The Baltimore Music Festival

June 16,2012

Tickets $38.00 At Gordon Center For Performing Arts

3506 Gwynnbrook Ave, Owings Mills , Md 21117

Starring Kadejah One

from The stage Play Dream Girls and The Color Purple

April Sampe,Freedom Imani, Marcus Mitchell

Funny Man Rickey Shackleford

and The Host

Doni Glover from Bmore News

for more information contact

Bilal Ali 443-540-7797

See Marcus  H. Mitchell Live at The Baltimore Music Festival At Gordon Center For Performing Arts

3506 Gynnbrook Ave, Owings Mills , Md 21117 June 16,2012 for more information contact

Bilal Ali 443-540-7797. Another Bilal Ali Production

See Kadejah  One Live at The Baltimore Music Festival At Gordon Center For Performing Arts

3506 Gynnbrook Ave, Owings Mills , Md 21117 June 16,2012 for more information contact

Bilal Ali 443-540-7797. Another Bilal Ali Production

Funk fans started each Chuck Brown concert with a chant, “Wind me up, Chuck.”

From there they would be treated to guitar riffs, driving percussion and other rhythm instruments that left them dancing to the beat.

Brown, who died Wednesday at 75, was the “Godfather of Go-Go,” a genre blending funk, jazz and soul and other musical forms.

“Go-Go,” 40 years after its founding, remains especially popular in its hometown of Washington, D.C.

Chuck Brown: Godfather of Go-Go

“The groove and vibe he created was unparalleled,” said manager Tom Goldfogle. “All of his performances were a journey with the audience.”

Brown engaged in a call-and-response dialogue with fans, ensuring their interaction with each set.

He last performed in early March and had been hospitalized for about four weeks.

Brown died of multiple-organ failure from sepsis at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Goldfogle said.

With the Soul Searchers, Brown had a big hit in the 1970s with “Bustin’ Loose.”

The guitarist and singer was a familiar figure on stage with his brim hat and sunglasses, creating “the beat” for dancers.

“Go-Go” referred to a sound continuing from one song to the next.

“Chuck would describe it as nonstop percussive bass music with its roots in Latin, African and funk,” said Goldfogle. “He added his blues and jazz elements.”

While Brown performed worldwide, his most loyal fan base was in Washington.

District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray, in a tweet, paid tribute to the gravel-voiced Brown. “What a loss,” his message concluded.

Fans gathered Wednesday evening at the recently restored Howard Theatre in Washington to celebrate Brown’s life. A local radio station played music while people danced in the street.

Brown competed with disco and later had an influence on local hip-hop artists, Goldfogle told CNN.

“They would do hip-hop songs with a ‘Go-Go’ feel,” he said.

In 2010, Brown received his first Grammy nomination, in collaboration with Jill Scott and Marcus Miller, for “Love.” A 2007 album, “We’re About the Business,” included the singles “Block Party” and Chuck Baby.”

Brown, according to his manager, played to several generations.

“His music is loved as much by the grandmother, as the mother, or the daughter,” Goldfogle said.

According to CNN affiliate WJLA, Brown had recently postponed numerous shows due to failing health.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

“His family continues to be grateful for the outpouring of love and support and requests respect for their privacy during this difficult time,” Goldfogle said in a statement.

Survivors include Brown’s wife, Jocelyn, sons Nekos, Wiley and Bill, and daughter Takesa.

According To TMZ:

One of Whitney Houston’s close friends — a mysterious man who’s been widely accused of supplying the singer with coke before her death — is declaring war on media outlets that ran with the drug story … and now, he’s on a crusade to clear his name.

The friend — an enigmatic celebrity sidekick named Raffles van Exel — tells us, he is “neither the architect nor the culprit of the sudden demise of Whitney Houston.”

Raffles was with Whitney in the hours before she died at the Beverly Hilton hotel in February — and there were widespread reports strongly insinuating he was the singer’s secret cocaine supplier.

There were other reports suggesting Van Exel was also the one who snapped the infamous picture of Whitney’s body in a coffin … and sold it to a tabloid newspaper.

But for the first time ever, Van Exel is adamantly denying all the reports — and has begun taking aggressive legal steps to save his reputation.

Van Exel has started firing off cease and desist letters to media outlets reporting any nefarious connection between him and Whitney’s death — demanding full retractions asap … or else.

Van Exel — who describes himself as a “private consultant to the stars” — has also been linked to Michael Jackson around the time of the singer’s 2005 molestation trial, as well as jazz legend George Benson.

No one really knows who he is or what he does.

A New York medical examiner will begin an autopsy Thursday on Mary Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was found dead at her Westchester County home. She was 52.

Her death is the latest for a family that has seen its share of tragedy.

“We know from a history of this family, it’s very hard being a Kennedy, either being a blood Kennedy or being married to one,” Laurence Leamer, a Kennedy biographer, said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” “The overwhelming celebrity, the attention, the obligations, the expectations that you’re supposed to do something with your life. It’s very, very hard.”

In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy Sr. was assassinated in California while making a run for the White House. His death came more than four years after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, also died at the hands of an assassin.

More than three decades later in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, died when a plane he was piloting crashed in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. David Kennedy died of a drug overdose and Michael Kennedy was killed in a skiing accident.

Few details of Mary Kennedy’s death were immediately available.

The Bedford Police Department confirmed Wednesday that they were investigating a possible unattended death at an address owned by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Authorities found a deceased individual inside “an out building” on the property, police said in a statement.

“It is with deep sadness that the family of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. mourns the loss of Mary Richardson Kennedy, wife and mother of their four beloved children. Mary inspired our family with her kindness, her love, her gentle soul and generous spirit,” a statement by the husband’s family said.

“We deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her. Our heart goes out to her children who she loved without reservation,” her family said in a statement.

The couple married in a civil ceremony in 1994 when Mary Richardson, a designer, was six months pregnant, according to the Westchester County Journal News. One month prior to the wedding, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. divorced his first wife, Emily Black, the mother of his two oldest children, the newspaper reported.

He filed for divorce from Mary Kennedy two years ago, but the couple was still married at the time of her death, her family attorney, Kerry A. Lawrence, said.

Mary Kennedy was “a tremendously gifted architect and a pioneer and relentless advocate of green design who enhanced her cutting edge, energy efficient creations with exquisite taste and style,” Robert F. Kennedy’s family said in a statement.

She advocated finding a cure for food allergies and asthma and was a co-founder of the Food Allergy Initiative, which is the world’s largest private source of funding for food allergy research, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s family said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent environmental lawyer who is a professor at Pace Law School in White Plains, New York, is the third of 11 children born to Ethel and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Details of the couple’s private lives were exposed after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed for divorce in Westchester County on May 12, 2010.

The next evening, according to police records, Bedford police responded to a 911 call. When police arrived at the Kennedy residence, they found the couple in an argument over taking their four children to a carnival at St. Patrick’s School.

According to a “domestic incident” report filed by the officer on the scene, “Mr. Kennedy stated that his wife was intoxicated and was acting irrational so he took the children to the carnival to remove them from the situation.”

No one was injured, the report said.

Two days later, Mary Kennedy was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

At the time, Bedford Police Lt. Jeff Dickans told CNN that a Bedford police officer saw Kennedy’s 2004 Volvo swerving onto the curb of Greenwich Road in Bedford and asked her to pull over.

Kennedy had slurred speech, and a blood-alcohol content above 0.08 percent, the legal limit in New York. She was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Lawrence said the case resulted in a reduction to a violation, the criminal charge was dismissed and her driver’s license was suspended for 90 days.

A second arrest occurred in August of the same year in the town of Pleasant Valley, in which she was charged with driving while impaired by prescription drugs, Lawrence said. Those charges were dismissed completely in July 2011 because all the drugs were prescribed and taken as her physician advised, the attorney said.

As a designer, Mary Kennedy specialized in green architecture. In a book entitled “Kennedy Green House” and co-authored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he describes how he and his wife restored their flooded, black-mold-infested home into an eco-friendly residence.

In the book, her husband wrote that she had worked for the design firm Parish-Hadley and worked on the renovation of the Naval Observatory in Washington, the official residence of the U.S. vice president.

The early-morning slaughter of four Florida siblings at the hands of what authorities say was their mother is an “almost unheard of” case, crime experts said Wednesday.

Investigators are still trying to determine what happened at the Port St. John home of 33-year-old Tonya Thomas early Tuesday morning. But Patricia Pearson, author of “When She was Bad: How and Why Women Get Away with Murder,” said mass killings with women as a perpetrator are rare — and when they do happen, they typically aren’t committed with guns.

“If a gun was used, that’s almost unheard of,” Pearson told CNN.

Women make up about 5% of the ranks of mass killers, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University. And most cases in which women kill their families involve young children, said Fox, the author of “Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder.”

Sheriff’s deputies in Brevard County say Thomas turned a .38-caliber revolver on herself after killing her two sons, 15-year-old Jaxs Johnson and 12-year-old Joel Johnson, and two daughters, 17-year-old Pebbles Johnson and 13-year-old Jazlin Johnson. The children went to a neighbor’s house when the shooting started, with at least one reporting being shot, according to recordings of 911 calls released by the sheriff’s department Tuesday — but they returned while neighbors were on the phone with deputies, and more shots followed.

“The two kids were in the front yard, one banging on the front door, ‘Help us! Help us!’” a neighbor told dispatchers. “There was so much confusion going on we couldn’t tell who shot who, and then when I was talking to you the one kid said his mom shot him.”

Investigators don’t know a motive for the killings, said Lt. Tod Goodyear, a spokesman for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. But he said neighbors have described a history of public arguments among Thomas and her children, and Jaxs Johnson was arrested after a pair of fights with his mother in April.

The teen was charged with domestic violence after a pair of fights with his mother, according to records released by the sheriff’s office. In the first, on April 8, he knocked out a window with his bicycle during a fight; Thomas told deputies “she is attempting to get him into different programs to help with his issues.”

The following day, she said, her son punched and kicked her when she tried to wake him for school, then ran out of the house. She again called deputies, who arrested him on April 10, Goodyear said. He spent at least two days in juvenile detention after the arrest and had a court date scheduled for Tuesday, Goodyear said.

Thomas herself had been arrested on domestic violence charges in 2002, after a fight with her former boyfriend, the children’s father, Goodyear said.

Fox said the circumstances appear to be a case of “suicide by proxy,” in which a family member takes the lives of her loved ones “out of a warped sense of love” before killing herself.

“Typically, the perpetrator is suicidal, feels life is miserable and doesn’t want to go on,” Fox said. “But why does she take her children? Because she wished to be reunited them in the afterlife or wants to spare them the misery of this life.”

Usually the victims in such cases are young children, however — “partly because young children are vulnerable,” he said. “Older kids can run away.”

And the reported circumstances are “really unusual,” far different from typical cases involving either women or men.

In an e-mail to CNN, Pearson said that in cases where women kill their children, “They target them because that is their sphere of power, and also their source of stress.” But she added, “I’ve never seen a case where the children were this old, however. They’re almost always under 5.”

]]> http://www.bilalaliproductions.com/family/circumstances-of-florida-family-slayings-really-unusual/feed/ http://www.bilalaliproductions.com/gone-but-not-forgotten/us-judge-rules-against-child-star-gary-colemans-ex-wife/ http://www.bilalaliproductions.com/gone-but-not-forgotten/us-judge-rules-against-child-star-gary-colemans-ex-wife/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 12:10:04 +0000 Bilal Ali coleman coleman price price gray ruling http://www.bilalaliproductions.com/?p=21487

Former child star Gary Coleman’s ex-wife failed to prove she had lived with him as a common law spouse even after their divorce, a Utah judge has ruled, in a move that could strip her of rights to the “Diff’rent Strokes” actor’s estate.

Coleman, whose spunky personality, pudgy cheeks and comic timing at age 10 made him a prime time sensation in 1978, died two years ago at age 42 after suffering a brain hemorrhage in an accidental fall at his Utah home.

He died after being taken off of life support - a decision made by his former wife, Shannon Price.

At issue now is which of Coleman’s multiple wills should govern the distribution of assets, and a ruling designating Price as his common law wife would have boosted her claim to his estate, including rights to his cremated remains and the use of the star’s name.

“There is simply insufficient credible evidence to conclude that they were more than occasional roommates,” Judge James R. Taylor ruled late on Monday, saying she failed to prove her relationship met Utah’s standards for common-law marriage.

Price testified last week that she and Coleman had changed their mind about divorce and had continued to live together, sharing expenses, filing joint taxes, caring for each other when ill and maintaining a sexual relationship. Price said they decided against remarrying to avoid any publicity.

But Taylor ruled that while the couple may have assumed some joint responsibilities, many aspects of the relationship fell short of what is expected in a marriage.

Taylor noted that witness testimony indicated Price had moved in and out of Coleman’s home and that the couple had exhibited little affection publicly.

The ruling also cited testimony that Price pursued a relationship with another man in 2009 and that Coleman sought a 2010 restraining order to keep her from entering the home.

Coleman played Arnold Jackson, the younger of two black siblings from Harlem adopted by a wealthy white widower. The show ran for six seasons on NBC and two on ABC. Coleman’s oft-repeated line, “Whatchu talking about Willis?” became his trademark and a pop-culture catch phrase.

The diminutive actor, whose growth was stunted by a congenital kidney defect, sued his parents in 1989 for mishandling his finances and ended up making commercials and working as a security guard as his celebrity faded.

In 2003, he launched a bid to become California governor in a recall election ultimately won by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Coleman and Price met in 2005, during the Utah filming of the movie “Church Ball.” They married in 2007, but secretly obtained a divorce a year later.

A handwritten amendment to Coleman’s will drafted in 2007 named Price as his sole heir. The document said it replaced a 2005 will that named Coleman’s friend Anna Gray, the chief of his corporation, as the estate’s executor and only beneficiary.

Gray, who represented herself during a two-day bench trial, claimed Price’s claim to the estate was voided by the couple’s divorce. Gray welcomed the ruling, saying she believes it clears the way for a ruling that formally awards her Coleman’s estate.

“With a little luck, I hope to be able to take care of Gary’s remains and handle his affairs according to his specifications,” Gray told Reuters in an email.

A telephone message seeking comment from Price’s attorneys was not returned on Tuesday morning.

Royce Reed called in for some “Girl Talk” with TT Torrez on iPower 92.1 talked about all the drama on “Basketball Wives.”  No subject was off limits as she dished on loving Dezmon, fighting with Shaunie and Evelyn and the “BBW” backlash. 

Check out the highlights:

On why Shaunie refuses to film with her:

Royce says she has no idea what Shaunie is upset with her about. She reached out to Shaunie but never received a response. Royce then went on to say Shaunie had issues with her doing interviews but Royce says she’s only defending herself.

On her relationship with Jennifer Williams:

She says she and Jen are cool. They both apologized to each other and are moving forward.

On celebrities saying “Basketball Wives” promotes bullying:

Royce said at one time she quit the show because she felt it was going the wrong route. She said she fought to have producers show another side of her and that’s why we get to see other aspects of her verses just seeing her fuss and fight with her castmates.  She added that the show was like a mirror for her and helped her to change her life for the positive.

On Tami’s actions on the past two episodes:

Royce said she sees where a lot of people are coming from when it comes to her attitude. Royce explained why she never took sides and said what Tami DID and how she reacted was wrong. She said there’s another side of Tami that’s loving and funny.

On her having to be in a relationship and her relationship with her dad:

First Royce breaks down her previous relationships on the show. She then talks about her relationship with her father explaining how it’s hard for her to talk to her dad because of the way he speaks to her. She credits the show for opening up a line of communication between her father and herself and they are now at peace.

On her relationship status with Tampa Bay baller Dezmon Briscoe:

She says she and Dezmon are good. As far as the situation that happened on Twitter between Dezmon’s baby mama and her, she says it was crazy. She claims although him texting her was wrong, Dezmon has NEVER cheated on her and that the whole situation was extremely messy. She said she’s not leaving him because the world is telling her so.

Tia Mowry, who plays the selfish yet lovable lead role of “Melanie Davis” on “The Game,” revealed to her fans that she will not be back for the sixth season of the hit show.

Tia Mowry stated via her Twitter:

“Just wanted to let all my fans know that I will not be returning to The Game for season 6. It was an incredible run and I had lots of fun along the way. I am looking forward to my upcoming projects…the release of my book #OhBaby [today!], season 2 of @TiaTameraShow on @mystyle premiering in June, and my @ABCFamily movie coming out in December…more to come!” love u so much

And as for Pooch Hall, he hasn’t confirmed either way.  But on May 5th, the actor–who plays Melanie’s loving football star “Derwin Davis,” confirmed that BET was in the midst of working out a new contract.  Whether or not that actually went through is yet to be seen.

The season 5 finale goes down June 5th, 10pm ET.

A Florida mother who fatally shot her four children before killing herself Tuesday called three of the kids who had sought help from a neighbor back to the house before firing the fatal shots, authorities said.

Tonya Thomas, 33, fatally shot her four children, who ranged in age from 12 to 17, said Lt. Tod Goodyear, a spokesman for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

Three of the children had gone to a neighbor’s front door before dawn to say their mother had shot them. The mother then called the children back to the house and killed them, Goodyear said.

“From what the neighbors said, she was very calm. She walked out and called them back. They turned around and walked back to the house,” Goodyear said.

The neighbor then heard gunshots and called 911.

Another neighbor told deputies that Thomas sent a text message in the middle of the night saying she wanted to be cremated with her children.

“He didn’t see the text until he woke up this morning,” Goodyear said.

Deputies identified the children as Pebbles Johnson, 17; Jaxs Johnson, 15; Jazzlyn Johnson, 13; and Joel Johnson, 12.

The shooting happened in Port St. John, about 15 miles west of Cape Canaveral in an area known as the “Space Coast” because it is the home of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the location of numerous famed shuttle launches.

A spokesman for the Department of Children and Families wouldn’t immediately comment on whether the family had a history with the agency.

Dispatch records released Tuesday show that authorities responded to Thomas’ house on three successive days in April.

In the first visit, on Easter Sunday, Thomas reported that her son had thrown a bicycle through a window at the house. The next day, Thomas called to report that her son had kicked and punched her when she tried to wake him up for school. The following day, child welfare investigators visited the house to look into allegations of inadequate supervision of the children.

Records also showed that Thomas was arrested in 2002 on a misdemeanor battery charge for striking the father of her children. The charge was later dropped. Two years earlier, she filed a domestic violence complaint against Joe Johnson, but that was dismissed after a hearing.

Jamie Hudson, whose mother lives two doors down from the family, said the boys in the family were known to shoot BBs at a home across the street and had threatened to set it on fire.

“It has been an ongoing problem on our street with them,” Hudson said.

Goodyear said Jaxs Johnson had recently been arrested on a domestic violence charge. He said he didn’t know if the boy had been accused of hitting his mother or causing damage at the house.

Austin Lewis, a 16-year-old classmate of Pebbles Johnson, said the family “had problems like everybody else but nothing that drastic.”

He described Pebbles Johnson as “very loving and caring.”

“Always with a smile,” Lewis said. “Didn’t let anything affect her. She was always in a good mood.”

A pastor at the church the family attended described it as “normal stuff.”

“I think he was punching some walls or something,” said Jarvis Wash, pastor of the Real Church in Rockledge, Fla.

Wash said the family attended services last Sunday but had been absent for a few weeks before that.

“I don’t know what could have happened in the past couple of days,” Wash said. “It’s a tragedy to the church and the community.”

___

These days, Sherée Whitfield says she’s spending time with her family. She’s working on a few projects, too, including a fitness challenge, and she’s planning her next move.

It’s been a month, after all, since she announced her decision to leave The Real Housewives of Atlanta, a move she calls “an amicable split.”

“I was ready to move, and I don’t need to explain myself to anybody,” she tells Essence.com, shooting down rumors she was fired from the Bravo reality show. “I am super happy, and I’m moving in a different direction.”

She adds: “I’m not about just being on a show bickering and fighting with women.”

With season four wrapped, she summarizes her portrayal on the series as “being put in situations with people you normally wouldn’t be around.” She says there are two people on the show she considers friends, and although she isn’t naming names, Whitfield says she recently met up with Housewife Kandi Burruss.

Still, “I wish all the girls the best,” she says. “The ones that I like and the ones that I don’t like. I wish everybody the best.”

And even though she won’t be burning up the small screen with the Atlanta housewives anymore, her life isn’t drama-free yet. After a season that followed her storied battle with ex-husband Bob Whitfield, a former Atlanta Falcons player whom she divorced in 2007, she says they have yet to work out their child-support issues.

“One day, I hope Bob and I can sit down and become good friends,” she says, “and even better parents to our kids.”