The South China Morning Post is reporting that two attacks by Boko Haram gunmen killed 30 people near Chibok, the northeast Nigerian town where the Islamists kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month. The author writes:
“The first attack on Monday afternoon killed 10 in the village of Shawa, some seven kilometres from Chibok, a number of residents told AFP on condition of anonymity. Gunmen then stormed the nearby village of Alagarno late Tuesday and stole food, razed homes and fired on fleeing civilians. ‘It was a sudden attack,’ said resident Haruna Bitrus, in an account supported by other locals. ‘They began shooting and set fire to our homes. We had to flee to the bush. They killed 20 of our people,’ he added. Many of those who fled the Alagarno attack ran to Chibok, where Boko Haram seized 276 schoolgirls on April 14. The military said it had deployed heavily to the area to find the 223 girls who remain in captivity. Major world powers including the United States are offering varying levels of assistance with the rescue mission.”
Reportedly, the Nigerian military has failed to respond with three trucks breaking down on the way to the village.
BBC Africa is reporting that there was also a bombing in Jos that killed 118 people yesterday. The author writes:
“In the latest attack, Boko Haram fighters reportedly spent hours killing and looting in the village of Alagarno. Alagarno is near Chibok, from where the schoolgirls were abducted last month…People in north-east Nigeria are extremely vulnerable to attacks because many areas are no-go zones for the military and the insurgents operate freely, correspondents say.”
Boko Haram appears to be growing in strength and presence, while the Nigerian government appears to be incompetent in bringing them to justice. Will the missing schoolgirls ever come home?
Actor Michael Jace and April Jace during happier times. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
The blogosphere is lit up over reports that film and television actor Michael Jace has been arrested for suspicion in the murder of his wife April at their Los Angeles home last night. TMZ is reporting that the actor called 911 and told them, “I shot my wife.” Jace stayed on the phone with police until officers arrived at his home. The couple’s two sons were present during the shooting. They were taken into custody where it took four hours for social services to send a relative to care for the children.
The couple had been married for nine years.
Jace is best known for his role in FX’s cop drama ‘The Shield.’ He has also starred in a number of films including State of Play,The Replacements, Forrest Gump and The Fan.
A pregnant woman in Sudan has been sentenced to death for failing to renounce Christianity. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
Faith Karimi and Yousuf Basil of CNN International are reporting that a pregnant Sudanese woman, who was sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christianity, may still be spared by the judiciary. Karimi and Basil write:
“A Khartoum court last week convicted Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith. Ibrahim, who is eight months pregnant, is a Christian, her husband said. But the court considers her a Muslim. ‘I’m so frustrated. I don’t know what to do,’ said her husband, Daniel Wani. ‘I’m just praying.'”
Ibrahim’s husband is American and confined to a wheelchair. Ibrahim was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to 100 lashes because her marriage to a Christian man is considered void under Sharia law.
The charges against Ibrahim were brought to the attention of authorities by her brother who is a devout Muslim. Ibrahim claims that her father left the family when she was 6-years-old and her mother raised her as a Christian. Her brother says that Ibrahim was raised Muslim. He also says that she ran away, only to be discovered years later married to a Christian man. The court has asked Ibrahim to renounce her Christianity but she has refused.
In cases where pregnant women have been sentenced to death, authorities typically wait until the child has been weaned from the mother before carrying out the death sentence. The international community is up-in-arms over the case and the verdict.
Chicago Bears wide receiver signs $30 million contract extension and pledges $1 million to fight mental illness. (Screen Grab)
Chicago Bears wide received Brandon Marshall has signed a $30 million contract extension with the Chicago Bears. Marshall, who says he “may” retire as a Bear, signed the contract during an appearance on ABC’s ‘The View’ talk show, where he discussed his struggle with depression and mental illness with cast members (Jenny McCarthy, Whoopi Goldberg, Sheri Shephard) and guest host Greg Anthony. Marshall was joined by his wife Michi Nogami-Marshall, with whom he has had a stormy relationship, to discuss their struggle with his mental illness and how they are dealing with it as a family.
During the appearance, Marshall pledged $1 million to fight mental health issues. He and his wife want to help eliminate the stigma of mental illness in the athletic community.
This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of the award-winning news site ‘The Burton Wire.
“Well…Sometimes. You try hard not to show it. I know they’re just doing what society gives them permission to do. It’s like…You feel like you in a prison. Partly a psychological prison of your own making, so it’s confusing. You have a little bit of freedom as long as you don’t piss off the guards. They watching you. Taunting you. Hoping you make a mistake. It’s the menace, you know what I mean. Because you have to learn to take it. You have to try not to snap…”
The Music and Entertainment Guild of Barbados (M.E.G.O.B) needs to be urgently resurrected for this is the only body that saw fit to award performances in local theater. Were new life to be breathed into the M.E.G.O.B. Awards, I would predict trophies for two outstanding actors and possibly the best play of the year, Simone’s Place by eminent Barbadian playwright, Glenville Lovell.
If this resurrection were to occur, the award for best supporting actor would go to Marcus Myers who beautifully portrays Stuart, the young unabashed gay male whose intense love and power of persuasion moves his mature lover, Gabriel, from the repressed closeted embodiment of a queer society in denial to a point of self-acceptance.
At a time when the Western debate rages on about same-sex marriage and athletes in traditional hyper male sports coming out of the proverbial closet, Lovell skillfully brings the discussion down to a parochial level. He does this by unearthing truths about the invisible world of men who sleep with men (MSM) and go undetected by our society’s judging eyes who, unfortunately, only see the glaringly obvious. For our Caribbean society, it is only true when a man wears a dress and defies his masculinity or if he is visibly too ‘soft’ or remains unmarried well past the age of accepted eligibility. Lovell demystifies and shatters this illusion. Simone’s Place therefore becomes a hideaway and societal refuge for those who are rejected and taunted or even seeking love in all the wrong places.
The character Solace, in her eternal quest for love is brilliantly played by Varia Willams. Her portrayal lifts the slow dirge and excruciating slow pace of the play on opening night at the Frank Collymore Hall. Thirty minutes into act one, Simone’s Place was quickly heading for disaster zone because of stilted dialogue, uncomfortable acting and a plot that was simply not moving fast enough. Fortunately, for us, Williams brought the energy that was needed and lit up the stage with her effervescent character every time she entered the space in search of affection.
The award for Best Supporting Actress would therefore go to Varia Willams for this exceptional portrayal. Perhaps unintentional, but it was her role that captured the essence of all the lives in Simone’s Place — the of solace and solitude. Lady Simone’s place, drowned in the music of Nina Simone, revealed an emotional state of being causing intense emptiness and despair in all of Lovell’s characters. Though, as a whole, we never got the fullness of this crescendo of anguish on the opening night, Lovell gave us enough in his well-crafted script to appreciate that thrust towards escapism. His characters were either fleeing to the big city, away from the village where you can be ridiculed and be called a ‘buller’ (a derogatory term used in Barbados and other Caribbean islands for a gay man) or simply coming to Simone’s Place and hideaway to drown their sorrows in alcohol. Lady Simone, the transgender cabaret performer who also fights her own solitude, becomes the confidante of her friends and customers who share their inner most demons of same-sex attraction and relationship jitters.
Shannon Arthur who plays Simone, shows tremendous potential as an actor and was quite bold to take on such a demanding and central role as his first major stage performance. Through it all, he was convincing enough and in the end, we felt Simone’s pain and anguish as she struggles through the rejection and the unrequited love she feels for Moses.
We become endeared to Moses, the stereotypical artist-type, played quite well by NALA; for he represents that West Indian male who is afraid to say ‘it’…the it of love and compassion, it of tenderness. As an alpha male, to say ‘it’ would emasculate you and make you less of a man before your peers. It may be worth checking out sites like https://www.knowledgeformen.com/alpha-male-traits/ to find out more when it comes to an alpha male personality, as not every guy is the same, even if there may be similarities.
God forbid if you are like Pecong the fisherman, acted brilliantly by Simon Alleyne, who rejects his same-sex feelings and becomes the self-deprecating all abusive exaggerated male.
John Hunte who played Gabriel, the older domineering lover of Stuart, though convincing, lost some of his key words on opening night owing to his unclear diction.
In closing, it was hard to derail such a well-crafted play but some of the choices of the director, Russell Watson, remain questionable. As Simone’s Place really only took place visibly in a single space, at times, the actors were made to look awkward because there was nothing for them to do, especially with their hands. This, together with the stilted speech contributed to the play’s slow movement. Luckily, Leandro Soto’s set design added to the realism sought after by both Watson and Lovell.
In the end, Soto’s walls are broken down, Pecong’s cap is removed from his face and Moses takes off his shades that represented the masks he and others wear throughout life’s journey. We come away with a sense that Lovell was able to make a strong statement to encourage our society to open its eyes and see clearly, what is around us, to release its prisoners and set them free. Free to live truth, free to love and most importantly, free to escape from the retreat of their self-imposed state of solitude and find solace through self-acceptance.
This review was written by Ian Walcott, contributing writer to The Burton Wire. He is an international relations specialist and project consultant who shuttles between the Caribbean and Brazil.
The cast of ABC’s new show ‘Black-ish’ starring Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross and Laurence Fishburne. (Photo Credit: ABC)
The trailer for ABC‘s new sitcom ‘Black-ish’ is making its rounds on the blogospere, so we thought we’d bring it to you on The Burton Wire. What is Black-ish? A new comedy based loosely on the life of writer/producer Kenya Barris. Comedian/actor Anthony Anderson plays the lead, Tracee Ellis Ross as his wife and Laurence Fishburne as his father.
“Based on Barris’ own life (loosely), Black-ish will follow an upper-middle class black man, intent on raising his kids with some sense of cultural identity, in the face of an assault of constant contradictions and obstacles coming from various directions, insisting that his children be color-blind.
‘I decided to do this project when I looked up and realized that everywhere I go I’m constantly the fly in buttermilk… I’m usually THE Black guy at work. We’re THE Black family in the neighborhood. My kids are basically THE Black kids at school. I think it’s kind of a situation of be careful what you wish for. It’s almost in like moving on up, I’ve sort of priced myself ‘out” of being Black,’ said Barris.
Fishburne’s Cinema Gypsy production company is producing the show. ‘Black-ish’ is scheduled to air in the Fall on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. EST.
Check out the trailer. Will you be watching? Let us know in the comments section below.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
Reuters is reporting that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan will visit Chibok, the northeastern village from where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted a month ago by Islamist rebel group Boko Haram, senior government officials said. The president who has been criticized for his government’s slow response to the abductions, will make his first visit to the place that has become ground zero for the international movement to find and return the girls to their respective homes.
After his visit to Chibok, President Jonathan will continue on to a regional security summit in Paris to discuss a coordinated response to Boko Haram. The summit will include Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin, and officials from the U.S., Britain and the European Union.
Read more about the kidnappings at Reuters or The Burton Wire.
The HonorableRobert P. Jackson Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State For African Affairs Department of State
Washington, DC
The HonorableEarl Gast Assistant Administrator For African Affairs U.S. Agency for International Development
Washington, DC
Ms. Alice Friend Principal Director For African Affairs Department of Defense
Washington, DC
Ms. Lantana Abdullahi Project Manager
Search for Common Ground
Jos, Nigeria
Lantana Abdullahi is a Nigerian peace-builder, trainer, mediator and women’s activist who has worked with Search for Common Ground as a Project Manager in northern Nigeria since 2010. Lantana’s SFCG portfolio includes interfaith violence prevention and community reconciliation programs in Plateau State and working to bring together civil society groups, with the government and security forces to document and prevent human rights abuses in the North-Central and North-East regions. SFCG has worked extensively with Christian and Muslim teen-age girls, to raise their voices, reduce the risk of violence, and inspire the next generation of Nigerian leadership. In response to the Chibok abductions, Lantana’s team has been working with Muslim and Christian teen-age girls to speak out and take action in favor of peace through a series of popular radio programs.
This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of the award-winning news site The Burton Wire, which covers news of the African Diaspora. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
Legendary producer RZA stars as Cassius Green, a tough, street-savvy police officer who is out to bring down some of Los Angeles’ most brutal gangsters. The Grammy award-winning musical genius has made remarkable transitions throughout his career from producing groundbreaking music to composing film scores, directing feature films and acting. Gang Related, RZA believes,adds another extension to his versatility.
His dedication and commitment to the series led him to undergo numerous lifestyle changes. He moved to California away from his family, cut out weed smoking and stopped partying. “I’m learning more, getting better and I’m not afraid to show it or experiment with it,” says RZA in his New York accent. “I like to keep advancing. I’m never gonna force certain lines. It’s unnecessary. When people watch me on the show, they’ll see I can be the guy who is a pitbull when I have to.”
Filmed entirely on the West Coast between Sept. 2013 and Feb. of this year, RZA, born Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, initially wasn’t going to take the role. One of his best friends, actor Bokeem Woodbine, told the Wu-Tang Clan founder and resident beatslayer to avoid television acting. Once RZA received a call from director Allen Hughes, who was directing the pilot episode, about being on the series, Woodbine told him that if he was going to act on television, then this was the job. Woodbine told him to jump on the opportunity.
Gang Related creator Chris Morgan, also a developer behind the Fast & Furious franchise, was a fan of RZA’s acting on Californicationand The Man With the Iron Fists. In Atlanta at the time to test screen the pilot during #aTVfest, Morgan elaborates on how immediately captivated he was by the native New Yorker’s ingenuity. “He came in, and he was being himself,” says Morgan. “He was up for the challenge of every good character having a dark side and every villain having something heroic. He had a vision and really brought something special to his role. It feels very accessible. When he comes on-screen, you’re behind him no matter what.”
Known for directing gritty urban-themed features like Menace II Society, Dead Presidentsand American Pimpas well as blockbusters The Book of Eliand Broken City, Hughes’ detail-oriented style and vision made quite an impression on Gang Related’s crew. “He knows L.A. and wanted to present it as a character,” says Morgan. “He was brought in to define the look and feel for the series. He wanted to capture it in a way that people who lived there could see it.” Like RZA’s co-stars, he was able to relate to Hughes’ interpersonal savvy.
The producer even demonstrates the filmmaker’s mannerisms and vocally mocks his communication style. “[Allen] has great shorthand of communicating with actors,” he says seated relaxed in a hotel lobby armchair. “He can connect. He was always telling me at the right time when to throw the business in there. Our synergy really worked well on-set.”
Aside from talking about Gang Related, RZA would periodically chronicle his evolution concocting bombastic Shaolin-inspired bangers to his steadily increasing acting credits. He remembers borrowing a friend’s Roland TR-606 drum machine before he got his hands on a Casio RZ-1. When he got an SP-1200, he realized there was a very small frame of sample time.
Investing in an ASR-10 and EPS-16+ were the tools that fully allowed RZA to patent his sound because of the extended second allotment he had to select the parts he wanted. The concept artist drew parallels between finding his voice as a producer versus acting on film and television. “It started with the language of the drum machine. Film and television are two different things,” says RZA leaning forward in his chair.
“Acting in film is working three days to capture one minute. On television, you don’t get that kind of time. You gotta have your sword sharp. Sometimes, that’s a little difficult to find that personality or energy, but you have to maximize that time.” RZA also believes up-and-coming producers don’t apply that same level of critical thinking to their output.
“Kids are missing that now because all of the production is from computers,” adds RZA. “They don’t have the same technical knowledge. They’re not getting simple things and certain messages. It’s easier to make music now, but it’s also dumbing down the imagination.”
As Gang Related prepares to make its debut, FOX executives have generated buzz for the show with various advanced screenings across America. Morgan and executive producer Scott Rosenbaum, who also produced The Shield and Chuck, anticipate that the show will find a following and serve television audiences with something refreshing.
“A lot of network television shows have fallen into fairly predictable storylines,” says Rosenbaum. “We’ve created a rich, character-driven serialized tapestry. We hope people will watch.” Morgan concurs. “FOX was willing to embrace diversity so much. It’s a chance to reach out and go global. Being able to bring that to television and really explore different cultures and communities is a dream come true.”
As for RZA, he was proud that Gang Related’s cast and crew could relate to one another. “In all of our personalities, we enabled each other,” he says. “It helps to deliver certain lines. People that watch will see that I take it seriously. I promise you that.”
Gang Related premieres on May 22 on FOX at 9:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. CT.
This post was written by Christopher A. Daniel, pop cultural critic and music editor for The Burton Wire. He is also a contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine. Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter.
Tony award-winning performer Norm Lewis makes history as Broadway’s first African-American Phantom. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
Mary Godie of ABC News is reporting that Tony award-winner Norm Lewis, most recently known for playing the role of Edison Davis, Olivia Pope’s (Kerry Washington) love interest on ABC‘s hit television show Scandal, is making history as the first African-American to play the role of the Phantom in Broadway’s longest-running show Phantom of the Opera. Godie writes:
“Thirteen men have played the role of Phantom on Broadway, but the one making headlines is Norm Lewis. He plays Sen. Edison Davis on ABC’s “Scandal,” but the role as Phantom is his biggest yet.
‘I’m just so excited to be a part of this history,’ said Lewis.
African American actor Robert Guillaume played the title role in a Los Angeles production. But now Norm Lewis is making history because he is about to become the first African American Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
‘People have a certain vision of a particular character and, a lot of times, we as minorities don’t fit that particular vision,’ said Lewis. ‘And now, I think that people are a little more open to that.’
The legendary creator of the show, Andrew Lloyd Webber, said the Broadway world is becoming more colorblind.
‘I think everyone’s moved on to the point that you really don’t think that way,’ said Webber.”
