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https://www.essence.com/festival/2024-essence-festival-of-culture/ayra-starr-efoc-2024/

Photo by Marleen Moise/WireImage By Okla Jones ·Updated May 29, 2024

The 2024 ESSENCE Festival of Culture is back in New Orleans to kick off the summer season in an atmosphere of Black joy, beautiful music, and food selections that are second-to-none. With this year marking its 30th anniversary, attendees can experience the festival’s rich history, all while creating new memories that will last a lifetime.

To celebrate three decades of the ESSENCE Festival of Culture presented by Coca-Cola®, the Evening Concert Series at Caesar’s Superdome will feature an array of amazing performers, including the Nigerian sensation Ayra Starr.

Born Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe, Starr has become one of the hottest musicians in the world. After posting covers of songs by notable artists in 2019, she uploaded an original song called “Damage,” which ultimately led to her signing with Mavin Records the following year. In 2021, the singer hit mainstream with the hit track “Away,” building anticipation for her first solo release 19 & Dangerous. The project was met with critical acclaim, achieving two Top 40 hits in her homeland. The lead single “Bloody Samaritan” became the first solo song by a female artist to reach the number-one spot.

Photo by Joseph Okpako

2024 has been a huge year for Starr. It started on a high note as she was recognized by the Recording Academy, being nominated for Best African Music Performance at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. She also was announced as one of the opening acts for Chris Brown’s arena tour, and became the first female Nigerian artist to reach a peak of 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify. With today’s news of her joining ESSENCE’s Evening Concert Series, Starr’s career trajectory is trending upwards.

The ESSENCE Festival of Culture is a celebration of Black music, and the Nigerian sensation embodies that perfectly with an amazing skill set and vibrant spirit. In the time since its inception in 1995, the festival has risen to become the must-attend event of the summer. With a legendary music lineup, an atmosphere of Black joy, and the backdrop of the Big Easy, the 2024 edition is one that you won’t want to miss.

The ESSENCE Festival of Culture presented by Coca-Cola® will take place July 4-7. For more information and updates on the festival, visit our website and follow us on social media @ESSENCEFest on X, Facebook, and Instagram.

TOPICS:  2024 ESSENCE Festival of Culture Ayra Starr

The post 2024 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture Performer: Ayra Starr appeared first on Essence.

https://nerdist.com/article/doctor-who-companions-who-got-old-while-waiting-for-the-doctor/

On the surface, traveling with the Doctor seems like a dream. As the Fifteenth Doctor said, you don’t have to worry about a job, boss, bills, or anything else that stresses the average human. You can fill your life with adventures and go practically anywhere in the TARDIS. But, as fans of the show know, life as a companion can get really complicated and downright sad. In the show’s more recent seasons, we’ve seen several companions go through the wringer in different ways. Sometimes, it is permanent, like Bill Potts’ sad ending. But even when it doesn’t last, seeing bad things happen to the Doctor’s friends is distressing. 

The Doctor’s current companion, Ruby Sunday, went through a timeline where she lost everyone she loved and spent 65 years being stalked by an older version of herself. We watched her go through an entire lifetime trying to solve a mystery without the Doctor. The worst part is, this isn’t the first time that a Doctor Who companion got left (or separated) from the Doctor and got older while waiting for their return. Here are a couple other companions who went through a similar experience. 

Amy Pond – “The Girl Who Waited”

Eleventh Doctor companion Amy Pond has a rather unique relationship with the Doctor. She met him as a child and grew up talking about her imaginary friend in the blue box who promised to come back soon. He did return, but it was years later when she was an adult and preparing to marry Rory Williams (who became a companion, too), and they began to travel.

Later on, in “The Girl Who Waited,” she got separated from the Doctor and Rory in a quarantine facility on a foreign planet. Time passed much quicker there, leading to her being there for 36 years. We meet an older Amy and the Doctor has to leave her behind to save younger Amy to avoid a paradox. Once again, Amy (or at least a version of her) had to wait a long time for the Doctor’s return.

Amy and Rory eventually leave the TARDIS after a Weeping Angel sends them back in time. The Doctor cannot reach them and we learn that they die of old age, together. What a wild journey.

Rory Williams – “The Doctor’s Wife” and “The Angels Take Manhattan”

Speaking of Rory and those Weeping Angels, we do get to see an older Rory in “The Angels Take Manhattan.” Before it all ends, Rory ends up in Winter Quay, a hotel full of aging people who are being used by the Weeping Angels to zap their time energy. Amy and Rory go through extreme measures to free Rory from this imprisonment but we do see him in there in old age.

Before all of this, “The Doctor’s Wife” shows poor Rory getting trapped in a TARDIS maze where his timeline speeds up quickly while trying to escape. Amy finds him and he is older and hysterical. Thankfully, this time conundrum works itself out as the episode progresses.

Clara Oswald – “Last Christmas”

We love a weird Christmas episode. “Last Christmas” is a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream type of story. It is, well, about crabs that latch onto your face and force you into dreams while they devour your brain. Fantastic. This happens to the Twelfth Doctor’s companion Clara Oswald, who ends up with a crab on her face so long that she appears elderly. She says 62 years have passed. Of course, the Doctor gets Clara back as a young person and she decides to continue traveling with him. 

Sarah Jane Smith – “School Reunion”

Now this one is quite different. Instead of everything happening in an episode or two, this legitimately takes decades. Sarah Jane Smith is one of the most beloved Classic Who companions who spent time with the Third and Fourth Doctors. In the 1976 serial “The Hand of Fear,” The Fourth Doctor is summoned to his home planet of Gallifrey and says she cannot go with him. He drops her off on Earth (in the wrong place) and goes off in the TARDIS. Sarah makes an appearance in an anniversary story in 1983. But, because of timey wimey things, Sarah ends up going back to her life investigating weird things on Earth with K9, a robot dog.

Thirty years after her initial exit, Sarah Jane crosses paths with the Tenth Doctor. It is a reunion that causes tension between her and his current companion Rose Tyler. Sarah Jane is upset that he never came back for her all those years. Rose is upset that the Doctor could be so close to someone and just leave them. And the Doctor is stuck in the middle. For Sarah Jane, there was no timeline reversal or different versions of her. It was simply having to wait and wonder for years and years while getting older. 

Sometimes, traveling with the Doctor can lead to years of heartbreak, pain, and longing, indeed.

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The post Ruby Sunday and Other Companions Who Got Older While Waiting for the Doctor appeared first on Nerdist.

https://blacknerdproblems.com/dead-dead-demons-dededede-destruction-episode-0-review/

This is a mostly spoiler-free review of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION. This review covers EPISODE 0 which premiered Thursday, May 23 at 8:00 PM PT. Thank you Crunchyroll for the advanced screener of the English Dub!

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“I wish the world would end so I won’t have to deal with this”

Raise your hand if you thought that Inio Asano’s first animated work would be DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION? Was a manga with a premise of a world forever changed a little on the nose to watch right now? Are aliens ever off the table in pop culture and the media we consume? This is an Asano manga series I hadn’t got around to reading so I have been hyped that the anime adaptation was coming out. Episode 0 of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION opens to perpetually tired and sleepy voiced Nobuo Koyama (Giles Panton) working away his life. For a moment, he sees his daughter, the unimpressed Kadode (Elyse Maloway) who not so gently tells him he stinks and that she’s home that day, August 31 because it is summer break. In a taxicab, Nobuo, looking out the window along with other Japanese people across the city witnesses the alien mother-ship touch down.

The first five minutes of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION throws the audience for a ride and then a father wakes up—years later with a found family, a sea of exposition and history, and a need to find his family: his daughter Kadode. The world has changed, he himself has changed, and the place of refuge he’s been at is at first glance a safe place yet also a breeding ground for power struggles and inequality forcing some to seek other options on the outside–present with new dangers.

The longer he stays out in the outside world the more dangers present themselves, man-made and extra-terrestrial created. The closer Nobuo gets to the location where he is supposed to escort and see off his traveling companions–those younger than him that have been like family in a way, the more the audience is clued in that something is not quite right, after all. In this new world, DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION reminds the viewers that tragedies are still happening, new organizations and groups have risen up further dividing humanity’s survivors, and this one man’s journey is only starting… 

Verdict

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION does a great job in its outing in Episode 0 by setting up the world building of a ruined Japan and those affected. The first five minutes lures the audience in and sucker punches them square in the jaw with a time skip and a lot of backstory that eventually is fed to along the way. Seeing the trailer, I figured that the main protagonists and mainstays in the cast would be Kadode and friends–the students and young adults figuring out how aliens further complicate their adolescence. Seeing Kadode’s father Nobuo take center stage in this Episode 0 reveals not only a Japan much worse off but whatever organisms that have come to Earth much more advanced–my interest is piqued for sure.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION is filled with a general sense of unease throughout watching Episode 0. Nobuo waking up and having a new (found) family, a new place and way of living is startling as the minutes drag on. He’s determined to see his daughter again as well as look after the two companions, young adults he finds himself with who have told him he’s protected them as if they were his own. It is a haunting feeling to watch him embark on this journey back to home, back to his daughter knowing that something insidious is waiting for him, and there is no way any of us watching can warn him.

I love that in Episode 0 of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION we, the audience, are treated to an post-apocalyptic world of a father trying to reunite with his remaining family. The world may be ending (or beginning again), but he’s going to find his kin and do all he can to be a family again, no matter what it takes. Earlier in the episode, we saw that Nobuo was not the most present father, being swamped with work and the doldrums of everyday life as an adult. Later, upon waking, he calls out for her and verbally tells his companions that he’s going looking for him, despite the odds. Episode 0 ends on a hopeful note with Nobuo being told even more depressing news but with a clue and a ride on where to go next. This gives the series some emotional weight that will carry with audiences for sure when we all get to see the alien mothership touch down from the point of view of the true protagonists of the series: Kadode and friends.

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DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION

As the world is threatened by the sudden appearance of a mysterious alien mothership, best friends Kadode Koyama and Oran “Ontan” Nakagawa carry on about their high school life. But as they grow up, they face existential questions, learning adulthood’s complexities, and that the true threat may not be from above.

Premiering on Crunchyroll

Premieres Thursday, May 24 at 8:00 PM PT

PRODUCTION STAFF

Based on the Original Graphic Novel Created by 

Inio Asano

Directed by 

Tomoyuki Kurokawa

Series Composition and Screenplay Written by 

Reiko Yoshida

World Setting by 

Takaaki Suzuki

Character Design and Chief Animation Direction by 

Nobutake Ito

Color Design by 

Satoshi Takezawa 

Art Direction by

Mika Nishimura

CG Direction by 

Satoi Inami

Cinematography by 

Takuma Morooka

Editing by 

Masayuki Kurosawa

Sound Direction by 

Takeshi Takadera

Music Composed by

Taro Umebayashi

Animation Production by 

Production +h.

SONGS

Opening Theme Song “Shinsekai Yori” Performed by 

ano and Lisa Ikuta

JAPANESE VOICE CAST

Lilas Ikuta as Kadode Koyama

ano as Oran “Ontan” Nakagawa

Atsumi Tanezaki as Kiho Kurihara

Miyuri Shimabukuro as Ai Demoto

Saeko Oki as Rin Hirama

Azumi Waki as Futaba Takemoto

Ryoko Shiraishi as Makoto Tainuma

Miyu Irino as Keita Oba

Koki Uchiyama as Kenichi Kohiruimaki

Taito Ban as Watarase

Junichi Suwabe as Hiroshi Nakagawa

Kenjiro Tsuda as Nobuo Koyama

Naoto Takenaka as Chairman

TARAKO as Debeko

Tomokazu Sugita as Isobeyan

ENGLISH DUB STAFF

English ADR Voice Direction by

Karl Willem

Scripts Adapted by

Jack Cox

English Translation by

Paul Baldwin

Recording Engineering by

Konrad Piaseczny

Dialogue editing by

Marc Matsumoto

Brian Gamblin

Joshua Stevenson

Taylor Gervais

Re-Recording Mixed by

Keith Goddard 

Derek Simpson

ENGLISH VOICE CAST EPISODE 0

Giles Panton as Nobuo Koyama

Michelle Creber as Kimika

Lexi Ly as Hako

Elyse Maloway as Kadode Koyama

Graham Hamilton as Kenichi Kohiruimaki

Chelsea Miller as Futaba Takemoto

Travis Turner as Makoto Tainuma

Bill Newton as Hanazawa

Michael Dobson as Editor

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Inio Asano began publishing DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits magazine from 2014-2022, for a total of 12 volumes. VIZ Media releases an English version of the manga. Read more about the series up on the Crunchyroll site here.

Cover image: © Inio Asano/Shogakukan/DeDeDeDe Committee

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The post REVIEW: ‘DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION’ Brings Post-Apocalyptic Dread and Hope in Episode 0 appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

https://www.essence.com/fashion/brandon-blackwood-costume-design-interview/

A.I.M by Kyle Abraham By Skylar Mitchell ·Updated May 28, 2024

Keerati Jinakunwiphat a dancer and choreographer has been performing with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, a dance company for nearly a decade. Both she and the eponymous founder studied at Purchase College, State University of New York, finding a mutual love for contemporary dance in different journeys in motion and physicality. Jinakunwiphat’s aptitude for stagebound worldbuilding post-grad was nurtured through A.I.M’s self-reflexive praxis that cultivates the technique and conceptualism of the dancers at the heart of its repertoire. 

Collaboration is embedded into the process, and young choreographers like Jinakunwiphat are encouraged to own their sartorial direction with whatever tools heighten the story they seek to tell. So, when Jinakunwiphat visualized her ideal costume design for her latest work, Someday Soon, she tapped Brandon Blackwood to create pieces that would amplify what makes her choreography and the dancers who would perform it so captivating. “We wanted to genuinely represent the themes in the dance piece and how they are parallels to how we tell stories through fashion,” Brandon Blackwood said. 

The composition premiered at the start of the new year as part of A.I.M’s latest repertory with performances throughout the spring and summer. The partnership results from a longstanding respect for each party’s work—a connection made all the more meaningful by the members of the dance company’s alumni who have since transitioned into fashion. Imani Simmons, vice president of brand partnerships at Brandon Blackwood studied with A.I.M for a period of time and was versed in the cross-disciplinary parallels between the worlds of design and dance. Hence the meeting of the two companies most recently was seemingly kismet. 

A.I.M by Kyle Abraham

Art, organic creative discovery, and athleticism underpin the foundations of A.I.M’s mission, in part reflecting founder Kyle Abraham’s journey toward dance. In establishing an ethos for his company, which would come to be known for longer performances grounded in a central idea for audiences, he was a product of combined influence. Early in Abraham’s career, he was exposed to the works of Ulysses Dove and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which built its model performing the work of its founding director but also works from other choreographers.

Abraham studied how this format has been expanded upon in other contemporary collectives such as the Bebe Smith Company or the Ralph Lemon Company and now leads with that same concept of collaborative choreography. Creating and staging new work is as much a meditation on the sport of dance as it is on the curation of history showing audiences where the evolving elements in today’s dance zeitgeist derive from.  

“The way that I look at programming I like to think about how best to think about where my influences come from, whether they be someone in the past or someone from the next generation like Keerati Jinakunwiphat,” Abraham notes. Jinakunwiphat has been performing with A.I.M since graduating with her BFA from Purchase College. With the company’s most recent repertory performance, she and Abraham amplify the distinctive tapestry of Black and queer narratives in motion. 

The concept for the costumes was established over time, developing in tandem with A.I.M’s rehearsal period. The Brandon Blackwood team worked closely with Jinakunwiphat as she choreographed Someday Soon—her second original work with the company following 2019’s Big Rings (sketches are below by Brandon Blackwood). “I started playing with this idea of flowers,” the artist tells ESSENCE. “I was just in a place in my life where I was trying to really allow myself to accept the love that I was being given, whether it’s in like relationship, success, career, any of those things,” Jinakunwiphat adds.

Brandon Blackwood

Last winter, Keerati made history as the first Asian American woman commissioned by New York City Ballet to create a new work in the company’s 75-year history. Keerati says that though it was a historic accomplishment, it was also overwhelming. As she processed being on the receiving end of high accolades, she identified how flowers represent the push and pull of validation in her work and personal life. 

As the curtain rises for the number, two earth-tone-outfitted dancers stand before a gradient backdrop as a bouquet lays downstage. Tyler, the Creator’s explosive “IGOR’S THEME” scores the moment they are joined by more dancers in an undulating canvas of light and motion. Their movements are fluid and seamless, highlighted by the warm, soft hues of the custom-dyed costumes Brandon Blackwood constructed for the performance. “For the tops we used double-lined a four-way mesh, best for movement, and nylon for the cargo pants,” Blackwood explains. He adds that when developing a color palette with Keerati, she expressed how she wanted emotive yet gender-neutral hues.

Dancers Jamaal Bowman, Juan Carlos Franquiz, II, Amari Frazier, Mykiah Goree, Faith Joy Mondesire, Donovan Reed, Keturah Stephen, and Gianna Theodore construct a fluid canvas of externalized longing pointing to then away from the bouquet at oscillating points. As Keerati explains, the bouquet is tied to a string offstage, trailing the dancers’ movements and stopping when they pause. The flowers evade them as they move between chasing its proverbial validation and trying to escape it. 

“It follows the dream of someday soon, you’ll get what you want or what you think you want. Or at least that you’ll have that feeling,” Keerati explains. Over the course of the number, the flowers move through many forms as an object of aspiration to be feared and coveted. To highlight this relationship, Keerati aptly scored later parts of the performance to Tyler, The Creator’s track “EXACTLY WHAT YOU RUN FROM YOU END UP CHASING.” 

With such a resonant subtext, Blackwood sought to amplify both the intentionality of movement and the visual cohesion of the performance. He has previously ventured into costume design, perhaps most famously with creating custom gown, gloves, and heels for Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour, and handled this collaboration with the same meticulous attention. 

Blackwood shares that with costume design he believes it is imperative to custom-fit the fabric in a seamless fashion to provide comfort and aesthetically pleasing pieces. “My vision is always to enhance the greatness of the person wearing the clothes; whether it is when we are doing a gown for a red carpet, or this dance performance, I want to make sure that the dancers feel comfortable and that the clothing is an extension of themselves and the story that they are telling to the world,” Blackwood shares. 

There were several fittings during this process. Blackwood and his team wanted to ensure that in every move the dancers made, the fabric moved with them exactly where they wanted it to on the body. “The color of the tops was really special as I worked with our design team to make our very own gradient color print,” Blackwood continues. 

The overall performance deals with questions of past, present, and future, with answers achieved through multiple partnerships of artistic focus. Jinakunwiphat’s choreographic genius anchors A.I.M by Kyle Abraham’s electrifying resonance of Black and queer cultural histories, referencing an esteemed tradition while still feeling palpably current. Someday Soon is a vivid exploration of the personal complexes that exist in gradience, calling upon dancers and audience members alike to face their uncertainty. There is an idea of multiple truths approached in various approaches from costumes to choreography.   

“We hope the audience was able to understand and see the modernity and sentiment in the clothing. The color story was purposely chosen to represent the softness and vulnerability in all people and to blend with the body in a way the movement of dancers can truly shine,” Blackwood adds.

TOPICS:  Black Costume Designers brandon blackwood costume design

The post Brandon Blackwood On Disrupting The Contemporary Art World appeared first on Essence.