4/22/24 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings | Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and More

Top baseball pitcher Bingo Long (Billy Dee Williams) is fed up with how his Negro League team owner treats him, so he forms his own lineup, recruiting big-hitting Leon Carter (James Earl Jones) and Charlie Snow (Richard Pryor), who dreams of playing in the majors.  Continue reading

4/2/24 O&A NYC INSPIRATIONAL TUESDAY: Jennifer Hudson Wins Best Supporting Actress at the 79th Oscars (2007)

George Clooney presents singer/actor Jennifer Hudson with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Dreamgirls at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007. Continue reading

3/31/24 O&A NYC EASTER GOSPEL SUNDAY: Daryl Coley- When Sunday Comes

When Sunday Comes performed by Daryl Coley was featured on Donald Lawrence‘s 1995 gospel narrative album Bible Stories (1995).  Continue reading

3/29/24 O&A NYC GOOD FRIDAY SONG OF THE DAY: Calvary- Richard Smallwood

Richard Smallwood’s Calvary, led by Maurette Brown Clark, Darlene Simmons, and Carolene Hatchet, combines good compositional form with strong dramatic narrative elements creating a true gospel classic. 

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3/25/24 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: The Piano Lesson

Boy Willie (Charles Dutton), a sharecropper, travels to Pittsburgh in the 1930s hoping that his sister, Berniece Charles (Alfred Woodard), will let him have the piano that their enslaved uncle engraved in pre-Civil War Mississippi. Willie hopes to parlay proceeds from selling the instrument into ownership of the land his uncle once worked. But when Berniece has other ideas, it becomes clear that the piano represents very different things to the siblings. Continue reading

3/25/24 O&A NYC IN MEMORARIUM: Lorraine Graves

By Walter Rutledge

Dancer, and teacher Lorraine Graves passed away on March 21, 2024, at the young age of 66. Graves started dancing at the age of 8 in the hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. She began her training at the Academy of the Norfolk Ballet (under the direction of the late Gene Hammett) and made her performing debut with the Norfolk Civic Ballet. As a teenager Graves she spent summers in New York City studying dance at the Joffrey Ballet and the prestigious School of American Ballet (New York City Ballet). Continue reading

3/19/24 O&A NYC CELEBRATING WOMEN ON INSPIRATIONAL TUESDAY: Jennifer Hudson Wins Best Supporting Actress – 79th Oscars (2007)

George Clooney presenting Jennifer Hudson with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Dreamgirls at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007.
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3/18/24 O&A NYC CELEBRATING WOMEN ON HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: The Trip to Bountiful- Cicely Tyson, Blair Underwood, Vanessa Williams, Keke Palmer

Unable to drive, Carrie (Cicely Tyson) begs her son (Blair Underwood) to take her on a visit to her hometown of Bountiful. When he refuses, Carrie makes an escape to the bus station, where she meets Thelma (Keke Palmer) in The Trip to Bountiful. Vanessa Williams also stars in this film. Continue reading

3/17/24 O&A NYC CELEBRATING WOMEN ON GOSPEL SUNDAY: The Caravans- Mary Don’t You Weep and More


The Caravans (Inez Andrews, Shirley Caesar, Dorthy Norwood, Albertina Walker, and Delores Washington) perform Mary Don’t You Weep and Sweeping Through the City at the 2007 BET Gospel Celebration.

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