Trillerfest & Complex Host 3-Day Quarantine Music Sessions.
Let the music keep playing.
Trillerfest hosts a 3-days of stay at home Quarantine Sessions with an amazing line-up of emerging and established acts.
The concert which is tagged the largest virtual music festival kicks off on the 10th to 12th of April 2020.
Subscribe to the Trillerfest YouTube page to get your front seat passes to the concert.
The concert is supported by media platform, Complex and hosted by Jay Pharoah.
Benefitting from donations from the concert is The Recording Academy and its affiliated charitable foundation MusiCares ehi have established the COVID-19 Relief Fund to help their peers in the music community affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Also, ‘No Kid Hungry’ is working to end child hunger in Amercia today by ensuring that all children get the healthy food they need every day to thrive.
Issa Rae Covers the April Edition of Teen Vogue
Issa Rae is back on the covers, this time she is featured on Teen Vogue. Issa Rae is bringing us some much-needed black girl magic with her youthful, bold and energetic spirit that is perfect for Teen Vogue.
For this issue, Issa Rae discusses “Insecure“’s highly-anticipated return which kicks off its fourth season on April 12, her blossoming film career, and more. Issa Rae discloses that “Insecure”’s lengthy break was due to her needing to live a little in order to grow and create.
Despite the coronavirus stopping many of us from pushing on with this year’s goals and resolutions, the actress/producer is at the top of her game with content constantly in the pipelines. With many of us at home yearning for inspiration and more content, the world will definitely be watching her moves and those of us pushing on and using this time to create and learn.
On her film career she says
I just want to try different things [and] keep getting better … because I’ve never considered myself an actress. I always considered myself a writer-producer and an actress for fun. I want to make sure that with each project I’m taking on, I’m bringing something to the table and not just showing up as me. A lot of people don’t get this opportunity, so I don’t want to take it for granted.
On the upcoming season of “Insecure”, she says
Insecure takes nine months out of my life. I’m pulling from life experience, and if you’re not living, then what are you really making? It’s a dream to be able to make this show, but I want to make sure that the show is also good. We needed a pause. Coming back, we just felt so fresh and excited to be there, and it showed. It felt like fun again.
I love this season so much. Season three we always knew was the building season. In the writer’s room, we were always like, ‘Ooh, season four going to be lit! This season is just about asking the question: Are people in your life for a reason or a season?
On how movie are helping during the coronavirus pandemic she notes
With Insecure and other shows, people are looking for an escape and they get to go into this world where a pandemic doesn’t exist and laugh and be immersed in somebody else’s stuff.
Teen Vogue also interviewed Issa Rae on her “first” everything. From her first celebrity crush, how she first discovered she was allergic to cats, what happened on her first red carpet at Essence’s Black Women in Hollywood, and what powerhouse celebrity director first made her realize she was famous.
XPRIZE Challenges Visionary Sci-Fi Writers to Imagine the Future of Telepresence Technologies.
James SA Corey, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tade Thompson, JY Yang, Charles Yu, Johanna Sinisalo are among the writers contributing to the new online anthology presented as a collection of avatar ‘memories’ spanning the 21st century
The public is asked to find and submit the ‘missing’ avatar memory via a short story contest
XPRIZE, the global leader in incentivized prize competitions, in partnership with ANA, Japan’s 5-star airline, announce Avatars Inc, a unique online anthology that blends original science fiction stories with a writing competition to imagine novel use-cases of telepresence technology in the future.
Avatars Inc (www.avatars.inc) is a free online sci-fi anthology presented as a collection of avatar ‘memories’ spanning the 21st century, including new stories by James SA Corey, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tade Thompson, JY Yang, Ken Liu, Charles Yu, and more. (Illustration by Michelle Thompson, courtesy of XPRIZE.)
The anthology, edited by Ann VanderMeer, includes 24 original pieces by high-profile authors including James SA Corey, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tade Thompson, Pat Cadigan, JY Yang, Ken Liu, Charles Yu, Paul McAuley, K Chess, Johanna Sinisalo, and Aliette de Bodard.
The premise for the anthology is as follows:
Established in 2038, Avatars Inc is the world’s leading producer of robotic avatar systems that can transport a human’s senses, actions, and presence to a remote location in real time. For the next few decades, they developed hundreds of avatar models and enabled millions of operator-hours. In 2080, a campaign was underway to physically retrieve, preserve and archive the memories from their most valuable units. We have been searching the world, and even deep into the solar system, to acquire the chips that contain avatar memories spanning the 21st century. These are those memories.
The short story contest is open through May 8, 2020 and is open to anyone over the age of 18 who submits an original story between 2,500 – 3,500 words, bringing to life a ‘missing’ avatar memory. Members of XPRIZE’s Science Fiction Advisory Council will vote on the finalist pieces to select the grand prize winner, who will then receive a prize package including a 3.2GHz 8-core Intel Xeon W Processor iMac Pro, a GoPro Hero7 Camera, Sony noise cancelling headphones, a 32GB Kindle Paperwhite, a JoneR Universal Translator, and more.
The fictional Avatars Inc was inspired by the real-life $10 million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, a four-year global competition focused on the development of an avatar system that can transport a human’s senses, actions, and presence to a remote location in real time. The competition was launched in March 2018 at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin.
“The world of Avatars Inc was made possible by the incredible partnership between XPRIZE and ANA and is intended to elevate the overall conversation about avatars among the general public, making the topic of avatars accessible, relevant and exciting, while creating demand and interest in the technologies that will result from the ANA Avatar XPRIZE,” said David Locke, Prize Lead of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE.
As of January 2020, a total of 77 teams from 19 countries qualified to compete. In March 2022, up to 20 teams will compete in the finals, which will include performance tests based on specific tasks that showcase the application of avatar technologies across several use-case scenarios. The first-place winner will receive $5 million.
To explore the world of Avatars Inc, and to submit your short story, visit http://www.avatars.inc.
5 Ways Black Panther 2 Could Be A Game-Changer For The MCU
It has already been two years since Black Panther changed the world in which we live (and beat Avengers: Infinity War at the domestic box office), and it will be at least another two years before director Ryan Coogler takes audiences back to Wakanda and tries to catching lightening in a bottle for a second time with Black Panther 2. With so much happening between now and then who knows exactly what’s going to be happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by the time T’Challa suits up next.
Ever since the sequel was first announced, fans around the world have been speculating what will happen in Black Panther 2 and what it will mean for the MCU as a whole. So before Phase 4 officially kicks off later this year with the delayed release of Black Widow, now is the perfect time to put on our thinking caps (or some high tech Wakanda-made equivalent) and consider the five ways Black Panther 2 could be a game-changer for the MCU.
Martin Freeman in Black Panther
If Wakanda Shares Its Technology With The World
Two years before audiences were taken to Wakanda in Black Panther, they got to see a glimpse of the tech utilized by T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War. With the release of the 2018 standalone film, audiences were foaming at the mouth to see how the reclusive African nation’s tech would translate from the pages of comic books to the big screen. And to say everyone was blown away would be an understatement of epic proportions.
Cheryl Wall, acclaimed Rutgers literary scholar and author, dies
Cheryl A. Wall, a Board of Governors Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English long admired for her expertise in African-American literature, American literature and feminist criticism, died Saturday.
Wall, a well-regarded professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick School of Arts and Sciences for nearly 50 years, had been planning to retire at the end of the academic year. A recipient of the Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching, Wall received numerous fellowships and awards, including being named a Board of Governors Professor of English in 2006 before she was named the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English in 2008.
“We are profoundly saddened by the loss of this amazing scholar, teacher and citizen of the university,’’ President Robert Barchi said. “Cheryl Wall represented the very best of Rutgers: a world-class intellect whose scholarship advanced the conversation about African-American literature and whose teaching and guidance inspired her students to think in new ways.”
Wall, who was 71, began teaching at Rutgers in 1972 and was well known for her scholarship and writings about African-American women writers. Her books include, Women of the Harlem Renaissance (Indiana University Press, 1995) and Worrying the Line: Black Women Writers, Lineage, and Literary Tradition (University of North Caroline Press, 2005). She also edited several volumes of literary analysis of writer Zora Neale Hurston.
“It was my honor to know Dr. Wall during my time on the Board of Governors,’’ said former board chair M. William Howard Jr. “Not only was she one of Rutgers’ most distinguished scholars and much sought after as a presenter, she cared deeply about Rutgers and its mission, particularly with respect to diversity and academic excellence.”
Wall, a former chair of the Department of English, who received her B.A. from Howard University and her Ph.D. from Harvard, cofounded the Rutgers English Diversity Institute (REDI), which offered workshops, lectures, field trips and dorm experiences designed to motivate students of diverse backgrounds to attend graduate school and ultimately pursue careers in academia.
“Working alongside her on initiatives like the Rutgers English Diversity Institute has been invaluable in helping me see how commitment to relatively small programs can make a real difference that increases over time,” said Evie Shockley, a professor of English, who called the renowned scholar a congenial, encouraging, and supportive mentor. “Cheryl’s generosity is legendary – she shared her knowledge widely, through numerous channels, and has made generations of subsequent scholarship in the field possible.”
Wall was a trusted adviser and mentor to many generations of scholars in African-American Studies and Black feminist thought, said Brittney Cooper, associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick.
“Many will remark on her kindness, her status as an intellectual giant, and the way she took younger scholars under her wing and made room for us. I affirm all this,” Cooper said. “But through tears, what I remember most is the way she would pull you to the side, and with a mischievous glint, tell you a joke or share a bit of humor that would have you doubled over in laughter! Cheryl had been at Rutgers longer than I have been alive and this place will be far less sweet without her.”
She was also instrumental in developing the Institute for Women’s Leadership on “Reaffirming Action: Designs for Diversity in Higher Education.” The Ford Foundation-funded initiative examined the strategies higher education institutions successfully employ to enhance racial and gender equity.
Throughout her time at Rutgers, Wall was active in university affairs, serving as a vice-chair of the Steering Committee on Implementation – a multipronged initiative to strengthen Rutgers’ commitment to diversity and to encourage enrollment by talented students in underrepresented populations – with former President Richard McCormick. It was part of the President’s Council on Institutional Diversity and Equity, a body organized to enact sweeping changes in undergraduate education at Rutgers.
Known as the heart of the School of Arts and Sciences Department of English, Wall also led the establishment of the graduate program in English and sought always to empower students and encourage broad appreciation of the humanities and literature, Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Chris Molloy said.
“While her intellect, profound teaching excellence and passion for literature made her an exceptional professor, it was her mentorship, guidance, and ongoing dedication to her students, colleagues and Rutgers University that set her apart,” Molloy said.
Wall was committed to African-American arts and culture and was the founding board chair of the Crossroads Theater Company, the first black theater in New Jersey, founded by two Rutgers graduates, Ricardo Khan and Lee Richardson in 1978.
Wall is survived by her daughter, Camara Epps. A Rutgers celebration of her life will be forthcoming.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will soon publish a feminist desk diary
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer, who is most known for her works like Purple Hibiscus, Half a Yellow Sun, and The Think Around Your Neck. She has also penned a novella-like essay titled We Should All Be Feminist. Recently, she was seen making the headlines as one of her essays was getting turned into a planner.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie set to launch a planner dairy
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been critically acclaimed for her work in the field of literature, especially African literature. Her novels have been considered as classics in the world of literature. She is a strong and vocal supporter of feminism and it is quite evident from her books and their titles.
Adichie’s desk diary is named after her essay, as well as her popular TED talk We Should All Be Feminist. It will be a diary with a weekly format imbibed in it, with some illustrations to keep the users engaged. It will also have some strong and powerful quotes to inspire everyone out there. It has been said that this planner diary will also include an introduction to inspire the readers to be the best versions of themselves.
Planners can be used for several different purposes and in various ways. It can be used to pen ur to-do lists, it can work as your manager, and organise things for you. One can use it as a health journal, or a dream journal, or to keep a track of one’s financial activities.
