Page 38 - Florida Sentinel 2-5-21

Entertainment
Cicely Tyson, Actress Who Captured The Power And Grace Of Black Women, Dies
Kanye West Reportedly
When Cicely Tyson ac- cepted an Emmy in 1974 for her starring role in “The Auto- biography of Miss Jane Pittman,” she smiled into the camera and spoke straight to her mother: “You see, Mom,” she said, “it wasn’t really a den of iniquity after all.”
Some two decades earlier, the sternly religious Theo- dosia Tyson had thrown her daughter out of her New York City home for getting into the “sinful” entertainment busi- ness. For two years, they didn’t see each other.
Only much later did Theo- dosia acknowledge that her daughter, who by then was fa- mous for the disciplined and elegant quality of her acting, had chosen superbly. Tyson worked less often than she could have because of her in- sistence that roles for Black women reflect a sense of power and grace.
Always coy about her age and secretive about her private life, Tyson died last Thursday afternoon, her manager Larry Thompson said. He did not say where she died or whether a cause is known. According to her recently released memoir “Just As I Am,” she was 87. Public records indicate she was 96.
One thing she was not shy about was her long string of
roles exhaustive, Tyson also cared about the example she set for other Black women. The day before her appearance as an African woman in a 1959 drama on CBS’ “Camera Three,” she had her stylishly straightened hair cut off and cropped as close as possible.
With that deceptively sim- ple choice, Tyson became by many accounts the first Black woman to appear on TV with natural hair, a choice that trig- gered “a not-so-minor earth- quake in the minds of young Black women,” Ms. magazine recounted.
A few years later, she un- veiled an Afro, and then corn rows on “East Side/West Side,” an early 1960s TV series about social workers in New York City.
For Tyson, it was a ques- tion of principle.
Tyson was born in New York City to Theodosia and William A. Tyson, immi- grants from the Caribbean is- land of Nevis. For most of her career, Tyson said she was born Dec. 19, 1933, but public records indicate her birth date was Dec. 18, 1924.
Tyson was married to Miles Davis for seven years in the 1980s and had no children. Tyson had a well-known com- mitment to community in- volvement.
From Nearly 1,000 Sunday
CICELY TYSON
acting achievements.
In 1972, she was nominated
for an Oscar for “Sounder,” playing a sharecropper whose husband is convicted for steal- ing a piece of meat. With her performance two years later in “Jane Pittman,” a story that culminates with Pittman, a 110-year-old ex-slave, defiantly drinking from an all-white water fountain, she cemented her reputation as one of Amer- ica’s preeminent Black ac- tresses.
She performed in dozens of TV programs, films and stage plays, and in 2013 received a Tony Award for her lead per- formance in “The Trip to Bountiful.” She was a Kennedy Center honoree in 2015. The next year, then-President Obama awarded her the Pres- idential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the nation.
Though her resume was ex- tensive and her preparation for
Kanye West’s Sunday Service choir is going from working with ‘Ye in the pews to challenging the multi-time Grammy Award winner in a court of law.
According to Page Six, nearly 1,000 Sunday Service members have partnered to file two class-action lawsuits against the Yeezy founder over a number of issues from late or missed payments, mis- treatments, broken labor laws and more.
The lawsuit was originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last summer, but details of each allegation are begin- ning to become public.
Per the UK Sun, the per- formers and crew had legal rights to overtime wages and should have been classified as employees, not independent
KANYE WEST
contractors. One singer, Michael Pearson, reportedly said in court documents he was paid a flat rate of $250 “re- gardless of the number of hours worked” and had no meals or restroom breaks and was “forced to stand or sit on the ground” all weekend dur- ing one performance.
Facing $30M Lawsuit
Service Members
Beyonce’s Cousin, Rapper Martell ‘Kardone’ Derouen, Shot And
Killed In San Antonio
Rapper Martell Der- ouen, who performed under the stage name Kardone, was shot and killed in San Antonio. He was 34.
The San Antonio Express- News reports that Derouen was found dead on Tuesday after police conducted a wel- fare check. His friends and family had alerted the police after not hearing from him for days. San Antonio police dis- covered Derouen’s body in- side his apartment in central Texas on Tuesday. He died from a gunshot wound.
Local media has identified DeRouen as Beyoncé’s rela- tive through her maternal grandmother Agnéz Deréon. Tina Knowles’ fashion line House of Deréon was named after her but Beyonce or her reps have not yet confirmed the relationship.
“Hailing from San Antonio, TX by way of Louisiana, Kar- done was widely known in his area for being Beyonce’s cousin, but in the last few
MARTELL DEROUEN AND BEYONCE
years, he’s changed that narra- tive with his own musical pur- suits,” his Spotify bio reads where his biggest song ‘Magic’ has over half a million plays. He was distributing his music through The Orchard/Sony Music.
The police are reportedly searching for Sasha Skare, 21, who they believe is the prime suspect for the murder. An arrest warrant has been is- sued. “There is no way to re- place him but please help us find this girl,” Derouen’s wife, Joia, wrote in a state- ment.
PAGE 20-B FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2021