February 5 - February 18, 2009

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National Geographic Center

On the Dock for this Snippet

Congratulations Michael S. Steele

(author of "Taking the Road Less Traveled," a Port of Harlem May - October 2002 print issue exclusive)

on becoming the Republican Party's First National Chairperson of African Descent

Entertainment

The Ten-Minute Oscar
By L. Michael Gipson

http://www.portofharlem.net/snippets08/images/lmgipson.jpgIn keeping with our Black American experience, Black performers have been getting in where they can fit in for generations—and shining. Viola Davis’s searing, ten-minute performance in Doubt, as a mother whose child may or may not have been molested by a priest, reminds us that, even in the Obama age, talented Blacks are still mining limited opportunities for gold and exceeding expectations through hard work and a care for craft.

In the pantheon of great Black performances lasting the proverbial ten-minutes in “majority” cast films, Davis is in grand company. Jeffery Wright’s emotional slam-dunk as a victimized veteran in the The Manchurian Candidate certainly fits the bill, as do so many of Wright’s other performances. So did Monique in the 2005 flick Shadow Boxer, and Anthony Mackie in innumerable brief, yet notable roles over the years.

Djimon Honsou has made a career out of ten-minute performances since he got “free,” but so have many of us since liberation. Doing “more with less” was the mantra on HBO’s The Wire, and usually, as the characters’ lamented: less begets less.

However, in the case of Blacks in film, those born of people who made delicacies out of slave slop and the peanut a multi-faceted commodity, you get better than more—you get gold, Oscar gold. Thank you, Ms. Davis, for reflecting our best, while powerfully demonstrating why she—and we—deserve opportunities to do more with more, now wouldn’t that be the real Oscar?

____________________________________
Gipson also writes for the print issue's Entertainment

department. E-mail your thoughts to Gipson.

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50,000 Celebrate Zora Neal Hurston

Thousands attended the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Zora Neal Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities in Eatonville, FL during the week of January 20. Located in Metro Orlando, Eatonville is the home of Hurston and is the oldest incorporated Black municipality in the United States.

“There are not as many juried artist here as there were before,” commented Port of Harlem print issue subscriber Jan McDaniels of Baltimore. Nevertheless, McDaniels who is also a Washington, DC Artists Market shopper enjoyed the outdoor festival.

Donovan Berry, Outreach Coordinator of the Prison Art Gallery, says sales were slow, but that people were interested in the images created by Port of Harlem contributor Larry Walker and other incarcerated artists. “We were trying to publicize our art beyond our Gallery Place (downtown D.C.) outlet,” says Berry. Next stop for McDaniels: The New York Fine Arts Festival.

The Hannibal Square Heritage Center also had its doors opened in nearby Winter Park, a small town known worldwide for its wealth and quality of life. Winter Park was the first planned community in Central Florida and attracts Northerners during the winter months who are escaping the cold. The Center focuses on the history of the town’s dwindling Black population, which historically provided support services to the White community.
Free Black History Lectures - D.C.

The D.C. Public Library is hosting free Black History lectures by Port of Harlem print issue contributor C.R. Gibbs Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at three different branches. Here is the listing of days and topics at each of the three branches.

Saturdays at 3p at the Watha T. Daniel Interim library-large trailer, 925 Rhode Island Ave, NW. For more information call 202-671-0265.

Feb. 7
Africa, Black America,& World War II
Feb. 14
Black, Copper, & Bright: the District of Columbia's Black Civil War Regiment
Feb. 21
Carter G. Woodson's Washington
Feb. 28
Great African Warriors :Their Weapons & Tactics

Tuesdays at 7p at the Martin Luther King, Jr. library, 9th and G Streets, NW. For more information call 202-727-1211.

Feb. 10
Triumph of Freedom: Slavery, Lincoln & Emancipation in the District of Columbia
Feb. 24
White Slaves in Africa: The Untold Story
March 3
Justice Denied: The Roots of the Reparations Movement

Wednesdays at 7p the Woodrige library at 18th and Rhode Island Ave, NE. For more information call 202-541-6226.

Feb. 11
The Harlem Renaissance: A Cultural Reevaluation
Feb. 18
The Triumph of Freedom: Lincoln, Slavery and Emancipation in the District of Columbia
Feb. 25
The African Origins of Christianity

Lowery Recites Black National Anthem at Obama Inauguration
Aretha’s Hatmaker

The Reverend Joseph Lowery started his benediction at the Obama inauguration reciting the last stanza of the Black National Anthem coined by Jacksonville, FL natives James Weldon Johnson and his brother John R. Johnson in 1899.

Click here to hear the entire benediction.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

While Lowery was being faithful to our heritage, Aretha held tight to her love of Detroit by propelling Detroit milliner Luke Song to international prominence.
Go, Tell Michelle

After a national search, editors Barbara Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram chose the works of only 100 women for the just released book Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write the New First Lady (SUNY Press, $17.95).

Two of the 100 were Port of Harlem’s cover model (August-November 2008) Donna Smith of Washington, District of Columbia and Port of Harlem Snippets subscriber Arabella Grayson of California.

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National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day – Feb 7

  • February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
  • AIDS is now the leading cause of death for Black woman ages 25 to 34.
  • AIDS is the second leading cause of death for Black men ages 35 to 44.

It’s Free to Treat Your HIV in D.C.


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