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Time of India
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
What is New York Knicks' celebrity fan Spike Lee's net worth? His income from movies explained
What is New York Knicks' celebrity fan Spike Lee's net worth? His income from movies explained (Image Source: Getty) Reputed Hollywood celebrity Spike Lee is quite famous for his writing and direction skills. One of the most celebrated faces in the world of artists, Lee is a bonafide New York Knicks fan. With the Knicks diverting all the spotlight currently, Lee is back to the stands rooting for his favorite team. Not many people know that the veteran filmmaker Spike Lee has an old connection with the NBA. Reportedly, Lee represented the New York Knicks back in the 1990s as a front-and-center forward. With his fair share of stint with the NBA and Hollywood, here is everything you need to know about the Oscar winners' net worth. New York Knicks reputed fan Spike Lee's net worth in 2025 and income from movies With the New York Knicks taking the front seat during the ongoing NBA season, it's difficult to miss out on the talented filmmaker Spike Lee, all thanks to his connection with the team and the much-hyped spat with the former Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller during the early 90s. According to the Celebrity Net Worth, the total net worth of Spike Lee is around $60 million. He came to prominence during the 1980s as a filmmaker, producer and writer. With sheer brilliance and dedication towards the art of filmmaking, Lee even went on to register an Academy Award under his name. He has even served as a professor at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts based in New York City. According to the media outlet, Celebrity Net Worth, Spike Lee went on to make around $3 million from the 1992 released Malcolm X. It is quite understandable that he had secured $3 million as a salary and even made much more from movies including Inside Man, 25th Hour, Summer of Sam and Love & Basketball. In his over multiple decade-long Hollywood career, Spike Lee won an Academy Award for the BlacKkKlansman, in the best director category. Recently, Lee directed a Netflix-based movie Da 5 Bloods, which even ranks on the third highest position on the Rotten Tomatoes platform. Also Read: 'This man is a firefighter' — New York Knicks stan Ben Stiller showers praise for Tyrese Haliburton's heartfelt gesture for Indiana Pacers fan after viral incident Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
In Honor of Malcolm X's 100th Birthday, Here are His Most Fearless, Inspiring Sayings
When it comes to iconic voices in Black history, few resonate louder—or hit harder—than Malcolm X. Born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, the civil rights legend would've turned 100 this year, but his words remain as sharp, fearless, and relevant as ever. Whether he was schooling folks on the power of education, warning us about the media's manipulation tactics, or making it plain that freedom ain't really free, the highly respected yet sometimes 'controversial' leader always knew how to deliver a message that stuck. So in honor of his centennial birthday, we're highlighting some of his most unforgettable quotes from all those years ago in the hopes that we'll never forget how much Malcolm was truly a voice for the ages. Keep reading to get into these gems that continue to inspire, agitate, and motivate! 'I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against.'- Malcolm X, 1965 'A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.'- Malcolm X, 1964 'We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being... by any means necessary'- Malcolm X, the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in June 1964 'There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.'- Malcolm X, 1962 'If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary'- Malcolm X, 1963 'We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us.'- Malcolm X, 1964 'I, for one, believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.'- Malcolm X, 1965 'Without education, you're not going anywhere in this world'- Malcolm X 'You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being'- Malcolm X 'I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment.'- Malcolm X, 1964 'If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.'- Malcolm X, 1963 'You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.'- Malcolm X, 1965 'A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.'- Malcolm X, 1965 'It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's the only thing that can save this country.'- Malcolm X, 1965 For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Afterlife of Malcolm X: how the civil rights icon influenced America
The Afterlife of Malcolm X is a new book about the great Black leader who was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, 100 years ago; who in the 1950s converted to Islam and dropped his 'slave name'; who rose to fame as the militant voice of the civil rights era; and who was assassinated in New York in 1965, aged just 39. Related: 'He transformed his mind': how did Malcolm Little become Malcolm X? The book is not a biography. As the author, Mark Whitaker, puts it, his book tells 'the story of the story of Malcolm, the story that really made him the figure he is today, even more so than what he accomplished while he was living. 'So it was the story as told by Alex Haley in The Autobiography of Malcolm X. It was the story as told by Spike Lee in the movie, Malcolm X. It was the story as told by his biographers. It was the story that is told in hip-hop, and in Anthony Davis's opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. And it changes over time. Each of those stories is a little bit different.' Whitaker has told many stories himself. Now 67, a CBS contributor, he was editor of Newsweek, Washington bureau chief for NBC and a managing editor for CNN. His new book is his fifth. As well as a work of cultural history, it is a true-crime thriller, tracing the story of who really killed Malcolm at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, and how two men wrongly imprisoned were finally cleared. The book grew from two others: Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Black Renaissance and Saying it Loud: 1966 – the Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement. Smoketown, about 'the legacy of Black Pittsburgh … ended in the early 60s', but Whitaker 'had done all this reporting about … Black America in general in the civil rights era, and so I wanted to pick up that thread. I decided to write about the birth of Black Power, specifically in 1966. A lot of people would say, 'Oh, so you'll be writing about Malcolm X.' And initially my response was, 'No, he was assassinated in 1965.' But the further I went, the more I realized he loomed over all of it. ''66 was the year the Autobiography was released in paperback and really became a bestseller. Meanwhile, he was in the heads of all of the major figures. Stokely Carmichael at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver, founding the Black Panthers; Ron Karenga, who had this sort of Black nationalist movement in LA and was the founder of Kwanzaa; the first proponents of Black studies on white campuses. All of them drew their inspiration from Malcolm X.' As a teen, Whitaker read the Autobiography. It told him Malcolm's story, from brutal youth to street hustling, prison, conversion, and his rise in sharp contrast to Martin Luther King Jr, the voice of nonviolent action. Whitaker knew about the split with the Nation of Islam and its founder, Elijah Muhammad, that precipitated Malcolm's killing. In 1992, Whitaker covered Spike Lee's movie for Newsweek. In 2020, for the Washington Post, he reviewed The Dead Are Arising, a major biography by Les and Tamara Payne that followed Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Seeking to publish in Malcolm's centennial year, Whitaker had to work quickly. But if 'life as a journalist trained me to do anything, it trained me to meet a deadline'. 'Obviously there have been aspects of this that have been written about,' he added. But though he doesn't 'want to be immodest' he doesn't think 'anybody's really put it together in the way that I have'. Malcolm's story has often been told. 'Each one of those stories is a little bit different,' Whitaker said. 'And sometimes they're at odds. If you read the biographies and what was written about them, each one was trying to kind of revise and correct the story. So a lot of people think that Alex Haley, though it was he who kind of brought Malcolm to life for the reader, [produced] a sanitized version. Alex Haley was a moderate Republican, and he sort of massaged the narrative to emphasize Malcolm's evolution in the last year and leave the reader with the impression that he was really sort of gravitating in the direction of becoming more of a mainstream, conventional civil rights leader. 'Marable was trying to correct that and paint Malcolm as someone who remained radical, to focus less on his change of heart towards white people, and more on his Pan-Africanist ambitions, on his global travels. Then Les Payne comes along … [he] had been sitting on all of this exclusive reporting for decades, and so it's less of a correction about Malcolm's politics, and more adding heavily reported detail on key episodes in his life. 'I wasn't taking sides. I was trying to show that one of the things that's fascinating about Malcolm is that he has had all these different interpreters, and I argue in the introduction that ultimately they're not mutually exclusive, that one of the things that's fascinating about Malcolm is that almost at any point in his evolution, he represented many different things. He seems like a radical. He seems like a conservative. He's a traditionalist. He's a modernist.' Whitaker considers how such influence extended to sports, to athletes including the boxer Muhammad Ali and the sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who raised their fists at the Mexico Olympics in 1968. More surprisingly, Clarence Thomas, the second Black justice on the supreme court, a reactionary conservative, has long cited Malcolm's example. 'There are people who are appalled that Thomas would claim any kind of kinship,' Whitaker said. 'But I think there are two aspects of Malcolm's message that spoke to Clarence Thomas. One was sort of 'self-help', support for Black-owned businesses and so forth. But the other was skepticism about integration. 'And although it is true that Malcolm, after he went to Mecca [in 1964] and he saw white Muslims and so forth, came back and said, 'I no longer think that all white people are devils,' and certainly he had sort of [white] friends – I don't know to what degree you could really call Peter Goldman and Helen Dudar, or Mike Wallace or Bill Kunstler friends, but they were certainly people he felt comfortable enough with – I think he remained skeptical, and to my mind rightly so, of just how prepared America really was to become truly integrated.' Goldman and Dudar, a married couple, were journalists, Goldman the author of The Death and Life of Malcolm X, an influential study from 1973. Mike Wallace was a CBS TV host who interviewed Malcolm. Kunstler was a civil rights lawyer. Whitaker continued: 'I think another reason that Malcolm has continued to resonate over the decades is that just on a purely analytical level, I think his analysis of race relations in America has turned out to be … more prophetic than King's. Sixty years later, we're not that much further toward King's dream. I think obviously the workplace has become more integrated, in movies and TV and so forth [too], but in terms of where Americans live, neighborhoods, famously, where they worship, if they do worship, the progress has been much less than I think a lot of people thought it would be by this point – and now we're in the midst of yet another backlash against all the progress that's been made.' The Trump administration is attacking the teaching of Black history. It's hard to imagine Whitaker's book, or any other on Malcolm X, studied at West Point or Annapolis any time soon. 'None of that would have surprised Malcolm X,' Whitaker said. 'So … there are people who just refuse to accept that Clarence Thomas invokes Malcolm X in good faith, but I don't. I actually think that at least in Thomas's mind, he does very much see that part of Malcolm's message as one that aligns with his thinking.' Whitaker had no choice but to think along multiple lines. 'Just by studying Malcolm's influence, you get a sort of a cultural history of Black America and of America over 60 years,' he said. 'You find out about the Black Arts Movement, you learn a little bit about Hollywood, you find out about the free jazz movement, you find out about the birth of hip-hop … I'm sort of a jazz guy myself. So it was fun to become more knowledgeable.' Asked about the notion that Malcolm and King can be seen in a jazz frame, Malcolm as Miles Davis, edgy and cool, King as John Coltrane, spiritual and high-flown, Whitaker said: 'That was Anthony Davis, what he said about how he thought of Malcolm's voice in writing the opera,' a production revived after 2020, the summer of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. As Whitaker worked, another dual vision loomed large: Peniel Joseph's The Sword and the Shield, which posits Malcolm as the sword and Martin as the shield of Black Americans striving for justice. Such contrasts will forever be drawn. Whitaker makes his own. 'There's a lot of discussion today about what kind of communication works politically, with the transition to social media, podcasting and so forth. People are saying politicians who are effective are the ones who speak in a more direct way, in a more conversational way, and with more humor. That was all Malcolm. King is still very impressive, when you go back and you listen to his speeches, but he always sounds like he's talking to you from a pulpit. Malcolm always had this incredibly direct conversation, very powerful, and that's why he was so great. 'He went around and talked on college campuses and engaged in panels and debates on TV and on radio, and it still feels very contemporary. King's voice, as important and majestic as it was, feels like an artifact of history. Malcolm … you go on YouTube and you listen to his speeches, but even more so his interviews, and it feels like he could be talking today.' The Afterlife of Malcolm X is out now
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
AI-ready culture: Machine speed, human ingenuity
"The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." – Malcolm X. Or, in the age of artificial intelligence, perhaps we should say, "The future belongs to those who set up their machines and their minds for it today." In a world where AI is progressing at machine speed, the question is not about whether AI should be adopted, but rather how to do it in a way that complements human ingenuity. The term "AI transformation" has become common in boardrooms and tech huddles throughout India. However, a closer look reveals that the majority of attempts are superficial. AI is being used to improve consumer experiences and automate workflows, which is useful but not transformational. The need of the hour is not AI capacity, but rather an AI-ready society. One that blends machine-like speed and precision with human creativity, ethics, and contextual intelligence. AI in the Mirror: Adoption, not Absorption: Across industries, AI is being treated like a smart assistant rather than a strategic partner. Yes its true, that we are enhancing customer experience with the deployment of AI-powered tools is and also streamlining operations, but this tends to be reactive, not visionary. The global context tells a similar story—adoption is accelerating, but understanding remains uneven. India is strikingly ahead of the basic AI adoption curve. . As per IBM's Global AI Adoption Index, 59% of Indian businesses have either implemented or are exploring AI. That places us ahead of many developed nations. Yet this progress hasn't translated into leadership in AI innovation . We're using the tools—but not yet building the toolkits. Meanwhile, global AI investments tell a different tale. In 2023 alone, private AI investment in the U.S. reached over $67 billion, with China following at nearly $8 billion. Companies like Amazon are betting big on foundational models, pouring billions into firms like Anthropic, OpenAI, Grok, DeepSeek—these names are defining the AI landscape. Most of them are not just global—they're non-Indian. That's a gap we need to confront head-on. Firms around the world such as Tesla, Amazon, and Google have embraced AI on a core level, employing technology to drive innovation and reshape industries. In contrast, Indian businesses frequently use AI as a supporting role rather than a primary driver of company strategy. For example, while many Indian businesses utilize AI to improve customer service, few have invested in developing proprietary AI models or solutions tailored to their specific requirements. Where Machines Accelerate, Minds Must Navigate. Despite its strengths, artificial intelligence (AI) cannot replace human ingenuity and problem-solving. Instead, it is a tool for maximizing human potential. For example, while AI can analyze massive amounts of data in seconds, it needs human ingenuity to comprehend these discoveries and apply them to real-world problems. Companies such as OpenAI and DeepMind have shown that AI can be used to handle complicated challenges ranging from natural language processing to protein folding. However, these innovations are primarily pushed by enterprises outside of India, emphasizing the need for a culture transformation within Indian businesses. My Journey and What It Has Taught Me: Over the last 17 years, I've had the opportunity to start AI teams from scratch, scale them to hundreds throughout the world, and collaborate with business leaders from a variety of industries, including fashion, fintech, telecom, and retail. I've helped firms transition from gut-based decisions to data-driven cultures, from distrust to trust in algorithms, and from compartmentalized analytics divisions to AI-infused corporations. One important lesson I've learned: culture eats technology for breakfast. You can have the best models in the world, but if people don't understand, trust, or know how to use them, they won't add value. That's why I've always prioritized explainability, stakeholder education, and a 'test-and-learn' culture—so AI can truly integrate into the DNA of how businesses operate. From Pilot Projects to a Shift in Philosophy For India to shift from AI adaptation to AI innovation, we need a fundamental rethink—not of our tech stack, but of our mindset. Here's what I think will help us get there. • Leadership commitment: AI should be viewed as a business transformation tool, not a side project. • Foster a learning-first culture by including all functions, not just technology, in AI discussions. • Experimentation mindset: Accept failure, iterate swiftly, and celebrate learning. • Empower champions: Give people passionate about AI a platform to lead from the front. Finally, an AI-ready culture is something that must be created rather than purchased. And it begins with believing that we, too, have the ability to change the future rather than simply following it. Conclusion An AI-ready society is about people as much as technology. It is about giving employees the freedom to think freely, explore courageously, and interact effectively. By combining the speed and efficiency of machines with the ingenuity and adaptability of humans, organizations can unlock the full potential of AI. For India, this cultural shift is not just an opportunity—it is a necessity. The question is, are we ready to embrace it?
Newsweek
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Spike Lee on the Enduring Legacy of Malcolm X
Brooklyn, for filmmaker Spike Lee, is what Harlem was for Malcolm X: a community pulpit from which to do his life's work and muse on America. For Malcolm, it was routinely a gritty street corner transformed into a pop-up rally, the tools of his trade the fiery speeches, the Nation of Islam newspaper, his unapologetic media interviews and his uncanny ability to mix and remix deft intellectual observations, including the most uncomfortable and harsh, with the raw poetry of the people. For Lee, it is his provocative storytelling transformed into town hall meetings on this country's social ills, the tools of his trade the hot-button movies, the ever-changing façade of his red-brick multistory headquarters on South Elliott Place in the heart of the Fort Greene neighborhood, espousing one cause or another, one leader or another, his unapologetic media interviews and his uncanny ability to mix and remix deft intellectual observations, including the most uncomfortable and harsh, with the raw poetry of the people. Lee, speaking to Kevin Powell, at his film headquarters, filled with memorabilia. Lee, speaking to Kevin Powell, at his film headquarters, filled with memorabilia. Sam Norval From the prescient moment when Lee's late mother Jacqueline, a teacher of the arts and Black literature, had him read The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a bony, baby-faced youth, Lee has proclaimed, habitually, that it is the most important piece of writing he has ever come across. President Barack Obama has said similar. But what is it about Malcolm X, a Black man, and his rags-to-revolution story, that keeps him ever-present as we mark, in 2025, the 100th anniversary of his birth on May 19, 1925, and more than 30 years since Lee's ambitious screen narrative? Or rather, why does Malcolm—a widely debated man, one who is loved and hated, revered but also feared, universally studied yet often wildly misunderstood—still linger in the global public imagination? Malcolm X speaks to reporters in Washington on May 16, 1963. Malcolm X speaks to reporters in Washington on May 16, 1963. AP Photo, File Perhaps at least portions of the answers rest with Lee, and his landmark 1992 cinematic collage Malcolm X. It begins with the infamous and horrific videotaped beating, by Los Angeles police, of motorist Rodney King, in 1991. The film was released at the conclusion of 12 years of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush running the government, and cutbacks to social programs that disproportionately affected the marginalized, including Black Americans. Conservative adversaries of affirmative action were chosen to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Commission on Civil Rights, while severely reducing their staffing and funding. Furthermore, spending reductions affected Medicaid, food stamps, school lunch and job training programs that afforded critical support to Black households. Malcolm X came on the heels of these measures as the crack and AIDS pandemics, correspondingly, decimated many Black families and communities, as depicted in another one of Lee's movies, Jungle Fever, in 1991. In 2020, near the end of Donald Trump's first term as president, we had the cellphone camera audiovisual of George Floyd's slaying at the hands of the Minneapolis police. And with this second Trump term, there have already been massive pushbacks on diversity, equity and inclusion. As Lee contemplates America of the Reagan years with MAGA of today, he leans forward, adjusts his multicolored bracelets and says: "Ain't that much changed, particularly with this new world we live in." Marchers cross the Brooklyn Bridge demanding police reform after a commemoration to honor the anniversary of George Floyd's death on May 25, 2021, in New York City. Marchers cross the Brooklyn Bridge demanding police reform after a commemoration to honor the anniversary of George Floyd's death on May 25, 2021, in New York City. David Dee Delgado/Getty 'That Film Made an Impact' Malcolm X was a watershed for American cinema. As Spike tells it: "A lot of people have come up to me and said that film made them read. [Film director] Ryan Coogler told me his father took him to see Malcolm X when he was 6 years old. Sat on his knee. I'm not sure what you could comprehend at 6 years old, but he said that film made an impact." Denzel Washington (left) as Malcolm X and Spike Lee as Shorty in a scene from Lee's biopic of the activist, 'Malcolm X', 1992. Denzel Washington (left) as Malcolm X and Spike Lee as Shorty in a scene from Lee's biopic of the activist, 'Malcolm X', 1992. Largo International NV/Getty Lee was 35 years old when Malcolm X debuted. He had battled numerous obstacles to get it made. He fought to make it an epic running at three-plus hours when Warner Brothers wanted it shortened to 120 minutes instead. He fought to have Malcolm's mind-altering pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest of journeys for any Muslim, shot on location. And when the producing studio would not disburse any more funds for his vision, Lee organized Black investors like Oprah Winfrey, Magic Johnson, Tracy Chapman and Michael Jordan to get it to the finish line. Lee persevered with Malcolm X because he felt it was part of his calling as a filmmaker, the mustard seed planted decades before when his mother instructed him to study Malcolm's essence. Fast forward 33 years and Lee, who turned 68 in March, remains as youthful as ever, despite the gray stubble on his chin—and as animated, too. During the interview, he wears a blue 1619 cap, denoting the year when captured and chained Africans were first brought to the U.S. to work as slaves for what would be 246 years. "When I knew you were coming. I said, 'I'm not wearing that Knicks hat today. I'm not wearing that Yankee with the interlocking NY.' 1619," he says, pointing at the numbers on his cap. "Our ancestors built this country—free labor—from can't see in the morning, to can't see at night. Our families torn apart, our ancestors raped, men and women." Spike Lee Spike Lee Sam Norval Where Malcolm X regularly detailed the enslavement of Black people in his lectures, Lee christened his film production company 40 Acres and a Mule, from a perceived promise of reparations to formerly enslaved persons at the end of the Civil War. History pulses—like a parade of ancestors humming the blues in a museum—from every pore at 40 Acres: on the walls, along the stairwell, in the bathroom. Cinematic posters highlight classics by masters like Melvin Van Peebles and Martin Scorsese; multiple sports images, of Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers pioneer who became the first Black American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era, and of Spike's beloved New York Knicks, including an oversized and slightly washed-out 1970s Madison Square Garden banner bestowed to Lee; a plethora of keepsakes and memorabilia from Lee's 30-plus films; frozen-in-time visuals of boxing superstars like Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali; and, yes, there is a gigantic Malcolm X movie print, as well as a framed, signed letter from Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan from the early 1990s, simultaneously praising Lee's effort and disapproving of impressionistic drawings of Malcolm's former organization and its then leader, Elijah Muhammad. From Detroit Red to the Nation of Islam Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little, in Omaha, Nebraska, to parents who were followers of the Jamaican Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, whose largest movement was in the United States during the Jazz Age of the 1920s. Malcolm's Georgia-born father, Earl, was a traveling preacher who was murdered by white racists for encouraging local Blacks to be self-sufficient, to know their history, to consider a return to Africa. Left with seven children to raise, Louise Little, Malcolm's West Indies-born mother, an educated and proud woman, crumbled beneath the weight of probing social workers and poverty and wound up in a mental institution. Malcolm and his siblings were distributed, like sacks of food during the Great Depression, to various families—what we would call foster care. He went on to crawl the streets—in New York City, in Boston—using his nickname "Detroit Red" and engaging in a range of illegal activities, including gambling and selling drugs. That Malcolm would spend seven years in prison for burglary, where he would be introduced to The Nation of Islam, changing his path forever. But it was the next Malcolm, post-prison, who terrified white America, and none too few in Black America as well. It was as if that Malcolm X—the "X" standing for the name Black folks lost when brought from Africa as enslaved people—unleashed a rebuttal on racism in America for an entire group with every fiber of his being. He called himself the angriest man in America, he grew into a star voice in the Nation of Islam, a media darling and a pariah, all at once. He married Betty Shabazz, would have six daughters—a set of twins born after his death; mentored heavyweight boxing champion-to-be Muhammad Ali; became the victim of internal jealousy due to his popularity as the national spokesperson for the NOI; made a major misstep with his words upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by uttering "the chickens coming home to roost," after being warned by Elijah Muhammad to say nothing; and, embarrassingly, got kicked out of the NOI, allegedly, for disobeying Muhammad's edict. In the last months of his life, Malcolm would travel extensively through the Middle East and Africa and revamp his vision for humanity as a result of those excursions. Gone was what many felt was hate, replaced by compassion, empathy and an eagerness to work with any who were willing to work with him, for freedom, justice and equality. This is the Malcolm that many are least familiar with, the one who kept evolving until that fateful day. This is the Malcolm in the only photo which exists of him and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.—two men smiling cordially, shaking hands. "The final image before we go to end credits," Lee says. Martin Luther King Jnr (1929-1968) and Malcolm X (Malcolm Little - 1925-1965) waiting for a press conference, 26 March 1964. Photographer: Marion Martin Luther King Jnr (1929-1968) and Malcolm X (Malcolm Little - 1925-1965) waiting for a press conference, 26 March 1964. Photographer: Marion Universal History Archive/Getty 'The Spirit of Malcolm Came Into Him' Before those credits is the re-creation of Malcolm X's assassination. He was killed at age 39 on Sunday, February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Lee still struggles to recount the filming of that tragic scene. "The cast and crew, I mean, we were spiritually high, but we knew eventually we had to shoot the assassination scene, and that was when everybody's spirit was at the lowest. Wow. And that was, that was not fun. It was part of what happened, and we weren't gonna leave that out of the script, but it was rough." In this Feb. 24, 1965, file photo, the body of Malcolm X, Black nationalist leader who was slain February 21, 1965, at a rally of his organization, is viewed by newsmen at the Unity Funeral... In this Feb. 24, 1965, file photo, the body of Malcolm X, Black nationalist leader who was slain February 21, 1965, at a rally of his organization, is viewed by newsmen at the Unity Funeral Home, Eighth Avenue and 126th Street in New York City. More AP Photo/File Denzel Washington's performance as Malcolm X resonated with audiences and earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. The manner in which he contorted his body during the varied stages of Malcolm's life, the manner in which a single tear came down his face upon meeting Elijah Muhammad in the flesh—spiritual father and son, mentor and mentee, savior and the saved. The memory of that scene still gives Lee chills. "I said, 'Cut.' And I walk up to Denzel. I'm looking at his eyes glazed over. I said, 'Where'd that come from?' He said, 'Spike, I don't know.' But Denzel, he prepared for that role a year before we began the film. Denzel did the work, and the spirit of Malcolm came into him." Lee adds: "When we were doing that film, we weren't seeing Denzel, we were seeing Malcolm." Denzel Washington in a scene from Spike Lee's biopic of the activist, 'Malcolm X', 1992. Denzel Washington in a scene from Spike Lee's biopic of the activist, 'Malcolm X', 1992. Largo International NV/Getty It was the second time Washington and Lee had worked together, following 1990's Mo' Better Blues. He Got Game and Inside Man followed in 1998 and 2006, respectively. A fifth outing, the upcoming crime thriller Highest 2 Lowest—an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 Japanese film High and Low—opens in theaters on August 22. "No disrespect to any other actor, but I think Denzel is the greatest living actor today," Lee says of his friend. Though rough and troubled our times may be, Lee remains hopeful, possibly because he has witnessed so much, possibly because he, like Malcolm X, has been misunderstood, derided, called every name imaginable. But Lee has survived. He dotes on his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee; he views his daughter, Satchel, and son, Jackson, as more valuable to his legacy than his films. At the glass table where Lee is doing the interview with Newsweek is a cup with an imprint of Radio Raheem's rings from Do the Right Thing, arguably one of his masterpieces. On one hand the elongated ring says LOVE, on the other HATE. Lee reveals he came across those words together while a student at New York University film school when he saw a 1955 movie starring Robert Mitchum called The Night of the Hunter. Mitchum's character had LOVE tattooed across the fingers of his right hand, HATE across the fingers of his left. "It's simple. Either you are a mindset of love, or a mindset of hate. If you're the spirit of love, then you're gonna act like it. If you ain't, if you're on the other side, then your actions will tell who you really are." Kevin Powell is a Grammy-nominated poet; human and civil rights activist; author of 16 books; journalist and director, co-writer and co-producer of the new documentary film when we free the world, which will hit streaming platforms this summer.
