nativity" mixes at contemporary color -- a contemporary story with langston hughes's classic. eve, the family parallels "a christmas story." "gravity," "12 "nebraska."e," almost or stars for "frozen." three stars for spike lee's "oldboy." also three stars for "captain phillips." black nativity gets two and a half. one star for "last vegas." have a great holiday weekend, everybody. i'm arch campbell, abc seven injured claimant. chances are you'll begetting someone a gift this holiday season. >> what is the best holiday this year? we will tell you. -- aus -- a meeting reunion with their army dad, one year it >> >> as you have seen in our earlier holiday shopping stories, not everything is closed. orders toores have open this holiday but one manager said enough is enough and refused to open. scott in the satellite sensor will explain what happened. scott? beinghad a problem with open on a holiday. what is one person's convenience may be another's headache or worse. well some shoppers love being out and about that does not mean that workers do, including tony rohr. as manager of t

he's here on the right with langston hughs here at fisk university. he was head librarian for 30 years. he invited the people to visit him. sterling brown the national editor of the writer's project based in d.c. and here is the list of 17 projects. but the list of 17 -- number 15 was the negro in chicago laider became the negro in illinois dated november 1939. it says negro in chicago has begun. it's already underway. the best -- some of the first -- finally, some of these black projects started coming out. one of the most famous eventually became "crumb -- drums and shadows." collection of slave narrative. the actual during the day in 1940 the negro in virginia was published. and so this started getting him going. moving on the project. he starts working more quickly in 1940, '41, and '42. in the early day of the project the black writers worked alongside white writers. in downtown, these were known as the eerie street offices east of michigan avenue near the navy pier. one of the earliest black writers to work on the project was richard wright. her

this is a holiday -- >> yeah, i mean, it's based on this langston hughes play.>> jimmy: yeah. >> and it's about this family, that's broken. i mean, i play a preacher in harlem. my wife, we're astranged from our daughter. we haven't seen our her for 16 years, and we've never met our grandson. she sends our grandson back to live with us. and starts to reconcile the family in the holiday season. >> jimmy: and your daughter in this movie? >> jennifer hudson plays my daughter. she's amazing. >> jimmy: she's unbeleivable. >> angela bassett plays my wife. >> jimmy: oh, really? [ cheers and applause ] that's a great cast. >> yeah. >> jimmy: now do you sing in the movie? >> i do. i do. i do towards the end when we reconcile and the stuff comes -- >> jimmy: you sing? now is this the first time you sang in a movie? >> the first time, you know what? i was thinking about it. i think i did sing once like badly in like --i was captivated by diana ross in this movie "phenomenon." and i think i was singing some things in there, but it wasn't a musical. this is like a whole other

pearl and for mary lou williams it's a place like cafÉ society, a nightclub where any given night langston hughesd eleanor roosevelt might be in the audience. but it's also companies also important to note where these women create the own spaces. mary lou williams also creates a space into a partner which becomes one of the most important for the development of bebop music. she brings that energy into her own home and opens up her home for that kind of place, that kind of activity. what happens to them, i mean i think one of the lessons of history again is that these sites come under assault. they don't just disappear or grow out of fashion. as the decade it will ensure you we get the kind of anti-communist fervor that comes at the end of the '40s and early 50s there is an assault on places like the people's voice and on places like cafÉ society. so those venues old, and when they fold you know longer have those kind of places to nurture the voices in the way he would have in the early part of the decade. >> thinking about today's harlem, the celebration of restaurants and sights of possibility,

and for mary lou williams, it's place like cafÉ society, the nightclub where at any given night langston hughesnd eleanor roosevelt might be in the audience. but it also, i mean, i i thisst the also -- i think it's also important to note where these women create their own spaces. mary lou williams also creates a space in her apartment which becomes one of the most important saw a loans for the development of bee bop music. so she brings that energy into her own home and opens up her home for that kind of place, you know, that kind of activity. what happens to them, i mean, i think one of the lessons of period be, again, is that these sites come under assault. i mean, they don't just disappear or grow out of fashion. as the decade gets more conservative and we get the kind of anti-communist fervor that comes at the end of the '40s and early '50s, there's assaults on places like "the people's voice" and on places like cafÉ society. and so those venues fold, and when they fold, you know, you no longer have those kinds of spaces to nurture the voices in the way that they would have in the earlier p

to find something to do for the talent show, and i came across this album doing a portrait of langston hughest, you shot the film in harlem which is known as the renaissance? >> part of the harlem renaissance, it's the church itself, a beacon of the community. as a family, i think we represent that kind of main street. >> jennifer, who do you play? >> i play naima, langston's mother who is struggling. like any other parent, you want what's best for your kids, the best thing is her parents. >> send them to his grandparents who he has a estranged relationship with. how the twists and turns end up bringing the together together in an interesting way. lt's talk about you, jennifer, this is the first big role since "dreamgirls." >> it is. >> do you still remember how to sing? >> sing and act together. >> yes, you do. thank you. >> it's different, though. they're both musicals but i feel like kasi's approach with -- >> kasi lemmons is the director. >> the director. it was all lit by her vision. once i saw it, i said, oh, i get it now. whereas with "dreamgirls," it felt more musical. whereas, this o

langston hughes called it the vogue, the harlem vogue, the vogue for things black. and it was certainly connected to the primitivist movement, the idea that white culture was depleted and air rid and washed out and dry and could only be revitalized by bringing in the life forces of so-called primitive pieces. so some primitivists looked to africa, some looked to the southwest, some looked to tahiti. but there's something more than important at work than just that primitivist longing for blackness which is edna margaret johnson -- who does want to get away from whiteness -- she also want withs to take responsibility for whiteness. she says she wants to atone. and the women i write about many this book -- in this book had very strongly a longing for blackness. they saw it as preferable to whiteness at a time when that was almost unthinkable. but they also wanted to take responsibility for whiteness. and for some of them, that meant becoming voluntary negroes. >> a very generous reading, carla, and we can talk about how we might read things differently when we talk abo

and for mary lou williams, it's place like cafÉ society, the nightclub where at any given night langston hugheseleanor roosevelt might be in the audience. but it also, i mean, i i thisst the also -- i think it's also important to note where these women create their own spaces. mary lou williams also creates a space in her apartment which becomes one of the most important saw a loans for the development of bee bop music. so she brings that energy into her own home and opens up her home for that kind of place, you know, that kind of activity. what happens to them, i mean, i think one of the lessons of period be, again, is that these sites come under assault. i mean, they don't just disappear or grow out of fashion. as the decade gets more conservative and we get the kind of anti-communist fervor that comes at the end of the '40s and early '50s, there's assaults on places like "the people's voice" and on places like cafÉ society. and so those venues fold, and when they fold, you know, you no longer have those kinds of spaces to nurture the voices in the way that they would have in the earlier part