Tag: tribute

A Black History Month Tribute: Paul Robeson – American Singer, Actor And Civil Rights Activist Became A Hero In China
VIDEO REELS

A Black History Month Tribute: Paul Robeson – American Singer, Actor And Civil Rights Activist Became A Hero In China

Chinese broadcasters have aired shows featuring Paul Robeson (1898-1976), one of the most popular African American singers and actors of his era and a well-known civil rights activist, several times in recent years. China National Radio and various channels of the widely influential China Central TV showcased Robeson on programs in 2021, 2012 and 2009 narrating China’s resistence to foreign military aggressions. This could seem like unusually frequent coverage related to an American who passed away decades ago. My book, Arise, Africa! Roar, China! Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century, unpacks the little-known yet important relationship between Paul Robeson and China, which continues to resonate powerfully today. New York City meeting Robeson is long remember...
A Black History Month Tribute: Lorraine Hansberry, The First Major Black Theatrical Voice To Emerge From America
Journalism

A Black History Month Tribute: Lorraine Hansberry, The First Major Black Theatrical Voice To Emerge From America

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois as the youngest of four children of a prominent real estate broker Carl Augustus Hansberry and Nannie Louise Perry grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Woodlawn neighborhood.in a middle-class family.. The roots of her artistic vision and activism are here in Chicago. Born into a family of substantial means and parents who were intellectuals and activists, her father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, Sr. from Gloucester, Mississippi, moved to Chicago after attending Alcorn College, and became known as the "kitchenette king" after subdividing large homes vacated by whites moving to the suburbs and selling these small apartments or kitchenettes to African American migrants from the South. Carl was not only a successful real est...
Oprah Winfrey, others pay tribute to late author Toni Morrison
Journalism

Oprah Winfrey, others pay tribute to late author Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison, a Nobel Prize-winning US writer known for her work on race, died in August, aged 88. In offering tribute to Toni Morrison, speakers from Oprah Winfrey to Fran Lebowitz have each shared a very different, but equally special portrait of the late Nobel laureate, who died in August at the age of 88. Angela Davis remembered a dear friend who as a Random House editor helped launch her writing career and would jot down notes for what became the classic Song of Solomon as she cooked eggs for her family. Lebowitz marvelled at Morrison's seemingly photographic memory of the bad reviews she had received. Poet Kevin Young once went to the cinema with her and otherwise proudly sat at her feet. Winfrey spoke of Morrison's majestic, sometimes intimidating pres...