‘The Harder They Fall' Tops African American Film Critics Association List Of 2021

'The Harder They Fall' headlined the African American Film Critics Association's annual list of the top 10 films of the year. The film, directed by Jeymes Samuel, and produced by rap mogul Jay-Z, stars Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Regina King, Zazie Beetz and Lakeith Stanfield portraying historical Black figures Rufus Buck, Nat Love, Trudy Smith, Stagecoach Mary and Cherokee Bill, respectively.

"Selections for this year's Top 10 speak to history's importance in informing who we are, as a people and as a community," said AAFCA president and co-founder Gil Robertson. "Although our top film 'The Harder They Fall' from Netflix is a fictionalized Western, it introduced the world to an incredible array of real-life Black cowboys and cowgirls who helped to transform the West, prompting many to discover the prominent role Black people played in that storied chapter of American history that has long been a Hollywood go-to genre."

"With Richard Williams in 'King Richard' and Aretha Franklin in 'Respect,' you get an examination of two figures who have left an indelible mark on society and world culture. Mr. Williams, through the cultivation of the talent of his daughters, Venus and Serena, has forever transformed tennis. Their success has become a door-opener by which others can enter a sport that has historically been very closed to them," Robertson continued. "Obviously not enough can be said about Ms. Aretha Franklin who shaped and transformed the world through her music. These films, along with the rest of AAFCA's Top 10 films of 2021, celebrate culture, history and history-makers. AAFCA is thrilled to recognize their contributions to cinema."

The full list of AAFCA'S Top 10 Films of 2021:

1. The Harder They Fall

2. King Richard

3. Respect

4. The Tragedy of Macbeth

5. Passing

6. Belfast

7. Who We Are

8. House of Gucci

9. The Power of the Dog

10. West Side Story

As previously announced, AAFCA will reveal winners of the 13th Annual AAFCA Awards honoring outstanding achievement in film in 15 competitive categories on Jan. 17,2022. An in-person celebration in Los Angeles will follow on March 2.

For more information on the AAFCA Awards and the organization's other programs and activities, visit http://AAFCA.com.

[SOURCE: BROADWAY WORLD]

Letitia James suspends campaign for governor

New York Attorney General Letitia James suspended her campaign for governor Thursday, saying she will run for reelection to her current position to “finish the job” amid numerous ongoing investigations, including one into former President Donald Trump.

James ended her campaign for governor the same day it was reported she was seeking to have Trump sit for a Jan. 7 deposition in an ongoing civil probe into his business practices.

James released the following statement as to why she suspended her campaign:

I have come to the conclusion that I must continue my work as attorney general.

There are a number of important investigations and cases that are underway, and I intend to finish the job.

I am running for re-election to complete the work New Yorkers elected me to do.

Rep. Pressley Leads Resolution to Remove Rep. Boebert From Committee Assignments

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), along with Representatives Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Cori Bush (MO-01), Judy Chu (CA-27), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23), led their House colleagues in announcing a resolution to remove Representative Lauren Boebert (CO-03) from her committee assignments. Rep. Pressley and colleagues will hold a press conference on Capitol Hill on Monday at 2:00pm ET to discuss the resolution and the need to hold Boebert accountable.

 The lawmakers’ resolution follows Boebert’s repeated use of Islamophobic, racist and hateful comments and incitement of anti-Muslim animus, and Leader Kevin McCarthy’s refusal to hold her accountable for her dangerous conduct. The resolution also comes amid growing calls from Members of Congress for meaningful accountability. 

“For a Member of Congress to repeatedly use hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobic tropes towards a Muslim colleague is dangerous. It has no place in our society and it diminishes the honor of the institution we serve in,” said Rep. Pressley. “Without meaningful accountability for that Member’s actions, we risk normalizing this behavior and endangering the lives of our Muslim colleagues, Muslim staffers and every Muslim who calls America home. The House must unequivocally condemn this incendiary rhetoric and immediately pass this resolution. How we respond in moments like these will have lasting impacts, and history will remember us for it.” 

"Islamophobia and any form of hate is a direct attack on people in this country and our democracy,” said Rep. Bowman. “Muslims belong in everywhere Congress and any place of power in the country. They need to know that Congress will not accept Islamophobia. We are putting forth this resolution because we love our democracy and our Muslim brothers and sisters. Rep. Boebert has gone beyond expressing usual dissent for a colleague and their views and is endangering Rep. Omar in addition to inciting violence. Trump ran on Islamophobia, and that disease is still in government. We cannot allow any forms of Islamophobia, anti-Blackness, anti-immigrant, and xenophobic sentiments stand in the halls of Congress or part of our government. Rep. Boebert must be held accountable.” 

“St. Louis and I did not come to Congress to leave Islamophobic, racist, and inciteful attacks unchecked,” said Congresswoman Cori Bush. “Congressional leadership has a responsibility to show that this kind of behavior is unacceptable—starting in the halls of power. We must be assured that no member is above accountability, and Republican leadership has failed to deliver any such accountability for Boebert. It is time for Democratic leadership to act and pass our resolution to not only protect Rep. Omar, but the livelihoods and lives of Muslim communities around our country.” 

“Once again, Kevin McCarthy refuses to condemn the hatred in his own caucus,” said Rep. Chu. “Rep. Boebert’s comments, which she repeated, were not subtle nor were they a slip of the tongue. It was the latest in a long string of openly Islamophobic and bigoted comments which have repeatedly led to violence. We saw this in the wake of September 11th, when the exact lie that Rep. Boebert is repeating today, led to a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes. And we have seen it in the numerous death threats directed at Rep. Omar and others since being elected and becoming targets of Republican hate speech. For Rep. Boebert to repeatedly make this claim now, just months after white nationalists stormed the Capitol, shows an incredible disregard for the safety of her peers, if not outright hostility. This would be unacceptable in any workplace, and is certainly unacceptable in the halls of Congress. If Rep. Boebert chooses to spend her time threatening the safety of a colleague because of her religion, it will not be from the privileged perch of Congressional committee.”   

“I join Rep. Pressley and my colleagues in calling for Representative Boebert to be removed from her committee assignments,” said Rep. Jayapal. “There must be consequences for vicious workplace harassment and abuse that creates an environment so unsafe for colleagues and staff that it invites death threats against them. There must be consequences for elected representatives who traffic in anti-Muslim and racist tropes that make all Muslims across the country less safe. There must be consequences when Members of Congress demonize an entire religion and promote hate from their positions of public trust.” 

“This type of bigotry is disgusting, but unfortunately not surprising,” said Rep. Lee. “Anti-Muslim rhetoric is not, and will never be, a laughing matter. Rep. Boebert must be held accountable to show that hate speech will not be tolerated in Congress.” 

“I stand with my friend and colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar. No one, Member of Congress or otherwise, should face bigotry in their workplace. Rep. Boebert still owes her an apology for her hateful rhetoric and actions, and short of that the House should take further action. Islamophobia has no place in our country or the Halls of Congress," said Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García. 

“Democrats are, and should be, focused on building real and symbolic bridges, both within and to all our communities. We cannot lose sight of that,” said Rep. Wasserman Schultz. “But a failure to exact consequences for this dangerous bigotry will lead to more hate, and inevitably, more threats and violent rhetoric or actions aimed at our own Members and the communities of which they are a part. We must hold Members accountable whose rhetoric puts their colleagues and staff in harm’s way. These Islamophobic comments by one of our fellow Members must be called out. Hate is hate, and these types of incendiary remarks can and do inspire violence and direct threats, both to the individuals they are targeted at, and to the larger communities they represent. A pipe bomb that sat in my district office for over 24 hours, and was handled by my staff, testifies to that frightening reality. Sadly, there are countless more examples I could cite. As a Jewish Member, my office receives threats regularly, as do members of my larger community.” 

Joining Rep. Pressley on this resolution are Representatives Hank Johnson (GA-04), Sarah Jacobs (CA-53), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), Andy Levin (MI-09), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), and Mondaire Jones (NY-17). 

Last week, Reps. Pressley joined Reps. Bowman, Bush, Carson, Jayapal and 34 House progressives on a statement calling for Rep. Boebert to be removed from her committee assignments. 

On December 1, Democratic Caucus Chairs released a statement calling for Rep. Boebert to be removed of her committee assignments. 

Harvard Professor Tiya Miles Wins National Book Award in the Nonfiction Category

Tiya Miles, a professor of history and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University, has won the National Book Award in the nonfiction category. Professor Miles was honored for her book All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake (Random Houe, 2021).

In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley’s survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language— including Rose’s wish that “It be filled with my Love always.” Ruth’s sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley’s sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations.

The contents of Ashley’s sack — a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, “my Love always”—are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley’s journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained.

The citation for the National Book Award reads: “A brilliant, original work, All That She Carried presents a Black woman’s countercompilation of lives that ordinary archives suppress. Tiya Miles’s graceful prose gives us narrative history, social history, and object history of women’s craft through the things Rose gave the daughter she was losing forever. With depth and breadth, Miles offers the visual record of love in the face of the child trafficking atrocities of slavery. This book is scholarship at its best and most heartrending.”

Dr. Miles was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Afro-American studies from Harvard University, a master’s degree in women’s studies from Emory University in Atlanta, and a Ph.D. in American studies from the University of Minnesota. Before coming to Harvard, Professor Miles taught on the faculty of the University of Michigan for 16 years, where she served as chair of the department of Afroamerican & African studies.

Check Out Professor Tiya Miles' book on Amazon

Emmett Till Docuseries 'Let the World See' to Premiere in January 2022

ABC News announced today the special limited docuseries Let The World See, produced in association with Shawn Carter and Roc Nation, Will Smith and Westbrook Studios, and Aaron Kaplan and Kapital Entertainment. The series will chronicle Ms. Mamie Till-Mobley’s fierce quest for justice that sparked the civil rights movement after her son Emmett Till’s brutal murder, inspiring heroes like Ms. Rosa Parks and others to stand up boldly for their rights. Let The World See premieres Thursday, Jan. 6 (10:01-11:00 p.m. EST), on ABC and will air for three consecutive Thursday nights following each new episode of ABC’s upcoming limited series Women of the Movement, also produced by Roc Nation, Westbrook Studios and Kapital Entertainment.

Let The World See is a fresh and deep examination of Ms. Mamie Till-Mobley’s fight to bring her son’s body home to Chicago and her pivotal yet heartbreaking decision to have an open-casket funeral for the public to see, which ultimately served as a turning point for the civil rights movement. The docuseries also traces Ms. Mamie Till-Mobley’s journey back to the Jim Crow South to face her son’s murderers in court. The program will illustrate how the Till family has continued her legacy since her death in 2003, remaining active in the movement as the deaths of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Ms. Breonna Taylor and others sparked protests around the country.

Weaving together first-hand accounts from Emmett Till’s family, Let The World See includes interviews with Emmett Till’s cousins Rev. Wheeler Parker, who was a witness to the abduction, Ms. Ollie Gordon and Amos Smith, and Ms. Thelma Wright, Ms.Mamie Till-Mobley’s cousin. The docuseries also features interviews with Rev. Jesse Jackson, activist and friend of Ms. Mamie Till-Mobley; FBI agent Lent Rice, who was a part of the team that opened a new investigation into Emmett Till’s case more than 50 years after his death; journalist Dan Wakefield, who covered the Emmet Till murder trial; and Ms. Betty Pearson, who watched the Emmett Till murder trial in the courtroom more than 60 years ago. The special programming also highlights deeply personal insights from contemporary authors, including Ms. Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give), Christopher Benson (Death of Innocence), John Edgar Wideman (Writing to Save a Life) and Michael Eric Dyson (Long Time Coming), who visits the scene of the crime for a special reading of his Letter to Emmett Till.

Let The World See is produced by ABC News Studios in association with Roc Nation, Westbrook Studios, Kapital Entertainment and Cobble Hill Films and is directed by Ms. Jeanmarie Condon and Ms. Fatima Curry. Ms. Condon and Ms. Curry are executive producers for Cobble Hill Films and ABC News Studios, respectively; Shawn Carter, Tyran Smith and Jay Brown are executive producers for Roc Nation; Will Smith is executive producing for Westbrook Studios and James Lassiter also serves as executive producer; Aaron Kaplan is executive producer for Kapital Entertainment.

SNEAK PEEK: ‘Let The World See’ docuseries