Author: JD
9 groundbreaking black poets who revolutionized the written word
If we’re to believe Plato, poetry is nearer to truth than history. That saying certainly holds for groundbreaking black poets like Langston Hughes, who wrote unapologetically about the world through the eyes of a black artist. SEE ALSO: 7 pioneering black artists who shaped modern music Numerous black poets have made waves in the literary world, from Gwendolyn Brooks, who in 1950 became the first black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, to Maya Angelou, one of the foremost poets of the 20th century. Writers like Gil Scott-Heron and Amiri Baraka electrified the written word with their sociopolitical statements, while Audre Lorde and Nikki Giovanni wrote radical lines that addressed sexism and racism. These are just a few of the pioneering black poets who forged ahead, paving the way for writers that came after them. While this isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, these are nine poets you shouldn’t go any longer without reading. This Black History Month, take time to appreciate their work with these selections from classic poems. 1. Gil Scott-Heron Read the full poem here. IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE. TIBOR BOZI/CORBIS 2. Audre Lorde Read the full poem here. IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE. ROBERT ALEXANDER/GETTY IMAGES 3. Robert Hayden Read the full poem here. IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE. ROBERT RICARDO REESE/YOUTUBE 4. Gwendolyn Brooks Read the full poem here. IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE. BETTMANN/CORBIS 5. Maya Angelou Read the full poem here. IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE. DOUG MILLS/AP 6. Amiri Baraka Read the full poem here. 7. Nikki Giovanni Read the full poem here. IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE. PICTORIAL PARADE/GETTY IMAGES 8. Rita Dove Read the full poem here. IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE. TIM WRIGHT/CORBIS 9. Langston Hughes
Martin Scorsese Voices New Apple Ad
iPad is the ultimate tool for independent filmmakers. It lets them chase their ambitions and dive deeper into the work they’re so passionate about. Learn how students at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts relied on the power and versatility of iPad to write, produce, shoot, score, and edit their films in a matter of days.
Richard Pryor Called the #OscarsSoWhite Before Twitter
BY AMBER PAYNE “I am here tonight. To explain why black people. Will never be nominated for anything.” The year was 1977 and Richard Pryor was opening the 49th Academy Awards. After the chuckles settled, Pryor started the night with a dig at number of black acting nominations: a grand total of zero. The sharp, yet humorous critique of Hollywood’s lack of recognition for actors of color generated laughs and quite possibly served as the first #OscarsSoWhite moment, way before social media was even a thought. 1977 was a year filled with bonafide classics: “Network,” “All the President’s Men,” “Carrie,” “A Star is Born,” “Taxi Driver,” and of course the champ, “Rocky.” They had one thing in common. They lacked diversity. (Skip the opening dance number and scroll to 7:40 in the YouTube clip) Pryor — who was one of four co-hosts along with Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn and Jane Fonda — continued his stinging and stilted monologue. “Black. People. Love. To act. We. Can. Cry. At the drop of a hat. Or laugh. [Awkward laugh] These are. Some of the things. Black people can do.” A-listers laughed as he launched into mock-protest: “We’re also going to stop entertaining. That will show you. We refuse to be in show bid’ness all together. We are quitting. Then see who sings and dances for you.” Sidenote: There were a handful black presenters that night, and it’s not hard to find irony in the fact that “Black and White in Color” was actually the name of the Best Foreign Language Film. Pryor went on to echo — or foreshadow, rather— a systemic problem: the lack of diversity in the Academy. “This show is going out to 75 million people. None of them are black. We don’t even know how to vote. There’s 3,349 people in the voting thing. And only two black people. Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.” According to a 2012 study by the L.A. Times, Oscar voters are nearly 94 percent Caucasian and 77 percent male. Blacks make up about 2 percent of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2 percent, and the number of Asians is so small, it’s not even listed. This year’s “white-wash” in acting nominations has propelled the conversation on the importance of diversity in filmmaking. Of the 20 actors nominated, there are no persons of color. But back in ’77, it didn’t take a snubbed film or actor for Pryor to address this issue comedically. What’s remarkable is Pryor’s lashing of the Academy got no press attention at the time. Thirty years before #OscarsSoWhite was anywhere close to trending, there went Pryor. A whole generation has passed, yet his remarks are still relevant today. Let’s see what Neil Patrick Harris brings to the joke table.
Rolls-Royce Bespoke Ghost Mysore Collection
The limited edition make is inspired by Tipu Sultan, the former ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, who was affectionately named the Tiger of Mysore in regard to having killed the animal with only a small dagger. Several custom embellishments pay tribute to His Greatness, like tigers stitched into the seats’ headrests and a peacock emblem along the front guard. The exterior is coated in a royal blue and silver paint job, with matching blue carpets and a leather lathered interior. The Rolls-Royce “Ghost Mysore” collection is available exclusively to customers in Abu Dhabi.
Amber Rose Responds to Kanye West & Disses Kim Kardashian
I HONESTLY CANT BELIEVE THAT BILLBOARD POSTED THIS Don’t come at Amber Rose and think she won’t respond. During Kanye West‘s interview with Power 105.1, which aired Friday (Feb. 20), he touched on his relationship with his wife Kim Kardashian West and also his past one with ex-girlfriend Amber Rose. Kanye West Disses Amber Rose, Teases a Collaborative Album With Drake “If Kim had dated me when I first wanted to be with her, there wouldn’t be an Amber Rose,” he said, and continued to disrespect Rose by saying, “It’s very hard for a woman to want to be with someone who’s been with Amber Rose… I had to take 30 showers before I got with Kim.” Hours later, Amber Rose took to Twitter to respond by throwing a shot at Kim Kardashian: “Wait 30 showers? But Kim let RayJ nut on her…. Never mind.” Rose didn’t stop there, tweeting directly to ‘Ye. In one of the three tweets directed at the rapper, she said this is “my moment to let the world know who u really are and the things you’ve done to me,” though Rose didn’t dish any dirt. “We once loved each other so I won’t do u like that,” she then said.
Content Curation Startup Livefyre Raises $47M More, Brings On Adobe And Salesforce As New Investors
Livefyre is announcing that it has raised $47 million in new funding. That number includes a $15 million addition to the company’s Series C — founder and CEO Jordan Kretchmer told me that the company didn’t bother to announce that “opportunistic” funding separately, because it was quickly followed by a $32 million Series D. Livefyre was originally known as a commenting platform (we used it for a while at TechCrunch), but it’s been expanding beyond that with moves like the acquisition of social curation startup Storify and the launch of Livefyre Studio, which basically allows publishers to gather user generated content from anywhere online, and to republish it anywhere in turn. (For example, here’s a Livefyre Studio-powered page highlighting content from Unilever’s sustainability initiative Project Sunlight.) Kretchmer said there’s been a “phenomenal” response to Studio since it launched four months ago, and the company will continue to grow the platform with more “codeless applications.” He suggested that Livefyre now revolves around user-generated content, which can include content created on the publisher’s site (which is where commenting still plays a role), as well as content pulled from social media and elsewhere on the web. Livefyre sees the UGC process as falling into four broad steps — collect, manage, design and deliver. Its strength right now is more on the collect and manage side, Kretchmer said, so you can expect future products to expand on design and deliver. In other words, Livefyre should allow marketers to take user-generated content and present it in customizable ways on their own site “without having to call my IT department, without having to even run it through the typical channels of QA.” Livefyre’s strength on the content side attracted both Adobe and Salesforce Ventures to invest in the Series D, Kretchmer said. He suggested that both companies are building out their own “marketing clouds,” and they see UGC as a crucial, missing piece. The investment could lead to Livefyre integration with Adobe and Salesfroce, but Kretchmer said it’s too early to know exactly how that will play out. He also said that this is the first time the two companies have invested together. I pointed out that Adobe and Salesforce have largely built out their marketing platforms with acquisitions — was that ever a possibility here? “I can’t talk about any M&A discussions in general, but from our perspective, it was all about getting these two guys involved so it can accelerate our business,” Kretchmer said. “Beyond that, the discussions weren’t anything we were interested in. But for them, the question was, ‘What do we do to help Livefyre be successful?’” Other investors in the new funding include Cue Ball, Greycroft Partners, Hillsven Capital and US Venture Partners. The company has now raised a total of $67.3 million, and its 1,500 customers include AOL (which owns TechCrunch), Conde Nast, Sony PlayStation and Universal Music Group.