Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 12

Ben Vereen

Ben Vereen (born October 10, 1946) is an American actor, dancer, and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway theatre shows. Vereen graduated from Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts.

Vereen was born Benjamin Augustus Middleton on October 10, 1946, in Miami, Florida. While still an infant, Vereen and his family relocated to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. He was adopted by James Vereen, a paint-factory worker, and his wife, Pauline, who worked as a maid and theatre wardrobe mistress. He discovered he was adopted when he applied for a passport to join Sammy Davis, Jr. on a tour of “Golden Boy” to London when he was 25. He was raised Pentecostal.

During his pre-teen years, he exhibited an innate talent for drama and dance and often performed in local variety shows. At the age of 14, Vereen enrolled at the High School of Performing Arts, where he studied under world-renowned choreographers Martha Graham, George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins. Upon his graduation, he struggled to find suitable stage work and was often forced to take odd jobs to supplement his income. He was 18 years old when he made his New York stage bow off-off Broadway in The Prodigal Son at the Greenwich Mews Theater. By the following year, he was in Las Vegas, performing in Bob Fosse’s production of Sweet Charity, a show with which he toured in 1967–68. He returned to New York City to play Claude in Hair in the Broadway production, before joining the national touring company.

The following year, he was cast opposite Davis in the film adaptation of Sweet Charity. After developing a rapport with Davis, Vereen was cast as his understudy in the upcoming production of Golden Boy, which toured England and ended the run at the Palladium Theatre in London’s West End.

He was nominated for a Tony Award for Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972 and won a Tony for his appearance in Pippin in 1973. Vereen appeared in the Broadway musical Wicked as the Wizard of Oz in 2005. Vereen has also performed in one-man shows and actively lectures on black history and inspirational topics.

Vereen has also starred in numerous television programs, and is well known for the role of ‘Chicken’ George Moore in Alex Haley’s landmark TV miniseries Roots, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 1977.

Vereen’s four-week summer variety series, Ben Vereen … Comin’ At Ya, aired on NBC in August 1975 and featured regulars Lola Falana, Avery Schreiber and Liz Torres.

In 1978, on a Boston Pops TV special, Vereen performed a tribute to Bert Williams, complete with period makeup and attire, and reprising Williams’ high-kick dance steps, to vaudeville standards such as “Waitin’ for the Robert E. Lee”.

He was cast opposite Jeff Goldblum in the short-lived detective series Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980). During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Vereen worked steadily on television with projects ranging from the sitcom Webster to the drama Silk Stalkings.

In 1985, Vereen starred in the Faerie Tale Theatre series as Puss in Boots alongside Gregory Hines. He appeared on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Excuse”, in which he played Will Smith’s biological father, Lou Smith. He made several appearances on the 1980s sitcom Webster as the title character’s biological uncle.

He also appeared as Mayor Ben (a leopard) on the children’s program Zoobilee Zoo and as Itsy Bitsy Spider in Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme. In 1993 he appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Interface”, as the father of Roots co-star LeVar Burton’s Geordi LaForge – fellow Roots star Madge Sinclair portrayed his wife (Geordi’s mother) as well. In Roots, Vereen had played “Chicken George”, the grandson of another Burton character, Kunta Kinte. He also appeared on the television series The Nanny episode “Pishke Business”. In 2010, he appeared on the television series How I Met Your Mother episodes “Cleaning House” and “False Positive” as Sam Gibbs, the long lost father of James Gibbs, Barney Stinson’s brother. He returned in 2013 and 2014 for another two episodes.

Written by Dianne Washington

Toni Braxton

Toni Michele Braxton (born October 7, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, actress, and television personality. Braxton has sold over 67 million records worldwide, including 41 million albums. She is one of the highest-selling female R&B artists in history. Braxton has won seven Grammy Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, seven American Music Awards, and numerous other accolades. In 2011, Braxton was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

Written Dianne Washington

Al Sharpton

Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, television/radio talk show host and a former White House adviser for President Barack Obama. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts his own radio talk show, Keepin’ It Real, and he makes regular guest appearances cable news television. In 2011, he was named the host of MSNBC’s PoliticsNation, a nightly talk show. In 2015, the program was shifted to Sunday mornings.

Sharpton’s supporters praise “his ability and willingness to defy the power structure that is seen as the cause of their suffering” and consider him “a man who is willing to tell it like it is.” Former Mayor of New York City Ed Koch, a one-time foe, said that Sharpton deserves the respect he enjoys among black Americans: “He is willing to go to jail for them, and he is there when they need him.” President Barack Obama said that Sharpton is “the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden.” A 2013 Zogby Analytics poll found that one quarter of African Americans said that Sharpton speaks for them.

His critics describe him as “a political radical who is to blame, in part, for the deterioration of race relations”. Sociologist Orlando Patterson has referred to him as a racial arsonist, while liberal columnist Derrick Z. Jackson has called him the black equivalent of Richard Nixon and Pat Buchanan. Sharpton sees much of the criticism as a sign of his effectiveness. “In many ways, what they consider criticism is complimenting my job,” he said. “An activist’s job is to make public civil rights issues until there can be a climate for change.

Written by Dianne Washington

Patrice Rushen

Patrice Louise Rushen (born September 30, 1954) is an American jazz pianist and R&B singer. She is also a composer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and music director. Her 1982 single, “Forget Me Nots”, received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Rushen had great success on the R&B and dance charts. “Haven’t You Heard” went number 7 on the R&B charts, with “Forget Me Nots” as her only top 40 pop hit.

Rushen is the elder of two daughters born to Allen and Ruth Rushen. In her teens, she attended south LA’s Locke High School and went on to earn a degree in music from the University of Southern California. Rushen married Marc St. Louis, a concert tour manager and live show production specialist, in 1986. They have one son Cameron. Her nickname is “Babyfingers,” a reference to her small hands. In 2005, Rushen received an Honorary Doctorate of Music degree from Berklee College of Music. She has been a member of jazz fusion band CAB.

Her song “Hang it Up” was featured on the 2005 video game Fahrenheit.

The chorus from “Forget Me Nots” was used as the music for the 1997 song “Men in Black”. The song was a number one hit in ten countries, and was the top most played song on American radio. Rushen was credited as writer and composer, along with Will Smith and Terri McFadden.

The same chorus can also be heard in George Michael’s song “Fastlove”

Written by Dianne Washington

Don Cornelius

Don Cornelius was born on this date in 1936. He was a Black television show host and producer.

Donald Cortez Cornelius was born in Chicago in 1936. After high school, he sold insurance before becoming one of the early employees of Chicago’s WVON radio. During that time as a radio journalist inspired by the American Civil Rights movement, Cornelius recognized that in the late 1960s there was no television venue in America for Soul Music.

It was here where Cornelius introduced many Black musicians to a larger audience as a result of their appearances on the Soul Train television show a program that was both influential among African Americans and popular with a wider audience. As a writer, producer, and host of Soul Train, Cornelius was instrumental in offering wider exposure to Black musicians like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Michael Jackson, as well as creating opportunities for talented dancers that would presage subsequent television dance programs. Cornelius said, “We had a show that kids gravitated to.”

Besides his smooth and deep voice, Cornelius is best known for the catchphrase that he used to close the show: “… and you can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas, honey! I’m Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace, and soul!”

The nationally syndicated dance/music franchise Soul Train, which he hosted from 1971 to 1993. After Cornelius’s departure, it was shortened to “…and as always, we wish you love, peace, and soul!” and was used through the most recent new episodes in 2006. Another introductory phrase he often used was: “We got another sound comin’ out of Philly that’s a sure ‘nough dilly”.

Cornelius sold the show to MadVision Entertainment in 2008. The 2008 Soul Train Music Awards ceremony was not held due to the WGA strike and the end of Tribune Entertainment complicating the process of finding a new distributor to air the ceremony and line up the stations to air it. The awards show was moved in 2009 to Viacom’s cable channel (formerly BET J), which now airs Soul Train in reruns.

Cornelius appeared at the 2009 BET Awards to present The O’Jays with the 2009 BET Lifetime Achievement Award. On October 17, 2008, Cornelius was arrested at his Los Angeles home on Mulholland Drive on a felony domestic violence charge. He was released on bail. Cornelius appeared in court on November 14, 2008, and was charged with spousal abuse and dissuading a witness from filing a police report. Cornelius appeared in court again on December 4, 2008, and pleaded not guilty to spousal abuse and was banned from going anywhere near his estranged wife, Victoria Avila-Cornelius, who had filed two restraining orders against him.

On March 19, 2009, he changed his plea to no contest and was placed on 36 months of probation. On February 1, 2012, police responding to a report of a shooting found Cornelius at his home at around 4 a.m. He was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound at 4:56 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Written by Dianne Washington

Winnie Mandela

Winnie Mandela was born on this date in 1936. She was a Black African anti-apartheid activist and policy advocate.

From Bizana, Eastern Cape province, she was one of nine children in her family. During her infant years her father, Columbus, was a local history teacher. In later years he was the minister of the Transkei Governments’ Forestry and Agriculture Department during Kaizer Matanzima’s rule. Her mother, Nomathamsanqa Mzaidume (Gertrude), was a science teacher.

As a young girl, her family moved around within the former Transkei, due to her father’s work. She attended primary school in Bizana but when she was nine years old, the family moved to eMbongweni, where as well as attending school, Winnie would help her father to labor on the farm. This helped create a closer bond with her father, who was known for his aloofness despite wielding a great love for his children. Winnie Madikizela studied social work at the Jan Hofmeyr School.

She became a political activist at an early age in her job as a hospital social worker and in 1958, she married Nelson Mandela. After her husband was jailed for life in 1964 for sabotage and plotting to overthrow the government, Madikizela-Mandela campaigned tirelessly for his release and emerged as a prominent anti-apartheid figure in her own right, undergoing detention, banishment, and arrest. On Feb. 11, 1990, as she walked hand-in-hand with her Nelson Mandela out of Victor Verster prison, near Cape Town she punched the air in the clenched-fist salute of black power.

For her and her husband, it was a crowning moment that led four years later to the end of centuries of white domination when he became South Africa’s first Black president. But their marriage began to fall apart in the years to come. The end of apartheid marked the start of a string of legal and political troubles for Madikizela-Mandela. As evidence emerged in the dying years of apartheid of the brutality of her Soweto enforcers, the “Mandela United Football Club”, her soubriquet switched from “Mother” of the nation to “Mugger”.

Blamed for the killing of activist Stompie Seipei, who was found near her Soweto home with his throat cut, she was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping and assaulting the 14-year-old because he was suspected of being an informer. Her six-year jail term was reduced on appeal to a fine. The couple divorced in 1996, nearly four decades after they were married. They had two children together.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who emerged as a combative anti-apartheid campaigner during her husband Nelson Mandela’s decades in jail but whose reputation was later tarnished by allegations of violence, died on April 2nd, 2018 at the age of 81. President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “Winnie Mandela leaves a huge legacy and, as we say in African culture, a gigantic tree has fallen.” An official memorial service was held for Madikizela-Mandela on April 11 and a national funeral on April 14, 2018.

Written by Dianne Washington

Lou Myers

Lou Myers was born on this date in 1935. He was a Black actor.

Lou Leabengula Myers was born in Chesapeake, West Virginia, the son of Dorothy Jeffries Brown. Myers guest-starred on a variety of TV shows, from “NYPD Blue” to “Touched by an Angel,” but he was best known for his five-season stint on the “Cosby Show” spinoff as Vernon Gaines, owner of The Pit and curmudgeonly father figure to the students of Hillman College where he played restaurant owner Mr. Gaines on “A Different World.”

Myers won an NAACP Image Award for his role as the Stool Pigeon in the August Wilson play, King Hedley II. He also won the Off-Broadway AUDELCO Award for his role in the play, Fat Tuesday. In 2005 the Appalachian Education Initiative listed Myers as one of 50 “Outstanding Creative Artists” from the State of West Virginia and featured him in their coffee table book “Art & Soul”.

Lou Myers died on February 20, 2013, at the Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia after battling pneumonia for several months; he was 76 years old.

Written by Dianne Washington

Serena Williams

Serena Williams was born on this date in 1981. She is a Black tennis player and entrepreneur and the younger sister of tennis player Venus Williams.

Serena Jameka Williams was born in Saginaw, MI. When she and her four sisters were young, their parents, Richard and Oracene, moved in Compton, CA. She won her first tournament and eventually entered 49 tournaments before the age of 10, winning 46 of them. At one point, she replaced her sister Venus as the number one ranked tennis player aged 12 or under in California. She never bragged about all her winnings.

Her Professional carrier singles wins are over 834-144, doubles titles, 73, singles titles 23 and she has amassed almost 40 titles between the two events. She has won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic gold medal in women’s doubles. In 2005, Tennis magazine ranked her as the 17th-best player of the preceding 40 years. She resides in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, with her sister Venus.

Williams has her own line of designer clothing called Aneres, her first name spelled backward, that she plans to sell in boutiques in Miami and Los Angeles. Venus also has appeared as one of her models, showing her latest designs.

Serena Williams has won 6 Wimbledon Tennis Singles titles, 6 Australian and 6 US Open titles. Sh is married to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Ohanian proposed to Williams on December 10, 2016 in Rome. In September 2017, Williams gave birth to a daughter.

Written by Dianne Washington

Will Smith

Willard Carroll Smith Jr. (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, producer, comedian, rapper and songwriter. In April 2007, Newsweek called him “the most powerful actor in Hollywood”. Smith has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.

In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the NBC television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran for six seasons until 1996. After the series ended, Smith transitioned from television to film, and has gone on to star in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office, eleven consecutive films gross over $150 million internationally, and eight consecutive films in which he starred, open at the number one spot in the domestic box office tally.

Smith has been ranked as the most bankable star worldwide by Forbes. As of 2014, 17 of the 21 films in which he has had leading roles have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million each, five taking in over $500 million each in global box office receipts. As of 2016, his films have grossed $7.5 billion at the global box office. For his performances as boxer Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001) and stockbroker Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), Smith received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Smith was born on September 25, 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Caroline (Bright), a Philadelphia school board administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith Sr., U.S. Air Force veteran and refrigeration engineer. He grew up in West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood, and was raised Baptist. He has an elder sister named Pamela and two younger siblings, twins Harry and Ellen. Smith attended Our Lady of Lourdes, a private Catholic elementary school in Philadelphia. His parents separated when he was 13, but did not actually divorce until around 2000.

Smith attended Overbrook High School. While it has been widely reported that Smith turned down a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he never applied to college because he “wanted to rap.” Smith says he was admitted to a “pre-engineering [summer] program” at MIT for high school students, but he did not attend. According to Smith, “My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college.

Written by Dianne Washington

Yung Joc

Jasiel Amon Robinson (born September 20, 1980), better known by his stage name Yung Joc, is an American rapper. He is best known for his hit single “It’s Goin’ Down”.

Robinson’s father, Stanley Tucker, owned a hair-care products company and helped him get an opportunity to write a jingle for Revlon. Robinson followed in his father’s entrepreneurial footsteps and founded his own label to release his music.

Yung Joc met Atlanta producer Nitti Beatz and the two recorded the hit “It’s Goin Down” in the spring of 2005. After teaming with Russell “Block” Spencer, founder of the Block Enterprises label, Spencer signed Joc to Sean Combs’s Bad Boy South for a multimillion-dollar deal, and Bad Boy released Joc’s debut New Joc City that year.

Yung Joc was also featured on the songs “Show Stopper” by Danity Kane (from Diddy’s Making The Band 4) & Cassie’s album track Call U Out. Yung Joc was on 2006 “Forbes’ Richest Rappers List”, ranking at #20, having grossed approximately $10 million that year. “It’s Goin’ Down” reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. The next single, “I Know U See It”, reached #17 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Hot Rap Tracks.

Joc’s next album, Hustlenomics, was released in 2007, with the singles “Coffee Shop” and “Bottle Poppin'”. Hustlenomics sold 69,000 copies in its first week of release, debuting at number three on the Billboard 200. As of April 2009, it has sold approximately 197,000 copies according to Nielsen Soundscan. In 2007 Yung Joc was featured on his new artist Hotstylz single “Lookin Boy”. During 2008 Yung Joc was featured in the hit singles on “Get Like Me, “So Fly” & “Beep”. Then in 2009 he was featured on Day26 single Imma Put It on Her. Yung Joc released a mixtape entitled Grind Flu for free on his label website Swagg Team Entertainment on August 11, 2009.

Yung Joc recently released his first single from the album Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood entitled “Yeah Boy”. They have also recently shot & released the music video for the single. Yung Joc has also stated in a December 26 interview that he would love to work with New York-based producer DJ Premier for a couple of tracks. The second single has been confirmed as “I Know What She Like” that features Yo Gotti.

On October 7, 2012, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding J Records along with Arista Records and Jive Records. With the shutdown, Joc (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) were to release his future material (including Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood) on the RCA Records brand.

On March 18, 2014 Joc released his first official single entitled “I Got Bitches” from his upcoming third album.[9][10] On September 11, 2014 Joc released his second single from his upcoming album entitled “Features” featuring former collaborator & singer T-Pain.

In 2010, Joc formed a new record label through Jive Records, called Swagg Team Entertainment, after a widely publicized lawsuit with Block Entertainment and Bad Boy South. Joc spoke about the lawsuit and his relationship with Diddy in a recent interview.

Swagg Team Entertainment saw their debut from Chicago rap group Hotstylz; with their first single “Lookin Boy”. It also saw the debut from Dallas rap group GS Boyz; their first single being “Stanky Legg.”

In December 2011, Joc’s recording studio for his label Swagg Team was robbed, and the criminals took about $70,000 worth of studio equipment along with a hard drive containing Joc’s unreleased music for his third studio album. It later was announced that one of the robbers identity was revealed by Joc. Joc knew one of the robbers named “Honcho” of Thomaston, Georgia.

As of 2015, Joc has eight children by four women: Amoni, Ja’Kori, Amir, Chase, twins Cadence and Camora, and twins Eden and Allon.

He’s married to Kendra Robinson, as of now.

Written by Dianne Washington