Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 14

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

Zapp

Roger Troutman (November 29, 1951 – April 25, 1999), also known mononymously as Roger, was an American composer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and the founder of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the funk movement and heavily influenced west coast hip hop due to the scene’s heavy sampling of his music over the years. Troutman was well known for his use of the talk box, a device that is connected to an instrument (frequently a keyboard, but most commonly a guitar) to create different vocal effects. Roger used a custom-made talkbox—the Electro Harmonix “Golden Throat,” as well as a Moog Minimoog and later in his career a Yamaha DX100 FM synthesizer. As both band leader of Zapp and in his subsequent solo releases, he scored a bevy of funk and R&B hits throughout the 1980s.

Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Roger was the fourth of ten children. He was a late-arriving member of Parliament-Funkadelic and played on the band’s final Warner Brothers’ album The Electric Spanking of War Babies. The first band Roger was in was THE CRUSADERS. The band played in Cincinnati and recorded a 45 record Busted Surfboard and Seminole. The band members were Rick Schoeny, Roy Beck, Dave Spitzmiller, and Denny Niebold. Troutman had formed various other bands with his four brothers, including Little Roger and the Vels and Roger and the Human Body. In 1977, he and the Human Body issued their first single, “Freedom”. Within two years, Roger and his brothers were discovered by George Clinton, who signed the newly christened Zapp to his Uncle Jam Records label in 1979. The original line-up consisted of Roger Troutman, Larry Troutman, Lester Troutman, Terry Troutman, Gregory Jackson and Bobby Glover. Zapp made their professional television debut on the first and only Funk Music Awards show. A year later, as Uncle Jam Records was forced to close, Zapp signed to Warner Bros. Records and released their self-titled debut, which yielded the Bootsy Collins produced & Troutman-composed hit, “More Bounce to the Ounce.” The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Soul Singles chart in the fall of 1980. The debut album reached the top 20 of the Billboard 200 and firmly launched Zapp and Roger into the national spotlight.

Between 1980 and 1985, Zapp released the gold-selling albums Zapp, Zapp II, Zapp III and The New Zapp IV U and released top ten R&B hit singles such as “Be Alright”, “Dance Floor”, “I Can Make You Dance”, “Heartbreaker”, “It Doesn’t Really Matter” – which was a tribute to black artists of the past and present, and the Charlie Wilson and Shirley Murdock-assisted funk ballad, “Computer Love”. Zapp’s hit making magic faded shortly after the release of their fifth album, Zapp Vibe, in 1989. Throughout Zapp’s tenure, the original lineup grew to around fifteen. In 1993, the group scored their biggest-selling album when a compilation album, Zapp & Roger: All the Greatest Hits, was released, featuring remixed cuts of Roger’s solo singles and featuring the new single “Slow and Easy” as well as “Mega Medley”, which put together a collection of the group’s hit singles in a remix. The album sold over two million copies giving the collective their most successful album to date. After the untimely death of Roger and Larry, the remaining brothers have stepped forward with the album, Zapp VI: Back By Popular Demand in 2002.

In 1981, upon the fast-paced success of Zapp’s first album, Troutman cut his first solo album, The Many Facets of Roger. Featuring his frenetic funk cover of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”, the song exploded to number one on the R&B singles chart helping the album sell over a million copies. The album also featured the hit, “So Ruff, So Tuff”, which was similar to “More Bounce…” as were most Roger/Zapp singles during this time. In 1984, Troutman issued his second solo album, The Saga Continues, which featured the singles “Girl Cut It Out”, “It’s in the Mix” – which was dedicated to Soul Train and its host Don Cornelius in one verse, and a cover of Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour”, which featured gospel group The Mighty Clouds of Joy. In 1987, Troutman scored his most successful solo album with Unlimited!, which featured the massive hit, “I Want to Be Your Man”, which rose to number one R&B and number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

Alongside his successful careers as Zapp member and solo star, Troutman also became a hands-on producer and writer for other artists including Shirley Murdock, whose 1985 platinum debut featured the Roger-produced hit, “As We Lay”. He also produced for Zapp member Dale DeGroat on his solo efforts. In 1988, Troutman made an appearance on Scritti Politti’s third album Provision, providing talk box vocals on the songs “Boom There She Was” and “Sugar and Spice”. Three years later, Troutman released his final solo album with Bridging the Gap, featuring the hit “Everybody (Get Up)”. He worked with Elvis Costello as a guest appearance on 1991’s Mighty Like a Rose on the song “The Other Side of Summer”. In 1989, NBA Entertainment selected Troutman among a variety of renowned candidates to record a tribute song called “I’m So Happy” for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who at the time was in the final year of his record-breaking, 20-year career in the NBA.

After the release of All the Greatest Hits, Roger and Zapp existed primarily as a touring group, recording only sporadically. Troutman was starting to be featured on hip-hop songs by this time agreeing to appear on rapper Snoop Dogg’s 1993 debut, Doggystyle. In 1995 he was featured on Eazy-E’s posthumous album Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton on the last track, “Eternal E”, along with DJ Yella. The same year Troutman agreed to enlist vocals on 2Pac and Dr. Dre’s single, “California Love”. The song became Troutman’s biggest-selling and most successful single to date as the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over two million copies giving Troutman a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. This success led to Troutman being included in a top ten R&B hit cover of The Persuaders’ “Thin Line Between Love and Hate”, which he produced and enlisted the talk box alongside Shirley Murdock and R&B group H-Town. The A Thin Line Between Love and Hate movie soundtrack also included a club hit “Chocolate City”. In 1998, he appeared in a remix version of Sounds of Blackness’ “Hold On (A Change Is Coming)”, which sampled Zapp’s “Doo-Wah Ditty (Blow That Thing)”. Throughout the 1990s, Roger was promoted heavily by Timothy Olague Entertainment in shows at emerging Indian Casinos in Arizona and California. Roger’s last recorded guest feature was on the song “Master of The Game” from rapper Kool Keith’s Album Black Elvis/Lost In Space.

On the morning of April 25, 1999, Roger Troutman was found shot and critically wounded outside his northwest Dayton recording studio around 7 a.m. According to doctors, the 47-year-old had been shot several times in the torso and listed in critical condition. Roger died during surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital and Health Center. Roger’s brother Larry was found dead in a car a few blocks away with a single gunshot wound to the head. A pistol was found inside the vehicle, which matched the description of a car leaving the scene of Roger Troutman’s shooting according to witnesses. The gun found with Larry Troutman also matched the one that fired the fatal shots into Roger, suggesting that Larry had shot Roger and then taken his own life.[3] With both men dead, and with no known witnesses, the specific motive for the attack remains unknown. Friends and family could only speculate that the source of a dispute was a rising tension between the brothers over issues such as Larry’s financial troubles and Roger’s desire to dissolve their business partnership.

Troutman, who lived 24 years in the Dayton area, was survived by 6 sons: Roger Lynch (January 31, 1970 – January 22, 2003), Callie Williams, Larry Gates, Lester Gates, Brent Lynch, Ryan Stevens and Taji J. Troutman; 5 daughters: Daun Shazier, Hope Shazier, Summer Gates, Mia Paris Collins, Gene Nicole Anderson; 9 grandchildren, among them are: Lonnie Allen Wright III, Lara Thomas, Joy Love, Ruth Love and Samuel Williams.

Written by Dianne Washington

Nas

On this date in 1973, Nas was born. He is a Black is a Black rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur, and investor.

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. His father, Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), is a jazz and blues musician from Mississippi. His mother, Fannie Ann Little died 2002. She was a Postal Service worker from North Carolina. He has a brother, Jabari Fret, who raps under the name Jungle and is a member of the Bravehearts. His father adopted the name “Olu Dara” from the Yoruba people. “Nasir” is an Arabic name meaning “helper and protector”, while “bin” means “son of” in Arabic.

As a young child, Nas and his family relocated to the Queensbridge Houses in the borough of Queens. His neighbor, Willy “Ill Will” Graham, influenced his interest in hip hop by playing him records. His parents divorced in 1985 and he dropped out of school after the eighth grade. He educated himself about African culture through the Five Percent Nation (a splinter group of the Nation of Islam) and the Nuwaubian Nation. In his early years, he played the trumpet and began writing his own rhymes.

His great-great-great-grandmother, Pocahontas Little, was a slave who was sold for $830. He owns the marriage certificate of his great, great, great grandmother, Pocahontas, and great-great-great-grandfather, Calvin.

His musical career began in 1991, as a featured artist on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque”. His debut album Illmatic (1994) received universal acclaim from both critics and the hip-hop community and is frequently ranked as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. Nas’s follow-up It Was Written debuted atop the Billboard 200, and stayed there for four consecutive weeks, and made Nas internationally known. On June 15, 1994, Nas’s ex-fiancée Carmen Bryan gave birth to their daughter, Destiny. She later confessed to Nas that she had a relationship with Jay-Z, also accusing Jay-Z of putting subliminal messages in his lyrics about their relationship together, causing an even bigger rift in the feud between the two hit rap music giants. From 2001 to 2005, Nas was involved in a highly publicized feud with Jay-Z, popularized by the diss track “Ether”.

Nas signed to Def Jam in 2006. In 2006, MTV ranked Nas fifth on their list of “The Greatest MCs of All Time”. In 2010, he released Distant Relatives, a collaboration album with Damian Marley, donating all royalties to charities active in Africa. His 11th studio album, Life Is Good (2012) was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2012, The Source ranked him second on their list of the “Top 50 Lyricists of All Time”. In 2013, Nas was ranked 4th on MTV’s “Hottest MCs in the Game” list. About.com ranked him first on their list of the “50 Greatest MCs of All Time” in 2014, and a year later, Nas was featured on the “10 Best Rappers of All Time” list by Billboard.

He is also an entrepreneur through his own record label; he serves as associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine and the co-founder of Mass Appeal Records. Nas is a spokesperson and mentor for P’Tones Records, a non-profit after-school music program with the mission “to create constructive opportunities for urban youth through no-cost music programs.” He is a cousin of American actress Yara Shahidi. In 2005, he married R&B singer Kelis in Atlanta after a two-year relationship. Kelis gave birth to Nas’s first son on July 21, 2009, the couple’s divorce was finalized on May 21, 2010. In January 2012 Nas was involved in a dispute with a concert promoter in Angola, having accepted $300,000 for a concert in Luanda, Angola’s capital for New Year’s Eve and then not showing up. As of the end of the month, Nas returned all $300,000 and after 49 days of the travel ban, Allocco and his son were both released.

Written by Dianne Washington

Ruben Studdard

Ruben Studdard (born September 12, 1978) is an American singer and actor. He rose to fame as winner of the second season of American Idol and received a Grammy Award nomination in 2003 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his recording of “Superstar”. In the years following Idol, Studdard has released seven studio albums, including his platinum-selling debut, Soulful, and the top-selling gospel follow-up, I Need an Angel. He is most well known for his recording career, which has produced hits including “Flying Without Wings”, “Sorry 2004”, and “Change Me”, but he has also segued into television and stage work. Most notably, he starred as Fats Waller in a national tour revival of Ain’t Misbehavin’, which spawned a Grammy-nominated soundtrack.

In 2013, Studdard appeared as a contestant on the fifteenth season of weight-loss competition show The Biggest Loser. He later signed to Verve Records and collaborated with the label’s chairman, David Foster, on Studdard’s sixth studio album, Unconditional Love, in 2014. That album received strong reviews as a return-to-form and included a tour with Lalah Hathaway. In 2018, Studdard, who has long been compared to R&B singer Luther Vandross, released a cover album called Ruben Sings Luther and launched his Always & Forever national tour.

He made his Broadway theatre debut in December 2018 in Ruben & Clay’s First Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular Reunion Show (aka Ruben & Clay’s Christmas Show) at the Imperial Theatre.

Studdard was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, to American parents, while his father was stationed there with the U.S. Army, and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. The youngest son of two teachers, at the age of three, he sang for the first time at the Rising Star Baptist Church in his hometown of Birmingham. He continued singing gospel in church, performing solos as a child while his mother sang in the local choir. While at Huffman High School, he played football for which he received a scholarship to Alabama A&M University. While at Alabama A&M, he joined the Omicron Delta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the men’s music fraternity of America.

After growing up listening to his mother’s Donny Hathaway albums, Fred Hammond, and gospel music, Studdard began to pursue a career in the music industry, majoring in voice studies at Alabama A&M. He sang with Just a Few Cats, a popular local Birmingham jazz and R&B band founded by members of Ray Reach’s UAB Jazz Ensemble, along with other local musicians. Years later, Studdard stated: “A lot of people don’t realize how hard I was trying to get into the business before American Idol. I was making demos and just working so hard.” A back-up singer from Just a Few Cats asked him to accompany her to Nashville, Tennessee for an audition on the 2003 second season of American Idol.

Studdard met Surata Zuri McCants in October 2006, when he was signing CDs at a Wal-Mart in Atlanta. On June 28, 2008, Studdard married McCants in a short, private ceremony in Mountain Brook, Alabama. On November 16, 2011, Studdard’s attorney announced that Studdard was in the process of a divorce. Studdard’s divorce was finalized in April 2012.

Studdard received an honorary Master of Arts degree from his alma mater of Alabama A&M University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Vocal Studies, at its December 2015 commencement ceremony. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity. In 2022, it was announced that Studdard would teach a masterclass for performing arts majors at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Written Dianne Washington

Nell Carter

Nell Carter was born on this date in 1948. She was an African American singer and actress.

From Birmingham, Alabama while growing up, Carter listened to her mother’s recordings of Dinah Washington and B. B. King, and her brother’s Elvis Presley records. She liked Doris Day, the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Mathis, and admired the work of Cleo Laine and Barbra Streisand. Early in her career, she performed as a singer on the gospel circuit. She moved on to coffeehouses and nightclubs in her hometown, before going on to New York.

While there Carter started out as a cabaret performer, then leaped to stardom in the musical revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” for which she won a Tony award. She continued in theater with a revival of “Annie,” where she won the Outer Circle Critics Award, the Obie, and the Drama Desk Award. On TV, Carter worked on the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope” and the prime-time series “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo” as police sergeant Hildy Jones.

In 1981 Carter had her biggest TV hit was on the sitcom “Gimme a Break” which ran until 1987. In 1990, she was in the short-lived series “You Take the Kids” and from 1993 to 1995 she appeared in the recurring role of Mark Curry’s boss in “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper”. Carter also appeared in TV-movies, including the musical “Cindy” 1978, she also played the mother of ill-fated athlete Hank Gathers in “Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story” 1992 “Maid for Each Other” later that same year.

Carter’s musical specials have a been many, a guest appearance on “Baryshnikov on Broadway” 1980; “Ain’t Misbehavin'” 1981; and “Evening at the Pops” 1987. Carter’s feature film appearances included “Black Boys/White Boys,” Milos Forman’s “Hair” 1979, “Modern Problems” and “Back Roads” both in 1981. In 1992, Carter’s voice was featured for the animated feature “Bebe’s Kids”. She has also performed in Las Vegas, headlined a 1991 Los Angeles revival of “Hello, Dolly!” with an African-American cast and played the villainous Miss Hannigan in the 1996-97 revival of the stage musical “Annie”.

Her last appearance was an episode of “Touched By an Angel” in 2001. Nell Carter died from complications of diabetes on January 23, 2003.

Written by Dianne Washington

Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96

Queen Elizabeth II the longest-serving monarch in British history — has died.

The Royal Family announced Thursday, “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon” … just a few hours after the palace had announced she was under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle, her estate in Scotland.

They also made it clear, King Charles ill be in power, writing, “The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”

King Charles just released a statement. He says “the death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family.”

“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.”

“During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.”