Books
An Easter basket fill that will be enjoyed long after the edibles are gone is Childtimes, A Three-Generation Memoir, by Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little. The authors have collaborated on their second children’s book about three black women — grandmother, mother and daughter, reaching into the past in this memoir of childhoods.
Childtimes, A Three-Generation Memoir, by Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little, Harpers Junior Books, $7.95, for ages 10 and up.
Another young reader’s delight is Movin’ Up, by Berry Gordy, Sr., completed by the late Gordy elder just before his death in 1978. He writes about some of the highlights of his long life, reflecting on the joys and griefs of having been a part of a musical legend.
Movin’ Up, by Berry Gordy, Sr., Harper Junior Books, $7.95
For the African art collector, Knopf Publishers in association with the Detroit Institute of Arts, brings you Treasures of Ancient Nigeria. The publication illustrates the various forms of African artistry in 136 photographs, of which 53 are full color. An exhibit of these treasures will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in August. ($18.95 hardcover; $11.95 paperback).
A three-volume work, The Image of the Black in Western Art will interest collectors and non-collectors alike. It depicts the image of black folk in western art through the ages. Massive in scope and illustrated in full color, these volumes highlight the full range of diverse and complex attitudes, as expressed in various art forms from Antiquity to the present. (William Morrow, Part I $70; Part II $80)
A guide to modern living, unlike the rainbow press hints, is offered in Love Pact: A Layman’s Complete Guide to Legal Living Together Arrangements. This book will be available in June, providing sample living-together arrangements that cover all contingencies that provide a legally binding agreement, without the assistance of an attorney and without legal fees. (Grove Press, $5.95)
Film Takes
The Ziegfeld Theatre will premiere Can’t Stop The Music, June 20. The movie features The Village People, with Alex Briley and new lead singer Ray Simpson (formerly background singer for his sister Valerie and her hubby Nicholas Ashford), The Ritchie Family and Altovise Davis.
Comedian Franklin Ajaye, who appeared in Carwash with Richard Pryor and Ren Woods, will play the musical buddy of Neil Diamond in The Jazz Singer.
The sound system for Paramount Pictures’s Urban Cowboy is provided by a black sound company, Willie D. Burton Sound.
Los Angeles Laker Kareen Abdul Jabbar plays a pilot in an upcoming comedy spoof currently titled, Airplane.
Currently, in production is The Family Dream, starring Cicely Tyson and Richard Pryor, to be released by Universal Pictures.
Roots alumnus LeVar Burton stars opposite Steve McQueen in The Hunter, scheduled for release in August.
Rockers, a Jamaican film which was a hit at the 1978 San Francisco Film Festival, will be released in July. Somewhat similar to its predecessor, The Harder They Come, this film profiles the rise of a young reggae band. Mango Records, a subsidiary of Island Records, plans to release the soundtrack concurrently with the film’s premiere.
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