Audra McDonald honors history as she makes her own on Broadway

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Audra McDonald was the queen of Broadway even before she picked up her history-making sixth Tony Award for best actress in a play for “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” on Sunday night. When she won, not only racking up No. 6 but completing her domination across all acting categories — leading and featured, play and musical — the crowd stood and roared.

Then she spoke, and became something more. McDonald reached back, starting with supportive and strong-minded parents now “up in heaven,” for “disobeying the doctor’s orders and not medicating their hyperactive girl and finding out what she was into instead.”

McDonald honored trailblazers when she paid tribute to a tradition of African American women, thanking “all the shoulders of the strong and brave and courageous women that I’m standing on” – Lena Horne, Maya Angelou, Diahann Carroll, Ruby Dee, all achievers through obstacles. She had special words for Billie Holiday, the talented Lady Day she channeled onstage, the performer who died at the age of 44, just a year older than the actress and singer holding her latest award. “You deserved so much more than you were given when you were on this planet,” McDonald said to the spirit of Holiday. “This is for you.”

I wasn’t at all surprised that she won as I watched the Tony Awards Sunday, because the night before I was in the audience as McDonald turned Broadway’s Circle in the Square theater into the intimate bar that now stands abandoned on a corner in Philadelphia.

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Jun092014 TAGS: , ,

Maya Angelou tributes take a cue from the poet herself

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Of course, President Obama, in his tribute on the passing of Maya Angelou, “one of the brightest lights of our time,” would quote Angelou, calling her “a truly phenomenal woman.”

The remembrances of Angelou, who died Wednesday at age  86 in her Winston-Salem, N.C., home, are filled with her own words – her distinctive voice that touched and inspired so many, from presidents to just folks.

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May282014 TAGS: ,

VA problems a political issue in military-rich North Carolina

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Very few issues can bring contentious Democrats and Republicans in the North Carolina general assembly together. But this week, marking national military appreciation month, a joint resolution expressing gratitude and appreciation for “the men and women of the United States armed forces” won unanimous support.

Those men and women and their families are important constituents and the military ranks as a major economic driver in a state with, as the resolution mentioned, six major military bases, nearly 800,000 veterans, and the third largest military force in the country, with close to 120,000 active duty personnel and another 12,000 members of the North Carolina National Guard.

So the current investigation of allegations of slow wait times and false record-keeping at the VA that is being closely watched all over is of special interest in North Carolina. In the midst of a tight U.S. Senate race, it’s inevitable politics as well as concern would be part of the reaction.

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May232014 TAGS: , , , , , , ,

Same-sex marriage an issue in North Carolina elections? Maybe

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Just when you thought there were plenty of contentious issues that put North Carolina’s Senate candidates at odds, same-sex marriage is added to the list. With a state constitution amendment – Amendment One — bolstering an existing law against it, there was little reason same-sex marriage would merit major consideration as North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, the Republican, battles Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan. But a federal court case in neighboring Virginia, plus a host of lawsuits – including one with a religious twist well suited to the Bible belt – have put the issue in the headlines and on the table.

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May162014 TAGS:

Jill Abramson leaves the New York Times – and the chatter begins

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When Jill Abramson was hired as executive editor of the New York Times in 2011, the first woman in one of the most important, most visible jobs in journalism, it was big news. Now that she has been dismissed as executive editor of the Times and is being replaced by Dean Baquet, the managing editor, it promises to be even bigger news.

The inside workings of the Times have always been a topic of speculation, sometimes more intense than a Page One feature – although usually that was mostly confined to the East Coast media corridor. It was that way when I worked there (and left before Abramson arrived) and played the game of counting the truths and fictions in each exposé. I expect a flood of exhaustive narratives that will contain only bits of “what really happened.”

The news, however, will surely resonate even outside the media world this time because the appointment meant so much to so many women in the industry and because Abramson’s tenure has always been scrutinized.

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May152014 TAGS:

In North Carolina, Rand Paul touts tea party diversity

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CHARLOTTE — Earlier this week, Rand Paul was showing the flag in North Carolina, the one that says “Don’t Tread on Me.”

The Republican senator from Kentucky could not boost his guy in the North Carolina Republican Senate primary  into a runoff. But was his appearance at a Greg Brannon rally on the plaza outside the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Monday more about 2016?

Paul brushed aside questions suggesting any such thing, saying: “I think that’s probably too complicated” and “I don’t know if you can read too much into the tea leaves.” But he certainly made the case for a broader tea party base that coincidentally would help any presidential aspirations he might harbor.

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May092014 TAGS: ,

Good news in Sterling, Bundy racial rants? Could be

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Believe it or not, something good might arise from the racist swamp of recent news cycles – the crudeness evidenced in Donald Sterling’s taped comments on guilt by black association and Cliven Bundy’s musings on the benefits of enslavement for African Americans.

You could sense some beyond skin-deep soul searching in the remarks of National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday.  The NBA – protecting its brand and trying to lead, not follow, the news – banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million and announced it is urging a forced sale of the team. It’s a disaster all right, shifting attention from exciting post-season action on the court.

“Sentiments of this kind are contrary to the principals of inclusion and respect that form the foundation of our diverse, multicultural, multiethnic league,” said Silver in a statement that, while admirable, simplifies power relationships among players and coaches, owners and fans that are complicated in an America that still has problems honestly confronting its racial history.

Whenever the weary chide me at a mere mention of the lingering legacy of racism, I tell them the truth: I never think about race unless I’m reminded of it — and I’m reminded of it all the time. No explanation has been needed recently, as Sterling and Bundy have proven my point quite nicely – or not so nicely. Their rants have the country talking about race, and unlike in the cases of young black men deemed suspicious and shot dead, all sides of the discussion seem to be in agreement.

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Apr302014 TAGS: , , ,

Honoring beauty of Lupita Nyong’o is fine – but what’s next for her and other ‘dark girls’

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It’s fitting that the journey of Lupita Nyong’o has come full circle. In her widely seen and admired speech at the annual Black Women in Hollywood luncheon earlier this year, she told her story of feeling “un-beautiful” until images such as model Alek Wek, actress Whoopi Goldberg and icon Oprah Winfrey filled the screen and the scene. Their success helped the lessons of Nyong’o’s mother – who valued her daughter’s inner and outer worth – finally sink in.

With her spot on the cover of People magazine’s “Most Beautiful” issue, little girls who claim the same kind of natural beauty, buoyed up by intelligence and compassion, might take heart. The documentary “Dark Girls” recorded the hurts, insults and very real discrimination they and their grown-up sisters have suffered. Nyong’o told People that when she was growing up she thought beauty meant “light skin and long, flowing, straight hair.” Now, like Goldberg, she has a best-supporting actress Academy Award. The latest magazine cover is icing on the cake.

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Apr242014 TAGS: , ,

Michelle Obama goes ‘Nashville’ – no twang needed

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Starring Michelle Obama and Kellie Pickler? Casting the first lady in a television cameo with the country music singer may at first sound odd. But since her appearance on ABC’s “Nashville,” is to support military families, it’s all for a good cause. The setting of the episode, scheduled to broadcast May 7, is Fort Campbell, Ky., where, as part of the third anniversary of their Joining Forces initiative, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were scheduled to speak Wednesday.

There may be upsides for all: more attention to those who serve and to their families and some buzz for a television show that hasn’t exactly been a breakout hit.

The “Nashville” appearance is also a chance for some curious speculation, and not just because the juxtaposition of a first lady with actors and singers on a scripted nighttime soap is hard to picture.

The country’s first African American first lady is going country, a genre not usually seen as particularly integrated among its practitioners and fans. And she’s doing it in a Southern setting that lives and embraces the music – if not the Obama administration. Although politics is part of it, racial rhetoric can be found in some signs – literal and otherwise — of that rejection.

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Apr222014 TAGS: , , ,

Kirsten Dunst’s latest role: Unlikely warrior in continuing gender debate

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When a rain-soaked Kirsten Dunst kissed an upside-down superhero in 2002’s “Spider-Man,” fans cheered. The response to the actress and cover girl’s comments in the latest Harper’s Bazaar UK has been far more controversial.

On the subject of gender roles, Dunst, who has a new movie coming out and has been, as they say, “spotted” with actor Garrett Hedlund, told the magazine, “I feel like the feminine has been a little undervalued.” She said, “We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking – it’s a valuable thing my mum created. And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armour. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work … ”

To be fair to Dunst, she probably didn’t suspect that an actress’s comments would spark so much contentious debate. But when you go beyond your personal romantic situation to opine on relationships in general, you do invite others to join in. And considering the current political, social and cultural arguments over the choices women make and decisions made for them that affect their lives, the skirmish is not surprising.

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Apr102014 TAGS: , , ,
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