emPawa Africa & Mr. Eazi Release New EP ‘One Day You Will Understand’
Nigeria’s Mr Eazi has gifted us with a new EP entitled One Day You Will Understand featuring talent from his mentorship program, emPawa Africa.
Serving as his first tape since his 2018 project Life Is Eazi Vol.2, Mr Eazi’s latest EP contains four smooth tracks, clocking in at just around 10 minutes in length. One Day You Will Understand also includes contributions from emPawa associates King Promise and C Natty.
Mr Eazi has played an instrumental role in the rise of African music in recent times and with initiatives such as emPawa, as well as EPs such as his newest one, he remains committed to creating and promoting music which reflects culture on the continent.
Text excluding title courtesy Bellanaija
A DOCUMENTATION OF THE TRAVAILS AND TRIUMPHS OF ABBA KYARI IN ASO ROCK VILLA
A book titled “Abba Kyari: Portrait of a Loyalist – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Sides of Public Service in Nigeria” has just been released from the stable of Inspire Media Services Limited – an image and crisis management agency.
The book which was published less than one month after the passage of the former Chief of Staff, CoS to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Abba Kyari due to complications from Covid-19 pandemic, is mainly a compilation of tributes by friends and families of the late CoS after his death and caustic comments by his antagonists.
It also features a profile essay written by the author about the emergence of Abba Kyari as a political power broker and a deeply revealing article about deaths in Aso Rock Villa by the celebrated columnist, Dr Reuben Abati as well as a critical look at Nigeria‘s security architecture in the light of the battle of supremacy between security agencies in the presidency which spilled into the public arena.
According to the author Mr Magnus Onyibe, a development strategist, public policy analyst and entrepreneur, the book which is based on the late CoS‘s experience as the “gatekeeper” in Aso Rock Villa is expected to be a sort of public administration manual that would guide public and civil servants in the discharge of their duties to their principal, nation and God.
The book which is a compendium has helped to put all the comments about late Abba Kyari in different news media spaces into a single volume for easy reference for both social scientists and Nigerians in general.
The AFTERWORD which is an essay titled “A CASE FOR A CHIEF OF STAFF, CoS”, written by Dan Ciampa which was first published in Harvard Business Review, HBR throws light on the role and usefulness of a Chief of Staff in the private sector with brief reference to the usefulness of a CoS in the public sector too.
The book is available in leading bookshops in Nigeria and online on Amazon/kindle.
Tervel Kejih
Coordinator
Bafta film writing competition names Winners
Bafta and Rocliffe have announced the three winners of the nationwide BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Competition for Film.
The competition is a platform for aspiring screenwriters to have their work showcased and to take their writing career to the next level.
The winners for Film are Dominic Flint for The Burning Hill, Lawrence Pumfrey for Peakland and Claire Tailyour for Mother Wild.
The winners will be supported through mentoring and networking opportunities, as well as receiving access to BAFTA’s year-round learning events programme.
The Jury selecting this year’s winning writers included actor Colm Meaney, actor-writer-directors Romola Garai and Clint Dyer, director Annemarie Jacir and Louisa Dent from Curzon, Emma Berkofsky from Lionsgate and Todd Brown from XYZ from a shortlist drawn up by a panel of creatives including execs from Mubi, Film4, and Netflix.
The BAFTA Rocliffe-winning film scripts will also be showcased to industry guests later this year, where an extract from each script will be performed by professional actors, previous years’ casts have included Jodie Comer, Himesh Patel, MyAnna Burning, Cyril Nri, Greg Wise, Taj Atwal, Valene Kane and Sharon D Clarke.
Merriam-Webster is Changing the Definition of Racism.
It seems like Merriam-Webster is changing its definition of “racism” after a young black woman, Kennedy Mitchum, emailed requesting the official definition of the word be amended to reflect the reality of how racism works.
Merriam-Webster defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”
The 22-year-old who recently graduated from Drake University with a degree in law, politics and society, emailed the dictionary’s publishers about making the change and was surprised that they responded and agreed to update the entry. She told CNN, “I kept having to tell them that definition is not representative of what is actually happening in the world. The way that racism occurs in real life is not just prejudice; it’s the systemic racism that is happening for a lot of black Americans.”
After sending an email on a Thursday night, she got a reply from editor Alex Chambers the next morning. The email provided to CNN, Alex Chambers replied; “This revision would not have been made without your persistence in contacting us about this problem. We sincerely thank you for repeatedly writing in and apologize for the harm and offense we have caused in failing to address this issue sooner.”
Mitchum said she was “super happy because I really felt like that was a step in a good direction for a lot of positive change for a lot of different positive conversations that can really help change the world and helps change how people view things.”
Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster editor emailed a statement to The Associated Press that the dictionary’s second definition is “divided to express, first, explicit institutional bias against people because of their race, and, second, a broader implicit bias that can also result in an asymmetrical power structure.”
He said:
This second definition covers the sense that Ms. Mitchum was seeking, and we will make its wording even more clear in our next release. This is the kind of continuous revision that is part of the work of keeping the dictionary up to date, based on rigorous criteria and research we employ in order to describe the language as it is actually used.
Grammys announces Major Changes to Awards Categories, Rules & Nomination Process
The Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammy Award, has changed some category names and rules, among the changes are updates to the Best New Artist category, Latin, R&B and Rap Fields, Nominations Review Committees and more, which will go into effect for the 63rd Grammy Awards.
The Academy said in a statement that they “made major changes to several rules and guidelines that reflect its ongoing commitment to evolve with the musical landscape and to ensure that the GRAMMY Awards nominating process and rules are more transparent and fair”.
Harvey Mason jr., Chair & Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy said:
I’m excited to announce our latest changes, as we’re constantly evaluating our Awards process and evolving it to ensure the GRAMMY Awards are inclusive and reflect the current state of the music industry. The Academy accepts proposals for rule changes from members of the music community throughout the year that are carefully reviewed and, if accepted, ultimately ratified at our annual Board meeting, a process that we are proud to have continued in this challenging year.
Bill Freimuth, Chief Awards Officer at the Recording Academy said:
As a peer-driven and peer-voted award, members of the music community are directly involved in the growth and preservation of the GRAMMYs process. Each year we receive a number of rule change proposals from artists, producers and songwriters asking us to reevaluate our process to better reflect the current state of the music industry and how it’s evolved over the past 12 months.
“Best Urban Contemporary Album” will now be called “Best Progressive R&B Album” to “highlight albums that include the more progressive elements of R&B and may include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, and electronic music,” along with elements found in pop, Europop, country, rock, folk, and alternative “Best Rap/Sung Performance” has been renamed “Best Melodic Rap Performance”. Recognizing both solo and collaborative performances, this category “requires a strong and clear presence of melody combined with rap cadence” and is inclusive of non-rap genres, such as “R&B, rock, country, electronic, or more.” So … very similar to Best Progressive R&B Album.
The Academy has combined “Best Latin Pop Album” with “Best Latin Urban Album” (Best Latin Pop or Urban Album), previously in conjunction with Rock and Alternative, “to migrate the genres of Latin urban and represent the current state and prominent representation in the Latin urban genres.” Best Latin Rock and Alternative will stick together.
Best New Artist category: There will be no specified maximum number of releases an artist can have to be eligible for this category. Screening committees will be in charge of determining whether or not the artist had attained a breakthrough or prominence prior to the eligibility year. If so, the artist will be disqualified.
Each member of a Nominations Review Committee must submit a conflict-of-interest disclosure form, noting connections with anyone who may directly receive a nomination or win, any direct financial ties to a recording or creator up for consideration, relationships with any artists, or other connections, actual or perceived. Conflicts will now result in removal, and failure to disclose will permanently bar them from the Nominations Review Committee.
