India.Arie Hits Broadway in ‘For Colored Girls…’

India.Arie is currently rehearsing for her Broadway debut this summer. The neo-soul singer is scheduled to star in the Broadway revival of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf.”

The classic play by Ntozake Shange shares the stories of seven women of color.

For Colored Girls, which has also been described as a choreopoem, had its first run off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 1976 before moving to Broadway where it ran for almost two years, garnering a Tony nomination for best play.

India.Arie has previously acted on NBC’s “American Dreams,” where she portrayed Nina Simone.

Text-Messaging Service to Alert Public to “Where the Ballers At”

So apparently society has fallen to a new all-time low with the creation of Baller Alert™, a new text-messaging service that alerts participants to “where the ballers at.”

The free text service keeps you informed up to the minute with special alerts to your phone when the hottest celebrities, athletes and tastemakers step on the scene.

Not only will Baller Alert™ let you know what’s going down and where but it will keep you updated on everything you missed. Recap the morning after with the interactive Baller Alert™ Web site, your link to the celebrity world. The website will give you all the inside dirt on your favorite celebrities with exclusive gossip, candid pictures and updated information.

The website lets you set up a profile and post pictures, chat with friends and view real time footage. You can even text message a picture or video from the party straight to the front page of the Baller Alert™ site.  

For more: www.balleralert.com

I understand that this service is being marketed to people in the industry who desire to be “in-the-know” but doesn’t this just sound like a service for gold diggers and paparazzi? Who else will kick it into high gear at a moment’s notice just to run behind some celebs- real insiders don’t need texts, so what’s this site really about?

Saaphyri Launches ‘Lip Chap’ Line

Saaphyri, the girl from 54th and Crenshaw who wasn’t even on  ”Flavor of Love 2″ long enough to get a nickname from Flav has turned her 15 minutes of fame (literally) into a business venture.

Everybody remembers when she offered the girl some “lip chap” on the show; now she’s turned that moment into money.

With the $50,000 that she won on “Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School” Saaphyri has launched a ’Lip Chap’ lip balm and hair line.

Saaphyri’s Lip Chap is a unisex lip balm and includes flavors like cookie dough, mojito, piña colada, bubble gum, and wintergreen.  

I got a little nervous when I had to confirm my age just to watch the commercial on youtube but here’s the video anyway:  

In addition, Saaphyri is launching a line of hair. Saaphyri’s Ultimate Indian Hair is supposedly the answer to unrealistic-looking hair weave.  

So what do you think?

For more: www.saaphyri.com.

‘The Game’ Next to be Cancelled After ‘Girlfriends’?

  Looks like it might be time to say goodbye to the CW sitcom “The Game” as it was not named among the six shows receiving early pickup for the fall.

“Girlfriends” which is arguably the best show on the channel has already gotten the ax.

“America’s Next Top Model” and “Everybody Hates Chris” will return in the fall, along with “Gossip Girl,” “One Tree Hill,” “Smallville” and “Supernatural.”

“ANTM,” the network’s most popular series and the top-ranked show among its 18-34-year-old female demographic (along with “One Tree Hill”), will return with its 11th and 12th cycle, while “Chris” will begin its fourth season in the fall. 

 Er’a'um how you gonna get rid of Girlfriends and not Smallville? Does anyone even watch Smallville? 

‘Black Magic’ to Air on ESPN

 Just in time for March Madness, ESPN will air “Black Magic,” a film directed by award-winning filmmaker Dan Klores that tells the story of the Civil Rights movement in America, as told through the lives of basketball players and coaches who attended and worked at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson, jazz great Wynton Marsalis, and New Orleans Hornets star point guard Chris Paul, “Black Magic” will be presented by Russell Athletic Group and State Farm commercial free on ESPN March 16 and 17, 6 p.m.

**Pictured: Earl Monroe (left) and Clarence “Bighouse” Gaines.  

Cannick to Run for 47th District Delegate Seat

Local community activist and journalist Jasmyne Cannick has announced her bid to represent the 47th Assembly District as a delegate on the County Central Committee in California’s June 3rd State Primary election. Primarily responsible for recruiting and working for the election of Democratic Party candidates throughout their county, Democrats will go to the polls on June 3rd to elect seven members from their respective Assembly districts to the County Central Committee. This is Jasmyne’s first run for public office. Information: www.Vote4Jasmyne.com.

The 47th Assembly District includes the Los Angeles communities of Westwood (including University of California Los Angeles), West Los Angeles, Rancho Park, Cheviot Hills, Mid City, Palms, Crenshaw, West Adams, Leimert Park and Hyde Park; the unincorporated communities of View Park-Windsor Hills, Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills; and all of Culver City. The last day to register to vote in the June 3rd election is May 19th. 

Currently, at 30, Jasmyne Cannick is a critic and commentator who writes about the worlds of pop culture, race, class, and politics as played out in the African-American community.

Previously she served as the press secretary to the California Legislative Black Caucus and Assemblyman Mervyn M. Dymally, and more recently in the United States House of Representatives. 

She co-founded the National Black Justice Coalition, the nation’s Black gay civil rights group and served as co-chair of the National Stonewall Democrats Black Caucus.  Locally, Jasmyne continues to make time to volunteer with Earl Ofari Hutchinson’s Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable and the Pan African Film and Arts Festival.

 

The Power of the Black Vote

 

By BROOKLYNE GIPSON

 

 

A year ago I attended a Barack Obama rally at Rancho Cienega park near Dorsey High School. I went because I had heard whispers here and there about this relatively unknown black Senator from Illinois who was rumored to be a viable candidate for the US presidency. So I trekked over to the rally with raised eyebrow because I wasn’t so sure that he’d be the candidate for me. Ethnicity has never and will never be a qualifying factor in the decisions I make, so there was no need for me to get too excited about the idea of a potential black President of the United States at the time.    However, I left the rally in awe. I was impressed by Barack’s now arguably over-saturated message of bringing change to American politics. I was relieved at the absence of hyper-racial Sharptonian-style politics and delighted to hear messages of true American unity (“It’s not about red states or blue states, it’s about the United States!”). I was charmed— as have many Americans in the last few months— by his relatable, personable character. I was pleased with each and every point that Obama made in his stump speech as I felt that his moderate and practical views were totally in line with mine.  I was sold.  By the time Sister Sledge’s “We are Family” was blaring from the loud speaker, sending visitors off, I was already on my cell phone telling my friend who had missed the opportunity to go with me just how amazing and inspiring that 45 minutes had been for me. It was a watershed moment.Obama left the rally with not only my total support but I was surprisingly left with something as well— a rejuvenated level of hope and belief. I knew that this was going to happen for him. Naturally my excitement over the endearing candidate was met with a lot of skepticism among my family and friends as I quickly hit the pavement running on informing them about Barack. I heard the exact responses that Obama had forecasted in his speech. “A black man, for president? America is just not ready.” To which I replied, “But are you ready?” Then I’d hear, “White people aren’t going to vote for him,” to which I replied “but will you vote for him? He needs your support too.” Most disheartening of all, was a close friend of mine who said “The way I see it, from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration, there hasn’t been any real change in my life so why vote? My vote doesn’t count anyway.” And so on, and so on. In those early stages it was an uphill battle to get people motivated, to believe, to even pay attention. But hope prevailed. Almost one year later, I sat at my desk and opened the (March 12) Los Angeles Times newspaper and came across an article titled “Black Vote Fuels Obama Primary Win” by Mark Z. Barabak who commented on Barack’s latest victory in the Mississippi primaries, pointing out that: “Overall, black voters accounted for roughly half the vote…Nearly complete returns late Tuesday in Mississippi showed Obama with 61 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 37 percent. The high black turnout helped Obama beat Clinton among voters across a range of education and incomes.”After reading the article, I sat back and marveled at the power of the black vote.

 

At this point, I feel like Obama has already accomplished more than most black people ever thought was possible and instilled such a high quality of hope and belief in not only the African American community but the entire American community that even if this were the end of the road, he’ll still be revered as a hero.

At this point, he’s made it so that there is no excuse. The lights have dimmed on the people who boast their reasons for not voting. The negativity of the nay-sayers has waned with each victory and the skeptics have turned their attention to an evident truth that their hesitance hadn’t allowed them to realize before- there’s power in the black vote. I look forward to the day when my future child inevitably writes the black history month report on a true American hero— Barack Obama and I hope that it inspires them to hope, to believe, and to know that the sky is the limit and that the glass ceiling exists only in their mind.From Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”: “Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? …I’m not talking about blind optimism here—  the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; … the hope of a mill-worker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!”