Sugarcane Magazine

As the founding and premier sponsor of Film Life’s 14th Annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF), HBO will once again have a major presence at the industry retreat, being held in Miami’s South Beach, June 23-26, 2010. HBO has been working alongside the ABFF since, 1998, helping call attention to the universality of black cinema through competition, workshops and panels, networking opportunities and the sharing of creative resources and visions.
This year, HBO will celebrate its partnership and support by hosting three key events:

* The 13th Annual HBO® Short Film Award – a competition that honors the writing and directing talents of emerging Black filmmakers, the award has been presented as part of the ABFF’s competitive film program since it was established by HBO in 1998. A special screening will take place on Thursday, June 24th, to showcase the five films selected for the final round of competition: The Cycle directed by Roy Clovis, If I Leap directed by Jackie J. Stone, Moth directed by Hilton Carter, Say Grace Before Drowning by Nikyatu Jusu and Stag & Doe co-directed by Daniel Patterson and Justin Staley. The grand prize winner, who will be awarded $20,000, will be announced during the ABFF’s Awards presentation on closing night.

* HBO Panel Series – On Saturday, June 26th, a panel discussion including actors Nelsan Ellis (“Lafayette” on True Blood), Victor Rasuk (“Cam” on How to Make It in America) and Ntare Mwine (“Jacques” on Treme) will take part in what promises to be a lively chat on the “Young Faces of HBO,” moderated by writer, TV personality and social events hostess Bevy Smith.

* HBO Talk Series – Also on Saturday, June 26th, Soledad O’Brien, the award-winning CNN anchor and special correspondent, will have a one-on-one conversation with two-time Oscar®-nominated director Spike Lee. Lee will discuss the documentary If God Is Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise, his follow-up to the Emmy®-winning HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. The new documentary revisits New Orleans five years after Hurricane Katrina.

Founded in 1997, the American Black Film Festival is an industry retreat and competitive marketplace for films by and about people of African descent. The festival’s mission is to facilitate distribution opportunities for quality films and introduce the top echelon of emerging artists to the industry at large. Since its inception, the ABFF has premiered over 500 films, positioning it as the leading film festival for Black and urban content. The ABFF is a property of Film Life, Inc., a New York-based event marketing, production and distribution company founded by Jeff Friday (CEO). Festival information is available online at www.abff.com.

Home Box Office, Inc. is the premium television programming subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., providing two 24-hour pay television services – HBO® and Cinemax® – to approximately 41 million U.S. subscribers. The services offer the most popular subscription video-on-demand products, HBO On Demand® and Cinemax On Demand(SM) as well as HBO GO(SM), HD feeds and multiplex channels. Internationally, HBO branded television networks, along with the subscription video-on- demand products HBO On Demand and HBO Mobile®, bring HBO services to over 60 countries. HBO programming is sold into over 150 countries worldwide.

New York, NY (BlackNews.com) — Best known as one-third of Beyoncé’s background singers famously known as “The Mamas,” vocalist/songwriter Tiffany Moníque is ready to step out of the shadows with her debut EP Nemesis, released digitally everywhere on June 15, 2010. On this introductory project, Tiffany collaborates with seasoned musician, producer and Beyoncé’s music programmer, Kevin “Kwiz” Ryan along with partners Marlin Smith and Tony “T-Ro” Carter of Digital Khaoss Productions.
While on tour with Beyoncé, Tiffany met Kwiz and he witnessed Tiffany stand-in for Beyoncé at sound check one afternoon and was thoroughly impressed. “I was so used to hearing her blend in as a background singer, but after hearing her sing ‘Dangerously In Love,’ I realized she was a powerful soloist as well.” Kwiz recalls, “Over time, Tiff and I became friends and talked extensively about doing a project together. So, on one of our breaks from the tour, we recorded what is now the song on this EP called “When.” That’s when my production partner Marley and I realized that Tiff was not only a dope singer, but a dope songwriter as well.”
After wrapping up Beyoncé’s “I Am…Tour 2009″ and recording her EP, Tiffany prepares to promote the project this summer. “Tiffany’s voice has effortless strength, sass, seduction, and heart with a tone that puts you at ease,” said Beyoncé. “I am very lucky to have worked with her for many years and I am proud that she now has such a wonderful piece of work to share with the world.”
With Nemesis, Tiffany and Kwiz have created a five-track gem that highlights Tiffany’s stylistic diversity. “The first single and title song ‘Nemesis’ is partially influenced by meeting so many naysayers who told me I would never make it as a professional singer,” says Tiffany. A native of Tennessee, her mom moved them to Newark, New Jersey when she was five. “A few record company executives told me that although I had the talent, I didn’t have the look. And over the course of my journey, I’ve encountered others who maintained a negative outlook on the potential of my success. Nemesis expresses my determination to prevail.”
Ranging from the heavily hip-hop influenced title-track to the bubbly Motown grooves of “Only Love” to laidback rhythms of “When,” the first song they recorded for the project, Tiffany’s voice is majestic. Tiffany wrote all the lyrics and melodies on Nemesis. As students of music, from the Brit-soul of Loose Ends to the lyricism of Earth, Wind & Fire, Tiffany and Kwiz also pay homage to Motown, throwing a little Diana Ross sass into the stunning “Only Love,” a song Tiffany dedicated to her baby boy Jordan.
One of the standout tracks on Nemesis is the melodic “Anytime,” a song about unrequited love. “‘Anytime’ was written about a childhood crush I had on someone who was not interested, but capitalized on the attention I gave. I presume I was not his type as a child, but later in adulthood, our paths crossed and he admitted his regret. He said that he had not realized I’d turn out to be the woman I am today and that he’d always regard me as ‘the one that got away.’ In ‘Take Your Time,’ a woman recognizes the comfort and security she’s found with her love and her desire to spend her time honoring and celebrating it. It portrays a bond between a woman and man that is so beautiful, words can’t be found to accurately describe it.”
Singing since the age of three, Tiffany has always been actively involved in church. “I went with my grandmother every Sunday and was involved in every ministry,” she pleasantly recalls. By the time she was in high school, Tiffany was a director in the church’s music ministry. Yet, while she knew well the songs in her hymnbook, Tiffany also found joy listening to seasoned soul singers on the radio. Listening to artists like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway and Chaka Khan, for whom her Aunt Beverly once sang backgrounds, Tiffany was inspired.
Her mother, a school educator and administrator, was always encouraging, even trying to get her on television show, Star Search. Tiffany entered her first talent show at eight-years-old and amazed the rowdy audience with a version of the Whitney Houston’s ballad “You Give Good Love.” Smiling, she says, “my mother was nervous for me, because the crowd booed almost everyone who came to the stage. But, they liked me and I won first prize.”
Ten years later, Tiffany was awarded a music scholarship to Morgan State University in Baltimore. “We had a few choirs at school and I was chosen for all, including the Morgan Singers.” Tiffany’s involvement with the distinguished choir led to the opportunity to travel around the world as a member and soloist under the direction of the late Dr. Nathan Carter. One of her personal accomplishments during this time included performing a solo during Pope John Paul II’s historical visit to the United States in 1996.
After college and back in New Jersey, Tiffany began attending open mic nights at the Village Underground in Greenwich Village (New York City). Soon after showcasing her considerable skills, she met singer Melonie Daniels, the woman who would change the course of Tiffany’s professional life. A background singer for Mariah Carey, one day Melonie asked Tiffany if she wanted to perform with the pop diva on a BET Christmas special. More importantly, that one job led to several other background opportunities for artists such as Kenny Loggins, Christina Aguilera, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin, Faith Evans, Regina Belle, Michelle Williams, Carl Thomas, Avant and Mya.
After having her son in 2005, she shifted her priorities and got a steady job working for a pharmaceutical company. “It was promising, but I was so miserable there because all I wanted to do was sing.” Out of the blue, she got a phone call advising that she had been selected for an international tour with Beyoncé.
Reluctant of leaving her family and son who was one at the time, she decided to pursue the opportunity. “I was afraid to leave, but I felt God had sent this blessing directly. I didn’t have to audition, so I quit my job via email and kept it moving” she says. With the support of her family, who cared for her son while Tiffany was on the road, she sang with Beyoncé around every inhabitable continent. “I’ve gotten a chance to see everything I’ve ever wanted to see including the pyramids, the Great Wall of China and the man-made islands of Dubai,” said Tiffany. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with Beyoncé. It has been one of the best and rewarding experiences of my life and I appreciate her kind words and support.”
In an early rehearsal, after Beyoncé learned that all of the background vocalists and male dancers were parents, she jokingly referred to them as “The Mamas” and “The Papas.” “For the background vocalists, the name stuck,” said Tiffany. While working with Beyoncé, she has developed an international following and participated in both the 2007 and 2009 world tours. One of the performances from the 2007 tour, “Me, Myself & I”, featured The Mamas and gained Beyoncé a nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 2009 GRAMMY® Awards. In 2007, she was also featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered radio broadcast of “What Makes A Great Backup Singer” for her knowledge and experience as a background vocalist.
Teaming with talent and innovation, Tiffany Moníque’s powerful debut Nemesis takes chances while still managing to embrace the power of traditional soul. Indeed, this is what R&B has been waiting for.
For more information on Tiffany Moníque, please visit:
www.Tiffanymonique.com
www.myspace.com/TiffanyMRiddick
www.youtube.com/tiffanymoniquetv
www.facebook.com/pages/Tiffany-Monique/48641851926

We are proud to today announce PILGRIMAGES, a project sending 14 African writers to 14 cities across Africa (and Brazil) to spend two weeks exploring the secrets and complexities of these disparate urban landscapes. Our writers will create 13 nonfiction travel writing books (as well as a feature blog) about their trips, about these cities: captured at a common moment, while Africa hosts its first World Cup, as the whole continent is more visible to itself and to the rest of the world than any other time since independence.

These writers will shift the reportage of the continent. Collected, these 13 books and feature blog will comprise the PILGRIMAGES book series, which will first be published in its entirety—and simultaneously in Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town—during the 2012 African Cup of Nations football tournament. Together, the Pilgrimages book series and website will be the most significant single addition to the continent’s archive of literary knowledge since the African Writer’s Series.

Today also marks the launch of the Pilgrimages web site (www.pilgrimages.org.za), which will present blogs, videos and other content from the 14 pilgrims as well as essays from other prominent writers, bloggers and commentators such as Achille Mbembe and Grant Farred. The website will also invite contributions—short essays, letters of support, grammar school football tales, travel pieces—from the general public.

The 14 writers that will participate in the “Pilgrimages” project and the cities they will visit are: Chris Abani (Johannesburg, South Africa); Doreen Baingana (Hargeisa, Somaliland); Uzodinma Iweala (Timbuktu, Mali); Funmi Iyanda (Durban, South Africa); Billy Kahora (Luanda, Angola); Kojo Laing (Cape Town, South Africa); Victor LaValle (Kampala, Uganda); Alain Mabanckou (Lagos, Nigeria); Nimco Mahamud Hassan (Khartoum, Sudan); Akenji Ndumu (Abidjan, Ivory Coast); Yvonne Owuor (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo); Nicole Turner (Nairobi, Kenya);; Abdourahman A. Waberi (Salvador, Brazil); and Binyavanga Wainaina (Touba, Senegal).

Visit our website at www.pilgrimages.org.za for more details!

1 June 2010, Johannesburg – African designers from all over the world are jetting in to showcase their Trans seasonal 2010 collections at the Sandton Convention Centre during Africa Fashion Week which starts on June 30, only days before the FIFA 2010 World Cup Quarter Finals.

Established South African fashion-world heavy-weights including Marianne Fassler, Errol Arendz, Stoned Cherrie and David Tlale will show alongside global talents like Deola Sagoe (fresh from New York Fashion Week) and current celeb-favourite Laquan Smith.

Xuly Bet, the Paris-based go-to label for many celebrities, including Grace Jones, Lauryn Hill and Neneh Cherry, will be opening this years’ Africa Fashion Week. The award-winning label recently made global headlines with the ‘Obama’ dress at New York Fashion Week.

Marianne Fassler, who has not shown for two years, will be showcasing a collection entitled Global Gathering. The collection, a multi-layered extravaganza will focus on the idea of beginning: Africa as the birthplace of mankind and children as the original designers – her show will open with a small capsule collection designed under her direction by two children Adam (7) and Sibella (9), before continuing on a journey that pays homage to Africa’s polyglot of nations.

Joining her on the schedule is New Yorker-based label Mataano. The soft, feminine line is designed by the Somali sisters Ayaan and Idyl Mohallim who have been likened to the Olsen twins of Africa and have featured on CNN and Oprah.

Other designers traveling from the US include Laquan Smith, the current favourite of Rhianna (he designed the gold dress for her Rudeboy video) and Lady Gaga.

Mimi Plange, who has worked with designer Rachel Roy and Patricia Field, the famed Sex and the City stylist, will be bringing her sophisticated, yet deeply romantic label Boudoir D’Huitres to Africa Fashion Week.

Bunmi Koko, a British-based label has been garnering UK press attention over the past year with her innovative, structured designs favoured by celebrities such as Mel B (who chose a Bunmi Koko couture dress for the 2010 Brit Awards), Alesha Dixon, Alex Curran, Sadie Frost and Kate Middleton will also be showcasing on African soil.

Local South African brand Stoned Cherrie will be marking their tenth anniversary with their Africa Fashion Week show – their Summer 2010 collection is a retrospective look at the label’s silhouettes throughout its history.

“Africa Fashion Week is providing a platform for shining stars from across the diaspora, the continent and the country,” says Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe, Chairperson of African Fashion International. “The world continues its love affair with all things African, African as a point of reference, not as a cliché and it’s very important we here in Africa continue to support that.”

Completing the line-up of designers at Africa Fashion Week 2010 are Sakina Msa, Ituen Basi (last year’s Africa Fashion Award winner for Innovative Designs), Soucha, Heni Este-Heijzen and Christie Brown (joint winners of last year’s Emerging Designer Award), Noir, Qumi Bespoke, Koketso Chiepe, Gloria Wavamunno and Abigail Betz, Thula Sindi, Carducci and Fabiani.

The four day event features more than 30 designers from Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Uganda, Botswana, Ghana, Somali, Tunisia, French Commores, South Africa, Mozambique, the United States and the UK

Africa Fashion Weeks runs from June 30 – July 3 2010 at the Sandton Convention Centre

For more information, full show schedules and highlights from previous collections go to www.africanfashioninternational.com

Tickets available from Computicket from June 1.

The full list of designers is as follows

DESIGNER / BRAND COUNTRY
Abigail Betz South Africa
Boudoir D’huitres Guinea Bissau
Bunmi Koko Nigeria
Carducci Men & Womens wear South Africa
Christie Brown Ghana
David Tlale South Africa
Deola Sagoe Nigeria
Errol Arendz South Africa
Fabiani South Africa
Gloria Wavamunno Uganda
Heni South Africa (JHB Based)
Ituen Basi Nigeria
Kluk CGDT South Africa (Cape Town based)
Koketso Chiepe Botswana
Laquan Smith US(NY based)
Marianne Fassler South Africa
Mataano Somali (NY Based)
qUmi Bespoke Ghana
Sakina Msa French Commores
Sandra Muendane Mozambique
Soucha Egypt
Stoned Cherrie South Africa
Suzaan Heyns South Africa
Thula Sindi South Africa
Xuly Bet Mali (Paris Based)

Fela!, currently running on Broadway has introduced Fela Kuti to a new generation of music lovers. Here is some vintage footage of one of the greatest musicians of all time:

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The current state of the global economy has forced the world to rethink how we fund projects, creations and even households. To help the creative sector with the myriad of great projects but not a never ending source of cash, kickstart.com plans to help find funding creative projects . This site is new to the web, but has already funded projects from film to small shops usung an all or nothing funding method. Projects are featured on the site and visitors have the opportunity to pledge money if they like what they see. This system allows directors, programers, and designers the chance to fund projects without have to pay back money. This site has even attracted signed music groups that want to record music that their record company is not interested in. Kickstart is an excellent choice to fund projects, but is only available if pledge money is given from or to a U.S. bank account. Visit their web page or join them on Facebook to get the skinny on what they have to offer.

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ReShonda Tate Billingsley 

Carl Weber

Houston, TX(BlackNews.com) — More than 100 African-American authors and thousands of book club members and readers will converge in Houston from May 21-23, 2010 at the 3rd annual National Black Book Festival. The national event is one of the largest indoor gatherings of African American authors in the world and participating authors from 30 states, Canada and the Virgin Islands will be on hand to showcase, sell and sign their books.
Featured authors for the event include mainstream fiction authors Carl Weber and ReShonda Tate Billingsley; romance authors Beverly Jenkins and Brenda Jackson; and urban fiction authors Tracy Brown and J. M. Benjamin. Stage play producer and author Je’Caryous Johnson will address the Festival audience through a video presentation.
Special guest authors include fiction authors Donna Hill and Joylynn Jossel, and motivational authors Carol Mackey and Regina Brooks.
In addition, highlights of the Festival include:
* Welcome to Houston Reception – Friday, May 21 @ 7:00 p.m.
* Private Slumber Party with authors Brenda Jackson and Beverly Jenkins (sold out)
* Get Acquainted Breakfast – Saturday, May 22 @ 8:00 a.m.
* Prayer Breakfast – Sunday, May 23 @ 9:00 a.m.
* Live author radio interviews with author/radio host G. L. Henderson
* Hourly door prize drawings and book giveaways
* Children’s reading room
* Book launch parties
* Workshops and seminars
The National Black Book Festival is sponsored by Cushcity.com, the world’s largest African-American online retailer with over 20,000 products online. Corporate sponsors include Clear Wire (high speed Internet) and Friesens Book Printing and Manufacturing.
Admission to the Festival is $5.00 per day for adults and teens. Admission is free for children 12 and under.
For more information, visit the Festival web site: www.nationalblackbookfestival.comor call the National Black Book Festival headquarters at 1-800-340-5454

I go to alot of events in the African diasporic community-mainly African American or Caribbean events- where wearing African clothing is very popular. I love the the look of the laces, the colors and the draping but I never felt like I would look good in the traditional dress. I always wanted contemporary design with African fabric or just to wear contemporary clothing by African designers. I found a site that makes dressing and supporting African designers as easy as point and click- myasho.com

myasho.com carries dresses, skirts, tops and accessories by some the hottest designers from the Continent like TAN by Tiffany Amber, Christie Brown Ghana, Nkwo, Jewel by Lisa and a host of other amazing designers. You can purchase cute metalic numbers like this

Even this cute jacket

good looking handmade clothing, bespoke services and at all at an affordable price point-that’s what I need to add my culture to my closet.

So this week we are  reading “That Thing Around Your Neck” a collection of short stories by acclaimed author Chimananda Ngozi Adichie. This Nigerian author is known for her enthralling prose and vivid writing style. Here is an interview she did on The Diane Rhem Show. We hope you enjoy it! Ngozi Adichie Interview on The Diane Rhem Show