Kool Cats And Hip Chicks Blog

Boxing Promoter Ronald “Butch” Lewis Dead

Sista ToFunky — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:53:40 +0000

Ronald “Butch” Lewis, known in the fight industry for tenaciously landing his light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks a massive $13.5 million purse for what turned out to be a brutal, one round KO at the hands of Iron Mike Tyson, apprently suffered a massive heart attack. Lewis, age 65 and more active in recent years [...]

Kool Cats and One Hip Chick

Sista ToFunky — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:28:33 +0000

Today I ventured to the Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con with three goals in mind. To meet Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree and Billy Dee Williams. As my business partner and I made our trek, we talked about our continued love of the 1970′s, the films, the animation from the Saturday morning cartoons and the comics. [...]

Clarice Taylor

Sista ToFunky — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:52:34 +0000

Clarice Taylor, the actress and comedian best known for playing grandmothers on “The Cosby Show” and “Sesame Street,” has died at the age of 93. Taylor died of congestive heart failure in her home in Englewood, N.J., on Monday, said her son, William Taylor. During a career that spanned five decades, Taylor performed on radio [...]

Tony Walton and The Wiz

Sista ToFunky — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:24:36 +0000

Emmy, Tony and Oscar winning production, set and costume designer Tony Walton (All That Jazz, Mary Poppins and Broadway’s Pippin just to name a few) shared his Oscar nominated set and costume work for the 1978 film The Wiz. The film was the adaptation of the hit Broadway musical of the seventies and the Black version of [...]

Disney Legend Floyd Norman

Sista ToFunky — Sun, 15 May 2011 18:23:17 +0000

Born in Santa Barbara, California, the 75-year-old cartoonist/animator/writer studied illustration at Art Center College of Art and Design. Floyd began his Disney career fresh out of art school, as an animator and in-betweener (an artist who creates intermediate frames for smooth transitions between two images). “I walked through the Buena Vista main gate back in [...]

The MOUF Celebrates Black History Our Way…Vol 4

Sista ToFunky — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:39:22 +0000

Michael Ray Charles was born in 1967 in Lafayette, Louisiana, and graduated from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1985. In college, he studied advertising design and illustration, eventually moving into painting, his preferred medium. Charles also received an MFA degree from the University of Houston in 1993. His graphically styled paintings investigate [...]

Dwayne McDuffie

Sista ToFunky — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 23:53:15 +0000

Dwayne McDuffie, who wrote comic books for Marvel and DC and co-founded his own publishing company before crossing over to television and animation, has died. He was 49. The Detroit native died Monday, a day after his birthday, DC Comics said. His cause and place of death weren’t immediately known. McDuffie wrote comics for the New [...]

The MOUF Celebrates Black History Our Way…Vol 3

Sista ToFunky — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:28:01 +0000

Kerry James Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, and was educated at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, from which he received a BFA, and an honorary doctorate in 1999. The subject matter of his paintings, installations, and public projects is often drawn from Black popular culture, and is rooted in the [...]

Where Are They Now!!!

Sista ToFunky — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:46:54 +0000

The 1970s produced the film genre that would become known as ‘Blaxploitation’. These films were made specifically with an urban Black audience in mind. These movies were larger-than-life, action-packed and full of funk and soul music. These films also incorporated progressive social and political commentary. From Pam Grier to Bill Cosby, check out who delved into [...]

The MOUF Celebrates Black History Our Way…Vol 2

Sista ToFunky — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:49:52 +0000

The Museum of UnCut Funk celebrates some of our favorite Black Activists Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Townsend was born on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. The daughter of sharecroppers, she began working the fields at an early age. Her family struggled financially, and often went hungry. Married to Perry “Pap” Hamer [...]

The MOUF Celebrates Black History Our Way…Vol 1

Sista ToFunky — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:04:32 +0000

The Museum of UnCut Funk celebrates and pays homage to a few of our favorite Black sports heroes who rocked the 1960′s and the 1970′s (“The Greatest Decade Ever”). Jim Brown was born on February 17, 1936, in St. Simons, Georgia. He was an outstanding professional football player who led the National Football League in [...]

Sistas Who Rocked The Met Vol. 2

Sista ToFunky — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:26:41 +0000

Leontyne Price, a lyric soprano, is one of the world´s leading lyric sopranos. Her career in concerts and opera has brought her the praise of public and critics alike. Miss Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi on February 10, 1927, and received her B.A. in 1948 from the College of Educational and Industrial Arts (now Central State College) [...]

Janet MacLachlan

Sista ToFunky — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:24:02 +0000

Janet MacLachlan, who played the compassionate schoolteacher in Martin Ritt’s Oscar-nominated “Sounder” (1972), has died at age 77. A highly respected stage, film and television actress, Maclachlan was known for a serious, no-nonsense style that led her to be often cast as a judge, nurse, doctor, psychiatrist, teacher or social worker. She was highly visible during the [...]

Paying Homage…By Not Forgetting

Sista ToFunky — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:17:01 +0000

The Museum of UnCut Funk is all about celebrating the power of THE FUNK and of 1970′s Black Culture. As we continue to provide information on one of the most powerful and productive decades in Black history, we also want to pay homage those those who passed this year who were major players during this [...]

That’s Some Funny Sh*t!!!

Sista ToFunky — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 02:18:00 +0000

Comedy has always been a tool for artists to ease the pain of social issues, stereotypes and racial injustice. It has also brought front and center the positive transformation of pain into humor. Perhaps no ethnic group has displayed this with such commercial success as Blacks, but this transformation has not come without great struggle [...]

Rodney Allen Rippy

Sista ToFunky — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 03:03:36 +0000

Rodney is a child actor who appeared in TV commercials for the fast-food chain Jack in the Box in the early 1970s, as well as in numerous roles in television and movies. In the spots, he was seen trying to wrap his mouth around the super-sized Jumbo Jack hamburger. The tag line “It’s too big [...]

Sistas Who Rocked The Met Vol. 1

Sista ToFunky — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 01:57:52 +0000

Dobbs as the Queen of Shemakha in Le Coq d’Or at Covent Garden, 1954 An internationally acclaimed opera and concert singer, Mattiwilda Dobbs has a voice often compared to the clear and resonant sound of a bell and she is known for warm, intimate performances. Only two Blacks sang at the Metropolitan Opera before her, [...]

Opera Is Funky Too!

Sista ToFunky — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:49:37 +0000

Sissieretta Jones aka Black Patti (1869 – 1933) was a pioneer of Black operatic singing, and she paved the way for a long list of black opera singers to follow, including Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, Leontyne Price, and Grace Bumbry, among others. From 1890 to 1916, Sissieretta Jones was one of the best-known and highest-paid Black singers [...]

Eartha Kitt

Sista ToFunky — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:25:13 +0000

Eartha Kitt established herself in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television. By the time she was 20, Eartha was a featured dancer and vocalist in the Katherine Dunham Dance Company Troupe and was touring Europe where she was seen by Orson Wells who was Eartha Kitt and James Dean circa 1955 At [...]

What If The Tea Party Was Black?

Sista ToFunky — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:51:26 +0000

Stick It To The Man www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtH7vH4yRcY What else is there to say…To read the profile of this brother please visit his site at www.myspace.com/jasirix