If you like outdoor festivals and community gatherings, this is a good weekend to get out and about and savor the dwindling days of summer. 4th Annual Little Africa Fest 2017 Come out to St. Paul's ONLY annual African arts and culture festival! It is an outdoor, family-friendly and free event that features African artist performances, music, poetry, dance, … [Read more...]
Arts & Entertainment:
A space for local and national arts and entertainment stories, with an emphasis on stories pertaining to the African American experience.
Silent no more: Local author gives voice to pain of Black mothers
“Being a Superwoman every day, 24/7 is not realistic. Being strong is being able to ask for help. If you don’t, you might not be here [much longer]” said Jasmine Boudah M.Ed (pronounced bow-duh) a teacher by trade, parent advocate at Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, doula, and now a published author. Boudah’s first book, Mothering Through Pain and Suffering in Silence, was … [Read more...]
Third time’s the charm for local ‘Project Runway’ contestant
If at first you don’t succeed…well we know the rest. And that is exactly what Samantha Rei, one of the latest contestants on Lifetime’s long-running hit program Project Runway did when she suffered a disappointing loss in her first bid to get on the show. Rei, who grew up in Hastings, which she describes as a “river town and a southern suburb of Minneapolis” says, “I’ve been … [Read more...]
‘Detroit’ movie screening: personal reflection and audience reaction
After an advance screening of the film Detroit, a patron asked how much of it was real and how much was just a movie. As a Detroit native, I felt like a lyric from Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly”— “Telling my whole life with his words” — while watching director Kathryn Bigelow’s film, based on the real-life 1967 urban disturbance. I was nearly a month away from … [Read more...]
Claustrophobic docudrama revisits ’67 riots
Detroit's '67 riots broke out in the wee hours of July 23, in the wake of a police raid on an unlicensed bar where folks had been toasting a couple of vets who'd recently returned from Vietnam. Word spread like wildfire through the Black community that the cops had arrested all 82 people they found inside, and it wasn't long before mobs began looting and firebombing stores … [Read more...]