Talking with Dance Theatre of Harlem’s co-founder Arthur Mitchell
JULY 6, 2010 | 4:25 PM
Mitchell “I didn’t want to be a ballet dancer. My motivation was the musicals,” says Arthur Mitchell, one of the 20th-century’s noblest classical dancers, who grew up in New York City in the 1940s enamored of Broadway.
“Vaudeville was incredible. The Apollo, fantastic. Fred Astaire? When I auditioned for the High School of the Performing Arts, I rented top hat, white tie and tails, and sang “Steppin’ Out With My Baby.” They took me not because I was good but because I had so much nerve,” he says.
Memories flow freely, and with laughter, from Mitchell, 76, visiting Los Angeles to mark the July 4 closing of California African American Museum’s “Dance Theatre of Harlem: 40 Years of Firsts.” The exhibit celebrated the multiracial ballet troupe, which disbanded in financial insolvency in 2004. (The Dance Theatre of Harlem school still operates at 152nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue.)
Courtly in his demeanor and with noble carriage that screams “prince,” Mitchell seems born to entrechat-six. In reality, this son of a Harlem building superintendent was a plucky street kid, sneaking into Lucky’s nightclub to watch hoofers.
“I took over running the family when my father left. I was 12. I shined shoes and delivered meat for a butcher. He paid me in meat for my family. I ran errands for the girls in a neighborhood bordello. Growing up on Sugar Hill, attending Harlem’s incredible annual Easter Parade, I saw ‘class’ all around me.”
A huge contributor to American dance, Mitchell has offered more than 50 years of valiant service to two voracious dance organizations. He was one of New York City Ballet’s sparkling principal dancers during George Balanchine’s prime productive years. His peers: Allegra Kent, Suzanne Farrell, Edward Villella, Jillana, Violette Verdy, Patricia McBride and many more. After retiring from City Ballet in 1966, Mitchell co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem, and for four decades ran the pioneering troupe. (He still advises DTH as artistic director emeritus; ballerina Virginia Johnson holds leadership reins).
“I just love to dance. Whatever I could do to dance, I did it. I studied Modern at the
New Dance Group, with Pearl Lang, Katherine Dunham, Jane Dudley and Sophie Maslow. I took the subway to study with Murray Louis at the Brooklyn Academy.”
Bruising rejections Mitchell suspected stemmed from racial prejudice ironically drove him to ballet. He figured, “If I took ballet, that would make me so good they couldn’t refuse me.”
(Mitchell later did do musicals: “When NYCB took breaks, I did “House of Flowers,” “Kiss Me Kate,” and “Carmen Jones.” In a cast of 100, I was the only black in Guy Lombardo’s “Arabian Nights.”)
Life changed for Mitchell in 1948 when he got a scholarship to the virtually all-white School of American Ballet, breeding ground for New York City Ballet. “You are a Negro,” Mitchell remembers Lincoln Kirstein, Balanchine’s patron, saying to him. Kirstein was reflecting Balanchine’s vision, written in a now-famous letter dated 1933, that City Ballet should ideally comprise “eight Caucasian and eight colored dancers.”
Mitchell joined the company in 1955. He was 21. “Jackie Robinson was making headlines in baseball, and I said I didn’t want any publicity about being a Negro barrier breaker. At my first performance, no one knew I was coming out.”
“Jacques d’Amboise was shooting “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” in L.A. and I debuted in his “Western Symphony” role” partnering Tanny [Balanchine’s wife, Tanaquil LeClercq]. When I stepped onto the stage, some guy, right behind the conductor, cried out, “Oh my god! They got a …!”” In telling the story, Mitchell laughs while bleeping out the word. “And the place went crazy. The audience was catcalling, ‘Give him a chance!’ ”
In 1957, Balanchine set a new work on Mitchell and ballerina Diana Adams – the intimate and intricate pas de deux from “Agon,” a ballet for 12 dancers that’s considered the choreographer’s masterpiece. Now 52 years old, “Agon”’s unapologetic Modernism and its commissioned Igor Stravinsky score (written when the composer lived in L.A.) still challenges.
“Do you know what it took for Balanchine to put me, a black man, on stage with a white woman? This was 1957, before civil rights. He showed me how to take her [holding her delicately by the wrist]. He said, ‘put your hand on top.’ The skin colors were part of the choreography. He saw what was going to happen in the world and put it on stage.”
In more than 50 years, only Mitchell and the just-retired Albert Evans have figured as African American principal dancers at NYCB. The company nonetheless proved a nurturing environment for Mitchell: “I rarely experienced racism at City Ballet even when we toured. The company supported me. Mr. Balanchine always said, “If Mitchell doesn’t dance, New York City Ballet doesn’t dance.”
— Debra Levine
rolandsmartin ✔ @rolandsmartin
MUST READ by @FrancesRobles! Palm Beach Gardens officer who killed #CoreyJones once failed to turn over evidence…. http://fb.me/3vkR0XWIN
https://twitter.com/FLOTUSnews/status/656910901291937794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
VP Biden Thread is up. We must capture this moment in history.
CNN is reporting @Clyburn statement concerning Joe Biden influenced his decision. James Clyburn’s statement, y’all. Why couldn’t he be quiet? Black ass!
I don’t believe that SG2.
I think it was a lot of things, SG2.
Ok,
I want a ticket.
https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/656895994936860673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/WestWingReport/status/656869820005154819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/656868160163979264/photo/1
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
I will never, ever forget how the Democrats treated President Obama and VP Biden.
I will never ever forget how the Democrats treated and continue to treat the first black First Lady of the United States..
Only4RM @Only4RM
Amen. You don’t get #ObamaCoalition turnout that’s needed to win by dissing or distancing from the Obama record. https://twitter.com/GPBmadeit/status/656873221342408704 …
https://twitter.com/GPBmadeit/status/656873221342408704
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
Pro-tip 4 Hillary supporters: Don’t tell the Obama Coalition what we need to come to terms with. We will not be bullied into supporting HRC.
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
VP announced he’s not running but Hillary supporters are STILL taking shots at him. And u wonder why the Obama Coalition won’t support her?
AlGiordano @AlGiordano
Way to go suppressing your candidate’s general election turnout. Kick Biden when he’s down. Brilliant. https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/656867646458212352 …
Peter Daou has been so drunk on the Clinton cocktail since Bill had him self-importantly organizing young media folk to meet with him to sweet talk and lock them in for Hillary’s 2008 run ..
https://twitter.com/KendallTTaggart/status/656830096993456128/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Washington Post ✔ @washingtonpost
America’s tendency to gloss over racism and slavery, as told through PBS http://wapo.st/1W4uT0q
John Kennedy @JKennedyReport
Black lawmakers in Florida unite behind call for indy probe into Corey Jones’ shooting. http://pbpo.st/1NUiqgT
LOL..
Please do not for one second fall for all these Beckies – including those who have been Obama ‘supporters’ but who say on the sly that they want to now see ‘someone who looks like them in the White House’ – and are now pretending they’re ‘heartbroken’ over the VP’s decision not to run – and then slickly ‘reminding’ us that as ‘sad’ as they are, this is about ‘protecting’ the President’s legacy – and following the President’s lead to ‘rally behind the eventual nominee’ –
Cloaking their effort in getting us to hop on the Hillary coronation wagon under the guise of this is about ‘protecting’ the President’s accomplishments. LOL – they think they’re slick..
Puuhleeze… I’d be curious to see if this manipulative sentiment holds still if by some chance Bernie Sanders or someone else comes out on top and cinches the nomination..
I wonder too if they’ll go back to reminding us that Bernie isn’t a Democrat..something they all suddenly let go of once Bernie played footsie with Hillary during the sham debate…
please comment on the VP Biden thread ALSO, TOO! We want this post to go on 3 Chics’ record. Thanks!
In 08 and 2012, I made sure my kids, bro, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews & friends went to the polls and STAYED in that line. Not this time.
You and me both SG…You have no idea just how much stress and premature grey hair I suffered and acquired in 08 and some more in 2012…I’m still recovering…
I maxed out both times – I just couldn’t bear the thought that we would lose because we didn’t have enough money to compete – my poor credit cards got a lot of action, but i didn’t care – Every time I got one of those emails David Plouffe now tells us in his book were all designed to get us all worked up, I bit…
I registered, cajoled, begged, bribed, fed people, attended and hosted fundraisers, phone-banked – learnt how to survive the jarring and shocked feeling of being abused and the phone hung up on me…drove people to the polls and prayed and cried my eyes and heart out in the end…And went hoarse from screaming for joy when we won…
Like I shared, I’m so jaded and annoyed these days – feel no such feelings – I mostly feel irritation and annoyance and of course anger when it comes to the mistreatment of FLOTUS – and the brazen and regressive shenanigans of the Democratic party under Debbie Wassermann-Schulz has stunned and pissed me off to no end-
These days when I get an e-mail with her name on it, I have such a visceral reaction…I delete it immediately – I simply cannot take anymore of her…
I hear you, SG2.
I guess it remains to be seen what kind of ground game Hillary will have. The die hard Democrats usually turn out, but I sense almost zero enthusiasm for her candidacy. This is definitely going to be about which is the worst once the Republicans choose a candidate.
Attention Cooning Negroes for Hillary:
You Nigras don’t want our receipts.
Because, I am not in the mood.
Don’t start none. Won’t be none.
This goes for the website and 3CHICS on Twitter.
Take your buckdancing elsewhere.
from lamh:
Chuck Todd who spent the entire last 10 days saying Joe should not run is now saying he should have run and will regret not running..huh..?
These multi prong tongued, mealy -mouthed no good people..
This Fire Fighter Union president is speaking the truth…He said that not once did you ever hear leaks from Joe Biden’s side complaining about anything or any decision the President made. he always acted in concert with the President unlike messy Hillary who was always playing one messy game or the other and using her fellow bitter hens like Ann Marie Slaughter, ed rendell etc. to express dissatisfaction or to distance herself from the president even while she worked for him…
And to hell with all these patronizing a**holes Jim Messina, Dan Pfeiffer, Jon Favreau etc. who were all part of the inner circle disrespecting and undermining crowd – now they’re ‘praising’ the VP and hailing him the ‘greatest V.P’ ever..
Well, if he was the ‘greatest’ VP, doesn’t it stand to reason then that he was the logical next in line? They didn’t even give the guy a bloody chance, or the dignity to bow out of his own volition without the insults, disrespect and threats..?
tell that truth!
Could the Democratic Party be more disconnected from America’s changing demographics? Could they be more disconnected from what ails this nation?
Well, I’m voting for Bernie Sanders.
Well, Hillary will get her coronation, just as she’s been wanting since 2008.
My seeing friend says not so fast…LOL..
Ugh. Please spare me this whole requiem for a candidacy most of them went out of their way to thwart..
And to hell with Ed Rendell and the lot of them patronizing the V.P now after doing their darndest to block him. All they want now is for the VP to slave for Hillary’s coronation.
Fuck Eddie & the lot of them!
I am not voting for Hillary. I couldn’t repeat this enough Ametia… If nobody else materializes, I’m just going to have to write in my favorite person’s name…And you guys know who it is..LOL..
And I’m taking as many people with me as I can find…Because this Hillary is so undeserving…And I’m not buying this whole rhetoric of how she’s going to continue the President’s policies..The woman cannot be trusted. She has no integrity. No loyalty.
If she is this brazen and this arrogant – and strong-arming everyone right now, can you even begin to imagine what she’ll be like when she no longer needs our vote and support..? She won’t even feel the least bit need to respect the Obamas then…and she frankly won’t give a rats arse what we think once she sets foot in that White House…No can do..sorry.
Hopefully now Joe Biden knows who his real friends – and enemies are. Including all these disloyal White House staff who undermined, sabotaged and stabbed him in the back. Shameful.
I’m so disappointed, but completely understand and support VP Biden’s decision. Still grieving for Beau and dealing with the sliminess of the GOP & BACK-STABBING DEMOCRATIC PARTY…
There’s no way he isn’t feeling pretty betrayed and resentful Ametia..
He was not supported in any way. This has very little to do with Beau or mourning his death..
The VP is the natural heir to a 2-term president and not for one minute was this VP given the courtesy of formally passing on running before Hillary and her cronies started making her coronation plans. Can anyone imagine if Hillary was VP and someone like John Kerry came out of nowhere and threw his hat in the ring..? The outrage and accusations of disrespect that would have filled the air..
Everyone seems to forget that Hillary actually prematurely announced that she would not be returning for the second term as SoS – deliberately undermining the President and the admin – and, in the middle of sensitive diplomatic negotiations that could have easily been jeopardized by her making clear she was jumping ship and doing so so publicly and so prematurely..
She was so sure that the 2nd term was not going to happen, and she was helping to sink any chances the president had for re-election – to set the stage for her to swoop in in 2016.. She then started to angle to replace Joe as VP on the ticket when things started coming together for a re-election…
The woman is neither loyal nor does she have integrity. It’s all about her and the e-mail thing is just another example of how she never was on board with this President, even though she milked all the opportunities he offered her for all it was worth – and only to set herself up for her presidential run. Everything was and has always been about her and this obsession to be the first woman.
And her spiteful, underhanded e-mail exchanges with the likes of Barbara Mikulski for instance are just proof that contrary to the narratives being spun by her people, Hillary never took the high road nor did she ever suspend her resentment and plots and plans against the President even for a minute..
keep on bringing those truths, eliihass.
I have asked the question many times – what if Hillary had been VP?
they would have howled about anyone running against her.
Reagan – though I couldn’t stand him – was a successful two-term President.
Nobody
a) thought that George H.W. Bush shouldn’t run.
b) never even opened their mouths about him not running.
It was unthinkable.
Yeah, and just imagine what we don’t know.
Liza, we know enough. We can read between all the lines.
Joey B is not running.
I am so sad
Well the Clinton thugs have won this round, but it isn’t over yet. The fat lady is yet to sing and something tells me it won’t favor Hillary.
Hillary must be the “happiest girl in the whole USA” right now. Her and her cult following.
I have a gut feeling that the next presidency is one term only. Just have that feeling.
I’m a big believer in the whole concept of man proposes, and God dispose…I’m not calling this thing for Hillary.
A wise, seeing person I know has said Hillary will never be president – and I’m going with that in this instance..
LOL.
I’m quite miffed at the Democratic party and even some in the White House – They did this V.P wrong. This guy has had to play second fiddle to Hillary Clinton’s feeling from day one.
The idea that a single speech by Bill Clinton at the DNC convention was in exchange for President Obama committing to support Hillary’s candidacy, boggles the mind if true.
Man proposes, and God disposes..
I’ve thought many times that we will look back on the Obama years as an oasis in the desert. We should be experiencing the last gasp of white majority politics, which includes the Clintons, but for some reason they seem to have enough gas in the tank to take back the presidency for awhile.
Co-signing Eliihaas. I’m not calling this for Clinton. Now way NO HOW.
That is their goal, these CLINTONISTAS, to BLOCK & LOCK for Hillary.
I AM NOT VOTING FOR THIS WITCH
I’m not voting for her either.
But get ready for the “lesser of two evils” campaign. As in, do you really want a Republican to choose the next SCOTUS judge and so forth. I can hear it already. The Hillary crowd is certain they will squash Bernie Sanders like a bug and that won’t take much effort. Then they will move on to “Better vote for Hillary or you’ll be mighty sorry.”
And that’s it. That’s 2016. Done.
Senate GOP wastes valuable time with anti-immigrant gambit
10/21/15 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Congress gave itself another week-long break last week, and members returned to Capitol Hill facing some critically important deadlines. Even putting aside the fact that House Republicans are struggling to choose their own leaders, the Highway Trust Fund runs out of money next week, and to avoid default, lawmakers will have to raise the debt ceiling in just 13 days.
But instead of tackling this real and important work, the Senate yesterday decided to waste a little time with an anti-immigrant gambit that everyone knew in advance would fail. MSNBC’s Amanda Sakuma reported:
Senate Democrats stonewalled a bill on Tuesday that would have stripped funding to so-called sanctuary cities and established stiff prison sentences to certain undocumented immigrants. The action comes as a major roadblock in the GOP crusade to tighten enforcement on immigration laws.
In a 54-45 vote largely along party lines, Republicans failed to clear a procedural hurdle on legislation targeting cities that do not cooperate with federal officials in deporting undocumented immigrants from their communities.
The final roll call is online here. Note, proponents of the far-right measure needed 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, and they weren’t particularly close. One Republican who’s worried about his re-election – Illinois’ Mark Kirk – even broke ranks and joined the Democratic opposition.
But the underlying question is arguably the most interesting part of this: why in the world did the Senate waste valuable time on this when it has important work to do?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/senate-gop-wastes-valuable-time-anti-immigrant-gambit
Chicago Folks,
the Black Ensemble Theatre is doing The Black/White Love Play – a story about the Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz.
Heard an interview with Chaz last night. I’ve never seen an actual play there, so I assume there’s a lot of music involved with it, because that’s what Jackie Taylor does.
http://www.blackensembletheater.org/
October 19, 2015
To Democrats, I would advise patience
A reader points to Matthew Yglesias’s handwringing — which, while overwrought in my opinion, should not be underestimated, either. You never know. At any rate, a full read of his Vox piece is advisable; or if you haven’t the time, Yglesias’s concluding paragraph summarizes his worry:
The much more significant question facing the [Democratic] party isn’t about the White House — it’s about all the other offices in the land. The problem is that control of the presidency seems to have blinded progressive activists to the possibility of even having an argument about what to do about all of them. That will change if and when the GOP seizes the White House, too, and Democrats bottom out. But the truly striking thing is how close to bottom the party is already and how blind it seems to be to that fact.
It could be that I’m one of the blind. It could also be that there’s little reason for Yglesias’s worry, even though I’m an inveterate worrier. The chief reason comes from none other than RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who, in yet another instance of capricious Republican truth-telling, recently said “I do think we’re cooked as a party for quite a while … if we don’t win in 2016. I do think it’s going to be hard to dig out of something like that.”
Rot, stench, the fish’s head and all that. The GOP is decaying from the top down. Just look at its “top” spokesmen — Donald Trump and Ben Carson, an utterly unhinged demagogue and an inexplicable cipher. On the party’s less popular establishment side there’s Jeb Bush, inept brother of the country’s most inept president ever. Such is the deep bench that might “seize the White House”?
– See more at: http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2015/10/to-democrats-i-would-advise-patience.html#sthash.7qY0lEyy.dpuf
October 20, 2015
The Great Unraveling: The GOP examines itself in free fall
Joe Biden got some excellent news yesterday. For the first time in more than two years of ABC/WaPo polling, President Obama topped the 50 percent approval mark in job performance. “That compares with 71 percent disapproval of the Republicans in Congress,” reports ABC News, “with six in 10 calling their struggle to select a new House speaker a sign of dysfunction within the GOP caucus.”
I don’t know which is more uplifting: that Obama is back in the black or Republicans are drenched in red. On the surer side of knowability, though, Obama will still be his solid self in 2016 — which is particularly good news for a legacy presidential candidate — while congressional Republicans will have further ulcerated into bleeding chaos. By winter, they will have hauled us to the edge of national catastrophe several times. Thus the happiest days will be here again, for the GOP’s current 24 percent approval rating will, by then, be cause for internal nostalgia.
The electorate is beginning to figure this out, and conservatives are freaking out. Their party is an incurable blight, a wasteland of fringy frivolity and crackpot extremism. The Republican House is a thunderdome of bloody imbecility, the Republican Senate is a hothouse of pornographic presidential hopefulness, and the party’s leading contenders for the republic’s highest office are two very implausible wombats.
The spawn of strategic Bill Buckley’s baby, National Review Online, wailed yesterday that “members of the Republican establishment are starting to give voice to an increasingly common belief that Donald Trump, once dismissed as joke, a carnival barker, and a circus freak, might very well win the nomination.” If so, the carnival-barking Trump will be embraced by much of the establishment, which the electorate will then dismiss as the real joke.
– See more at: http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2015/10/the-great-unraveling-the-gop-examines-itself-in-free-fall-.html#sthash.ssBlOaek.dpuf
October 20, 2015
Still-unannounced Joe Biden comes out swinging
Boy, is this going to get good, or what? The Hill:
Vice President Biden on Tuesday offered a different account of his advice to President Obama on the Osama bin Laden raid…. Biden said that only two advisers — then-CIA Director Leon Panetta [who was a “go”] and Defense Secretary Robert Gates [who was a “no go”] — gave definitive answers on whether Obama should carry out the raid, contradicting Clinton’s claim she fully backed the mission.
That differs, of course, from the account Biden first gave, which was that he opposed the raid until more intel was available. He now says he “advised Obama to ‘go’ when the two were alone to avoid boxing the president in on a decision.” This is perhaps true. If not, does it make any difference? The Clinton camp has demonstrated with Romneyesque pizzazz that self-differing accounts are just so many nothings of politics. From the TPP to the Keystone pipeline, Hillary is flipping and flopping and careening with abandon. And if Hillary can do it, so can Joe. One can’t beat a Clinton unless one plays by Clinton rules — which means there aren’t any.
In suggesting that Clinton inflated her own claim of “fully back[ing]” the bin Laden raid, Biden is merely being guided by his boss’s 2008 primary strategy — a “character” assault on Hillary. As Obama’s strategists wrote in a campaign memo: “Clinton can’t be trusted or believed when it comes to change” (hence Obama’s slogan, ‘Change you can believe in’); “She’s driven by political calculation not conviction”; and “She embodies trench warfare vs. Republicans.”
– See more at: http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2015/10/still-unannounced-joe-biden-comes-out-swinging.html#sthash.rjyiBQMW.dpuf
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/656636293238136832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/mviser/status/656656449574072321/photo/1
Didn’t folks say this the other day?
………………..
Tariq Nasheed @tariqnasheed
That story of NFL ‘s #JohnnyManziel reportedly hitting his girlfriend quickly faded out of the headlines. But #RayRice is still stigmatized
He could have done this years ago. To be honest, the Obama Presidency would have been a good time to revive it.
…………………
George E. Curry @currygeorge
Curry Bringing Back ‘Emerge’ Online https://shar.es/1uk0xo via sharethis
Ametia, TyrenM:
This is for you. They’re only doing it in Minneapolis right now.
…………………..
Smiley @smileyt22
Target is giving store credit in exchange for your used clothing http://ln.is/mashable.com/2015/10/cTwcH … via @mashable
Thanks for this. I’ve already cleaned out my closets and consigned. Will definitely pass it on and use in future though.
https://twitter.com/VanityFair/status/656798353355882497/photo/1
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
.@MadisonSiriusXM VP Biden is the right-hand man of a successful two-term POTUS, but you ask, “What does Biden bring to the table”????
THIS: These MOFOs don’t want NO PARTS of PBO’ BLACKNESS on the DEMOCRATIC ticket.
In other words, ERASE THE BLACK PRESIDENT FOR 2016
I’m so disgusted by the whole bunch of them. We had Sheila Jackson Lee take her turn this morning to pledge allegiance to Hillary. And Joanne Walsh with her faux-outrage at how V.P Joe supposedly came out swinging ‘negatively’ against Hillary.
The whole thing is sickening.
This continues to tickle me.
………………..
Donald Trump Leads in Expectations, Shows Strength on Attributes (POLL)
By JULIE PHELAN Oct 21, 2015, 7:00 AM ET
Donald Trump leads the Republican presidential field in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, not only in vote preferences but in expectations as well -– a remarkable feat for the non-politician who’s surprised the GOP establishment with his staying power as well as his support.
Trump has leveled off with backing from 32 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who are registered to vote, easily enough to retain his frontrunner status. Fellow outsider Ben Carson follows with 22 percent, also flat this month after sharp summertime gains.
Notably, even more leaned Republicans — 42 percent — say they expect Trump to win the GOP nomination for president. And given a list of six potential nominees, 43 percent pick Trump as having the best chance to win the general election just more than a year from now.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-leads-expectations-shows-strength-attributes-poll/story?id=34599211
uh huh
uh huh
…………..
Democrats Add Candidate Forum Amid Criticism Over Debate Schedule
Sam Frizell @Sam_Frizell 5:01 AM EST
Amid a nasty internal spat about the number of debates in the presidential primary, the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday endorsed adding a forum for the Democratic candidates.
Hosted by the liberal grassroots organization MoveOn.org, the venue will be an online forum—not a debate—featuring questions from viewers and focusing on progressive issues. So far, only Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has agreed to attend.
The additional venue for the presidential candidates follows months of controversy surrounding the DNC over the debate schedule.
http://time.com/4080763/democratic-debates-moveon-forum/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fswampland+%28TIME%3A+Swampland%29&utm_content=Netvibes
Reports: Iran’s supreme leader endorses landmark nuclear deal
Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY 7:38 a.m. EDT October 21, 2015
Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday endorsed the landmark nuclear deal with world powers, according to his official website.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed the deal in a letter to moderate President Hassan Rouhani that was also read on state TV, the Associated Press and Reuters said.
Iran’s parliament and the country’s top clerics previously approved the deal, but Khamenei has the final say on major policies.
In the United States, congressional Democrats previously blocked a Republican resolution to scupper the agreement.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/21/irans-supreme-leader-endorses-landmark-nuclear-deal-with-world-powers/74316300/
Vanessa Williams Makes Her ‘Flash’ Debut Tonight as Iris Finds Out Her Mother Is Alive (Watch Preview)
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
October 20, 2015 at 2:24PM
Tonight, Vanessa Williams makes her debut appearance on CW’s hit superhero drama series “The Flash,” as Iris West’s mother, long believed to be dead.
Iris is played by Candice Patton, whose father, and thus, Vanessa Williams’ would-be husband on the show, is played by Jesse L. Martin (aka Joe West).
Fans of the series will know that the whereabouts of Iris’ mother haven’t really been addressed on the show yet, although it’s only been 1 season. In fact, she’s barely referenced, if at all, as I recall. I think I just assumed that she wasn’t alive.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/vanessa-williams-makes-her-flash-debut-tonight-as-iris-finds-out-her-mother-is-alive-watch-preview-20151020
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
Gov. Christie wants NJ flights to Cuba barred until Assata Shakur is returned to the U.S. http://on.wsj.com/1MCbKOo via @WSJ #BlackTwitter
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Morning!
*Good Afternoon, Everyone. *SIGH8