(blackmediaSCOOP) That tv cat fight between Iyanla Vanzant and Oprah Winfrey is paying off! Iyanla’s latest book“Peace From Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through”is now aNewYorkTimesbestseller! You may remember, Iyanla enjoyed regular segments as a self-help guru on “Oprah” until a falling out ended her appearances 10 years ago. In February she returned to the show for a no-holds-barred interview that aired in two parts.
The two finally got to the bottom of the miscommunication that forced them to go their separate ways, which left Iyanla broke and on the verge of committing suicide. FYI,“Peace From Broken Pieces,”is published talk show host/author Tavis Smiley’s SmileyBooks. It currently sits at #1 on the Times’ Hardcover Advice & Misc. list.
If you are a creative person and pursuing a career in a creative industry and/or field, you should check out Elizabeth Gilbert's lecture on TED Talks.
Elizabeth attended New York University, where she studied political science by day and worked on her short stories by night. After college, she spent several years traveling around the country, working in bars, diners and ranches, collecting experiences to transform into fiction. These explorations eventually formed the basis of her first book - a short story collection calledPILGRIMS, which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award. During these early years in New York, she also worked as a journalist for such publications as Spin, GQ and The New York Times Magazine. She was a three-time finalist for The National Magazine work, and an article she wrote in GQ about her experiences bartending on the Lower East Side eventually became the basis for the movieCOYOTE UGLY.
In 2000, Elizabeth published her first novel,STERN MEN(a story of brutal territory wars between two remote fishing islands off the coast of Maine) which was a New York Times Notable Book. In 2002, Elizabeth publishedTHE LAST AMERICAN MAN- the true story of the modern day woodsman Eustace Conway. This book, her first work of non-fiction, was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Elizabeth is best known, however for her 2006 memoirEAT PRAY LOVE, which chronicled her journey alone around the world, looking for solace after a difficult divorce. The book was an international bestseller, translated into over thirty languages, with over 10 million copies sold worldwide, and a movie version in the making, starring Julia Roberts. The book became so popular that, in 2008, Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
In 2010, Elizabeth published a follow-up to EAT PRAY LOVE calledCOMMITTED-- a memoir which explored her ambivalent feelings about the institution of marriage. The book immediately became a number one New York Times bestseller, and was also received with warm critical praise. As Newsweek wrote, COMMITTED"retains plenty of Gilbert's comic ruefulness and wide-eyed wonder",and NPR called the book"a rich brew of newfound insight and wisdom."COMMITTED will be published in paperback in February 2011.
Academy Awards veteran ... Whoopi Goldberg has presented the Oscars four times. Photograph: WireImage.com
By Ben Childs guardian.co.uk Actor furious over article on black Academy Award winners that neglected to mention her 1991 prize for best supporting actress
Hell hath no fury like an Oscar winner scorned. The actor Whoopi Goldberg has attacked the New York Times for failing to mention her in an article about black Academy Award winners.
Last week's extended feature by Manohla Dargis and AO Scott concerned the lack of racial diversity among this year's Oscar nominees in comparison to previous years. It mentioned past winners such as Halle Berry and Denzel Washington, who won the best actress and best actor gongs in 2002, as well as figures such as Hattie McDaniel, awarded best supporting actress in 1940 for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind.
There were also mentions for Jamie Foxx and Forest Whitaker, who best actor in 2005 and 2007 respectively, as well as Morgan Freeman (best supporting actor in 2005), Jennifer Hudson and Mo'Nique (best supporting actresses in 2007 and 2010). But there was no mention of Goldberg's win in the same category for 1990's Ghost, in which she played a fake psychic who begins to see real spirits.
"I am embarrassed to tell you it hurt me terribly," Goldberg said during an appearance on US TV show The View yesterday. "When you win an Academy Award, that's part of what you've done, your legacy. I will always be Academy Award-winner Whoopi Goldberg, and [I] have been dismissed and erased by the New York Times film critics, who should know better."
Goldberg added: "I have made over 50 films. I have been nominated twice – once for The Color Purple, once for Ghost. And I won for Ghost."
"This is not hidden information, and to these two critics, who are the head critics of the New York Times ... it's hard not to take it personally. This is sloppy journalism."
"People in Somalia know [about my Oscar win]," Goldberg said. "People in China know."
The New York Times was, however, unapologetic: "The error lies with those who are reading the story incorrectly. The point of the piece was not to name every black actor or actress who has been awarded an Oscar, it was to draw a comparison between the number who won prior to 2002 (the year Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won) and those who have won since. And the story states very clearly that in 73 years, prior to 2002, only seven black actors/actresses won Oscars.
I really enjoyed this interview and wanted to share
as we at TheFutureForward wrap up 2010!
Savion Glover -
The Exclusive INTERVIEW
Happy A.A+Wsome WednesdayFUTURE!
So it is here. My exclusive interview with tap dancer sensation/choreographer Savion Glover. Savion breaks his silence about the NYTimes critic who panned SolePower and he shares with us a little "spinning" secret (that's all I'll say!) This was a great interview and we would love to have Savion on TheFutureForward.net again. Enjoy!
Angela Burt-Murray is out as editor-in-chief of Essence, the Time Inc.-owned fashion magazine for African American women, after five years at the helm.
She told staffers at a 4:30 p.m. meeting today that she is relocating to Atlanta with her family.
According to sources, the company quietly began preparing for the move a few weeks ago but wanted to proceed delicately to avoid re-igniting a controversy that flared this summer when Burt-Murray appointed a white woman to the key position of fashion director.
Sheryl Tucker, who took a buyout as an editor-at-large at Time Inc. in 2008, is being brought back to run the magazine on an interim basis.
Burt-Murray's decision to appoint a white woman, Ellianna Placas, to the fashion post incensed some readers, who argued it was difficult for people of color to make major inroads in mainstream fashion magazines and that Essence should be their domain exclusively.
Placas, who had previously worked at O, the Oprah Magazine, had been freelancing in the job for several months without incident before Burt-Murray appointed her as the permanent fashion director in late July.
But reaction was heated and immediate, even if it did attract a fair share of supporters.
"It's with a heavy heart that I learned that Essence magazine has engaged a white fashion director," Michaela Angela Davis, a former Essence fashion director and one-time editor in chief of Honey, wrote on her Facebook page, sparking a lively debate on the topic.
No mention was made of it in the official memo from Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief John Huey, in which he heaped praise on Burt-Murray for her contributions to the magazine, including the Essence Book Club and Essence Music Festival Seminar Series.
Huey said the company was "beginning our search for a new editor."
LaQuan Smith has designed custom fashions for artists including Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Aubrey O’day, Amerie and more. Smith’s New York Fashion Week debut was held on February 15, 2010 and he has been featured in many media outlets including The New York Times, New York Daily News and Studio Magazine.
Both shared a wonderful view on fashion. Mr. Talley told the standing room only audience, “Fashion is HARD WORK, hard core work;” he continued to say, “true fashion insiders must do their homework, be patient, learn the business and live your dream.”
LaQuan’s 2nd fashion collection frenetic energy filled the Gramercy Room of the Peninsula Hotel as editors and buyers waited for wunderkind LaQuan Smith’s Spring/Summer 2011 show, entitled “A Storybook Path,” to begin.While a crush of photographers circled around rapper Common to get a shot, a gaggle of reporters rushed before Vogue’sAndre Leon Talley and designer and CFDA President Diane Von Furstenberg for a soundbite. The excitement generated so much heat, attendees fanned themselves with hot pink paper fans provided on the tables. As classical music began to play, a young lady wearing a blush pink corseted brocade jacket and matching frilly skirt came out, pursing gold lacquered lips and tottering atop Walter Steiger stilettos. The show had begun, and the air erupted with shouts of enthusiasm over the clothes–and the models themselves:
Exclamations of “Honey better work!” and “Ok!” could be heard as models sauntered out in a series of bust and thigh accentuating pieces seemingly inspired by the famously coquettish and fashion loving late 18th century Marie Antoinette. Brocade fabrics in champagne pink, deep burgundy, white, black, and electric blue were fashioned into cropped frilled tops and bodice dresses, perfectly fit for modern day princesses. Though dreamlike, as if cut from a storybook, the clothes were designed to titillate. To wit, an almost bare bottomed Jaslene Gonzalez elicited whoops of “Yes, girl,” as she worked a sheer mint green flapper dress with green plumes of feathers peeking out the bottom.
The shouts reached an almost fevered pitch as even more celebrity models emerged. Singer Cassie in a corseted gold and burgundy bubble hem dress; Deborah Cox in a Tiffany blue gilded number with an asymmetric train; Serena Williams, who closed the show, in a Bourdeaux red regal gown with exaggerated hips.
As some of our greatest musicians are keeping the music alive, Tapper-
Choreographer Savion Glover is keeping Tap alive. Not only is he keeping it funky, fresh, and exciting he his also keeping it accessible and educational for the younger generation and for those who are novices in the Tap arena. Last week Thursday I had the opportunity to watch Savion's latest work SolePower (thanks thatgirl006) and while I sat in my chair engulfed in the entire performance I was more so touched, moved, and inspired by the first half of the show. The first half featured Savion, in what appeared to be the birthing of a new one-man show. While critics such as Alastair MacCaulay of the The New York Times felt he personally was shut out from Savion's performance and even went as far as calling Savion "a visual washout," I saw it as the beginning of a powerful journey through tap (celebrating the forefathers and foremothers what was then and what is now) connecting the listner to its origin - "the sound." Celebrating and illuminating the importance of the sound versus the showiness or performative quality in tap. Sometimes as performers we get too caught up into the showiness and tend to forget about the technique/the movement, and the story that it is telling. As Savion asked "close your eyes and listen to the sound," I followed along and was transported on my own journey, connecting the dots and creating a story with him while he made the sound.
photos courtesy of Elijah Paul
This performance was completely engaging for me and I am excited to watch this particular section of SolePower blossom. And let me not forget to mention the second half featuring Galxc9 and The Diva Patrol, which was very whimsical, colorful, and riveting. Think Grace Jones/Lady Gaga teleported to a Tap/Funk session on Mars!!!
Savion Glover's SolePower will be departing the Joyce Theater tomorrow night (Saturday July 10) but there is still time to see it.
Remaining ShowTimes:
Friday July 9 at 8PM
Saturday July 10 at 2PM & 8PM
Following the Saturday evening performance there will be an Amazing Closing Night Party, in which Mr. Glover will be spinning!!!!
Where?
Gallery Bar
120 Orhcard Street
(btw. Delancey and Rivington)
New York, NY 10002
Exclusive Video Interview with Savion coming soon to TheFutureForwad.net!!!
