Congratulations to Carolyn Sims-Nesmith, Founder and Director of CSN Productions, who is being recognized as a KYW News Radio GameChanger in 2024.
A GameChanger is a leader making a difference and uplifting the lives of people in and around Philadelphia communities of color. Carolyn’s story will be featured on KYW News Radio during Black History Month, and she will be honored at an awards ceremony on the evening of February 28, 2024. Hats off to you Carolyn, for a job well done!!!
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Abbott Elementary Is Making A Name For Themselves In The Community
It was recently revealed that the show will kick off its “Lunch Break with Abbott Elementary National Tour.” On Friday, the tour came to Philadelphia at James R. Ludlow School before hitting 18 additional states the tour features a giant, “street-legal” Abbott Elementary-themed lunch box vehicle that will act as a surprise popup at famous landmarks on each tour stop. Teachers and staff in underserved school districts will also receive Abbott Elementary-themed tin lunch boxes with sandwiches, sides, and beverages sourced from local businesses as well as reusable “Abbott Elementary” tote bags filled with school supplies.
Now that’s awesome. It was reported that the teachers and students were so surprised when the huge lunchbox pulled up to the school with all the trimming.
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Philadelphia Film Society Black Cinema Weekend
In Celebration of Achievement in Black Cinema, the Philadelphia Film Society Black Cinema Weekend was held last weekend at the film center to a full house.
The weekend kicked off with “Creatives of Color Mixers,” a networking happy hour and mixer preceding a special screening of “Boyz N The Hood,” celebrating John Singleton’s cinematic legacy and achievements.
On Saturday, February 3, Black Women in Film and Media hosted a gathering of fellow Black women filmmakers and media professionals with two screenings that celebrate the cinematic achievements of Black women filmmakers and the complexity of Black womanhood on the big screen, “Losing Ground” and “Eve’s Bayou.”
The event closed with a Family Friendly Activity full of fun and the screening of “Big George Foreman.”
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The UnderDoggs
Last week was the premiere of Snoop Dogg’s new film, “The UnderDoggs.” Snoop opened up about his 24-year-old daughter Cori Broadus, who suffered a severe stroke. “She’s doing a little bit better,” the rapper said.
A stroke is also called a cerebrovascular accident that causes damage to the brain from interruption of its blood supply. It is not common for a young person to have a stroke, but it has happened. Symptoms of a stroke include trouble walking, speaking, and understanding as well as paralysis or numbness of the face, arm, or leg.
If someone is experiencing these symptoms, please go to the nearest emergency room.
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Michael
Lionsgate and Universal Pictures International, Michael Jackson’s biopic “Michael” has cast Nia Long as Jackson’s matriarch Katherine Jackson. The Antoine Fuqua-directed movie is now shooting for an April 18, 2025 global theatrical release.
Long shared in a recent interview, “Katherine Jackson is an incredible pillar of strength and grace for the entire Jackson family. As a mother, she was selfless and endured forces beyond her control yet still managed to help build a legacy beyond measure. I am honored to bring her voice to the screen and share Michael Jackson’s story with audiences everywhere.”
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American Fiction
“American Fiction” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2023, where it won the People’s Choice Award. It received a limited theatrical release by Amazon MGM Studios on December 15, 2023, with an expansion on December 22, 2023. It received positive reviews from critics, with Wright’s performance earning widespread acclaim.
It was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute and has received numerous accolades. At the 96th Academy Awards, it earned five nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Wright), Best Supporting Actor (Brown), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Jefferson), as well as two nominations at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, and won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 29th Critics’ Choice Awards.
So what is all the talk about? “American Fiction” is a 2023 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cord Jefferson in his feature directorial debut. Based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett, the film follows a frustrated novelist-professor Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a highly intelligent and articulate African-American upper-class writer and professor in Los Angeles.
His novels receive academic praise but sell poorly, and the publishers reject his latest manuscript for not being “black enough.” His university places him on temporary leave due to his brashness with students over racial issues and suggests he attend a literary seminar and spend time with family in his hometown, Boston. At the seminar, Monk sees low attendance at his panel and a packed room for the panel of Sintara Golden, whose bestselling novel in Ebonics We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, panders to black stereotypes.
So, he writes an outlandish satire of stereotypical “black” books, only for his novel to be mistaken by the Liberal elite for serious literature and published to both high sales and critical praise.
The film stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, and Keith David. A must-see!!
Well, that’s the Philly Beat!!!
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