Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

"We know this is a struggle. Take the low pay now. Next time we’ll get them. Next time never came. Finally, there did come a time when I took a stand saying no to a part unless the studio paid me properly. It took the studio all of five minutes to say “Next” and hand the part to someone else. That scene broke it for me sending me headlong into self-loathing…" These aren't words from Taraji P. Henson’s tearful testimony of Hollywood career struggles.  These are reflections  torn from the pages of the late Louis Gossett Jr’s 2010 memoir  An Actor and A Gentleman.  The book's title  is a  nod to 1982 film  An Officer and A Gentleman featuring Gossett's  riveting performance as  swaggering Marine drill instructor  Emil Foley earning t he Brooklyn-born actor an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.  Gossett was the first Black actor to win in the category and the  American-born Black actor to ever win an Academy Award (Sidney Poitier was born in the Bahamas). His  Oscar win

In an August 2022 npr.org article Revolutionary Fun: Why we can't stop talking about Beyoncé's 'Renaissance' music critic/musicologist Jason King shared fellow culture/music critic Greg Tate's summary of Beyonce Knowles' enduring appeal:  “She's a curatorial genius whose magic is to bring together collaborators and other people's intellectual property into a unique artistic vision that is a sum often greater than its parts.”   Critics frame the singer as a country music interloper even as Country Music Television (CMT) features acts who cribbed her machine-gun vocal as well as unique elements associated with urban music.  A 2004 video from contemporary country singer Gretchen ("Redneck Woman") back then reeked of early 2000s106 and Park. Knowles' biggest critic is John Schneider, the New York-born/Atlanta raised actor whose claim to fame was his portrayal  of southern good ol' boy Bo Duke on the hit TV series the Dukes of Hazzard.