Connect with us

Lifestyle

Celebrating Black Film and Excellence on Martha’s Vineyard

Published

on


22and The annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF) kicked off on August 2 with nine days of programming, screenings, panels and parties featuring black filmmakers, actors and producers. The backdrop for the festivities was Martha’s Vineyard, a picturesque Massachusetts island within the Atlantic Ocean just south of Cape Cod, with its lighthouses, sandy beaches and farmland.

Each yr, the festival brings together vibrant celebrations of culture and community that shine a light-weight on successful Black professionals, creators, and trailblazers. This yr, MVAAFF screened roughly 70 shorts, feature movies, television series, and documentaries. Founded in 2002 by Run & Shoot Filmworks principals Floyd and Stephanie Rance to amplify Black voices, storytelling, and culture, it’s now an annual film festival that qualifies for the Academy Award for Best Short Film.

In addition to attending screenings, panels and social events, festival attendees soaked up the great thing about the Vineyard, an enthralling New England colony that has been a summer escape for black vacationers and luminaries for generations. In the twentieth century, when racial segregation prevented black Americans from accessing beaches, pools and resorts, they flocked to the island town of Oak Bluffs, a destination for black families in addition to distinguished leaders and artists, including Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Massachusetts Senator Edward W. Brooke and Maya Angelou. Today, the small island is a haven for black Hollywood and celebrities like Jennifer Hudson, Spike Lee and the Obamas.

Below we present crucial events and program points that took place as a part of MVAAFF.

Hyatt on the Vineyard World

Hyatt Tyronne Stoudemire

Source: Tyronne Stoudemire, senior vice chairman of worldwide diversity, equity and inclusion for Hyatt Hotels Corporation, speaks at Hyatt’s Bar Noir event on the Martha’s Vineyard Museum (Photo: Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

On August 8, World of Hyatt hosted Bar Noir, a night of cocktails, conversations, and community constructing on the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Vineyard Haven. During the event, Tyronne Stoudemire, senior vice chairman of worldwide diversity, equity, and inclusion at Hyatt Hotels Corporation, spoke concerning the hospitality brand’s commitment to promoting and supporting Black entrepreneurship.

“Many organizations have responded or responded to the death and murder of George Floyd,” said Stoudemire, a recognized global DEI thought leader. “We responded with a program called Change Starts Here.” Launched in 2020, Stoudemire’s initiative addressed the initiative’s efforts to deal with systemic racism in three key areas: who they hire, develop, and advance; the communities they support; and who they buy from and partner with. In addition to job opportunities, this system also opens doors to further executive advancement, community development, and supplier diversity. It has also donated $1 million over three years to 6 community organizations situated in Chicago, Atlanta, and Minneapolis.

“It’s not just about money, it’s about care. It’s not just about care, it’s about helping people grow (and) invest in businesses,” he added.

MVAAF

Source: Attendees on the World of Hyatt Bar Noir event on the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. (Photo: Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Black Excellence Brunch

Martha's Vineyard

Source: From left: Janelle Stephens, founder Camille Rose, actress Sanaa Lathan and Trell Thomas, founding father of The Black Excellence Brunch

More than 200 guests wearing white gathered for The Black Excellence Brunch, held at Aria, an out of doors event in Edgartown, on Aug. 9. The invitation-only event honored actress and director Sanaa Lathan for her contributions to Hollywood over the past 20 years. During a live fireside chat with Trell Thomas, founding father of The Black Excellence Brunch, the 52-year-old star opened up about her family’s history of addiction and her journey to sobriety.

“I quit drinking six years ago,” Lathan said. “Addiction runs in my family. That’s what I did, and it was crazy because I found all these generations of alcoholics who had literally died.”

The star also spoke concerning the impact alcohol had on her life. “It was affecting my health. The people I allowed around me were not okay. And so I decided that this was something that ran in my family. I had to nip it in the bud.”

Instead of joining Alcoholics Anonymous, Lathan says she quit drinking on her own shortly before the pandemic. She then directed and co-wrote in 2022 on the Paramount+ channel, where she played a former mother and a girl recovering from addiction.

Black Excellence Brunch

Source: From left: Nick Arrington, Trell Thomas and Alex Tyree

Sponsored by Camille Rose and featuring special beverages provided by Ciroc, the brunch also featured notable guests including director Will Packer, star Uzo Aduba, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Win With Black Women founder Jotaka Eddy, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Bravo forged members Alex Tyree and Nick Arrington.

“The Black Excellence Brunch was beautiful,” Arrington said, comparing the event to the colourful sense of community felt at an HBCU homecoming or a black family reunion. “It was beautiful, and everyone looked good,” he continued. “I think the best way to describe Trell’s brunches is that it’s a celebration. It’s a celebration of us.”

Black Excellence Brunch

Source: Attendees on the Black Excellence Brunch on Martha’s Vineyard (Photo courtesy of Black Excellence Brunch)

Thomas said he created the event series, which he founded in 2017, to foster community and connection while honoring the legacy of black excellence. The series reimagines the Sunday dinners he had together with his family growing up in South Carolina. What began as an area gathering at Thomas’ house has evolved into a worldwide celebration of underappreciated cultural figures from New York to New Orleans, South Africa and Ghana.

“Martha’s Vineyard is no stranger to amazing Black people, and it was amazing to be a part of the celebration of Black Excellence with our first-ever Black Excellence Brunch on the Vineyard,” Thomas, a veteran media expert, said in an announcement to BLACK ENTREPRENEURSHIP“It was a true honor to present flowers to so many wonderful people and celebrate a cultural icon like Sanaa Lathan.”

Director’s Brunch

Martha's Vineyard

Source: Director’s Brunch on Martha’s Vineyard (Photo: Black Enterprise/Selena Hill)

On Saturday, August 10, MVAAFF, Comcast NBC Universal, and Black Experience on Xfinity joined forces to present “The Director’s Brunch” celebrating storytellers of color. Held at Aria, the reception featured a buffet brunch, a live DJ, and a panel discussion with MSNBC President Rashida Jones, award-winning filmmaker B. Monét, director Gia-Rayne Harris, Robert Baltazar, VP of DEI programming at NBCU Launch, and moderator Loren Hudson, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer at Comcast Cable. The panel explored the challenges Black filmmakers face in breaking through within the industry.

“I think the path of a director, especially if you want to be one, is not easy,” Monet said. It’s not like, ‘You go to film school and you are just going to make it. You know? I mean, the foundations are different for us, unfortunately,'” she said.

Rather than follow a linear path, Monet encouraged young filmmakers to try alternative methods of breaking into the industry, similar to producing short movies and observing other producers and artists.

Fight Night

Fight Night

Source: From left: Tiffany Cross, Will Packer, Shaye Ogbonna, Taraji P. Henson, Chloe Bailey, Don Cheadle at MVAAFF (Photo: Arnold Turner/Peacock)

MVAAFF concluded with a grand event that included a special screening, a star-studded panel, and an afterparty celebrating the premiere of the limited series Peacock on closing night.

The evening began with live music from DJ Trauma before festival founders Stephanie and Floyd Rance introduced acclaimed filmmaker and series executive producer Will Packer, who took part in a one-on-one fireside chat with journalist Danielle Cadet on Roc Nation’s iconic gold Lenny Santiago couch.

“There were a lot of interesting people sitting on that couch talking. This is the kind of cultural thing that is for us (and) that we can do at a film festival on Martha’s Vineyard (and not) anywhere else,” Packer told the sold-out audience.

Will Packer be

Source: Danielle Cadet and Will Packer at MVAAFF (Photo: Arnold Turner/Peacock)

The series, which premieres September 5 on Peacock, tells the story of the audacious armed robbery that took place in Atlanta on the night of Muhammad Ali’s famous 1970 return to the ring. Based on the acclaimed iHeart crime podcast, it tells the story of how the infamous holdup ultimately transformed Atlanta into the “Black Mecca.”

The story centers on a street hustler named Chicken Man (played by comedy star and actor Kevin Hart) who throws an afterparty to have fun a fight with a guest list of the country’s richest and most notorious gangsters. However, the night ends in probably the most brazen heist in Atlanta’s history. Suspected of masterminding the crime, Chicken Man is set to clear his name, but must persuade his old nemesis, J.D. Hudson (played by Don Cheadle), certainly one of the primary black detectives in town’s desegregated police force, to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Fight Night

Source: L-R: Taraji P. Henson, Chloe Bailey, Don Cheadle at MVAAFF on August 10, 2024 (Photo: Arnold Turner/Peacock)

Following the screening, Packer returned to the stage with showrunner, creator and executive producer Shaye Ogbonna and forged members Taraji P. Henson, Don Cheadle and Chloe Bailey for a discussion moderated by journalist Tiffany Cross.

“I’ve always loved and admired working with Will, and for this opportunity to come together was really, really cool,” Bailey said. “I’m an Atlanta native and I’d never heard of this heist story. And then to hear that I got to work with Taraji, Don, Samuel (Jackson) and the most incredible actors in the game, it meant the world to me.”

MVAAF

Source: Guests at Peacock’s Closing Night Party at The Loft at Oaks Bluffs during MVAAFF (Photo: Arnold Turner/Peacock)

To cap off the evening, Peacock hosted the festival’s Closing Night Party at The Loft in Oaks Bluffs. The ’70s-themed bash was decorated with roses, disco balls and plush red carpets. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, songwriter Ledisi, actor Glynn Turman, MSNBC President Rashida Jones and Destiny’s Child singer LeToya Luckett were in attendance.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Lifestyle

Houston’s Trills On Wheels Expands With Brunch Tour

Published

on

By

Houston, Trill on wheels, hip hop


A well-liked interactive Houston attraction that continues to attract visitors and showcase the town’s wealthy history and black business scene has expanded its offerings.

Trill On Wheels is a national prime minister a hip-hop bike experience that celebrates Houston culture and contributions to hip-hop. Launched in 2021, the party bike offers a two-hour cruise around Houston with stops at various black-owned businesses while guests enjoy cocktails and shisha.

Designed to rejoice the Houston lifestyle, each bike is designed to spotlight the town’s automobile culture with a “Candy Paint” mural featuring hip-hop heroes and the neighborhoods they represent. The bikes also feature Swang’s rims wrapped in trendy tires and Houston’s signature bass pumping out of the speakers.

The exuberant experience has made Trill On Wheels a tourist attraction that visitors put at the highest of their lists. Now, the brand new EADO Hip-Hop Brunch Tour offers guests a fun-filled approach to experience popular brunch stops in Houston.

Trill On Wheels is currently based in Houston’s historic Third Ward neighborhood, EADO, and plans to expand to the Fourth Ward. The tour experience combines the talent of Houston-born artists with a splash of sunshine fitness. Featuring Beatking, Slim Thug, and Lil Keke.

What began as a single bike delivered in a shipping container to the resort “is a testament to our team’s commitment to meeting high expectations and delivering a world-class experience to our riders,” he said. business stated on its website.

“Team Trill” is run by a married couple with two babies.

“As true fans of hip-hop culture, hosting epic game nights and being ‘out there,’ we wanted to create an experience that we could enjoy ourselves and one day pass on to our son,” the couple said. “After a year of prayer, research and pure, unfiltered hustle, Trill On Wheels was born and we couldn’t be more proud!”

Trill On Wheels has served over 30,000 tourists who’ve donated over $700,000 to local black-owned businesses, helping to spice up Houston’s economy. Be sure to examine out Trill On Wheels in your next visit to Houston, and don’t forget to bring your personal booze!


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
Continue Reading

Lifestyle

Fear of sitting in crowded, black spaces

Published

on

By

There are two types of black people in the world: 1.) those that can walk right into a church on Easter Sunday, “sit” the highest five seats, and take a look at the ushers to just accept that those seats are taken; or 2.) me.

I’m the kind of person, and I represent the kind of black people, who hate being asked to sit down anywhere. I almost never feel anxious in public and I’m rarely nervous or concerned about who’s around me. But after I am in a public place and someone who just isn’t there and is not going to be there for some time asks me to sit down, I get anxious. I sweat. I stress. I fade quickly after which hand over. I don’t like to sit down for other people and I don’t ask people to sit down for me. I don’t prefer to put my burdens on the riverbank of the one who was on time.

But unfortunately, in the black community, “holding seats” is a thing—a sport, even. I’ve seen (and I mean this with dead seriousness; “without a hat,” as the children would say) an elderly black woman tell an usher in church that she was holding seats, and get mad on the ushers who suggested she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t consider they thought she couldn’t hold a row of seats, and so they couldn’t consider she couldn’t consider she couldn’t do it. Oh, what a tangled web we weave. My wife is one of those individuals who will hold all of the requested seats and risk a public demonstration of “Who’s going to break first, loudly?” over said seats. She’ll even be very mad at me after I can’t do it. Marriage, right?

If I’ll, I would really like to share with you all a recent experience I had attempting to get a seat that not only threw me out of the constructing, but threw me into an overcrowded room where I could now not see anything on account of the stress of attempting to get a seat for somebody. Also, as you may see, I failed this task with flying colours.

Just a few weeks ago, a famous friend of mine was giving a speak about books at a famous Washington landmark. I had been to that bookstore before—persistently—and had attended many of that friend’s talks. A math problem was about to pop into my head; there was absolutely no way that store could accommodate the number of individuals who would show up for that talk. Spoiler alert: I used to be right.

Lifestyle

Since I consider myself a forward-thinking person, I anticipated this math problem and got to the shop early enough to get a seat, but late enough to get one of, for example, three remaining seats. Many people should have been pondering the identical thing I used to be occupied with math, not math, given the space constraints of the shop. Anyway, I went in and sat down on a stool, then watched the parade of people, mostly black, who got here in after me, attempting to determine where to sit down. As an increasing number of people, especially older blacks, entered, I prepared to present up my seat and use my younger legs to face for your entire show.

And then I got a text from a friend asking me to avoid wasting a spot for her. Now that friend cannot stand for long, I had to avoid wasting her a spot (which I used to be already willing to present up) or we’d have to depart together; that wasn’t an option; we were there to see our friend be amazing and do her own thing.

But here’s the issue: My friend who asked for a seat was a minimum of quarter-hour away, and the stream of people coming in was growing. On top of that, my seat was in the aisle where people were coming in, which meant that everybody, including women who looked like my grandmother, could see that I used to be NOT giving up my seat. I looked like a young kid on a subway automotive not giving up her seat to seniors or pregnant women. The thing is, I knew why I wasn’t getting up, but they didn’t, and I couldn’t look my grandmother in the face and say, “Hey, I would give up my seat for you, but I would save it for a woman younger than you but older than me who potentially has a leg problem and wouldn’t care if you didn’t get it.” No one asked, they simply watched.

I used to be sweating an increasing number of with every passing minute and an increasing number of people were observing me. I do not know if that truly happened or not but that is the way it felt and I felt uncomfortable and judged. I used to be texting my mate with my ETA and he kept saying “I’ll be there in 5 minutes” for over 5 minutes. I let her know I didn’t think I could sit any longer because I used to be beginning to seem like I hadn’t been raised properly.

Then the book event organizer took the microphone and identified that there have been issues with the seating and that those of us who could should hand over our seats to those that were older than us or might need to sit down down, and I felt like she was talking on to me when she said that. She mentioned the overflow situation outside on the back patio instead for all of us who either needed a seat or had to present up our seats. At this point, my stress and anxiety were at their peak; my heart was beating fast and my palms were sweaty. I could not take it anymore. I stood up from my seat and without anyone, said, “The seat is free,” and quickly ran to the overflow spot while texting my friend that I could not hold on to my seat any longer.

It’s been weeks since that night and I still remember how I felt attempting to keep the place going. I felt really uncomfortable and I knew my wife could be high quality. Oh, and concerning the overbooking situation – it was awful. The place had no idea what they were doing and arrange a projector TV during sunset so nobody could see what was happening. Cool idea, terrible execution, but a minimum of I wasn’t stressed anymore. I used to be briefly annoyed that the place hadn’t thought to order a bigger space for the lecture considering who that they had brought, but that is in the past now.

Now it’s OK; thanks for asking. But one thing is obviously, and two things are obviously: next time I’m going right into a place that I do know can be crowded, I’ll just skip the entire sitting thing and prepare to face in the front, back, or side. Sure, my back might hurt and my legs might ache, but a minimum of I won’t feel stressed or judged.

If you’ve gotten a friend who cannot hold seats, please don’t force them to. It’s an excessive amount of.

Thank you for coming to my talk in Panama.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
Continue Reading

Lifestyle

White woman calls 911 about her racist and uncompromising mother for shaving her 3-year-old mixed-race child’s hair without permission

Published

on

By

In a now-viral Reddit post, a woman shared why she called the police on her mother after she shaved her biracial daughter’s curly hair.

This fastingWritten on the r/AITAH forum by user OrneryExchange8001, it has since been faraway from the platform’s moderator list, but received over 17,000 votes after being posted on September 8.

A Reddit user wrote about her 3-year-old mixed-race daughter, Zoe.

Stock photo
A well-liked Reddit post describes a grandma pushing her limits. (Stock photo/Pexels)

“Zoe is biracial – I am white and my husband Tyler is black,” she said. he wrotein response to the New York Post. “Zoe has the most stunning curly hair, and I’ve always taken great care of it. She absolutely loves her curls, and we’ve made it a fun, bonding activity to style her hair together.”

Unlike Zoe’s parents, the little girl’s grandmother was not a fan of the 3-year-old’s hair and made disparaging comments about it, similar to, “It looks so wild,” “That’s just too much hair for a little girl,” and “Wouldn’t it be easier if it was straight?”

Zoe’s mother said she all the time ignored the comments as “harmless” until a childcare incident involving Zoe’s grandmother led to disaster.

Zoe’s mother said she left the 3-year-old girl in her mother’s care for a couple of hours a couple of weeks ago as a consequence of a piece emergency.

“When I arrived to pick up Zoe, I was horrified – Zoe’s beautiful curls were completely gone,” Zoe’s mother wrote. “My mum cut my daughter’s hair without my consent – ​​she did it halfway through.”

Zoe’s head was “shaved bald.” When her mother asked her grandmother what had happened, her grandmother “just shrugged and said, ‘I did her a favor. Now she looks neat and tidy. And her hair will grow back straight.'”

The child’s mother said she was “angry” and near tears, adding that she felt her mother had “violated my daughter’s self-esteem” and “did not respect my boundaries as a parent.”

The incident prompted Zoe’s mother to call police and report the hair cutting as an assault.

“They came and gave statements to both me and my mum and she was later brought in for questioning. Then my dad, who I have always loved and respected, called me and was furious,” Zoe’s mother wrote. “He said I had gone too far, that my mum was just trying to help and that calling the police was a huge overreaction.”

Thousands of Reddit users sided with the child’s mother, expressing similar contempt and disgust on the grandmother’s behavior, noting the racist connotations surrounding the incident.

“This is terrifying,” one other commenter added. “There is a long, racist history against black women wearing their hair natural, I can’t help but feel like this is somehow stemming from that. Not to mention her ignorance that her hair will ‘grow back straight.’”

“NTA your mom attacked your child because he’s black. That’s a hate crime,” one person added.

“Her comments and inflicting physical harm on a minor are more reminiscent of a hate crime than a haircut,” one other comment echoed.

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement

OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Us To Receive Our Latest News Directly In Your Inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Trending