Posts tagged with "African American culture"

Black History Month celebrated via 360 MAGAZINE.

Black History Month

February is Black History Month and 360 Magazine would like to recognize some historic people of color who have become a positive influence on society. In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement skyrocketed and brought attention to the diversity that still exists within our community. Although society has come a long way from the early 1900s when segregation ran rampant, the movement for equality has a long way to go. From inventors to musicians, there are a number of successful people we would like to acknowledge in honor of Black History Month.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Arguably one of the most important leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King spent his time preaching for equality in a peaceful way. He will always be remembered for his famous “I Have a Dream” speech and his ability to lead others in this historical movement. Dr. King is one of the most influential

Joseph E. Lowery

Joseph E. Lowery is the grandfather of 360 Magazine’s President Vaughn Lowery and founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference alongside Dr. King. Throughout his life, Lowery served as vice president, chairman of the board and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.

George Washington Carver

Many people are familiar with George Washington Carver for his inventive skills. He made over 300 products from peanuts and as an agricultural scientist promoted methods to prevent soil depletion.

Garrett Morgan

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. is to thank for the invention of traffic lights as well as gas masks. Every time you stop at a red light, take a moment to think of Morgan for this essential technology.

Barack Obama

As the first black president of the United States, Barack Obama made an impact as the 44th president and showed young people of color they have representation in politics. He continues to use his voice to connect with the American people.

Kamala Harris

Keeping in the theme of politics, Vice President Kamala Harris is the first woman vice president, the first African American vice president and the first Asian American vice president. She’s giving young women of color everywhere a sense of representation.

Madam C.J. Walker

As the first recorded female self-made millionaire in America, Madam C.J. Walker was an influential entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist of her time.

Frederick McKinley Jones

Frederick McKinley Jones was the co-founder of Thermo King and he brought incredible improvement to long-haul transportation of perishable goods. Jones also won the National Medal of Technology.

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris, better known as Stevie Wonder, is a musical prodigy that became blind after birth and learned to play the harmonica, piano and drums by age nine. He is now a notable singer, songwriter, musician and record producer.

Lonnie Johnson

Lonnie Johnson is known for his success as an aerospace engineer. He has worked on the U.S. Air Force term of service and has also worked at NASA for twelve years including in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Patricia Bath

As an ophthalmologist, Patricia Bath was an early innovator of laser cataract surgery. She was also the first woman, African American physician to receive a patent for a medical invention.

Oprah Winfrey

One TV personality almost everyone is familiar with is Oprah. Known for her television show The Oprah Winfrey Show, she has made waves in the world of entertainment. She is also known for co-producing a Broadway musical version of The Color Purple, establishing O, The Oprah Magazine, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) as well as creating Oprah.com.

Harriet Tubman

After being born into slavery, Harriet Tubman was a conductor of the Underground Railroad and helped many enslaved men and women escape. She led many people to freedom with her bravery and connection with antislavery activists.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks gained her notoriety as an activist in the Civil Rights Movement and is known for starting the Montgomery bus boycott after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. She has been called “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement” by the United States Congress.

John Lewis

John Lewis was chairman Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as well as one of the “Big Six” leaders who organized the 1963 March on Washington. He was an essential part of the Civil Rights Movement and ending legalized racial segregation.

Alexander Miles

If you’ve ever ridden in an elevator, you can thank Alexander Miles for the automatic opening doors; he was awarded the patent for this invention in 1887. Mills was riding in an elevator with his daughter and he deemed an elevator shaft door left open could be dangerous.

Mary Kenner

Mary Kenner was an inventor famous for her development of the sanitary belt, the precursor to the self-adhesive maxi pad. However, due to racial discrimination, the idea wasn’t adopted for thirty years. She has five patents for various household items.

Maya Angelou

Known for her many famous pieces of writing, Maya Angelou was a poet, memoirist and civil rights activist. Over fifty years, she wrote a number of autobiographies, essays, poems, plays, movies and television shows. She also received over 50 honorary degrees as well as awards for her writing.

LeBron James

Along with being considered one of the greatest NBA players of all time, LeBron James also started the LeBron James Family Foundation to help create generational change for the children and families of LeBron’s hometown in Akron, Ohio.

Malcolm X

As a popular spokesperson at the time of the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X encouraged Black Americans to protect themselves against racism. He preached a much different lesson than Martin Luther King Jr. who preached nonviolence.

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was the Supreme Court’s first African American justice as well as a prominent civil rights activist. He served on the court for 24 years and helped with influential rulings at the time of the Civil Rights Movement such as the case of Brown v. Board of Education.

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the United States during the 20th century. He broke the color barrier of the MLB when he played for the National League Brooklyn Dodgers as second baseman with the jersey number 42.

Article: Hannah DiPilato

Plants by Mina Tocalini for 360 Magazine

NYBG – Around the Table

The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) has announced that its major, institution-wide exhibition for 2022 will be Around the Table: Stories of the Foods We Love. Throughout this multifaceted presentation that examines the art and science of foodways and food traditions, many dating back thousands of years, visitors will explore the rich cultural history of what we eat and learn that from global dietary staples such as rice, beans, squash, and corn to the regional spice and flavor provided by peppers, greens, and tomatoes, plants are at the base of all culinary customs. Expansive displays of living edible plants, art and science installations, weekend celebrations, and wellness and culinary-themed programming will provide opportunities to discover the diversity and beauty of plants that are grown for cuisine around the world; uncover the botanical origins of the foods people think they know; cultivate a deeper understanding of the environmental and social impacts of food choices; and invite gathering at artist-designed tables set throughout NYBG’s 250 acres, bringing to life stories about the featured and other notable edible plants. Around the Table: Stories of the Foods We Love will be on view from June 4 through September 11, 2022.

Displays of Living Edible Plants at the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

Showcasing hundreds of varieties of edible plants, including peppers, squash, cabbage, beans, grains, corn, banana, sugarcane, and breadfruit, three installations in and around the Haupt Conservatory will beckon visitors to explore the diversity and beauty of food plants grown around the world.

  • In the Conservatory’s Seasonal Exhibition Galleries, a wide assortment of edible herbaceous plants and fruit-bearing trees flourishing in containers, entwined in overhead trellises, and reaching skyward from vertical planters ideal for compact urban spaces will inspire appreciation of the plants that nourish us.
  • The Conservatory Courtyards will offer an array of familiar and surprising edible plants from across the globe from dietary staples of Southeast Asia, including rice, taro, and banana, to crops suited to arid regions of Africa, including dates, figs, citrus, and foxtail barley. Peppers and tomatoes, grapes and olives, a gourd trellis, and a spirits garden featuring plants used in the creation of beer, wine, and liquors will round out this diverse display.
  • A portion of the Botanical Garden’s Conservatory Lawn will be transformed into an undulating field of dwarf sorghum and barley, traditional grains well-suited to NYBG’s climate, allowing observation of the sowing, nurturing, harvesting, and replanting processes of these foundational food plants over the course of the exhibition.

African American Gardens at the Edible Academy

Curated by Dr. Jessica B. Harris, America’s leading scholar on the foods of the African Diaspora, African American Gardens: Remembrance and Resilience celebrates African American food and gardening histories, and the contributions of essential plants to American foodways. Dr. Harris has worked with historians, heritage seed collectors, and NYBG’s Edible Academy staff to present a sequence of garden beds that spotlight plants central to African American life and survival in the United States. African American Gardens also features a poetry walk curated by Cave Canem Foundation, the premier home for Black poetry, committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.

Art and Science Installations Throughout the Garden

Artist-designed tables across the Garden’s landscape will showcase edible plants from Around the Table. NYBG has issued a public call for artists who live or work in the Bronx to submit designs and, if selected, explore the cultural and historical significance of edible plants and plant-based food traditions, bringing to life inspiring stories of community and survival on tables supplied by the Garden that will encourage sitting, sharing, and storytelling.

In the LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building Art Gallery, visitors can examine the social and cultural impacts of the American food system through displayed works by contemporary artist Lina Puerta. Puerta celebrates and acknowledges the essential, often invisible, role of farmworkers, the relationship between nature and the human-made, and ancestral knowledge in mixed-media sculptures, installations, collages, hand-made paper paintings, and wall hangings that incorporate materials ranging from artificial plants and paper pulp to found, personal, and recycled objects.

The Bronx Foodways Oral Histories Project is a multiyear effort to collect, record, and archive personal food narratives from Bronx community gardeners and urban farmers making them accessible to the public. As part of the Around the Table exhibition, Bronx-based muralist Andre Trenier will create murals in highly visible locations around the borough, saluting urban farmers from The Bronx Foodways Oral Histories Project. Reproductions of Trenier’s completed murals, as well as oral history videos and photos of Bronx gardens taken by students from the Bronx Documentary Center, will be installed in NYBG’s Arthur and Janet Ross Gallery.

Also in the Mertz Library Building, the creativity and ingenuity of plant scientists and plant-based chefs will be exhibited. In a science and tradition display in the Britton Science Rotunda and Gallery, visitors will learn about the work of present-day researchers to understand the bioactive compounds in the food people eat, the science of growing food, and the impact that food choices have on the environment. In the Rondina and LoFaro Gallery, seed catalogs and plant-based cookbooks reveal the science and art of agriculture and cuisine.

An artful, immersive data visualization installation created by leading design firm Pentagram will be on view in the Leon Levy Visitor Center Reflecting Pool and will help visitors understand the global impact of food production and consumption on the planet.

Bountiful Programming for All Ages

Visitors to Around the Table: Stories of the Foods We Love will enjoy diverse and engaging public programming for all ages. Highlights will include artist-designed table tours, food demonstrations, themed weekend celebrations, and more.

The symposium, A Seat at the Table, will include two compelling sessions exploring how Black farming informs American history and culture in New York City and across the country:

  • In “Celebrating the African American Farm,” Natalie Baszile, author of the 2021 anthology We Are Each Other’s Harvest, sits down with Dr. Jessica B. Harris, food historian and scholar, for a conversation in Ross Hall. Their wide-ranging dialogue will cover topics from the historical perseverance and resilience of Black farmers and their connection to the American land, to the generations of farmers who continue to farm despite systemic discrimination and land loss.
  • “Stories from the Farm,” moderated by farmer, urban gardener, food advocate, activist, and NYBG Trustee Karen Washington, will be a multigenerational panel discussion devoted to stories of Black farmers from many perspectives: North and South, Upstate and the Bronx, sharecroppers to family growers and urban farmers. Participants will give historical and contemporary context for Black farmers’ contributions to communities and food justice/sovereignty movements in urban and rural America.

Each week during Around the Table, Wellness Wednesdays will serve up the NYBG Farmers Market, food demonstrations, and health and wellness activities.

“It’s All About Food” at the Edible Academy will offer food demonstrations and tastings, participatory gardening activities, chef events, and food-themed celebration weekends such as Totally Tomatoes throughout the run of the exhibition.

In “Kids’ Oral Histories,” guided by Everett Children’s Adventure Garden Explainers, children and their families will tell stories about the foods that are most meaningful to them and enjoy exhibition-related writing, art, and nature-based activities. A story walk will showcase author Tony Hillery‘s children’s book Harlem Grown (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2020), about a community garden started by schoolchildren in an empty lot in Harlem, New York, in 2011 that has grown into a network of gardens throughout the city.

About the Exhibition Advisory Committee

The New York Botanical Garden has invited advisors with expertise in documenting recipes and food histories, edible gardening past and present, food justice and food insecurity, global and local foodways, nutrition, and the visual arts to join a committee currently in formation to participate in the development of Around the Table: Stories of the Foods We Love. Members to date include:

  • Toby Adams, Gregory Long Director of the Edible Academy, The New York Botanical Garden
  • Garrett Broad, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communications and Media Studies, Fordham University, and author of More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change (University of California Press, 2016)
  • Ursula Chanse, Director of Bronx Green-Up and Community Horticulture, The New York Botanical Garden
  • Von Diaz, documentary producer, author of Coconuts & Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South (University Press of Florida, 2018), and recipe and essay contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Eater, and Epicurious
  • Sheryll Durrant, urban farmer, educator, and food justice advocate; Food and Agriculture Coordinator for New Roots Community Farm, and resident manager of Kelly Street Garden in the South Bronx
  • Jessica B. Harris, Ph.D., America’s leading expert on the food and foodways of the African Diaspora, author of 12 critically acclaimed cookbooks, and 2020 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
  • Alex McAlvay, Ph.D., Kate E. Tode Assistant Curator in the Institute of Economic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden
  • Lauren Mohn, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Swarthmore College
  • Gary Paul Nabhan, internationally celebrated nature writer, agrarian activist, and ethnobiologist who works to conserve the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity
  • Henry Obispo, founder and CEO of Born Juice and ReBORN Farms
  • Lina Puerta, mixed-media contemporary artist whose work has been exhibited at the Ford Foundation Gallery, El Museo del Barrio, Wave Hill, and 21c Museum Hotels, and who recently completed an artist residency and exhibition at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling
  • Michael Purugganan, Ph.D., Silver Professor of Biology and former Dean of Science at New York University
Markice Moore image by Starz for use by 360 Magazine

Markice Moore Q&A

By: Emily Bunn

The most sought-after ‘bad guy’: Markice Moore is a rising force to be reckoned with in Hollywood’s entertainment industry. Most notably recognized for his role as Ray Ray on the hit seriesSnowfall,” Moore is continuing to flesh out his acting resume with his upcoming involvement with 50 Cent’s show on Starz, “Black Mafia Family.” “Black Mafia Family” tales place in the late 1980s and is based on the story of two brothers, Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, who had been involved in money laundering and drug trafficking schemes. We sat down with the rising star to discuss the relevance of “Black Mafia Family”’s themes in the present, Moore’s method acting experiences, upcoming music releases, and more.

Where were you when you received the call to join the cast of “Black Mafia Family”?

I was in Las Vegas at the craps table and I just lost $200. So when my manager called it was the best news ever!

What are you most excited about regarding your involvement in “Black Mafia Family”?

I’m most excited about working with 50 Cent again after working on “The Oath” with him for Crackle. His name rings bells in Hollywood now, so it’s an honor to be attached to his brand.

How do you feel about being popularly cast into roles as antagonists or villains?

Wow! I’m popularly casted! That’s kind of cool. I fucking love it! I love playing the bad guy, I mean, I think we all kind of relate to the bad guy. Some of us just don’t have the balls to do what he does, you know. To commit to antagonizing is a skill set.

What has been your favorite role you’ve ever played, and why?

Ryan Payne on The Paynes was my favorite character because he was so goofy and a nitwit. Even my mother called and told me, “You’re really acting now, Ryan is a dumb ass.”

Both “Snowfall” and “Black Mafia Family” revolve around crime and drugs in the 1980s. Can you speak on the relevance of these themes within the shows as still existing today?

Well if we may go a little deep, I believe it’s important to touch on these topics because our culture, African American culture, has been systematically targeted so heavily by oppressors using tactics like drugs and violence as conduits to control our narrative. It’s important that we take some of that power back and tell our sides of those stories. They use their mediums to paint a picture of us as only drug dealers, instead of humanizing us like they do their heroes.

How did your experience living in Atlanta compare to the experiences illustrated in your involvement with the film, “ATL”?

It was literally the same. At the time of filming I was hustling, bootlegging liquor, and playing with guns. My Austin character kept me out of trouble.

Following your 2020 release of “Nervous,” are you looking to put out any more music soon?

Yes. Absolutely. I am one half of a rap group called Pool Boys.  We are releasing more new music this summer. Right now, we have “Nervous,” “Cold,” and another record called Clubhouse that’s going crazy!

Are there any other upcoming acting projects you’re working on to come in 2021 that you can tell us about?

Yes! I have a production company called, “TABLE READ PRODUCTIONS” and we are working on a movie made by people in the clubhouse called, “Green Bean Me.” So, be on the lookout for that.

Culture Creators

[Los Angeles, CA, June 23] Friday, June 24, Culture Creators gathered black culture’s most impactful and inspiring voices under one roof for the third annual Innovators & Leaders Awards Brunch. This year, the event took over The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and received the support of sponsors such as Remy Martin, The Mane Choice, Morgan Stanley, and Beats by Dre.

300+ guests witnessed the honorees receive their respective awards and share stories, memories, and gratitude. Bringing the house to its feet in a roar of applause, Sylvia Rhone garnered the Culture Creators Icon Award.

Other recipients included Jemele Hill, who received the Defiance Award, Kenya Barris, Jana Fleishman, Tunji Balogun, Shawn Gee, and more. Celebrity guests included Will.i.am, DJ Khaled, Tank, Andre Harrell, Miles Brown, Essence Atkins, Luke James, Waka Flocka, and more. Once again, Culture Creators magnified the resonance of Black Culture’s Innovators & Leaders and kicked off BET weekend in uplifting fashion.

See More Exclusive Photos HERE
Images Courtesy of Getty Images

LIST OF HONOREES

Honorees: Sylvia Rhone | President, Epic Records // Jemele Hill | Chief Correspondent & Sr. Columnist, The Undefeated ESPN // Lauren Wesley Wilson | President ColorComm, Inc. // Fatima Robinson | Choreographer & Director // Brea Stinson | Owner & Fashion Designer, STINSON HAUS // Jason Bolden | Co-Founder, JSN Studio/ / Charles D. King | Founder & CEO, MACRO // Kenya Barris | Writer & Producer, Creator of “Black-ish” // Rashaun Williams | General Partner, MVP All-Star Fund // Shawn Gee | President, Live Nation Urban // Tunji Balogun | Co-Founder, Keep Cool/EVP, A&R RCA Records // Jana Fleishman | EVP Media & Strategic Development, Roc Nation // Kristi Henderson | Co-Founder, WEEN // Carlos Fleming | Partner & Head of Sports Talent Marketing, WME // Rodney Williams | CEO & Co-Founder, LISNR

ABOUT CULTURE CREATORS

Culture Creators (CC) is an organization made up of the key figures from music, technology, film, television, fashion, and much more. Culture Creators always aims to celebrate the accomplishments of minorities in various industries and how African American culture continues to thrive and impact popular culture. As part of its programming for the 2016 GRAMMY weekend, Culture Creators hosted a soiree that attracted the likes of Diplo, Chris Rock, Skrillex, Lorde, Fatima Robinson, Cory Gamble, SZA, KeKe Palmer, and many more important Hollywood trendsetters and pioneers. Culture Creators also partnered with Howard University to provide executive leadership and recruitment to aid in the diversity and inclusion recruitment of students for mass merchant retailers, advertising agencies and athletic apparel companies.