JENNIFER HUDSON RETURNS TO HER GOSPEL ROOTS

There are rumors floating around that Jennifer Hudson will record a gospel album in the spring.  “[Jennifer] has always wanted to explore different genres and she’s recorded gospel before, so it makes a lot of sense,” the source said.

 Jennifer, who was raised in the church and sang in the choir, has done well as secular artist. Her latest CD includes one gospel song - “Jesus Promised Me a Home Over There.” 

                                          

Today (Friday) the Oscar and Grammy winner will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

MOVIES: Slumdog actor beaten by dad

THESE shocking images show Oscar winning Slumdog actor Azharuddin Mohammed receiving a vicious beating at the hands of his father.

Only days after walking down the red carpet in Hollywood the ten-year-old film star was slapped and kicked by dad, Ismail, after refusing to be put on display like a trophy.

One onlooker said: "It was like a scene out of Slumdog Millionaire."

The lad's dad has since apologised for striking his son.

“I was very sorry that I did what I did,” said the repentant father.

“I was so confused and stressed by my son’s homecoming that I did not know myself for a minute. I love my boy and I am very happy to have him home.”

The ugly scenes, which lasted no more than 30 seconds, broke out at around midday today Indian time in the Dharavi slum in Bandra, Mumbai.

Azharuddin, who had been given a day off school, was tired after his long haul flight from LA and prolonged hero’s welcome amid a media scrum yesterday.

And when he refused to be put on display outside his home this afternoon, his father lashed out, kicking and slapping him round the face.

His mother cried out for him to stop, but Ismail continued to dish out the physical punishment to the child-star.

Azharuddin stood up to his dad, flaring the temper of the 45-year-old, who launched himself at the lad shamelessly.

Azharuddin yelped out as he tried to evade the older man's flailing hands and feet.

Star ... cast on the red carpet

He dashed into the tent that makes up his family home, followed by his father, where the young Slumdog star tried to cower in the corner.

Azharuddin grabbed his face in pain and then ran off to cry.

“Azharruddin’s father was upset that he was asking to be left alone because he was tired,” said one shocked onlooker.

“He didn’t attend school today so that he could recover from his long flight from LA and simply wanted all the attention to stop.

“However, when Azharuddin put his foot down and said that was it and there was to be no more talking, Ismail just flipped.

“It was like a scene out of Slumdog Millionaire.”

Talking only moments before his father’s attack, Azharuddin spoke of his tiredness due to the long flight.

“I do not want to speak today to any reporters,” he said.

COVER SHOT: BEYONCE COVERS EBONY

Looks like Sasha Fierce Beyone has landed the cover of EBONY next month...

SPORTS: MIKE VICK GETS HOUSE ARREST

A government official says imprisoned NFL star Michael Vick has been approved for release to home confinement.

Vick's lawyers have said they expected him to be moved any day into a halfway house in Newport News, Va. But the official says there's no bed space, so Vick could be released to his Hampton, Va. home as soon as May 21st.



The official has knowledge of the case but requested anonymity because the individual was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The official says Vick will be on electronic monitoring and will only be allowed to leave home for activities approved by his probation officer.

The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback is serving a 23-month sentence at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., for a dogfighting conspiracy.

BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: ANNE BRADEN

ANNE BRADEN (1924-2006) was a journalist, organizer, educator and one of the earliest and most dedicated white allies of the Civil Rights Movement.


Braden was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 28, 1924, but grew up in the more segregated town of Anniston, Alabama with her middle-class family. She was bothered by racial segregation at an early age but didn’t question it until her college years at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia.

After college, she worked as a newspaper reporter in Birmingham, covering the courthouse. The lack of harmony between the Bible and the racist practices of her community troubled her, motivating her to leave the deep South. In 1947, Braden moved to Louisville to work for the Louisville Times. She found that although blacks there could vote and sit where they wished on buses, race relations were otherwise very similar to what she had experienced farther south. The following year, she married newspaperman Carl Braden.

In 1948, the Bradens worked on Henry Wallace’s presidential campaign. Following his defeat, they left journalism to devote themselves fully to the Progressive Party. Anne also fought civil rights abuses. In 1951, she was arrested for leading a delegation of Southern white women organized by the Civil Rights Congress to protest the execution of Willie McGhee, a black man convicted of allegedly raping a white woman.

In 1954, the Bradens agreed to purchase a home for Andrew and Charlotte Wade, a black couple who wanted to buy a house in a suburban neighborhood but had been unsuccessful because of Jim Crow housing practices. On May 15 (just two days before Brown v. Board of Education), the Wades spent their first night in their new home in the Louisville suburb of Shively, but once their white neighbors discovered that blacks had moved in, they burned a cross in front of the house, shot the windows and condemned the Bradens for buying it for them. Six weeks later, the Wades’ home was dynamited while they were out one evening. The bombers were never sought nor brought to trial, although Vernon Brown, an associate of both the Wades and the Bradens was indicted. In October of that year, the Bradens and five other whites were charged with sedition after the ordeal was said to stem from the Communist Party support in the Wades’ housing quest.

Carl was the perceived ringleader and was convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Anne and the others awaited their sentencing while Carl served eight months but was out on a $40,000 bond when the Supreme Court invalidated state sedition laws. All charges were dropped and the Wades moved back to Louisville.

The Bradens then took jobs as field organizers for the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), a small, New Orleans-based civil rights organization whose mission was to solicit white Southern support for the Civil Rights Movement. Before Southern civil rights violations made national news, the Bradens developed their own media through the SCEF’s monthly newspaper, The Southern Patriot, and through numerous pamphlets and press releases publicizing major civil rights campaigns.

In 1958, Anne wrote The Wall Between, a memoir of their sedition case. It was one of the few books of its time to unpack the psychology of white Southern racism from within and was praised by human rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt, and became a runner-up for the National Book Award, one of the highest literary prizes in the United States. Although their radical politics marginalized them among many of their own generation, the Bradens were reclaimed by young student activists of the 1960s, and in his ‘‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail,’’ King singled out Anne as one of the white Southerners who understood and was committed to the Civil Rights Movement.

After Carl’s death in 1975, Anne remained among the nation’s most outspoken white anti-racist activists. She instigated the formation of a new regional multiracial organization, the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice (SOC), which initiated battles against environmental racism. She became an instrumental voice in the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition of the 1980s and in the two Jesse Jackson presidential campaigns, as well as organizing across racial divides in the new environmental, women’s and anti-nuclear movements that sprang up in that decade.

In 1990, Braden received the American Civil Liberties Union’s first Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty for her contributions to civil liberties. Her activism focused more on Louisville in her later years, where she reamined a leader in anti-racist drives and taught social justice history classes at local universities. Braden died on March 6, 2006. On April 4, of the following year, the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research opened at the University of Louisville, focused on social justice globally but concentrating on the Southern U.S. and particularly the Louisville area. Over her nearly six decades of activism, Braden’s life touched almost every modern U.S. social movement, and her message to them all was the centrality of racism and the responsibility of whites to combat it.

Today's Foolywang: No Ma’am Al Reynolds.

Al Reynolds was spotted at Miami’s Sunset Lounge at The Mondrian this weekend partying it up with some females. And he thought it was A-OK to rock this hairstyle:

Yes, this dude is rocking some braid extensions. And no, we don’t believe he just got back from Jamaica. Al was tucked away in a private section at the nightclub. And yes indeed looks to have put in a few packs of braid Yaki to pull off this look. I wonder if his ex-wife Star Jones gave him tips on the best weave supply shops. Stop it.

POLITICS: PRESIDENT OBAMA ADDRESSES A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS

President Barack Obama addresses a Joint Session of Congress as Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi look on at the Capitol in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, February 24th.

In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, Obama said it’s time to act boldly not just to revive the economy, but “to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity.”

CALIFORNIA MAYOR SENDS OUT RACIST EMAIL TOWARDS OBAMA ... FORCED TO APOLOGIZE!!!

Apparently Mayor Grose thought it would be funny to send out a racist Obama email to local businesspeople. Too bad, he didn’t realize that one of the people he sent the message to was African American - Keyanus Price.

Here’s how it’s being reported:

"I was horrified when I read that e-mail," Price said. "What I'm concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?"

Being a public official, Price said, made the matter worse.

"He's putting the city into a bad place, and he is a liability," Price wrote in an e-mail.
---------------------------------------------------------
Mayor Dean Grose's apology letter to the City Council, Price and her boss
I am deeply embarrassed in receiving your email, and for any harm or hurt that it may have caused. It was poor judgement on my part and was never intended to be offensive to Ms. Price, your company or anyone in the African American Community. I have exchanged emails with Ms. Price in the past.

I can fully understand your concerns and comments. Please be advised that I have left a voice mail for Ms. Price and will also be sending her a separate email with my apology. You can be assured that I will not allow this to happen again. I in no way was representing the City of Los Alamitos, or my role as a council member in sending this out and it went via my private business email. That doesn't justify the fact that it was sent, however, we gratefully appreciate the contributions that your company makes to our community and I wish to publically apologize to anyone within the firm or organization that may have been offended.

I am truly sorry.

Dean Grose

WILLIAM BALFOUR'S LAWYER QUITS: Suspect in Jennifer Hudson family murders without an attorney as of press time.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Joshua Kutnick has withdrawn as the attorney for William Balfour, who is charged with the October murders of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew.

Although he believes Balfour is innocent of the crime, he cannot afford to handle the financial burden of such a high-profile case alone. "It's the kind of case that involves intense hours," Kutnick said, reportedly after breaking the news to Balfour's mother. "I was gathering all resources, but I couldn't finance it."

Kutnick's exit comes less than a month after a judge agreed to move Balfour closer to Chicago so he could more easily consult with his lawyer. Balfour, 27, who was transferred from the Statesville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois, to the Cook County Jail in late January at Kutnick's request, was scheduled to have a new lawyer from the public defender's office appointed to his case this week.

Balfour has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion. Kutnick had said there is no forensic evidence linking his former client to the killings.

Rupert Murdoch Apologizes For Cartoon: "The Buck Stops With Me"

As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.


Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted.

Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you - without a doubt - that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.

We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.

Music 360: Jamaica regulators ban sex, violence from airwaves

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaican regulators say they are forbidding all explicit references to sex and violence over the airwaves.

The new rules from the island's broadcast commission ban any song or music video that depicts sexual acts or glorifies gun violence, murder, rape or arson.

The Saturday announcement follows a Feb. 6 ban that specifically targeted dancehall tunes and videos depicting "daggering" — a dance style popular among Jamaican youth that features pelvic grinding simulating sex.

The beat-driven fusion of reggae and rap known as "dancehall" is hugely popular in Jamaica despite recurrent controversy over its lyrics and the dance style.

The latest ban also targets hip-hop and soca, a dance music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago.

MADEA GOES TO TOP OF THE BOX OFFICE: Tyler Perry's latest opens with $41.1 million, highest weekend total for both filmmaker and Lionsgate

*Tyler Perry's "Madea Goes to Jail" dominated the weekend box office, opening with $41.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.      

       It was the highest grossing film ever for both Perry and the film's studio, Lionsgate, reports the Associated Press. Perry's previous opening record was $30 million for 2005's "Diary of a Mad Black Woman."      

       Steve Rothenberg, president of distribution at Lionsgate said the debut of "Madea" was the studio's best opening in its 14-year history. The studio's previous top opening was the $33.6 million debut of 2006's "Saw III."      

       "You could argue that Madea is now the top female box office star in Hollywood," said Rothenberg, whose studio has distributed all seven of Perry's films, several of which were released straight to DVD. "The character is one of the great screen creations of the last decade."

       The following are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released today.

1. "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail," $41.1 million. 
2. "Taken," $11.4 million. 
3. "Coraline," $11 million. 
4. "He's Just Not That Into You," $8.5 million. 
5. "Slumdog Millionaire," $8.1 million. 
6. "Friday the 13th," $7.8 million. 
7. "Confessions of a Shopaholic," $7 million. 
8. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $7 million. 
9. "Fired Up," $6 million. 
10. "The International," $4.5 million.

UnbeWeavable! Weave Stops Bullet!

This Sistah made the news late last week because her weave track stopped a bullet!  Unbeweavable!  

Black History: Pullman Porters

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

In an era when America traveled by train, one of the best jobs a black man could land was working as a Pullman porter. It also was one of the worst. The hours were grueling — 16 hours a day, seven days a week. The first Pullman porters, hired after the Civil War, were former slaves. Their ranks swelled until they reached 20,000 in the early part of the 20th century, making them the largest group of African-American men employed in the country.

Last Tuesday, AMTRAK honored the legacy of Pullman porters, who fought bigotry to form the first-ever black labor union in the country in 1925, achieving better wages and shorter hours. Little is known about the extraordinary accomplishments of these men, who were the foot soldiers in the early civil rights movement. They ushered in a new generation of leaders like MALCOLM X and THURGOOD MARSHALL, both porters themselves.

Check out the video clip above from NBC Nightly News on the Pullman Porters - the largest group of black workers in post-slavery America, who are finally being recognized as the early engine of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

EVENTS: PRESIDENT & FIRST LADY HOST FIRST BLACK-TIE DINNER

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama enter the East Room forentertainment after a black-tie dinner at the White House on Sunday in Washington, DC.

The Obamas gave their first formal White House dinner as hosts to the NationalGovernors Association which has been holding their 2009 winter meeting discussing Obama’s stimulus program, health care, infrastructure and education.

COKO ANNOUNCES NEW GOSPEL PROJECT: Next CD release is slated for this June

Grammy-nominated recording artist Coko Clemons is back in the studio recording her second Gospel album, slated for release on June 9, 2009.

     The untitled release is the follow up to her debut album, “Grateful,” released in 2006 and “A Coko Christmas” which came out during the 2008 holiday season.

     In addition to her recording schedule, Coko is staying busy as the wife of Mike Clemons, drummer for Israel Houghton, mom, to sons Master Jazz and Sir Jalen, and as an entrepreneur, with her own candle line, Candles by Coko. 

     From 1990 to 1998, Coko sang with the platinum recording group, Sisters With Voices (SWV). Altogether the group released six albums. After their 1998 Christmas album SWV disbanded. Two compilation albums were released after the disbanding; “Greatest Hits” (1999) and the “Best of SWV” (2001).

     After SWV disbanded, Coko went on to release her first solo album under RCA, titled “Hot Coko,” released August 1999. The first single, "Sunshine," which was dedicated to her son Jazz, reached the top 40 position in the R&B charts that summer.

     Coko was working on a second solo album titled “Music Doll” in early 2001, but RCA closed the black music division and the project was shelved. Since then, she has concentrated more on her family and married Gospel producer and drummer for Israel and New Breed, Mike "Big Mike" Clemmons, the father of her second son, Jalen.

     In 2001, Coko and her Mother Lady "Clyde" Tibba Gamble did a remake of the song "Tears in Heaven" (originally recorded by Eric Clapton) on the album “Rhythm and Spirit: Love Can Build a Bridge." The album featured other artists such as Jennifer Holliday, Patti Labelle, and Tramaine Hawkins.

     Most recently, Coko was reported to have joined an all-black touring cast performing the critically-acclaimed play The Vagina Monologues, along with Sherri Shepherd, Star Jones, Vanessa L. Williams, and others.

     In June 2008, Coko performed in Japan for the Billboard Live Tour. She sang some of her solo hits "Sunshine", "Clap Your Hands", and a SWV hit "Right Here/Human Nature". She also did her version of Patti Labelle's "If Only You Knew" here is the clip of Coko singing it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLG5vhwBI3Q

     To get more updates about Coko and her latest project visit www.cokosplace.com.

Extra Crispy Foolywang: What Manner of Foolywang Is This?

You must watch it in it's entirety to get it...Anyway...

I am all for having church, but you need to be able to tell where the CHURCH ends and the GOSPEL STAGE PLAY begins...My mic is OFF

Friday's Foolywang: Git Cho Cousins!

No words...

UPDATE: TMZ PHOTO OF A RIHANNA’S WOUNDS

After much speculation about the seriousness of Rihanna’s injuries in Los Angeles,TMZ.COM obtained a photo of a battered Rihanna after the alleged violent altercation with boyfriend, Chris Brown.

As reported, Chris was charged with one count felony criminal threats (more charges could be added after the DA is finished reviewing the case) and is expected to attend court on March 5th in Los Angeles. The 19 year-old has hired popular defense attorney, Mark Geragos to represent him.

Michelle Obama at Black History Event

First Lady Michelle Obama speaks to 6th and 7th graders from the DC area during an event celebrating Black History Month in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday.

REGINALD F. LEWIS (1942-1993) was a businessman and corporate attorney. He was the first black person to build a billion dollar company and also a prominent philanthropist.

Lewis was born December 7, 1942, in East Baltimore. His family encouraged him to “be the best that you can be” and stressed the value of education at an early age.

In high school, Lewis was elected vice president of the student body. He was also a hard-working student and quarterback of the football team, shortstop on the baseball team, a forward on the basketball team and was team captain of all three.

After graduating in 1961, Lewis attended Virginia State University on a football scholarship. An injury cut his football career short and he focused on school and work. While working as a photographer’s sales assistant, he generated so much business that he was offered a partnership. Lewis declined because he bad bigger things in mind for the future — a handwritten schedule he kept stated: “To be a good lawyer, one must study HARD.” And he did, graduating on the dean’s list his senior year.

In 1965, the ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION funded a summer school program at Harvard Law School to introduce a select number of black students to legal studies.

Lewis was accepted and he made such an impression that he was invited to attend Harvard Law School that fall — the only person in the history of the school to be admitted before applying. During his third year at Harvard Law, Lewis discovered the direction his career would take as the result of a course on securities law. His senior year thesis on mergers and acquisitions received an honors grade.

Following graduating, Lewis landed a job practicing corporate law with a prestigious New York law firm. But within two years, he and two others had established Wall Street’s first black law firm — Murphy, Thorpe & Lewis.

Lewis wanted to “do the deals myself”, so he established TLC Group, L.P. in 1983. His first successful venture was the $22.5 million dollar leveraged buyout of McCall Pattern Company, a struggling business in a declining industry. Lewis streamlined operations, increased marketing and led the company to two of the most profitable years in McCall’s history. In the summer of 1987, he sold the company for $65 million, making a 90 to 1 return on his investment.

Lewis then purchased the international division of Beatrice Foods (64 companies in 31 countries) in August 1987. After closing the deal in December 1987, Lewis re-branded the corporation as TLC Beatrice International, Inc. At $985 million, the deal was the largest offshore leveraged buyout ever by an American company. As Chairman and CEO, Lewis moved quickly to reposition the company, pay down the debt and vastly increase the company’s worth. With revenues of $1.5 billion, TLC Beatrice made it toFortune’s 500 and was first on the Black Enterprise List of Top 100 African-American owned businesses. It also became the first black-owned company to have more than $1 billion in annual sales.

Lewis chose to donate to his most cherished causes.

In 1987, he created the Reginald Lewis Foundation which donated $10 million to various non-profit organizations. He also made an unsolicited gift of $1 million to Howard University, an institution he never attended. His 1992 gift of $3 million to Harvard University Law School was the largest single donation in its history. The gift created the Reginald Lewis Fund for International Study and Research and the REGINALD F. LEWIS INTERNATIONAL LAW CENTER.

He had also expressed a desire to support a museum of African-American culture. In 2002, the Maryland State Legislature allocated $32 million dollars for a museum of Maryland African-American history and culture. The Foundation donated $5 million to the endeavor to support education programs and when the museum opened in June 2005, it was named the REGINALD F. LEWIS MUSEUM OF MARYLAND AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE.

Unfortunately, Lewis never saw his desire come to fruition. He died unexpectedly at the age of 50 of a cerebral hemorrhage related to cancer on January 19, 1993, in New York. He was interred at New Cathedral Cemetery in his hometown of Baltimore. His headstone includes his personal mantra, “Keep going, no matter what.”

Once called “the JACKIE ROBINSON of deal making”, Lewis took issue with that description. He responded by saying:

“To carry around the notion that if I fail it’s going to mean that no other black person will ever have a similar opportunity, or that if I succeed, it’s going to open a floodgate of opportunity for other black Americans, misses the point.

If our work is perceived as an indication of how we can function in a global, competitive situation, that’s nice. But I’ve always believed that anyway.”

“WHY SHOULD WHITE GUYS HAVE ALL THE FUN?”: HOW REGINALD LEWIS CREATED A BILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS EMPIRE was published in 1994, based on Lewis’ unfinished autobiography and interviews from his family, friends, colleagues and employees.