CBU June 2017 Emagazine

JUNE IS BLACK MUSIC MONTH

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THE NBA FINALS

WE HATE TO LOVE

The NBA is peaking right now in a way it hasn't since the end of the last century. It has a cavalcade of superstars, all riveting and unmissable in their own way (James Harden is an efficiency machine, Kawhi Leonard is the next evolution in two-way players, LeBron is LeBron and Russell Westbrook is almost levitating with his talent and energy ‌ and that's just four guys). Optically, the game is lovely to look at in a way we'd almost forgotten: It is free-flowing but organized. It is less a clichÊd mostly-wrong "jazz" game and more a bunch of tight, hyper-talented members of a traveling rock show that find a new way to play your favorite hits every night. The game is better, more compelling and healthier than it has been since the peak of the Jordan age.

So I suppose it makes sense that everybody is complaining about it. I feel like all Ive heard about the NBA for the past two months is how messed up it is. "Why aren't these playoffs more fun?" "Why do they do the postseason awards like this?" "Why are there so many days off?" "Why aren't I currently eating a cookie?" We grouse about what we enjoy the most; we only demand something be perfect if it's already amazing. But we lose perspective. It's all going to be fine. This is all going to pay off, very soon.

Back when Kevin Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors last Fourth of July weekend, a certain narrative among casual fans set in: The NBA isn't going to be as much fun this year because we already know the teams that are going to meet in the NBA Finals. It will be the same two teams who have met in the past two NBA Finals: The Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. "The regular season is pointless," you heard. And then the NBA went out and gave us one of the most compelling regular seasons in recent memory.

We had a four-way MVP race in which there were no wrong answers -- not that it stopped us from shouting down those who disagreed with our choice anyway. We had breakthrough seasons from teams like Utah, and Milwaukee, and Washington. We had the end of an era (probably) for the Clippers, a dynasty that never was. We had a defending champion in Cleveland that for much of the season looked listless and chaotic, and a superteam in Golden State that suffered injuries and some drama while still rounding into its best self. You had Joel Embiid! And most of all, you had the game itself, as exciting and fast-paced as it has been since, what, the '70s? Only one team in the NBA (Dallas) didn't average more than 100 points per game. You saw a show every night.

But we wanted more. So we get to the playoffs, and suddenly, Cleveland and Golden State -- two teams we kept picking at all season to find flaws; two teams that we constantly hectored for not being as flawless as we seemed to demand them to be; two teams that caused us to rage any time they dared rest one of their best players during the grueling regular season -- are their best selves again. They've stormed through these playoffs, with Golden State not losing a single game and Cleveland only losing for the first time Sunday night (but with LeBron James still holding a death grip on the Eastern Conference for the seventh consecutive season). And now, our original complaint is back: The two teams we thought would make the Finals are going to make the Finals. Even though the regular season was riveting, we are pretending that we weren't enjoying it all along because the Cleveland-Golden State final was coming. "The regular season was bad." (It wasn't.) "The playoffs aren't exciting enough." (Maybe? But just you wait.) "The Finals are just going to be same two teams." (Yes, yes, glorious yes.)

Because that's what all this has led up to. Yes, we're almost certainly going to get that NBA Finals that we were expecting. But to pretend that we didn't have a blast along the way -- that this hasn't been one of the best shows in sports every night since October, from Westbrook to the Rockets' resurgence to Durant settling in with the Warriors to a freaking defending championship team in Cleveland of all places -- is to be purposely dense.

If a few rocky playoff series leading up to that point is the price we have to pay to get these NBA Finals, it will be well worth it.

After all, don't act like you're constantly compelled by the conference finals anyway. LeBron has won the last six, and he hasn't really broken a sweat in one since the Pacers series four years ago. The Thunder gave the Warriors a legitimate run last year, but if anything, that now just seems like a windup for Kevin Durant's offseason decision and the end of a Thunder era rather than a series with memorable games we still can't stop talking about.

(And before that, a Western Conference Finals series hadn't gone seven games since the LakersKings series in 2002.) Last year's historic NBA Finals essentially eradicated any other playoff series that season from the brain, and how could it not?

That is almost certainly going to happen again, and it's to our benefit. LeBron James will surely rebound from a difficult Game 3 against Boston by putting up triple-double nights over the next week and the Warriors will finish off the Spurs. Then, on June 1, we will have the rubber series, the thirdgo-around between the Warriors and the Cavs, the most electrifying team of this generation against the most dominant player, with everything each team cares about on the line. We will not be thinking about the sluggish playoffs then, or predetermined matchups, or anything like that. We will just be so, so lucky to get to be there for the show. Sure, it's still 10 days away. That can feel like a long time when one is an impatient child. But we'll get these series finished off this week, and then we can all relax for Memorial Day, and then it'll be here. Just 10 more sleeps until WarriorsCavs. It's almost here. We can complain all we want now, but it's just empty grousing. On June 1, the complaining will stop. We're almost there. We can all wait. Waiting is good for you; anticipation heightens the experience when it finally arrives.

The payoff here is going to be worth it. The payoff is the reason for all of it.

By Will Leitch – sportsonearth.com

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By Jonathan P. Higgins, Ed.D. for root.com

Black Superheroes Are Here to Save the Day

News flash: Being a black

superhero is in. Whether that means being able to walk through a sea of bullets or being able to protect yourself with a 6-inch machete, black superheroes are here to stay.

From the nearly all-black cast in Luke Cage to Danai Gurira’s kickass Michonne in this season of The Walking Dead, black heroes and sheroes are permanent central characters in superhero stories.

On last year, Ne�lix announced a second-season pickup for Marvel’s Luke Cage. What makes this news notable is that Luke Cage is one of a few recognizable black superheroes being received with large-scale a�en�on. Also worth no�ng is the upcoming all-black cast of Black Panther, known as the first black superhero.

Growing up, my cousins and I would watch several superhero shows. When we would “play pretend” to be these superheroes, it never struck us that many of these superheroes didn’t represent us to the fullest degree. For years I would ask myself, “Where is a superhero I can connect with?

Someone ba�ling the same stresses or the same pressures that I am dealing with as a black man?”

Sure, there were characters of ambiguous race like Storm and Rogue from X-Men, but growing up, we never had strong male black superheroes with which we could connect, especially knowing that Batman’s superpower was white privilege.

For characters like Luke Cage and Black Panther, what makes them so great for the black community is knowing that each of them stands for more than just jus�ce. These are characters who are not only protectors of their families but protectors of the greater good.

They stand for the struggles that black men and women face at a systemic level.

The same can be said about Michonne and how her character has redefined what it means to be a black female superhero. I have been so happy to see the progression of Gurira’s character in this season of The Walking Dead. In past seasons, Michonne has been the one suppor�ng Rick (Andrew Lincoln). She has o�en worked as his right-hand person to make sure that the group stays safe. But since season 5, we have seen Michonne take out some of the most crucial villains in the show, providing leadership, all while providing love and support to everyone in the group.

The ra�ngs and viewership for shows like Luke Cage and The Walking Dead show us that folks are paying a�en�on to black superhero storylines, as well as how much the black community values having these stories as the central focus of new and exci�ng content.

I hope the evolu�on of characters like Luke Cage, Michonne and Black Panther is just the beginning of an increase in investment in blacksuperhero storylines, because at the end of the day, Black Superhero Lives Ma�er—and so does equitable representa�on.

The past few days have been hec�c for fans of the DC Extended Universe. Out of nowhere, Warner Bros. decided it was �me to drop one of the most an�cipated trailers of 2017 - and they did not skip out on the fanfare. The studio debuted a slew of teasers housing each of the Jus�ce League members except for a certain Kryptonian legend. The clips reached their climax when the full trailer for Jus�ce League dropped, and even naysayers have admi�ed the footage was pre�y dope.

As Jus�ce League’s premiere date draws near, fans are expected to get more informa�on about the superhero squad and their mission in the blockbuster. But, for now, they have been given a few juicy details about the film from director Zack Snyder himself. During a chat with USA Today, the man talked about his hopes for Jus�ce League, and the director went on to tease the film’s heart lie with one cyberne�c hero named Victor Stone.

When asked about the heroic newcomers in Jus�ce League, Snyder said Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller each brought special elements to their work as Aquaman and the Flash. As for Ray Fisher, the actor’s work as Cyborg is said to give true heart to the blockbuster.

“You have Jason stomping around as this inked hairy man, just this mythic figure. And you’ve got Ezra, who’s full of life and hilarious and all over the place and amazing — a really fun and also poignant Flash,” Snyder said. “And Ray’s story is in a lot of the ways the heart of the movie.”

For fans of Cyborg, the comment is welcome if not a bit unexpected. Jus�ce League houses a massive line-up of top �er DC Comics icons, and casual audiences may not be familiar with Cyborg - at least, not when compared with the likes of Batman.

However, there will be plenty of backstory to explore with Cyborg. The story will feature Victor’s father and the Mother Box as they trailer featured the pair heavily. The hero is also one of the youngest on the team and s�ll grappling with his overt powers; It’s not as easy for Victor to hide his prostheses and live a normal life like Bruce Wayne.

Hopefully, Cyborg will get his due �me in Jus�ce League and set up his upcoming solo venture for success. And, if fans are lucky, they will get to see the hero pop into a few DCEU �tles between Jus�ce League and his own movie as well. The Flash, perhaps?

Justice League: Cyborg's Origins W ill Be The Hear t Of The Stor y

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Megan Peters for comicbook.com

LIVING YOUR TRUTH!

The Flash's Keiynan Lonsdale Comes Out as Bisexual

Keiynan Lonsdale, star of The Flash, took to Instagram to share a deeply personal message.

The 25-year-old actor, who plays who plays Wally West, aka Kid Flash, on the CW series, came out as bisexual, saying, "I like to change my hair, I like to take risks with how I dress, I like girls, & I like guys (yes)."

"I like growing, I like learning, I like who I am and I really like who I'm becoming," he added. "Spent way too many years ha�ng myself, thinking I was less valuable because I was different.. which is just untrue. A couple years ago I was able to accept myself, & it saved my life, but now I've go�en to a new road block & I feel kind of lost. I go�a take the next step & actually embrace who I am, which is pre�y exci�ng."

"Not faking s--t anymore, not apologizing for falling in love with people no ma�er their gender," he con�nued. "I've become bored of being

insecure, ashamed, scared... no one should feel like that about themselves, especially when there is so much good life to live. Ya know more & more I see so many young people being their best / truest selves, it's f--king inspiring... so what have I been wai�ng for!? Who knows. Everyone in their own �me. I hope we can all learn to embrace who we are & not judge people who aren't exactly the same as us. The truth is we are all family, we're all one. Just love. Keiy.”

His friend and Bri�sh actor Elliot Night, who played Merlin on ABC's Once Upon a Time, posted his message on Twi�er, wri�ng, "Could not be prouder of my best friend ♥."

In Fairy Tales There's Always A

PRINCE CHARMING & A BAD GUY

...In Real Life, PRINCE CHARMING Is The BAD GUY ANGELIC SERIES BLACK VINTAGE SERIES♣ Photography: Piixdot Photography Designs: UNDERWOOD NY Larry Underwood Location: unknown

‘Power’: Larenz Tate Set To Recur On Season 4 Of Starz Drama Series Game of Silence and House of Lies alum Larenz Tate is set for a recurring role on the upcoming fourth season of Starz’s hit drama series Power.

Tate will play Councilman Rashad Tate, a city councilman from Jamaica Queens.

Power follows James “Ghost” St. Patrick, a drug kingpin living a double life who in season 4 seeks to find redemption. Power returns for its fourth season this summer.

Courtney A. Kemp serves as the creator, showrunner and executive producer of Power. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Mark Canton, Randall Emmett and Gary Lennon serve as executive producers.

In addition to Game of Silence and House of Lies, Tate starred as Bart “Black Shawn” Johnston on FX’s Rescue Me. He’s repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Paradigm.

This piece was ďŹ rst published on Bold.

My name is Richard Smith, and I am fortunate enough to live and work in San Francisco. The following words are mine, and mine alone.

I am typically classified by others as a “big, black guy”. I’m 6 foot 2 inches tall, and I weigh around 240 pounds. I have o�en been asked by strangers what posi�on I played, or where I played college ball (I didn’t). I am a 29 year-old Jamaican male living in San Francisco, working as a so�ware engineer. The words to follow are some thoughts I have had for a while, that I have only recently found the courage to pen.

For a long �me, I felt it normal to feel out of place, or like I don’t belong in “White spaces,” because I’m Black. I thought it was normal to feel apologe�c that I may have looked or seemed “threatening” to passersby, if I thought I invoked any feelings of fear or discomfort in my presence. I would say things like, “oh, well I understand that I’m a big, Black guy, and that if I don’t shave for a few weeks and walked down the street at night, I’d probably be afraid of me, too.”

…what?

It’s crazy to think of how hard I have tried to mind my manners, mind my presence, mind my appearance, how I walk, how my clothes fit, how long I glance at strangers for, how different I look in a hoodie vs. in a collared shirt, or even not speak in slang (even jokingly) for fear that people would expect it from me, and not actually see the humor, or the sarcasm.

It’s equally crazy how much more comfortable I feel around other Black people, or in other countries. I took a trip to Cuba for 2 weeks, and everyone there actually thought I was Cuban — which was surprising, but kind of awesome at the same �me. I’ve never felt so accepted in my life. Even in Canada, I felt more comfortable than I do in Silicon Valley.

Here are a few things I have grown accustomed to experiencing:

• Being the last person sat next to on the bus/train (some�mes, nobody takes the risk) • Being followed around stores by security • Being told by cab drivers that I’m the first Black person they’ve ever had a posi�ve encounter with

• Walking down the street and having someone step off of the sidewalk, and around a car (or cross the street) to avoid walking past me • Seeing and hearing people lock their car doors or clutch their purses/bags as I walk by

• Being asked things like, “So, what’s it like being a black guy in Silicon Valley?”

• Being mistaken for another Black person at work

• Surprising people when they ini�ally discover I’m a programmer • Surprising people when they find out I actually hate watermelon (and sha�ering other Black stereotypes in the process) • Feeling relieved when people don’t verbally address the fact that I’m Black • Feeling out of place when I can’t iden�fy with certain pop culture references or cultural norms (like being able to swim, liking baseball, listening to rock/ country or playing golf), because I grew up differently • Feeling like I have something to prove because I’m Black • Feeling like I was chosen for certain photo/video opportuni�es at work and during other ac�vi�es to feign diversity and acceptance • Being the most athle�c person in a par�cular group, and having people say things like, “…of course it would be the Black guy” The ones in bold are the ones that have affected me the most.

I usually don’t like talking about the topic of race, because I know everyone has something they are struggling with. I know that it may not seem like a good reason to you, but it’s been my reason. Everyone has a cause that’s dear to them, everyone knows someone or is someone that is going through some serious shit. You know what I mean.

But, in light of the sheer amount of nonsensical shoo�ngs, bea�ngs, and stories of racially-charged vandalism, I felt like I had to say something. Anything.

Two of my younger brothers are coming to visit me next month, and I’m mentally preparing to discuss with them the reali�es of being a young, Black man living in America. I will tell them if they feel anything I’ve men�oned above, that it is normal for them to feel that way, but that doesn’t mean it should be. I will tell them that I have worked so hard to teach myself how to write code so I can make a be�er future for myself, and to be a role model for them.

At a certain point in my life, I realized that I had no posi�ve role models (let alone ones I could relate to), so I set out to become a posi�ve role model for my siblings. I didn’t want them to have to resort to gangs, violence, or go looking for love to find ways to iden�fy with others and gain acceptance. I wanted them to learn to love themselves, and learn to love & empathize with others. To always be open-minded, seeking growth and understanding over judgment and contempt. To learn the value of hard work, and to truly believe that they can have, and achieve anything they can dream of.

I’m not trying to say that Black lives are more important than anyone else’s.

The amount of senseless shoo�ngs and bea�ngs by the police towards other people of color is alarming. The fact that this can happen to me anywhere, at any �me, for any reason makes me not even want to go outside at �mes, and makes me fear for the lives of my family since it can happen to any of them, too.

Nowadays, the fact that I’m terrified of being pulled over (thankfully, I don’t own a car, but I s�ll rent one on occasion), and some�mes feel out of place simply walking down the street makes me feel like an intruder in my own home.

I’m not saying I have it worse than anyone, and I’m not trying to garner any sympathy.

I’m not trying to say that Black lives are more important than anyone else’s, but there is a deep-rooted, systemic problem of racism, judgment, and hate-mongering in America that seriously needs to be addressed.

I just wanted to get some thoughts off of my chest. Feel free to do what you’d like with that.

Thanks for reading. ❤

If you want to talk about anything in this post, feel free to reach out to me on twi�er.

/dev/color is a community of black so�ware engineers who help one another reach career goals. To learn more, check out our website and follow our blog & twi�er account. h�ps://blog.devcolor.org/tagged/devcolororg

The Compiler

This blog was created to give Black engineers a place to learn about what it takes to reach the highest levels of leadership in tech. Addi�onally, we want to give everyone a chance to learn about how we see our communi�es, technology, and the world.

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The CBU Book List The Making of Black Lives Matter

A Brief History Of An Idea

Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acqui�al in the death of Trayvon Mar�n, the #BlackLivesMa�er movement has become a powerful and uncompromising campaign demanding redress for the brutal and unjus�fied treatment of black bodies by law enforcement in the United States. The movement is only a few years old, but as Christopher J. Lebron argues in this book, the sen�ment behind it is not; the plea and demand that "Black Lives Ma�er" comes out of a much older and richer tradi�on arguing for the equal dignity - and not just equal rights - of black people.

The Making of Black Lives Ma�er presents a condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMa�er movement. Drawing on the work of revolu�onary black public intellectuals, including Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and Mar�n Luther King Jr., Lebron clarifies what it means to assert that "Black Lives Ma�er" when faced with contemporary instances of an�-black law enforcement. He also illuminates the crucial difference between the problem signaled by the social media hashtag and how we think that we ought to address the problem. As Lebron states, police body cameras, or even the exhorta�on for civil rights mean nothing in the absence of equality and dignity. To upset dominant prac�ces of abuse, oppression and disregard, we must reach instead for radical sensibility. Radical sensibility requires that we become cognizant of the history of black thought and ac�vism in order to make sense of the emo�ons, demands, and argument of present-day ac�vists and public thinkers. Only in this way can we truly embrace and pursue the idea of racial progress in America.

The CBU Book List The Cooking Gene

A Journey Through African-American Culinary History In The Old South

A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspec�ve on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illumina�ng memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom.

Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradi�on, yet the ques�on of who "owns" it is one of the most provoca�ve touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twi�y takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged poli�cs surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine.

From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial �mes to planta�on kitchens and backbreaking co�on fields, Twi�y tells his family story through the foods that enabled his ancestors’ survival across three centuries. He si�s through stories, recipes, gene�c tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War ba�lefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia.

As he takes us through his ancestral culinary history, Twi�y suggests that healing may come from embracing the discomfort of the Southern past. Along the way, he reveals a truth that is more than skin deep—the power that food has to bring the kin of the enslaved and their former slaveholders to the table, where they can discover the real America together.

THE SUMMER TV SEASON IS BACK!

WINTER is COMING

12 Monkeys Season 3 For fans an�cipa�ng 12 Monkeys season 3 on Syfy, specula�on doesn’t stop during the long hiatus. Filming began in Toronto in October of 2016 and wrapped as March of 2017 began, and a�er the debut of the first trailer at New York Comic Con, news has been coming in that is sure to have everyone an�cipa�ng some surprising �me periods, amazing guest roles, and new missions for the intrepid �me travelers.

12 Monkeys Season 3 Release Date

12 Monkeys will return for season 3 on Friday, May 19, 2017 at 8pm, but it won't be a typical release each Friday during the summer. Instead, Syfy will air all ten episodes of its shortened run during that first weekend for fans to enjoy. Four episodes will air on Friday, and three will air each night on Saturday and Sunday, ending the series on May 21, only two days a�er it began. We'll need �me travel just to be able to absorb it all!

On top of all that, the series has already been renewed for season 4!

12 Monkeys Season 3 Trailer

Here's the latest trailer, which features glimpses of some mysterious figures with illuminated chests and several different �me periods. Plus there's a very en�cing voiceover at the end which is sure to thrill 12 Monkeys fans.

WORKING OUT: WITH STYLE

This Spring don’t just

pump up your biceps, quads, gluts and lats, pump up your style as well.

Keep your Summer body together with some cool looks from

Aesthetic Revolution

These days, most of the human footprint is digital — from our purchases and transac�ons, to our communica�on and personal informa�on, to our presiden�al elec�on. Whether it’s work or play, most of our ac�vity occurs in a browser window or app. Thus, it’s not surprising that according to The Huffington Post, analysts es�mate young adults spend approximately “a third of their waking lives on their device.”

Taking that into considera�on, it’s shocking we don’t take increased measures to keep ourselves protected online. More and more users are occasionally using a VPN, but not nearly enough. Studies conducted by Bri�sh psychologists revealed we spend double the amount of �me that we think we do on our phones. That’s double the number of �mes we send out pieces of informa�on about ourselves — from credit card informa�on, to work and home addresses, even personal informa�on about our family and friends.

We’ve seen malicious a�acks from individual hackers and even organized rings take down people and even powerful corpora�ons.

Just take a look at the Sony hacking saga — the company was infiltrated more than 10 �mes, exposing over 100 million user accounts. So what does this growing crime rate mean to the average person?

For be�er or for worse, if you’re an iPhone user, you’re par�cularly suscep�ble to a�acks from hackers and malware.

That’s because, iPhones are and con�nue to be some of the most popular smartphones in history.

That means the iOS pla�orm is one of the most dominant opera�ng systems out there — meaning that its ins and outs are highly coveted by hackers and hacking groups alike.

Remember how many transac�ons you think you’re making on your phone? Double that, and that’s not even close to the number of opportuni�es that exist to steal your data. And don’t think you’re safe if you just purchased a new, from the factory, iPhone 7 — according to CNET, inves�gators found new malware that, once in a computer, can infect mobile devices and download malicious apps independently. That means that the user could technically not do anything wrong and their device could s�ll be corrupted.

And that includes just clicking a malicious link — without taking any ac�on or manually entering in any informa�on.

Sound bleak? Don’t worry — there are definitely op�ons out there to help keep your online iden�ty safe.

One of these op�ons is the use of a VPN: a virtual private network.

What do VPNs do?

A VPN works by extending a private network over the public connec�ons we use daily. VPNs use a series of discrete networks or computers to secure and encrypt communica�on when using the Internet. A user logging into a VPN would typically access it via a client/browser window, log-in with special creden�als (really similar to how you’d log into your email) and voila — once inside the VPN, the user is secure from any eavesdropping or spying.

Any �me you’re doing something on the Internet, you’re exchanging and sending data to another source. A VPN ensures that each �me you do so, all the data that’s being sent from your end is encrypted, and safe from people seeking to steal it.

Why should I use a VPN? Back to our point about iPhone users: while Apple’s iOS is par�cularly robust, that doesn’t mean it’s impenetrable. And that also doesn’t mean that hackers aren’t trying to get into one of the largest user bases of all �me. Here are some of the best reasons why you should use a VPN:

1. General privacy and security concerns First and foremost, there’s the issue of all your personal informa�on — credit cards, social security, loan informa�on and more that could technically be yanked from you. Beyond that, hackers can gain insight to informa�on as granular as your loca�on. That’s where online threats go beyond the virtual plane and into the real world: and in that case, it’s always be�er to be safe than sorry.

2. Workplace necessity You might work in an environment that values the privacy of the people you help service — whether that’s in educa�on, health, law or medicine, there might be strict standards around how you transmit informa�on. A VPN helps ensure that you can do your job a li�le more effec�vely, knowing you’ve taken proac�ve steps to minimize data leakage.

3. Downloading materials We’ll keep this one between the two of us — but if you’re using a torren�ng app, you’re making yourself par�cularly suscep�ble to hackers. VPNs are a way to stay safe if you’re using something to download materials.

Which VPN is right for me?

So you’ve decided to take the plunge and invest in a VPN to protect yourself online — amazing. Not all VPNs are created equal, although there are always solid op�ons to choose from no ma�er what your budget is.

We’ve compiled a few of our favorites below — and the best news is, they’re all currently on sale at discounts up to 95% off.

1. PureVPN: Life�me Subscrip�on This is the world’s fastest VPN, with a robust 500+ server network, so you can stay protected and enjoy high-speed connec�ons. PureVPN also has a Zero Log policy, meaning not even PureVPN itself will have a trail of your online ac�vity. Get it now for $69 — that’s 88% off.

2. VPN Unlimited: Life�me Subscrip�on

With protected servers in 39 different countries, VPN Unlimited was named 2016 PC Mag Top VPN for its top-notch security. You can use VPN Unlimited on five different devices at the same �me – including your phone and your computer – and it’s one of the most affordable deals on the web for just $29.99. Get it now for $29.99 — that’s 94% off.

3. ZenVPN: Life�me Subscrip�on

ZenVPN offers easy installa�on and access to BitTorrent connec�ons (unlike other VPNs!). That means you can encrypt your traffic as you download, and as your browse. Get it now for $45 — that’s 95% off.

Click Here To See The Trailer

'The Get Down'

A�er just one season, “The Get Down” is officially down in the TV dumpster, according to Variety.

Ne�lix canceled the musical drama about teens from the Bronx in the late 1970s from creator Baz Luhrmann (“The Great Gatsby,” “Moulin Rouge!”) on Wednesday.

Canceling a show at all is s�ll a rare move for Ne�lix, and this is the first �me the streaming service has ever killed one of its original shows a�er only a single season. ("The Killing" ran for one season on Ne�lix, but had three previous seasons on AMC.) "The Get Down" debuted in 2016, and the second part of the first season premiered in April.

Ne�lix infamously doesn’t reveal viewing numbers, so there’s probably no way we’ll ever find out if it was really the least-watched original series on the streaming service, but it definitely didn’t get as much buzz as Stranger Things,” “Orange Is the New Black,” or “House of Cards.”

The other clear factor here is produc�on expenses. The show was reportedly the most costly produc�on in Ne�lix history at $120 million. There were also some complica�ons throughout shoo�ng that led some of the show's writers to jokingly call it “The Shut Down,” according to Variety.

Creator and director Baz Luhrmann tweeted his thoughts a�er the news came out Wednesday night:

“As for the real future of the

show, the spirit of ‘The Get Down,’ and the story it has begun to tell... it has its own life,” Luhrmann wrote in a Facebook post. “One that lives on today and will con�nue to be told somewhere, somehow, because of you, the fans and the supporters.”

"You Don’t Have to Live in Silicon Valley to Succeed in T ec h"

by Sequoia Blodgett for BlackEnterprise.com

Rodney Williams is not

what some would deem the stereotypical, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and this has actually worked in his favor. He is a young, black male, from Baltimore, Maryland, who initially had dreams of being a rapper or a Division I athlete. Instead, he was bit by the entrepreneurship bug.

Williams once told his mother that he wanted to create a piece of technology that would change the world. Today, that is exactly what his ultrasonic protocol, LISNR, is poised to do.

h�p://lisnr.com/

For all of you who aren’t familiar with LISNR, this technology that enables proximity messaging, second-screen interac�vity, authen�ca�on, and device-to-device connec�vity. In layman’s terms, LISNR’s technology transmits data over audio you can’t hear.

There are a lot of real world applica�ons for LISNR, like pairing speakers or checking out faster. Though similar to tradi�onal Bluetooth technology, LISNR takes it one step further. Instead of you having to do the work, LISNR will do it for you, which means less steps and more ease. The app opens up, authen�ca�on happens, and voilà! You’re ready to use your headphones.

When asked if not being in Silicon Valley ever caused him to feel at a disadvantage, Williams—a BE Modern Man, who was also the cover subject of BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine’s May 2016 issue—said absolutely not. Furthermore, he doesn’t believe that living in Silicon Valley is essen�al to running a great company.

And the proof is in the pudding; Williams raised over $14 million, and his company is based in Cincinna�, Ohio.

“If you have a great product, you’ll get great news, and you’ll get great accolades,” Williams says. “Eventually, I do believe that you’ll get great investors.”

Williams says that when he expands, he probably will not even look to set up shop in Silicon Valley. “I’m actually not a fan of it,” he states.

“I love the talent that’s floa�ng around in Southern California.

When you think of our tech as a protocol, and the historical CE companies that have grown up there, there are a lot of other reasons for us to be in other places, given what we ul�mately want to do,” he con�nues.

h�p://lisnr.com/

HOW

KIRK FRANKLIN IS PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF GOSPEL

By Vinson Cunningham for thwnewyorker.com

Blending secular sounds with an uplifting devotional message, the artist aims to “make God famous” through his music.

It’s hard to describe in a word what Kirk Franklin does for a living. Franklin, forty-six, is the most successful contemporary gospel ar�st of his genera�on, but he isn’t a singer. He plays the piano, but only intermi�ently onstage, more to contribute to the pageantry than to show off his modest chops.

Above all, he is a songwriter, but in performance and on his albums his role more closely resembles that of a stock character in hip-hop: the hype man.

The best hype men—Flavor Flav, Spliff Star, the early Sean (P. Diddy) Combs—hop around onstage, slightly behind and to the side of the lead m.c., addressing the microphone in order to ad-lib or to reinforce punch lines as they rumble by. But a hype man is, by defini�on, a sidekick, and while most of the sound in Franklin’s music comes from elsewhere —usually, a band and an ensemble of singers—he is always and unques�onably the locus of its energy and inten�on.

When I first saw Franklin perform live, last spring, at the newly renovated Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, he stood at center stage, spotlit, rasping out preachy interjec�ons whenever his singers paused for breath. The theatre had the grandeur of a cathedral: blood-red velvet curtains framed the stage; golden ceilings, pa�erned with blue-and-purple paisleys, soared over vaudeville-era balconies and plush seats. During “I Smile,” a bouncy, piano-propelled anthem to joyful resilience against life’s troubles, Franklin punctuated the chorus with a rhythmic series of shouts: “I smile”—“Yes!”—“Even though I’m hurt, see, I smile”—“Come on!”—“Even though I’ve been here for a while”—“Hallelujah!”—“I smile.”

Meanwhile, he danced. Franklin’s music is rife with

recognizable influences, from tradi�onal Southern gospel to R. & B., hip-hop to arena rock, and he accentuates this fact by offering audiences a flurry of accompanying bodily references. He is short— five feet five on �ptoe—and has friendly features: sleek eyes with penny irises, arched eyebrows, a mouth that rests in a grinning pout, taut balloons for cheeks. He wore white pants with black racing stripes, a long black shirt, and, around his neck, a neatly kno�ed red bandanna. Cradling the microphone stand near the lip of the stage, he wiggled his feet like James Brown and drew miniature scallops with his hips, then galloped from one side of the stage to the other, like a sanc�fied Springsteen. During the down-home numbers, he turned his back to the crowd and waved his hands in the direc�on of the singers, a slightly comic invoca�on of the Bap�st choir director’s showily precise control. Then he broke into a survey of recent dances made viral by teens on Vine and Snapchat: the Milly Rock, the Hit Dem Folks, the Dab. Some�mes, as if overtaken by joy, he simply leaped into the air and landed on the beat.

The show was a stop along Franklin’s latest tour, “20 Years in One Night.” The tour’s �tle had rounded down the years ever so slightly: Franklin released his first album in 1993. Since then, he has sold millions of records and won scores of awards for a brand of gospel that blends secular sounds with an upli�ing devo�onal message. He has also collaborated with some of the biggest names in pop: a few months before the Brooklyn show, he appeared on “Ultralight Beam,” the first song on Kanye West’s newest album, “The Life of Pablo,” and performed the song alongside West on “Saturday Night Live.”

The mostly black audience at Kings Theatre was older than the usual concert going crowd, and well versed in Franklin’s œuvre, frequently breaking, unbidden, into surprisingly competent harmony.

“Y’all sound good!” Franklin said. Later, he joked about his rela�onship with West: “Anyone can be saved . . . even Kanye!” The crowd laughed. The show ran for two and a half hours, with a short intermission; at several points, Franklin asked the audience if they had got their money’s worth. He was a genial narrator, a kind of hovering intelligence, pulling his fans through the healing places in his songs. When he was done, a woman of maybe sixty looked over at me, dazed, and said, “That’s why he’s so skinny—he’s got a lot of energy!” “What a blessing,” somebody else said. “I feel so light.”

In the mid-nine�es, when I was ten years old, my mother and I became members of a Pentecostal church in Harlem. We had recently moved back to New York a�er six years in Chicago, where my mother taught grade-schoolers and my father was the music director at a Roman Catholic church. The hush of Catholicism was mostof what I knew about religion—my dad had a talent for sneaking gospel sounds into hymnody, but the Mass had a staid, stubborn rhythm of its own—and the biggest shock of my first few months immersed in charisma�c religion was the wild, unceasing stream of noise.

Even as the pastor preached, the organ would honk, or a cymbal would crash, or someone in the congrega�on would open her mouth and let fly a stream of Spirit-given tongues. The other sound I remember was Franklin’s music. He was a fairly new phenomenon, and his songs had already become inescapable. Every respectable church choir seemed to have at least a few of them in its repertoire. His melodies and harmony parts were easy to teach to amateur ensembles, and congrega�ons were sure to know them, and to sing along.

Franklin had forged an uncommon connec�on with “the youth,” as the elder churchgoers called us. His message rarely differed from that of the other gospel music circula�ng at the �me, but his sound and his a�tude were of a piece with the most popular hip-hop and R. & B. acts of the moment. His physicality some�mes scandalized the older crowd. I

o�en heard people complain, “He’s bringing the world into the church.” But those parents also accepted, some�mes grudgingly, that this flashy figure might hold the key to keeping their sons and daughters in the pew and off the streets.

Franklin’s first album, a live recording called “Kirk Franklin and the Family,” offered a smooth, popadjacent brand of gospel, descended from acts like Andraé Crouch, the Winans, and, perhaps especially, Edwin Hawkins, whose 1969 hit “Oh Happy Day” laid the template for the kind of mainstream acceptance that Franklin hoped to win.

Franklin’s songs had compulsively singable melodies —there was li�le of the sweaty, melisma�c display typically associated with gospel vocalizing. His choir, the Family, sang in sweet, perfectly blended, middle-of-the-register unison, spli�ng into threepart harmony only toward the propulsive endings of their songs. The lyrics were earnest statements of affec�on toward the divine. “I sing because I’m happy,” went one of the more popular numbers. “I sing because I’m free”—“His eye is on!”—“His eye is on the sparrow”—“That’s the reason!”—“That’s the reason why I sing.”

“Kirk Franklin and the Family” sold a million copies, becoming the first gospel début to go pla�num.

Franklin’s next record, “Whatcha Lookin’ 4,” went pla�num as well, and earned Franklin his first Grammy. Both albums topped Billboard’s gospelalbum category. And, surprisingly, they appeared on the R. & B. chart—a sign that gospel, Christ and all, might finally cross over. In 1995, Jimmy Iovine, then the chairman of Interscope Records, home of Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre, engineered a par�al acquisi�on of GospoCentric Records, the independent label that had signed Franklin. One of Interscope’s talent scouts had brought Franklin to Iovine’s a�en�on, and Iovine was enthralled by Franklin’s charisma as well as by his commercial poten�al. He heralded Franklin—who, by now, was heading a new ou�it, called God’s Property—as gospel music’s Bob Marley.

“Stomp,” the lead single on Franklin’s next album, “God’s Property from Kirk Franklin’s Nu Na�on,” made the Top Forty charts in 1997. Its video, which entered regular rota�on on MTV, opens with

Franklin, in a white suit and shades, issuing a warning directly to the camera: “For those of you that think that gospel music has gone too far—you think we’ve go�en too radical with our message.

Well, I’ve got news for you: you ain’t heard nothin’ yet. And if you don’t know, now you know. Glory, glory!” It was a deliberate echo of the Notorious B.I.G.’s introduc�on to his 1994 hit “Juicy,” and served as a kind of mission statement for Franklin’s gospel/hip-hop hybrid. Throughout the video, the members of God’s Property—dressed, variously, in baggy jeans, shiny athle�c gear, and Nike Air Force 1s—dance boisterously, striking poses you’d otherwise expect to see in a night club.

“Lately I’ve been goin’ through some things that’s really got me down,” the choir sings. “I need someone, somebody to help me come and turn my life around.” Beneath the voices is a sample from Parliament-Funkadelic’s “One Na�on Under a Groove,” and this undercurrent of funk, along with Franklin’s interjec�ons, keeps the song lively and alo�. Toward the end, Cheryl James—otherwise known as Salt, of the rap duo Salt-N-Pepa—offers a verse. “God’s Property” went double pla�num, and reached the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 chart.

Franklin won another Grammy. Iovine’s comparison of Franklin to Marley began to seem almost reasonable.

In August, I went to see Franklin for a few days in Fort Worth, Texas, where he was born and raised and s�ll lives, with his wife, Tammy, and their children. We spent �me with his family, talked over meals, and stopped by his old high school. The family a�ends the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, a Dallas congrega�on led by the pastor and radio personality Tony Evans, who has become a mentor and spiritual adviser to Franklin. When we first pulled up to Franklin’s house, which is topped by spires and sla�ed roofs, and set behind a black wrought-iron gate on a secluded street, Franklin turned to me and said, “Now, remember, this is Texas.”

On a bright, hot a�ernoon, we had lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant near his home. We were joined by his manager and closest confidant, Ron

Hill, a slim, cerebral guy in his early thir�es who went to college in New Orleans and, a�er ge�ng started in the music scene there, lost nearly everything in Hurricane Katrina. A�er the storm, he recommi�ed himself to his faith, then became an intern at Franklin’s label, Fo Yo Soul Recordings, a joint venture with RCA created in 2013. He is now its president. The two men engaged in rolling, bigbrother, li�le-brother banter, li�ered with industry gossip and notes on new albums. The conversa�on inevitably returned to what they see as the rut that gospel music has fallen into. Why, they ask, can’t the genre be as dynamic and unbound as its secular counterparts? And why can’t more of its listeners applaud risks like those which Franklin has con�nued to take?

Franklin has a raspy voice, like a preacher a�er service, and a slight stu�er. He is given to parables and analogies, and he speaks with his en�re torso, leaning over and looking you in the eyes to make sure you’re s�ll with him. Discussing the business of music, he started many sentences by saying, “See, the problem with my genre . . .” One of the problems, he said, is gospel’s dual role as ar�s�c endeavor and as purveyor of religious experience.

“They don’t come to gospel for the produc�on or for the beats,” he said of his audience. “They come because they wanna be ministered to. So some�mes it’s, like, Well, if that’s all I’m good for, what do I do with all these ideas, and these crea�ve dreams, and growth I want to do as an ar�st? I wanna give you Jesus, but I wanna give you Jesus with an 808. I wanna give you Jesus with some strings.” Hill nodded in agreement.

As a teen-ager, Franklin spent days on end at a record shop near his high school, looking up the names of the producers who had created the songs he loved. Other musicians, Hill said, “who grew up in church and knew they could sing or whatever, they were just sort of pushed toward gospel music.

That’s the natural frame of mind—‘People in church say I could be bigger, so I’ll go into it.’ Not ‘I wanna pursue this,’ not ‘I’m gonna spend my �me honing my cra�, and listening to other music, and growing as an ar�st.’ ”

Franklin pulled my audio recorder across the table and said empha�cally, “This cat Ron Hill could easily run Apple, he could run Microso�, he could run Google. He is one step away from something crazy that is going to change the culture.”

Franklin’s interest in fame and his devo�on to the church can both be traced to his early years. Born Kirk Mathis, he was abandoned by his father and his mother by the �me he was four years old. He was adopted by a rela�ve, Gertrude Franklin, a pious woman and a widow in her six�es. Her age was aliena�ng for Kirk, as was the fickle presence of his biological mother, who lived close enough to stop by a few �mes a year and then disappear again. He listened to Top Forty radio constantly, and his talent was obvious from an early age: at eleven, he became the minister of music at his church. When he began to write songs—and started performing them, along with choirs he’d assembled, in churches all over Fort Worth—his first impulse was to meld the secular and the sacred. His first song was a reworking of Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets,” called “Jesus Is Coming Back.”

Franklin’s career is replete with unlikely collabora�ons, each reflec�ve of a love for pop tunes: Bono, Mary J. Blige, and R. Kelly have all shared a studio with Franklin. Recently, the collabora�on with Kanye West had angered some por�on of Franklin’s fans, and, at lunch in Fort Worth, Franklin and Hill were s�ll smar�ng from that reac�on. West grew up in Chicago and was raised in the church; on “Ultralight Beam,” he uses Franklin’s voice as a kind of associa�ve device, meant to ra�fy his asser�on that “The Life of Pablo” is a gospel album. Franklin arranged the choir parts that provide the background for the song’s chorus, and he speaks at the end of the track: “Father, this prayer is for everyone that feels they’re not good enough. This prayer’s for everybody that feels like they’re too messed up—for everyone that feels they’ve said ‘I’m sorry’ too many �mes. You can never go too far, where you can’t come back home again!”

Even before the song was released, a photograph was posted online of Franklin and West together in a recording studio, and Franklin received a ra� of

nega�ve Instagram comments. (“Why is Kirk in a picture with Kanye?” one fan asked. “I really hope and pray he is not collabora�ng with that blasphemous fool!”) A�er performing the song on “S.N.L.,” Franklin posted a black-and-white photo of himself and West on Instagram. “Kanye is not me,” he wrote in the cap�on. “I am not him. He is my brother I am proud to do life with.” He added, “To a lot of my Chris�an family, I’m sorry he’s not good enough, Chris�an enough, or running at your pace . . . and as I read some of your comments, neither am I. That won’t stop me from running.”

In Fort Worth, Franklin spoke of the constraints he feels as a gospel ar�st. “If I’m wri�ng and doing music celebra�ng the Creator, who is the most crea�ve being in the world—I mean when you look at nature and when you look at all of the beau�ful created things—why should I be limited in expressing myself? He’s crea�ve, so why shouldn’t my music be crea�ve, too? But everyone in my community, and especially the consumers, they don’t see it that way. Which is weird for me. It makes you feel good when you do a song that, sonically, can fit right next to Drake. But our audience, they don’t care. And it hurts that they don’t care!”

Hill said, “His music may not always get accepted in the church. But we’re trying to reach the people that don’t know the gospel.”

One simple way of understanding the customary path from gospel prominence to mainstream stardom is to listen to two recordings by Sam Cooke, “Wonderful” and “Lovable.” The melodies and song structures are almost iden�cal. They both speak of an otherworldly, all-accep�ng love; on both tracks, Cooke rests his trademark yodel over classic gospel-quartet chords. But “Wonderful” is about God, and “Lovable,” released one year later, is about a woman, any woman, maybe you. Sam Cooke crossed over.

Acts like Cooke, Solomon Burke, and Aretha Franklin made their way into the hearts of pop audiences by shedding their music’s religious content while retaining its fervor. They le� tradi�onal gospel behind and invented, in its place,

an en�rely new American genre: soul. Other acts held on to the sacred, and some of them were swept into wider fame by the social turmoil of the six�es. Mahalia Jackson soundtracked the civilrights movement, echoing its overtly religious appeal. But nobody danced to Mahalia; hers was a moral moment, and the mainstream largely le� her there.

Kirk Franklin has held on to the gospel message while moving his sound, and his presenta�on, in the direc�on of hip-hop and contemporary R. & B., the genres with an increasingly solid grip on the imagina�on of America’s youth. Last June, he travelled to Los Angeles for the BET Awards. He’d been nominated for Best Gospel/Inspira�onal Ar�st, an award he had won several �mes. Before the ceremony, he was slated to par�cipate in a public interview, called a BET Genius Talk, hosted by DeVon Franklin, a friend who has worked as a Hollywood execu�ve and is a preacher and mo�va�onal speaker. The talk took place at the Los Angeles Conven�on Center. Backstage, as both Franklins waited to begin, DeVon turned to Kirk and playfully said, “Now, listen, I don’t want the humble Kirk. The people want to hear the genius Kirk.” A�er DeVon went off to greet some friends, Franklin turned to Hill and asked, “The humble thing—am I coming off insincere? That’s just how I am.”

Soon he was rushed onto the stage, and the crowd hooted and clapped. Prompted by DeVon, he outlined his life, presen�ng his abandonment and adop�on as obstacles faced and, by degrees, overcome. “Some�mes, when you feel like you’ve hit rock bo�om, o�en you find out that God is the rock at the bo�om,” he said.

A�er the event, a young assistant pulled Franklin into a vast ballroom and pointed to a makeshi� triangle of black draping, where he could change clothes for the ceremony. “They told me there’d be, like, a li�le room,” he said, smiling. The assistant shrugged and shook her head. Franklin disappeared behind the curtain.

Franklin dislikes awards shows, which remind him of how explicit the celebrity machine’s hierarchy can be. Everything from seat assignments to the

number of camera flashes that an a�endee a�racts on the red carpet is meant, in some way, to fix a person in his place. To no one’s surprise, Franklin won again that night. He took the stage with his wife, Tammy, and gave a short, slightly nervous speech. Watching from the audience, I wondered what might have happened if, at the commercial and cultural apex of his career, Franklin had rocketed away from music about Jesus and into the heart of secular pop, the way Cooke and Aretha had. You some�mes get the sense, hearing him talk, that he wonders this, too. But, despite his periodic restlessness, leaving was never a serious considera�on. Gospel, he told me later, is “closely connected with the dude that I am.” His rela�onship to the genre, he said, was like that of “a married man who some�mes gets frustrated with his marriage.” He went on, “You know, he can get frustrated, having arguments and disagreements, and be, like, ‘Man, if I was single I wouldn’t have to be dealing with this.’ But you never get to the point where you’re in divorce court or you’re talking to an a�orney.”

Beginning in the late nine�es, Franklin’s life was roiled by less metaphorical troubles. First, members of God’s Property filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that he hadn’t paid them sufficiently. (The suit, along with a similar one brought two years later by members of the Family, was resolved out of court.) A few years later, he and Tammy gave interviews, first in a series of Chris�an magazines, and finally on the Oprah Winfrey show, in which they divulged that Franklin was addicted to pornography, and that the habit had threatened their marriage.

Franklin says that he has always craved a�en�on and approval, especially from women, and that he became promiscuous in his early teens. He o�en got involved with—and hung around the homes of— girls whose families were more conven�onal than his. Eventually, Gertrude kicked him out—righ�ully, he says. “I was smoking in the house, sneaking girls in and out to have sex,” he said. “She loved me, but I could tell that my adolescence disappointed her.

She didn’t know how to lovingly navigate me through it. So I was kind of wri�en off. But I knew that she loved me.” It was around this �me, Franklin

that she loved me.” It was around this �me, Franklin says, that an anonymous benefactor, who had heard about Franklin’s musical talents, offered to pay his tui�on to a new private high school for the performing arts. There were thirty students in the en�re school. For the first �me in his life, Franklin was the only black student in his class, surrounded by “white weirdos” who listened to Pink Floyd, and who considered Franklin cool because he was black and knew how to dance. He felt lucky; somehow, he fit in. He was sleeping most nights on couches and in cars. At the end of the school year, he found out that his girlfriend was pregnant. He quit school for good before his son Kerrion was born.

Gertrude died when Franklin was twenty, and le� him her house. He sold it, paid off a few bills, moved into an apartment in nearby Hulen Heights, and began to write the songs that appeared on “Kirk Franklin and the Family.”

Franklin speaks of God as if he were in the next room, a shout away. Spurred by what he calls his “mama issues,” he has from �me to �me played the analysand. “I’m a Chris�an who believes in therapy,” he told me. In the aughts, Franklin underwent an ar�s�c metamorphosis that was primarily lyrical: he turned, sharply and compellingly, toward the personal. The result was the crea�on of a specific, fully realized “I” in his songs, an innova�on familiar from blues and pop that had never before wholly crossed into gospel.

That character first appears on “Hero,” an album released in 2005. “Hero” is Franklin’s most autobiographical album, and his best. In “Let It Go,” a spoken-word near-rap driven by a moody sample of “Shout,” by the band Tears for Fears, Franklin begins, “My mama gave me up when I was four years old / She didn’t destroy my body but she killed my soul. . . . Ten years old finding love in dirty magazines / Ms. December you remember I bought you twice / Now I’m thirty plus and s�ll paying the price.” It con�nues in this autobiographical vein: “Had a sister that I barely knew / Kind of got separated by the age of two / Same mama different daddy so we couldn’t fake it / I saw my sister’s daddy beat her in the tub naked.”

Another song, “Imagine Me,” a willowy ballad held together by a so�, vaguely mar�al snare, a bright acous�c guitar, and a sweetly repe��ve piano riff, pulls a neat psychological trick: instead of telling the customary gospel story of absolute, transforma�onal change, the narrator presents the act of even imagining an uninhibited rela�onship with God as a kind of breakthrough. “Imagine me,” the chorus begins, in a tender unison that some�mes sprouts into harmony, “being free, trus�ng you totally / Finally I can imagine me. / I admit it was hard to see / You being in love with someone like me / But finally I can imagine me.”

Just before the song’s closing crescendo, Franklin begins to speak directly to the listener. “This song is dedicated to people like me,” he says. “Those that struggle with insecurity, acceptance, and even selfesteem. You never felt good enough; you never felt pre�y enough.”

Franklin talks about the change in his work direc�onally: he had started out wri�ng, like much of the gospel industry, “ver�cally,” man to God —“You know, ‘God, we praise you!,’ all of that, which is beau�ful”—but now he wrote “horizontally,” person to person, hoping that the par�culars of his life would strike a universal chord in both believers and unbelievers.

“It’s s�ll very much a genre that wants these ver�cal songs,” Franklin said. “But I want to write about the God that I live with, not just the God that I love.

Because the God that I live with sees me having doubts with him, and being afraid of him, and being mad at him, and saying sorry, and making up.”

“Hero” briefly charted on the Billboard 200. It is the last of his albums to go pla�num.

In an interview last year on NPR, Franklin said, “My job on earth, the reason why Kirk is created, is to make God famous. I just want God to be well known.” God does not seem to lack for name recogni�on, but the renown that Franklin has in mind is a kind of cultural capital, or, as he explained it to me, “a seat at the table of culture.” Secularists some�mes fear that theocracy is right around the corner, but in America God remains uncool.

“Chris�anity, and the framework of religion, makes us a subculture,” Franklin said. “But there’s a whole other world going on—technology, and science, and racism, and economics, and capitalism, and all of these things happening, but we have this bubble.

And the problem is that when people leave this bubble they have to go into the world to work, and to raise their kids, and to find a spouse, to pay taxes. So why wouldn’t you take what you learn in the bubble and affect the world? You can’t do that if you only know the bubble.”

Escaping this provincialism is the theme of Franklin’s most recent album, “Losing My Religion,” which was released late in 2015 and was just nominated for a Grammy. The �tle was instantly and predictably provoca�ve: Franklin’s fan base wondered if he planned to depart from Chris�an doctrine. He didn’t. “I just wanna have deeper conversa�ons that intellectually challenge us, to make sure that we’re growing the right way,” Franklin said. “I wanna make sure that we’re not just being cultural Chris�ans, just ’cause we’re black. Or because we’re American. I want to talk about weighty stuff.” The “20 Years” billing of the recent tour was partly a way to wrap these “deeper conversa�ons”—about the church’s efficacy in an increasingly secular world—into the context of Franklin’s en�re career. “I wanted them to know that I’m s�ll their boy,” he said, referring to the fans who have stuck with him through the years.

Assurances notwithstanding, “Losing My Religion” is an open rebuke to the stuffier, more conserva�ve corners of the church. “Religion is a prison but truth sets us free,” Franklin says on the album’s opening track, an a-cappella spoken-word piece. He con�nues, “Terror, famine, disease / Millions in poverty / Hungry, can’t sleep / With all of this religion, why these babies can’t eat?”

Franklin blames church-world cloistering, in part, for Donald Trump’s success among conserva�ve evangelicals. Trump, he thinks, offered churches— o�en courted by mainstream Republicans as a source of votes, and then all but ignored—a highway back to cultural prominence. “To see the evangelical community be so desperate for

relevancy, that really breaks my heart,” he said.

“You know what that means to me, also? There have been decades where you didn’t do good work.

Decades where you didn’t lay down a good framework where the culture saw you as not only passionate about the rich but passionate about the poor.” Shortly a�er the elec�on, Franklin published an essay on the Huffington Post, �tled “Dear Fellow Chris�ans . . .” He walks a �ghtrope in the le�er, declining to praise or condemn either candidate.

Instead, he expresses consterna�on toward his coreligionists. “My shock is in the worst I’ve seen in those that claim to believe like I do,” Franklin writes. “While we fight and argue about abor�on and sexual orienta�on, we apparently forgot one of the greatest sins that God con�nuously acknowledges He hates: pride.”

The poli�cal realm is thorny for a figure like Franklin, whose audience is largely culturally conserva�ve and drawn to a posi�ve, upli�ing message. Today, in contrast to the six�es, much social-ac�vist energy comes from secular sources.

Some black religious leaders from more liberal tradi�ons have aligned themselves almost totally with progressive poli�cs, even on issues like homosexuality. Franklin is not quite so free, though he occasionally skirts the edges of orthodoxy.

During an interview on “Sway in the Morning,” a popular radio show on Sirius XM, he addressed the ma�er of same-sex rela�onships. “As Chris�ans, as the church, we’ve come off like the police,” he said.

“What I always wanna say, man, is I’m sorry for all of the ugly things and all of the painful things that people have even heard from church people.

Because things can come from a very homophobic lens—some�mes it feels very homophobic when people are trying to make their stance or their beliefs.”

Life in the bubble won’t do for a crossover ar�st like Franklin, who approaches his visits to churches and hip-hop radio shows with equal ardor. He has souls to win, seats to fill.

The first leg of the “20 Years in One Night” tour ran mainly through big ci�es, and was organized and promoted by the entertainment behemoth Live

Na�on. The crowds were so large that Franklin and his team organized a second leg on their own, through smaller markets—Tulsa, Savannah, Clearwater—where they were at the mercy of independent promoters. I joined him at the ivy-clad Main Street Armory, in Rochester, New York. He stood in the Armory’s gravel alleyway, wearing the same black-and-white ou�it that I’d seen in Brooklyn. His background singers, mostly women, hung around him in a loose, laughing cluster, and the band, all male, stood a ways off. The sun was beginning to set, making so� shapes on the musicians’ horns.

“All right, let’s pray it up,” Franklin said to the group.

The huddle �ghtened.

“If the light shining on you,” Franklin said.

“Is brighter than the light shining in you,” the rest replied.

“Then the light shining on you—”

“—will destroy you.”

A�er the prayer, we could hear the squalls of an opening act—one of an exaspera�ng five, none of which Franklin had been involved in choosing.

“There’s no support system,” he said as he stretched, hois�ng first one leg, then the other, almost level with his head, against a brick wall. “It’s almost like when women started doing their hair natural. The style was always perms, but then somebody said, ‘You know what?’ ” Here he slipped into a head-snapping, wrist-flipping impression. “ ‘I’ma start ge�ng my hair natural.’ And then their girlfriends were, like, ‘Yeah, girl, let’s go natural!’ So they all went natural, but the beauty shops didn’t know. They s�ll had all these chemicals and stuff, and girls showed up, like, ‘Do me natural,’ and the shops were, like, ‘Huh?’ ’Cause they’re s�ll used to the perm.”

Promoters didn’t understand that you couldn’t sell �ckets to a big gospel show the way you would for a Rihanna tour, he said. “You go�a go to the churches, you go�a include the churches, churches go�a know you, you go�a become a partner.”

A�er one of the recent concerts, he said, a promoter told him that he was three thousand dollars short of the fee he owed Franklin. “You wouldn’t do that to John Legend,” Franklin said, clearly s�ll upset. “You wouldn’t do that to Jill Sco� or Erykah Badu. So what do you think of me and my genre, that it’s so country and so backward that you can do that to me?” He found the whole experience discouraging. “You mean a�er twenty years I’m s�ll having a promoter come up to me and tell me he doesn’t have three thousand dollars? That’ll make you want to go home. My community’s s�ll doing that? I’m done.”

Toward the end of the show in Rochester, Franklin hopped off the stage and waded into the crowd. He offered the microphone to maybe a dozen people in turn and asked, “What’s your favorite Kirk song?”

Each of them beamed and answered the ques�on.

Returning to the stage, he didn’t hop quite high enough, and for a second he was stuck, with his torso onstage and his legs wiggling. A�er a few moments of struggle, he worked himself up and onto the stage, and stood shaking his head and scratching his brow. An embarrassed smile passed across his face. He started to laugh, and the crowd laughed along. Later, on board his tour bus, he was s�ll good-naturedly embarrassed. “Ha!” he barked.

“Please include me ge�ng stuck,” he said, poin�ng to my recorder. “I have more ambi�on than I do physical capacity.” He had changed into sweats and bobbed like a wrestler atop the bus’s couch. In a few hours, he would take off for the tour’s final show, in Bal�more. He didn’t look much more �red than he had before the show. “Like, if you wanted to go eat, I could go eat,” he said. “You want to go maybe see your peoples? We could go see your peoples. Can I do a whole ’nother concert? Probably not.”

Also aboard were two women, a reporter from Rochester’s weekly black newspaper and a friend of hers.

The reporter wanted a photo. Franklin obliged, but not without extrac�ng some market research.

“So was this a good turnout for Rochester?”

The women laughed.

“No, no, really,” he said, raising his eyebrows. He’d seen a sca�ering of empty white folding chairs throughout the Armory. “Was it a good turnout?”

They assured him that it was. Almost nobody big comes through Rochester, they said, and even fewer get a crowd like this.

Franklin gestured toward his road assistant. “One of y’all has to go see how many people came out,” he said.

Vinson Cunningham joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2016

Congratulations To

STEVEN JOHNSON

Latest Model To Sign With BMG Models NY We Wish Him All The Best Thank You For Gracing The Covers of CBU Emag

Summer Cocktails

What better way to cool off during the warm summer months than with a cool and refreshing summer cocktail? Whether you are grilling in the back yard, throwing a summer party or just chilling out, these delightful cocktail recipes are sure to refresh as well as impress.

Desk Job "This drink is like a really bitter, dense rum and Coke -- it would be my go-to happy hour cocktail if I had a desk job!" says Donny Clutterbuck, head bartender at Cure in Rochester, New York.

HOW TO MAKE THIS RECIPE 1. In a mixing glass, combine the rums, Punt e Mes and Cynar. Fill the glass with ice and stir well.

Strain into a chilled, ice-filled rocks glass. Pinch the lime twist over the drink and add to the glass.

Slushy INGREDIENTS • 3/4 ounce amber rum, preferably Ron Zacapa 23 • 3/4 ounce overproof Jamaican rum, preferably Smith & Cross • 3/4 ounce Punt e Mes (spicy, orange-accented Italian sweet vermouth) • 3/4 ounce Cynar (bitter, artichoke-flavored aperitif) • Ice • 1 lime twist, for garnish

Watermelon-Tequila Cocktails When watermelon is in abundance, this is a great way to use it. Bobby Flay purees seedless watermelon chunks, then strains the juice through a sieve and mixes it with silver tequila, sugar syrup, blueberries, mint and fresh lime juice.

HOW TO MAKE THIS RECIPE 1. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a simmer with the sugar and stir over moderate heat until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute; let the sugar syrup cool.

2. In a blender, puree the watermelon until smooth. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl and strain the watermelon juice, pressing gently on the solids to extract as much juice as possible. Discard the pulp.

3. In a large pitcher, combine the sugar syrup with the lime juice, blueberries and mint leaves. Using a wooden spoon, lightly muddle the blueberries and mint. Add the watermelon juice and tequila. Refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours.

4. Pour the cocktail into tall icefilled glasses. Garnish with the mint sprigs and serve

Spicy Margarita Punch Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple loves making a big bowl of punch with his spicy and fresh margaritas.

Slushy INGREDIENTS • 1 English cucumber, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish • 1 small jalapeño, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish • 1/4 cup lightly packed cilantro • 1/4 cup lightly packed mint • One 750-milliliter bottle silver tequila • 2 cups fresh lime juice • 1 cup light agave nectar • 1/2 cup fresh orange juice • Ice, lime wedges and kosher salt, for serving

HOW TO MAKE THIS RECIPE 1. In a punch bowl, muddle the cucumber with the jalapeño, cilantro and mint. Add the tequila, lime juice, agave and orange juice and stir well. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 1 hour.

2. Using a fine-mesh sieve, remove and discard the solids from the punch. Garnish with more thinly sliced cucumber and jalapeño. Serve ice and lime wedges alongside, as well as salt for rimming glasses.

MAKE AHEAD The punch can be refrigerated overnight.

NOTES VARIATION: Margarita Jellies (makes about 9 dozen) In a large bowl, sprinkle 6 envelopes of unflavored gelatin evenly over 1 cup Spicy Margarita Punch. In a saucepan, bring 1 cup of punch just to a simmer. Whisk in the gelatin mixture until completely dissolved, then return to the large bowl. Whisk in the remaining punch.

Pour into a lightly oiled 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Refrigerate overnight. Unmold and cut into 1inch cubes. Dip in decorating sugar and serve.

5 REASONS WHY

YOU’RE NOT SEEING RESULTS IN THE GYM

Sha�ered every session, with nothing to show for it? Here’s why.

If your muscles are sore every session, yet you’re not progressing as fast as you think you ought to be, it’s easy enough to become frustrated with the process. For some men, the gains are so gradual that they o�en simply stop exercising outright.

Yes, the process of building lean sustainable muscle is a slow one. But most people o�en get in their own way, making the process harder than it needs to be. We tapped Theo Pellegrini, performance coach at City Athle�c gym, to help you make the most of your workout. Time to press fast-forward on your progress.

1.

You’re priori�zing the wrong exercises

“Spending most of your gym �me on bicep varia�ons is not an efficient use of your �me”

Most o�en seen in the beginner looking to bulk (or men using their bodies as vanity projects), if you’re making a beeline for curls as your first exercise, you’re commi�ng a cardinal sin.

Isola�on exercises, those working just one part of your body, are best done at the end of a session to force the muscle into hypertrophy, a state of exhaus�on which encourages it to grow.

“Spending most of your gym �me on bicep varia�ons is not an efficient use of your �me,” says Pellegrini. He advocates star�ng with compound li�s like squats and deads. Because the body needs to recruit lots of muscles for these exercises, you’ll shi� more weight if you’re fresh: you can then work back from deadli�s to bent over rows to bicep curls. This will s�ll exhaust your arms, but also build total-body strength.

The science checks out, with the Na�onal Strength and Condi�oning Associa�on finding bench press performance decreases by a massive 75% if you start with flys. It’s the difference between building true strength and beach muscle.

2.

You’re rushing your reps

Most gym-goers can empathies: you’ve got 12 reps wri�en down, and by god, you’re going to finish them.

The form goes, the speed increases and you’re pausing during every rep, but all that ma�ers to you is ge�ng that weight up there.

While the commitment is admirable, the speed in which you fire those muscle fibers should all depend on your goals. “If you want to grow muscle,” Pellegrini tells us, “you want around 40-70 seconds of �me under tension each set.” This allows the muscle �me to fill with blood, pumping them up more efficiently than quick reps.

If you’re training for strength, the rules change. Pellegrini advocates lowering the threshold to just 20-40 seconds in order to cul�vate larger, fast-twitch muscle fibers. In either case, pick a pace and maintain it throughout the set: speeding up halfway through leads to muscular mixed messages and botched training plans.

3.

You’re stuck to your phone

We only spend between three and five hours a week in the gym, so grab a notepad (remember those?) and ditch the device. Short of playing music on it, twiddling thumbs only aggravates other li�ers and distracts you from your workout. “Between sets you should only need to update your weights, reps and drink some water,” says Pellegrini. Kent State University found tex�ng during a gym session reduces your heart rate, as rest periods tend to be longer than intended. Keep your ‘gram habit out of it.

There’s another, more disgus�ng reason to keep your hands off the phone during power hour. A study from the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine found dumbbells carry up to 365 �mes more germs than a toilet seat. While you wash your hands a�er the gym, we’re be�ng you don’t wipe the screen you’ve been tapping all day. Conclusion? Leave your phone in the bag, otherwise you’re rinsing the screen in other people’s sweat. Gross.

4.

You’re not ea�ng right before working out

Good nutri�on is about so much more than post-workout chicken breasts. While many people train before breakfast to maximize their bodies’ fat-burning poten�al, it turns out ‘fasted cardio’ is just another myth.

According to the journal Sports Medicine, working out while fasted and topping up a�er leads to greater fat storage during the rest of the day, making the arduous task of fasted cardio worthless.

A whole-grain breakfast like porridge oats before a session is full of slow-release, low-GI carbs to fuel your workout instead of your waistline. Your morning coffee also boosts performance, as the University of Nebraska found caffeine before a workout increases your bench-press capability by 2.2kg. You can’t run a car on fumes. Why treat your body differently?

5.

You’re not keeping track of your progress

Remember that notepad you bought earlier? Use it. Walking into the gym and going with your gut is known as chaos training, and it’s used to shock your muscles into growing with a different workout every �me.

However, a founda�on needs to be built before you start on the house itself.

“When you go into the gym with a plan and the inten�on to be stronger than you were at your last visit,” says Pellegrini, “you can be sure that your efforts will be rewarded with progression each and every �me.”

Most plans will last between four and twelve weeks; our MH Transform Club, for example, is a complete 8week plan to overhaul your body.

Even just stepping on a scale or using a tape measure is essen�al. In a term coined by psychologists as ‘the ostrich problem’, choosing to record your diet or a�aching a number to your weight can make you progress – or lack of – seem very real indeed. Pull your head out of the sand and onto the scales if you’re looking for serious progress.

Click Here To See The Trailer

Taste of Chicago

is the na�on's premier outdoor food fes�val showcasing the diversity of Chicago's dining community.

The delicious array of food served at Taste of Chicago is complemented by music and exci�ng ac�vi�es for the en�re family.

Every summer since 1980, Chicago's beau�ful Grant Park on the city's magnificent lakefront has been home to the world's largest food fes�val.

JUNE IS BLACK MUSIC MONTH African-American Music Apprecia�on Month is an annual celebra�on of African-American music in the United States. It was ini�ated as Black Music Month by President Jimmy Carter who, on June 7, 1979, decreed that June would be the month of black music. Similar presiden�al proclama�ons have been made annually since then.

In 2009, the commemora�on was given its current name by President Barack Obama. In his 2016 proclama�on, Obama noted that African-American music and musicians have helped the country "to dance, to express our faith through song, to march against injus�ce, and to defend our country's enduring promise of freedom and opportunity for all.

"We couldn't think of a be�er way to celebrate the return of Xscape than in New Orleans."

A�er announcing plans in March to reunite, Xscape is now set to perform its first full live show in more than 15 years.

Essence Fes�val has announced that the '90s R&B female quartet will formally kick off its reunion tour on July 2, the final night of the 2017 fes�val’s engagement (June 29 - July 2) at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Xscape will join a previously reported talent lineup that includes Diana Ross, Chance the Rapper, John Legend, Solange, Jill Sco�, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, Ro James and Gallant.

In a group statement, original Xscape members Kandi Burruss, LaTocha Sco�, Tamika Sco� and Tameka “Tiny” Harris said, “We couldn't think of a be�er way to celebrate the return of Xscape than in New Orleans. Essence Fest is so much more than a music fes�val. It’s a celebra�on of culture, music and entertainment.”

Xscape's string of top 10 R&B hits includes the No. 1’s “Just Kickin’ It,” “Understanding” and “Who Can I Run To?”

Patti LaBelle’s New Album

‘Bel Hommage’

Iconic singer Pa� LaBelle released the new album, Bel Hommage, on

May 5, 2017. The project, her first in almost a decade, features a collec�on of jazz standard records.

‘Bel Hommage’ follows Pa�’s 2008 Labelle reunion project, Back to Now.

With more than 50 years in show business, LaBelle has recorded and performed music across mul�ple genres including R&B, disco, pop, and gospel. However, Bel Hommage marks her first foray into jazz. She grew up listening to many of the songs that she recorded for the project and has always admired ar�sts such as Dinah Washington, James Moody, Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson and Frank Sinatra, who’ve made these standards famous.

“I’ve been saying for years that I was going to record a jazz album, but I hadn’t taken that leap of faith to try something different,” says LaBelle. “Now I’m so happy that I did because I really love all of these songs and I pray that everyone else will too!”

In addi�on to ‘Bel Hommage,’ LaBelle is released her sixth book and fourth cookbook, Desserts LaBelle, on April 25th and has a line of successful food products, Pa�’s Good Life, which is carried at Walmart stores.

She also stars on the hit Cooking Channel show, Pa� LaBelle’s Place.

Bel Hommage’ Track Lis�ng:

1. The Jazz In You 2. Wild Is The Wind 3. Moanin’ 4. Till I Get It Right 5. Moody’s Mood For Love (featuring KEM) 6. So�ly As I Leave You 7. Peel Me A Grape 8. Don’t Explain 9. I Can Cook Too 10. Folks On The Hill 11. Go To Hell 12. Song For Old Lovers 13. Here’s To Life

From: singersroom.com

Love Is A Battlefield Maysa

My Love Divine Degree Cody ChesnuTT

Shine Wale

Shine Vic Mensa

The King & I Faith Evans & Notorious B.I.G.

Tr ue to Self Br yson Tiller

DOORS

Is Chicago Singer/Songwriter B-A’s First EP.

h�ps://youtu.be/YA�b7jFDrI

Fli�ng the lines between soul, r&b, and rock, the album’s strength lies in both B-A’s aggressive voice and the musical surprises that fill each track. He is an ar�st exploring genrebending styles, using a full range of vocal prowess not found in many singers of this genera�on. The song-wri�ng delivers a refreshing openness, engaging in a bold, honest journey in Love, Hate, Hope and Forgiveness; the tracks all illuminated in a funky, unique collec�on of styles.

From the EP’s first track, the old-school soul “Loving Between Teardrops”, opening guitar riffs harken to a younger, smoother Chuck Berry/Fats Domino Fli�ng the lines between soul, r&b, sound. This is immediately followed by and rock, the album’s strength lies in an off-set rhythmic, pop-infused “Requiem” with fiery vocals opening up both B-A’s aggressive voice and the in an honest explora�on of the love/ musical surprises that fill each track. hate dynamic of a rela�onship in He is an ar�st exploring genre-bending turmoil, where emo�ons run high. B-A’s styles, using a full range of vocal background as a classical musician is prowess not found in many singers of infinitely felt in these tracks as well, this genera�on. The song-wri�ng even going as far as sampling the Dies irae from Verdi’s Requiem in “Prologos”, delivers a refreshing openness, its’ surprising and unse�led resolu�on engaging in a bold, honest journey in leading to a come-to-terms defini�on of Love, Hate, Hope and Forgiveness; the love in one of the album’s strongest tracks all illuminated in a funky, tracks. unique collec�on of styles.

The EP’s first single “Closed Door” is a

heartbreaking resolu�on, both musically From the EP’s first track, the old-school soul “Loving Between Teardrops”, opening guitar riffs and lyrically, to the confusion B-A sets harken to a younger, smoother Chuck Berry/Fats Domino sound. This is immediately followed by early on, and con�nues through the an off-set rhythmic, pop-infused “Requiem” with fiery vocals opening up in an honest even-keeled so�ness in “Footprints” explora�on of the love/hate dynamic of a rela�onship in turmoil, where emo�ons run high. B-A’s and steadfast lyrics of “How Far Would I background as a classical musician is infinitely felt in these tracks as well, even going as far as Go”. The EP’s haun�ng finale “Roads” is sampling the Dies irae from Verdi’s Requiem in “Prologos”, its’ surprising and unse�led an admission of the human experience, resolu�on leading to a come-to-terms defini�on of love in one of the album’s strongest tracks. both in the frailty of wan�ng to give up,

but having the courage to keep going in The EP’s first single “Closed Door” is a heartbreaking resolu�on, both musically and lyrically, to the face of insurmountable odds. the confusion B-A sets early on, and con�nues through the even-keeled so�ness in “Footprints”

and steadfast lyrics of “How Far Would I Go”. The EP’s haun�ng finale “Roads” is an admission of “B-A's revelatory EP is only the the human experience, both in the frailty of wan�ng to give up, but having the courage to keep beginning of a groundbreaking ar�st. going in the face of insurmountable odds.

His musical explora�on will con�nually

lead to a wide-open sound straddling Click Here B-A's revelatory EP is only the beginning of a groundbreaking ar�st. His musical explora�on will across genres, and a song-wri�ng style To See con�nually lead to a wide-open sound straddling across genres, and a song-wri�ng style that that embraces a lyrical humanness that The Video embraces a lyrical humanness that is needed in the world today. - Yvonne Strumecki is needed in the world today.”

Click Here CONNECT WITH B-A

- Yvonne Strumecki To Buy WEBSITE - www.thebrianalwyn.com

SOUNDCLOUD - h�ps://soundcloud.com/theb-a/sets/doors

FACEBOOK - h�ps://www.facebook.com/thebrianalwyn One Love, CONNECT WITH B-A INSTAGRAM - h�ps://www.instagram.com/thebrianalwyn B-A WEBSITE - www.thebrianalwyn.com TWITTER - h�ps://twi�er.com/thebrianalwyn SOUNDCLOUD - h�ps://soundcloud.com/theb-a/sets/doors SPOTIFY - h�ps://open.spo�fy.com/ar�st/3Mn0W94gEbJ4tllve1QXj0 FACEBOOK - h�ps://www.facebook.com/thebrianalwyn INSTAGRAM - h�ps://www.instagram.com/thebrianalwyn

TWITTER - h�ps://twi�er.com/thebrianalwyn One Love, SPOTIFY - h�ps://open.spo�fy.com/ar�st/3Mn0W94gEbJ4tllve1QXj0 B-A

DOORS is Chicago singer/songwriter B-A’s first EP.

&

with a li�le

Rock and Soul with a li�le Heavy Metal

Models: Luther Williams, @lutherawilliams Ron Bristol, @ronthemodel

Stylist: Stef Pharr, @stefpharr

MUA/Hair: Ms. Kae, @beautyofficialmua

Designer: Andrew Nowell Menswear

Photography: Zaq Jackson

1. Model Luther Williams in Patent leather Moto Vest and Jeans with chain link tank top

2. Model Luther Williams in Patent leather Moto Vest and Jeans with chain link tank top

3. Model Luther Williams in Patent leather Moto Vest and Jeans with chain link tank top

4. Model Luther Williams in Patent leather Jeans with chain link tank top

5. Model Ron Bristol in Black and white abstract print pants, leather shirt and co�on blazer

6. Model Ron Bristol in Black and white abstract print pants, leather shirt and co�on blazer

7. Model Ron Bristol in Black and white abstract print pas, leather shirt and co�on blazer

8. Model Ron Bristol in Black and white abstract print pants, leather shirt and co�on blazer; Model Luther Williams in Patent leather Jeans and black and white co�on print shirt.

9. Model Ron Bristol in Black and white abstract print pants, leather shirt and co�on blazer; Model Luther Williams in Patent leather Jeans and black and white co�on print shirt

Introducing

Chicago Na�ve R&B Singer & Songwriter

FelixxYoung

FelixxYoung Check out 'Foreplay ' by FelixxYoung h�p:// www.reverbna�on.com/ open_graph/song/ 27962597

Check out ’Demons' by FelixxYoung h�ps:// www.reverbna�on.com/ felixxyoung/song/ 27845342-demons

Check out ‘Come Up’ by FelixxYoung h�ps:// www.reverbna�on.com/ felixxyoung/song/ 27750614-come-up

Instagram: FelixxYoung | Facebook: FelixxYoung | SoundCloud: FelixxYoung Email: FelixxYoung93@yahoo.com Become A Fan

Click Here To Play

On Sale Now!

On Sale Now!

The old adage “the more, the merrier” just about always feels right on when it comes to hip-hop. Sure going pla�num with no features is an impressive feat, but the amazing work created consistently by the genre's changing guard of top �er acts teaming up is undeniably a big part of what makes the culture so strong. And when that partnership extends to more than just one track, but possibly a whole album, you're basically guaranteed a hell of a good �me.

Enter Lil Wayne and T-Pain in 2008. A�er collabora�ng on “Got Money” from Wayne's Tha Carter III and “Can’t Believe It” from Pain's Three Ringz, talks of a joint album began circula�ng. Alas the album never came to frui�on, un�l now. On Thursday, T-Pain finally liberated the long-awaited T-Wayne- album from his archive on Thursday, nearly 10 years a�er the fact, causing fans to tweet fire emoji’s up and down Twi�er feeds.

That #TWayne mixtape ----

— javi (@javialeman27) May 19, 2017 The new @TPAIN and @LilTunechi is HIGH KEY FIIIRE!! -- #twayne pic.twi�er.com/ 44IrqgsVnC

— bobby_fav (@bobbyfavore�o) May 19, 2017

T-Wayne may have finally seen the light of day, but many other almost mythological collabora�ve projects s�ll have us wondering whether they'll ever be heard. From Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana's I Can't Feel My Face to the long-rumored J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar joint effort, here are six other albums we're s�ll wai�ng on.

Drake and Kanye West, un�tled

Yeezus and the 6 God have joined forces on a number of tracks including "Forever" feat. Lil Wayne and Eminem, Big Sean's "Blessings" and more recently "Glow" from Drake's latest offering More Life, giving fans a preview of what the fabled joint album would sound like should it ever be released. In August 2016, a billboard appeared in Los Angeles displaying the logos of both Drake and Kanye's record labels, whe�ng the appe�te of the ar�sts' fans even more. Speaking to Vogue about the project, Kanye revealed that the two were "working on a bunch of music together, just having fun going into the studio" and that "exci�ng things are coming up soon." However, things took a turn for the worst when Drake revealed in an interview with DJ Semtex that he didn't "respect" Kanye for "publicly shi�ng on me and DJ Khaled for being on the radio too much." West once rapped, "they say good things come to those that wait" but how long is too long?

J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, un�tled

Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole have each undoubtedly le� significant marks on the rap game.

The two rappers have been lauded for their lyrical prowess, storytelling abili�es and chart success. One holds albums that have gone “pla�num with no features” while the other's latest album went pla�num in under a month. So what happens when rap’s introverts lay their flow over each other's beat? “Black Friday” happens. On November 25, 2015, both rappers released remixes to each other’s songs as Kendrick took over the beat for Cole’s “A Tale of Two Ci�ez” while J. Cole rapper over K. Dot’s “Alright.” Lamar unloads lines about his lethal flow, while Cole reveals the reason the rumored Kendrick/J. Cole album might never happen: "When you and K. Dot shit drop?" he rapped. "B---- never, they can’t handle two black n----- this clever."

Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana, I Can't Feel My Face

It's been almost 10 years since rumors started swirling about Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana's highly-an�cipated joint LP, I Can't Feel My Face, and it doesn't seem like the project will see release any�me soon. That's mainly because the tracks have been reworked into one of Lil Wayne's actual albums. "I started pu�ng extra verses on those songs and I've moved on," he said in a 2012 MTV News interview. "Now what probably would've been I Can't Feel My Face, has now turned into I Am Not a Human Being." Although Lil Wayne has released a slew of tapes since then, the rapper is s�ll tangled up in his own legal ba�les with his label Cash Money. The release of T-Wayne sa�sfied fans but it was only a ma�er of �me before the I Can't Feel My Face requests started flowing in. This project may be shelved, but according to Birdman, Tha Carter V is "coming out this year".

CAN WE GET I CANT FEEL MY FACE NEXT? @LilTunechi

— get hasty (@suavendt) May 18, 2017

Childish Gambino and Chance the Rapper, un�tled

When Chance posted an image on Instagram earlier this year that read "Hawaii then LA, back to work. #roscoeswetsuit", next to Childish Gambino, internet wondered what the two ar�sts were up to. Perchance a follow up to 2013's "The Worst Guys" from Gambino's Because the Internet and "Favorite Song" from Chance's Acid Rap? While visi�ng Big Boy's Neighborhood in February, Gambino revealed that he "met up" with Chance before. "We actually sat down in the studio and were talking for a li�le bit. I mean, we’re both busy, but when he has like a moment we’ve just been si�ng down and just working together," he said. "I think it’s about catching a vibe.”

Fabolous and Jadakiss, Freddy vs. Jason

New York's seasoned veterans have teased the Nightmare on Elm Street-inspired project for quite a while and even dropped a teaser trailer earlier this year. The rappers stated that they're taking their �me to cra� the project, comparing the crea�ve process to the process of cooking a "home-cooked meal." Fabolous and Jadakiss have previously collaborated on songs "The Hope" from Fab's 2013 mixtape The Soul Tape, freestyled over Future's "Wicked" beat and actually even recently released supposed Freddy vs. Jason lead single "Rapture" featuring Tory Lanez.

Fabolous kicked off the new year with a joint mixtape �tled Trappy New Years with Trey Songz, leaving fans to wonder when an official release date for Freddy vs. Jason would drop.

Quavo and Travis Sco�, un�tled

Unlike most of the above joint albums, a Quavo and Travis Sco� project is almost certainly going to happen. Snippets of the duo's project recently surfaced online via a video showing Beats 1 radio host Zane Lowe on Face�me with the "goosebumps" rapper as he previewed his unreleased music with Quavo. And, speaking to GQ this week, Sco� revealed he'd drop the project as a surprised but assured the collab "is coming soon."

SNIPPETS OF THE TRAVIS SCOTT & QUAVO COLLAB ALBUM ---- pic.twi�er.com/pn4SR6659k

— FTP Flame -- (@FTPflame) April 3, 2017

Future Is Now Mixtape Future & DJ Smoke

Strength Of A Woman Mar y J Blige

New Waves Bone Thugs

June Is Black Music Month

Click Here To See The Trailer

You’re in your fi�ies and six�es and have saved nothing or not nearly enough to re�re. You don’t want to be blamed or shamed about it. Too late for that. What you want to know is whether there’s anything you can do now to intercept the precarious financial path you’re on. Are there ac�ons you can take (or not take) to have a shot at a decent re�rement?

Fi�y-five, Unemployed, and Faking Normal culls wisdom from boomers naviga�ng the path ahead. It invites you to join with others to look beyond your immediate surroundings and circumstances to what is possible in the new normal of financial insecurity. It is the book to read before you embark on one of those weekend pre-re�rement planning workshops or register online for a “get back on track” webinar that only reminds you how far behind you are. And consider star�ng with this book before you a�end yet another “stand around” networking event that leaves you feeling worse about your situa�on not be�er.

Containing over 100 online resources, Fi�y-five, Unemployed, and Faking Normal is the book to read to help you navigate the emo�onal aspects of where you’ve landed. It is where to turn when you want to know what steps you can take to steady yourself enough to go another round.

Thee Th Th Thrrone Room We all have our special spot where we go to read, freshen up, to think or just relax. Whether you call it the head, bathroom or the Throne Room, it can be simple or very unique but it should represent your personal style. And when guests drop by for a visit, at the very least, it should be CLEAN.

Up next are a few examples of what can be done with a shower, a tub, a sink and the THRONE.

Obamas unveil design of presidential center in Chicago

Barack and Michelle Obama offered the first look at the design of the planned Obama Presiden�al Center

in Jackson Park — a campus of three buildings highlighted by an eye-catching museum, whose height and splaying walls would make a bold architectural statement.

Calling it a "transforma�onal project for this community," the former president said he and Michelle Obama envisioned a vibrant se�ng that would be akin to Millennium Park — a des�na�on for those drawn to the presiden�al center and the park itself. But to achieve this, the plans call for closing Cornell Drive, a major access route used by thousands of commuters a day.

"It's not just a building. It's not just a park. Hopefully it's a hub where all of us can see a brighter future for the South Side," he told an audience of about 300 poli�cal and community leaders at the South Shore Cultural Center. It will also become, the Obama Founda�on said, the first completely digital presiden�al library, with no paper records stored on site.

The museum, housing exhibi�on space as well as educa�on and mee�ng rooms, will be the tallest of the three structures, reaching as high as 180 feet. It will be clad in a light-colored stone and will serve as a "lantern" for the complex.

To its south will be the forum building, which will house an auditorium, restaurant and public garden, and the library building. The building could also contain a branch of the Chicago Public Library.

The library, though, will not contain Obama's paper records. Instead, it will be the first presiden�al library to fully digi�ze a president's unclassified records.

The paper documents will be housed at separate facili�es maintained by the Na�onal Archives and Records Administra�on, which has control over Obama's records, the founda�on said. The loca�on of those sites has not been determined, said John Valceanu, NARA's director of communica�on and marke�ng in Washington.

"NARA will then provide access to the Obama Presiden�al records virtually," the Obama Founda�on said in a statement. If the library, or another museum, needs a physical copy of a document or an ar�fact, it will be made available on loan from the Na�onal Archives.

For now, the voluminous documents, ar�facts and gi�s amassed over Obama's eight years in office are being housed and processed in a warehouse in Hoffman Estates.

Outside the library in Jackson Park, pathways will enable visitors to walk from the park to landscaped roofs above the library and forum, which would each be one story tall. From the roofs, there will be views of Lake Michigan, the Jackson Park lagoon and an outdoor plaza that would connect the three buildings.

The former president painted a picture of a vibrant park around the center, where children would sled down newly created hills, where people would barbecue and where ac�vity would spill over to nearby stores and restaurants.

The Obamas want the center to be a living thing, not a building that "kids are being dragged to for a field trip," the former president said.

He said there is a tendency to see presiden�al libraries as "a monument to the past, a li�le bit of egotripping." Instead, he wants a building that "looked forward, not backward, and would provide a place to train future leaders to make a change in their communi�es, countries and the world."

Beyond the center itself, one of the biggest changes for the community is the plan to close Cornell Drive between 60th and 67th streets, a major thoroughfare that links South Lake Shore Drive, Stony Island Avenue and the Chicago Skyway.

Closing Cornell could add as much as five acres of new parkland and an extra level of safety for visitors, Obama said.

"You can't have li�le kids playing right next to the road," he said. "You can't have sledding into the road."

He said state and local officials had started doing traffic studies. "We are confident that we will not be adding to commute �mes," he said. With minimum mi�ga�on measures, he said, the closing would add one to three minutes to commutes.

Obama added that he doesn't want everyone to get so "fixated on traffic that we lose sight of what's possible."

Ini�al reac�on from one park advocacy organiza�on was posi�ve.

"It incorporates the best of the outdoors and the best of the indoors," said Louise McCurry, president of the Jackson Park Advisory Council. "There's lots of green space, lots of grass and room for kids to run and to play.”

Another prominent group, Friends of the Parks, which had opposed situa�ng the library on parkland, had a more measured reac�on, saying that it had not yet had �me to assess the plans.

The design was chiefly cra�ed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the husband-wife New York architects who appeared with the Obamas on Wednesday.

The three buildings could encompass 200,000 to 225,000 square feet, the founda�on said. That would be roughly the same size, or slightly larger, than the George W. Bush Presiden�al Center in Dallas.

The Chicago center will be built in the northwest corner of historic Jackson Park, on a sliver of land just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. It will require moving an athle�c field and running track to the south along Stony Island Avenue.

An architectural model on display at the South Shore Cultural Center showed a possible loca�on for the Obama center's parking. It could be placed beneath a mound to the west of Stony Island Avenue and to the east of commuter railroad tracks.

The site is the eastern terminus of the Midway Plaisance that connects Jackson and Washington parks.

The announcement signals a new phase in the daun�ng task of raising the money to pay for the ambi�ous project and the founda�on has been hiring staff in an�cipa�on of that.

A spokeswoman for the Obama Founda�on said a�erward that it was too early to specify the building's cost. But the George W. Bush library and endowment, by comparison, broke records at more than $500 million, and federal endowment requirements have increased since then.

The media mogul Fred Eychaner — a reclusive Democra�c Party mega-donor who has already donated $1 million to the center — was one of the few super-wealthy a�endees at the unveiling. But the Obamas said at the unveiling that they would donate $2 million for summer jobs and appren�ceships.

And a�er the unveiling, the former president wasted li�le �me turning his a�en�on to the business community.

He was scheduled to appear that night before a more deep-pocketed crowd at the Chicago Club, to address the Civic Commi�ee of the Commercial Club of Chicago — the same organiza�on that bankrolled Daniel Burnham and Edward Benne�'s 1909 Plan of Chicago.

Chicago Tribune's Kim Janssen contributed. acaputo@chicagotribune.com kskiba@chicagotribune.com

Get Excited About Queen of the South Season 2 Click Here To See The Trailer

June 8 Season 2

Starring Alice Braga (“City of God”), the original drama series is based on the global best-selling novel “La Reina del Sur,” by interna�onallyacclaimed author Arturo Pérez-Reverte. QUEEN OF THE SOUTH tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza (Braga), who is forced to run and seek refuge in America a�er her drug-dealing boyfriend is unexpectedly murdered in Mexico. Teresa teams up with an unlikely figure from her past to bring down the leader of the very drug trafficking ring that has her on the run. In the process, she learns the tools of the trade and strategically posi�ons herself to become the leader of the cartel.

This season of Queen of the South, which premieres on USA Network June 8, picks up a�er the ac�onpacked events of last year (a season one �meline is here if you need a recap).

To get you primed for upcoming episodes, we have some juicy �dbits we learned at this year’s Hispanicize conference, directly from the talented people who work on the show. Here are five reasons to be excited about season two!

AN AUDIENCE WITH MR. JOHN LEGEND From mrporter.com

The Oscar-winning musician on why 2016 was a year to remember

Words by Mr Dan Rookwood, US Editor, Mr. Porter Photography by Mr Blair Getz Mezibov Styling by Ms Julie Ragolia

When Mr John Legend and his model wife Ms

Chrissy Teigen welcomed their baby daughter in April 2016, one of the gi�s they received was from President Obama. “It was a li�le onesie,” says Mr Legend. “And the President signed a card for her.

That was pre�y cool.”

We’re si�ng in the green room of the Good Morning America studios in Times Square, New York, and Mr. Legend is weighing up the highlights of 2016. He puffs out his cheeks as if to say, “Where do I start?”

The 37-year-old singer-songwriter had just been on live television to promote his new album, Darkness And Light, as well as his movie, a lavish song-anddance musical called La La Land. So let’s start with that.

Don’t worry if you’re not a fan of musicals. “I’m actually not either,” admits Mr. Legend. “I was skep�cal because musicals can get kind of cheesy some�mes, so I’m not like the biggest Broadway fan. But this really works.”

It really does. Wri�en and directed by Mr Damien Chazelle (of Whiplash fame), La La Land stars Mr. Ryan Gosling and Ms. Emma Stone as lovers in a charming if complicated romance. It has already won several film fes�val awards and was heavily awarded during the Oscars, not least for best song.

Mr. Legend – who co-wrote the number that his character, Keith, a commercially successful if crea�vely compromised musician, performs in the movie – has already got a golden statue. His song “Glory”, from the film Selma about Mr. Mar�n Luther King and the Civil Rights movement, won the Oscar in 2015 for Best Original Song.

“‘Glory’ was the most special moment I’ve had. It was just so moving. Seeing all the audience in tears, seeing the reac�on of people around the world, and then having a chance to say something about an issue that I care about. Doesn’t get any more special than that.” It is displayed proudly in his living room, alongside his Golden Globe and 10 Grammys.

hen Mr John Legend and his model wife Ms Chrissy Teigen welcomed their baby daughter in April this year, one of the gi�s they received was from President Obama. “It was a li�le onesie,” says Mr Legend. “And the President signed a card for her.

That was pre�y cool.”

We’re si�ng in the green room of the Good Morning America studios in Times Square, New York, and Mr Legend is weighing up the highlights of his year. He puffs out his cheeks as if to say, “Where do I start?”

The 37-year-old singer-songwriter has just been on live television to promote his new album, Darkness And Light, as well as his forthcoming movie, a lavish song-and-dance musical called La La Land – a surefire hit for the holidays. So let’s start with that.

Don’t worry if you’re not a fan of musicals. “I’m actually not either,” admits Mr Legend. “I was scep�cal because musicals can get kind of cheesy some�mes, so I’m not like the biggest Broadway fan. But this really works.”

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Of course, the obvious highlight of Mr. Legend’s 2016 was the arrival of Ms. Luna Simone. “As soon as we found out we were pregnant, I started wri�ng songs about what it felt like to be a new father,” he says. “I already was so inspired, before I even saw Luna.”

Mr. Legend and Ms. Teigen struggled with infer�lity for several years. They ended up having IVF and they have been commendably open about it. “We figured eventually we’d have to go into the doctor and see why it wasn’t happening naturally,” says Mr. Legend. “You know, some�mes it’s just harder for some people than for others.

We’re just happy that we were able to do it with our doctor. He’s never really told us that there was something specific that he could iden�fy was the reason why it just didn’t work out naturally. We did what we had to do.”

Ms. Teigen is refreshingly unguarded, but some�mes things backfire. Earlier thatyear, she revealed that she and her husband had elected to ensure they had a girl via controversial gender selec�on of the embryo, which prompted a backlash of cri�cism from social-media pitchforkers.

“What year is this!?” she responded on Twi�er. “And for the record I am always

happy and open to speak on infer�lity. The more casual the be�er. I don’t mind!”

The long road to parenthood has only made it sweeter now that they have reached it.

“Yeah. It’s a beau�ful thing,” Mr. Legend smiles. “We want to have a few more hopefully.” How many? “Three or four. We’ll play it by ear though.”

They’ve got plenty of room for family expansion. “We bought a pre�y massive house in Beverly Hills,” he says. The fivebedroom, eight-bathroom property used to belong to the singer Rihanna, who, incidentally, put it up for sale in 2011 for a cut-price $5m and then sued the people who sold it to her for $10m because of its structural flaws (a lawsuit that apparently inspired the deligh�ul di�y “Bitch Be�er Have My Money”). Mr. Legend and Ms. Teigen laid down a cool $14.1m for the reconstructed house in January before embarking on seven months of renova�ons.

“We didn’t buy it from her. We bought it from somebody who bought it from somebody who bought it from Rihanna,” explains Mr. Legend. “I don’t have a bunch of cars. But we care about having a really nice house and decora�ng it really well. It’s s�ll being worked on now, but it’s livable.”

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They’ve created a home made for entertaining and they are, by all accounts, excellent hosts. “I think we’re good at throwing par�es,” says Mr. Legend. Before they je�ed off to the Caribbean for Christmas and Mr. Legend’s birthday (he turned 38 on 28 December), they plan got all their friends over. “Some�mes, we’ll hire a DJ, but a lot of �mes I make the playlist. Chrissy does most of the cooking, but I usually help.” Mss Teigen has a cookbook and is a regular guest on TV cooking shows. “I fry some chicken or something, make some wings,” adds Mr. Legend. “Then it’s just about invi�ng good people, and having a good �me.”

As for 2017, the polymath plans to scale back his many commitments in order to enjoy parenthood. “I want to work less now, you know? I want to be home more, and be able to just help my wife with whatever she needs,” he says. “Also, just be there to experience [Luna] growing up. I want to take them on tour. I want to be around.”

Our interview took place just days before the US Presiden�al elec�on and both Mr. Legend and Ms. Teigen had been campaigning �relessly on behalf of Ms. Hillary Clinton. Mr. Legend mourned the end of the Obama presidency.

“No scandal in eight years,” he says. “He’s a great leader in the way he carries himself, the way Michelle Obama carries herself. Their character, and their elegance and their eloquence has been such a good example for this country. People are going to miss them when they’re gone.”

The Obamas have become personal friends.

Mr. Legend and his wife were invited to the private post-inaugura�on a�er party in 2013.

“Chrissy was emo�onal. She’s like: ‘Wow, I can’t believe we’re here! This is one of those moments we’ll always remember and tell our kids about.’ The president was truly having fun. His jacket was off, and he was sweaty and dancing. All the celebrity supporters you could imagine were there. You could just let loose without worrying about who was watching.

There were no cameras.”

Isn’t it weird, hanging out with the president?

“Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy because as a kid the idea of the president seems so distant to you.”

Mr. Legend was born Mr. John Roger Stephens and grew up in Ohio. (His stage name began as a nickname given to him by the poet Mr. J Ivy, who likened his old-school sound to “one of the legends”; when Mr. Kanye West laterstarted calling him “Legend”, it stuck.)

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His childhood wasn’t easy. Although the Stephens were church-going Pentecostals, which is where Mr. Legend first learned to perform music, his mother’s 10-year crack-cocaine addic�on tore the family apart. She was in and out of jail.

Prison reform is an issue close to Mr. Legend’s heart. He’s an ac�vist and philanthropist who has been pu�ng his �me and his money where his mouth is. In 2015, he conducted a na�onwide listening and learning tour of prisons and deten�on centers before forming an organiza�on called Free America aimed at ending mass incarcera�on for drug addicts. At the Oscars in 2015, he used his acceptance speech to highlight the fact that “there are more black men under correc�onal control today than were under slavery in 1850”. He execu�ve produced an HBO documentary called Southern Rites about the racially aggravated killing of Mr. Jus�n Pa�erson, a 22-year-old black man. And this year his Get Li�ed Film Company has produced a ravereviewed 10-part drama series called Underground about slaves escaping a planta�on.

The shoo�ng a second season is on air now.

“There’s a thread [to all my projects] and I think it’s reflec�ve of the things I read about, and I care about, subjects that I connect to and reflect what I’m seeing,” he says. “I have to speak out against hate, I have to speak out against racism, I have to speak out for jus�ce. This is my truth, I’m speaking it and living it. I actually care about this stuff.”

Does he have any aspira�ons to go into poli�cs himself? “I am in poli�cs as far as I’m concerned,” he replies. “I speak out about poli�cal issues, I fight for legisla�on that I think is important. I don’t think I have to be in office, or run for office to do that.”

But “Legend 2020” has a heroic ring to it, and he and his gloriously outspoken wife could make a formidable First Couple for the social-media age.

Mr. Legend pauses for a second as if to ponder the possibility. “It would be entertaining,” he smiles.

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BLACK OWNED COGNAC TO HIT THE UNITED STATES…

Click Here To See The Trailer

Oscar NCAAP SAG and Critic’s Choice Award winner

MAHERSHALA AL I HAS BEEN WAITING 16 YEARS TO BECOME AN OVERNIGHT SENSATION

More than just Remy Danton from ‘House of Cards’ — he was the front-runner in the race for the best suppor�ng actor Oscar and then he took it home.

When thinking about the trajectory of actor Mahershala Ali’s career, it’s difficult not to think of Taraji P. Henson, his castmate from 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Bu�on and the recent Hidden Figures.

Specifically, the line in an acceptance speech Henson gave at the 2015 Golden Globes, when she won the award for best actress in a drama series for her role as Cookie Lyon on FOX’s Empire. When her name was called, Henson grabbed up all the cookies at her table and passed them out as she made her way to the stage. She was maybe two names into her acceptance speech when she was interrupted.

“Please wrap?” Henson asked as she received a cue. “Wait a minute! I waited 20 years for this. You gon’ wait.”

Ali, like Henson, is an actor with deep roots in Hollywood, one who had been working steadily during a 23year career, but not really enjoying a whole lot of shine. And then 2016 came, and with it, performance a�er performance that showcased Ali’s enviable range and depth of talent. Perhaps, next year, as awards season progresses, it’ll be Ali on a stage, telling a director concerned with keeping the telecast on schedule, that he or she is gon’ wait.

Ali, 42, made a home for himself on screens large and small this year. He wrapped up his run as the coolrunning Washington lobbyist Remy Danton on House of Cards, played the wisecracking, though ul�mately doomed Mississippi slave Moses in Free State of Jones, and was terrifying as the pugilis�c, arms-dealing villain known as Cornell “Co�onmouth” Stokes in Luke Cage. He also found �me to play the gun-to�ng Marlon in the indie film Kicks, about an Oakland, California, teenager who goes on a mission to reclaim his Air Jordans a�er they’re stolen.

And then there’s Hidden Figures.

Ali’s role in the film, which tells the story of three pioneering black women who worked at NASA in 1961, and whose calcula�ons helped put John Glenn into space, is a small one.

S�ll, he packs a punch in just a few moments on screen as the love interest of Katherine Johnson (played by Henson), scrubbed up in uniform as Lt. Col. Jim Johnson. His easy smile belies a charm and warmth absent from previous characters, and suddenly Ali’s made the case for himself as a roman�c lead in the future. There’s a luminosity about his performance that shines on everything and everyone else around him.

2016 wasn’t just a great year for Ali because he’s been in a bunch of well-received projects or because he’s star�ng to see some apprecia�on for his efforts.

It’s because his career is beginning to look more like one for an ar�st about to reach the top of his game versus a man who’s simply got bills to pay.

He’ll tell you himself.

“I’ve seen a real market shi� in the projects that have come my way, in the opportuni�es that have come my way,” Ali told me earlier this year. “Now, I feel like I’m just star�ng to get the parts that I always wanted. I’m like, on the cusp of that, and … it fuels my energy to keep moving forward. Hopefully this next wave will be me doing parts that I just want to do, when before it was about me making a living.”

There’s a luminosity about his performance that shines on everything and everyone else around him.

In Ali’s breakthrough, breakout, break everything year, it’s Juan from Moonlight who stands apart from everything else.

Juan appears in one segment of Barry Jenkins’ three-part film, the first, but his presence carries throughout as the chief influence on Chiron, the main character played by Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes. It’s Juan who encounters Li�le (played by Hibbert) as he’s running away from bullies in Miami’s Liberty City housing projects, and Juan who extends his pa�ence and generosity as Li�le develops enough trust to tell him who he is and where he lives.

We truly come to understand the extent of the rela�onship Juan has with Li�le during an interac�on at Juan’s dining room table, when Li�le first exhibits some deeper-level awareness of his life and his surroundings. Knowing that drugs seem to be the root of his mother’s cruelty toward him, Li�le quietly asks Juan if he sells drugs (He does, in fact. He sells them to Li�le’s mom, Paula). You can see the guilt make its way through Juan’s body when he tells him. Just as significant is the nonjudgmental forthrightness with which Juan answers Li�le’s ques�ons about sexuality.

Li�le asks, “What’s a ‘faggot’?”

“A ‘faggot’ is a word people use to make gay people feel bad,” Juan responds.

“Am I a faggot?” Li�le asks.

“You could be gay,” says Juan, “but you don’t got to let nobody call you no faggot.”

It’s typical for actors to use their costuming as part of building a character, some�mes to the point that costuming seems to be the chief element informing it. And yet, so many of Ali’s characters seem to emanate from deeper within him and defy their sartorial trappings, occupying a sort of drama�c doubleconsciousness. Juan typically rocks durags, jeans, a flashy watch and polo shirts. For Ali’s roles, costuming becomes a way to signal what a character does, not who he is. It’s not that drug dealers or thieves are incapable of tenderness — The Wire’s Omar Li�le showed us that years ago.

But Omar’s tenderness was flee�ng, and could be quickly subsumed by a vicious, calculated hardness. Any enemy of Omar underes�mated Omar’s bloodlust at his own peril. As Juan, Ali moves effortlessly from rendering compassion and good humor, to guilt, to simple ma�er-of-fact truth-telling and advice dispensing. For Juan, it’s the hardness, the occupa�onal requisite of being a drug dealer, that’s very clearly a mask.

A�er seeing the film in its en�rety for the first �me at the Toronto Interna�onal FIlm Fes�val, it was obvious just how much Ali had internalized Juan, and how much of an impact the character had made on him.

Ali was moved to tears as he began to talk about the root of Juan’s compassion for Li�le.

“I think Juan, from the moment he connects to Chiron, I think he sees a li�le piece of himself,” Ali said as the cast took ques�ons a�er a screening. “I think he understands that this young man is a bit of an island. Because Juan is Cuban, and he’s a very dark-skinned Cuban. And so I think that he iden�fied with black culture and tried to assimilate in a certain way, but he’s not African-American. And the vast majority of Cubans in Miami are fairskinned. And so you’re dealing with somebody who doesn’t fit in. His otherness, that I think he recognizes very early on, is about trying to make this — he’s at a point where he’s a grown man now and he’s passed through so many things. And I’m sure as we all do, no ma�er how old you are, you’re s�ll trying to process and s�ll fit in your body in your own way. I think he sees and recognizes very early on this young man needs help.”

“Hopefully this next wave will be me doing parts that I just want to do, when before it was about me making a living.”

Ali is the Oscar winner for best suppor�ng actor for his role as Juan. He’s nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award for best suppor�ng actor for the role, and has already picked up a litany of plaudits from film cri�c circles all over the country for it, too. The long-awaited apprecia�on for Ali, who received his master’s degree in ac�ng from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, is bi�ersweet.

It’s sa�sfying to see Ali being recognized. But that recogni�on also carries with it the reminder of so many actors before him, just as talented, who simply never got their due because they were relegated to flat, stereotypical suppor�ng roles, because they were deemed too “risky” or “specific,” or, frankly, too threatening and too black, or because they were caught in a Catch-22 of not being famous enough to be cast in something that would … make them famous.

“There’s a part of the business that people just don’t see, in the whole audi�oning process,” Ali told me during a sit-down this summer. “I had many years of that, booking gigs, almost booking jobs and therefore making some real allies in the business, of people who wanted to cast me in things but I just wasn’t a big enough name. What House of Cards did was gave people permission to cast me. It can be frustra�ng. Just to be frank with you, African-Americans don’t really get cast on poten�al.

“That’s why we get so many people from other industries plugged into our parts. Because they already have a certain degree of fame and access and a fan base. So, it isn’t about if they’re the best actor for that par�cular job. It’s that they already bring something to the table somehow.”

For all its faults, 2016 lends hope to the idea that another actor like Ali won’t have to carry the same burden. I’m reminded specifically of Brian Tyree Henry, who plays Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles on the FX hit Atlanta. Like Ali, Miles is a classically trained actor — he boasts a master’s degree from another one of America’s venerated ins�tu�ons of ar�s�c learning, Yale School of Drama. Before Peak TV, it would be easy to see how someone like Henry could go unno�ced, or get stuck playing some varia�on of the same character over and over thanks to cas�ng directors and agents who didn’t know what to do with him.

With some luck, and a string of roles just as layered and engaging as Paper Boi, Henry won’t have to tell an awards show director to wait. He won’t have to, as Ali told GQ, experience the career sensa�on that feels like “holding in a sneeze for 16 years.”

With luck, we say, because Ali and others before him have already been there, and done that.

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Louis Carr signing books at the Dusable Museum (Photo credit: Steed Media Service)

Media mogul Louis Carr shares ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ By Terrance Pra� for rollingout.com

Media mogul, author and philanthropist Louis Carr invited guests to the DuSable Museum for an in�mate book signing and discussion surrounding his new memoir, Dirty Li�le Secrets. Hosted by Toi Salter and WVON’s Melody Spann-Cooper, Carr’s talk elucidated key anecdotes that have made him one of the most successful media sales execu�ves in history.

Sprou�ng from very humble beginnings on Chicago’s West Side, Carr’s mother ins�lled in him that despite his living circumstances at that �me, he was special. Being special came with a price tag, and Carr readily admits that had it been le� to his own doing, he might have very well chosen a career at the local post office. To this end, he credits his iconic mentors John H. Johnson (Johnson Publishing Company), Earl Graves Sr. (Black Enterprise), and Bob Johnson (BET) for seeing something in him and pushing to achieve greatness.

Next are seven takeaways from Carr’s Dirty Li�le Secrets talk.

Below are seven takeaways from Carr’s Dirty Li�le Secrets talk.

1. Be On Time: If you arrive on �me you’re late. Carr shared a story he learned during his early days of adver�sing sales working for Johnson Publishing Company’s iconic founder, John H. Johnson. Johnson had a strict adherence to �me and would rou�nely shut the elevators off at 9 a.m. If you hadn’t made it to your desk before 9 a.m., you were not allowed to enter the building.

2. Dress The Part: Long before Carr moonlighted as a fashion blogger, he learned the importance of presen�ng a professional image. Carr says the younger genera�on has to learn that there’s a �me and place for piercings and casual a�re. A corporate environment is not one of those places.

3. Be Comfortable in Uncomfortable Situa�ons: Growth is about pushing yourself past the limits of fear. If you don’t like public speaking for instance, get a coach, prac�ce in the mirror, or rehearse with a friend, but by all means, tackle your fear.

4. Define Your Goal: You must have a clear goal to achieve success. Is your goal to make money or be happy? You may not be able to do both right away, but if an opportunity comes for you to have financial success, and earning money is your goal, take it.

5. Why Not You: If you have an idea, get started on it. Make sure to do your due diligence, but pursue your dreams full force.

6. Be Equally Yoked: Carr has been married to his beau�ful wife, Diane Carr, for 30 years and says having a partner that supported and encouraged his dreams has been an essen�al part of his success, both personally and professionally.

7. Keep God First: Carr credits his faith in God for carrying him through �mes of uncertainty and opening doors that facilitated his growth. Carr’s faith has also been a major impetus for his philanthropic and mentorship efforts.

To learn more about Louis Carr and purchase his book, Dirty Li�le Secrets visit: www.louiscarrbook.com.

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Chicago Pride Fest, Chicago's annual pride fes�val scheduled the weekend prior to the annual Chicago Pride Parade, brings together tens of thousands of LGBT supporters annually. June 17 and 18 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. down North Halsted Street from Addison to Grace. Organizers suggest a $10 dona�on upon entering.

Music stars Taylor Dayne, Thelma Houston and Kris�ne W. are among the entertainment line-up, featuring a mix of na�onal acts, local talent and a new Pride Pageant, making for 2 full days of non-stop entertainment in Boystown this June.

Pride Fest kicks off on Saturday, June 17, with Taylor Dayne, Vassy, David Hernandez, Thelma Houston, Chicago Gay Men's Chorus, Ca�ight, One Night Band, Girl Power Band, Boy Band Review.

On Sunday, June 18, performers include Carlito Olivero, Symon, Kris�ne W., To the 9s, Rod Tuffcurls, Abba Salute and 16 Candles.

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