INFEMNITY™ Arts and Culture News

Harriette Cole and Judith Jamison Dancer, choreographer, and Artistic Director Emerita of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater   Judith Jamison  was the special guest on this week's "Real Conversations With..." series presented by AARP Black Community  on Facebook Live. She was interviewed by Harriette Cole , who describes herself as "a life stylist, author, nationally syndicated advice columnist, motivational speaker, media trainer, magazine editor, lifestyle writer, wife and mother." Judith Jamison I have watched Judith Jamison's career through the years since my days as an undergraduate in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute of Music, when Sophisticated Ladies  came to town for its pre-Broadway run. During yesterday's conversation, Jamison praised the cast and music of the production, Duke Ellington 's band and Gregory Hines , with whom she starred and choreographed the show. This production happened many years after her groundbreaking internat...

While watching the home-going service for John Lewis, I heard Civil Rights activist James Lawson speak of the efforts to desegregate downtown Nashville via non-violent protest. He mentioned the James Lawson and Martin Luther King names of Diane Nash, Kelly Miller Smith, et al. Lewis and Nash were Fisk students who were attempting to desegregate the stores and establishments in downtown Nashville. My parents were on the faculty at Fisk University, and this was  the environment into which I was born in 1960. Diane Nash and Kelly Miller Smith The students were non-violent, but the white mobs that gathered around them were not. It still boggles the mind when I try to understand exactly what motivated these mobs to inflict such violence. In fact, I have already blogged on that subject:  "What Nazis Can Teach Us About American Police." Of course, I had no idea that all of this energy was swirling around me. I was just a baby, after all, and my parents did not discu...