INFEMNITY™ Entertainment News

Elizabeth Gilbert and Oprah Winfrey This morning I happened to turn on the television to find Oprah Winfrey talking with Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, whom I had met in 2019 at a reading by author  Azure Antoinette Varos. At the time, I had no idea that Elizabeth had recently buried her partner Rayya Elias, who was also an author and musician. After doing some research I learned that Gilbert had divorced her husband of nine years to enter into an intimate relationship with Elias, who had been her best friend for fifteen years. At that time, Elias had been diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer. She died within two years at age 57. Gilbert and Rayya Elias A Syrian-born writer, musician, and filmmaker, Elias’s own book (titled Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk, From the Middle East to the Lower East Side ) was published in 2013 with an introduction by Gilbert. In it, Elias detailed four decades of her life as a gay Middle Eastern woman in the U.S.

  Nina Kennedy The stars came out for the 33rd GLAAD Media Awards at the New York Midtown Hilton May 6th, the first GMAs since 2019. Our own Nina Kennedy was invited to walk the Red Carpet as the 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for her book  Practicing for Love: A Memoir .  Cynthia Nixon Other celebrities on the Red Carpet included Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon, and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss. Cynthia Nixon remembered Nina from the NYWIFT (New York Women in Film and Television) Muse Awards, and embraced her warmly. Actor Judith Light came to receive the  Excellence in Media Award, and was introduced by Oscar winner and star of West Side Story Ariana DeBose. Kandi Burruss The Red Carpet was also graced with the presence of the new White House Press Secretary  Karine Jean-Pierre. GLAAD Board Chair Pamela Stewart introduced Secretary Jean-Pierre who received a rousing standing ovation. "Thank you, family," were her first words as she addressed the

You might not have known it if you get your news from the New York Times or other major news outlets, but history was made last Sunday afternoon on the Carnegie Hall stage. In a sold-out concert, an all-black orchestra performed under conductor Anthony Parnther, with pianist Jon Batiste as soloist in his own composition titled I Can . The program included compositions by Florence Price, George Walker, and Johannes Brahms. The concert concluded with James V. Cockerham's Fantasia on "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a signature piece for the ensemble, whose distinguished members hail from leading orchestras and conservatory teaching faculties nationwide. Jon Batiste "Why an all-black orchestra?" you ask. Well, the sad reality is that most of these extraordinarily talented musicians are not hired by the vast majority of American symphony orchestras. "Why?" again, you ask. The answer: American racism. The concert was broadcast by WQXR 105.9 in New York, and st

Practice What You Preach From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Practice What You Preach Author        Nina Kennedy Country      United States Language   English Subject       Autobiography, American                                       history,  classical music,  sexism,                             homophobia, race relations,                                   filmmaking Published   January 2022 Publisher    RoseDog Books, an imprint of                               Dorrance Publishing                                              Company Media type  Print Pages          363 ISBN             978-1-63661-011-5                Practice What You Preach: Book 2 of the Practicing for Love Series  is the continuation of the 2019 nonfiction autobiography  written by  Nina Kennedy  and published by  RoseDog Books . It is about her life and experiences as a former child prodigy and the daughter of college professors, her car

  I hesitated to read Robyn Crawford's book A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston , primarily because I was preoccupied with the launch of my own book. But when I read recently that Whitney Houston's final recording contract was worth 100 million dollars, I dropped everything to rush out and grab that book. Evidently, 100 million dollars was not enough to keep Whitney alive. Hers was a story of addiction. She had her first taste of cocaine when she was only 14. It is so tragic that she never received the help she needed to get healthy and stay alive. She was vilified in the media as the good-girl-gone-bad who let her talents go to waste. But Robyn Crawford, who witnessed her meteoric rise, felt the need to set the record straight and "lift Whitney up" after the media chose to put their energy into tearing her down. Imagine the stress and pressure Whitney must have felt knowing that she was losing her voice, after having been paid a hundred million dollars for h

  Chicago, April 7, 2022 – Today, we’re excited to announce that four organizations and fourteen individuals have been selected to be honored at the 15th Annual  Esteem Awards . A committee of past finalists has chosen this year’s recipients.  Award finalist will be celebrated at an in-person event on Saturday, July 2, at Sidetrack 3349 N. Halsted in Chicago from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Author/Activist  Michelle E. Brown  will host this exciting celebration of honor. Comedian  Sampson McCormick  will provide the entertainment. The event is free and open to the public.  Following is a list of Esteem Awards finalists:  Outstanding Service, Male:   Ken Meija-Beal , Community organizer and Chair of the DuPage County Democratic Party.  Outstanding Service, Female:  Angela Barnes and Renauda Riddle, Activist and Co-Owners,  Nobody’s Darling .   Outstanding Service, Transgender:   Zahara Bassett , Founder/Chief Executive Officer at Life is work.  Future Leaders:  Shakus Silas, Program Manager for 

  The second book of the Practicing for Love series, Practice What You Preach , begins with my return to the United States after having lived for six months on the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye. My then-partner "Helga" is an Austrian citizen, and we had lived in Vienna for several years. When we came to the United States, she could only stay for three months at a time with a tourist visa, so we found ourselves needing to cross the border every three months so that she could receive a new stamp in her passport. As we get settled in New York, I watch in amazement as she is able to find work and income in ways that I have never experienced. Even though she was a foreigner, the most important thing to her employers was that she is white. It is during this relaxed time that I receive word of my mother's passing. Helga accompanies me to the city of my birth, Nashville, for the funeral. It is the first time she meets my father, and the first time she witnesses the full exte

Passing by Nella Larsen, recently released as a film by celebrated actress/director Rebecca Hall, has made me think deeply about my racial identity. Though I was born in a segregated Colored hospital, raised in a black neighborhood, attended segregated public schools, sat in a black church Sunday mornings, the fact remains that I never felt loved by anyone black. I suppose, when they looked at me, my parents were reminded of the pain of their own childhoods. I felt ostracized by the kids at school, and was bullied mercilessly because of my light skin and "correct" speech. My mother would straighten my hair to make me look whiter, but I never thought that she intended to enable me to "pass." My father was visibly blacker than she was, and everyone knew that he was my father. But I never got the impression that she intended for me to marry a white man. In fact, I never got the impression that she intended for me to marry a man at all. She wanted to remain the center