Entertainment
Malcolm Washington and the cast of “The Piano Lesson” about family and the creation of historic black cinema – Essence

(Photo: Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Netflix)
Filmmaker Malcolm Washington and the cast of the Netflix series – Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler and John David Washington – discuss the importance of family, healing together and letting go of generational fears.
August Wilson’s historic film adaptation of Washington, D.C. has turn into a family-friendly cinematic endeavor. A theatrical release on November 8 and on Netflix on November 22 signifies that filmmaking is outwardly an inherent gene in the Washington family’s DNA. Denzel Washington, two-time Oscar winner and Malcolm’s father, produced the film and starred his other son, John David. “My mom is a pianist,” says first-time director Malcolm Washington. “She couldn’t play the piano for a long time. She had a strange relationship with the piano and that became very powerful in the story.”
In 1990, Wilson’s play won the Pulitzer Prize for its dramatized narrative presenting a realistically complex portrait of family life for Black Americans in Mississippi and Pittsburgh from 1911 to 1936 during the Jim Crow era. The successful 2022 Broadway version of Wilson’s work starred Jackson as “Doaker” and John David as “Boy Willie.”
“He was so generous” – John David talks about working with Jackson, who played many of the roles of August Wilson. “He has 40 years of experience with this text alone.”

Jackson’s repertoire of characters in cinema tends to convey a palpable sense of armed masculinity and toughness. Doaker could be very much the latter, which adds depth to Jackson’s varied game. From taking over the role of “Boy Willie” at Yale Theater School in 1987 to playing the quiet “Doaker” on Broadway in 2022, Jackson’s return gave him an entire recent perspective on these harrowing characters. “When you adapt, you have to lose a lot of things because you’re going beyond the original material and expanding the scope of the script itself,” Jackson states. “People and places will come together, and Willie is the engine that drives this story, while Doaker is the unwavering spirit.”
Next to him, Jackson was the headstrong Deadwyler, who took on the role of consciously protective mother and daughter, Berniece. Her character makes it her life’s work to take care of the most precious family heirloom, the piano that stood of their front room day by day. This piano was stolen from the Charles family by their ancestors’ slave owners, the Sutters. The instrument is a manifested vessel of blood, cultural and generational heritage, and knowledge that has outlined a family’s lineage; despite living in times that attempted to erase their each day existence. “When we were shooting the movie, my mom came on set and I saw her play the piano for the first time in years,” Washington recalled. “I haven’t heard this since I was young, it touched everyone and got everyone emotional.”
Black music and spirituality have been intertwined for hundreds of years, and Wilson’s raw play shows how collective trauma and the refusal to face fear can hinder a family’s healing. John David’s fiery portrayal of Willie shows that the pursuit of opportunity doesn’t all the time equate to true manhood and a fruitful legacy. His siblings’ conflicts with Berniece cause tension to mount in the family home, causing unexpected, terrifying ghosts to linger and resurface. “I think about stories and how important they are in keeping us connected across generations,” Deadwyler says, sitting next to John David. “I have a set of earrings from my grandmother and it speaks to how possessions can contribute to folklore in creating a family.”
When it involves collaborating with esteemed Black performers who’ve had illustrious careers on stage and screen, Deadwyler goes back to pure basics. “It’s an education,” Deadwyler describes his craft. “Art is a spiritual endeavor. It’s a political and personal endeavor, and doing it with serious people makes it all seem real. Filmmaking is meant to change who you are, and in turn, possibly change others, as well as create a rich conversation within the larger community.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, Malcolm Washington credits movies like these with giving him the artistic dimension to tackle his first film project. His directorial debut is all about sparking conversations and letting emotions run high. uses dialogue as a dynamic tool while moving the audience without clear directives or resolutions for the Charles family. It focuses on character relationships that leave audiences reeling – “the material found me when I needed it most, and I’m grateful it did,” Malcolm explains to me.
“Malcolm has a very clear vision,” says John David of witnessing his brother’s first directorial appearance. “He has always been a director I am a fan of. He was an artist I admire and someone I was ready to spread my wings with… and he took off.”
When adapting from stage to film, the creative collaboration of Malcolm and his family knew they’d to succinctly tackle confronting scenes related to grief, acceptance of loss and familial uncertainty. “My approach to the house, where most of the film was shot, was to chase dynamism,” Malcolm details his directing techniques. “I really wanted a camera that was moving, wandering and dynamic, speaking to the subtext of the scenes, able to communicate what was between the lines and sometimes working in opposition to the lines, something that would represent the subjective experience of the film and reach inside the characters.”
Although the dialogue Wilson had originally created was of great value to the filmmaking, Malcolm focused on allowing his multi-talented cast to take a relaxed approach to bring the organic performances to life. “I wanted the cast to find a rhythm that felt good for us as a whole, so we would break through the kind of stiffness that can sometimes come with a sacred work when we are so afraid.”
In this case, viewers can follow the events in the Charles family home as tensions rise when Berniece touches the piano keys. She and the piano are a tethered source and conduit for a lot of of her family’s invisible guardian angels – their ancestors. Earth, wind, fire and water are seasonal because despite the fact that family and community dynamics may change, nature will all the time remain, but the most significant thing is when everyone comes together.
When Willie’s dad shows him the land and notes that it’s the land that may take more,” Washington continues. “His father puts his hand on his back and I remember my dad doing the same thing and putting his giant hand on my little back.” This idyllic, easy scene is the quintessence of the essential story that Malcom creates, which goals to firmly root and ground Black people in the family despite confusion and troubles. The full gathering of the Charles family in the final minutes is conflict, climax and resolution – together they only archive their presence through memory. “I will never take for granted the love that goes into a project. Sacrifice required from everyone, from top to bottom,” Washington says.
Entertainment
Fans will never allow Russell’s ex -wife to forget about crushing QB because her NFL reaction becomes viral again

The first round of 2025 NFL Draft took place on April 24 and once again the annual event caused jokes about the previous wife of the most recent player New York Giants, Russell Wilson.
Wilson (36 years old) and Ashton Meem (37 years old) were beloved in highschool, who married a couple of months before his dreams of NFL in April 2012. But their divorce in 2014 lives within the history of NFL memes, and fans consistently jogged my memory of how she rummaged.
Like other girls or wife of aspiring NFL stars, Meem sat at Wilson’s side when he was elected by Seattle Seahawks within the third round of the NFL Draft 2012.

Film material from Wilson receiving the decision as 75. The general alternative in NFL Draft 2012 has turn out to be a viral meme-with too enthusiastic reaction of his partner, which still attracts mockery online.
Draft NFL 2025 has turn out to be a catalyst for the most recent comedy stab on the expense of Meem. AND Wilson celebration clip He was published within the threads along with his wife and other family members in Draft Night 2012.
“She thought she was called,” the poster of the thread signed a clip, referring to Meem, shouting the enjoyment that Wilson went to Seahawks, where he finally signed a contract for a debutant value $ 3 million.
Another person replied: “It will always be fun.” However, the third joked: “You won’t let it die.” While many individuals knew a 13-year video, others discovered it on Monday.
One thread user replied: “For the first time seeing the movie – interesting how his shoulder began to hug her and quickly removed it, as if he saw her too excited and had to think about it.”
“This is hilarious! I have never seen a real movie, I thought her face was in Photoshop,” she admitted one person in the applying. Another poster wondered: “Bro, why does her face look like this?”
Meem got a backup when one person expressed: “How these men treat their long -lasting girls when they are called, you have to examine.” When he enters … “the narrative is so real.”
A yr after the divorce, Wilson met his current wife, a singer R&B Ciara, whose name appeared several times within the thread for a joyful approach of Meem in 2012. One fan joked: “He (he is) on the phone with Ciara.”
“I don’t like to comment on people’s relationship, but he chose it. However, his chemistry with Ciara is incredibly noticeable,” said the user of the thread about Wilson on the platform.
Russell and Ciara met through a joint friend in 2015, which led to a dinner dating on the Ciara house. They vowed in July 2016, and Wilson became stepfather to the son of the singer “Goodies”, Future Zahir.
The amended Wilson’s family developed when Ciara gave birth to their daughter Sienna (born April 2017), their son of victory (born July 2020) and their daughter Amory (born on December 2023).
Their nine -year marriage is a meme alone because of social media users who often use the hashtag #ciaraprayer as a way to call spiritual help find a suitable and loving spouse.
In 2019, Ciara revealed a prayer that led her to Wilson after the fans went through their online relationship. Many years later, Summer Walker included “Ciara Prayer” on her album “Still Over It” from 2021, together with Cici’s narrative about the closing work of the project with her name.
With Ciara in his corner, Wilson signed a five -year extension of the agreement value $ 245 million with Denver Broncos after he was sold to a franchise with Seattle in March 2022.
After two seasons in Colorado, Wilson joined Pittsburgh Steelers within the 2024 season. In March 2025, the Richmond signed an annual agreement value $ 10.5 million from New York Giants.
Wilson won his only Super Bowl championship with Seahawks in February 2014, when he officially married his first wife. MEEM has maintained a low public profile since parting with a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.
The breakdown of Meema from Wilson after just two years led to rumors that she had betrayed him with her teammate Seahawks, a large recipient of Golden Tate. In 2015, Tate denied his involvement in an extramarital confusion.
“I didn’t have an affair with Wilson’s wife of Russell, and I had nothing to do with his divorce. It’s funny for anyone who knows us,” tate wrote In op-ed for the cauldron. “His ex -wife, Ashton, continues to be one of the best friends with my girlfriend.
In 2014, the PRO Bowl player added: “Russell and I were good friends when I was in Seattle, on the pitch and outside – he knows that the rumors about me were unfounded, harmful to my reputation and an attack on my character. Everyone who circled in this gossip was simply irresponsible.”
(Tagstotransate) ciara
Entertainment
“Abbott Elementary” Star William Stanford Davis in the finals of season 4 – Essence

Credit photo: GL Askew
After a long time of everlasting work, the roles of the characters and unwavering perseverance, they became the decisive chapter in the long-term profession of William Stanford Davis-I in no case is the latter. Known to the Millions as Mr. Johnson, delightfully the unusual and infinitely clever guardian from the most charming fictitious school in Philadelphia, Davis turned something that began as a repeated place with a repeatedly awarded, favorite fan.
“When you enter as a guest star, you visit someone’s house,” said Davis. “You don’t want to overturn the furniture.” But when the creator of the series Quint Brunson told him that there was a daily series, this guy became a family. “It’s an indescribable feeling because it’s all you worked on. But it was the most amazing thing to even hear these words out of her mouth – it changed my life.”
Now, three-time nominated for the NAACP Image Award-i winner of 2024, an impressive actor supporting in the comedy series-Davis finally receives the recognition that his talent has long justifies. In addition to awards, the most resonated by the emotional combination of Davis together with his character, together with the talented solid of the series. Mr. Johnson, together with his underground edges and sharp one lines, appeared as a secret weapon. “I love them all,” he talks about his stars. “You work on some sets in which you can’t wait to go home. In this I can’t wait to return.”
“I love them all in my own way,” said Davis about his stars. “Sometimes you work on some sets where you can’t wait to go home, but with []I can’t wait for the return, because it’s so much fun, so much love. “The undeniable fact that an actual bond outside the screen helped revive the series in a way that connects to the viewers. They develop into great moments.”
The performance of Mr. Johnson was greater than a groundbreaking role for the countryman St. Louis – it opened to a brand new creative territory. He appeared in the upcoming drama next to Wanda Sykes, adopting a more serious role that shows his range. While preparing for the character, Davis drew from his own experience, teaching acting, shaping a job that might increase his older profession anyway.
While his character in May enjoy bizarre antics and conspiracies, Davis’s approach to craft is rooted for intention and immunity. His path was long, full of moments of uncertainty and dedication. But when he devoted himself to the journey, there was no turning back. For him, acting will not be only a profession – it’s a calling that is decided so long as the road stretches forward.
“There is an old prince Ellington who says:” Rule primary doesn’t hand over. Rule number two never forgets Rule primary ” – explained the actor. “When I committed to this, there was no turning back.” Interestingly, he is his first regular role. He was 32 when he moved to Los Angeles to continue his full -time acting, and now, years later, he lives a dream he refused to give up. “That’s all I actually desired to do,” he says. “So I just decided that I’d proceed until I can do it – or ride it until the wheel falls.”
Season 4 was provided by one of his best programs to this point, pushing each character to a brand new breakthrough, while going to land in honest, hope. The final was related to long-term stories-a method in his dream role as a director, Barbara found a renovated goal, and Ava, despite her release, left with a way of grace. The solid went to Philadelphia to film the last episode of The Children’s Touch Me Museum, a bizarre and matching background for closing moments.
At the center of this cultural juggernaut is of course Brunson, whom Davis calls “boss”. He says: “He knows exactly what he wants – and he does it in such a loving way. Every detail on this screen is her vision.”
For Davis, being part of this vision changes life. But even now, with prizes and the famous role of his name – it is much from the end.
Entertainment
“Sinners” brought us home and refused to take the vampires to take it away from us – and

The current scene of Ryan Coogler’s director’s profession appears in the middle of the stage, which binds every generation of black people and our music in Stawna, an intercultural sequence of music that takes place in a single shot. The scene wherein Sami’s musical performance connects the diaspora in time and space, becomes a turning point of the film and crystallizes the major motif: Love Your Blackness and the house from which it comes, because there’ll at all times be someone who will accept your magic. At this point, it takes on a deeper meaning and one which confirms us and hugs us until the end lines.
In Jim Crow-Ero after World War II, Mississippi Delta is a vampire horror about the set of twins, Smoke and Stack (each played by Michael B. Jordan), who return home from the years of travel to war, Chicago and other unspoken parts of the world to open Jamoke. Friends, lovers and family gathered together to launch this place for the Great Night. Their younger cousin Samma (played by Miles Caton, making his unforgettable debut) is a musician they need to make every thing work. But his music is drawn to the Trio of Vampire who want his soul.
It is that this soul that makes it so beautiful.
When the twins travel through Clarksdale, collecting their community, they regain their love for the home to which they need to return. With every friend they find – Cornbread, Delta Slim – the twins have gotten more and more. But it is just not only the twins who turn out to be one in every of the house while traveling. They also fill the audience with a way of connection and belong to their ancestors Mississippi.
As a black boy from Jackson, Mississippi, just a few hours from Clarksdale, I discovered that each scene is sort of a siren to the place that made me. Every arrows of the Beautiful fields that jogged my memory of Delta’s riding to hear my father, the brightest sunrises, which collapse to the darkest stars, the way every character felt music of their bones-he struck me in a spot that made me. When Sammie wore this cotton bag at the starting of the film, I used to be beaten because I remembered that my grandfather, whom I never met, said that he was able to select 300 kilos of cotton a day, and the pride I feel each time I remember this feat.
I, without hyperboli, moved to the fringe of my seat and pointed to the screen when Chinese shops, family of Chow, appeared early, because I also felt at home. I used to be delighted with the relationship between Chinese culture and Mississippi a few years ago during the research of my book, about my father, movement for civil rights and mississippi. I used to be fascinated History of what ChinnBlack fighter about freedom with Chinese heritage. I learned about Chinese individuals who settled in the delta during reconstruction and worked on plantations before they opened grocery stores that served black individuals who couldn’t shop in white factories. Chinn was just before Jackson in a city called Canton, where the locals assured me that the name of the city had Chinese origin, even when historical documents couldn’t confirm it. So yes, the vortex, their southern accents and their mixed culture also seemed to be home.
Then there have been women. Deep southern, sensible, churches of ladies, equivalent to Pearline (Jayme Lawson), who loved their sensuality just as she loved their gentleness. Or Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), whose blood line is equally complicated and exposed to bigotry, which made her keep her heritage secret. But she was still a family, allowing her to accept black individuals with whom she grew up. And then there may be Annie, physical incarnation of the house. He represents a family house for West Africa and traditional diaspora religions. It is a cable for afterlife and recently converted vampires who wanted her to join them. And she is at home for smoke, whose body never forgot her, even when he was in Chicago, Mississippi from the North.
Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) can be a brand new home for movies equivalent to we simply don’t see the full, dark -skinned black women as love interests in movies, especially in movies wherein the Super -Business of Action, equivalent to Michael B. Jordan, is fully developed by her emotionally and physically. And yes, men love, want and search for sexually, please, black women also feel like a selected variety of home.
In general, Coogler spends the first half of the film, putting on a house and soul. Traditionally, we call it constructing the world. But that is different. It is throughout the world, showing us parts of our black present in Mississippi and restoring knowledge that we didn’t know that we had forgotten.
And as soon as we remember to love our black house, we knock on the door, threatening to take it all.

Which reaches this musical number. When Samma begins to sing on this pond Juke, he recalls ghosts from the past – drummers from West Africa, whose dance and drums were the basis of those blues. But he also recalls the spirits of the future – the turntable and DJ appear on the stage; The ballet dancer crosses the club; Duders from the west coast with rags appear under their fitted. The story of Black Art is collapsed on an extended, one arrow that led me to the fringe of tears.
The musical number ends with a metaphorically wardrobe joint in flames; The structure is unable to stop many infinite genius. But music also encourages Remmic, a vampire of Irish origin, who experienced his homeland peers and wants Samm’s musical gifts to reach them in the same way as Sammu called his ancestors during his performance.
The metaphor of face values is obvious: it is about colonization and cultural appropriation. Blood cannot take what’s yours unless you invite them. The terror of their infiltration is at all times right outside. They swear that they need “equality”, but they only want to steal our hearts, remove them and force assimilation. After all, there may be a reason why black people have recently transformed into vampires, suddenly Irish singing and dancing outside Yuke. There is definitely a musical conversation about who can define the species, who takes and who gives. If Kendrick Lamara’s “Not Like Us” is abstract, then the whole thesis about what happens after we are exhausted by bloody love, pouring into our art – and the meaning of keeping the bite signs away from our body.
But there’s something more dangerous in the presence of demons. Vampires don’t need only our music or our culture. They want our homes. They want to eliminate us so completely from our existence that we have now nothing; Even the memories of our souls will probably be dimmed. But Coogler again reminds us that our culture travels with us. You can burn Juke Staw or try to destroy any one that remembers what happened at night in the Mississippi delta, where the screams torn out at the clean sky. But it won’t work.
That is why a lot fantastic thing about the film took place in a special structure: cars. In these transport modes, Stack first hears how his cousin sings, and we see everlasting joy that appears on his face – a moment that returns at the end of the film. It was on this automobile that Stack created his own legends that traveled, including the fictitious history of origin for Sami’s guitar. In this automobile, Delta Slim turns its history of origin into blues music. And on this automobile Samma takes the guitar and finds freedom elsewhere.
However, nobody leaves Mississippi. As James Baldwin once wrote: “Perhaps the house is not a place, but simply an irrevocable state.” Samma didn’t take the guitar and left Mississippi. He got into the automobile and took Mississippi with him. This is commonly an undesirable a part of great migration; Black people didn’t leave Mississippi to find life in other parts of the country. They took Mississippi with them to the remainder of the country, so once I lived in Chicago, I met dozens of people that had Kinfolk near my hometown. In this manner, you possibly can trace the country’s music on the same plantations in the delta.
And so he was born and raised by the director in Oakland, a city that became the center for black during the second great migration thanks to the “Ralugom Sunset Railroad” of the Southern Pacific, which was established in Louisiana, can reach for this family and create something that attempted to regain our history and renovate our future.
This is a story wherein he flows home solely through our veins that even the vampire’s teeth cannot bring it out, regardless of how much they fight.
-
Press Release1 year ago
U.S.-Africa Chamber of Commerce Appoints Robert Alexander of 360WiseMedia as Board Director
-
Press Release1 year ago
CEO of 360WiSE Launches Mentorship Program in Overtown Miami FL
-
Business and Finance11 months ago
The Importance of Owning Your Distribution Media Platform
-
Business and Finance1 year ago
360Wise Media and McDonald’s NY Tri-State Owner Operators Celebrate Success of “Faces of Black History” Campaign with Over 2 Million Event Visits
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
Another lawsuit accuses Google of bias against Black minority employees
-
Theater1 year ago
Telling the story of the Apollo Theater
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
Henrietta Lacks’ family members reach an agreement after her cells undergo advanced medical tests
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
The families of George Floyd and Daunte Wright hold an emotional press conference in Minneapolis
-
Theater1 year ago
Applications open for the 2020-2021 Soul Producing National Black Theater residency – Black Theater Matters
-
Theater11 months ago
Cultural icon Apollo Theater sets new goals on the occasion of its 85th anniversary