Category: Biography

  • Illicit Labor: MacArthur’s Mistress and Imperial Intimacies Radical History Review Volume 2015, Number 123 (October 2015) pages 87-114 DOI: 10.1215/01636545-3088168 Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, Associate Professor of American Studies University of Hawaii, Mānoa This essay examines a brief affair between General Douglas MacArthur and a mixed-race Filipina vaudeville actress named Isabel Rosario Cooper. It focuses on…

  • Something Old, Something New BBC Radio 4 2015-10-06 Johny Pitts, Host Peter Meanwell, Producer Recorded & mixed! Finished @BBCRadio4 (Engineer Steve Hellier with Johny Pitts) Source: Peter Meanwell From Sheffield to South Carolina, Johny Pitts explores alternative Black British identity. What happens when your Dad’s an African-American soul star [Richie Pitts] and your Mum’s a…

  • The most famous ‘Indian’ on 1950s American TV The Times of India 2015-10-04 Malini Nair Korla Pandit was the first African American to have a TV show to himself – by pretending to be an exotic Indian musician The story is almost unbelievable. In the US of the 1940s, a light-skinned African American youth discovers…

  • Ten black composers whose works deserve to be heard more often The Guardian 2015-06-02 John Lewis English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912). Photograph: Unknown/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS The newly formed Chineke orchestra aims to include a work by a composer of ethnicity in each of its concert programmes. John Lewis looks at some of the neglected writers whose…

  • Jesse Williams: ‘Celebrity culture? I am not going to participate in that’ The Guardian 2015-10-01 Jana Kasperkevic The Grey’s Anatomy star is back on screen as TV pin-up Jackson Avery, but for the former teacher it’s his civil rights work he wants people to talk about There is a heatwave making its way through Los…

  • Jesse Williams Discusses Biracial Privileges and Social Justice: ‘Black Americans Are Not Angry. They Are Hurting’ The Root 2015-10-02 Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele It has always been a pet peeve of mine when biracial people seem to ignore their white side and act as if the world perceives them as black through and through. I always…

  • The Fabulous World of Harumi Klossowska de Rola The New York Times Magazine 2015-09-22 Hilary Moss “Benoît, my partner, took this photo in 2013 in front of the Grand Chalet, which was a hotel until my father bought it. It is still loaded with thousands of books and even old skis from English clients. My…

  • New Documentary Reveals the Strange Life of Korla Pandit NBC Bay Area (KNTV) San Jose, California 2015-08-27 In the category of unusual entertainers, there are few who could hold a candle to Korla Pandit. And now a new documentary will feature his life. Joe Rosato Jr. reports.

  • Korla Appleberry Pictures San Rafael, California April 2005 A Film by John Turner & Eric Christensen Korla Pandit was a spiritual seeker, a television pioneer and the godfather of exotica music. Known for his hypnotic gaze, Korla captured the hearts of countless Los Angeles housewives in the 50s with his live television program that featured…

  • He was a handsome holy man, an organ virtuoso, a star from the East. Korla Pandit mesmerized generations–while keeping a secret until his dying day