Tag: actor

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Hip-hop’s African ancestry at Odyssey Awards

Beverly Fab5 and Kofi at H20Last Saturday I attended the 5th Annual Hip-Hop Odyssey (H2O) Awards, held at BB Kings in New York City. Organized by the Hip-Hop Association, the awards ceremony recognized today’s hottest Hip-Hop filmmakers, industry professionals and pioneers. The event always features appearances and performances by Hip-Hop heavyweights. This year’s event, as usual, was packed with many of the individuals who have played a major part in shaping the hip-hop landscape including, artist/entrepreneur/hip-hop personality Fab 5 Freddy (that’s him in the picture standing in front of me as we listen to DJ Beverly Bond speak about YO! MTV Raps’ late producer Ted Demme), Ice-T (who gave an excellent acceptance speech about staying true to oneself), Dana Dane, Grand Wizard Theodore, (Dr.) Roxanne Shante, Ralph McDaniels (Video Music Box), The Cold Crush Brothers, Chubb Rock and much more.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about the awards and the preceding H2O International Film Festival, is how the organizers (Martha Diaz, Rolando Brown etc) make a conscious effort to show the influence of African (and international) cultures on the growth of America’s hip-hop/urban culture. A few years back, besides the performance by the Nomadic Wax Global Hip-hop All-stars’ Chosan (Sierra Leone) , Eli Efi (Brazil) , and El Gambina (Korea), the festival grand prize went to Hip-Hop Colony, a film about the African hip-hop explosion – now on DVD. This year Hip-Hop Colony’s Kenyan director, Michael Wanguhu, was on hand to present an award. To further encourage the hip-hop generation to connect with Africa, this year’s awards was sponsored by and involved a presentation by popular DNA lineage identification company African Ancestry Inc. Some of you might remember that African Ancestry Inc. was the company behind VH1’s Spike Lee-directed February (Black History month) spot which promoted a stronger connection between African-Americans and the African continent through DNA swab testing. African Ancestry’s President, Gina Paige, was on hand at this year’s H2O Awards ceremony to present the evening’s host, Paul Mooney, with his personal DNA test results. Upon revealing that Paul Mooney’s lineage goes back to Guinea-Bissau (I don’t remember which specific ethnic group was cited), Gina Paige presented Mr. Mooney with a folder containing the details of the tests as well as a t-shirt with a Guinea-Bissau logo. A very nice touch.

African Ancestry offers a great solution for African-Americans looking to re-connect with their African heritage. With the DNA procedure gaining popularity and support from African-American celebrities like Oprah, Whoopi Goldberg, LeVar Burton, Chris Tucker, Chris Rock, and Isaiah Washington – who also holds a seat on African Ancestry’s Board of Directors -, and media outlets from ABC’s Good Morning America to PBS championing the efforts, African Ancestry has already begun to solidify the link between African-American and African cultures.

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Top African-American talent plan trip to African Union Summit, Ghana

African Union Summit Hollywood Group

On Friday, June 15th, some of Hollywood’s most influential African-American talent got together at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, California for a panel discussion on promoting African-American interest in Africa. The meeting also served to organize a trip to attend the 9th Annual African Union Summit in Ghana next week. The gathering was organized by designer Ozwald Boateng, and included Jamie Foxx, Chris Tucker, Mos Def, Herbie Hancock, James Mathis, and Isaiah Washington – whose Gondobay Manga Foundation was started after he discovered that he is genetically linked to Sierra Leone’s Mende people. During the African Union Summit, held in Ghana from 25 June – 3 July 2007, 50 influential African-Americans will meet with the 53 attending African presidents to discuss the continent’s future. The African Union Summit’s ultimate goal is of full political and economic integration leading to the United States of Africa. It’s good to see African-Americans playing an active part in planning Africa’s future.

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Vogue, Keira Knightley donate food & Louis Vuitton to African elephant’s rehab

Keira Knightley gives baby elephant Louis Vuitton fro VogueThe concept for the June 2007 Vogue magazine cover story is a diary of British actress Keira Knightley’s “vacation in Africa” – more specifically Kenya. While the idea was probably someone’s eureka moment for an interesting feature, the resulting shoot and story is another re-hashing of Out of Africa. The fashion blogosphere has taken issue with one image in particular where the actress is photographed feeding a baby elephant which has been draped with a leather Louis Vuitton blanket.

After lunch at the Giraffe Manor, a hotel near Nairobi where giraffes roam the grounds, Keira donned a chic gray Bottega Veneta frock to visit the baby elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Mbagathi, the only successful project in the world at rehabilitating orphaned elephants into the wild. Her diary entry for that day reads, “Today everyone tried to catch the baby elephants so we could put Louis Vuitton blankets on their backs. I’ve never seen anything more brilliantly stupid. I hope Louis Vuitton like it; they should definitely give the elephant a modeling contract.” – via Style.com

The fashion spread also includes a photo of the actress “roughing it” with some Maasai herdsmen- how original -, and some other shots of Ms. Knightley living out her rugged Africa dreams (circa 1910). I know Vogue is not the most progressive magazine, however you’d think that with all the resources they have the editors can find a creative way to tie in the Africa theme. They could have at least hired a photographer like Andrew Dosunmu, Marc Baptiste, or Stanley Lumax to lend their unique talent to the idea. But it just goes to prove how the perspective of Africa in popular culture is so limited. We can say that the editors at Vogue are at fault but, the true failure of the whole feature is with the Africans involved in the shoot who perhaps felt they had no choice but to offer their resources up to strengthen an image of Africa which ultimately would limit their ability to grow out of the early 1900’s image of the continent. This is why I place so much weight on the shoulders of those of us who live and work abroad to act as ambassadors and communicate our experiences constantly. One might say that the Vogue spread is just poor execution, however, the underlying theme is the real problem. The campaign to re-brand Africa has to take place both on the continent and abroad in order for it to be a success. It’s a tough job but the alternative is worse.

more images via imnotobsessed
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This week in African Style 4/7 – 4/13/07

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African Film Festival returns to New York

Taye Diggs in Drum at African Film FestivalThe African Film Festival returns to New York for it’s 13th installment. This year’s theme, Africa in Transition Today, explores contemporary African issues like the effects of war, personal tales of displacement, the HIV/AIDS plague, and the search for reconciliation The Festival will spotlight a wide array of U.S. premieres of internationally-acclaimed films, including Drum starring Taye Diggs from South African director Zola Maseko, which screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and the U.S. premiere of U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, an exquisite adaptation of Bizet’s opera “Carmen” that won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear Award. Other highlights include the first-ever section spotlighting filmmakers from the Maghreb and a program of short films from South Africa that explores issues of sexuality and gender. The month-long event is co-presented by the African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) and the Film Society at Lincoln Center.

13th Annual New York African Film Festival
When: Wed 4.26 – Mon 5.29
Where: Various locations
Price: $5-10
Schedule: http://www.africanfilmny.org

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Actor Don Cheadle documents Uganda’s “Night Commuters”

Don Cheadle with family in UgandaIn May of 2005, Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle (Crash, Ocean’s Eleven, Traffic, Boogie Nights) traveled with his family to Kampala, Uganda to attend a charity screening of his award-winning film Hotel Rwanda. The screening was held to raise money for a group of children called the “night commuters”. They are called “night commuters” because every night they must flee their homes seeking refuge in large camps in the cities to keep from being kidnapped, dragged into the bush and ultimately forced to fight against the Ugandan government for the rebel Lords Resistance Army.

The Cheadles and a group of filmmakers traveled 5 hours outside the capital to the town of Gulu to see for themselves how these kids and their families are forced to live. Filmmaker and longtime ABC News producer Rick Wilkinson documented what they found in a 24-minute short called Journey Into Sunset. The documentary examines the lives and experiences of several of these boys and girls. Some of them have been able to avoid being kidnapped. Others who weren’t so lucky. They lived or died at the will and whim of their captors. They were forced to fight. And some committed horrible atrocities.

“Journey Into Sunset” will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC on April 26, where both Mr. Wilkinson and producer John Prendergast will be present for a Q&A. The film will also be screening at the Boston Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival in June. Rick Wilkinson is a 4-time Emmy Award winner who has traveled the world, covering many of the pivotal news events as a producer for ABC television’s Nightline.

Info: Boing Boing

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Mixtress X site launch

mixtressx.jpgNY-based Liberian director Dante Kaba has launched the site for his film Mistress X. The film is a documentary about hip-hop’s under-appreciated female djs. From NYC’s Beverly Bond & Atlanta’s Shortee (Fauste and Shortee), to radio host Wendy Williams, the film shines light on the struggles of being a female dj in a male-dominated industry. A must see.