WHAT’S HOT
The Ceremony
Yahzarah
If the definition of the word “ceremony” entails adhering to life’s protocols, facing challenges with ritual observance and celebrating the realization of dreams as if a formal or solemn rite, then spectacularly talented, singer/songwriter/producer Yahzarah has been nothing less than ceremonious in adhering to the pomp and circumstance of life. “When I was born, I had a naming-ceremony,” the five-octave natural soprano explains, “and [you know] when you’re born into Yoruba they put your feet on the ground and the ancestors tell them what you’re going to do with your life. And it was said that I would be a musician…that I would be a muse and that I would travel the world blessing the world with music.”
While the revered African custom proved pointedly life-prophesizing, allowing for her gift and passion to lead her from promisingly talented youngster to a wildly exposed and accomplished music powerhouse in young adulthood, the powerhouse talent would find herself subsequently standing in ceremony through the varying occurrences life brings. Hence, the succinctly appropriate title of her curiously-anticipated, seven-years-in-the-making fifth set, The Ceremony.
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Heroes & Gods 2.0
Rahsaan Patterson
Rahsaan Patterson taps critically acclaimed House remixer, producer and DJ, Quentin Harris (Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, N’Dea Davenport) to create Heroes & Gods 2.0.
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URBAN ONE HONORS
This year’s annual celebration of Black excellence honors the artistic contribution of singer/actress Jenifer Hudson, writer/producer Timbaland, gospel singer Tasha Cobbs Leon, and the two legendary songwriter/production teams of Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Hosted by Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and producer Ne-Yo, the two-hour telecast, themed the “Soundtrack of Black America”, premieres Monday, January 17, 2022, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, at 8/7c, on TV One and Cleo TV, a division of Urban One.
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The 45th stamp in the Black Heritage series honors Edmonia Lewis, the first African American and Native American sculptor to earn international recognition. The stamp art is a casein-paint portrait based on a photograph of Lewis by Augustus Marshall made in Boston between 1864 and 1871.
As the first African American and Native American sculptor to earn international recognition, Edmonia Lewis challenged social barriers and assumptions about artists in mid-19th century America.
Born in Greenbush, NY, Lewis spent most of her career in Rome, where her studio became a must-see attraction for American tourists. In addition to portrait busts of prominent people, Lewis’s work incorporated African American themes, including the celebration of newly won freedoms, and sensitively depicted her Native American heritage as peaceful and dignified.
A Roman Catholic, Lewis also received several religious commissions. The work she produced during her prolific career evokes the complexity of her social identity and reflects the passion and independence of her artistic vision.
As the public continues to discover the beautiful subtleties of Lewis’s work, scholars will further interpret her role in American art and the ways she explored, affirmed or de-emphasized her complex cultural identity to meet or expand the artistic expectations of her day.
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