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On day 7 of the ESSENCE Full Circle Festival, attendees participated in a Day of Service to the local Ghanaian community by spending the afternoon with various local non-profit organizations during five separately-themed experiences. Experience themes centered around youth empowerment, women’s health, education and empowerment for girls, entrepreneurship, the creative industry and leadership.
Among the experiences that came to life during the EFCF Day of Service was The Circle of Sisters.
Circle of Sisters Founder Chiedza Makonnen offers encouragement during the EFCF Day of Service in Ghana.Photo by Sean Wellington
The Circle of Sisters is a Girls Leadership Initiative run by Chiedza Makonnen, a fashion designer and returnee who has lived in Ghana for more than ten years. Under her Revolutionary Underground Foundation, she supports young girls in the Korle Gonno area through education and after school activities to help them become leaders in their own worlds and realize their dreams. Miss Makonnen funds the initiative through proceeds from her fashion label, Afrodesiac Worldwide.
A young girl smiles while participating in a group activity during the EFCF Day of Service in Ghana. Photo by Sean Wellington
Several EFCF attendees whose careers have landed them in various fields including law, entertainment, health and education, joined some of the young women from The Circle of Sisters initiative for a day of mentorship and group exchange. After the group exchanged introductions and each of the young ladies shared their career aspirations, they were grouped according to their potential future career paths.
Girls United co-founder Sophia Dennis interacting with young girls during EFCF Day of Service in Ghana.Photo by Sean Wellington
Among the EFCF attendees present for the Circle of Sisters was Sophia Dennis, co-founder of Girls United by ESSENCE, which aims to serve as a safe space for young women and girls of color to come into their own and help them find their life paths. An inspiring young leader herself, Ms. Dennis shared her experiences with girls whose aspirations were limited by a lack of access to technology.
EFCF attendees engage with young girls from the Circle of Sisters initiative in Accra, Ghana.Photo by Sean Wellington
Throughout the day, EFCF attendees rotated to have conversations with each group, sharing their own experiences as each group bonded and each of the girls got to know more about leading and owning their power as young women.
ESSENCE Full Circle Festival – Day of ServicePhoto by Sean Wellington
—Scroll through For more of everything you missed at the first-ever ESSENCE Full Circle Festival, head back to ESSENCE.com
The post ESSENCE Full Circle Festival Teamed Up With Designer Chiedza Makonnen To Empower And Educate Young Girls In Ghana appeared first on Essence.
On day 7 of the ESSENCE Full Circle Festival, attendees participated in a Day of Service to the local Ghanaian community by spending the afternoon with various local non-profit organizations during five separately-themed experiences. Experience themes centered around youth empowerment, women’s health, education and empowerment for girls, entrepreneurship, the creative industry and leadership.
Among the experiences that came to life during the EFCF Day of Service was The Circle of Sisters.
Circle of Sisters Founder Chiedza Makonnen offers encouragement during the EFCF Day of Service in Ghana.Photo by Sean WellingtonThe Circle of Sisters is a Girls Leadership Initiative run by Chiedza Makonnen, a fashion designer and returnee who has lived in Ghana for more than ten years. Under her Revolutionary Underground Foundation, she supports young girls in the Korle Gonno area through education and after school activities to help them become leaders in their own worlds and realize their dreams. Miss Makonnen funds the initiative through proceeds from her fashion label, Afrodesiac Worldwide.
A young girl smiles while participating in a group activity during the EFCF Day of Service in Ghana. Photo by Sean WellingtonSeveral EFCF attendees whose careers have landed them in various fields including law, entertainment, health and education, joined some of the young women from The Circle of Sisters initiative for a day of mentorship and group exchange. After the group exchanged introductions and each of the young ladies shared their career aspirations, they were grouped according to their potential future career paths.
Girls United co-founder Sophia Dennis interacting with young girls during EFCF Day of Service in Ghana.Photo by Sean WellingtonAmong the EFCF attendees present for the Circle of Sisters was Sophia Dennis, co-founder of Girls United by ESSENCE, which aims to serve as a safe space for young women and girls of color to come into their own and help them find their life paths. An inspiring young leader herself, Ms. Dennis shared her experiences with girls whose aspirations were limited by a lack of access to technology.
EFCF attendees engage with young girls from the Circle of Sisters initiative in Accra, Ghana.Photo by Sean WellingtonThroughout the day, EFCF attendees rotated to have conversations with each group, sharing their own experiences as each group bonded and each of the girls got to know more about leading and owning their power as young women.
ESSENCE Full Circle Festival – Day of ServicePhoto by Sean Wellington—Scroll through For more of everything you missed at the first-ever ESSENCE Full Circle Festival, head back to ESSENCE.com
The post ESSENCE Full Circle Festival Teamed Up With Designer Chiedza Makonnen To Empower And Educate Young Girls In Ghana appeared first on Essence.
Locke & Key fans first thought they were going to see the beloved graphic novel come to life on screen back in 2011, after Fox had showed the series’ pilot at that year’s San Diego Comic-Con. But that was as far as that version ever went. After other possible adaptations, both for television and the big screen, had come and gone over the course of the decade, Locke & Key seemed destined to be stuck in the terrible dimension of developmental purgatory. But now the wait is finally over—Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s comic is set to debut as a new Netflix series. But after so long, is there anyway it can possibly live up to years of anticipation? The first trailer for the show certainly won’t lessen fan excitement. And it’s likely to generate plenty of interest from newcomers to the story.
“After their father is murdered under mysterious circumstances, the three Locke siblings and their mother move into their ancestral home, Keyhouse, which they discover is full of magical keys that may be connected to their father’s death. As the Locke children explore the different keys and their unique powers, a mysterious demon awakens—and will stop at nothing to steal them.”
Locke & Key is based on the popular IDW horror comic book series that ran from 2008 to 2013. The “coming-of-age mystery about love, loss, and the unshakable bonds that define family” spans centuries and multiple dimensions. It combines gore and the supernatural along with mind-bending imagery. Yet the story is also touching and heartbreaking, focusing on a family dealing with unimaginable grief. And as this trailer show, they are also dealing with forces (and keys to strange places) they don’t totally understand.
Netflix might prove to be the perfect home for Locke & Key, as the streaming site isn’t afraid to embrace prestige horror (The Haunting of House Hill), nor is it afraid to develop vast and potentially confusing source material (looking at you The Witcher). This initial trailer indicates that the show’s creators Carlton Cuse (Lost and Bates Motel) and Meredith Averill (The Haunting of Hill House) want to make something that truly captures the spirit of what made the comic special. The show will be a huge success if they can live up to Gabriel Rodriguez’s artwork for the comic.
IDW
Locke & Key stars Darby Stanchfield (Scandal) as Nina Locke, Jackson Robert Scott (It) as Bode Locke, Connor Jessup (American Crime) as Tyler Locke, Emilia Jones (Horrible Histories) as Kinsey Locke, and Bill Heck (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) as Rendell Locke. The cast also features Laysla De Oliveira as Dodge, Thomas Mitchell Barnet as Sam Lesser, and Griffin Gluck (American Vandal) as Gabe.
Original author Joe Hill (The Fireman, Heart-Shaped Box) also serves as an executive producer on the show.
As good as this trailer looks though, ultimately we’ll have to wait to see if it lived up to our oversized expectations. Hopefully it does, and then we can all start complaining about waiting for the show to come back.
Season one of Locke & Key comes to Netflix on February 7, 2020.
Featured Image: Netflix
The post LOCKE & KEY Trailer Is Like a Psychedelic Horror Narnia appeared first on Nerdist.
First, let me say that I went into Ford v Ferrari with the mindset of “This is going to be a film, and it is going to be a film that I have watched,” and I left yelling, “Vroom vroom, cars go fast!” Second, give Noah Jupe the world. Ford v Ferrari focuses on the real-life story of Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby, two men who brought the Ford Racing Company into existence and won the Le Mans ’66 together.
Basically, the kind of movie my parents would watch and tell me was really good, but I would never want to sit through. So, what is it that makes this movie so interesting to me? I guess it’s probably the fact that it is, somehow, a comedy about two men who love each other that then devolves into the saddest ending I’ve ever seen, so I just sat there and cried for ten minutes.
Let’s get into. Ken Miles (Christian Bale) is a hot-headed driver, and when Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) cannot race because of his heart condition, the two begin to really work with each other. Miles is hard to work with, but Shelby continually campaigns for him because he loves him, and the two are constantly trying to help each other while still following orders from the big guys: Ford Motors.
Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) is angry that his company is basically falling apart because of sports cars (men, amirite?), and so one of his employees, Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), suggests getting them into the racing business to, essentially, take out Ferrari. The battle begins when Ford tries to buy Ferrari, since they’re broke, but Ferrari just uses their offer as a pitch to Fiat to give them more money.
Angry, Ford then agrees to hire Shelby to help start the racing division, and then the movie gets into a lot of car talk that I just nodded along to because boy oh boy do I know absolutely nothing about cars. There is a point in the movie where they just LITERALLY swap out a brake system in a car, and I said, “Is that even possible?” and then remembered it was based on a true story and said, “Okay then.”
Maybe once I unpack more of this movie, I’ll realize that I didn’t like it that much. But right now, I’m still thinking about them going real fast and Matt Damon pulling little tricks trying to win the Le Mans ’66, and how he just loves Ken Miles so much. Maybe Ford v. Ferrari rules?
(image: 20th Century Fox)
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The golden era of celebrities performing in masks continues as FOX and Ellen DeGeneres team up for The Masked Dancer. A spin-off of the inexplicably popular The Masked Singer, The Masked Dancer will feature a panel of judges trying to guess the identity of the celebrity sweatily pop and locking while dressed as a skateboarding mushroom.
FOX made the announcement at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour today. DeGeneres said of the project, “This is gonna be just as fun and suspenseful as The Masked Singer, but with a lot more Krumping … And I cannot wait!”
People like to talk about this being the golden age of television, but I feel like this show is definitive proof that we’ve crossed the Rubicon and are now just celebrating nonsense. First of all, how are these celebrities going to dance in those ridiculously elaborate costumes? Won’t someone get hurt? Isn’t all of this not a little bit humiliating?
I’m reminded of one of my all-time favorite short stories, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. The story is set in a dystopian future, where new amendments to the Constitution have been added to ensure complete equality of all Americans. Citizens are outfitted with “handicaps”, which make beautiful people uglier, smart people dumber, and so on. That’s what this feels like: watching performers so obscured by detritus that we miss what makes them talented in the first place.
Is the enjoyment in the guessing of these performer’s identities? Is it taking former A-listers down a peg? Is it divorcing humanity from art? Am I reading way too much into what is simply a high concept game show we imported from Korea? It’s most likely that last one.
But I can’t help but feel a deep well of melancholy when I see these performers slogging their way through some top 40 hit while dressed as psychedelic breakfast foods. It’s one thing to celebrate talent, as a myriad of reality competitions do. Shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance share the belief that talent and charisma can turn an average Joe into a star. At their core, they are aspirational.
But what are these masked shows aspiring to? If it’s entertainment, I feel like they are lacking. But take a closer look into the dead behind the eyes Gangnam-Style Palm Tree and tell me I’m wrong.
(via AdWeek, image: Michael Becker/FOX)
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