Arts & Entertainment

Film/TV pg 15 | Books pg 17 | Travel pg 19 | Jazz pg 20

Your Stars

Regina Hall, Wanda Sykes to co-host Oscars 2022

By LAPACAZO SANDOVAL and SUNIL SADARANGANI

Special to the AmNews

The 94th Academy Awards are March 27 returning with three co-hosts, two of which are African American women: Regina Hall, Wanda Sykes, and Amy Schumer. Let’s not forget that the award ceremony is produced by Will Packer and Shayla Cowan.

We are predicting that the show will be well-received despite the controversy regarding the trimmed-down event due to the pandemic. This year in an effort to keep safe, all attendees in the audience need to show proof of vaccination and at least two negative PCR tests. Performers and presenters, however, will only be required to undergo testing before taking the stage.

The list of familiar faces taking the stage on Oscars night continues to grow but at the time of filing confirmed presenters include Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out”) who won the best supporting actor award (2021) for his role as Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Zoë Kravitz (Catwoman in “The Batman”), Lupita Nyong’o who won an Oscar for her feature film debut in “12 Years A Slave,” Rosie Perez who was nominated for the best supporting actress (1993) for “Fearless,” Wesley Snipes (“White Men Can’t Jump”) and Chris Rock, a two-time Oscar host who will soon be seen in David O. Russell’s next film.

This past weekend Oscar watchers followed two awards ceremonies that often predict key categories. The Directors Guild of America Awards awarded Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) as best director. And across the pond, the BAFTA Awards, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall, “The Power of the Dog” also won the best film. In the documentary category “Summer of Soul” won. Will Smith won best actor for “King Richard,” AfroLatina and proud lesbian, Ariana DeBose won best supporting actress for “West Side Story.”

The award season is coming to an end, with Oscar voting getting underway March 17. The industry buzz to win best picture is leaning towards Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” which is currently playing on Netflix.

The Academy Awards will air live from the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, on ABC on March 27 at 8 p.m. E.T./5 p.m. P.T.

Regina Hall (Derek Blanks with crowdMGMT photo)

Wanda Sykes (Derek Wood photo)

This Sunday, it’s Oscar time

By LAPACAZO SANDOVAL and SUNIL SADARANGANI

Special to the AmNews

This weekend uber-producer Will Packer jumped on Instagram Live to cut it up before the Oscars roll out, live in Los Angeles, March 27, with his team members and the very funny Wanda Sykes, who is one of the three hosts. I’m delighted to share that we’ve been invited back to cover the events, and have been invited since 2014.

There is excitement in the air both in the industry and with film lovers with Packer at the helm despite the controversy and major changes coming to this year’s show. Known for delivering time and time again, Packer’s goal is to find the balance between entertainment and respecting the artistry that is at the core of filmmaking.

Let’s talk turkey, so to speak. Packer is a prolific film producer whose credits include “Girls Trip,” “Ride Along,” “Night School,” and “Think Like a Man,” and to be considered “prolific” you have to earn money which he does.

You could feel the wind of changes sweeping through when the three hosts—Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes—were chosen to keep the March 27 telecast bouncing along.

Packer admits that producing the Oscars isn’t the easiest gig but admitted that he is a fearless man and was grateful for the challenge and opportunity.

And being the fearless leader that Packer is, he answered the questions around trimming the show and explaining that the winners of eight categories would be announced an hour before the show and that those acceptance speeches would be edited into the live ABC telecast in an exclusive interview with Variety’s Clayton Davis. The 94th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 27, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT and in more than 200 territories worldwide. Follow the Academy www.oscars.org www.facebook.com/ TheAcademy www.youtube.com/Oscars www.twitter.com/TheAcademy www.instagram.com/ TheAcademy Uber producer Will Packer jumped on Instagram Live to discuss producing the 94th Oscars. (Lapacazo Sandoval photo)

16 • March 24, 2022 - March 30, 2022

THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS

A R T S & E N T E R T A I N M E N T

A talk with New Federal Theatre’s Elizabeth Van Dyke

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

Theater is supposed to reflect what is happening in society, and one of the things that I have always loved about Woodie King’s New Federal Theatre (NFT) is that for 52 years, it has relished the opportunity to do just that. NFT has always specialized in being a place that spotlights the creations of women and people of color and focuses on telling our stories. Now, it is focusing on telling a story that happened in 1925, which dealt with a forbidden love between a Black teacher and a Chinese businessman in the Mississippi Delta. The play, “Gong Lum’s Legacy,” written by Charles L. White, with direction by Elizabeth Van Dyke, who is also NFT’s new producing artistic director, will begin performances Thursday, March 24, at the Theatre at St. Clements at 423 W. 46th St.

Van Dyke recently took the time to speak to the AmNews about “Gong Lum’s Legacy.” Discussing what attracted NFT to this play, the director shared, “The backdrop of the play is Lum vs. Rice, which was a case in 1925-1927. It was a Chinese man who wanted to send his daughter to an allwhite school in the Mississippi Delta and fought for it in the courts. We found out there was a large Asian population in the Mississippi Delta. The slaves were freed and they had the Asians picking cotton. Then Asians started owning stores. The Blacks were sharecroppers indebted to the farmers. I love history and especially Black history because our history is so rich and varied and we have just endured and overcome so much. Then I saw the intersectionality of ours and the Chinese culture. In the case of Lum vs. Rice, in the city of Rosedale they won, then in the state of Mississippi they lost, in the Supreme Court they lost. So only whites could go to white schools. It was really for me the history and intersectionality of the two cultures. Fast forward today where there’s Asian hate and people being killed for being Black. There’s just an intersectionality of the two races and cultures that was fascinating to me.”

When one thinks of Jim Crow, one associates discrimination against Black people, but this play shows that Chinese people and anyone nonwhite faced similar problems. Looking at how relevant this is, given what’s happening in the world right now, Van Dyke broke this society down. “I think in our country, founded on a division—the Confederates States of America and the United States of America— Confederates states were white and white was superior. And the United States was willing to allow verbally equality for all. In this country whites are superior by birth and any person of another culture is inferior. That is what is rooted into this country, that is what is trying to be rooted into the psyche— that a white child is privileged at birth. It changes, but does it change at its very core. We think we are going forward and we are, but then it rears its head again and again. It’s extraordinary that so many things we think are historical haven’t changed. In ‘Wedding Band’ set in 1918, they talk about you don’t talk to the police, that was in 1918 and it’s still relevant to today. Maybe some difference, but the problem still exists.”

Addressing what she wants the audience to experience, the director remarked, “You always want to move an audience. You want them blown away by an experience. You want it to be provocative, thoughtprovoking, enlightening, see themselves in it. To have a full visceral sanctified experience, that’s what you pray for.”

This play is historically based and that takes it to a whole new level. Van Dyke explained, “History, it’s people. They are working at living their lives. In Gong Lum’s case he took a stand, he wanted to send his daughters to a white school. And it is taking a stand that became historical after the fact. The Chinese, the sharecroppers, they didn’t think they were making history, they were living the lives they were dealt. We’re making history with COVID, we’re not trying to make history. The play also goes through the great flood in history in 1827. We look back at the people, what they endured, how they endured it and we see pieces of ourselves. We hear a bit of the blues and it fills us, it kind of makes us whole. History is people living life and enduring the times. When this is written they’re gonna say we lived through the war and COVID. We’re just trying to live.”

With Van Dyke taking on the responsibility of being the producing artistic director of NFT, she hopes for blessings. “New Federal Theatre

Rehearsals of the New Federal Theatre’s “Gong Lum's Legacy” (Chloé LaBorde photos) Director Elizabeth Van Dyke (Chloé LaBorde photos)

See Van Dyke on page 21

‘Black Girl, Call Home’ & Black Girl Songbook: poetry & music history

By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH

Special to the AmNews

The world is far from perfect and oppression will not be eradicated overnight. Nonetheless, small steps taken each and every day to amplify the voices and creative work of Black women and our culture can help the cultural health of the world to improve.

Improvement can arise from the publishing of Black women’s voices and pushing forward positive and historically informative (and accurate) narratives to the global audience through media platforms and celebratory promotion.

While there are so many great books and content currently out in the world, here are a couple of notable creative endeavors by the powerful and highly inspiring writers Jasmine Mans and Danyel Smith.

Mans’ book, the highly anticipated poetry collection “Black Girl, Call Home,” is reminiscent, if not comparable, to the work of Gwendolyn Brooks and explores lyrical ideas and her personal understanding and relationship with feminism, queerness and Blackness. “‘Black Girl, Call Home’ is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing,” writes the book’s publisher, Penguin. Representation of Black women searching within themselves for existential clarity and emotional and societal safety is such an important perspective, experience and narrative that stems from a long line of Black women sharp and vivid writers such as Lorde, Huston and Morrison. In the realm of music history, the podcast series Black Girl Songbook, hosted by the legendary music editor and journalist Danyel Smith, is an invaluable resource that highlights the amazing music and lives of Black women musicians. For two seasons, Smith has covered Rihanna, CeCe Winans, Aaliyah and many more. Not only is Smith an excavator of history, but she is an amazing storyteller who takes listeners on a journey through the amazing musical presence and catalogs of Black women.

“Black Girl, Call Home” and Black Girl Songbook are two great offerings amongst so much amazing work that is being offered to the world right now. Be sure to engage, learn and enjoy because these creative expressions are authentic and worth exploring.