Entries from August 2005 ↓

You know I love me some Billy Porter. But despite the fact that his name has popped up on my blog on more than a few occasions, I am not his official publicist. I swear! However information about some of his upcoming appearances has come to my attention and I feel compelled to share this so you too can discover the magic that is Billy.

Now when he’s not busy performing in a play somewhere on or off Broadway, Mr. Porter is in great demand on the charity circuit. He can always be counted on to lend his fabulous voice to some worthy fundraising endeavor. Such is the case with two upcoming events.

On September 21-23, 2005 the National Black Justice Coalition will host its first Black Leaders Summit in Washington, DC. The title of the Summit is “Tying the Widsom Knot: Bringing Together Our Leaders to Strategize for the Future.”

Two-days of workshops and plenary sessions will focus on a range of policy issues of significance to Black SGL/LGBT communities including strategies to combat homophobia and HIV/AIDS, the upcoming marriage battles and how to win fairness for same-sex families. Additional topics include the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and sessions on how to build local voter registration and get-out-the vote campaigns. The plenary sessions include: roundtable discussion and open dialogue with the chief executives of the nation’s leading LGBT organizations; a panel of top African American political strategists to discuss the politics and LGBT civil rights and marriage; and a Prayer Breakfast with important progressive religious activists and ministers to discuss homosexuality and the church.

The Summit will end with a gala awards dinner with a special appearance by the NBJC Ensemble Gospel Choir and Broadway veteran and recording artist Billy Porter. (He did ask Steven for suggestions on how to get more involved with Black gay activist organizations.)

The Summit is free, but requires pre-registration for all participants.

Here in New York, Tower Records and Faust Harrison Pianos will present Any Wednesday at Tower, a continuing series of live free concerts at Tower Records, Lincoln Center (66th St. & Broadway) in New York City featuring the best in cabaret, jazz and Broadway performers.

The performances will begin each Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m., last approximately thirty minutes, and will be followed by a CD signing/meet and greet the artist session. Limited seating is available on a first come basis.

Billy will be the September 28th guest.

[From a press release, but I agree wholeheartedly.] “The explosive Broadway star will be presenting highlights from his live album At the Corner of Broadway + Soul. The sold out concert was preserved by Sh-K-Boom Records, but you can experience this energetic performer live at Tower.”

I’ve had the CD since March and highly recommend it.

Finally, The Broadway Inspirational Voices will perform in concert at New York’s Town Hall this fall.

Big River’s Michael McElroy will lead the Voices in song Oct. 16 at the famed Manhattan theatre. The evening will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

The Broadway Inspirational Voices was founded by its current director, Michael McElroy. The choir features more than 40 members from a host of theatrical productions, including Vance Avery, Bertilla Baker, Shoshana Bean, Ronnell Bey, Jarrett Ali Boyd, Terry Burrell, Tracy Chapman, Kate Chapman, Gavin Creel, Bradley Dean, Laura Dean, Angela DeCicco, Aisha de Haas, Darius de Haas, Kena Tangi Dorsey, Jenny Douglass-McRae, Eden Espinosa, Robert Fowler, Tanesha Gary-Stickney, La-Rita Gaskins, Lucia Giannetta, Nathan Lee Graham, Avis Graves, Danielle Lee Greaves, Carla Hargrove, Kimberly Hester, Marva Hicks, Rosena Hill, Wanda L. Houston, Cheyenne Jackson, Kimberly JaJuan, Gerti Lee James, Capathia Jenkins, Catrice Joseph-Hart, Eileen Kaden-Dean, Monroe Kent III, Maurice Lauchner, Adriane Lenox, Norm Lewis, Angela Lockett, Michael McElroy, Nyjah Moore-Westbrook, Kevyn Morrow, Terri O’Neill, Destan Owens, Jason Paige, John Eric Parker, Todd Pettiford, Billy Porter, Danielle Pratt-Chambers, Glenn Rainey, Phylicia Rashad, Terita Redd, Nikki Rene, Angela Robinson, Eliseo Roman, Michael Sharon, C E Smith, Jacques Smith, Shayna Steele, Gwen Stewart, Dennis Stowe, Nicole Sutherland, Clarke Thorell, Michael Benjamin Washington, Myiia Watson-Davis, Sharon Wilkins, Schele Williams, Virginia Woodruff and Christopher Zelno. (Because of possible scheduling conflicts, not all of these amazing talents are guaranteed to appear however.)

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the nation’s largest industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization. Since its founding in 1988 the organization has distributed over $100 million for services for people with AIDS, HIV or HIV-related illnesses.

Actor Brock Peters, perhaps best known for his heartbreaking performance in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 78.

He was diagnosed with the disease in January and had been receiving chemotherapy treatment. His condition became worse in recent weeks and he died peacefully in bed, surrounded by family.

Peters was born George Fisher on July 2, 1927, in New York and began his movie career in the 1950s with the landmark productions of Carmen Jones with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in 1954, and Porgy and Bess with Sidney Poitier, Dandridge and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1959.

His voice also landed him work. He sang background vocals on Belafonte’s hits Banana Boat (Day-O) and Mama Look At Bubu, and he was often used for animated characters such as Jomo in 2002’s The Wild Thornberrys Movie.

In recent years, he played Admiral Cartwright in two of the Star Trek feature films and also appeared in numerous TV shows.

But he was probably best known for portraying accused rapist Tom Robinson, defended by Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird.

“He was such a dear friend and one of the most lovely human beings I knew in my life,” said Mary Badham who played Jean Louise “Scout” Finch in the film. “I am just devastated at his loss.”

Badham had just visited Peters at his home a few weeks ago. Since making the film, Badham had remained close with Peters, joining him numerous times for visits around the country.

Peters paid tribute to Peck after he died in 2003.

“In art there is compassion, in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love,” Peters said. “Gregory Peck gave us these attributes in full measure.”

Peters recounted how shortly before he was to start filming, he was awakened early on a Sunday morning by a phone call from Peck to welcome him to the production. He was so surprised, he recalled, that he dropped the telephone.

“I worked over the years in many, many productions, but no one ever again called me to welcome me aboard, except perhaps the director and the producer, but not my fellow actor-to-be.”

Among Peters’ other films were Soylent Green, The L-Shaped Room and The Pawnbroker.

His accolades include a National Film Society Award, a Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, and a Tony Award nomination for his performance on Broadway in Lost in the Stars.

In a 1985 story by The Associated Press on blacks in the movies, Peters said there had been a string of recent hits involving blacks, but “I have been here a long time, and I have seen this cycle happen before. I’ll wait awhile and see if this flurry of activity leads to anything permanent.”

Peters was a widower and has one daughter, Lise Jo Peters.

Thinking of relocating? Well, in addition to finding affordable housing and a good paying job, you may want to check out the political climate of the community you’re moving to.

A new nationwide survey of U.S. cities with a population over 100,000 found that the top twenty-five most liberal and conservative cities in America come from a wide variety of regions.

The Bay Area Center for Voting Research studied voting patterns from the 2004 elections and the results might surprise you. They found that people in the Midwest and Northeast voted predominantly for liberal candidates, while the West (with the exception of the coast) and South people voted for more conservative candidates. These results confirm the preconceived notions that many have about the conservative nature of the South and liberal nature of the Northeast, but also surprisingly found conservative trends in the West and liberal leanings in the Midwest that defy traditional stereotypes about these areas of the country.

Race seemed to be the most important factor in determining a city’s political leanings. Cities with predominantly large African American populations ended up as the most liberal, while conversely the cities with the largest Caucasian populations wound up as the most conservative.

Of the most liberal cities, Detroit heads up the list with 93.96% of voters casting votes for liberal candidates in the 2004 presidential election, followed by Gary, Indiana with 93.08% of the voting going to liberal presidential candidates, and Berkeley, California in third with a 92.76% total for liberals.

On the conservative side, Provo, UT heads up the top twenty-five conservative cities with 86% of the vote going to conservative presidential candidates in 2004, followed by Lubbock, TX at 74.81% conservative support, and Abilene, TX in third with 72.80% of its voters choosing conservative candidates.

For no particular reason other than the fact that I was thinking about them, and not necessarily in any order, I share with you ten long range goals.

1. Visit all 50 states.
2. Buy a house.
3. Write a stage play.
4. Have that play produced.
5. Get another speaking role on a network television show.
6. Help plan a family reunion.
7. Create a regular podcast series.
8. Utilize my culinary skills to generate a viable income.
9. Adopt a child.
10. Learn to speak French.

The easy out is to say I hope to accomplish them before I die, but that’s too open-ended. Instead I’ll set five, ten and 15 year timetables, with the possibility some may be accomplished within the next 12 months, and others may take longer than 15 years.

I’ll keep you posted.

My Mom and Dad mark their 56th wedding anniversary today. That is a long time for two people to be together.

It is a bittersweet anniversary. As I have mentioned here before, Dad is 84 years old and has advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He has lost much of his ability to communicate coherently, has no concept of time or place, and very often does not recognize family members, including my Mother. In an email recently, she said he was laying in bed and looked at her quizzically before asking, “Did you marry me?” She was amused and thought perhaps vague recollections of the bits and pieces of their lives together float around in his mind.

Mom turns 80 herself in just 10 days. She would otherwise not observe this day were it not for my brothers and I calling or sending cards and gifts. In addition to being primary caretaker for her husband, she is now the sole custodian of their collective memories. Only she remembers now how they met in the late 1940’s, she the editor of the women’s section of a Black-owned newspaper in her native New Orleans, he a World War II veteran and Dallas native who had just started in the sales department. She was already engaged to some other guy and was about to leave for grad school at the University of Wisconsin. He was immediately taken by her and at her farewell party, struck up a conversation realizing it might be his only opportunity.

He asked her if he could write to her while she was away up north. She said yes, and for several years across thousands of miles, including his move to New York to attend grad school at NYU, they exchanged nothing but letters. Lots of letters. If memory serves me, he may have even proposed in a letter. They exchanged wedding vows on this date in 1949. “In sickness and in health, til death do us part” has now taken on real significance.

Through moves to Pennsylvania and Illinois (where my three oldest brothers were born) before finally settling in upstate New York, where the last three of their sons were born, they have not only raised a family but given an awful lot back to the community. There is a room in their house with walls full of plaques, recognizing and thanking them for years of voluntary service for a multitude of causes. Their work both professionally and in the community put them in contact with homeless, illiterate and destitute people as well as every U.S. President from Lyndon Johnson to Ronald Reagan. But they always taught us that none of us are any better than any other and we all have a responsibility respect each other and make this world a better place.

But by no means were these 56 years without problems. There were fights (never physical), long simmering disagreements, financial problems and disappointments in each other that played out behind closed doors, although my brothers and I could often hear them. But never did they let their disputes with each other interfere with giving love and support to their children. They didn’t cut and run, bailout or seek easy solutions that would have disrupted the stability of our home. They worked it out and ultimately realized the value of their partnership.

They have been my role models in so many ways, not the least of which is in modeling the type of relationship I dream of having. I won’t live to see that many years spent with anyone, but do hope to one day meet someone who understands the meaning of the word commitment.

As they live out their remaining years together, the day-to-day duties of being a couple become a true test of that commitment and a living testament to the meaning of love.