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SCAD aTVfest: 7th Annual TV Festival Kicks Off Today

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Photos: Compilation
Photos: Compilation

SCAD aTVfest, Atlanta’s only TV festival, kicks off today with a screening of their sitcom G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised in the South) starring American Idol season 12 winner Candice Glover and George Lovett from ‘Showtime at the Apollo.’ G.R.I.T.S. is an all-original student-produced sitcom written, directed, produced and performed by African-American SCAD students. The show was creatd by SCAD alum Chad Morton. The series centers around a family-owned restaurant in Atlanta, in the midst of gentrification, and the many challenges around race that arise.

2019’s aTVfest programming includes 21 exclusive screenings, 19 panels and over 6 master classes and workshops with visiting content production professionals. The TV festival is showcasing two season premieres from critically acclaimed shows, “Bosch” (Amazon Video Pime, Season 5) and “American Gods” (STARZ, Season 2).  aTVfest will also have five series premieres: “Miracle Workers” (TBS), “PEN 15” (Hulu), “The Village” (NBC), “The Enemy Within” (NBC), “Proven Innocent” (FOX), and “Dark/Web” (Showtime).

“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”‘s Ellie Kemper will be honored this year as well as NBC/Universal‘s “New Amsterdam” which will receive the Outstanding Cast Award. The SCAD40 prize will be presented to SCAD alumnus, Mir Zafar Ali (B.F.A. visual effects, 2015).

SCAD is also celebrating its 40th Anniversary as an academic and media training institution. Notable alumni include DeRon Horton (Dirt, Burning Sands, Dear White People), Chloe Lipp (Hidden Figures, Allegiant), Clayton Haskell (independent filmmaker), Kayli Carter (Rings, Godless, The Beginning of Everything,” and Jett Steiger (producer, Sundance Creative Producing Fellow).

Entertainment Weekly is aTVfest’s media partner.

Check out the aTVfest schedule. Stay updated on all aTVfest events on Twitter @scaddotedu.

For the festival schedule or ticket information, click here.

This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of the award-winning news blog The Burton Wire. She also serves as entertainment and culture editor for the National Newspaper Publisher’s Association. 

Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual or @TheBurtonWire.

Stacey Abrams: Watch SOTU & Abrams Response LIVE

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Georgia's Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate and anti-voter suppression activist Stacey Abrams. (Photo: Facebook/StaceyAbrams)

President Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union Address tonight at 9 p.m. EST. Georgia Gubernatorial Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams will make history tonight following his address becoming the first first black womanto make such a nationally televised address in U.S. history.

Georgia’s Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate and anti-voter suppression activist Stacey Abrams.
(Photo: Facebook/StaceyAbrams)

“At a moment when our nation needs to hear from leaders who can unite for a common purpose, I am honored to be delivering the Democratic State of the Union response,” Abrams, 45, said in a statement. “I plan to deliver a vision for prosperity and equality, where everyone in our nation has a voice and where each of those voices is heard.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she chose Abrams, a non-sitting member of Congress which is also a first to offer the Democratic response because she “embodies the American Dream.” NY senator Charles Schumer called Abrams “a present and future leader in this country” who offered a strong contrast to Trump.

Watch the State of the Union (SOTU) Address and response live on CSPAN.

This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of The Burton Wire. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.

Follow The Burton Wire on Twitter @TheBurtonWire.

Kristoff St. John: Online Tributes Pour In for ‘Y&R’ Star

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Kristoff St. John (Google Images)
Actor Kristoff St. John holds his 2008 Emmy award for best supporting actor in a daytime series. (Photo: Google Images)

The internet is buzzing with news of the death of fan favorite Kristoff St. John, who played Neil Winters on the long running daytime soap opera Young and the Restless. The popular star’s death was confirmed by his attorney Mark Geragos. The actor was nominated nine times for Daytime Emmys. In 1992 and 2008, St. John won Emmys for best supporting actor for his role on Young and the Restless. He also won 10 NAACP Image awards for best actor in a daytime series. Many don’t know that St. John was also a writer and producer, creating, producing and hosting the CBS series, ‘CBS Soap Break,’ an up close and personal look at CBS soap stars. The D.C. raised actor wrote, produced and hosted two installments of a behind-the-scenes video series entitled, ‘Backstage Pass to the 25th and 26th Annual Daytime Emmys’. He also produced and starred in an exercise video for children along with his late son Julian and daughter Paris.

Photo: Twitter

Many remember St. John from his childhood work including ‘That’s My Mama,’ ‘The Cosby Show,’ ‘Roots the Next Generations’ and feature films like The Champ (1979), starring Jon Voight and Ricky Schroeder. He also guest-starred on many series including ‘Martin,’ ‘Living Single’ ‘The Jamie Foxx Show,’ ‘A Different World,’ ‘Love that Girl’ and ‘Charlie and Company.” St. John, the son of actor Christopher St. John of Shaft fame, became a fan favorite for his role as Adam Marshall on ‘Generations,’ the first black soap opera on television. He won his first two Emmy nominations for his performance on that show.  Co-stars and fans have taken to Twitter to express condolences.

Photo: Google Images

St. John had been struggling recently with the death of his son Julian, who committed suicide in 2014 while in a mental health facility. The actor had recently been released from a psychiatric facility where he was being treated for depression. He previously took a leave of absence from ‘Young and the Restless’ in October 2017 to undergo psychiatric treatment after a reported mental health related scare.

On Jan. 21, St. John retweeted a tweet about the loss of a child that reads: “Grieving the loss of a child is a process. It begins on the day your child passes, and ends the day the parent joins them.”

He responded to the tweet, “Never a truer word was spoke. Thanks for posting this.”

St. John’s death has not yet been ruled a suicide and there are no signs of foul play.  He was 52.

This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of The Burton Wire. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.

For more news about this story, follow The Burton Wire on Twitter @TheBurtonWire.

21 Savage: ICE Arrests Rapper for Overstaying Visa

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21 Savage (Photo: Instagram @SaintLaurentDon)
21 Savage (Photo: Instagram @SaintLaurentDon)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s J.D. Capelouto is sharing new details about the arrest of Grammy-nominated rapper 21 Savage the morning of Superbowl LIII. The U.S. Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) arrested Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, whose entertainment moniker is 21 Savage, in a targeted raid in metropolitan Atlanta. The popular rapper is allegedly from the U.K. Abraham-Joseph, who recently gave out thousands of dollars of school supplies to DeKalb County School children, was previously arrested in 2014 on a drug charge of which he was convicted.  Apparently authorities were not aware of his immigration status at the time of that arrest and conviction. Abraham-Joseph was apparently arrested during a traffic stop along with three other people.

In addition to buying school supplies, Abraham-Joseph’s charity Leading by Example also launched an anti-gun violence social media campaign (Paintballs Up, Guns Down). He also paid for the funeral of 3-year-old T’Rhigi Digg who was killed in a shooting attributed to the social media campaign.

ICE is alleging the rapper, who is from Atlanta, came to the United States from the U.K. illegally at age 14 and overstayed his visa. He is being scheduled for removal from the United States.

This story is developing.

Read the AJC‘s entire story here.

Follow The Burton Wire on Twitter or Instagram @TheBurtonWire.

AfroPop: Explores #MeToo & Global Black Experience Tonight

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Mama Colonel film still. Copyright: Cinedoc Films and Mutotu Productions
AfroPop Season 11 is hosted by Orange is the New Black’s Danielle Brooks. (Photo: AfroPop)

Tonight, the eleventh season of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange continues with a documentary placing the #MeToo and women’s struggle center stage. The award-winning public television series of documentaries on the global Black experience, hosted by Danielle Brooks (Orange Is the New Black), will continue with Mama Colonel. Dieudo Hamadi’s film follows a tenacious woman in charge of a special police force addressing sexual assault and violence against women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Check out a clip of tonight’s episode which airs tonight at 8 p.m. EST:

The 11th season premiere of AfroPoP aired Monday, January 21, at 8 p.m. ET/ 10 p.m. PT. placing Africa’s first global music icon — Miriam Makeba — back in the spotlight with Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba!  The season’s opening episode followed Makeba’s rise to global stardom as a musical legend and as a powerful voice of the South African anti-apartheid movement.

Mama Colonel film still. Copyright: Cinedoc Films and Mutotu Productions

New episodes air every Monday through February 18 on WORLD Channel and viewers can also stream it on world.org, PBS.org, and PBS apps for iOS, Android, Apple TV, and more.

Follow AfroPop on Twitter @BLKPublicMedia or @worldchannel.

Follow The Burton Wire on Twitter  and Instagram @TheBurtonWire.

Black-Ish: Executive Producer Kenny Smith Talks Colorism Episode

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The cast of Black-ish in the 'Black Like Us' episode. (Photo: ABC)
The cast of Black-ish in the ‘Black Like Us’ episode. (Photo: ABC)

Writing for The Grio, The Burton Wire‘s founder & editor-in-chief Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. talked to Kenny Smith, co-showrunner and executive producer of ABC‘s hit sitcom Black-ish about the “Black Like Us” episode on colorism. African-American writer Peter Saji wrote the episode. What is colorism? Colorism refers to discrimination based on skin color. Colorism disadvantages dark-skinned people while privileging those with lighter skin. Research has linked colorism to smaller incomes, lower marriage rates, longer prison terms, and fewer job prospects for darker-skinned people. Colorism has existed for centuries, in the world community and is persistent and pervasive and should be fought with the same urgency as racism. The episode explores colorism in the world community and how it is dealt with within black families – the Johnson family specifically. Check out an excerpt from the interview with the Hampton University graduate below:

theGrio: How did you come up with the idea of tackling colorism in this episode?

Kenny Smith: We have been kicking around the topic of colorism for a number of seasons. It even came up in season three, but we couldn’t find the right story to put it out there. At the top of this season when we were prepping, Peter Saji, the writer of the episode, who also wrote the “Purple Rain” and “Juneteenth” episodes, started championing it. He said we’ve got to tell this story. We started discussing it and then sharing our personal stories.

theGrio: How did ABC respond when you told them you were working on an episode around colorism in Black families?

Kenny Smith: The network was great. Even when we said we’re thinking about this idea for a show, but weren’t quite sure of what story to tell, they said they trusted us. We had an amalgamation of everything that people in the writer’s room had gone through. We wanted to take this big mess and whittle it down to a story that could be told in 21 minutes. The studio trusted us to make something out of all of this information.

theGrio: Why was it so important to pull from personal stories for this?

Kenny Smith: Whenever you’re very specific about a story in your life, you usually find people who have a similar story to tell as well and that’s where it becomes global. The more specific you get, the more widespread of an understanding people will have of that story or topic. When we started the process of writing this episode, we started with personal stories. This is what happened to me in grade school. This is what happened to me the other day. Doing that allows you to be authentic. The show itself is about authenticity. In fact, authenticity allows us to have these conversations translated through the characters to speak to large audiences.

Read more at The Grio.

Follow The Burton Wire on Instagram or Twitter @TheBurtonWire.

Dakar: Fashion Week Shows Vibrancy of Style and City

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A presenter gets ready during Dakar Fashion Week in 2017. (Photo: O'Reilly)
Dakar fashion week in the capital’s Niari Tali neighborhood
(Photo: O’Reilly)

Reporting for The Guardian, photojournalist Finbarr O’Reilly takes readers on a dazzling journey to Dakar’s fashion scene with a beautiful photo essay. O’Reilly, who has been covering Dakar’s fashion week for over a decade, captures the vibrant colors, designs and energy happening during fashion week. He also gives insight into how black folk roll in Senegal. He writes:

Models Amy Faye and Sachakara Dieng wear creations by Adama Ndiaye in Dakar, July 2012.

“Senegal has a well-educated middle class and an Instagram generation that embraces African and American fashions, creating an elegant and athletic style of bling and beauty. Dakar now rivals Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi and Casablanca at the forefront of African fashion, with much of its energy driven by the designer Adama Ndiaye, the 40-year-old organizer of Dakar fashion week and a number of other international African fashion week events. ‘When I started it was a young girl’s dream to build something in my country,’ Ndiaye says. Launched 17 years ago, Dakar fashion week initially had only a handful of aspiring local designers and models gathering in often rundown hotels. Now dozens of designers from around the world present their creations to thumping DJ mixes as drone cameras hover above runway shows broadcast live on national television.”

A presenter gets ready during Dakar Fashion Week in 2017. (Photo: O’Reilly)

O’Reilly interviews a bevy of fashion influencers including Jenke Ahmed Tailly, an Ivorian and Senegalese stylist who works as Beyoncé’s creative director and also advises Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. At the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 charity concert in South Africa last month, Beyoncé wore one of Ndiaye’s creations, a Boyette bag, based on the nomadic Tuareg style of embossed leather boxes.”

Read more about Dakar Fashion Week and check out the fabulous photo essay which spans many years at The Guardian.

Follow The Burton Wire on Instagram or Twitter @TheBurtonWire.

 

2019 Oscar Nominations: Black Film Magic at the Movies

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Photo: YouTube
Photo: YouTube

The 2019 Oscar nominations are in and it appears black film magic is happening with the number of nominations African-Americans received. Some of the historical nominations include Hannah Beachler’s nomination in the category of Best Production Design, a first for an African-American. Queen Regina King continues to rule with her nomination for Best Actress for Academy award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins’ adaption of James Baldwin’s critically-acclaimed book If Beale Street Could Talk. Prolific costume designer Ruth Carter received a nod for her futuristic couture in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. Coogler didn’t receive a nomination for directing the cultural phenomenon, which isn’t unusual for comic book films, but Spike Lee finally got a Best Director nod for his controversial film BlacKkKlansman. Lee who directed Do the Right Thing (1989) and Malcolm X (1992) received prior nominations for Best Original Screenplay for Do the Right Thing and Best Documentary Feature for 4 Little Girls. The filmmaker was awarded a 2016 honorary Oscar for his body of work. This is the first time the seminal director has been nominated in the Best Director category. Previous Academy Award-winners Mahershala Ali and Jordan Peele also received nominations for work on Green Book (Best supporting actor – Ali) and BlacKkKlansman (Best Picture – Peele is a producer). Longtime Lee collaborators (including Ruth E. Carter), composer Terence Blanchard and editor Barry Alexander Brown also received nominations for BlacKkKlansman.

Perhaps the most interesting nominations happened in the documentary categories. Director and cinematographer RaMell Ross was nominated for his documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening which explores the intimate lives of two black men in rural Alabama and their life choices. The film challenges the dominant narrative of who and what black people are and who makes up rural America. With this film, Ross reminds audiences all black lives matter.

Documentary short Black Sheep examines race in the U.K. and Lifeboat takes a harrowing look at North African migrants fleeing Libya and attempting to make it across the Mediterranean sea for a better life.

The 2019 Oscars will be interesting to watch in general, especially with the diverse nominees on the ballot and subject matter. Will Black film magic happen at this year’s Oscars? Who are you rooting for? Let us know @TheBurtonWire.

The 2019 Oscars air February 24, 2019 live on ABC at 8 p.m. EST.

This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, founder & editor-in-chief of The Burton Wire. She is also entertainment and culture editor for NNPA/BlackPressUSA and contributes to The Grio, The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast. A film and media scholar and instructor in the Department of Film and Media Studies at Emory University, follow Nsenga on Twitter @Ntellectual or @TheBurtonWire. Thoughts and views expressed are mine.

Zimbabwe: Govt Agrees to Wage Increase Amid Protests

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Photo: Google Images
Photo: Google Images

Reuters Africa is reporting government officials have agreed to give public servants a cost of living wage increase amid growing protests. The increase will be between 5 percent and 23 percent of their monthly salaries. The author writes:

Labor Minister Sekai Nzenza said by phone that the allowance will be issued from January to March while negotiations with unions continue.

A 40-day doctors strike ended last week; teachers remain on strike and civil servants have also threatened industrial action. Protesters are also fighting against fuel increases.

Reuters is reporting Zimbabwe’s military put on a show of force to deter further unrest on Tuesday after at least three deaths in violent protests over steep fuel price hikes. The protests are continuing to block the flow of key supplies into the country. The government threatened a social media blackout Monday (1/14/19) because of the violent protests.

Read more at Reuters.

Follow The Burton Wire on Twitter @TheBurtonWire.

Kenya: Al-Shabab Claims Nairobi DusitD2 Hotel Attack

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DusitD2 Hotel Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: Website)
DusitD2 Hotel Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: Website)
The Associated Press’ Joseph Mwihia is reporting Al-Shabab extremists have claimed responsibility for the attack on the DusitD2 hotel in Nairobi Kenya. He writes:

“Al-Shabab — the Somalia-based group that carried out the 2013 attack at the nearby Westgate Mall in Nairobi that left 67 people dead — claimed responsibility for the carnage at the DusitD2 hotel complex, which includes bars, restaurants, offices and banks and is in a well-to-do neighborhood with many American, European and Indian expatriates.”

Kenya’s Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i said all of the buildings affected had been secured and “security forces were mopping up.”

The Associated Press is reporting 15 deaths; Al-Shabab is saying 47 people are dead from the attack.

(Photo: Kenya Red Cross Twitter Account)

CNN‘s Eliza Mackintosh and Farai Sevenzo are reporting at least 11 people are dead. The journalists report:

“CNN journalists near the hotel complex in Nairobi that was attacked Tuesday are still hearing intermittent gunfire from the location, hours after the government gave the all-clear.

At least 11 people have been killed during what police described as a ‘suspected terror attack’ at the complex in the Kenyan capital, said a source at the hotel assisting with security.

The source called the death toll “conservative” and expected it to rise: “I saw six dead on the footpath exit over the river and five more at the secret garden cafe.” A US State Department official said an American was killed in the attack, and provided no other details. CNN is reaching out to officials from other nations to see whether any of their citizens are among the victims.”

Gunmen stormed the DusitD2 hotel shooting guests while explosions went off on nearby streets. The coordinated assault began with a suicide bomber in the lobby of the hotel followed by gunmen brandishing guns and wearing paramilitary clothing “mowing down guests.”

Kenya’s Red Cross is helping families locate loved ones. Follow on Twitter @KenyaRedCross.
Read more at CNN or AP.
Follow The Burton Wire for updates on Twitter @TheBurtonWire.
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