42 h. ago School district threatened with legal action after kids are shown video that acknowledges LGBTQ+ history month

The Thomas More Society accused the Kirkwood School District of ‘violating the First Amendment rights of many parents’

Culture

55 h. ago ‘I enter a room and people say: “God just walked in”’: Morgan Freeman on voicing the divine, meeting Mandela – and his six decades on screen

The 88-year-old actor has appeared in more than 100 films, playing everyone from presidents to prisoners. Here, he reflects on AI’s ‘robbing’ of his voice, not believing in Black History Month – and why he’s nowhere near retirementIn a dishonest age when truth is under siege, media attention shatters into a thousand shards of glass and nothing is quite what it seems, what could be more precious than a voice of authority? Cue Morgan Freeman, an actor who has portrayed a US president, Nelson Mandela and the Almighty, and replaced Walter Cronkite on the voiceover introducing the CBS Evening News. If John Gielgud’s baritone was described as being “like a silver trumpet muffled in silk”, Freeman’s is like rich wood polished to a quiet shine.It was less God’s gift than the product of hard work, thanks to an inspiring voice and diction instructor at his community college in Los Angeles. “If you’re going to speak, speak distinctly, hit your final consonance and do exercises to lower your vo...

Politics

1 week ago I was spat on for being Black – but Britain is not racist, says David Lammy

The deputy prime minister hit out at Reform MP’s remarks over adverts, warning they marked a return to ‘flagrant racism’

Politics

2 w. ago The Supremes, Marcus Garvey, Tupac Shakur: the cultural figures who inspired our Black History Month panel | Lenny Henry, Zeinab Badawi, Yolanda Brown and others

Contributors from the worlds of music, politics, the arts and beyond on those who helped shape their beliefs and identities Continue reading...

Culture

2 w. ago ‘I hate that they show my bum in the first scene!’ David Duchovny on poems, podcasts – and his TV comeback

Playing Fox Mulder made him a global phenomenon then he walked away to save himself. As he stars in killer-nanny thriller Malice, David Duchovny talks art, his beef with Gillian Anderson – and being murdered by Jack WhitehallHalfway through our hour-long conversation, David Duchovny slumps in his seat a little then gently chastises me. “I got tired while you were talking,” he groans. In fairness, I had been talking a lot, but only because I was trying to list everything he’s managed to do in the past year.There’s his podcast, Fail Better, in which he’s wrung incredibly candid interviews from notoriously reticent stars like Alec Baldwin and Robert Downey Jr, more on which later. There’s his book of poetry, About Time, which came out last month. There’s his History Channel show Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny. As we speak, he’s just finished an eight-date tour, where he performed songs from the three folk-rock albums he’s released over the last decade. We are ostensibly here ...

Culture

3 w. ago Black History Month is a reflection of the political moment, so how do we revamp it?

The aim is to address systemic and institutional racism but those efforts need the space to expand not shrink• Don’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt’s Black History Month in the UK, and it feels like it’s time for a rethink. Over the years, an event that started out as a celebration and reminder of history, culture and the connections between global Black communities, has taken on a corporate feel, expanding to include events where Black people are paid to talk to white audiences about “unconscious bias” and “allyship”. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests created a surge in the business of demonstrating racial awareness. But even that moment has passed. The wave has crested, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what raising awareness is for. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Black History Month: London’s Chief Nurse on diverse healthcare leadership

Black History Month: London’s Chief Nurse on diverse healthcare leadership  London Post

Politics

last month Powerful new exhibition amplifying Black British voices launches for Black History Month

The media platform, Seasoned, has launched an immersive exhibition in Central London to highlight research from the Runnymede Trust and amplify Black British voices

Politics