An excited crowd packed the atrium at Atlanta City Hall on Nov. 7 to herald poet, performer and community activist Hank Stewart. The event, hosted by City Councilman Michael Julian Bond, Judge Glenda Hatchett and longtime local broadcaster Monica Pearson, included moving tributes and an official resolution saluting Stewart's artistic excellence.
"Hank, your words and style makes us sing and dance with hope, faith and love," said U.S. Rep. John Lewis in a statement shared for the occasion.
Stewart’s works include books, CDs and DVDs, and he has performed at the Trumpet Awards and Essence Music Festival. His latest book, “Twenty-Five Years and Still Counting,” explores his 25-year career, recapturing some of his favorite poems and highlights along the way.
“Poetry has helped me to deal with many issues,” said Stewart, who published his first book, “The Answer,” in 1993. “I think conscious poetry is important. It documents history. It’s a message to people who don’t always have a chance to listen to long sermons. If you look back over time, poetry has made its way into every aspect of life.”
Here’s to the next 25 years and beyond.
Chris Rock, Andy Cohen and Donald Trump
Actor and comedian Chris Rock says he'll seek to follow businessman and reality show star Donald Trump to the White House. Rock, who has about as much experience both in the entertainment industry and in governing as Trump, announced his 2020 bid on the president-elect's favorite platform: Twitter. "The only thing white is the house" is the slogan that ran with his announcement. Is it a joke? Maybe. Who knows. Meanwhile, Bravo's Andy Cohen implores Trump to stop tweeting and start leading.
“Wow, the New York Times is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the ‘Trump phenomena,’” the commander-in-chief-to-be posted after apparently reading about himself and not liking what he saw. That’s when the guy who brought us the “Real Housewives” series stepped in to urge a more measured approach to things: “Stop tweeting and complaining and focus on figuring out how to lead this country.”
Cohen followed up with a note of optimism: “I’m rooting for him to be a good president. I want America to win. I tweet my feelings, I can’t help it!”
Oprah and Donald Trump
Oprah Winfrey took some heat after her comments regarding last week's election.
"America has spoken," she said during an interview with "ET" while on the set of locally filmed OWN series "Greenleaf." "I just saw President-elect Trump with President Obama in the White House and it gave me hope. To hear President-elect Trump say that he had respect for President Obama it felt that he had reached a moment where he was actually humbled by that experience. To hear President Obama say he had renewed confidence in the peaceful transition."
She then broke into song for a moment, belting out, “I think everybody can take a deep breath now,” then added, “It felt good seeing that.”
Twitter wasn’t having it. One user uploaded an image of an emoji with a zipped mouth. Another wrote that she was “five minutes away from boycotting everything associated with Oprah!”
We’re guessing Winfrey’s going to be OK.
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