'Rapping' With Public Enemy's Chuck D

I’ve been a Public Enemy fan for more than 20 years, and it was a real honor getting to talk to Chuck D, who delivered the keynote address at the Feb. 3 kickoff of Ohio State’s Black United World Month celebration at the Ohio Union Performance Hall. 

My friend Margaret Nivins and I attended the event and sat in the front row. To our pleasant surprise, as an intro video featuring Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” played, Chuck D came and sat right beside us. We both shook his hand and thanked him for coming to the Buckeye State.

After his powerful and insightful keynote address, Chuck D graciously greeted OSU faculty, students and fans, signed autographs and posed for photos. When I approached him, I told him that he probably didn’t remember visiting OSU several years ago, at which time I interviewed him for the Call and Post newspaper.

In his accessible manner, Chuck D said he did remember visiting the campus and our interview and asked how I’ve been doing since. Despite his outspokenness and tough, hip-hop image, I can genuinely say he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Chuck D’s appearance was also part of OSU’s annual Hip Hop Literacies Conference.

(This post was originally published on Feb. 4, 2014)

Is Lorde Gloria Estefan's Long-Lost Daughter?

Though Lorde, the 17-year-old rising pop star, hails from Auckland, New Zealand, she looks like she could be the long-lost daughter of Cuban-American pop star Gloria Estefan, 56.

Here’s a look at other artists who appear to have been separated at birth:

Drake, Al B. Sure! & Christopher Williams

Hip-hop star Drake, 27, may have still been in diapers when ‘80s “New Jack Swing” stars Al B. Sure!, 45, and Christopher Williams, 46, were popular, but Drake’s urban sound that merges hip-hop and R&B is directly descended from them.

In fact, as the photos above illustrate, Drake looks like he could be related to Al B. Sure! and Christopher Williams as well.

Janelle Monae and Anita Baker

Anita Baker, 56, and Janelle Monae, 28, have a lot more in common other than being dead ringers for each other.

Both are from the Midwest. Baker was born in Toledo and was raised in Detroit. Monae was born and raised in Kansas City, Kan.

Baker got her start in jazz, while Monae started off in experimental funk and R&B. Both are improvisational, sometimes abstract forms of music.

If a movie is ever made of Baker’s life, Monae should be the first in line to portray the soulful songstress.

 

 Lady Gaga and Dale Bozzio

Much has been written about Lady Gaga’s influences – musical and stylistic. Gaga, 27, is often compared to Madonna, Elton John and even Grace Jones.

But one influence that isn’t mentioned as often is Dale Bozzio, 58, lead singer of ‘80s new-wave group Missing Persons. (Bozzio was also briefly signed as a solo artist to Prince’s Paisley Park Records in the late '80s.)

Bozzio may not be the first name that comes to mind when Gaga’s influences are cited, but there’s no denying their uncanny resemblance.

Reflections on MLK Day 2014

It was truly an honor to be a part of the King Arts Complex annual open house on Martin Luther King Day 2014 (Jan. 20).

I was a middle school student when the King Holiday was first celebrated nationally on Jan. 20, 1986. Even as a teenager, I had a sense – albeit vague, at first – that the day and the man it commemorates have a special significance.

One of my most distinct memories of that first King observance in 1986 is the music video “King Holiday” by the King Dream Chorus & Holiday Crew (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17DpFraXZ4c).

This “We Are the World”-style music video features R&B and hip-hop stars of the day lifting their voices in honor of Dr. King and the then-new national holiday. The Holiday Crew included the likes of Whitney Houston, El DeBarge Stephanie Mills, Teena Marie, Run-DMC, Full Force, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, and even Latin-pop boy band Menudo, featuring a young Ricky Martin.

As a youth, seeing music stars I admired paying tribute to Dr. King helped me to understand why the man was so influential and the importance of his legacy. I was an avid BET watcher as a teen, and “King Holiday” was thankfully played in heavy rotation on the then-fledgling cable network.

As a young adult, when I started working in journalism in the ‘90s, the King Holiday continued to play a special role in my life. MLK Day was never a day off, it was always a “day on” for me – and rightfully so.

My earliest assignments as a reporter were covering the city of Columbus’ annual MLK celebration at Vets Memorial as well as the King Breakfast at the Convention Center - the largest sit-down event honoring Dr. King in the nation. Columbus Call and Post General Manager Amos Lynch, my boss at the time and journalism mentor, was the driving force behind the King Breakfast.

In recent years, I’ve enjoyed participating in the King Arts Complex open house, which features arts performances, educational presentations and showcases the institution’s excellent selection of programs and exhibits. Being a part of the event as a speaker this year was a true honor.

During my presentation, I showed a clip from my documentary “Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring” and spoke about the impact that these phenomenal women had on sports history, and history in general.

A big thank you to King Arts Complex Executive Director Demetries Neely, Program Director Jevon Collins, Marketing Director Mark Cardwell and all the staff and volunteers.

A big, big thank you as well to the lady wrestlers and their families who attended the open house and my friends and family who offered moral support for my first major public speaking engagement (I don’t want to name names for fear of leaving someone out).

A special shout-out also goes to my friend, photographer Terry Gilliam, for sharing his photos of the event with me.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2014 was indeed a very special occasion, one that I will always remember and cherish. 

(This post originally was originally published on January 21, 2014.)

 

Does Technology Keep Us 'Alone Together'?

The book Alone Together is a very interesting look at how technology affects relationships between people.
 

I found the most relatable chapters are the ones about the paradox of social media: Facebook is supposed to connect people who otherwise would have little to contact. In the days of yore, former classmates would only see each other at reunions once every decade, if at all. But now you can know what the girl who used to sit next to you in homeroom grew up to be, how many kids she has and how they celebrated their birthday.
 

But, as author points out, many people use social media as a substitute for real human contact. She interviews a middle-aged woman who says she used to call her friends when she wanted to catch up with them, but now because of all the hours she works she doesn't have the energy to talk on the phone and would rather trade texts or Facebook messages. Several people featured in the book said they worry that picking up the phone and calling someone seems intrusive, like you're interrupting their life.
 

The author also interviews several teenagers who send and receive thousands of texts each month and dread actually talking to friends, boyfriends and girlfriends on the phone.
 

Some of the most disturbing chapters of the book explore how "sociable robots" may someday be employed as a substitute for humans. The author describes experiments in which robots are used as substitutes for caretakers of children whose parents are overworked and the elderly whose children and grandchildren are too busy to visit them. Is this a glimpse of the not-too-distant future?  

 

Visiting Artist Experience At Wexner - Day Five

The fifth day (Friday, Aug. 2) of my week-long residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts was probably the smoothest in terms of workflow. It's exciting that the documentary I'm working on, Lady Wrestler, is really taking shape.

My friend Paul, who's a film/video editor at Wexner, was able to help me fix a technical issue from the previous day concerning a corrupted file. With that problem solved, we spent much of the day dropping in narration that I'd recorded and edited earlier in the week.

At the end of the day on Friday, Paul converted the 90-minute work-in-progress to a QuickTime movie so that I can watch it and see what tweaks should be added here and there. He did an amazing job smoothing out the transitions between sequences, placing Ken Burns-style moves on vintage photos, color-correcting interview clips, etc.

There's still work to be done, but the documentary is certainly much further ahead and closer to a finished product.

I have to give a big thanks to everyone at Wexner for their help and providing such an amazing, wonderful experience.

Friday just happened to be my birthday, and being in such a creative, dynamic environment was a really special gift.

Visiting Artist Experience At Wexner - Day Four

My fourth day (Thursday, Aug. 1) of my artist-in-residence experience at the Wexner Center for the Arts, putting the finishing touches on my documentary Lady Wrestler, could be described as "Glitch Day."

I started out the day by heading back to the sound booth to re-record lines of narration I'd flubbed the day before. When I went to transfer the audio file to my laptop, I was scratching my head as to why the file was nowhere to be found on the SD card.

And then my friend Paul, who's a film/video editor at Wexner and has been extremely patient in helping me with my documentary project, pointed out that I'd probably forgotten to press "record" when I was in the sound booth. Oops!

After re-recording the narration once again, I had to leave to go take care of a "real world" problem: I had to go to the deputy registrar to renew my driver's license and tags. Walking down 15th Avenue on the way to my car, I was greeted by an odd sight: two young women riding horses along the street and sidewalk. Oh, the joys of being on campus!

I thought the trip to the deputy registrar was going to be a relatively simple lunch-time errand, but of course it ended up taking way longer than anticipated. Why, oh why, does the BMV refuse to take debit and credit cards and force people to go withdraw money from an ATM? And why, pray tell, do entire families stand in line together, when only one person has business at the counter?

When I finally made it back to Wexner's Film/Video department, Paul asked me to locate some files that hadn't successfully transferred from my laptop to Wexner's professional editing system. It turns out there's a corrupted file that refuses to transfer, and trying to figure out how to fix the problem gobbled up the rest of the afternoon. We finally decided to set the problem aside for the time being and start fresh tomorrow.

After a dinner break, I spent the rest of the evening editing narration while listening to some of my favorite artists over the Wexner studio's sound system: Prince, Sade, Duncan Sheik, movie soundtracks that provide inspiration.

Glitches aside, this has been an awesome experience thus far.

Visiting Artist Experience At Wexner - Day Three

I spent the third day (Wednesday, July 31) of my visiting-artist residency at the Wexner Center editing narration that I'd recorded the previous day. The narration will be used in the documentary I'm working on, Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring.

While working on the narration yesterday, I edited the sound file in the Final Cut video-editing software on my laptop so that it can be transferred to the Wexner's more robust Avid editing system.

Editing the narration was a painstaking process, requiring me to go through each and every take of 17 pages of "dialogue" that I wrote and recorded. I'm going to have to re-record a few lines where my diction was sloppy, or I didn't place the emphasis on the right word.

Since the documentary is just under 90 minutes long, dropping in the new narration under each scene took several hours. I ended up working well into the night, leaving the Wexner facility at around 1 a.m.  Rather than exhausted, I felt energized, since this is work I'm passionate about and have wanted to do all my life.

Maybe it was the environment. Being at the Wexner Center, where creativity thrives, is like being inside the Dream Factory.

Plus, I know that "real" filmmakers (i.e., the ones that don't have to work a day job) have to power through when trying to complete a project. Cast and crew work ridiculously long hours even on the most well-organized movie sets and TV shows.

A highlight of the day yesterday was a lunch break in which I strolled around campus and ate lunch in the Oval outside Bricker Hall, which I used to do back in the '90s when I took English classes there. It was a nice walk down memory lane.