By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Paule Marshall, an exuberant and sharpened storyteller who in fiction such as “Daughters” and “Brown Girl, Brownstones” drew upon classic and vernacular literature and her mother’s kitchen conversations to narrate the divides between blacks and whites, men and women and modern and traditional cultures, has […]
By BARRY WILNER AP Pro Football Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL and Jay-Z’s entertainment and sports representation company are teaming up for events and social activism. The league not only will use Jay-Z’s Roc Nation to consult on its entertainment presentations, including the Super Bowl halftime show, but will work with the rapper […]
By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — When author Angela Flournoy was asked to dress as her favorite literary character for a magazine shoot four years ago, she knew how to look the part: a wide and “severe hat,” a fur stole and the kind of stare that dares you to stare […]
By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Cyntoia Brown, championed by celebrities as a symbol of unfair sentencing, was released early Wednesday from the Tennessee Prison for Women, where she had been serving a life sentence for killing a man who had picked her up for sex at 16. Kim Kardashian West, Rihanna, […]
By MARCELA ISAZA Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oprah Winfrey praised her late friend and idol, Toni Morrison, hailing the best-selling author’s “confidence and self-assuredness and nobility.” Winfrey and Morrison knew each other for more than 20 years, dating back to when Winfrey was so determined to learn the author’s unlisted phone number that […]
By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in “Beloved,” ”Song of Solomon” and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom within the boundaries of race, has died at age 88. Publisher Alfred A. […]
RYAN PEARSON and KATIE CAMPIONE Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marvel’s push for more women and people of color in its immensely popular film franchise is extending to behind the camera as it launches its next round of films after the massive success of “Avengers: Endgame.” Of the five films the superhero studio announced […]
By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press America in the summer of 1919 ran red with blood from racial violence, and yet today, 100 years later, not many people know it even happened. It flowed in small towns like Elaine, Arkansas, in medium-size places such as Annapolis, Maryland, and Syracuse, New York, and in big cities […]
By JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer BOSTON (AP) — Former Boston Red Sox infielder Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, the first black player on the last major league team to field one, has died. He was 85. The Red Sox said Green, who lived in California most of his life, died Wednesday at in a hospital in […]
By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Hours before her Wimbledon semifinal, Serena Williams spent some time deep in thought and arrived at a couple of conclusions. For one thing, she shouldn’t focus too much on trying to raise her Grand Slam title total to 24, a number achieved by just one […]