GARY, Indiana — After months of work, West Side Leadership Academy became the site of something rare: a movie premiere that felt like a homecoming. Monday night brought an exclusive early look at Michael, the upcoming biopic tracing Michael Jackson’s rise, with a focus on his roots in Gary. In attendance were Michael’s brothers Jackie […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Economic Development
Why ‘Sinners’ Is Bigger Than the Oscars for Mississippi Residents
Check out Capital B’s Beyond ‘Sinners’: The Stories of Clarksdale, Mississippi, a yearlong project highlighting Black residents reclaiming power and ownership in an area where Blues tourism and development have long excluded them. Clarksdale, Mississippi, resident Chandra Williams is ecstatic that Sinners won big at the Academy Awards on Sunday. The film had a record-breaking […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Culture
Inside BlerdCon, Where Black Nerd Culture Takes Center Stage
ARLINGTON, Virginia – William Beal II drove his prized possession, a 2016 Dodge Charger R/T, through a small makeshift entrance on South Clark Street and parked it with the other cars arriving at BlerdCon, a convention centering Black folks who are into geek culture. Wrapped in the Black Panther colors of black and vibrant purple, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Culture, History
More Than a Singer: How Sam Cooke’s Family Built a Legacy After His Death
CLARKSDALE, Mississippi — Nicole Cooke-Johnson loaded her car full of children’s books and traveled to her grandfather’s hometown, Clarksdale, Mississippi, for the first time in her life. It was a journey as old and as common as the Great Migration. But her grandfather, Sam Cooke, was no ordinary man. Cooke, an iconic, groundbreaking recording artist […]
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This Fugees Album Still Feels Like Home 30 Years Later
Marcia Chatelain remembers that it was almost impossible to turn on the radio in 1996 and not hear the Fugees’ smooth cover of “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” That remake transformed the group’s sophomore album, The Score, which dropped on Feb. 13 of that year, into a decade-defining juggernaut. But The Score was more […]
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Bad Bunny’s Cultural Reach Extends From Stadiums to Syllabi
For Bijou-Elyse Wallace, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance will represent more than just music. Wallace, a Howard University student and devoted fan of the Puerto Rican superstar, is getting ready to host a Super Bowl watch party for the first time ever alongside Changó, the Afro-Latin association at Howard, and the university’s student association. In […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Community
How ‘Sinners’ Keeps Supporting Clarksdale, the Community That Inspired The Film
When Tyler Yarbrough penned an open letter inviting the Sinners film cast and crew to the birthplace of the blues, he sensed that something magical or culturally significant would unfold. However, he didn’t anticipate that, nine months later, people would still feel inspired to contribute to their movement to reinvigorate the culture and heritage of […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Culture
A Black Film Just Made Oscars History With a Record 16 Nominations
Check out Capital B’s Beyond ‘Sinners’: The Stories of Clarksdale, Mississippi, a yearlong project highlighting Black residents reclaiming power and ownership in an area where Blues tourism and development have long excluded them. A decade after the #OscarsSoWhite movement, a Black director’s film has gotten the most nominations ever in the Academy Award’s nearly 100-year […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Economy
Hollywood South Is Hurting: Georgia’s Film Industry Weathers a Brutal Downturn
Atlanta has long been the scene where Black creatives could thrive both behind and in front of the camera. Since the 1970s, when then-Gov. Jimmy Carter launched the Georgia Film Office, the opening of Tyler Perry studios and other large-scale production facilities over the past twenty years, and a favorable film tax credit, the state […]