The film 127 Hours starring James Franco has Oscar nomination written all over it for the lead actor. Franco plays Aron Ralston in a fact-based story about an avid hiker who must make a life-altering decision or risk certain death. What is fascinating about 127 Hours is the entire film is a canvas for Franco […]

You know a star when you see them. Raw talent mixed with dedication, perseverance and passion is what leads to stardom in the entertainment industry and ShaWanna Renee Rivon has all of those attributes and more. Rivon, who received her theater training at Sam Houston State University and Eisenhower High School in Houston, began her […]

What makes someone marriage material? Is it their bank account? Is it their age? Or is it the willingness to work past someone’s faults and their past in an effort to become one? “Marriage Material,” the new stage play by Houston playwrights Je’Caryous Johnson and ShaWanna Renee Rivon tackles a familiar topic on the urban […]

Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) has done it again. The new Conviction movie is set in the town Ayers, Mass. and shows the unconditional love of a brother Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell) and his sister Betty Anne Waters (Swank). When Betty Anne believes Kenny is wrongly accused of a brutal murder she […]

Allegations that Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta, coerced four males into sexual relationships are riveting the nation. Some have even said if the allegations facing Bishop Eddie Long are true it will rock the entire Black church with catastrophic consequences. For years, many critics of the church […]

In the song “Patience” from the hit film Dreamgirls, Keith Robinson, Eddie Murphy and Anika Noni Rose sing: “I know you have questions, same ones as me. How long has it been? How long will it be? “When will come the morning to drive the night away? When will come the morning of a brighter […]

I was always told if you do not have something positive to say about someone or something you should not say it at all. However, that rule does not apply to journalists, as we are paid to say things, no matter how positive or negative they may sound. Since I cannot just talk about the […]

We constantly hear the grim crime statistics: High murder rates, drug trafficking, and prostitution are constants in inner city neighborhoods. Many flee to the suburbs just to get away from the dangers that plague ghettoes throughout this country on a daily basis. Some blame the lack of jobs and quality education for the crime rates […]

The history books that we read as schoolchildren would have had us to believe that icons like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks were the only civil rights heroes of any consequence. However, there were countless names and faces that gave their life or sense of security so that later generations of Americans […]

Many Americans can vividly recall where they were when they first saw or heard of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Until that time, many naively believed that America was too strong and powerful a country to be attacked on its own homeland. When the country found out the terrorists committed their crimes under a […]