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Cfjarlotte ^os;t
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2003
1D Arts l Entertainment
Slick Rick stiU
behind bars on
immigration rap
By Larry McShane
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Sitting in a Florida jail cell,
fighting his deportation, rapper Ricky “Slick
Rick” Walters counts the days.
He ran out of fingers a long time ago. The Hip-
Hop Hall of Fame inductee is into his 17th month
behind bars, with no end in sight despite exten
sive legal efforts and appeals from his friends.
‘Tt’s the same old, same old,” he said by phone
from a federal detention facility in Bradenton,
Fla. “Wake up, eat breakfast. Do a little exercise,
try to keep yourself together. Call your wife.
“Stay positive.”
It’s tough in the face of endless negativity. Since
his June 2002 jailing, Walters has awaited word
on whether he can return to his home and family
in the Bronx - or if he’ll face deportation to his
birthplace of England. He sees his wife, Mandy,
just once a month.
Walters’ supporters, including comedian Chris
Rock, rapper Will Smith and the Rev. Jesse Jack-
son, h6ve called for the rap star’s release pending
resolution of his case. Others believe he is an
imdeserving victim of the government’s post-
Sept. 11 immigration crackdown.
“Of course that factored in,” said hip-hop mogul
Russell Simmons, a longtime fiiend and former
manager. “Fear and anger are the motivating
forces in the government campaign against
immigrants’ right.”
Walters, in more measured terms, agreed.
“Fm not a politician or a lawyer,” Walters said.
“I can just speculate on the reason. But I’ll put it
out to the public:' Somebody waiting for months
on a yes or no question, and there’s no answer?”
It was spring 2002 when Walters, now 38, left
Florida for a weeklong gig aboard a cruise ship.
He was arrested by Immigration and Naturaliza
tion Service agents upon returning to port.
'The INS wanted Walters deported under a 1996
law calling for the exile of foreigners convicted of
“aggravated felonies.” Walters did five years on a
1991 attempted murder conviction; the rapper
shot his cousin and a bystander, claiming the
cousin had extorted money and threatened the
rapper’s family.
INS officials cited a 1997 order to deport Wal
ters, although his attorney, Alex Solomiany, sug-
Please see SLICK/3D
REVIEW
“Jar the Floor,” written by Cheryl L. West, opened
last week and will run through Nov.2.
Rich performances
help ‘Jar the Floor’
By Artellia Burch
arfeUia.burch@t(Kcbarhtteposi.com
If I said “Jar the Floor” was great it would be an
understatement.
It was simply marvelous.
The play is remarkably written. The characters
are so rich with personality and soul,
“Jar the Floor” is centered on a gathering of four
generations of black women who celebrate the 90th
birthday of the family matriarch.
•f Once the actors walk on stage they are no longer
” themselves. They transform into the characters of
■ five vibrant women who have stories to tell.
Boy, do these women have stories to tell. They
* keep you fuUy engaged- throughout the show. At
; times the theater echoed with laughter. On other
; occasions the glassy eyed audience wiped away
-tears.
• Cheryl West has done a great work for Afidcan
'American women. She has tastefully exposed light
! on issues like color complex, child molestation and
f. abandonment that are often taboo in the black com-
» munity. It was as if West knew when to draw the
5 crowd in and when to let the audience breathe and
■ laugh. That’s not a task for amateurs. I felt as if I
P was peeping into someone’s hving room.
/ “Jar The Floor” tactfully handled some of the hor-
rors that afflict black women and women period,
t Yet, the production was full of light and inspiration.
; Everything was a class act - from the lighting to
i the props.
! “Jar the Floor” is an example of living art.
omo-
Images of Jim Crow
South at Livingstone
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Shirley Gray, widow of artist Johnnie Lee Gray, was at Livingstone College for the opening of “Rising Above Jim
Crow: The Paintings of Johnnie Lee Gray. Johnnie Lee Gray was a native of Spartanburg, S.C.
By Mai Li Munoz Adams
SPECIAL TO THE POST
An extension of the one-man art
exhibit “Rising Above Jim Crow: The
Paintings of Johnnie Lee Gray” is on
display at Livingstone College through
Nov. 21.
Gray’s widow, Shirley Sims Gray, a
1963 Livingstone graduate, brought
her husband’s paintings to the college
last week.
Shirley Gray remembers how stu
dents at Converse College in Spartan
burg, S.C., reacted when she talked to
them about the vivid yet sobering
paintings of the Jim Crow South.
“Instead of asking me What was Jim
Crow?’ they asked me. Who?”’ Shirley
Gray said. Yet, she admits she was not
surprised by that reaction because it
reinforced what she already knows:
That her husband’s art must enlighten
young people of all races and ethnicities
in the 21st century about the saga of
blacks in America and how it has
shaped the history and shapes the
future of the country.
Gray first took an extension of her
husband’s exhibition sponsored by New
York Life Insurance Company, “Rising
Above Jim Crow: The Paintings of
Johnnie Lee Gray,” to Converse. It is at
Livingstone as part of the school’s
125th anniversary.
Johnnie Lee Gray, who died in 2000,
have been installed in the Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture
(where more than 700 people, including
alumni from the Brooklyn-Queens-
Long Island chapter of the Livingstone
College National Alumpi Association,
attended the opening), in the Russell
Senate Office Building Rotunda, in the
Chicago Historical Society, in the
Atlanta History Center, and in the
Forbes Galleries on Fifth Avenue in
New York. Yet, each piece, Shirley Gray
says, has a message that needs to reach
a demographic who might not be famil
iar with the style and implications in
her husband’s art.
“I don’t know if it is for us or for the
younger generation,” she said. ‘This
exhibition shows us not only the cruel
ty man has toward man but also the
stupidity. My husband used to say to
me if we don’t know our past we tend to
repeat it. So this exhibition is a wake-
up call.”
MUes forges ahead with ‘Ancestral Spirits’
Bob Miles
Ancestral Spirits
Frediick Taylor, producer
Sheets Of Music Records
A lot of traditional jazz lovers
don’t have much use for smooth
jazz. Tb them it’s rehashed pop
and R&B instrumentals. This
ain’t no stinking jazz, some
might say.
Maybe, but there’s room for
everything. There shouldn’t be a
need to make room for acoustic
or traditional jazz, but there is.
Make room for Bob Miles. He
isn’t new, nor is his style, but his
recording “Ancestral Spirits” is
new. It’s also very good.
Miles, a graduate of Clark Col
lege (now Clark Atlanta Univer
sity) in Atlanta and Boston’s
Berklee School of Music, is a
gifted saxophone player with a
robust tone. He’s steeped in a
traditional sound that will
remind you of smoky jazz clubs,
late night jam sessions and the
days this was the only jazz. He
switches effortlessly between
tenor and soprano saxophones
and has a masterful group of
musicians playing with and
behind him.
You will not hear remakes of
Janet Jackson songs or any
other songs like hers. Nothing
wrong with that kind of thing.
but that’s not what Miles and
his band does. What you will
hear is fine, fine playing.
This CD is actually a com
pilation of Miles’s earlier
work on other labels. It’s tes
tament to good writing and
good musicianship because it
sounds fresh and timeless.
“Windstorm,” “Sister, Broth
er, Sister” and the title song
could fit into any traditional
jazz rotation and not be the
least out of step.
It’s too bad there’s not a lot
of places that still broadcast
this kind of music. Tradition
al jazz never goes out of style.
Its level of appreciation may
vary from time to time, but
the music itself stays true.
Miles is certainly playing the
truth.
Classic;
Excellent;
Good
Fair
Why?
No stars — A mess
Ratings
i; ^
■p p p p
PPi^
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‘Scary Movie 3’ brings franchise back to life
By David Germain
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES - The
“Scary Movie” franchise has
risen from the grave, with part
three of the horror-spoof series
opening as the top weekend
flick with $49.7 i^lion, the
best October debut-ever.
“Scary Movie 3” bumped the
previous weekend’s No. 1
movie, “The Tbxas Chainsaw
Massacre,” to second place
with $14.7 million, according
to studio estimates Sunday.
Premiering in third place
with $14 million was the feel
good dranra “Radio,” starring
Cuba Gooding Jr. in the real-
life story of a mentally disabled
man befriended by a high school
football coach (Ed Harris).
Angelina JoKe — whose career
had been on the skids with the
flops “Original Sin” and “Life or
Something Like It,” plus a weak
return on last summer’s “Tbmb
Raider” sequel - delivered
another turkey with “Beyond
Borders.”
A downbeat story of doomed
romance between humanitari
an-aid workers (Jolie and Clive
Owen), “Beyond Borders” opened
at No. 11 with just $2 million.
The overall box office soared,
with the top 12 movies taking in
$121.1 milhon, up 39 percent
from the same weekend last
Please see LATEST/2D
D.L. Hughley, Leslie Nielsen and Ja Rule are castmates
In “Scary Movie 3.”