Urbanworld First Look: New Edition & the Cast Talk Upcoming BET Miniseries

New Edition is one of the most revered singing groups of all time. With a career that has spanned well over thirty years, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe, Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant, and Johnny Gill have provided the soundtracks to many of our lives. It goes without saying then, that any biopic depicting these living legends (whom we’ve come to know as intimately as if they were our close friends) has astronomical expectations.

Recently, we’ve seen some unfortunate depictions of some of our late legends lives on screen. However, Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray, the cast of Straight Outta Compton, as well as Angela Bassett’s depiction of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It?  remain some of the most riveting biopics in cinematic history.

BET’s three-part miniseries depicting the acclaimed R&B group hopes to stand with the greats.  At the Urbanworld Film Festival this past weekend, EBONY.com got a sneak preview of the highly anticipated miniseries.

With real-life New Edition members serving as consultants and co-producers on the film, the miniseries is a vibrant time capsule from a group that has helped shape music history. Beginning in the Boston Orchard Park Projects in 1978, BET and Urbanworld presented clips leading up to the groups disastrous 1997 Home Again Tour.

The miniseries’ spot on casting includes Bryshere Y. Gray as Michael Bivins, Elijah Kelley as Ricky Bell, singer-songwriter Luke James as Johnny Gill, Algee Smith as Ralph Tresvant, Keith Powers as Ronnie DeVoe, and Woody McClain as Bobby Brown.

Continue reading at EBONY.com

Image: BET

Urbanworld First Look: Issa Rae’s ‘Insecure’ Is a Love Letter to Black Women

Some weeks ago, I logged into Facebook and became enraptured by a status an old college friend had recently posted. It read, “I trust Black women more than any other group of people.” Initially, I thought nothing of it, since it also rang true for me, but as I scrolled through the comments under the post, it was clear that my brown skin girlfriend had hit a nerve.

In the media and in our own community, Black women are told who we are, how we should be and what we’re going to be. We’re the most educated group of people in this country and yet we’re told our education will greatly diminish our chances at a “fairytale” home life. (Whatever that means.) In one breath we’re told we don’t give Black men a chance, and in another, we are told we baby our Black sons. We’re too loud, or we don’t speak up enough. We’re too weak, or too feminist. Or my personal favorite, our standards are just too high. According to everyone else, we’re just too damn much, and we need to fix a laundry list of things in order to find love, happiness, and security. It’s a constant and exhausting stripping of our humanity. It seems natural then that we gravitate inward towards one another. (Despite what the media tries to say.) As my friend’s Facebook post so bluntly put it, the reason I’m still living (and thriving) in this precarious space we call life as a Black woman, is because of the other Black women I choose to surround myself with.

Issa Rae’s long awaited and highly anticipated HBO series “Insecure”, puts the narrative of Black women back in our hands, while paying homage to our fellow sisters.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.