#28daysofblackhistory

[blacknerdproblems]

Repost from @candybug_04 @TopRankRepost #TopRankRepost For those that may be unfamiliar with this character, heres a side by side. Have a great evening and a wonderful weekend! . . Aveline de Grandpre #28daysofblackcosplay She is, for many reasons, one my favorite Assassins. Now the gameplay and story line is a whoooooole 'nother thang personally okaaaaay 😅 But hey, in the game Aveline infiltrates plantations to gather intelligence from enslaved people. She incites riots. She finds abducted slaves and frees them. She also fights an overseer, disarms him of his whip and then uses it against other would-be overseers, plus a lot of it is set in New Orleans. Sorry, but I can ALWAYS get down with all that 😂 Oh!! And would you believe I snatched this costume for $20 on Amazon?!!? I did make the hidden blade and I loathe the hat, but $20?!? Yeah, I'm down with that TOO! . . . #avelinedegrandpre #cosplay #cosplayingwhileblack #cosplaymakeup #sfx #legavenue #aveline #assassinscreed #28daysofblackhistory #blackexcellence #blackgirlmagic

[cartermagazine]

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The City Doc: Venis T. Wilder, MD @thecitydoc celebrates Black History Month. Twenty Eight days of history makers in the medical, health and wellness field. #28daysofblackhistory #thecitydoc #liveyourbiggestbestboldestlife

[afrodandy]

Happy 125th Birthday to Bessie Coleman aka Queen Bess. 1st Black woman to earn a pilot’s license. Since no U.S school would accept her she taught herself French and paid for admission to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale by working as a manicurist, and at a chili salon.

Me dressed as Bessie for Take Back Halloween’s 2014 Costume Contest

http://takebackhalloween.org/halloween-2014-costume-contest-winners/

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AVA DUVERNAY (b. 1972) is a screenwriter, director, producer, and film marketer. The eldest of five children, she was born in Long Beach, California and would split her youth between Compton and her father’s family in Lowndes County, Alabama. Her aunt Denise encouraged her to lean into her art and creativity. The DuVernay family was always socially conscious and saw art as a vehicle for activism. DuVernay graduated from UCLA in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts in both English and African American Studies. She started work as a publicist for FOX and Savoy Pictures, and after four years she started her own agency, The DuVernay Agency, later known as DVA Media plus Marketing. DuVernay’s directorial debut was the 2008 documentary This Is the Life, a film about the Good Life Café in the 1990s. Two years later she wrote, produced, and directed the drama I Will Follow, a film she produced on a $50,000 budget. The film garnered Duvernay the 2011 Best Screenplay award from the African American Film Critics Association. That same year, she would co-found the African American Film Festival Releasing Movement (later renamed ARRAY), a consortium dedicated to promoting and distributing independent films by Black people. DuVernay wrote, directed, and/or produced over thirty films and television shows. She is the first Black woman to win the Best Director prize at Sundance Film Festival for her film Middle of Nowhere, and first Black woman to receive Best Director nomination at the Golden Globes and Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards for 2014’s Selma. She also received multiple awards for the Netflix documentary 13th, about the loophole in the 13th Amendment that keeps slavery legal in the United States. Her drama mini-series When They See Us, about the Exonerated Five, garnered twenty-three million views in its first month and 16 Emmy nominations. DuVernay’s latest released project is the sci-fi series Naomi, based on the Black girl superhero of the same name. She continues to bring stories about by and about Black people to the screen, both real and fictional.⁠ #28DaysOfBlackHistory⁠ #BlackHistoryMonth⁠ @540WestMain https://www.instagram.com/p/CaZyN2-u2w-/?utm_medium=tumblr

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ROBERT TOWNSEND (b. 1957) is a legendary Chicago-born writer, producer, director, comedian, and actor who has been pivotal cog in Hollywood the background and foreground, giving opportunities to Black entertainers for over 40 years. Townsend was always an entertainer, practicing his celebrity impersonations on his family and classmate. When he grew up, he would test his mettle as a comedian career in New York and Hollywood, trying out for Saturday Night Live and performing on a comedy special for Rodney Dangerfield. He also landed minor roles in 1984’s A Soldier’s Story alongside Denzel Washington and Streets of Fire. In 1987, Townsend got behind the camera to direct his first film Eddie Murphy: Raw, the filming of Murphy’s live concert performance. Later in the year, he wrote, produced, and self-financed his second film, Hollywood Shuffle, an acclaimed satirical look at the obstacles and sacrifices Black performers must endure to get into the film industry. In 1991, he directed and starred in The Five Heartbeats, a drama based loosely on the lives of the Dells. Then in 1993, he directed and starred in The Meteor Man, a comedy that may also be the first mainstream Black superhero film. Townsend would continue to write and direct over 30 films and television series, including The Parent ‘Hood, Carmen: A Hip Hopera, a Natalie Cole biopic, and episodes of the CW series Black Lightning and The Wonder Years. In all his projects, Townsend’s goal is to lampoon negative aspects of life in the Black community while also showing that everyone’s life, no matter where they are socially, is worthy of respect.⁠ #28DaysOfBlackHistory⁠ #BlackHistoryMonth⁠ @540WestMain https://www.instagram.com/p/CaXNZLCObTk/?utm_medium=tumblr

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GERTRUDE “MA” RAINEY was a singer and songwriter in the 1920s, the most popular blues singer of the time. Her popularity led to the title Mother of Blues by her peers. She is considered the first woman to introduce blues into her performances. She established her own entertainment company in 1917, and she managed theaters in her home state of Georgia. Rainey was born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia in 1886. She began singing and performing at an early age, first performing publicly at a talent show at age 14. Four years later, she would meet and marry fellow performer William “Pa” Rainey and begin travelling minstrel and vaudeville shows. Their shows would include drama and comedy routines as well. The Rainey’s would perform together for 13 years, until their marriage ended. After her divorce, Ma Rainey established her own company called Madame Gertrude Rainey and her Georgia Smart Sets. Rainey was a frank woman who did not hide the aspects of her personal life of which other women of her time would be made to feel ashamed. She was married twice, was open about her interest in many men, and was also romantically inclined toward women. There were even rumors of her having a relationship with fellow Blues singer Bessie Smith. All of this and her larger-than-life onstage persona increased her popularity with her audiences. After twenty years of live performances, Rainey signed a contract with Paramount records in 1923 and recorded nearly one hundred records between 1923 and 1928 with a some of the best contemporary musicians, including Louis Armstrong. She continued to travel and perform across the South and Midwest. As other music genres gained popularity and the Great Depression gripped the nation, Rainey decided to retire to her hometown of Columbus, Georgia in 1935, where she would manage venues until her death from heart failure in 1939. ⁠ #BlackHistoryMonth⁠ #28DaysofBlackHistory⁠ @540WestMain https://www.instagram.com/p/CaM6d2Ou0u2/?utm_medium=tumblr

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The CHITLIN’ CIRCUIT was a group of performance venues throughout the Mid-Atlantic, southern, and Midwest regions that hosted specifically Black musicians, actors, and comedians during the time of de facto and de jure racial segregation in the US. It originated in the early 1930s and continued all the way into the 1970s. Its name comes from chitterlings, which are boiled and fired pig intestines, a soul food staple that is equally adored and reviled in the Black community…I do most of the reviling. The Circuit’s purpose correlates with the Borscht Belt, which provided stages for Jewish performers throughout the 1940s to the 1960s. The Chitlin’ Circuit was an important series of outlets for Black performers, as many white stages would not book Black acts even if they claimed to not discriminate. At its height, musical genres were born and flourished on the Circuit before hitting the mainstream. We have it to thank for newer styles of jazz and the birth of Rock & Roll and Rhythm & Blues. Jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Lena Horne kicked off their careers working the Circuit, as well as later acts Tina Turner, Marvin Gaye, and the Jackson 5. Even Richard Pryor developed his routines on the Chitlin’ Circuit before being recognized nationally for his comedic talent. Though the Circuit died in the wake of theaters and venues integrating and booking Black acts, some of the original venues still live on today, including Harlem’s Apollo Theater and Jacksonville’s Ritz Theatre. ⁠ #BlackHistoryMonth⁠ #28DaysofBlackHistory⁠ @540WestMain https://www.instagram.com/p/CaADRp-Of1T/?utm_medium=tumblr

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LENA WAITHE (b. 1984) is a screenwriter, producer, and actor. She gained widespread popularity as a cast member in the Netflix comedy series Master of None, though the Chicago native’s entertainment roots run deeper than the show. She started out as an assistant to the executive producer of the sitcom Girlfriends, and after that became a writer for the Fox series Bones and Nickelodeon’s How to rock, and a producer for the film Dear White People. Waithe became the first Black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 2017 with her semi-autobiographical Master of No episode “Thanksgiving”. The episode is hailed as poignant and beautiful, while still maintaining the signature comedy of Master of None. After Master of None, Waithe went on to create three series for Showtime: The Chi, Boomerang, and Twenties. Waithe made her filmmaking debut as screenwriter and producer for the film Queen & Slim, and she is producer for the Amazon series Them, a controversial anthology horror that upturns the “Indian Burial Ground” trope by making the ghosts of white supremacists be the malevolent forces tormenting a Black family. No matter what her endeavors, Waithe is focuses on writing for and hiring more people of color and queer people in Hollywood to have their stories depicted.⁠ #BlackHistoryMonth⁠ #28DaysofBlackHistory⁠ @540WestMain https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ9dcDvOss7/?utm_medium=tumblr