Blog
CHICO AND RITA
Written by James Bowman – Just imagine being in Havana, Cuba in 1948. Living the wondrous life in the Hollywood and New York of the Caribbean. During this period, Cuba was the playground of White, well-to-do, Americans, in search of the Afro-Cuban rhythms, food and culture. The story begins in a club, where Ramon and Chico are playing escorts to a couple of American young ladies. While playing host, Chico becomes captivated by the serenading voice and physical beauty of a young singer named Rita."Chico and Rita" is a simple and complicated story of love. Both Chico and Rita are chasing their love of jazz, their love of fame, but most of ...
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Review: Better Mus’ Come
Written by Keisha Gaye Anderson – When I sat in the packed-to-capacity ImageNation screening of “Better Mus’ Come” (a film by Storm Saulter), I hoped for a kind of catharsis. I welcomed some perspective on events during my childhood in Jamaica that had been filtered to me through textbooks and my parents’ hindsight. What I got was a visually stunning, well-crafted, and honest attempt at exploring the impact of tribal and Cold War politics on Jamaicans in the 1970s, which all too often took the form of violence. During that time, and into the 1980s, my friends and I were busy becoming ‘Jamericans.’ Plucked from our birthplace and plopped into those Caribbean microcosms ...
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A Rebel Yell: Victoria Mahoney...
Written by Nasser Metcalfe – "Crack! " is the sound of the girl's fist as it connects with the jaw of a teenaged boy who is almost twice her size. As he crumples to the ground from the blow, the pummeling continues growing more and more intense with every punch. Surrounded by a group of peers too shocked at the display to intervene, the violence continues and the boy's very survival becomes questionable. The unlikely administer of such brutality seems to be driven by an internal rage that belies her youthful appearance and pushes her to the brink before she is pulled off of her victim by the friendly neighborhood hustler. Welcome ...
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