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Michael Arceneaux, author of I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé, is breaking barriers and assisting in bringing necessary diversity to our bookshelves. Arceneaux is all shades of amazing – he’s a black, gay, millennial man from Houston, Texas, doing his thing. When BLACK ENTERPRISE asked how he feels about the ceilings he has crashed through, he replied, “I have a habit of being extremely hard on myself because I’m always thinking about the next goal, but I have tried very hard to make sure that I take in this moment as much as possible.”

He’s also very aware of societal stigmas that keep marginalized folks back. “I’m Black, I’m gay, I’m country, and from a working-class family,” he said, adding, “I am proud of myself for getting to this point. I am also truly happy that I am helping make it easier for others like me to share their stories, and ideally, take them even further.”

Becoming The Cardi B of Lit

The New York Times best-seller list is an unfathomable dream for most authors. The allure of it has always been there, but the difficulty and rarity of it happening has left many discouraged. Arceneaux, however, says he’s honored to join this elite class of writers. “I’m fortunate and very much grateful that everything aligned the week my book was released and I was fortunate enough to make the list.” He added, “Now, other black writers, black queer, and queer writers, southern black writers, or some combination of these can cite my book in their proposals and show publishers that our stories are not niche.”

It wasn’t a stroke a luck, however. Arceneaux is a brilliant writer with a unique, hilarious style. The former Howard University grad has been writing for many years for the likes of Essence, Complex, and The Root. He has also been featured on BET, MSNBC, VH1, The Breakfast Club, and CBS.

Needless to say, he has built a solid platform and name for himself in the industry. He is a blue-tick certified, Wikipedia-page-having, New York-Times-appearing real deal. A very humble and admirably transparent real deal. He mentioned that he received the news of making the list on a terrible day,

“I was questioning aspects of my life and choices and then my agent called me while I was at the gym and everything just felt lighter in that moment. It reminded me that I am going to be okay because I always am. Also, made me think of my friend Nakisha, who always tells me to chill out because every goal I said I would achieve eventually happens.”

While so many have been grabbing his best-seller off of shelves, his parents aren’t tuned into this aspect of his life and still have not read it. The family members who have, on the other hand, are proud of him and have opened up to him in ways they hadn’t before. As for his friends, some are getting a kick out of the response he has been receiving. “I think some of my friends – like the ones who don’t live in NY – are kind of surprised at the different types of people who know I am alive. One, in particular, could not believe so many white folks showed up to a book event I did in Baltimore. My response at the time was, ‘Me either, but I told you I was gon’ crossover and become the Cardi B of lit.'”

Life Has Been No Crystal Stair

The most difficult part of the author’s journey was getting others to believe what he already knew – that there was an audience for books like his. “Getting people to believe black gay me was not ‘niche’ and finding the balance between writing to support myself and working on my book, which ideally would get me over that hump.”

Getting an agent and publisher behind him wasn’t an easy feat for Arceneaux either. “I had envisioned a book idea some eight, nine years ago, but it took a very long time to convince the people necessary to make it happen (an agent and a publisher) to get behind me.”

I Can’t Date Jesus & Future Projects

I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race and Other Reasons I Put My Faith in Beyoncé launched on July 24, 2018, from 37 Ink/Atria Books/Simon & Schuster. His publishing house describes the book as, “A timely collection of alternately hysterical and soul-searching essays about what it is like to grow up as a creative, sensitive black man in a world that constantly tries to deride and diminish your humanity.”

There have not been many books I’ve read this year that made me laugh out loud, while at the same time reflect and question the world around me. Arceneaux’s book did just that. It was both humorous and inspiring. To my surprise, he didn’t think too much about the message while writing.

“I don’t really intend anything for the reader beyond making them laugh and making them think. I knew that I set out to write the book I wish I had growing up, but I try not to think too much on what the reader will take from what I write. I like to hear them tell me. And honestly, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. So many different types of people have reached out and it means a lot because there was concern from people I met in publishing about the book — that my identity made me have limited appeal. Meanwhile, white folks in their 70s are constantly emailing me to say they love my book with plenty of references they have never heard of (like Pimp C lyrics).”

It is no surprise that so many resonate with his words. His book grabs you from the very first sentence in the dedication, sharing the story of being told by an old high school classmate that he’d end up working at Burger King because he majored in journalism. Fortunately for fans of Arceneaux’s writing, he has a new book coming out, entitled I Don’t Want to Die Poor. “It will be an expansion of the themes I touched on in an essay I penned for the New York Times’ Sunday Review about my struggles with private student loans. I think we need more stories about how many of us live with that debt.”

In five years’ time, he feels that he will still be writing books, but Arceneaux has much more in mind to use his voice to help the world around him through honest dialogue and laughter. “I plan to still be writing books but, I’ll be working primarily in television. I want to write and create shows, appear on camera, etc. I want to do speaking events, too, but I love television and I really want to lend my voice to the medium. My book was just the start of what I plan to make a long life of storytelling and shaking s–t up.”

Some Final Words for Beyoncé

Arceneaux’s love for Beyoncé is clear from the very beginning of the book, when he references the span of time since he last went to church by the amount of Beyoncé albums that had come out. The mentions of Queen Bey are side-splitting and his disdain for people who do not support her (Beytheists) is equally amusing. With this in mind, I had to know what he’d want her to know if she were to read this article. “Please read my book, my Lord and gyrator and fellow Houstonian. I talk real good about you. Also: girl, can you do that rap album for me already?”

If Arceneaux intrigues you, you’d love his book and rants on Twitter.

The post ‘I Can’t Date Jesus’ Best-selling Author Michael Arceneaux On Writing appeared first on Black Enterprise.

The beginning of Travis Knight‘s Bumblebee is enough to make any Transformers fan’s jaw drop. Planet Cybertron! Optimus Prime! Arcee! Starscream! All looking like their classic toys, no less. It can’t last. This is, after all, the filmed equivalent of  solo album rather than an all-star band effort, and like in the Dolph Lundgren Masters of the Universe movie of 1987 (the year in which Bumblebee is set), a battle fought in the stars now comes to earth. Small-town California, specifically; warring cosmic aliens based on toys are nothing if not location budget-conscious.

Confused by his surroundings and the human military who pursue him on our li’l globe, Bumblebee loses his voice and his memory in an initial battle, regressing him from fierce, weapon-loving warrior to a frightened, childlike state. It’s an apt metaphor for the franchise as a whole: Michael Bay’s rah-rah militarism is replaced with a sense of wonder and an emphasis on repairing familial wounds.

Steven Spielberg, in originally deciding to produce the Transformers movies, saw the fundamental appeal as being the story of a boy and his first car. Knight goes back to that well, and keeps his focus on this girl and her sapient vehicle, but by making both semi-parentless (she has a clueless remarried mother, he has no idea where he’s from), he deepens the relationship. This brings the just-turned-18 Charlie into adulthood emotionally, by having her experience what it means to take care of somebody who really needs it. It’s a movie more Iron Giant than Armageddon, though unlike the Vin Diesel-voiced Brad Bird creation, no Autobot will be able to insist they’re “not a gun” forever, especially when Decepticons are around. Said bad robots–Justin Theroux’s Dropkick and Angela Bassett’s Shatter–are, notably, the only onscreen mechanical characters to have “Bayformer” designs, as all the others have mostly reverted to Generation 1 looks.

Which brings up the question of continuity: does Bumblebee work as a prequel? Well, first, let’s consider existing movie continuity, such as it is. Transforming robots invade the Earth…but one has actually been here for years previously, frozen in ice! No, wait…they’ve really been here since cavemen times! Or, actually, earlier! Since dinosaur times! No, earlier than that: they’re on the moon! Also, the entire planet Earth has been one giant Transformer the whole time. You’re asking if the new movie fits in with that?

Fair enough. Parts of it do. You might have to forget the entire subplot about Bumblebee fighting in World War II, or Optimus coming to Earth for the first time in 2007. And that whole thing about them learning English from the Internet–the only real justification for so many of the ‘bots being broad stereotypes– no longer works, though Bumblebee‘s new notion that the modern Internet was basically created by two Decepticons and John Cena makes a lot of sense. But if you’re a fan of these movies, and I am, you should have accepted long ago that they utilize the storytelling logic of a five year-old smashing Hot Wheels cars together, and that’s a feature rather than a bug. There is some attempt at connective tissue, but this might just as well be a ground-up reboot, and I suspect it will be treated as such if it works for everyone.

In going more of a Spielbergian direction, Knight effectively captures the wonder of having a magical friend, though lovers of Bay’s epic destruction may feel disappointed at how close-quarters it all feels. Gone are any sweeping vistas or sunset-color filters with slo-mo, and while Knight has at least one clever car chase sequence in which Bee uses his robot parts to maximum advantage, he does tend to rely heavily on additional car chases that aren’t, perhaps, as exciting as we’re used to. On the plus side, his characters feel a lot more like real people, with the possible exception of Cena; his performance as a military man is about as subtle as a Hulk Hogan leg drop to the face. If you want to know why he’s never done a “heel turn” in years for WWE, maybe this is why: he’s not convincing as one. He’s hilarious for reasons that don’t seem completely intentional, but the transforming robots are more believable.

The fact that we barely need mention the fact that Bumblebee himself is an utterly convincing effect who looks like he occupies real space and is actually transforming into a car and back, is symptomatic of how far this franchise has come. For arguably the first time in a Transformers film, there are moments when you forget you’re looking at a CG model, and see only the character. It’s taken a decade’s worth of work to get here, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Rating: 4/5

Images: Paramount

When Tesla announced its new version of the Roadster, which can accelerate in zero to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, a lot of people were doubtful. But a new video of the first […]

The post Watch: Passengers Freak Out Over New Tesla Roadster’s Record-Setting Acceleration appeared first on Geek.com.

DanceLogic, a unique S.T.E.A.M. program that combines dance and computer coding leading to the development of original choreography and performance, is continuing onto its second year. Girls ranging from the ages of 13 through 18 years participate in the program held at West Park Cultural Center in Philadelphia and learn the value of focus, dedication, and teamwork, as well as industry standard coding language.

Shanel Edwards, co-instructor of danceLogic, stated that “danceLogic is helping these girls have access to the arts realm and science world as possible career paths, it is allowing them to stretch their own boundaries of what success looks like for them.”

(Facebook)

During the dance class, led by instructors Edwards of D2D The Company and Annie Fortenberry, a performer with Ballet 180, the girls learn dance skills and movement techniques. This is followed by an hour of learning industry standard coding language under the direction of coding instructor Franklyn Athias, senior vice president of Network and Communications Engineering at Comcast. “I’m helping the kids see that someone, just like them, was able to use Science and Technology to find a very successful career,” Athias expressed in a press release.

The girls use coding to create their own choreography. “The combinations of dance and logic have good synergies. Learning something like dance requires practice, just like coding,” said Athias. “The dance is more physical, but it requires the students to try, fail, and try again. Before long, the muscle memory kicks in and the student forgets how hard it was before. Coding is really the same thing. Learning the syntax of coding is not a natural thing. Repetition is what makes you become good at it. After learning the first programming language, the students can learn other programming languages because it becomes much easier.”

(Facebook)

“My favorite thing about the program is that the students can explore leadership roles. By building their own choreography and supporting each other in coding class, they navigate creating and sharing those creations, as well as resolving conflict to make one cohesive dance. There’s a lot of beauty and bravery in that process,” stated Fortenberry.

The very first session of danceLogic culminated with the girls performing choreography and sharing what they learned through coding and how it has impacted their lives.

For more information, click here.

The post DanceLogic Teaches Girls Dance and Computer Coding appeared first on Black Enterprise.