Let the DrumRoll for fashion designer Stephen Gouda, SU chief of staff Allen Vital, artist Rebecca Henry, ULL professor Kiwana McClung, and trio of film talent
Let the DrumRoll for fashion designer Stephen Gouda, SU chief of staff Allen Vital, artist Rebecca Henry, ULL professor Kiwana McClung, and trio of film talent
This DrumRoll applauds the Louisiana trio of talent connected to the new Netflix film, “A Jazzman’s Blues,” which is produced by New Orleans Native Tyler Perry,
Opelousas native Rebecca D. Henry was the only U.S. artist represented in the international art show at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. A Creole folklorist and a specialist in folk medicine traditions, she is the founder of the Creole Heritage Folklife Center in Opelousas, where she has dedicated the last 30 years to preserving the Creole traditions of her home. Born in 1941 to sharecroppers, Henry spent her youth picking cotton in the fields with her brothers and sisters. She portrays this experience in her painting, “Just the Three of Us.” The international exhibit “Poetics of Selfhood/Poétique de l’Ipséité” features five artists at the Acadiana Center for the Arts and is in partnership with La Station Culturelle, Fort de France, Martinique. The exhibit is open through January 2023.
Stephen Goudeau of Shreveport, is getting his own show at NY Fashion Week. The fashion designer, a University of New Orleans alumnus, said his goal is to make an impact as a person of color and to show people, especially people in Louisiana, that it is possible to reach high and achieve their dreams.
Allen P. Vital has been appointed chief of staff for the Southern University System and Southern University and A&M College. He is an alumnus of Southern University and A&M College, Jackson State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. With more than three decades of Higher Education experience, Dr. Vital has held positions at institutions such as Southern, Alcorn State University, Xavier University, and Baton Rouge Community College.
Kiwana McClung has been named the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's chief diversity officer. She will oversee UL Lafayette’s Office for Campus Diversity and lead the University’s focus on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion among students, faculty, and staff. She will also ensure that underrepresented groups have equal access to educational opportunities and resources. while helping to coordinate faculty development and diversity training for employees. McClung, who is an accomplished researcher, is also an associate professor in the School of Architecture and Design and has earned national recognition for developing initiatives to increase diversity in architecture programs and curricula. The Baton Rouge native earned a bachelor’s degree in arts and humanities from Southern University in 2008, and a master’s degree in architecture from LSU in 2012.
A Louisiana trio of talent connects in the new Netflix film, “A Jazzman’s Blues,” which is produced by Tyler Perry, a New Orleans native, features songs arranged and produced by New Orleans trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and includes choreography by Debbie Allen, a native of Port Allen. A Jazzman’s Blues is a tale of forbidden love and family drama that unravels 40 years of secrets and lies against a soundtrack of juke-joint blues in Georgia. High on Films write, “The film is a simple story of a time when the colored folk of America struggled to make a life for themselves and survive. It has hints of the darkness that lurked at the time in the lives of colored folk and places they would run to and escape to cope with their struggles.” (Photos from Wikipedia, terenceblancard.com, and The Standard)
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