INFEMNITY™ Arts and Culture News

  On this day when Black History Month morphs into Women's Herstory Month, I am compelled to mention and praise the new documentary on the life of pianist and actor Hazel Scott titled  The Disappearance of Miss Scott . Hazel Scott was an extremely talented pianist who made her career by "swinging the classics" as it was called back them. Born in 1920 in Trinidad, Hazel and her mother came to New York City at the height of the Harlem Renaissance when she was four years old. Four years later, she was enrolled to study piano at Juilliard. After being heard in several radio broadcasts, she was engaged to star at Café Society after her friend Billie Holiday secured the gig for her. Soon Hollywood came calling and she was cast "as herself" in five films. During the filming of her final film, The Heat's On (1943), Scott demanded that the black women who were dancing in the scene when she was at the piano wear costumes that were more dignified than the ones that the...

James Baldwin As we are nearing the end of Black History Month, I find myself reading and listening to the words of James Baldwin. He became one of the most articulate voices of the Civil Rights Movement, yet it is hard to find any description or discussion - in his own words - of his life as a gay man. One could guess that he describes some of his gay life in the novel Giovanni's Room , which can easily be dismissed as a work of fiction. We know that he met the man who became the love of his life, Lucien Happersberger, in Paris in 1949, when Lucien was 17 and James was 25. The fact that Lucien was white could have served as proof that, at least in Baldwin's mind, black men and white men could love each other. But unfortunately, Baldwin chose to remain in the closet, using references to "... my wife" and "... my woman, my children..." in his interviews. The truth is, the most significant woman in his life was his mother, and the children he referred to were ...

Frances Taylor at the Miles Davis exhibit Frances Taylor While watching the PBS documentary on the life of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis ( Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool ), I was very interested in the interview with dancer Frances Taylor, to whom Davis was married from 1959 to 1968. After doing some research, I learned that Frances Taylor was the first African-American ballerina to perform with the Paris Opera Ballet. She was a member of the Katherine Dunham Company, had roles in the Broadway musicals Mr. Wonderful , Shinbone Alley , and was an original cast member of West Side Story . Taylor also appeared in the Off-Broadway productions of Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess .  While working on Broadway, she was credited as Elizabeth Taylor because there was already an actress named Frances Taylor, so she used her middle name. Frances Taylor and Leonard Bernstein Frances Taylor was a  member of the original cast of  West Side Story , working alongside Leonard Bernstein, Jerom...

Our dear friend chanteuse Kimberly Nichole just recently informed us in one of her Facebook Live chats that the month of October is Black History Month in the U.K. Granted, the U.K. has a large Nigerian population, and slavery there was abolished thirty years before it was abolished here. Kimberly, who is living in London, pointed out that the Brits gave to blacks one of the longest months (with 31 days), and one with pleasant autumn weather. Kimberly Nichole Watching all of the shenanigans  going on in American politics, I'm just waiting for a savior to drop down from the sky and save African Americans. Trump and the Republicans are pushing through this right-wing conservative Supreme Court judge. How are they able to do this? Well, because of the gerrymandering perpetrated by the Republicans, they have manipulated congressional districts so that Democrats (i.e., blacks) will never be in the majority.  How is this legal? How are they able to get away with this? Well, how were...

Nina Kennedy and Lowri Marie performing at the Salvation Army Harlem Temple Corps Sunday morning, February 18 th , soprano Lowri Marie and pianist Nina Kennedy were presented in what was called a “Black History Moment” at the Salvation Army Harlem Temple Corps, 540 Malcolm X Boulevard in New York City. During the regular Sunday service, Lowri Marie sang the Spiritual Bye and Bye , arranged by Edward Boatner, accompanied by Nina Kennedy on piano. The congregation was then treated to clips from the documentary film   Matthew Kennedy: One Man’s Journey , produced and directed by Nina Kennedy, about her father’s life and work as director of the internationally acclaimed Fisk Jubilee Singers. Nina Kennedy introducing clips from Matthew Kennedy: One Man's Journey Envoy Kenneth Burton had specifically requested a short clip of this film because he wanted some of the younger members of the congregation to be exposed to the history of Fisk University and the Fisk Ju...