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A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 25 augusT 2022
R&B Hall of Fame headed to small Mississippi Delta town

MICHAEL GOLDBERG musical phenomenon that
Associated Press/Report for provided the basis for the
America prodigious economic suc-
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A cess and profits of the U.S.
small town in the Missis- music industry worldwide,”
sippi Delta that has ties to planners wrote in a docu-
the civil rights movement ment outlining the project.
will soon be home to the As of 2020, Quitman Coun-
National Rhythm and Blues ty had one of the 20 lowest
Hall of Fame. median income levels of all
Project planners hope to counties in the country, ac-
finish building the facility in cording to the U.S. Census
the town of Marks in two or Bureau. “The Hall of Fame
three years, Velma Wilson, will be the catalyst to Delta
director of economic tour- tourism growth and oppor-
ism and development for tunities, and a means to at-
Quitman County, told The tract business and industry,”
Associated Press on Tues- said Democratic U.S. Rep.
day. Marks is the county This image provided by A2H Engineers, Architects, Planners on Aug. 18, 2022, shows digital Bennie Thompson, who rep-
seat of Quitman County rendering of the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in Marks, Miss. resents Quitman County.
and has a population of Associated Press The city of Marks donated
fewer than 2,000 people. 5 acres (2 hectares) of land
The project is the culmina- ica, and the entire world is be his final Sunday sermon and fathers ... They raised a for the project. According
tion of a 50-year effort to something that I don’t take before his assassination, little money here and there; to an agreement reviewed
build a hall of fame for R&B lightly.” Robinson founded King described the pover- trying to get a little food to by the AP, the Quitman
musicians such as James the hall of fame in 2010. ty-stricken families he en- feed the children; trying to County Economic Tourism
Brown, Aretha Franklin and Since 2013, it has inducted countered in Marks. teach them a little some- and Development agency
B.B. King. “There is no other more than 200 artists. “I was in Marks, Mississippi, thing.” The conditions in the secured a $500,000 appro-
hall of fame in the world Marks appealed to Robin- the other day, which is in cotton fields of Quitman priation from the Mississippi
that is primarily focused son due to its civil rights his- Quitman County, the poor- County and other parts of Legislature for infrastructure
and dedicated to the his- tory. Martin Luther King Jr. est county in the United the Mississippi Delta were related to the project.
tory of R&B music on a na- chose the town in 1968 as States. And I tell you I saw the environment in which The agency also hopes to
tional scale,” LaMont Rob- the starting point for his Poor hundreds of Black boys early civil rights activists secure an $11 million fed-
inson, CEO of the NRBHF, People’s Campaign, which and Black girls walking the and field workers produced eral grant through the U.S.
said in a news release. “My demanded economic jus- streets with no shoes to music that’s now identified Department of Transporta-
vision to build a hall of fame tice for poor Americans of wear,” King said at the Na- as blues, gospel and R&B, tion to beef up develop-
to honor R&B and its contri- all backgrounds. On March tional Cathedral in Wash- project planners said. ment around the hall of
butions to civil rights, Amer- 31, 1968, in what would ington. “I saw their mothers “It was this cultural and fame. q

Michael K. Williams’ final film role

in ‘Breaking’

By JAKE COYLE hair on his beard one last an Affairs. When he goes
AP Film Writer reminder of all the wise down to their offices and
“Breaking,” Abi Damaris older characters the “Wire” tells them he soon won’t be
Corbin’s lean and heartfelt actor might have gone on able to feed himself, he’s
first feature, is a lackluster to play. handed a pamphlet and
bank-robbery thriller with “Breaking,” which opens told to take a number. It’s
noble intentions enlivened in theaters Friday, may go not until dozens of police
by an impassioned perfor- down primarily as a foot- are outside with snipers’ ri- This image released by Bleecker Street shows Michael K.
mance note in Williams’ career fles aimed through the win- Williams in a scene from “Breaking.”
by John Boyega and an but it’s also a showcase dows that we learn what Associated Press
elegiac final appearance for Boyega, an actor who, Brian is owed: $892.34.
by the late Michael K. Wil- like Williams, has a pow- “Your life is worth more voice drowned out by VA playwright Kwame Kwei-
liams. erful voice both on and than that,” Williams’ police bureaucracy and society’s Armah, struggles to mix
It’s not until well into “Break- off screen. He plays Brian officer tells him. disinterest. Inside the bank, elements on the ground
ing” that Williams, as a po- Brown-Easley, who nervous- “Breaking” is about how Brian spends most of his time with a character study into
lice negotiator, turns up. ly and with little apparent a feeling of worthlessness pleading for a negotiator Brian’s life. Scenes over the
But the actor, who died last plan walks into the bank can push a person to the to be assigned or imploring phone with his estranged
year, immediately reorients and quietly informs the tell- brink. Brian is only after a local reporter (Connie wife (Olivia Washington)
and deepens the film. As a er that he has a bomb. what’s owed to him; he Britton) for coverage. “Tell and daughter (London
sensitive ear to Boyega’s Flashbacks fill in the tale, declines to take the bank’s them about what’s hap- Covington) are flat. And by
former Marine, who’s holed which comes from a true money. He’s courteous to pening!” he screams. As in the time “Breaking” creeps
up inside an Atlanta-area story from 2017. Disjointed the two hostages, played Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day to its bloody climax, the
Wells Fargo bank, Williams scenes capture Brian’s long by Nicole Beharie and Sele- Afternoon,” Brian’s gambit movie has only made a
and his soulful, melancholy hours on the phone trying to nis Leyva. And, more than is more protest than heist. thin sketch of its protagonist
eyes bring a rush of empa- get his disability check from anything, he just wants to But “Breaking,” penned despite Boyega’s obvious
thy to the film, the white the Department of Veter- be heard, to not have his by Corbin with the British dedication. q