In 1991, Jeff Smith launched a company called Cartoon Books to publish his comic book “Bone,” a comedy/adventure about three lost cousins from Boneville. There are now nine books in the Bone series, and each new release is eagerly awaited by many serious Bone devotees at Mighty Writers.

“Shot Me in the Heart,” Adrian Younge and the Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra

— from the original motion picture score for “Black Dynamite,” 2009

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Rod Serling (1924—1975) was a writer and television producer.

Though best known for his science fiction anthology TV series “The Twilight Zone,” Serling wrote and produced a considerable amount of quality dramas, much of it aired live in the early years of television.

Considered one of the most inspired writers in the history of TV, Serling rebelled against censorship and fought the networks for the right to air stories that addressed controversial issues.

In this interview, conducted in 1959, just before the premiere of “The Twilight Zone,” Serling talks candidly about the television medium and the issues he’s had to confront as a writer.

Part two is here.
And part three here.

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Hard M&M’s
Pennies dropping,
colorful,
smells like chocolate.
— Naadiyah Allen-Vereen

A Black History Month Series

Born: 1897 in Philadelphia

Died: 1993

Career: Beginning at age six, Anderson sang in the church choir, where she could already hit the high soprano and low baritone notes. Because her father died when she was a child and her mother worked as a cleaning woman to support the family, church members threw a benefit concert to raise money for her singing lessons. The advertisements read: “Come and hear the baby contralto, ten years old.”

In 1925, she entered a contest with 300 singers for the chance to perform with the New York Philharmonic. She won and received a fellowship that allowed her to go to England and Germany. She studied German songs, which became part of her repertoire. Anderson gave over 100 concerts concerts throughout Europe and received rave reviews for all her performances.

In 1939, she planned to give a concert in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). When the DAR refused to let her perform, President Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, were so outraged that Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her DAR membership and helped arrange for Anderson to give a concert outdoors at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Anderson performed  for 75,000 people. After that, Anderson refused to sing to segregated audiences. In 1943, a mural was unveiled on the wall of the Department of the Interior building depicting the concert.

In 1941, Anderson received the Bok Award from the city of Philadelphia, given to the citizen of which it is the most proud—the first African American to receive it. The $10,000 award was used to establish the Marian Anderson Scholarship Fund for music students of all races. In 1955, she performed with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York in Verdi’s opera “The Masked Ball,” becoming the first African-American to sing an important role at the Metropolitan Opera as a company member.

In 1956, Anderson made a farewell tour throughout America and Europe, and a year later toured twelve Asian nations on behalf of the State Department. In 1958, she was named to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. In 1991, she appeared at the dedication of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children’s pediatric sickle-cell anemia clinic and research center, which is named in her honor. Marian Anderson died in 1993 at the age of ninety-six.

Why she’s historic: Besides breaking many racial barriers, Marian Anderson is still considered by many the greatest contralto who ever lived.

The Marian Anderson Historical Society: Assists and mentors vocal classical artists in their professional careers and provides financial sources for auditions, performances, wardrobe and competitions. Also maintains the house in South Philadelphia where Marian Anderson was born as a tourist site and residence museum.

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I
don’t feel I should be doing something else.”

— Gloria Steinem

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“Nearly one in three of our children in this country is now overweight or obese.”

President Obama says there’s one sure thing parents can do to help their kids learn, regardless of financial means: Forbid them from watching television on school nights.

Of his own daughters, Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, Obama told Essence magazine: “The girls don’t watch TV during the week. Period.”

According to the President, the first thing they do after school is homework. If they haven’t finished by dinnertime, around 6:30pm, they pick up where they left off after the meal. And after that, they can read until they hit the sack. Malia’s bedtime is 9pm; Sasha’s lights go out a half hour earlier.

Rest of the story here.