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‘Sunday Best' Review: Ed Sullivan's Really Big Impact
‘Sunday Best' Review: Ed Sullivan's Really Big Impact

New York Times

timea day ago

  • Entertainment
  • New York Times

‘Sunday Best' Review: Ed Sullivan's Really Big Impact

As the opening credits of the documentary 'Sunday Best' roll, Billy Preston in a killer chartreuse suit takes to 'The Ed Sullivan Show' stage. Ray Charles pounds the keyboards and brass players ready to enter a sped-up version of 'Agent Double-O-Soul.' From the get-go, Sacha Jenkins's film about the variety show trailblazer Ed Sullivan and his commitment to Black performers, entwined as it became with the Civil Rights Movement, keeps us hooked. It's not just the trove of archival performances — Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, James Brown — that persuade. It's observations from legends and friends; among them Harry Belafonte, Smokey Robinson and the Motown impresario Berry Gordy. A music journalist-turned-filmmaker, Jenkins had the hip-hop bona fides to guarantee 'Sunday Best' would not be a white savior tale. Instead, his film reveals the authentic amity and steadfast values of an ally. As a young sportswriter, Sullivan denounced N.Y.U.'s football program for benching a Black player when the University of Georgia came to town. 'My parents knew these things were wrong … it wasn't broad-minded, it was just sensible,' he tells the journalist David Frost in a 1969 television interview. Born in 1901 in a Harlem of Jewish and Irish immigrants, Sullivan furthered his mother and father's example. 'You can't do so-and-so because the South will not accept it,' Belafonte recalls execs and sponsors telling Sullivan. 'Ed pushed the envelope as far as an envelope could be pushed.' Illuminating and so entertaining, 'Sunday Best' nevertheless elicits a mournful pang. Sullivan died in 1974. Belafonte is gone. Jenkins died in May at the age of 53. And a once celebrated CBS, home to Sullivan for decades, seems to be begging for last rites. Sunday BestNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

Awkward Announcement? Fans Think Jonathan Majors Put Meagan Good's Possible Baby Bump On Blast — ‘Who Knows If She's Pregnant?'
Awkward Announcement? Fans Think Jonathan Majors Put Meagan Good's Possible Baby Bump On Blast — ‘Who Knows If She's Pregnant?'

Black America Web

time2 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Black America Web

Awkward Announcement? Fans Think Jonathan Majors Put Meagan Good's Possible Baby Bump On Blast — ‘Who Knows If She's Pregnant?'

It seems Meagan Good is ready to expand her family with husband Jonathan Majors, who might've awkwardly ambushed her with the announcement that they already started. The actress confirms that babies are definitely on her brain and is making it clear she's eager to embrace that journey with her new hubby. Source: Robin L Marshall / Getty As BOSSIP previously reported, Good's marriage to Jonathan Majors has been a whirlwind of headlines. The couple first sparked romance rumors in May 2023. They then announced their engagement in November 2024 and officially tied the knot in March of this year. Majors, 35, also comes into the marriage as a father, sharing a 12-year-old daughter from a past relationship, a fact that Meagan highlights as a positive attribute in him. Good, 43, told Us Weekly at Lifetime's Summer Soirée that having children is now a firm desire. 'I definitely am ready to have kids now,' she shared, emphasizing her partner's role. She wants to do it with someone she can 'really do it with, and get excited about doing it with, and who is a phenomenal father already, but now we can do it together.' The couple has even discussed ideal family size, with Good confirming, 'Two would be good.' And they've already got a bustling house, as she humorously noted, 'We got four dogs already. So, we got four Belgian Malinois, and they are the hyperest dogs of life, but the house is very safe.' Interestingly, Meagan credits her role as Camille Parks on the hit series 'Harlem' with helping her navigate her own feelings towards becoming a parent. 'I know that there's a lot of similarities to Camille's journey and to Meagan's journey because I always knew that I wanted to be a mother,' Good explained of her character. She went on to explore the societal pressures she felt, asking herself, ''Is that because I felt like I should want that?' And then there were times where I wasn't sure, and I was like, 'Am I pushing back against it because I don't like people telling me what I'm supposed to want?'' Playing Camille allowed her to openly explore the 'taboo' of not wanting children, 'Being able to say out loud that Camille doesn't want kids — because it's such a taboo thing to say — and everyone always goes, 'Well, what's wrong with you?'' Good elaborated. She added, 'It's, like, 'No, some people just don't want to,' and to be able to explore that with her, and then ultimately for her to be the one to get pregnant and be able to explore that journey. … Some people, maybe they just don't want to. For other people, maybe there is something you're afraid of, maybe there is something you've experienced, maybe there is something that's holding you back, and all of those things, nothing can be wrong. All these things are just a part of our journey.' Ultimately, this means Meagan Good is ready for kids in real life, 'It definitely made me excited to go, 'OK, now that I've explored and unpacked so much through my character in more ways than one, now I get to go, 'Yeah, I think this actually makes me super ready,'' she shared. Married life with Majors has been 'pretty amazing' for Good, who expressed her immense happiness as a newlywed. 'I'm just really happy,' Good told Us . 'He's very silly. He always falls asleep in the middle of movies. I love doing adventures with him. If I'm like, 'Let's just go try this. Let's go do that.' He's like, 'All right, let's go.' We're just both in it, like, two little kids who can't believe we're allowed to do what we want to do.' Speaking of Jonathan's silly side, it's hard to tell whether he was trolling us or his new bride with his latest joke about her possible baby bump. In a recent Instagram Live from their gym session, he was filming Meagan and surprisingly put her on baby bump blast. 'Her belly does look thick! Who knows if she's pregnant? I can't call it!' he said. Even with all the acting experience under her belt, Meagan couldn't hide her surprise at the awkward moment. She didn't confirm or deny a mini Majors on the way, but the joke has pregnancy rumors swirling all over the internet. It's too early for congratulations, but at least the lovebirds are living their best lives as they plan their future and family together. The post Awkward Announcement? Fans Think Jonathan Majors Put Meagan Good's Possible Baby Bump On Blast — 'Who Knows If She's Pregnant?' appeared first on Bossip. SEE ALSO Awkward Announcement? Fans Think Jonathan Majors Put Meagan Good's Possible Baby Bump On Blast — 'Who Knows If She's Pregnant?' was originally published on

Meagan Good ready to have children
Meagan Good ready to have children

Perth Now

time3 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Perth Now

Meagan Good ready to have children

Meagan Good is "definitely" ready to have children. The 43-year-old actress married Jonathan Majors - who has a 12-year-old daughter from a previous relationship - in March after two years of dating and they are now planning to add to their family, with the I'll Never Let You Go actress knowing she's picked a "phenomenal" person to have kids with. She told Us Weekly magazine: 'I definitely am ready to have kids now. 'And then, my partner [is] someone I want to really do it with, and get excited about doing it with, and who is a phenomenal father already, but now we can do it together. 'Two [children] would be good. We got four dogs already. So, we got four Belgian Malinois, and they are the hyperest dogs of life, but the house is very safe.' Meagan admitted her role on Harlem has helped her realise she wanted to have children and be a mom. She explained: 'I know that there's a lot of similarities to Camille's journey and to Meagan's journey because I always knew that I wanted to be a mother. 'But I'd have to ask myself, 'Is that because I felt like I should want that?' And then there were times where I wasn't sure, and I was like, 'Am I pushing back against it because I don't like people telling me what I'm supposed to want?' I think that, during the course of the show, being able to say out loud that Camille doesn't want kids — because it's such a taboo thing to say — and everyone always goes, 'Well, what's wrong with you?' 'It's, like, 'No, some people just don't want to,' and to be able to explore that with her, and then ultimately for her to be the one to get pregnant and be able to explore that journey. … Some people, maybe they just don't want to. For other people, maybe there is something you're afraid of, maybe there is something you've experienced, maybe there is something that's holding you back, and all of those things, nothing can be wrong. All these things are just a part of our journey. "'It definitely made me excited to go, 'OK, now that I've explored and unpacked so much through my character in more ways than one, now I get to go, 'Yeah, I think this actually makes me super ready.' " Meagan praised married life with Jonathan as "super amazing". She gushed: 'I'm just really happy. He's very silly. He always falls asleep in the middle of movies. I love doing adventures with him. If I'm like, 'Let's just go try this. Let's go do that.' He's like, 'All right, let's go.' We're just both in it, like, two little kids who can't believe we're allowed to do what we want to do.'

This artist is transforming a Greyhound bus into a museum about Black American migration
This artist is transforming a Greyhound bus into a museum about Black American migration

CBC

time6 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • CBC

This artist is transforming a Greyhound bus into a museum about Black American migration

Growing up, historian and preservationist Robert Louis Brandon Edwards would hear stories from his grandmother Ruby Mae Rollins about her life in Fredericksburg, Va., before she moved to Harlem, N.Y. "She experienced so much segregation and discrimination, having to work in diners where she had to enter through the back … and also sitting in the balconies of movie theatres and wanting a better life for her girls," Edwards told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. Though he didn't fully appreciate her stories at the time, Edwards says he's been able to dig deeper into his grandmother's history, thanks in part to a project he's working on for his doctoral thesis at Columbia University. Edwards is restoring a classic, 1947 Greyhound bus, working with a Cleveland-based performing arts centre to turn the vehicle into a mobile museum highlighting the Great Migration. Sometimes called the Great Northern Migration, the term refers to the movement of approximately six million Black Americans from the Jim Crow South for better opportunities in northern, midwestern and western states between roughly 1910 and 1970. "[In preservation work], we tend to stick to just buildings and sites, so by me honing in on an actual mode of transportation, I want people to be transported into time back into the 1940s and '50s," said Edwards. "I want them to not only experience that transportation, but I also want them to experience this object, this moving object as a space, and then I want them to be prompted and experience some of the experiences that an African-American traveller would have had to face." Museum will touch on key historical moments Once the project is completed, museum visitors will be able to don virtual reality goggles and experience what it was like for a Black traveller back when the bus still ferried passengers. Visitors will even be prompted with different virtual experiences depending on where they choose to sit on the bus — a decision that for many Black Americans was the difference between safety and great danger. As a result of segregated spaces on public buses and trains, Gretchen Sorin – author of Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights – says that Black Americans during the Jim Crow era didn't necessarily think of spaces like buses and trains as fully safe. "Companies that owned the trains, owned the buses, often [segregated] African-Americans either into a 'Negro' car or they segregated them to the back of the bus," said Sorin, also director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program at SUNY Oneonta. "While those vehicles did represent the ability to get out of the South, they were also segregated." Instead, Sorin said that Black Americans who could afford it preferred to travel in their own vehicles. "With your own automobile, you are in your own private space, and that space was controlled by you," she said. Understanding the migrant experience Most people are familiar with the history of Rosa Parks, a Black American woman who was arrested in 1955 after challenging racial segregation laws when she boarded a bus in Montgomery, Ala., and refused to give up her seat to accommodate a white passenger. Parks's protest sparked the larger Montgomery bus boycott – culminating in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling finding that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. Edwards acknowledges that Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders — civil rights activists who travelled by bus to the American South to challenge racial segregation years later — are usually the top results whenever anyone Googles the topic. Nonetheless, he wants visitors to his museum to learn about events like the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation — sometimes called the First Freedom Ride — led by Bayard Rustin, as well as other activists who advocated for civil rights. "I want people to think about people like Irene Morgan, who was arrested on a Greyhound bus in Virginia," said Edwards. "But I also really want people to think about the everyday African-American traveller, like my mom, like my aunt, like my grandmother, who migrated to these different cities just in search of freedom and better opportunities and a piece of the American dream." Edwards believes people who visit his museum will better understand what it means to be a migrant. "Migrant has become such a nasty word that no one wants to associate themselves with but a lot of us, most of us, all of us are products of migration and it's not a bad word," he said. "It's actually what brings us all together." The bus is currently parked at the Greyhound Bus Station in Cleveland — an active transit hub that still receives travellers. Edwards hopes he can take his bus on the road, stopping at historic locations along the Great Migration's path. In the meantime, he says his bus is already causing a stir among passengers who arrive in Cleveland, curious about Edwards' project — with some mistaking it for the Rosa Parks bus that's actually at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Mich. "A lot of people have said, 'I've never thought of how my ancestors got to Cleveland, got to Detroit, Chicago, New York,'" said Edwards.

Faith Leaders Can Now Endorse. Will That Swing the N.Y.C. Mayor's Race?
Faith Leaders Can Now Endorse. Will That Swing the N.Y.C. Mayor's Race?

New York Times

time6 days ago

  • Politics
  • New York Times

Faith Leaders Can Now Endorse. Will That Swing the N.Y.C. Mayor's Race?

Four days after his remarkable showing in New York's Democratic mayoral primary, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani appeared at the Harlem headquarters of a group headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton. He acknowledged the leaders and biblical scriptures that fueled his campaign. 'Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning,' Mr. Mamdani said, a reference to Psalm 30:5, a scripture that is especially popular in Black churches. 'And it has been night for far too long in this city.' Mr. Mamdani did not come to the gathering on June 28, for the National Action Network, explicitly seeking an endorsement from the faith leaders in the crowd. But under a new rule change from the I.R.S., he and his opponents in the mayoral race may be able to secure one without tax repercussions. The I.R.S. said in a court filing last week that houses of worship could endorse political candidates to their congregations without losing their tax-exempt status. The move was initially seen as the agency's formal termination of a longstanding but spottily enforced rule against campaigning from the pulpit. But in New York, the ruling could also open up a new front in the city's heated mayoral race, offering candidates the chance to formally consolidate support from not only faith leaders but their congregations. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

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