Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

                                                                "But if you can still hold onto what is yourself, that part of me that makes me Roberta and does not make me Chaka or Anita ... I'm going to hold on to that no matter what, and I'm going to nourish and cherish and nurture that and strengthen that."   Roberta Flack’s confident occupation of her creative space, captured in a 1989 Washington Post (“Roberta Flack; Charting Her Own Course") interview among the pantheon of Black female vocalists, evokes the title of one of her classic albums: quiet fire. There’s no one like her: traces of Minnie Riperton’s ethereal poetry live on in Jill Scott’s airy word-speak. Aretha’s litanies of longing are precursors of sorts to Mary J. Blige’s own heartache homilies. A young Evelyn King’s pairing with producers T. Life and...

                       Best known to the world as a member of the prolific Bad Boy Hitman production team that crafted hits dominating 90s radio,  Ron "Amen-Ra" Lawrence enjoyed an earlier life as one-half of rap duo Two Kings In A Cipher (TKO).  Creating the beats and sharing microphone duties with partner Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, TKO's debut album From Pyramids to Projects introduced metaphysical and Egyptology/Kemetic concepts to rap music.  Lost in the shuffle of like-minded releases for Brand Nubian, X-Clan, Public Enemy and KRS-One, Pyramids received a brief write-up in an October 1991 issue of  The Source but came and went without fanfare.   As Souls of Black Notes explores the era of conscious rhyme, Lawrence goes back in time. Quick to give credit to those who came before--he also makes a clear distinction between what separates TKO from the rest of the rap Black pack . ...

"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...