Entertainment

Julie Ethel Dash: The “Strikingly Original Filmmaker”

Although she would later study psychology at City College of New York, Dash continued to long for a career in film. Following her heart, she enrolled in CCNY’s Leonard Davis Center for the Arts in the David Picker Film Institute. During her tenure there, she wrote and produced “Working Models of Success,” a promotional documentary for the New York Urban Coalition.

Published

4 years ago

April 1, 2021

Mia Lane

Filmmaker Julie Dash

In 1991, the film industry’s racial and gender boundaries were shattered by the release of “Daughters of the Dust.” This Sundance award-winner (Best Cinematography) was presented by filmmaker Julie Ethel Dash (1952–), making her the first African-American woman to have a wide theatrical release of a feature film.

The film is a historically accurate fictionalized telling of Dash’s father’s Gullah family who lived on the islands off the southeastern coast of the United States at the dawn of the 20th century. The entire film takes place outdoors, in the woods, and on the beach, as Black history from West Africa to South Carolina is relived through its physical marks on the present.

The Library of Congress named it to the National Film Registry in 2004.

Dash’s film received critical acclaim and demonstrated widespread box office appeal. The Boston Globe described it as “mesmerizing.” The Atlanta Constitution described it as “poetry in motion”; the Village Voice described the film as “an unprecedented achievement.” Despite these accolades, Dash was brushed off by Hollywood executives when she approached them with the movie.

During a Boston Globe interview, Dash admitted she was told by Hollywood executives that her film was considered “too different” to be marketable. Such dismissal of her work, she added, “was consistent with a systematic pattern of excluding Black women from Hollywood.”

Dash refused to allow Hollywood’s practice of exclusion to define her, her work, or crush her confidence.

Forging ahead with her dreams of filmmaking success, Dash was the recent recipient of the Special Award at the 82nd New York Film Critics Circle, the 2017 Women & Hollywood Trailblazer Award, the 2017 New York Women in Film & Television Muse Award, and The Ebert Award. She was also inducted into the Penn Cultural Center’s 1862 Circle on St. Helena Island.

Dash has directed multiple episodes of “Queen Sugar” (Season 2) and was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for “The Rosa Parks Story” (2002) starring Angela Bassett.

Dash grew up in Queens, New York. As a teen, she enrolled in a film production course at the Studio Museum in Harlem. It was an experience that opened her mind to filmmaking.

Dash currently serves as a distinguished professor of art and visual culture at Spelman and a distinguished professor of cinema, television, and emerging media studies at Morehouse. Still, much of what she has achieved has gone unnoticed by the press.

“I was supposed to be a Black woman filmmaker and I was supposed to make the films they wanted me to make. And they couldn’t see anything beyond that,” she said. And she fooled them all.

Sources: https://juliedash.tv/biography/

https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/la-rebellion/julie-dash

Mia Lane

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IN MEMORIAM: Legendary Funk Pioneer Sly Stone Dies at 82

Sly Stone’s musical approach radically reshaped popular music. He transcended genre boundaries and empowered a new generation of artists. The band’s socially conscious message and infectious rhythms sparked a wave of influence, reaching artists as diverse as Miles Davis, George Clinton, Prince, Dr. Dre, and the Roots.

Published

3 days ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Sly and the Family Stone play the Opera House in Bournemouth. Mojo review. Photo by Simon Fernandez.

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Newswire

Sylvester “Sly” Stewart—known to the world as Sly Stone, frontman of the groundbreaking band Sly and the Family Stone—has died at the age of 82.

His family confirmed that he passed away peacefully at his Los Angeles home surrounded by loved ones, after battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other health complications.

Born March 15, 1943, in Denton, Texas, Stone moved with his family to Vallejo, California, as a child. He began recording gospel music at age 8 with his siblings in a group called the Stewart Four. By his teenage years, he had mastered multiple instruments and was already pioneering racial integration in music—an ethos that would define his career.

In 1966, Sly and his brother Freddie merged their bands to form Sly and the Family Stone, complete with a revolutionary interracial, mixed-gender lineup.

The band quickly became a commercial and cultural force with hits such as “Dance to the Music,” “Everyday People,” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”—all penned by Stone himself.

Their album “Stand!” (1969) and live performances—most notably at Woodstock—cemented their reputation, blending soul, funk, rock, gospel, and psychedelia to reflect the optimism and turmoil of their era.

As the 1970s progressed, Stone confronted personal demons. His desire to use music as a response to war, racism, and societal change culminated in the intense album “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” (1971). But drug dependency began to undermine both his health and professional life, leading to erratic behavior and band decline through the early 1980s.

Withdrawn from the public eye for much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Stone staged occasional comebacks. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys in 2017, and captured public attention following the 2023 release of his memoir “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”—published under Questlove’s imprint. He also completed a biographical screenplay and was featured in Questlove’s documentary “Sly Lives!” earlier this year.

His influence endured across generations. Critics and historians repeatedly credit him with perfecting funk and creating a “progressive soul,” shaping a path for racial integration both onstage and in the broader culture.

“Rest in beats Sly Stone,” legendary Public Enemy frontman Chuck D posted on social media with an illustrative drawing of the artist. “We should thank Questlove of the Roots for keeping his fire blazing in this century.”

Emmy-winning entertainment publicist Danny Deraney also paid homage. “Rest easy Sly Stone,” Deraney posted. “You changed music (and me) forever. The time he won over Ed Sullivan’s audience in 1968. Simply magical. Freelance music publicist and Sirius XM host Eric Alper also offered a tribute.

“The funk pioneer who made the world dance, think, and get higher,” Alper wrote of Sly Stone. “His music changed everything—and it still does.”

Sly Stone is survived by three children.