The recent appointment of Jeanelle English as the executive vice president, Impact and Inclusion, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which was recently announced by Academy CEO Bill Kramer, appears to be another move in the right direction as it relates to diversity and inclusion at the Academy.
The main event – playfully named “The Greatest Show on Dirt” — is the rodeo itself.
In Lee’s emotional and often hilarious acceptance speech on the Oscar stage, he encouraged, and correctly, for people to vote and the mobilize for the 2020 presidential election, urging them to “Make the moral choice between love versus hate. Let’s do the right thing!”
At 7 p.m. Central time last Wednesday, I was in full-listen mode as King – fresh from her Golden-Globe winning evening – talked about her role in “If Beale Street Could Talk” with more than a thousand faith leaders, community activists, sororities and fraternities and African-American news outlets on the line.
The move follows a pledge it made in January to double the number of women and diverse members on its board by the year 2020.
In the spirit of awards season, African Americans in the LGBTQ community took their bows and trophies at the Second Annual Truth Awards Gala and Dinner on Saturday, March 5 at the Taglyan Cultural Complex in Los Angeles. Unlike the Academy Awards with its #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the Truth Awards celebrated self-identifying African American members of the LGBTQ community, whose accomplishments have positively impacted the perception of Black LGBTQ representations.
Could Chris Rock balance Academy Awards razzle-dazzle with a burning social issue? Hollywood and movie fans alike were holding their breath as the comedian took the stage as host of Sunday’s Oscarcast with more at stake than a roster of winners and losers.
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde, Our Dead Behind Us: Poems, 1986 A lot has happened since the on and offline uproar that exploded after the Motion Picture Academy failed to nominate people of color across most major award categories for the second year in a row. Chief among the reactions has been the academy’s decision to re-examine and course correct its internal push for diversity among its well-publicized overwhelmingly older, white male ranks. Meanwhile, there have been numerous calls to register our collective
Since the 2016 Oscar nominations have been announced on Jan. 14, the talks of the lack of diversity in the prestigious award show has been on the minds of some of Hollywood’s top actors, directors and media personalities.