Caribbean 360 is reporting that Venezuela has begun to cut ties with Guyana over a dispute over maritime territory. Venezuela is recalling Reyna Margarita Arratia, its ambassador to Guyana, reviewing relations with the CARICOM nation, and scaling down embassy staff in Georgetown. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro sent a strong message to his neighboring country that Venezuela would not be “backing down from its claims of maritime territory.”
The author writes:
“Maduro issued a decree on May 25, claiming sovereignty over territorial waters in the Essequibo region of the Atlantic Ocean that encompasses an area equivalent to around two-thirds of Guyanese territory, including a large part of the Stabroek Block, where US oil giant ExxonMobil discovered oil recently. Guyana says Caracas agreed to relinquish the Essequibo following a ruling by an international tribunal in 1899, but later backtracked on that decision. Venezuela says the 1899 ruling was unfair and insists the territory is still in dispute. Caracas, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, claims the ‘operating zones’, which intrude upon Colombian and Guyanese waters, are necessary for national security. However, Guyana has insisted the move is illegal and also threatens the offshore territory of other Caribbean states, and has approached the United Nations to settle the border dispute once and for all.”
In a speech at the National Assembly of Caracus on Monday, President Maduro stated:
“We are victims of dispossession. I say this to our friends and also to our enemies: No one will ever get Venezuela to renounce her historical rights to the Essequibo.”
Revive Music Group founder/Blue Note Records executive producer Meghan Stabile (m.) and Grammy-nominated guitarist Stanley Jordan (r.) chat about the history of Blue Note Records (Photo Credit: Paul Biagui)
Revive Music Group founder/Blue Note Records executive producer Meghan Stabile (m.) and Grammy-nominated guitarist Stanley Jordan (r.) chat about the history of Blue Note Records (Photo Credit: Paul Biagui)
Two generations of Blue Note Records talent recently met during this year’s Atlanta Jazz Festival to talk about jazz music’s storied past and revitalized present. Meghan Stabile, founder and president of Revive Music Group, and Grammy-nominated jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan had a meeting of the minds following a screening of the 1985 concert film, One Night with Blue Note.
The two-hour cross-generational performances taped at The Town Hall in New York celebrated the famed avant garde jazz label originally founded in 1939 relaunching courtesy of late music executive-turned-Chairman Emeritus, Bruce Lundvall. Precisely 30 years following the concert film’s release, Stabile, who founded Revive in 2006 during her last semester at Berklee, acknowledges that she stands on the shoulders of Lundvall’s legacy.
The petite, down-to-earth concert organizer was handpicked by Blue Note’s current president, Don Was, to executive produce LPs featuring a new class of hip, genre-bending jazz musicians and performers. Those projects involve artists signed to both Revive and Blue Note.
“[Bruce] was a major force in not only the music industry but the jazz business,” says Stabile, who studied guitar at Berklee. “What Blue Note is doing is re-envisioning what jazz is today. My one and only mission is to create ways to bring people to the music and bring music to the people.”
Blue Note Records was home to innovative jazz musicians like Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, Jackie McLean, Donald Byrd, Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon. Jordan was one of the musicians featured in One Night with Blue Note.
Seated beside Stabile, the humble guitarist famous for mastering the “touch technique” on the guitar’s fretboard was the first artist signed to the revamped Blue Note roster under Lundvall’s direction. The soft-spoken instrumentalist was driving to Atlanta when he got word of Lundvall’s passing.
The musician called Lundvall “the most important exec in the music industry.” Jordan shared the story about how he got signed to Blue Note, pointing out what made Lundvall an incredible executive. “His heart was in the music,” asserts Jordan.
“He was the last of the great music execs who really had ears. He went out of his way to make me feel comfortable. He knew that if the musicians are comfortable, then the music is at its best.”
The conversation addressed musicianship. Stabile shared that two of her friends at Berklee were Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding and trumpeter Christian Scott. Stabile’s website, The Revivalist, launched in 2010 to highlight up-and-coming musicians. The site is now hosted under Okayplayer.com.
Stabile’s role at Blue Note allows her to oversee projects by drummer Otis Brown III and saxophonist Marcus Strickland. Blue Note in recent years has released critically acclaimed recordings by Grammy-winning keyboardist Robert Glasper, bassist Derrick Hodge and vocalist Jose James. She is gearing up to release Blue Note and Revive’s first compilation, Supreme Sonacy Vol. 1, featuring over 40 musicians this coming August.
“It shows the correlation between the scene and musicians that are reviving the music,” assures Stabile.
A passionate curator who firmly believes in persistence, Stabile believes the nine years she spent committed to organizing concerts and helping musicians find their respective audiences indicate that jazz is still alive and well.
“There’s a resurgence happening with a lot of great music,” says Stabile with her legs crossed. “We’ve been able to build a brand that reinvigorates the way young musicians are promoted today. These are the great, young, innovative players I was hanging out with and learning from. This ended up being a brand new scene.”
It impressed Jordan to hear about the resurgence of jazz musicianship and innovation. He made it clear that he missed the collaborative, free spirited tendencies synonymous with previous generations of jazz musicians.
One Night with Blue Note, Jordan says, represents the “Golden Era of jazz.” “Those artists were playing together in many different combinations,” says Jordan. “Right now, the scene seems fragmented to me.”
On the other hand, an optimistic Jordan, now a software developer and music therapist, offered to become available to Stabile for future recording sessions and performances with current Blue Note artists.
“Whenever I see some of the young musicians coming up, I feel hopeful for the future,” continues Jordan. “I see that this music has a strong hold in the culture that’s gonna keep on going,” continues Jordan.
Blue Note Records is still acknowledged as one of the hubs that preserves jazz music and history. Stabile feels empowered to have contributed in keeping jazz music alive and creating a safe space for creators and artists to be nurtured and appreciated. Stabile hopes going forward that she, along with both Blue Note and Revive, can continue to recognize creative energy and provide a platform to bring good music before the masses.
“It was always a question of what can we do to bring broader, larger audiences to jazz music or creative music,” says Stabile. “We harnessed these new musicians. Music was soul again.”
This post was written by Christopher A. Daniel, pop cultural critic and music editor for the Burton Wire. He is also contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine. Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter.
Fresh from our “what in the hell file?” Google Photos has apologized for tagging black people as ‘Gorillas.’ Taryn Finley of the Huffington Post reported the story of
Jacky Alciné, who checked his Google Photos app earlier this week, and noticed it labeled photos of himself and a friend, both black, as “gorillas.”
“Yonatan Zunger, Google’s chief architect of social, responded on Twitter with a promise to fix the tag. The next day, USA Today reports, Google removed the “gorilla” tag completely.
‘We’re appalled and genuinely sorry that this happened,’ Google spokeswoman Katie Watson said in a statement to BBC. ‘We are taking immediate action to prevent this type of result from appearing. There is still clearly a lot of work to do with automatic image labeling, and we’re looking at how we can prevent these types of mistakes from happening in the future.'”
A clear case of having book sense with no common sense.
AllAfrica.com is reporting 48 people were injured and 44 people died in multiple explosions in Jos on Sunday. Popularly referred to as J-town, Jos is a city located in the middle belt of Nigeria with nearly 1 million residents. The explosions were the work of suicide bombers targeting the Yantana Mosque area of the city. The timing of the blast is particularly concerning because it happened during Ramadan.
Another explosion happened near a restaurant known as “Hajiya Talatu Mai Abinchi”, a popular eating spot in the area, on Bauchi road. It is believed that 13 people were killed at that location. The article states:
“The Director in charge of the North-Central zone of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mohammed Abdulsalam, has put the number of deaths in Sunday night’s bomb attacks on Jos at 44.”
The injured are hospitalized in hospitals throughout the Plateau state capital. Government officials are refuting the number insisting that 18 people died and 18 people were injured. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the blasts as of yet, many news outlets are speculating that Boko Haram is the culprit.
A statement by the Director of Press and Public Affairs to the Governor, Emmanuel Nanle, quoted the state government as condemning the attack, and calling for calm. The statement also urged security agents to intensify checks and patrol across the state to avert recurrence. The spokesperson for the Plateau State Command of the police, Abuh Emmanuel, confirmed the explosions Monday, but declined to disclose casualty figure. Nanle said the data on victims is still being compiled, and no arrest has been made thus far.
Whatever the final count of those dead, it’s one too many.
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson stars in HBO's 'Ballers.'
(Photo: HBO)
Ex-NFL player and Hollywood writer Rashard Mendenhall. (Photo: Facebook)
Ari Goldberg of Business Insider is writing that ex-NFL player Rashard Mendenhall is a writer on HBO‘s new television series, ‘Ballers,’ starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. ‘Balllers’ is a show about an ex-NFL player who retires and transitions to life as an agent. Gilberg writes:
“In 2014, former Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals running back Rashard Mendenhall retired at age 26, walking away from millions in potential earnings. While Mendenhall may no longer be playing, he’s still drawing on his NFL experience as a part of his new job.
Since retiring, Mendenhall, who made more than $13.8 million during his six-year career, joined the Writers Guild of America and worked as a writer on the first season of HBO’s “Ballers,” which aired its series premiere [Sunday, June 21, 2015].”
Mendenhall, who always loved to write, made a very thoughtful decision to retire from professional football and try his hand at another profession. Writing for the Huffington Post, he stated:
“I wasn’t supposed to walk away from the NFL, but I did. I wasn’t supposed to be writing television, but I am. I’m supposed to be lost after football. I’m not. I’ve reinvented myself. This is my first transformation. I’m supposed to be broke right now, or maybe the statistics say five years from now. Either way, I’m not even close. I’m not supposed to be anything but a football player. But really, I’m just a guy who used to play football. There’s a reason I’m doing this.”
Mendenhall’s story (and some others) proves the adage, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover.’
Sonia Manazano starred as 'Maria' on Sesame Street for 44 years.
(Photo Credit: Google Images)
Sonia Manazano starred as ‘Maria’ on Sesame Street for 44 years. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
A collective sigh has been let out as news that Sonia Manzano, who has played the beloved character of ‘Maria’ on PBS’s children’s TV show “Sesame Street” will be leaving the show. Elmo’s bestie is retiring from the iconic series after 44 years on television. Manzano, who is Puerto Rican, was one of the first Latinas to appear on national television. Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post writes:
“Manzano, whose parents came from Puerto Rico, became one of the first Hispanics to appear on national television, in many ways, helping to break down racial and gender barriers. She built a 44-year career playing Maria, a character loosely based on her own life. She was nominated for two Emmy awards for her acting and won 15 others for her writing on the show. Now, she is stepping down.
Earlier this week, Manzano, now 65, announced her retirement at the American Library Association Annual Conference, telling viewers she would not be on the next season of ‘Sesame Street.’ Fans took to social media, saying she was ‘the first Latina I saw on TV in the 70s!’ ‘you taught me my first words in Spanish’ and ‘you played a huge part in my early fascination with other languages and cultures.’
‘What you say is music to my ears!’ Manzano replied. ‘Gracias!’
The Carnegie Mellon graduate, who was raised in the South Bronx, joined the “Sesame Street” cast in 1971, playing a teenager, who worked in a second-hand bookstore. By 1974, she was a regular, soon acting alongside her TV husband, Luis, who was played by Emilio Delgado. She joined other minorities on the show, including Matt Robinson and Loretta Long (who played Gordon and Susan) and Will Lee (who played Jewish store owner Mr. Hooper).
Lillian Cunningham of the Washington Post is reporting that Misty Copeland has been promoted to principal dancer of the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, becoming the first African-American ballerina to reach the elite dance company’s top rank. Cunningham writes:
“Copeland, 32, has become one of America’s most famous female athletes, revered for her unlikely ascendance in an art world notorious for showcasing only lithe, white ballerinas.
And her star power has stretched far beyond dance. She has authored a best-selling memoir, was featured this year on the cover of Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People,’ and has starred in a viral Under Armour ad, twirling amid the reading of a rejection letter declaring she has ‘the wrong body for ballet.’
Copeland, whose new role will start August 1, was widely expected to be among the three women selected as principals this year, following the retirement of longtime American Ballet Theatre dancers Julie Kent, Paloma Herrera and Xiomara Reyes. Copeland has performed many principal-level roles recently, including the female leads in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Firebird,’ but at the rank of soloist.'”
Actress/activist Jada Pinkett-Smith discusses Magic Mike XXL at the St. Regis in Atlanta. (Photo: Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., the Burton Wire)
Writing for The Root, the Burton Wire‘s founder & editor-in-chief Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., interviews Jada Pinkett-Smith about the process of making Magic Mike XXL. Anti-sex trafficking advocate, Pinkett-Smith explains the reservations she had about taking the role, and why she made the difficult decision to star in the film examining the world of adult entertainment. Check out an excerpt below:
EXCERPT
Jada Pinkett Smith has had one heck of a career. The dancer-turned-actress, who got her start on NBC’s A Different World and a slew of roles in 1990s films (Menace to Society, Jason’s Lyric, Set It Off, The Nutty Professor), has risen to A-list status, navigating her way through the precarious maze of Hollywood and the music industry to de facto stardom. A graduate of the illustrious Baltimore School for the Arts, the triple threat has worked steadily in television (Hawthorne, Gotham), films and as lead singer of her metal band, Wicked Wisdom.
Through it all, Pinkett Smith has remained accessible to the public, offering words of advice, encouragement and her sometimes controversial perspective to her fans through a very active social media presence. Pinkett Smith is also an activist, whose causes include fighting human trafficking. Pinkett Smith is producing, with CNN, a documentary on sex trafficking, Don’t Sell Our Bodies, scheduled for release in July.
So Pinkett Smith’s decision to star in Magic Mike XXL may seem perplexing, since many believe that adult entertainment is a gateway to human trafficking. Why would someone committed to exposing the horrors of sex trafficking make a film about male entertainers? Pinkett Smith’s decision to take on the role of Rome, a sexually liberated DJ in the adult-entertainment world, was not done haphazardly.
The actress recognizes the contradiction and addresses it head on when asked if there were any reservations about taking the role.
“I had some reservations because of my work in human trafficking,” says Pinkett Smith. “Through my work, I realized that the sex industry is going to exist. There’s no eradicating it. Instead of focusing on shutting down this industry, I’m really into the idea of bringing responsibility to it.”
Actor Channing Tatum, star and producer of the franchise, was a male entertainer (stripper) before Hollywood called. Pinkett Smith says that talking to him about his past experience gave her more insight about the industry. Her knowledge of human trafficking, coupled with his experiences, made for a “beautiful partnership,” she says. “There are certain things he understands about the industry, the ins and outs, and there was a certain knowledge that I was bringing from my human trafficking advocacy as well. It’s a radical idea—really radical—but I felt like it was important to take a shot.”
Alan Gomez of USA Today is reporting Puerto Rico is days away from a historic economic collapse. Gomez writes:
“Gov. Alejandro García Padilla, who took office two years ago, told Puerto Ricans during a televised address Monday that his government’s attempts to slash expenditures and restructure its debt have failed. He said an analysis by former World Bank and International Monetary Fund officials showed the ‘harsh reality’ of the economic situation.
‘Our public debt…is unpayable,’ he said. ‘The report states even if we increased taxes and cut back spending, the magnitude of the problem is such, because of the weight of the debt we carry, that it would solve nothing.’
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that the Treasury Department has already been providing guidance to the island’s government and that an interagency task force would help identify existing federal funds that it could benefit from. But he said the administration was not considering any kind of bailout for the island of 3.5 million people.
‘There’s no one in the administration or in D.C. that’s contemplating a federal bailout of Puerto Rico,’ Earnest said. ‘But we do remain committed to working with Puerto Rico and their leaders as they address the serious financial challenges.'”
The impact of the default will be disastrous for Puerto Rico, which cannot pay the $72 billion debt. The default coupled with the economic collapse of Greece’s economy could spell trouble for financial markets.
The Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Mass., was set ablaze after the election of President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president in 2008.
(Photo: Google Images)
The Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Mass., was set ablaze after the election of President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president in 2008. (Photo: Google Images)
The Atlantic is reporting six black churches have been set on fire over the last week. The burnings are happening just days after nine people were murdered at a historic black church, Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, during Bible study. The burnings have happened at God’s Power Church of Christ in Macon, Ga., Briar Creek Road Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC, Glover Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Warrenville, SC, College Hill Seventh Day Adventist in Knoxville, TN, Fruitland Presbyterian Church in Gibson County, TN and the Greater Miracle Temple Apostolic Holiness Church in Tallahassee, Florida.
The burning of churches is as American as apple pie, and the burning of black churches is a recurring act of terrorism motivated by racists that believe in white supremacy. Attacking black churches is thought of as a way of attacking a core institution of the black community.
Bryce Covert of Thinkprogress.com reports:
“Black churches have frequently been targets of violence. Since 1956, there have been at least 91 incidents of shootings, bombings, arson, or vandalism against black churches, according to a tally by the Huffington Post. One particular incident stood out during the Civil Rights Movement, when four young girls were killed and 22 were injured at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.
That’s likely a vast undercount, however, given that records from the 1970s and 1980s are scarce. There was a spike in violence in the 90s, with more than 30 black churches burned within 18 months in 1995 and 1996. That led to the passage of the Church Arson Prevention Act in 1996, which gave federal authorities more oversight of such crimes, increased sentencing, and reauthorized the Hate Crimes Statistics Act.
Violence continues today. In 2004, two men admitted to vandalizing the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Roanoke Virginia and causing $77,000 in damage. In 2008, three white men were convicted of burning down the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Massachusetts to protest President Obama’s election. In 2010, a white man firebombed the Faith in Christ Church in Crane, Texas to get in with a white supremacist gang. And in 2013, two white teenagers started a fire at the New Holy Deliverance Outreach Ministry in Axton, Virginia.”
While many preachers have been up-in-arms over the SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality, many have been silent on this issue. We find it criminal and oxymoronic to ignore hate crimes like the burning of black churches while using major platforms to make hateful comments about marriage equality. We won’t even mention the radio silence on the black churches and church members being terrorized and killed in Kenya and Nigeria on regular basis. Shouldn’t there be outrage and action?
This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of the award-winning news blog the Burton Wire. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
