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Book Reviews
How much can you really say in 140 characters? Apparently a lot, as evidenced by Twitter’s ability to smear reputations, foment political upheaval, and coordinate disaster relief. Hatching Twitter, an intriguing behind-the-scenes account of the founding of the social media behemoth, practically begs for a Hollywood movie like The Social Network as it delves into the internal backbiting and power plays between Twitter’s four founders.
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Screen Gems
“The baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit town!” was the tagline, and they weren’t kidding. In the flick that made her a star, Pam Grier goes on the hunt for the scum who turned her sister into a junkie, systematically gunning down each and every one of them. But it’s not your typical blaxploitation flick. Coffy makes a moral statement by depicting a world where everyone is on the take…
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Rita Moreno
The movie: West Side Story. The scene: a tenement rooftop on the west side of Manhattan. Five Puerto Rican girls, including Rita Moreno, who plays the strong-willed and independent Anita, line up and belt out the opening bars of “America”: I like to be in America / OK by me in America / Everything free in America… Moreno separates from the crowd and lights up the screen: kicking, twirling, hiking…
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The Smooth Guide to Kwanzaa
Spawned by the Black Power movement of the 1960s, Kwanzaa was originally conceived by the scholar/activist Maulana Karenga in 1966 as a non-Eurocentric, secular alternative to Christmas. It was the first holiday created exclusively for African Americans, who would celebrate it with rituals, reflect on their past, reconnect to their African cultural identity, abandon negative self-images and, ultimately, distance themselves from the “dominant society.” Karenga was highly influenced by Malcolm…
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Pam Grier
Ever since she electrified movie screens during the blaxploitation craze of the 70s, Pamela Suzette Grier has been part of the public consciousness. Years before mainstream action heroines were kicking butt alongside their male counterparts, Grier embodied strength, resilience, and beauty without compromising her femininity. The offspring of an Air Force mechanic dad and nurse mom, Grier learned to be tough while growing up in countries such as England and…