Award Winning Charity Speech

Below is the full text to the speech I wrote which won the Best Speech Award in the 2020 American University Speechwriting Charity Contest. Each year students write a speech advocating for a charity that has special meaning to them. The class votes on their favorite speech and then comes together to make a contribution.…

Is black television having a moment, or is the landscape of entertainment changing?

A Nielsen report released in February reveals that television shows with a black lead or black cast draws a significant percentage of non-black viewers. Shows like Shonda Rhime’s Scandal or How to Get Away with Murder has nearly 70 percent non-black viewership. Black-ish, starring Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson, has almost 80 percent non-black…

Donald Glover is the renaissance man of entertainment

At the 2017 Golden Globe awards there were five shows nominated to win Best Comedy or Musical TV Series. They were Veep, Black-ish, Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent, and FX’s Atlanta. When it was announced that Atlanta won the coveted Golden Globe award, 33-year-old show creator and lead actor Donald Glover accepted the award with…

SZA releases Debut Album “Ctrl”

In the classic days of hip-hop, rappers would often feature vocals from a “round-the way girl’ in their songs. These women are from the neighbourhood, real women who add raw soul in the background, never overpowering the masculinity of the rapper on the track, and often remain nameless in the credit. Top Dawg Entertainment’s r&b…

Netflix’s Dear White People tackles identity politics and black rage

While viewing season one of Justin Simien’s Dear White People on Netflix, a James Baldwin quote comes to mind. “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. So that the first problem is how to control that rage so that it…

Blues artist Janiva Magness accesses pain to create beauty

Janiva Magness knows the blues. The Detroit native and award-winning singer-songwriter grew up an orphan after the suicides of both her parents while she was just a pre-teen. In the foster care system she lived in and out of 12 different homes, and was sometimes homeless.  At 17 she became pregnant and gave her daughter…

Movement Millennials in Tallahassee

By Angelique Cherie Fullwood This modern era of civil rights, dubbed the “Black Lives Matter Movement” by the media, has often raised questions around identifying “the” leader.  What has become evident from the uprisings and protests across the country is that this movement isn’t leader-less, but rather leader-full, with women and young people taking the…

SGA President Justin Bruno Brings Student Issues to FAMU BOT Meeting

By Angelique Fullwood On June 8 the Florida A&M University Board of Trustees met in the Grand Ballrooms, discussing the presidential search and fundraising efforts among other things. During the meeting, board members acknowledged the positions of alumni chapters on issues such as the selection of the next university president. Student issues were not at…