» Film/TV

PBS’ ‘Finding Your Roots’ continues uncovering famous family trees

By NADINE MATTHEWS

Special to the AmNews

Noted historian and Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. embarked in January on his eighth season of hosting “Finding Your Roots,” a series that sits down with notable names and takes them on voyages back in time. These aren’t just any voyages back in time though. Gates uses genealogists and DNA experts to find and examine historical records, and analyze genes to uncover whatever secrets they hold about the families of the guests. “Finding Your Roots” gives guests not just the names of their ancestors but in most cases, stories that bring the ancestors to life.

This season, the personal histories examined include Terry Crews, Regina King, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Tony Danza, Kathryn Hahn, Anita Hill, Nathan Lane, John Leguizamo, Damon Lindelof, Mario Lopez, Leslie Odom Jr., the late André Leon Talley, Pamela Adlon, Erin Burnett, Amy Carlson, Melissa Villaseñor and Lena Waithe.

Season eight kicked off by sitting down with producer, writer, and director Lee Daniels, known for “The Butler,” “Empire,” and “Our Kind of People.” With Gates’ help he uncovered the reasons behind some of the mysterious silences surrounding his forebears he had always noticed in childhood that no one ever had the courage to address. “The silence stops with me,” Daniels declared after finding out the scandalous details surrounding the mystery.

Rebecca Hall is an actress (“Resurrection”) and director (“Passing”) who was always told there was a great likelihood that there were Black people somewhere in her bloodline but had no proof. It was this assertion that led her to direct the film adaptation of the Harlem Renaissance classic, “Passing” (starring Andre Holland, Ruth Negga, Tessa Thompson) last year. Some things that Hall learns confirm what she always believed, and other revelations show that as many lies as truths may have been passed down in the family lore.

“Law and Order: SVU” actor Raul Esparza and world-renowned chef David Chang were guests on episode two. In their cases, their families fled their homelands for political reasons, Cuba and North Korea, respectively.

Esparza found out that his grandparents were in fact, not the first people in his family to come to America; his greatgreat-grandmother had also left Cuba for America, several generations prior to his grandparents’ arrival, fleeing Castro. “It’s exciting. It’s making me imagine a whole life I wasn’t aware was even happening back then,” stated Esparza, upon finding out.

Chang also had great curiosity about his ancestors’ homeland which he had never set foot upon and also found out that prior generations of his family had been to the United States. Chang’s greatgrandfather had come to the U.S. as a teacher around the turn of the century, something it seems Chang’s own parents were unaware of. “I don’t have any words,” stated Chang, “I mean I have goosebumps!”

Distinguished law professor Anita Hill, who became famous in 1991 for accusing then U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harrassment, is one of the guests on episode three. Also on episode three is Brittany Packnett Cunningham, a Black Lives Matter activist, member of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, and cofounder of Campaign Zero, a non-profit that aims to eliminate police violence.

Packnett Cunningham came to “Finding Your Roots” with a definite family mystery that she wanted solved: the enigma of her paternal grandfather. “I literally have only heard one sentence uttered about him…I just want to know who he is,” she told Gates at the beginning of the program. Using DNA from Packnett Cunningham and her mother, they set about trying to solve the mystery. Not only did they find out her grandfather’s name, they found a photo of him, causing Packnett Cunningham to tear up when she saw it. She also learned her paternal great great grandfather fought in the Civil War after having been freed in 1864. “I’m angry they had to fight for a freedom that belonged to them and I’m incredibly proud to know that I come from people who run toward the fight,” she stated.

Hill also wanted to find out who her grandparents were; in her case, on her mother’s side. They found out her grandparents were landowners, through the Homestead Act of 1862, an extraordinary feat for Black people. Stated Hill, “They did what it took, which had to be so very difficult, so this makes me feel so proud. They existed and grabbed this part of citizenship as a right.”

Brittany Packnett Cunningham (Courtesy of Reginald Cunningham of Pure Black Photography) “Finding Your Roots” host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Courtesy of McGee Media)

Rock and Roll pioneer Ronnie Spector dies at 78

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH

Special to the AmNews

The unapologetically sultry rock and roll singer of The Ronettes has died at 78 years old.

Spector was an incredible influence to countless bands and rock artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, who opened for her early in their careers, along with great admiration from Madonna, Aretha Franklin and Amy Winehouse who fashioned her signature beehive hairstyle after Spector’s iconic style.

The Ronettes’ 1963 classic hit, “Be My Baby” changed the landscape of rock and roll and transformed the presence, look and feel of Black female frontwomen for decades to come.

Spector, who was African American, Irish and Cherokee, grew up in Spanish Harlem in New York City, and rev- olutionized the New York punk scene just as much as the mainstream rockers who could not get enough of her bad girl image and sensual voice over the famous music producer, Phil Spector’s unique production style called “The Wall of Sound,” which offered an echoing larger than life sound that helped make Ronnie and the Ronettes musical icons. The Ronettes released a number of Top 40 hit songs following “Be My Baby” including three 1964 songs “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up,” “Do I Love You?” and “Walking in the Rain.” The year 1965 ushered in the songs, “Born to Be Together” and “Is This What I Get for Loving You?” which made the top 100 charts.

The Ronettes broke up in 1967 and Ronnie Spector married Phil Spector, enduring years of traumatic abuse from the producer, but continued to revive her music career in the early 1970s, with recordings with The Bea-

tles, George Harrison and the reforming of the Ronettes in 1973 with new members (Chip Fields Hurd and Diane Linton). Spector never truly picked up traction the way she did in the 1960s, but continued to make music through the 2000s singing backup for the punk band, The Misfits in 2004 and releasing albums in 2006, 2016 and a single called “Love Power” in 2017 as Ronnie Spector and The Ronettes. The history is all there and just waiting to be explored as this oneof-a-kind Black woman music trailblazer can be sighted as one of the most important rock musicians of all time. She was cool, funny and gave the rock world more gifts and Ronnie Spector in 1966 (Public domain; https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ronnie_ Spector_1966.jpg) inspiration than one can describe. She will be deeply missed and will never be forgotten as a creator, a bright light in a male-dominated industry and a true survivor.

Stills from “Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back!” Maurice teaching at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, 2017

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

I knew of Maurice Hines as a tap dancing legend, Broadway performer, movie performer, and singer, but I never knew of him as a gay Black man who was a father, a brother, a son and a friend to so many people. I never knew of the honesty, bravery, activism that this man stands for. But after seeing the documentary “Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back!” I now realize so many more dimensions to this marvelous entertainer.

The documentary will have its broadcast premiere on STARZ in February for Black History Month, with a limited run from Feb. 2-8 at the IFC Center (www.ifccenter.com/films/mauricehines-bring-them-back/) and is currently available on Vimeo on Demand at https://vimeo. com/ondemand/mauricehines/428617973.

The film has incredible interviews of Maurice and his late brother Gregory throughout their lives. There is marvelous video footage of their performances together and separately in movies and Broadway shows. Stunning commentary about Maurice as both a performer and a person come from some of his dear friends including Chita Rivera, Mercedes Ellington, Debbie Allen, Charles RandolphWright, Joe Johnson Jr., his nephew Zachary, and his proteges John and Leo Manzani, plus others who are dear in his life.

This documentary contains original black and white photos of the Hines brothers from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, and contains performance footage from “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” of Hines, Hines & Dad, when they performed an act with Maurice Hines Sr.; “Sesame Street”; “Eubie!”; “Sophisticated Ladies”; “Balletap USA”; “The Cotton Club” movie; “Tappin’ Thru Life”—Maurice’s Broadway show about his life; “Hot Feet”; “Jelly’s Last Jam”—which finally earned Gregory a Tony Award; Maurice—who at age 75 is still performing and was at 54 Below in New York; and there were numerous videos of Maurice Hines being a guest dance teacher at the Debbie Allen Dance School and The Bushnell Dance School, along with a few others dance schools.

The documentary shows Maurice Hines to be a candid, vibrant, loving person who prefers his privacy. He is someone who has always been in the limelight since childhood and misses his parents and brother Gregory, his partner for so long. He has bouts of great sadness, but is also blessed with family and friends and a daughter who loves him a great deal.

The documentary ends with his friends throwing him a surprise party for his 75th birthday. It is absolutely heartwarming to witness the love at that gathering. These were family and friends, fellow thespians that had been on this journey with him for years. He is laughing, hugging, kissing and loving everyone at the party and one person comments, “This shows how much you are loved.” How appropriate that sentiment was and how much do we all need to hear that at times in our lives.

Watch this documentary and get to know the Hines family. “Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back!” has already won the Grand Jury Awards at DOC NYC and the American Black Film Festival, and is executive produced by Debbie Allen and Charles Randolph-Wright. It’s a beautiful thing when our elders get to tell their stories completely and get acknowledged as being important, not just to their friends and families, but to our culture as a whole.

Thank you Maurice Hines, for all that you and your brother meant to our people all these decades, and that you continue to mean! You are a phenomenal man.

For more info visit mauricehinesmovie.com.