Music
Janelle Monae to star In upcoming live action Disney movie
ROLLINGOUT.COM — Janelle Monae is set to provide new music for the live-action remake of a Disney classic.
By Rollingout.com
Janelle Monae is set to provide new music for the live-action remake of a Disney classic.
The 33-year-old singer and actress already has a voice acting role as a Pekingese dog named Peg in the upcoming reboot of the 1955 Lady and the Tramp animated movie, but it has now been revealed she will lend her voice to the production’s soundtrack too.
According to Variety magazine, Monae will perform two original songs for the film, and her artist collective Wondaland is also “reinventing” the “Siamese Cat Song” from the original movie.
The song – which features the refrain “We are Siamese if you please / We are Siamese if you don’t please” – has long been considered an offensive representation of Asian culture, and will be reworked by Wondaland contributors Nate “Rocket” Wonder and Roman GianArthur for the remake.
Kaylin Frank, a vice president in Creative Music and Soundtracks at Disney, told Variety: “We’re dealing with Wondaland, her team of incredibly creative writers and producers that she works with. So our director has engaged with her in terms of what the storytelling [of] the song needs to be.”
She then added that although the film is set in 1910 and has a blues-ragtime vibe, Monae’s personal sound will be represented.
Lady and the Tramp is set to star Tessa Thompson as Lady and Justin Theroux as Tramp, as well as Yvette Nicole Brown, Benedict Wong, Kiersey Clemons, Ashley Jensen, Thomas Mann and Sam Elliott.
The movie will be available exclusively on Disney’s streaming service Disney Plus, shortly after the platform launches in mid-November.
Bay Area
Bishop Bob Jackson Celebrates 38 Years at Acts Full
On May 5, Rev. W.R., “Smokie” Norful Jr. preached the sermon. Norful is an American gospel singer and pianist, best known for his 2002 album, “I Need You Now” and “Nothing Without You,” which won a Grammy at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album in 2004.

From May 4-6, 2022, hundreds of well-wishers came to celebrate with the senior pastor of Acts-Full Gospel Church of God in Christ, Bishop Robert (Bob) L. Jackson, as he marked 38 years of service. On May 5, Rev. W.R., “Smokie” Norful Jr. preached the sermon. Norful is an American gospel singer and pianist, best known for his 2002 album, “I Need You Now” and “Nothing Without You,” which won a Grammy at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album in 2004. Norful received his second Grammy in 2015 at the 57th Annual Grammy awards for his song “No Greater Love,” 10 years after winning his first.
Arts and Culture
Four Seasons Arts Honors Founder Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams with Annual Concert
Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams was one of the first African American presenters of a major classical music concert series in the United States. Dr. Williams presented artists of all races and organized racially diverse audiences, and for over 40-plus years in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, he introduced to the world some of the finest musicians of our time.

On Saturday, May 7 at 3 p.m., Four Seasons Arts will honor Founder Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams with a piano recital by Dr. Rochelle Sennet. The concert takes place at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. in Berkeley.
Sennet’s May 7 program, entitled “Bach to Black,” features two Partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach, “Four Dances for Boris” by African-American composer Jeffrey Mumford (b. 1955) and “In the Bottoms” Suite by African-American composer R. Nathaniel Dett.
Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams led the concert organization from its beginning in 1958 until his death in 1999, and it is because of his vision that the concert series continues.
Dr. Williams was one of the first African American presenters of a major classical music concert series in the United States. Dr. Williams presented artists of all races and organized racially diverse audiences, and for over 40-plus years in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, he introduced to the world some of the finest musicians of our time.
Pianist Dr. Rochelle Sennet is a well-known performer, teacher and scholar. She has performed throughout the world as a soloist and orchestra collaborator and is a sought-after guest lecturer and adjudicator.
Free tickets to this event are available by emailing fsa.info@fsarts.org, calling 510-845-4444 or clicking the “Get Free Tickets” button at www.fsarts.org/2022-founders-concert/.
Art
The Poets of Tin Pan Alley
Peter Robinson will focus his multimedia presentation on the 1920s and 1930s, when the lyrics and rhythms of Tin Pan Alley captured the changing moods of the American public from the heights of the Roaring Twenties to the lows of the Great Depression.

By Godfrey Lee
Peter Robinson, KALW Radio Arts critic, will be speaking at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 22, at the Sausalito Library, 420 Litho St. in Sausalito, on Tin Pan Alley, the New York City epicenter of the music publishing business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Robinson will focus his multimedia presentation on the 1920s and 1930s, when the lyrics and rhythms of Tin Pan Alley captured the changing moods of the American public from the heights of the Roaring Twenties to the lows of the Great Depression.
Billie Holiday, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, and other songwriters and performers, will be presented during the program.
Robinson is a graduate of Cambridge University (UK) and is a familiar voice to listeners of KALW 91.7, a local National Public Radio station in San Francisco. He is an author and the editor of San Francisco Books & Travel magazine, and teaches memoir writing in Sausalito.
Robinson is president of the San Francisco Literary Society and the events director of the Marin Philosophical Society.
The program is free. For more information, please call (415) 289-4121.
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