Earlier this week, I stood on the exact spot where Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom. The feeling was familiar; having previously visited the Lorraine Motel and Ford’s Theatre where Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln were also killed by assassin’s bullets. It is a solemn experience, marked by sadness and reverence. The contrast of the good and evil we are capable of is palpable.…
If an actor is defined by the roles he or she takes on, then by all accounts Chadwick Boseman was a man defined by dignity, strength and justice. Playing Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall and the Black Panther, among others, Boseman’s talents were undeniable – as were the many ways in which he chose to share his gifts both on and off the screen.
His death last week of colon cancer at the age of 43 stopped me in my tracks – not just because it was a tragic loss of a talented person in their prime – but because the same disease has wreaked havoc in the lives of my family and friends.…
