The rebirth of The Howard Theatre is coming soon. Each day the team of construction workers led by Ellis Development Group pushes forward on the top-to-bottom, $29 million renovation of the historic arts landmark that launched the careers of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, and many others.

Photo (right): Neil Greentree

Chip Ellis, a principal with Ellis Development Group, said as of January, 2012, over 80% of the work has been completed to renovate the theatre, which was constructed in 1910 in Washington’s Shaw neighborhood near the corner of 7th and T Streets, NW. Interior and exterior finishes are now underway, including the special effort to reconstruct the 1910 façade with its original 17 windows.

Already completion is in sight, scheduled for as early as February 2012, leaving time for anticipation to build for the Grand Opening Gala and Tribute Concert to be held on Thursday, April 12, 2012. The list of performers will be announced soon, with unprecedented performances; the Gala will be an evening to remember. Click here to view information about the Benefit Concert.

Howard Theatre: A Century in Song TV Program Wins NABJ Award

The 2010 documentary Howard Theatre: A Century in Song aired on WDCW-TV and produced by Jim Byrne and Fran Murphy won a “Salute to Excellence” award from the National Association of Black Journalists in August 2011. In addition, the television documentary was nominated for a regional Emmy.

The documentary features reporter, Robin Hamilton, interviewing performers, historians and Washingtonians, as well as archival photos and video clips.

Community and City Leaders Gather for Howard Theatre Groundbreaking Ceremony

The Story of The Howard Theatre

Jazz is the sound of our heritage. It is an American idiom with African roots — a trunk of soul with limbs reaching in every direction.

Before the Apollo, before the Regal, there was The Howard Theatre. At its opening in 1910 it was “the largest colored theatre in the world.” Sadly shuttered and neglected since the early 1980s, the once majestic building with its “trunk of soul” has survived death in order to be reborn in 2012.

For most of the 20th century, The Howard Theatre, located in the
heart of Washington, DC, near the corner of 7th and T, held audiences captive with music, dance, drama and comedy. Speakers like Booker T. Washington shared the stage with musicals, road shows, vaudeville acts, theater productions and community programs. Later, Washington’s favorite son Duke Ellington opened a new era of jazz big bands on The Howard’s stage.

Photos: William P. Gottlieb Collection

When the nation was deeply divided by segregation, The Howard Theatre provided a place where color barriers blurred and music unified. The Washington Bee dubbed it the “Theatre for The People” for it was the place where dignitaries, like President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First Lady gathered with everyday folks to see both superstars and rising stars – many of whom debuted at The Howard Theatre. Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, Billy Taylor and Bill Kenny of the Ink Spots made way for talents like The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Brown, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gilespie, Shirley Horn, and comedians Petey Greene, Dick Gregory, Redd Foxx and Moms Mabley.

The Howard Theatre inspired change, yet felt the impact of a nation in flux following the 1968 riots. Eventually, the degradation of the neighborhood forced the theater to close. After several false starts in the late ’70s and early ’80s to reinvigorate The Howard, the curtains fell.

BRETT ZONGKER | April 12, 2012 12:33 PM EST |

WASHINGTON — Before there was the Apollo in Harlem, there was the Howard Theatre in the nation’s capital.

The nearly 102-year-old Howard officially lifts its curtain once again Thursday for a reopening gala after a $29 million renovation that began in 2010. Smokey Robinson, Savion Glover and Madeleine Peyroux will perform, along with Chaka Khan, Boyz II Men and others.

When Washington’s U Street corridor was known as the “Black Broadway” in an era of segregation, the Howard was a crown jewel through the 1960s. It opened in 1910, touted as the “largest colored theater in the world.” It launched careers for Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes and Ella Fitzgerald, among others. It began suffering, though, after the 1968 riots following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination that damaged much of the neighborhood, and it faced competition from newer, larger venues. The Howard eventually closed in 1980.

By comparison, Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater first opened as a burlesque theater in 1914, and African-Americans were not allowed inside. It later reopened as the Apollo in 1934 and focused on the growing black community in Harlem.

The Howard was left neglected and shuttered since its doors were closed. It remained vacant for 30 years and fell into disrepair, its roof caving in, allowing water to destroy much of the historic interior.

Still, pieces of history remain. The stage is in the same place and size as where Fitzgerald won an early Amateur Night contest. So is the balcony where audiences listened to the music of Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and Lena Horne, and the words of Booker T. Washington, Redd Foxx and Moms Mabley. Some of the columns holding up the balcony have been preserved, and the original exterior facade has been restored.

The theater’s new operators, from the New York-based Blue Note Entertainment Group, said they were compelled to take on the Howard after hearing encouragement from Bill Cosby and other entertainers who remember the theater’s heyday.

“It’s important for the city of D.C., but it’s also important for the history of music to get the Howard back up,” said Steven Bensusan, Blue Note’s president.

The new Howard is a modern, high-tech performance space with HD video screens, an acoustic system and recording capabilities. It has supper club-style seating for 650 or standing room space for 1,100, making it a flexible venue to host a variety of concerts and events. It’s finished with black walnut walls, oak floors and granite bars to accommodate full-service dining.

Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson of Harlem’s Red Rooster and a winner of “Top Chef Masters” has created a menu for Southern-style dinners and a weekly gospel brunch on Sundays featuring the Harlem Gospel Choir.

Having a full-service kitchen and a flexible space will set the Howard apart from many other historic theaters across the country that have been restored only to struggle financially within a few years to keep the doors open. One example is a few blocks away at Washington’s 1920s-era Lincoln Theatre, which also boasts a rich history with Washington’s jazz scene.

“A lot of the theaters have been restored to the way they were. That doesn’t necessarily work in today’s modern world,” Bensusan said, explaining why traditional theater seats were nixed for the Howard. “There’s a market for theaters and there’s a market for almost like a club environment, which is what we’ve created at the Howard.”

Blue Note Entertainment has a 20-year lease to operate the theater, promising top names from all genres of music. Its first months’ bookings include performances by Wanda Sykes, The Roots, Chuck Berry and Sinead O’Connor, among others. The company also operates the Blue Note jazz club in New York’s Greenwich Village and the B.B. King Blues Club in Times Square, along with clubs in Japan and Italy.

The Howard was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and was named an “American Treasure” as part of the Save America’s Treasures program under President Bill Clinton.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Nearly a half-century after African-Americans were admitted to predominantly white Texas A&M University, a black student has finally reached the pinnacle of one of its signature organizations.

Marquis Alexander next school year will become commander of A&M’s Corps of Cadets, a high-profile post that involves establishing the cadets’ dress codes for their military-style uniforms and setting their daily schedule, including physical training that can begin before dawn.

“I’m not going to lie. There is a sense of pride that’s there,” Alexander, 22, said Wednesday, standing in front of the “Corps Arches,” an arched brick wall that marks the entrance to the dormitory area for the 2,100 members of the Aggie Corps of Cadets. “I look at it as encouragement to other people to get out and do whatever they want no matter what their background is.”

Texas A&M is about 100 miles northwest of Houston where Alexander, the oldest of 10 children in his family and the first to go to college. Despite recruiting efforts by the school, Houston’s inner-city areas where Alexander grew up in the Third Ward and attended high school in the Fifth Ward typically don’t produce future Aggies, and black students represent less than 4 percent of the 40,000 undergraduate students at the College Station campus.

“A lot of people from that part of town don’t come here,” said Alexander, who already spent a year and a half in the Marine reserves before enrolling at Texas A&M in 2009. “Everyone has their views and I knew what I was coming into when I came here, but it’s been very positive.”

The corps’ racial makeup largely reflects the university, but Alexander suspects that will eventually change.

“We’re working on that,” he said. “We’re growing steadily. I can serve as a testament.”

His first exposure to A&M was during a high school visit. The Corps of Cadets was his group’s first stop and where he got his first “Howdy,” a greeting so synonymous with the school that people who enter an elevator at A&M’s Rudder Tower get an automated “Howdy” over a speaker.

When his acceptance letter from A&M, the only school to which he applied, didn’t arrive promptly, he signed up for the Marine reserves. The acceptance note eventually came but too late to renege on his Marine commitment. A year and a half later, he enrolled.

His continuing duty as a reservist, where he’s a corporal, also makes him the first person with actual military experience to head the corps, whose graduates are outnumbered only by the nation’s military academies in the amount of men and women who head from college to the armed forces. In A&M’s case, however, membership in the corps doesn’t require graduates to join the military, although nearly half do.

He acknowledges becoming the “face of the university” and he hopes to participate in efforts to encourage people from areas like his at home to make something positive of their lives.

“Coming out of that area, you don’t see a lot of success stories,” Alexander said. “There’s not a lot of role models for that particular area. What you see is this guy living on the street or this guy selling drugs or this guy going to go to prison. Things like that. I hope to serve as a beacon of hope that: Hey, you can do this too.”

A number of cadets applied for the commander position for the 2012-13 school year, then underwent scrutiny that included a five-minute presentation before an 11-member panel that included school officials, the reigning corps leadership and the corps commandant, retired Brig. Gen. Joe Ramirez.

“This is a young man who has all the right qualities,” Ramirez said. “You can see he has a level of maturity that’s probably not common among the cadets of that same age. He brings a command presence, leadership ability. He’s comfortable speaking. … He looks the part of a leader.”

Texas A&M opened its doors in 1876. Blacks and women weren’t allowed until 87 years later. The first African-Americans joined the corps in 1964. The first women cadets came a decade later. By contrast, rival University of Texas was racially integrated in 1950.

In A&M’s centennial year, Fred McClure won election as body president, making him the first black student to assume the post that’s considered a campus equal to corps commander and Aggie yell leader, a position once held by Gov. Rick Perry. McClure estimated that in 1976, only about 250 black students were at the school.

“I think he and I share the same passion for Texas A&M,” McClure said, referring to Alexander. “It just so happens that we happen to share the same skin color. That’s pretty cool too.”

Albert Broussard, an African-American history professor, said Alexander’s achievement was “an important event but largely symbolic.”

“I don’t want to minimize the importance of this event, but I would not refer to this as a turning point,” he said. “Turning a new page in the long history of this university … would be more appropriate.”

Alexander, who hopes for a career as a military lawyer or intelligence work, said he wasn’t even aware he was the first black cadet commander until someone told him.

“I don’t know why it’s taken so long,” he said. “But I know the corps’ process is that they will always put the best people in the spot. I can honestly say my race didn’t play a factor. I hope it’s because I was legitimately the best person for the job.”

Usually a celebrity wardrobe malfunction consists of a generous dose of sideboob, a visible tush or, most classically, the accidental flash of a pastie-covered nipple. But rarely are we graced with some full-frontal flashing of someone’s entire chest.

Until Melody Thornton, who showed up to ELLE’s Women in Music event in Hollywood last night wearing a sheer dress with nary a pastie underneath. We’re taking full exposure, with just a clingy brown lace dress (which honestly looked a bit more like bedroom curtains) to separate her skin from the world.

Thornton, formerly of The Pussycat Dolls, also didn’t bother with any bum-covering underwear.

As far as the rest of the look goes, it wasn’t too impressive: a plain-Jane dress with an odd at-the-ankle length and an asymmetrical handkerchief hem. It seems Melody spent more time planning her makeup, which included some of the darkest bronzer we have ever seen.

As far as wardrobe malfunctions go, we’d venture to say this rivals Adrienne Bailon in her sheer-bottomed dress. What is it about former female popstars?

Behold Melody in all her malfunctioning glory.

Date: Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 9:31 pm
By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Bessie B. Stringfield, a.k.a. “BB,” was the first black woman to make eight long-distance solo tours across the U.S. on a motorcycle. In the 1930’s, BB Stringfield rode her hot rod through areas known for racial violence and prejudice. She earned the nickname “The Negro Motorcycle Queen.” On her tours, Bessie Stringfield traveled through Brazil, Haiti and parts of Europe. Her next destination was determined by tossing a penny on a map. As she rode through Jim Crow country, BB would sometimes sleep on her motorcycle with a blanket if there were no safe places for her to stay during her trip.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, BB Stringfield came to America as a child and was given up for adoption. At age 16, she was given a motorcycle by her Irish adoptive mother, who’s name she was not allowed to repeat. It was said that the woman gifted Bessie anything she wanted as long as he prayed to “the man upstairs” for it first. After she was gifted her first 1928 Indian Scout bike, BB Stringfield would later purchase another 27 motorcycles throughout her life.

Throughout her travels, BB performed motorcycle stunts for local carnivals. The press loved her balancing stunt while her Harley was in motion.

Bessie used her motorcycle talent to work as the only female civilian motorcycle dispatch rider in World War II. She quickly carried documents between military bases and sharpened her riding skills by riding over makeshift bridges. Once her tour was complete, she moved to Miami and founded the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club. In Miami, Stringfield secretly entered riding contests as a man, and after winning, removed her helmet to reveal her gender. As a result, she was often denied the prize money.

In her personal life, BB Stringlfied married and divorced six times. She lost three children over the years. Her final husband, Arthur Stringfield, asked that Bessie keep his last name because it made him famous.

Bessie Stringfield, the Negro Motorcycle Queen, died in 1993 at age 82 from an enlarged heart. Her memory was left with the remainder of her six-ex husbands. In 2002 she was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

source…….

Mitchell, 78, first came to Moscow in 1962 as a dancer. His most recent visit saw him give a master class.

“The fallacy was that black people could not do classical ballet,” American ballet dancer Arthur Mitchell explained recently to an audience at the American Center Library. “So I said — ‘I’ll change it.'”

Arthur Mitchell became the first African-American to dance with George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet in November 1955, an unprecedented accomplishment in the race-divided America of that time. In 1962, Mitchell traveled with the company to Moscow, becoming, he says, the first ballet dancer of color to perform for Russian audiences.

In 1969, Mitchell co-founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem, which became one of the most prominent performing ensembles in the country. In 1988, the dance ensemble was invited to perform in Russia. Mitchell is currently visiting as a featured speaker for American Seasons, a cultural exchange set up by the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission.

Q: You visited Moscow with the New York City Ballet in 1962. What was your experience like as an American in Russia during the Cold War Era?

A: Things were so different back then. You couldn’t just go and walk out. We were on pins and needles because none of us had been to Russia before. The company had tremendous success. I had an extremely successful tour because they had never seen a black man dance ballet before.

Q: What were people’s reactions to your performance?

A: It was incredible. I would step on the stage and hear all around “That’s Arthur Mitchell. That’s Arthur Mitchell.” One of my great heroes was [Vakhtang] Chabukiani, the Georgian dancer. He was an older man at that time, but he came out of retirement and danced with me. Khrushchev was in power [at the time], and wherever I went, they would seat me in his box. The young lady I was with was from Denmark, so the people would say “Othello and Desdemona! Come Othello!” It was really kind of amazing.

Q: What was it like to return in 1988 with the Dance Theatre of Harlem?

A: People came to me with dance programs I had signed in 1962. Once the Russians accept you as an artist, they never forget you — particularly dancers. There was always a great love and respect. You’re revered here. The love of art here, particularly dance, is unparalleled. Dance is one of their favorite art forms. Everyone seems to know it and love it.

Q: How has Russian dance changed since the fall of the Soviet Union?

A: Even this trip now, we’re amazed at how much contemporary dance there is here. It’s very popular. Everyone wants to be a modern dancer. They have been doing classical ballet for centuries and want to try something new. We just went to a school, and they did a variation on Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations.” These little kids — it was really amazing. It’s still very new, but it’s something that I never thought would be very popular here, and it seems that everyone wants to do it.

Q: What sort of a relationship do you have with the Russian artistic community?

A: Great love and respect. So many of the Russian dancers are very good friends of mine, and all of my teachers were Russian. [George] Balanchine, [Anatole] Obukhov, [Pierre] Vladimiroff, Madame [Felia] Doubrovska. They are all great dancers of Russia who were living in America. They were teachers of mine. The more current generation — [Rudolf] Nureyev, [Mikhail] Baryshnikov, Nina Ananiashvili from Georgia, Natalia Makarova. The arts world is much different from the regular world. You always run into people.

There’s an interchange between Russia and America that I don’t think has ever happened before. Artistically, I’m not speaking politically now. The exchange of cultures is very, very popular. The Bolshoi has hired their first American principal dancer. That’s unheard of. And the Kirov has just hired a young American girl. That’s something you would never think of, hiring an American to be one of their leading dancers, because their tradition, their syllabus, their training is so specific.

Q: Given the chance, would you come back a fourth time?

A: That’s what we hope will happen. This initiative is a collaboration between the President of America and the President of Russia. They wanted this cultural exchange. What is interesting is it’s based on what Diaghilev did when he took Russian music and dance to Paris so that the world would see what Russian art was like. This is the initiative that is happening through the American Embassy here: American Seasons. As an artist you get a chance to travel the world and see things that you normally wouldn’t. You get a feeling for people much better than a businessman or a politician could get.