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Boston Globe
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Sinners, the Sugar Shack, and love songs
So does movement, touch, the way we dance together. One scene in particular is so special, and so big, you almost wish you could rewind it and repeat it and just sit in it once more. (And it's not the sexy scenes of Stack and Smoke, or the best pair of Jordans you could ever score.) In the heart of the juke joint, as the blues take over and Sammie's voice ascends not just from his soul but from a long line of ancestors, Coogler draws the through lines between the blues and ancient song rituals and prayer circles and rock and hip-hop and African drums and Asian dance and the musical expressions across the world. Advertisement There's a prickling that perks up the hairs on your skin as the sound deepens and the dancing moves closer, eyes closed, bodies melting together. Advertisement You are in the masterful Coogler is doing the same. Within this film there is a call to know who we are, to choose who and what we let in and whether we want to work together to shut danger out, to recognize that supremacy hurts every single person in its wake, to choose love and one another, and to dream even bigger, even when no one can see it but you. Our dreams are just that: ours. Coogler didn't just show us that on-screen. He affirmed that with the deal he made with Warner Bros. In 25 years, it is Coogler who will retain the rights to his film that he created from his own imagination. When you go after your dreams and own your power, it allows others to dare to dance to their own drums, too. It shows them they can sing their own songs. Freedom requires that kind of unshakeable determination and steadfast belief. Advertisement The Read Black joy and boots: Fanning a cultural connection If you're on social media, you may have seen the viral 'Boots on the Ground' fan-popping, line-dancing viral videos. CNN's Lisa Respers France digs deeper into the Black Joy of it all and why this is more than a good time dance. It is a form of both escape and resistance. And while line dancing extends beyond African American communities, Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. reflected on the special place it holds during tumultuous times. 'With line dancing, it doesn't matter what political party you are. It doesn't matter where you grew up, if you went to private school, public, it doesn't matter,' she said. 'You just come together and you create. You express yourself in a way that is pleasing, that is fun and that gives you a sense of community. We love to come together because there's so many ways in which people try to tear us apart.' The Watch BOSTON, MA - 8/12/2023 Boston Rapper Oompa performs at the GLD FSTVL held at City Hall Plaza in Boston. The festival was put on to celebrate 50 years of hip-hop. 14HIPHOPFEST Vincent Alban For The Boston Globe Oompa is one of Boston's favorite lyricists and she's also an undeniably good time. Her latest video, part of her Girls like Girls series, is a satirical take on reality TV dating shows, and we're watching it on repeat for the music and the laughs. Black parade Handout Joy pushas 1965 Freedom Rally Charles Dixon/ Globe staff Sixty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1965 Freedom Rally in a march from Roxbury to Boston Common. The fight against racism, poverty, and injustice continues. This week, we celebrate King, Ruth Batson, Alan Gartner, Reverend Virgil Wood, Dr. Ralph Abernathy, and all of our freedom fighters of that rally as pushas of joy and justice. We celebrate Embrace Boston and the hundreds of partners who have come together to celebrate progress made and empower our collective community to continue to fight for equality. Advertisement On Saturday, April 26, we will gather together as the City of Boston and Fresh finds Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe This week, we aren't pushing products. We're inviting you to give back. As our museums, arts, health, and academic institutions are under attack, it is on us to help as we can. The Museum of African American History in Boston and Nantucket needs us. What makes your life a beautiful resistance? Jeneé Osterheldt can be reached at
New York Times
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Virtual Meeting That Started It All
Sydney Chineze Mokel began working at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston in April 2020. Since she couldn't meet her co-workers in person because of the pandemic, she asked a dozen of them for virtual coffee dates. Tommaso Elijah Wagner was the only one who booked a full hour. 'What are we going to talk about for that long?' she said she had wondered. As it turned out, they found quite a bit to discuss, including the fact that both had studied Mandarin in college. At the foundation, she was working as a foundation relations coordinator; he was a program assistant. The two, both 28, didn't actually meet face to face until Halloween, when they were invited by a co-worker to attend the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where masks were mandatory and distancing was recommended. Their collaboration on a staff initiative during Black History Month in February 2021 had them discussing Black joy and Afrofuturism and meeting in person at Kung Fu Tea, near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., to exchange books. (She lent him 'I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey,' by Langston Hughes; he lent her 'The Fifth Season' by N.K. Jemisin.) At their third book swap, in April, they met at the Loring Greenough House in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. Mr. Wagner brought homemade iced tea, while Ms. Mokel brought cookies she had baked. 'I realized I had a raging crush on him that just appeared out of nowhere,' Ms. Mokel, who goes by Chi, said. At the end of that third meeting, she asked if their next hangout could be a date. They planned to visit the Museum of Fine Arts a week later, followed by a dinner at Thaitation, a restaurant in the Fenway neighborhood. Mr. Wagner decided he didn't want to wait that long. Ms. Mokel was having a yard sale, and a day or two before their date, he stopped by. They soon found that they 'fell into these rhythms that complemented each other,' Ms. Mokel said. While Ms. Mokel was already sure of her feelings for Mr. Wagner, their relationship was tested in late August 2021, when Ms. Mokel faced a hellish move from her home in Jamaica Plain to Cambridge. Mr. Wagner proved his mettle, getting out of bed at 6 a.m. to pilot the U-Haul. He brought her candy, too. [Click here to binge read this week's featured couples.] Two years later, In September 2023, she moved in with Mr. Wagner, to Somerville, Mass., where they live today. They proposed to each other the following month. Mr. Wagner recreated their third book swap, but put a ring inside the book at the Loring Greenough House, while Ms. Mokel had friends and family gather in their apartment as a surprise — both in person and on Zoom — for when they returned. Though Ms. Mokel had taken a new job in December 2022, most of their colleagues only learned of their relationship after they were engaged. 'I love how grounded Chi is, her deep knowledge of herself and her confidence in the person she is,' Mr. Wagner said. 'I love her laugh, her eyes, and her smile.' Ms. Mokel is the associate director of foundation relations at the Museum of Science in Boston. She has a bachelor's degree from Northeastern University in international affairs. Mr. Wagner is studying for a master's degree in urban planning and policy at Northeastern and is an intern at the Boston-based Utile Architecture & Planning. He has a bachelor's degree in environmental policy from Colby College. Ms. Mokel's father is a Nigerian immigrant of the Igbo tribe and her mother is African-American; she was raised Episcopalian. Mr. Wagner's mother is of Jewish and Chinese ancestry, while his father is of English and German descent. His mother is culturally Jewish, while his father, who was an Episcopalian, is now a Buddhist. The couple noticed similarities in Jewish and Igbo traditions — the shared reverence for humor and storytelling — and sought to incorporate both cultures into their wedding ceremony. They were married in front of 235 guests at Robbins Memorial Town Hall in Arlington, Mass., on March 8, by Rabbi Jen Gubitz, the founder of Modern Jewish Couples, an organization catering to interfaith and intercultural partners. The pair wore western dress for the ceremony — the bride in a vintage white gown she had bought secondhand on Poshmark — and changed into a Nigerian aso ebi dress, in forest green and gold, for the reception. Appetizers included hot and sour soup and egg rolls, potato knishes and akara, Nigerian black-eyed pea fritters. Before dinner, the bride's oldest uncle blessed a kola nut, an Igbo tradition symbolizing unity. The couple danced the hora to Harry Belafonte's 'Hava Nagila,' as guests showered the couple with cash, a Nigerian wedding tradition known as the money spray. 'Tommaso is a charming mix of sweet and stubborn,' Ms. Mokel said. 'Also, he has joined my family easily with an openness to embracing new cultural traditions and foods.'
