Trayvon Martin: Will Justice Be Served?

I tried to avoid it as long as I could but it happened today and now I have to let it out...because that's what I do...I write.

After hearing the tragic story of what happened to Trayvon Martin, I swore that I wasn't going to listen to the 911 call that featured the audio of the screams and shooting that took place that night, but this morning while driving to work I was caught off guard and I heard it for the first time...

I heard the sounds of a woman calling in a disturbance and in the background of her call you can hear the frantic pleas of a young man screaming for help and then moments later you hear a gun shot and immediately the screaming stops.  From that moment on it felt as though my heart had torn in two as I drove blindly down the street with tears streaming down my face.

I cried because at that moment, I felt Trayvon's mother's pain as I imagined the thought of my son being taken from me in such a cold-hearted manner. I cried because a young life was taken because of ignorance and hatred.  I cried because this world is becoming more and more like it's prince, yet we still refuse to turn to God in our darkest hour of need.

The sicker this world gets, the more tears we can look forward to shedding because of loss.  Media has desensitized us all to the pain and suffering that those around us endure and it's sickening.  And shame on the media for continuing to play those 911 calls for ratings! What parent wants to hear the sounds of her child pleading for his life and then being shot over and over again? Yes, people need to know what's going on but there is a thing called decorum and integrity.   

People are outraged by this situation because it is a stark reminder that no matter how far we've come in our society, the underlying hatred that has kept us divided for centuries still manages to rear it's ugly head every so often to remind us that it never too far away.

While this is sad, sad situation, it should serve as a wake up call that violence in any shape, form or fashion should not be tolerated against anyone in our society: black, white, Hispanic, Asian or other.  When black people kill each other, it's treated as normal happenstance, but when another race does something to one of ours that's when we choose to unite.

This is not a black or white or Hispanic issue.  It is a justice issue. Every parent, every mother, black, white, yellow, pink or orange, who lost a child armed with only a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea who was gunned down by a person who was breaking the law...deserves justice.  Plain and simple. 

So, yes, we are all sad and angry about this situation with Trayvon Martin, but the question now is: What are you going to do to ensure that things like this don't keep happening?

Change begins on your knees.  Be blessed.

Movie Review: Tyler Perry's Good Deeds

Tyler Perry's newest movie Good Deeds hit theaters this weekend amidst much anticipation from his loyal fans, but I have to be honest and admit that I was a little leery about going to see this film at the movies.  

Now don't get me wrong, I love a Tyler flick just as much as the next person, but as a writer I have come to find that his films are very predictable and unimaginative with respect to his story lines.  But at the end of the day, Mr. Perry has found a formula that works very well for him and I'm not mad at him for doing what he does because, let's face it, he does it well. 

But with his latest effort, Good Deeds, starring himself, Thandie Newton, Gabrielle Union, Phylicia Rashad and Brian White, I found myself very entertained and pleasantly surprised with the apparent growth in Perry's repertoire. 

Good Deeds was a story of two people from very different worlds who find each other in the midst of life-changing and challenging circumstances. While we have definitely seen this scenario before, Perry did a great job of telling the tale from the rich and poor perspectives simultaneously.

Wesley, played by Perry, is the eldest son of an affluent family who is expected to run the family business, keep his rebellious brother from destroying the family name, marry the perfect girl and live up to his dominating mother's expectations all at the same time. While Lindsay, played by Newton, is a single mother who is trying to keep her life from falling apart emotionally, and financially, while caring for her young daughter after the loss of her husband.

 

Perry and Newton definitely have a great chemistry on screen, and Tyler Perry has definitely turned up his sexy for this role.  Yes, ladies, unlike his other films when he wasn't playing Madea, Perry's swag was on 10 in this one.

So overall, while Good Deeds isn't totally outside-of-the-box crazy different from what you're used to seeing from Tyler Perry, it was definitely a refreshing change from what you're used to seeing from Tyler Perry...if that makes any sense.  You'll still laugh and maybe even cry a little, but at the end of the day this film gets a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

I can safely say that this one is worth going to the theater to pay your "we support Tyler Perry" money and you won't leave feeling some kind of way about it.  Don't take the kiddies because there is definitely some adult content, but other than that...enjoy!

Till next time.

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Check out the trailer for my new upcoming movie Someone To Watch Over Me:
http://youtu.be/eQk6abtZfRA

The Bitch Factor

I know I've been away for a while but recent reality TV shenanigans, and life in general, has prompted me to get back on my j-o-b. So here we go...

Bitch- a female dog; a female of canines generally.

It seems the the use of this word as a term of endearment has escalated over the past few years, and the way that we as women have embraced it as such is a blaring example as to how far we have sunk in our view of the female gender.

There used to be a time when girls aspired to become "ladies", which was a term that personified everything that was feminine, classy and beautiful about being a woman.  Whether it was the way she acted, dressed or spoke, a lady always knew how to conduct herself in public and in private.  Now days, so many women are so seemingly starved for attention that they have resigned themselves to becoming "less than" she was meant to be.

Not so long ago when a man referred to a woman as a bitch in a song, rap, or public forum, there would be an uproar.  It was a fighting word and if you said it to a woman, then you needed to be prepared for the consequences that were sure to follow. The connotation of a word that portrays women in such a negative ad misogynistic light was met with much opposition, and to now hear women calling each other that as a way of showing affection, as well as hatred, is baffling and sad.

And to make matters worse, now days when men refer to their wives and girlfriends as "my bitch" they smile and nod proudly at the recognition. Then in songs when they refer to women as "bitches" and "hoes" we bob our heads appreciatively to the beat while waving our hands in the air.

It's bad enough that media has been allowed to let these things become part of our daily entertainment, but for us to continue to perpetuate the cycle as if there is nothing wrong with it is even worse because most of us are old enough to know better. 

Ladies, we have got to do better. We continue to complain about how our men are treating us and wonder why they don't respect us, but yet we're on television, out in the clubs and everywhere else fighting, tearing each other down and calling each other bitches and hoes.  Until we learn to respect ourselves and each other we are getting exactly what we deserve.

The definition clearly states that a bitch is a dog, and there is nothing flattering about that comparison when it comes to being a woman...no matter who's mouth it's coming out of.  

Women are beautiful creations of God who were given the distinct honor of being the vessels used to bring life into this world.  We are the backbones of our societies and our men and deserve to be treated as such.  A queen is a a queen does.  A queen does not allow herself to be reduced to being compared to things that eat from the garbage and sniff their own feces. 

So the next time the b-word comes to your lips, think about that.

Till next time be blessed.

Visit us at www.black-smithenterprises.com or follow me at twitter.com/janayablack.

Don't forget to check out the trailer for my upcoming movie Someone To Watch Over Me. http://youtu.be/eQk6abtZfRA

  
 

Black/Smith Consulting is proud to announce the 2nd Annual Big Stage Talent Challenge! If you think you've got what it takes to become the next superstar singer or rapper, here is your chance to show and prove. Let us put our money where your talent is!

In a concentrated effort to mobilize and challenge Detroit's talented dreamers to raise the bar as it relates to their performance presentation while reaching for the stars, Black/Smith Consulting has made it their mission to reignite the community's interest in rallying to champion our hometown talent by rekindling the passion for what Motown has always celebrated: Real music.

On December 17, 2011, fifteen contestants will perform before an audience of their peers, and industry judges, at the Boll Family YMCA in Detroit for a chance to win $500 in cash, a professional photo shoot, an artist development package from Star Factory and a 30 day consultation package courtesy of Black/Smith Consulting.

This is a no holds barred competition. Contestants will be judged on their stage presence, vocal ability, costume and crowd participation by a panel of industry judges who will select three contestants to advance into a final round that will be judged Apollo-style by the audience to determine who will emerge victorious as the winner of the Big Stage Talent Challenge.

The Big Stage Talent Challenge is open to Michigan singers and rappers of all ages. Auditions will be held at Star Factory, located at 13305 Capital in Oak Park, on November 26 at 4 p.m. The competition will take place at the Boll Family YMCA located at 1401 Broadway, Detroit from 6 p.m.-10 p.m.

Applicants must be Michigan residents and should be prepared to perform a two minute selection with no profanity or explicit lyrics. The registration fee per group is $20.

For more information please contact Brandon Smith or Janaya Black at 313-451-4272 or email blacksmithconsultingllc@gmail.com.

Movie Review: Courageous

I'm going to start this out by saying that every father in America needs to go see the movie Courageous.  This film, starring, written and directed by Alex Kendrick, was a beautifully presented as a clear call to action for men to step up and fulfill their duties as fathers and leaders of their communities and households.

The story follows the lives of five friends, four of which are police officers, who are all fathers dealing with various issues in their personal lives.  When tragedy befalls one of the five, it forces him to take a close look at the kind of father he has been to his children. Bothered by the fact that he only felt that he had been "good enough" by his own standards, he begins to seek out God's standards and is heavily convicted by what he finds in God's word as it relates to a father's duties.

Driven by the desire to be a better father, he creates a resolution and presents it to his friends so that they will hold him accountable to be the man that he promises to become in his resolution.  After reading the document the other men decide to join him in his pledge.

This action sets off a chain of events that tests the faith and resolve of all the men, while forcing them to deal with their personal issues of loss, abandonment, forgiveness, financial hardship, guilt and integrity.

When this movie ended, there was not a dry eye in the house.  Alex Kendrick did a masterful job of tackling the position of fatherhood from every angle imaginable.  Whether it was the "baby daddy" who was running from responsibility, the effects of growing up in a fatherless home, the father who's in the home but spends no time with his kids...no situation was left untouched.

Real talk, Courageous is a movie that is definitely worthy of Oscar attention because it is the best movie I've seen all year.  The story's message is one of critical importance to our society and the acting was outstanding. And to see a movie that openly proclaims God's Word and message of salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is nothing short of a blessing.

This one gets ten very enthusiastic spirit-fingers! Do not walk, but run to go see and support Courageous at the theater! Let Hollywood know that there is nowhere that God's voice can't reach!

 

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If you want to see more faith-based movies and theaters, please considered supporting Someone To Watch Over Me.

1-on-1 With Khary Turner, Co-Author of Surrendered: The Rise, Fall and Surrender of Kwame Kilpatrick

Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Khary Kimani Turner for Shop Talk Magazine with respect to his recent project in which he co-authored the book Surrendered: The Rise, Fall and Surrender of Kwame Kilpatrick. 

This book has been on everyone's hot list, so I'm excited to present this interview. Enjoy!

Khary Kimani Turner: Storyteller At Large

The name Khary Kimani Turner is synonymous with hip hop journalism at its best. With everything from music and celebrities to social consciousness and hip hop culture, this man’s ability to skillfully craft the written word to stir emotions, provoke thought and open dialog has garnered him national renown.

After having been a featured writer in notable publications such as The Source, XXL, Vibe, Rap Pages, Metro Times, The Detroit News and Ambassador, this year Turner embarked upon one of the most pivotal projects of his career by co-authoring Surrendered: The Rise, Fall and Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick, the highly anticipated tell-all book about the scandal surrounding the Kilpatrick Administration, with former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

In the midst of the media frenzy surrounding the book, Shop Talk got a chance to chop it up with Turner to find out how it all came about.

Shop Talk: Give us some background about yourself. 

Khary Turner: I’m from Detroit; born on Lesure off Fenkell. Raised on the east side; North Park, near Miller Middle School. I remember all of my schools from Gesu/Golightly/Duffield in elementary, to Miller Middle School and UD Jesuit High. Graduated in ’88, earned my bachelors from Xavier University in Cincinnati in ’92, and my Masters last year.

ST: Who or what inspired you to become a writer?

KT: I found hip hop in 1984 and started emceeing. Never stopped; I rhyme to this day. Through hip hop I discovered poetry and short stories in middle school, and opinion columns with my high school and college papers.

The true inspiration was the reaction I got whenever someone read or heard my work. I was a reserved pre-teen, and the written word drew me out and into a more social lifestyle. I found acceptance and uniqueness in that space. It became my thing because while other kids around me liked to rap, or write, or sing, or speak, no one seemed able to do all of those things well. So I committed early on to becoming that man. I’m still driven by that goal.

ST:  How did the opportunity for you to work with Kwame Kilpatrick on his new book come about?

KT: Full disclosure: my wife is a relative of the Kilpatrick family. Through her, I’ve known the former Mayor since 1995. During the summer of 2008, when his scandal began to pique, I was entrenched in my career as a journalist and was also nurturing a desire to write books. Specifically, I wanted to focus on controversial memoirs with some redemptive value. That desire comes from being a black man and feeling like I was born a suspect to so many American communities.

Naturally, the family connection was providential. Mayor Kilpatrick knew me well, and I was close enough to know that another side of his story existed; one that wasn’t being told. So I approached him at a wedding, a bit out of order but, again, providentially. I was just at the right place, at the right time, with the right idea. And I’m thankful that he trusted me with his life story.

ST: How did the experience affect you being that you were in Detroit as his case played out in the media?

KT: It was tough because, in that situation your subject needs to trust you implicitly before anything gets written. To gain his trust, I just spent time around his immediate family [and] got to know them. That time affected me tremendously because I saw his sons respond when forced to grow up quickly. They manned up at age 12, especially when Kwame went away. That floored me. Carlita became the true hero, in my opinion, because she remained upright through the entire saga, and she’s always been brutally honest with me. You’ll never get me to question her spirit.

As a writer, I saw a level of ugliness in the city that I just can’t be proud of.  Journalists have long had thankless jobs, and unfortunately, today’s journalists are groomed in an age of biased media and sensationalism. Before the Joint Operating Agreement, almost 20 years ago, newspapers’ goals were to tell stories. In today’s corporate-driven media climate the job is to sell headlines because headlines sell papers and gain ratings, and sales satisfy and attract advertisers.

So, the journalist is too often forced to compromise and historic storylines lose their balance. I think that happened with Kwame Kilpatrick, and the public suffered because we were positioned to judge the man, and by default the city of Detroit, without having a balanced account on the public record.  That affected my resolve positively because I won’t live in a community that mutes anyone’s voice, but I won’t run.  And so, I committed to helping tell that story.  It was just that important to me.

ST: Did your experience working with him and being able to hear the story from him personally change your view on his situation? How so and did you find it hard to be objective?

KT: Good question.  Kind of. I went in thinking there’s another side to this story; I came out knowing, and thinking, hey, maybe the world isn’t flat after all.

As for being objective, that wasn’t my job. I was co-author, not a reporter, and I was there to help Kwame tell his story. To that end, I maintained my respect for the fact that he was the mayor.  I only call him by his first name because he asked me to, and he and I talked for weeks and weeks prior to writing establishing along the way that I had to be free to challenge him in order for this story to be told successfully. I did that and, to his credit, he never ducked a question. Not once.

ST: What is the biggest thing that you want people to walk away with after reading the book?

KT: Respect for the fact that every story has two sides and there’s nothing you can do about it. You just don’t know everything until you know everything, and to pass judgment based on half the data is to set yourself up to be wrong.

Two, I want people to know that, regardless of your personal politics or preferences, this is a good book. It’s well written, well thought out and told well by two native Detroiters. I’m very proud of that.

ST: What other projects do you have in the works?

KT: My blog, at www.kharyturner.com, is called Stay Low, Keep Movin’, named after my band Black Bottom Collective’s first album. I write entries weekly.

I also want to speak publicly. My passion points are media imaging and men’s health. Too many of my peers were lost or sickened young. We in hip hop and the hood are doing a poor job of taking care of ourselves. Proof. Dilla. Blade. Baatin. Bugz. Get better, Hex! I wish these men weren’t examples because I respect them, but I want them to know that I, for one, get the message. I’m heading to the gym now.

Of course, there’s the next book, but I won’t jinx that by going into specifics.

 
Surrendered: The Rise, Fall and Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick is now available on Amazon.com, Truth Bookstore, Shrine of the Black Madonna and God’s World.  For more information on Kary Kimani Turner please visit www.kharyturner.com, Facebook at Khary Kimani Turner, or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/kharyturner. 

For more information visit www.black-smithenterprises.com or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/janayablack.

Movie Review: Warrior

When I got the invitation to go to a private screening for the movie Warrior I was really excited because of the fact that it is a faith-based movie. I had no idea what it was about, all I knew was that I was going because it was in the genre that I wholeheartedly support. Little did I know how impactful that 90 minute movie would be.

Warrior is kind of a modern day Rocky meets The Prodical Son in the story of a family torn apart by alcoholism and abuse.  Paddy Conlon (played by Nick Nolte), who was once an abusive alcoholic, is now a born-again Christian who is trying to live for the Lord. In the process of taking his road to sobriety day by day, he dreams of the day that his family will be reunited; but unfortunately his two sons, Brendan (played by Joel Edgerton) and Tommy (played by Tom Hardy), want nothing to do with him.

Tommy is filled with a bitterness and hatred toward his father and brother over the loss of his mother and the hardship they faced after fleeing from an abusive home and his brother's perceived abandonment, while Brendan is bitter toward his father for the abuse and feeling like he was never able to live up to his father's expectations as a fighter.

As fate would have it, the three of them meet up in the most unlikely circumstances when they all find themselves at the Sparta cage fighting tournament to compete for a $5 million prize.

While the movie does have some harsh language and very aggressive fighting scenes (as the premise of the competition is mixed martial arts), the story paints a very real picture of the state of the family unit today.

What I really liked about it was that it didn't paint the fairy-tale picture with the happy ending where everybody lives happily ever after.  It showed the realness of the hurt that children suffer at the hands of their parents' selfish decisions and how the road to forgiveness and recovery is not always an easy one.

It also touched on the struggles of marriage and how husbands and wives are supposed to work together through the hard times instead of just opting for divorce when times get tough.

Warrior is definitely a movie that will touch your heart and keep you on the edge of your seat. The message is a strong one of forgiveness, self reflection and unconditional love. While the PG-13 rating should definitely be taken to heart when considering taking young ones, this movie is definitely worth the trip to the movie theater when it comes on out Sept 9.

Please go see it and support faith-based films.

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