Published in the Arts Desk section of The City Paper’s website: The fans lined up as early as 3 a.m. to secure prime real estate in the tent cities or on the sloping main lawn. It looked as if they were leaving for a month-long vacation, towing food and creature comforts on dollies, customized wagons, and platform trucks that contractors use to haul lumber. They brought air mattresses, inflatable chaise lounges, camping beds, and even landscape lights to mark their territory. All this for just a day at the Capital Jazz Fest at Merriweather Post Pavilion. For two decades, many area music lovers have made it a ritual to kick off the summer with some of their favorite jazz, R&B, and hip-hop artists at the festival. The venue was packed to near-capacity on Friday night and sold out Saturday and Sunday, with roughly 20,000 people swarming the 40 acres of Symphony Woods each day to hear artists ranging from Les Nubians to Michael Franks. Adrienne Braswell of Alexandria, Va., sold 233 of those tickets to a group of enthusiasts she calls Braswell’s Circle, which stretches from Georgia to New York. Reconnecting with old friends was one of the best parts of the weekend, said members of the Charlotte, N.C., Jazz Fest Crew. “We’ve been coming every year since 2001,” said Jeannine Chandler, who traveled to Columbia, Md., from Atlanta with her husband. Many fans were hard-pressed to pinpoint the highlight of their highlights. For some, it was hearing Erykah Badu (below) on Friday, Rick Braun on Saturday, or Keiko Matsui on Sunday. Others singled out Kem, Jeff Lorber, the O’Jays, and local favorite Marcus Johnson of Silver Spring, Md. Faith Evans invited some attendees to dance onstage, while Joe and Dwele wandered into the crowd...
“From Trivia to Treasure” is a video of the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland, Calif. It was shot by Yanick Rice Lamb, an associate professor at Howard University, and Rick Jurgens, both fellows of the Knight Digital Media Center at the Graduate School of Journalism of the University of California at Berkeley. Fellows in KDMC workshops often create integrated multimedia projects as part of their training. Lamb produced and edited this video as a part of KDMC’s January 2012 Digital Storytelling Workshop. During the six-day workshop, KDMC fellows spotlight local businesses in the UC Berkeley...
“I knew that I was an unusual, talented girl through the grace of God. I didn’t need to prove that to myself. I only wanted to prove it to my opponents.” –Althea Gibson Born to Win is the first and only fully authorized biography of the late great Althea Gibson, the first African American to break the color line in tournament tennis. Cowritten by Frances Clayton Gray, who was Gibson’s confidante and caretaker and is now executor of her estate, and journalist Yanick Rice Lamb, this authorized biography sheds new light on Gibson, from her childhood in Harlem and her ten-year reign as champion of the all-black American Tennis Association to her historic 1950 debut at Forest Hills and her momentous victories of 1957 and 1958, when she swept both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. This riveting account reveals how Gibson distinguished herself as a champion in a long and diverse athletic career, helping to pave a path for such modern-day sports phenomena as Tiger Woods and Venus and Serena Williams. A strong-willed child who skipped school frequently and had a reputation for being a tough girl, Gibson nevertheless developed a solid work ethic and a desire for independence–and was a natural athlete to boot. You’ll follow her as she picks up a tennis racket for the first time and goes on to compete in her first tournament, setting the stage for a remarkable journey. At 5 feet 11, Gibson had the height, speed, and reach to dazzle a crowd by returning shots that seemed guaranteed to get away, and she devised brilliant strategies to zero in on her...
For more than a century, the “Seven Sisters” have dominated the women’s magazines category (Johnson and Prijatel, 2007). They have also been leaders in magazine publishing overall, with some titles ranking in the top 10 for circulation and advertising revenue. The eldest sister, McCall’s, was born as The Queen: Illustrating McCall’s Bazaar Glove-Fitting Patterns in 1870 (Endres and Luech, 1995). Her siblings appeared from the1880s to 1930s: Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, Woman’s Day, and finally Family Circle. Over the years, the magazines have undergone periodic makeovers, as feminists and others questioned their relevance and historical focus on homemaking especially during the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s. One of the most severe makeovers led to the death of McCall’s, which morphed into Rosie the Magazine in 2001 to compete with upscale women’s magazines such as O the Oprah Magazine and Martha Stewart Living. In November 2000, comedian and talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell signed an agreement with Gruner & Jahr to be a partner in what was originally conceived as Rosie’s McCall’s (Kuczynski, 2001). By the end of 2002, Rosie had ceased publication amid a flurry of counter-suits (McCafferty, 2003). In light of one of the most radical eras of media transition, this study will analyze whether the survivors are keeping up with technological advances to serve readers and remain competitive with younger women’s magazines. It will seek to determine if the magazines are effectively using websites, cell phones, and iPads — the primary tools at the center of this digital transformation. Effective use of these tools can impact a media company’s success,...
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