Archive for the 'Invited Guests' Category
Nichelle Nichols began her professional singing and dancing career in her home town, Chicago, at the tender age of 14. As a teenager, she was discovered by the great Duke Ellington who hired her to choreograph and perform a ballet for one of his musical suites, and finished the tour as his lead singer. Nichelle has performed in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including guest artist with Lionel Hampton’s band.
Nichelle was cast by Gene Roddenberry to create Lt. Uhura in his legendary TV series, Star Trek. Subsequently, co-starred in the six blockbuster Star Trek motion pictures. She is in constant demand to appear before the millions of “Trekkers” who keep the dream alive around the world.
She was twice nominated for the coveted Sarah Siddons Award for best actress for her performances in the theatre productions of Jenet’s “The Blacks” and the Oscar Brown Jr. musical “Kicks and Company.” She starred in the touring Broadway hits, “Horowitz and Mrs. Washington,” and “Nunsense II”. In her one-woman show, “REFLECTIONS,”, she ‘becomes’ twelve legendary female entertainers, utilizing her beautiful three octave vocal range to rave reviews and plans for a CD album and a OVD of “REFLECTIONS.”
Nichelle was chosen to perform as guest solo artist with the Erie Pennsylvania Philharmonic Orchestra for their 80th Anniversary Celebration. She also performed as solo artist with the Symphony Orchestra of the California State University-Northridge, where she previously was commencement speaker for their School of Arts. Her latest CD album, “NICHELLE… OUT OF THIS WORLD, contains her original composition, “Gene,” in honor of “The Great Bird”.
On January 9, 1992, Nichelle was awarded her much deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A few weeks before, she became the first African-American to place her handprints and signature in the cement walk at the famous Mann’s (Grauman’s) Chinese Theatre. Along with her other command crew members on the Starship Enterprise, Nichelle was installed in a special exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, an unprecedented accolade for the entertainment industry.
Nichelle’s autobiography, “BEYOND UHURA,” and her first sci-fi novel, “SATURN’S CHILD,” featuring and intergalactic heroine, Saturna and its sequel, “SATURA’S QUEST” received critical acclaim. Currently, she is developing a children’s Edutainment franchise, “EUREKA ROAD”. In recognition of her many accomplishments, Nichelle was conferred a Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, from Marywood College on their 80th anniversary at which she delivered the commencement address. In July 2002, she was inducted as an Honorary Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Nichelle’s public service activities have been equally outstanding. Under contract to NASA she took on the daunting task to successfully recruit the first women and minority astronauts for the Space Shuttle Program, for which she received NASA’S distinguished Public Service Award for her pioneering efforts. She continues as a member of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, and as a member of the Advisory Board of the International Space Camp.
In 2004 Nichelle was selected as one of the International Human Rights Consortium’s FETE d’EXCELLENCE Laureates. The commendation reads:
You have been selected for the Medaille d’Excellence 2004 in the category of ‘Edutainment.’ This is in recognition of your being a true innovator, a woman of courage and commitment to the deepest values of excellence through your artistry within the world of entertainment and also as an innovative educator and patron to learning and inspiring the budding minds and hearts of youth.”
Nichelle recently was chosen to join the cast, beginning in the second season, of the NBC blockbuster television series “HEROES”.
Purchase admission tickets to the Pioneer Award program and/or Pioneer Autograph session featuring Nichelle Nichols at the door by cash or money order.
Read the latest news and information about Nichelle Nichols at www.uhura.com.
Alitha E. Martinez is a comic book artist by trade having served time in the trenches penciling such titles as Iron Man, X-Men, Black Sun, Marvel Age Fantastic Four, and Black Panther for Marvel Comics; and Voltron for Devil’s Due to name a few. Her professional career began in 2000, before that she was a background artist on Daredevil and an Assistant Inker on Aquaman.
“The only chances you regret are the ones you didn’t take.” So she’s combined her first loves, painting and comics, and formed her own company, Ariotstorm Productions. Now, she’s really doing what she loves. Her first title, YUME AND EVER, will debut at the NY Comic Con at the Javitz Center April 18-20.
www.ariotstorm.com
www.comicspace.com/ariotstorm/
ariotstorm.deviantart.com
ariotstorm.livejournal.com
Yume and Ever is a blend of styles: free flowing thoughts; things that aren’t allowed to be drawn; and rules that are hardly ever broken.
There’s a great tragedy in the first issue. You’ll get to see it. You’ll meet all of the players as kids, and you’ll know what made them or broke them without any biased narration. It’s like a dream that each character will interpret differently as the story goes on.
Hence, the play on words with the title of the book… Yume means dream in Japanese. Ever is the leading male. Together the kanji in the logo, means dreaming forever.
All of the great Heroes are dead! Yeah, just like that, wiped out on mass. Even the villains who unleashed Pandora didn’t expect to be so successful.
You know the drill. Nefarious evil-doers hatch a diabolical scheme to rule the world. Super heroes unite to halt their odious plans. One epic battle later, the day is saved and almost everybody goes home happy (except for the one B level hero who has to die for dramatic effect). Even the bad guys are comfortable with that. It’s the status quo until they actually succeed.
M. Asli Dukan is a producer, director and editor from New York City. She graduated from The City University of New York with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Media and Communication Arts in 1999 where she received the best editing award for her thesis film, Sleeping on a train in Motion. In 2000, she founded Mizan Media Productions, a multi-media company to produce low budget, high quality music videos, commercials and short films. Her media works have screened at the Blowin’ Up A Spot Film Festival in Texas, Citivisions in New York, the Imagenation Film & Music Festival in New York, the Black to the Future Science Fiction Festival and the Langston Hughes Film Festival, both in Seattle and on Move the Frame, a video dance television program.
She has been nominated for the Renew Media grant twice and received a grant from the City University of New York to further her professional development in the field of film and television. Her latest projects include producing and directing “Boot”, the first music video for Tamar-kali, the Geechee Goddess Hardcore Warrior Soul, producing and directing Hanifah Walidah’s music video “Do You Mind”, producing and directing the feature length documentary, Invisible Universe: a history of blackness in speculative fiction which reveals the history of representations of Blacks in fantasy, horror and science fiction literature and film and producing and directing the short SF film “73″, about a dystopian future Harlem.
You can find more information at www.invisibleuniversedoc.com/
Photo taken by Marc Manley
The Glyph Comics Awards Committee is proud to announce that Jamar Nicholas will return to host this year’s awards ceremony at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia.
Nicholas, a Philly native, is best known for his hip hop comic strip Detective Boogaloo, as well as his autobiographical series The Jamar Chronicles. In 2007 he hosted the Awards for the first time, delighting the audience with his unique brand of humor while serving as emcee of the evening’s entertainment, which also included performances by spoken word/rap artists Grayson Board, Randy Moore, and Brother G.
“I’m very excited about having the opportunity to host the 2008 Glyph awards, and am honored to be asked,” says Nicholas. “I had a great time hosting last year’s awards, and to have it take place in such a historic institution as the African American Museum makes it even greater.”
“We really couldn’t ask for a better host,” says Committee Chair Rich Watson. “Jamar’s local, he’s a cartoonist himself, and he’s funnier than anybody hosting this thing has a right to be, so we hope to have him as our go-to guy for a long, long time.”
The Awards ceremony is free and open to the public and will be held Friday, May 16 at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the night before the full day of the ECBACC convention, which will be held the next day, Saturday, May 17, at Temple University’s Anderson Hall.
The Committee also wishes to remind everyone that the poll for the Fan Award remains open until March 31. Everyone is encouraged to head over to the ECBACC website (http://ecbacc.com/wordpress/?page_id=76) and vote for your favorite black comic from 2007.
Sign up for Jamar’s mailing list and find out more about his work at http://www.sweatshoppress.com/.
The 12Comics Learning Support program is an exciting and unique program that makes learning fun through the creation of a custom comic book. The primary focus of the program is designed to empower and encourage students to enhance their knowledge and experience the incredible benefits of written expression. The students, in a class ranging from five to seven students, learn how to generate an online and printed Graphic Novel using a collaborative comic book “Superhero” script. The students are allotted eight calendar weeks to learn how to develop characters, settings and plots using persons and situations such as family members and friends. The program emphasizes student cooperation and communication as students work together to develop their character’s comic book stories. When the script is complete, it is reviewed and edited before being submitted to professional artists for artwork (pencils, inks and colors) and publication. At the end of the program, 12Comics publishes the comic book with each student receiving three copies. The comic will feature each of the characters developed in the class. Comic books are published and made available for sale on the 12Comics’ online store. A percentage of all sale proceeds, after production costs are covered, are paid to the students. At end of the program, students have the option to sign up again and repeat the class throughout the school year. Some students have used the program to start their own online business.
In our own words:
“We basically put into 12Comics everything we could’ve ever wanted in a program when we were kids. If Marvel or DC would have had a program where, for a fee, we would be able to apply what we were learning in school to create a character which would be featured in a comic book with Spiderman or Superman would we have been interested in such a program? Unequivocally YES!!!! Then as an added bonus they would throw in a cash earning incentive where our characters would have merchandise on the open market and we would receive royalties. Well that’s a no-brainer. 12Comics offers students the opportunity to become published authors and to apply their education with immediate tangible results. An ancillary achievement for the students is that in addition to being consumers of their local library or comic book shop they become contributors as well. This was the question we asked ourselves, and what essentially became the driving force behind 12Comics.”
12Comics Inc.
12Comics Learning Support Program
Infinite Possibilities
12Comics was started by Mark and Tracy Hair in 2003 with one goal in mind: To make reading and writing engaging, and fun through creating custom comic books.
Mark and Tracy, currently residing in Maplewood NJ., met each other at a church service 15 years ago. Each was a single parent of a lovely daughter, Sequoya (Tracy) and Angelica (Mark). They married in 2001 and now have their third daughter, Kelsey who is 4 years old.
Mark is a Team Lead in the Finance Dept of Deloitte and Touche and an avid 30 year comic fan and collector.
Tracy has been an educator for 20 years. She holds a Master of Science in Education from Bank Street College of Education and is currently employed at Ethical Culture Fieldston School.
Tracy along with her father, Dr. Simpson Gray, a 20 year veteran educator himself and former attorney, helped develop the 12Comics Learning Support program curriculum.
The curriculum was designed after the model of the New York City Department of Education’s Children First. It, like many of the programs designed for Children First, is a single, coherent system-wide approach for instruction in reading and writing.
The Smoke has made a major impact on the pop-culture scene for over a decade. After his time in the Marine Corps, Smoke worked as a bodyguard working clubs as well as backstage concerts and for NFL games in
He began wrestling for companies like ECW, GLOOW, WEW, and NWA Shockwave. The Smoke has been an intercontinental, tag-team, and world champion in his career. Having a strong likeness to “The Rock” has opened doors for The Smoke. to He has appeared on T.V. shows like,” The Jenny Jones Show” and “GLOOW” and radio shows like “610WIP” and even local Celebrity Boxing shows. The Smoke branched out to do movies like, “The Black Ninja”, “White Men Can’t Rap” and many other independent film projects.
The Smoke is now a current character for “Big City Comics” and later to be the focal point for a major crossover event called “Tainted”. The Smoke is also currently in a new film called “LEAF”. In addition he is also a cast member of the hit T.V. show, “Heavy Sedation” as well as the web series, “Fighter’s high”. The Smoke works with inner city youth in motivating and being a positive role model.
If you are interested in learning more about Eric, additional information can be found at www.myspace.com/thesmokehasspoken.
You can listen to a recent interview with him at www.blogtalkradio.com/Philly_Celebrity.
Nell Wilson recently appeared on the Sci-Fi Channels “Who Want to Be a Superhero?” reality series. Her character “Fat Momma” drew unprecedented attention from the media, critics and viewing audience. Nell is proud to announce that Shocker Toys has released a “Fat Momma” action figure. Nell has also had two comic books released since the show.
Her innate ability to set a positive example among the series’ participants garnished her the lime light. This opportunity provided Nell with a stage to present her life’s agenda. Nell maintains that her goal is “…to help people feel good about themselves. To assist them in understanding to live life to its fullest and appreciate what you have in front of you.” Her message of building self esteem illuminates Nell and her mission.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Nell comes from a large family. Being sixth in a family of 10 made growing up very exciting. Coming from a very close knit family, Nell’s parents set a firm foundation. Her family ties are strong, solid and where she gathers her strength.
Being a single mother of three has come with many obstacles. Struggling to raise a family garnished her war wounds and scars. But through adversities light has always shined. Her aspirations are to host a talk show to provide people an outlet to discuss personal growth issues. Presently she is working on a book entitled “From Single Mother to Superhero”. The book will outline a path for single mothers and others to empower there futures. Nell also plans on writing children’s books with the “Fat Momma” character to teach children to be kind to one another and accept themselves the way they are. Nell enjoys visiting schools and talking to children about self acceptance.
Nell attended Pasadena City College and earned an AA. She continued her studies at Cal State Fullerton and worked on a BA in sociology. Currently she resides in Lancaster, CA with her three children Danielle 23, Alexis 15, and Daniel 5.
Nell has been traveling around the world spreading her message of self acceptance. Recent visit include; Australia, England, New York, Detroit, Atlanta, Indianapolis and many more.
If you are interested in working with Nell, please contact her directly. You may visit her sites for recent update at: http://www.fatmomma.tv/ or www.myspace.com/fatmommasuperhero .
Over the past 20 years Alex Simmons has written (and in some cases also created) a number of juvenile mysteries under a variety of pseudonyms for many well-known publishers. He has also penned two educational documentaries and several stage plays. One of his plays, Sherlock Holmes & the Hands of Othello, received critical praise and was published in Black Thunder: an Anthology of Contemporary African American Drama, published by Signet/Mentor Books.
Simmons has written three movie novelizations for Disney and three biographies for Steck-Vaughn, including one on Denzel Washington.
As a voiceover talent, Simmons can be heard on a wide range of projects from O’Henry Bars, to podcasting financial information for DeLoitte and Touche.
Simmons has traveled the country as a guest speaker and teaching artist. He has developed and conducted creative writing workshops (prose, comics, journalism, and playwriting), as well as consulted on a number of creative arts programs and curricula for children.
Currently, Simmons is serving as the Arts in Education Director for the Children’s Art Carnival (NYC); and he sits on the board of the New York State Alliance for Arts and Education. He is affiliated with the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art, and is also a member of the New York Writer’s Workshop.
Alex Simmons is the creator of Black Jack and Orpheus
Born and raised in Chicago, Ashley A. Woods was first introduced to comics and video games by her mother. Fascinated and inspired by all the characters, she began to create her own characters in homemade comics as a little girl. Finally gaining enough confidence to try to make a ‘real’ comic series, she created “Millennia War” during her senior year of high school and continues to sell issue after issue at various comic conventions and stores. Besides illustrating comics, she also gained experienced at different companies working as a concept and storyboard artist during school. Fresh out of college, she has more time to dedicate towards “Millennia War” and the rest of her art and plans to work in the comics, video game, and movie industry one day soon. www.millenniawar.com
Eric Cooper was born and raised in the city of Trenton, NJ. He is the author of several Superhero/Science Fiction novels. Currently, he is writing on a series of books called Knight Seeker. Eric Cooper’s writing is filled with emotions. His writing causes a person to reflect on their lives and their own actions in this world. The series puts the reader in the character’s perspective as the character faces challenges.
In 2008 Eric Cooper plans to be at a number of Conventions to sell novels and to also network with other people, and of course he likes wearing the costumes of his characters.
