in a statement.

The government, however, has said unemployment in the first quarter of this year was just over 25 percent, a figure that analysts say has been caused by weak economic growth and layoffs in the troubled mining sector and other industries. Also, protests against poor delivery of water, electricity and other government services periodically erupt in some South African communities.

Across South Africa, Mandela’s face is a familiar sight, beaming from T-shirts, drink coasters and new banknotes. South African bridges, hospitals and schools carry Mandela’s name. Statues of him abound, including a towering bronze one in Nelson Mandela Square in a posh shopping complex in the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Sandton.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Mandela name is also being used commercially by members of his family. There is a “House of Mandela” wine label and two granddaughters are starring in a U.S. television reality show titled “Being Mandela.”

Some family members are trying to oust several old allies of the former president from control of two companies. That dispute is headed for the courts, though the old Mandela associates, including human rights lawyer George Bizos, want the case to be dismissed.

Mandela’s stellar record can be easily mined in commercial branding, which is based on a “notion of perfection around a set of ideas,” said Michael J. Casey, author of “Che’s Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image.”

The book tells how the famous photograph of the bearded, Argentine-born revolutionary in a beret evolved into a global symbol and brand, seized upon by political activists, sales executives and all manner of other people for whom it resonated, or who wanted to make money from it.

“The narrative around Mandela is a man who stuck to his guns in terms of the struggle,” said Casey, who noted that some people bestow a “level of deity” on such transcendent figures.

“You want him to live for the man that he was,” Casey said. “It’s not to say that he’s not a great man, but nobody’s perfect.”

Already, that sort of personification by artists is turning, well, cartoonish.

For a music video, South African dance DJ Euphonik matched a beat with part of the recording of Mandela’s 1964 speech in the sabotage trial at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination,” a cartoon Mandela intones in the music video. Limber and white-haired, he busts a few moves on the dance floor.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/21/south-africa-mandela-name-becomes-political-football/

TODAY – Brandi Kline and her two sons, both students at Plaza Towers Elementary in Moore, Okla., which was directly hit by the tornado Monday afternoon, recount their experiences.

Damian Kline says his teacher threw her body over him and his classmates to shield them from the storm while they took cover in one of the school’s bathrooms.

“It sounded like a train coming by,” the fourth grader said, describing the sound of the tornado passing through his school.

Kline told Today that that his teacher threw her body over them in an effort to shield them.  ”She saved our lives,” he said.

He said it felt like it took “about five minutes” for the storm to pass through, and that after all he “saw was just a disaster.”

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/21/tornado-survivor-my-teacher-saved-our-lives/

In this file photo taken July 11, 2010 former South African President Nelson Mandela, left, with his wife Graca Machel, right, attends the final of the FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament in Johannesburg, Mandela’s last public appearance. Mandela, now old and frail, lives in seclusion in his Johannesburg home. Beyond the high walls of the house, the fighting over his image and what he stood for has already begun (AP Photo/Martin Meissner-File)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela, old and frail, lives in seclusion in his Johannesburg home. Beyond the high walls of the house, the fighting over his image and what he stood for has already begun.

The sense of possibility that Mandela embodied is fading as a gulf between rich and poor widens. Many South Africans believe their leaders are out to help themselves and not the nation, which showed such promise when it broke the shackles of apartheid by holding the first all-race elections in 1994 and putting Mandela, who had been jailed for 27 years by the country’s racist leaders, into the presidency.

In a remarkable achievement, South Africa has held peaceful elections since the end of apartheid. But it is struggling on other fronts.

Last year, corruption deprived the country of nearly 1 billion rand ($111 million) in taxpayers’ money, according to a recent report. In one of the latest scandals to shake South Africans’ confidence in their government, authorities let a chartered plane carrying about 200 guests from India land at a South African air force base ahead of a lavish wedding hosted by a politically connected family.

South Africans, worried about graft, high unemployment and other problems, tend to compare their current leadership with the virtually unassailable record of Mandela as a freedom fighter and South Africa’s first black president. No small wonder, then, that politicians and even family members are moving to use that image for their own benefit.

Mandela no longer speaks publicly. He retired after a single term as president that ended in 1999 then worked for some years as an advocate for peace, awareness for HIV/AIDS and other causes. His last public appearance on a major stage was in 2010, when South Africa hosted the soccer World Cup.

Last month, President Jacob Zuma and other leaders of the ruling African National Congress party visited Mandela. After the encounter at Mandela’s home, Zuma cheerily said the 94-year-old was up and about, in good spirits and doing well. But the images carried by state TV showed Mandela sitting with a blanket covering his legs, silent and unmoving with his cheeks showing what appear to be marks from a recently removed oxygen mask. Mandela did not acknowledge Zuma, who sat right next to Mandela.

The footage unsettled some viewers who considered the visit to be a stunt to make Zuma look good. A cartoon in The Star newspaper depicted a leering Zuma holding a clothes hanger from which the once robust Mandela dangled limply, eyelids sagging. The ANC insisted it had no ulterior motive ahead of elections next year, and that it was only showing respect for a living national treasure.

For their part, ANC supporters said the opposition was crassly capitalizing on the Mandela name to get support when the Democratic Alliance party published a pamphlet showing an old photograph of Mandela embracing Helen Suzman, an anti-apartheid activist whose party was a forerunner of the DA.

Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who like Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize for being a leader in the struggle against apartheid, later clashed swords with the ANC when he spoke about Mandela’s eventual passing.

“The best memorial to Nelson Mandela would be a democracy that was really up and running; a democracy in which every single person in South Africa knew that they mattered, and where other people knew that each person mattered,” The Mail Guardian, a South African newspaper, quoted Tutu as saying in a May 10 article.

Tutu said South Africa needs political change and that criticism of the ANC has so far been muted because South Africans felt it would be a “slap in the face to Mandela” who once headed the liberation movement-turned political party.

The ANC’s youth league disputed Tutu’s assertion that the ruling party had failed to deliver.

“Young people, who constitute a large voting bloc in the country, expect the Archbishop and other leaders to speak truth anchored by reality and facts and not anecdotal information based on creativity and imagination,” the league said in a statement.

The government, however, has said unemployment in the first quarter of this year was just over 25 percent, a figure that analysts say has been caused by weak economic growth and layoffs in the troubled mining sector and other industries. Also, protests against poor delivery of water, electricity and other government services periodically erupt in some South African communities.

Across South Africa, Mandela’s face is a familiar sight, beaming from T-shirts, drink coasters and new banknotes. South African bridges, hospitals and schools carry Mandela’s name. Statues of him abound, including a towering bronze one in Nelson Mandela Square in a posh shopping complex in the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Sandton.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Mandela name is also being used commercially by members of his family. There is a “House of Mandela” wine label and two granddaughters are starring in a U.S. television reality show titled “Being Mandela.”

Some family members are trying to oust several old allies of the former president from control of two companies. That dispute is headed for the courts, though the old Mandela associates, including human rights lawyer George Bizos, want the case to be dismissed.

Mandela’s stellar record can be easily mined in commercial branding, which is based on a “notion of perfection around a set of ideas,” said Michael J. Casey, author of “Che’s Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image.”

The book tells how the famous photograph of the bearded, Argentine-born revolutionary in a beret evolved into a global symbol and brand, seized upon by political activists, sales executives and all manner of other people for whom it resonated, or who wanted to make money from it.

“The narrative around Mandela is a man who stuck to his guns in terms of the struggle,” said Casey, who noted that some people bestow a “level of deity” on such transcendent figures.

“You want him to live for the man that he was,” Casey said. “It’s not to say that he’s not a great man, but nobody’s perfect.”

Already, that sort of personification by artists is turning, well, cartoonish.

For a music video, South African dance DJ Euphonik matched a beat with part of the recording of Mandela’s 1964 speech in the sabotage trial at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination,” a cartoon Mandela intones in the music video. Limber and white-haired, he busts a few moves on the dance floor.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/21/south-africa-mandela-name-becomes-political-football/

President Barack Obama, accompanied by, from left, Vice President Joe Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FEMA Deputy Administrator Richard Serino. talks about the Oklahoma tornado and severe weather, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama pledged urgent government help for Oklahoma Tuesday in the wake of “one of the most destructive” storms in the nation’s history.

“In an instant neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured,” Obama said from the White House State Dining Room. “Among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew — their school.”

The president added that the town of Moore, Okla., “needs to get everything it needs right away.”

Obama spoke following a meeting with his disaster response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and top White House officials. On Monday, he spoke with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Republican Rep. Tom Cole, whose home is in the heavily damaged town of Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

The president has also declared a major disaster in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate was due in Oklahoma later Tuesday to ensure that federal resources are being properly deployed.

The state medical examiner’s office has revised the death toll from the tornado to 24 people, including seven children. Authorities had said initially that as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children.

Teams are continuing to search the rubble in Moore, 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, after the Monday afternoon’s more than half-mile-wide twister.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/21/president-obama-to-speak-on-oklahoma-disaster/

Kanye West arrives at the Christian Dior Spring / Summer 2013 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2012 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

The sixth coming of Kanye West appeared in flashing lights, glorious refrain, and one major, unforeseen tweet heard round the world.

On Friday, the rapper premiered “New Slaves,” the first single off his new album Yeezus, as a video projected on the side of 66 buildings in six countries across the globe, announced via his Twitter page. He followed the spectacle with two dramatic musical performances on the season finale of Saturday Night Live, and a tweet that same day of what appeared to be lyrics for his new work.

Later, girlfriend Kim Kardashian posted an image of his presumed album cover on Instagram, and subsequently, a mysterious link to pre-order the record emerged (then un-emerged) on iTunes.

All together, the large-scale exhibition seemed extravagant even for West, placing his marketing and creative ingenuity in an echelon unsurpassed by almost any other musician in the game.

“Obviously it was very unexpected, and no one thought it would be done at the level he took it,” DJ E-Man, Assistant Program Director and Music Director at Power 106 FM in Los Angeles, tells theGrio. “For Kanye to go to 66 different buildings around the world, and put it out there to make that noise, it’s genius.”

Prodigal Son: West returns to the stage on his own terms

Not only did West herald his new work with loud and fervent vibrations, he completely broke from predominate digital marketing strategies in rap music. Disregarding blogs, influencers, and web marketing stalwarts of the 21st century, Yeezy invented a system unlikely to be imitated or duplicated purely because of its scale.

Considering the album is not even due till June 18 (the sixth month of the year), there’s no telling what’s in store.

“When it comes to music, it’s usually done through social media where you’ll see a leak of a song, or something put out on YouTube,” E-Man explains. “This time, he literally took it to the streets in a sense, and let the world know.”

For fans of West, who’ve been anxiously awaiting his first solo album since 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the weekend’s surprises only added to the hype.

Over the past few years, the 35-year-old has remained present, yet reserved in public. He started a fashion line no one really cared about, and released a collaboration album, Cruel Summer, with his collective G.O.O.D Music. More prominent was his 2011 platinum-selling release with Jay-Z, Watch the Throne, and the world tour that followed. Around that time, West revealed he was having his first child with Kardashian on stage at a concert.

With the press tracking Kimye’s every move, West has predictably gone on a few trademark anti-media rants, most recently a week ago after he made headlines for walking into a street sign on his way to lunch. During a show at the Adult Swim upfront in New York, West claimed he was the worst kind of “celebrity,” and requested the paparazzi stop “throwing me off of my focus.”

The parable of Yeezy’s journey

Yet for all the attention West shuns, he commands a notice of his own invention.

“Regardless of what you think about his music, there’s no denying he’s doing something that is going to demand attention,” notes Eric Alper, a publicist with eOne Music PR and CTV Music Correspondent. “There are so many backstories you can talk about with the new album. On Friday, he released the new single in 66 locations around the world by broadcasting the video on the sides of buildings and landmarks. You can look at it, and say, ‘Wow there’s 66, that’s pretty amazing.’ But you can think about the 66 books of the Bible. There are a couple of tracks: one track is 3:02, and there’s another track that’s 3:01. Those could be passages from the Bible or just track-listings. The very fact people are talking about it as if there are hidden meanings and messages is something that not a lot of albums that are released get to have.”

Alper adds, “Even when David Bowie released his song out of nowhere on his birthday, there was no mystery behind it. The only mystery was, is there going to be more? Is he going to be touring? But that was more personal. With Kanye, because he’s smarter than most out there, there’s always going to be thinking behind it, and there’s always going to be such in-your-face marketing.”

While in scripture passage Jesus Christ rose after three days of mourning, Yeezus makes his resurrection following three years of evolution. His new tracks, including a song titled “Black Skinheads,” explore the dim shadow of humanity and hit a note perhaps more somber than some of the star’s previous work. Those who’ve accused West of associating with the devil-worshipping Illuminati society have already begun to make correlations to his recent activities.

On the other hand, West’s new music also suggests he’s attempting to bridge the gap between his younger, lesser known and struggling self, and his matured, all powerful, omnipresent being. Yeezus has indeed risen, and now he testifies to a distinctive sphere of entrapment controlled by consumerism, racism, and the politics of success.

New Babylon: West’s bleak sentiment may be hard for fans to digest

Will Yeezus prove darker than West’s twisted fantasy? The world will soon decide.

“He’s been around long enough that you’re going to appreciate who he is, and what he’s done,” Alper believes. “In 2006, when Kanye West posed as Jesus on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, that rubbed people the wrong way. If you took his words though, he never believes that he’s Jesus, but he does believe that he’s a little bit of a martyr for the people that might have come before him in black music, and in music in general.”

Like any good leader, West also challenge his apostles to interpret his lyrical sermons.

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/21/kanye-west-version-6-0-will-the-self-proclaimed-yeezus-alienate-fans-with-marketing-blitz/

Donald Trump attends ‘All Star Celebrity Apprentice’ Red Carpet Event at Trump Tower on May 16, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)

CHICAGO (AP) — An 87-year-old woman who alleges Donald Trump cheated her in a bait-and-switch scheme has told jurors she had qualms about suing the developer-turned-TV star given his power and influence.

But during testimony Monday, when she was asked why she nonetheless took Trump to court, Jacqueline Goldberg replied firmly that “Somebody had to stand up to him.”

Goldberg says “The Apprentice” star enticed her into buying two condos at Chicago’s Trump International Hotel Tower with an offer to share profits of the entire building.

But she told jurors at the civil trial in Chicago that she felt “conned” when Trump withdrew the profit-sharing plan after she bought the condos.

Testifying last week, Trump denied the allegations. He also told reporters that Goldberg was in fact trying to rip him off.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/20/woman-on-trump-somebody-had-to-stand-up-to-him/

Alia Jones-Harvey (Photo: Lisa Pacino)

Stephen Byrd on the set of ‘A Street Car Named Desire.’ (Photo: Lisa Pacino)

Stephen Byrd on the set of ‘A Street Car Named Desire.’ (Photo: Lisa Pacino)

Alia Jones-Harvey on the set of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ (Photo: Lisa Pacino)

Alia Jones-Harvey and Stephen Byrd. (Photo: Lisa Pacino)

Alia Jones-Harvey on the set of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ (Photo: Lisa Pacino)

Alia Jones-Harvey (Photo: Lisa Pacino)

Alia Jones-Harvey and Stephen Byrd receive the Olivier Award, Britain’s Tony. (Photo: Alia Jones Harvey)

Alia Jones-Harvey and Stephen Byrd receive the Olivier Award, Britain’s Tony. (Photo: Alia Jones Harvey)

Alia Jones-Harvey (Photo: Lisa Pacino)

Alia Jones-Harvey is a talented, young African-American woman who has produced some of the hottest plays on Broadway in recent and current seasons. While I look forward to a day when these particular details won’t warrant any special attention, we’re not there yet.

Jones-Harvey is part of a small handful of black producers and is the only woman of color currently working as a leading producer on Broadway. This is a major deal — as are many of the productions which have come to life through her creative acumen.

Jones-Harvey’s critical and commercial hit: The Trip to Bountiful

Currently, Jones-Harvey and her partner Stephen C. Byrd are helming their well-received revival of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, produced through their company, Front Row Productions, in partnership with Foxboro, Inc. This production has garnered Tony nominations for actresses Cicely Tyson and Condola Rashad (daughter of Phylicia Rashad), in addition to nominations for Best Sound Design of a Play, and Best Revival of a Play.

These nominations are especially significant for two reasons; for Cicely Tyson, one of our grande dames of stage and screen, this is her first Tony Award nomination, after many decades in show business, and a three-decade hiatus from the Great White Way. And, after critics have observed the lackluster recognition black productions have received from the Broadway community in recent years, these nominations for successful shows is especially welcome.

For Front Row Productions, it’s been quite a run! To borrow a line from another Broadway favorite, the musical Gypsy, it would seem that everything is coming up roses for Jones-Harvey. How did she get her start?

Going from the business world to Broadway

“It’s an interesting conversation about the angels that show up in your life and present themselves in different ways,” Jones-Harvey, who has a dual degree from Spelman and Georgia Tech, and an MBA from New York University, told theGrio. “I studied entertainment in business school and took several courses on the economics of entertainment, entertainment law, creating treatments, and so many other aspects of the industry.”

Although she has always had a love for the arts, she never saw the entertainment business as a career possibility. Jones-Harvey was discouraged by what was happening in the music industry when she got out of business school, and she had no interest in moving to Los Angeles to work in movies. At first did being a Broadway producer did not seem like an option.

“In my mind I wasn’t someone with substantial wealth to lean on, so I couldn’t see myself in that type of role,” said the Largo, Maryland native.

When she moved to New York for business school, a friend introduced her to Stephen C. Byrd (who also came from a business and finance background), as someone who could help her make the transition from consumer products to financial services. “I was at Proctor and Gamble in Cincinnati for many years before deciding to go back to school, and so when I moved to New York that was my goal, to go into finance.”

The makings of the all-black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

In 1995, Byrd told her about his aspirations of trying to put up a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, and James Earl Jones. “That didn’t happen for many reasons, but he kept the passion.”

Fast forward to 2006 — Byrd approached Jones-Harvey about working with him this time to bring the play to life.

She took a chance and said yes.

“It took two years to get Cat up: Learning the business, pulling the cast together, getting a theater, and of course securing investors, and the right company for the show.” When it all came together, the all-black cast version of Tennessee Williams’ classic, directed by Debbie Allen, and starring Terrence Howard, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose and James Earl Jones was one of the most successful Broadway plays of 2008.

After making a huge mark by generating over $700,000 in ticket sales, the production then headed to London, where it scored an Olivier Award, London’s equivalent of a Tony.

Next: The super-success of A Streetcar Named Desire

The company then pulled off a successful 16-week run of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, in which Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker sizzled in the first all-black cast to portray the iconic characters of this play on Broadway.

Being a Broadway producer is not for the faint of heart. In addition to raising a budget that’s anywhere between $2.5 and $4 million for a play (and “into the stratosphere for musicals, $6 or 7 million — and up to Spiderman budgets!” laughed Jones-Harvey), the other challenges are significant.

“You have to be able to balance both the creative and business sides, and being able to put together a commercially appealing show as well as high quality one,” she further explained. “Then you have to deal with all the different elements of the show: A director who has a certain vision that they are trying to fulfill, while you are trying to ensure that it can fit inside of your budget, the real budget, and convince investors that they have viable opportunity. And then you have to attract talent. One of the challenges is the pool of talent when we do a show with just African-American leads; the list of actors who have commercial draw and stage chops, plus the time and willingness to do a show, is not extensive.”

Convincing Broadway investors to go “all-black”

What types of obstacles did she and Byrd face when they presented the concept of an all-black cast to investors? “We heard things like, ‘oh these are gimmicks,’ or ‘is there an audience for this, and will people support this?’ But with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof we kind of dispelled that. It was the biggest grossing play in that season — we did better than several musicals — so we proved that there is an audience for it and an interest. In the beginning it skewed; initially it was more African-American than it was after the reviews, which was interesting. I feel like that spell has been broken because our current production, The Trip to Bountiful has had an extremely diverse audience from day one. Audiences are looking beyond a gimmick to great casting.”

And the larger drama community is recognizing Front Row’s achievements as well. “We are excited that Cicely is being recognized by the Drama desk, the Drama League, the Outer Critics Circle, and the Tony’s; it speaks to great casting and delivery,” James-Harvey said of her role in The Trip to Bountiful. “It doesn’t matter what color she is, she is excellent.”

James-Harvey is pleased to be bringing in a new audience for Broadway. “It has to do with people wanting to see themselves on stage and wanting to identify with the stars who are being cast in those roles. We cater to the traditional theatergoer in a certain sense because the titles we have chosen are classic works with strong themes that we all relate to, across different cultures. The casting is all about drawing in new generations, new audiences, who want to see their favorites; or people who are new to theater.”

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/20/bright-light-on-broadway-trailblazing-producer-alia-jones-harvey-is-shaking-up-the-great-white-way/

View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

NBC Philadelphia - A Vietnam War veteran, confined to a wheelchair, was attacked by a group of armed masked men inside his home overnight and he is blaming himself for the incident.

“I thought nothing like that would happen,” said Larnell “Larry” Brown.

Brown wasn’t at fault. He was just thinking a neighbor was coming to check up on him when the men burst into the Marine Corps. vet’s town home on the 9400 block of Ashton Road in Northeast Philadelphia around midnight.

Brown, a 58-year-old vet who receives daily nursing care plus help from neighbors, opened the door – which has a “US Marines” sticker on it – thinking it was a neighbor who had helped him earlier. Instead, a group of masked men burst in and began to attack Brown in his bed.

“When he buzzed the person, it was five to six males who rushed him, punched him, struck him in the face several times, made him lie on his stomach and put a gun to his head,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.

Brown was treated for cuts and bruises. He told NBC10 that he blamed himself for allowing in the men.

The group of men took a television, money, medications and some jewelry before darting out of the home, according to police.

Police said it was unclear if the men fled on foot or if they had a getaway vehicle.

Brown said he thinks the men knew he was home alone.

Click here to read more.

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/20/cops-men-burst-in-beat-up-disable-veteran-in-philly/

This video is no longer available.

Spoke with Thomas Roberts about President Obama’s commencement speech at Morehouse College.

Interestingly enough, both the president’s detractors and his supporters will seize on the same soundbite from his address to the 2013 graduating class at Morehouse College.

In the speech, he basically makes two requests of the Morehouse graduating seniors – 1) In the Morehouse tradition, continue to expect more of yourself and 2) “inspire those who look up to you to expect more of themselves.”

Fair enough.  The soundbite that supporters and detractors of Obama have and will zero in on is: “We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. Growing up, I made a few myself. And I have to confess, sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down.”

I am fairly convinced now that President Obama can not speak to an all or mostly black audience without generating some variation of diametrically opposed reactions.

Excuses, excuses…

Some have said that this is Obama appeasing his (not present) white audience by once again chastising black men for not being boot-strappy enough; others will say that he is too willing to excuse structural and institutional racism and inequality even as he claims that “we’ve got no time for excuses.”

Supporters will claim that this is one of the most personal speeches that the president has ever given and they will laud his truth-telling and willingness to state the tough-love realities for black men.

I suspect the 2013 graduates of Morehouse College were mostly happy to have the POTUS as their commencement speaker – even if some of them align themselves with his critics.

The president’s recitation of “excuses” seems to resonate beyond this particular speech and may be more aptly indicative of how some of Obama’s critics (on the left) now see his presidency – emptied of its promise and too often excused by black folks and many in the media for under-performing on politics and policy issues dear to progressives. As a part of his rhetorical strategy to situate himself as an insider (with respect to the Morehouse community), President Obama recited the following:

“Excuses are tools of the incompetent, used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.”

There are multiple variations of this “creed” that has become a staple in membership processes for many black fraternities and sororities, but Obama’s recitation of it was not levied at his audience in order to haze or chastise them.

He was in fact making the point that he (himself) had relied upon the excuse that “the world [tries] to keep a black man down,” and he was marking this occasion as one where his fellow Morehouse men had learned this lesson about the pitfalls of making excuses in life.

The overlooked language

We won’t hear this much in the reporting on the speech, but the president also acknowledges the facts that “the bitter legacies of slavery and segregation” still exist and that “racism and discrimination” is “still out there.”

We know these truths to be self-evident, but for many, these mentions do not amount to the kind of critical discourse required to unpack the challenges that Morehouse men have and will continue to face.

Maybe a commencement address is not the best place to hash out political inadequacies or the nuances of intra-racial relations between and amongst black folk and the first black president.

And to be fair, the president’s speech spends plenty of time (and words) commemorating the glorious tradition of Morehouse College graduates.  But more and more black folk are growing weary of the excuses made by and for this administration in the face of diminished resources, high unemployment, and limited access to economic opportunity in the black community.

Whether you love them or hate them, Mr. and Mrs. Obama’s speeches at HBCU’s this year certainly suggest that a longer, more sustained dialogue between the Obamas and black America is a few years overdue.

James Braxton Peterson is the Director of Africana Studies and Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University. He is also the founder of Hip Hop Scholars LLC, an association of hip-hop generation scholars dedicated to researching and developing the cultural and educational potential of hip-hop, urban and youth cultures. You can follow him on Twitter @DrJamesPeterson

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/20/why-theres-no-excuse-for-simplifying-obamas-message-to-morehouse-men/

NEW YORK (AP) — The federal civil rights challenge to the contentious New York Police Department tactic of stop, question and frisk is winding down after more than nine weeks of testimony from men who say they were wrongly stopped because of their race and police officials who believe the nation’s largest force operates with integrity.

City attorney Heidi Grossman said during summations Monday that there is “no indication of racial motivation whatsoever” in the practice.

U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin must eventually examine more than 7,000 pages of trial record and may order major changes to the policy, reforms that could have a nationwide impact on how police departments operate.

More than 5 million stops have been made in New York in the past decade, mostly of black and Hispanic men. Police must have reasonable suspicion to stop someone, a standard lower than probable cause needed to justify an arrest. Only about 10 percent result in arrests.

About a dozen black and Hispanic men told the judge of disturbing and uncomfortable encounters with police that left them feeling confused, angry and scared. One witness, 24-year-old Nicholas Peart from Harlem, wept on the stand as he described how he was handcuffed and put into the back of a squad car. A teenager told how he was stopped walking down the street. In each instance, the witnesses said they could find no basis for the stops other than they were minorities. But many of the officers who did the stopping also explained their legal reasoning.

Lawyers for the men who sued police say officers are making illegal stops in part because they felt pressure from superiors instituting illegal quotas. Some officers testified said they were punished for not making enough stops and were harassed by fellow officers upset they had blown the whistle. Yet others said no quotas existed and they never felt pressure to make a stop.

The trial has provided a rare window into the NYPD, with about a dozen officials testifying on how they do their jobs. Officers are told to stop the “the right people, at the right time in the right location,” a phrase first heard in the early days of the case on a secret recording made by one whistleblower officer during a heated exchange over his performance evaluation. Since then, it has been repeated by nearly every official who testified.

“It’s a tool that needs to be used properly, and as borough commanders you should have adequate checks and balances in place, and you should be looking at them with your staff,” said Deputy Chief James Hall, who is in charge of patrol. “There is a focus on when it is used … right time, right location, you know, right individual.”

Police have said the phrase means the location where crimes have been occurring, at the time they have been occurring, and an individual who matches the description of a crime suspect, or someone who appears about to commit a crime. Lawyers for the men who have sued say, though, that the phrase is code for targeting blacks and Hispanics in poor neighborhoods.

Plaintiffs say a court monitor must be appointed to facilitate changes in training, supervision and the documentation of street stops. An expert for the city testified that the department has already enough checks and balances already in place.

The tactic has become a city flashpoint, with the mayor and police commissioner defending it is a necessary crime-fighting tool, and other city lawmakers calling for major change.

Article source: http://thegrio.com/2013/05/20/nyc-no-racial-motivation-in-stop-frisk-tactic/