Monthly Archives: August 2008

TV ROUNDUP: TONI ON “DANCING WITH THE STARS” / SOLANGE GETS REAL WITH HOST / RAY J GETS DATING SHOW

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After a health scare and various rumors of her participation have been all over the net recently, it has now been confirmed that Toni Braxton will be a part of the newest season of Dancing With The Stars. Her partner will be Alec Mazo, who also won the 1st season of the DWTS.

Dancing With The Stars’ 7th season premieres Monday, September 22nd, only on ABC.

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Posted in TV ROUND UP

SPOTTED: SERENA WILLIAMS IN NYC

SERENA WILLIAMS IN NYC

Serena Williams, who took home a gold medal with her sister Venus at the Olympics, was spotted out and about in NYC on Wednesday afternoon. The popular tennis player shopped at Hermes with friends.

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Posted in SPOTTED

POLITICS: DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION UPDATE / OBAMA MAKES HISTORY / THE FUTURE FIRST LADY / JOE BIDEN’S SPEECH

View the video above for the latest info regarding the speeches and happenings at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is giving his acceptance speech at the convention Thursday night.

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Posted in POLITICS

BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER

Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was the first black woman to gain popularity and critical acclaim as a major science fiction writer.

Born in Pasadena, California, Butler was the only living child her mother, Octavia M. Butler, was able to carry to term out of five pregnancies. Her father, Laurice, a shoe shiner, died when she was just a baby and her mother and grandmother raised her in a racially mixed neighborhood where her mother worked to support the family as a maid.

Butler was very shy in school, a daydreamer, and that made school very difficult for her—as did her dyslexia, which she later overcame. Nicknamed Junie, Butler began writing at 10 to escape boredom and loneliness. A couple of years later, she had become interested in science fiction. She told the Black Scholar, “I was writing my own little stories and when I was 12, I was watching a bad science fiction movie called Devil Girl from Mars and decided that I could write a better story than that. And I turned off the TV and proceeded to try, and I’ve been writing science fiction ever since.”

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Posted in CL HISTORY SPOTLIGHT