Browsing: Entertainment

       Sylvester “Sly” Stewart—known to the world as Sly Stone, frontman of the groundbreaking band Sly and the Family Stone—has died at the age of 82. His family confirmed that he passed away peacefully at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by loved ones, after battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other health complications. Born March 15, 1943, in Denton, Texas, Stone moved with his family to Vallejo, California, as a child. He began recording gospel music at age eight with his siblings in a group called the Stewart Four. By his teenage years, he had mastered multiple instruments and was already pioneering racial integration in music—an ethos that would define his career.

       Wayne Lewis, co-founder and member of the iconic R&B band Atlantic Starr, has passed away at the age of 68.

     McKnight only acknowledging his kids with his current wife, and accepting her children as his own while seemingly turning his back on his biological children made the Black community scorn the singer. Some outright calling him a deadbeat dad.

Michael Ealy will play Malcolm X in The Greatest, Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming limited series about boxing legend Muhammad Ali. The show will follow Ali’s personal and public life, with Jaalen Best starring as the champion.

     Titillating bits of conversation run the ground work for this fairly engrossing British spy/drama/thriller. Within minutes audiences will figure out the problem, complications and where the intricately laid out script by David Koepp (Mission: Impossible) will take them. It’s all administered and guided by the Oscar®-winning director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic), who is back on his game–big time. He makes this excursion intriguing from beginning to end.  

Creating an album is no easy feat. Creating one from inside one of the most overcrowded and under-resourced jail systems in the country? Nearly impossible. But that’s exactly what Bending the Bars set out to do. The result is a groundbreaking hip-hop album written and performed by incarcerated artists from Florida’s Broward County Jail that provides a platform for hidden talent and a blueprint for similar projects nationwide. Released on June 11, 2025 by FREER Records, Bending the Bars will also be followed by a documentary detailing its creation. A series of single releases with precede the full album from March 31, 2025. 

     In 2003, Bill doubled down on his longstanding appreciation of that work by establishing the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery devoted to hip-hop photography. In 2015, after the gallery’s closing, The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture acquired 400 Eyejammie photo prints by 59 different photographers.

JASON MORAN PERFORMS THE MUSIC OF  DUKE ELLINGTON: MY HEART SINGS

       D’Wayne Wiggins, one of the founding members of the legendary R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné! passed away Friday, this according to his family’s announcement on social media. He was 64 years old. 

On the heels on Black Music Month, The Town Hall presented Keeping The Faith: Celebrating 30 Years of Music and Entertainment with Singer/Songwriter Faith Evan