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Producer/director Lee Daniels, whose film "Lee Daniels' The Butler" has taken in well over $100 million at the box office, is not a man of fear, or of conformity.People can debate his work...praise it...criticize it...dissect it...embrace it...dismiss it.That matters little. What counts most is personal and artistic gratification."When I make...

Kanye West and his baby's grandmama, Kris Jenner debuted the first photograph of baby North West to the world, on Jenner's television talk show on Friday, Aug. 23.Of course, when some of us of a certain age hear North West, we think the Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest, not the daughter of reality show star Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye...

KEVYN ORR, Detroit emergency manager, speaks out in the wake of controversial comments about Detroit in the Wall Street Journal that has drawn condemnation from many sectors, especially among prominent civic leaders. — Andre Smith photosWhen Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr told the Wall Street Journal that Detroit once was “dumb, lazy and r...

Title: Senior vice president of Global Quality and Global CustomerProfile: Married, two sonsOnce upon a time, in better times, there was a popular slogan frequently cited by anyone remotely connected (and in Detroit and the Midwest that was pretty much everybody), “As GM goes, so goes the nation.”Since then, a financial crisis of phenomenal...

When Detroit’s own Kim­mie Horne was contacted about doing this story, she was in the midst of an extensive tour in Japan, one of the many places where she is an ongoing popular attraction.Horne who, by the way, is related to the legendary, iconic Lena Horne (on her father’s side of the family), had essentially been an R&B singer although she w...

Patti LaBelle has had a wonderful career, one that spans five decades and has resulted in her being a legend, a superstar and, yes, a super diva. But like anyone else, she has had her share of downs, one of which involves being the victim of an attempted rape by another of the greatest singers and performers of all...

I often find myself thinking up quirky titles and headlines for my lifestyle pieces. (See "Fringe Fest," "Hat-titude" and other bits of awesome tidbits that I've concocted.) However today my creative juices were in over drive. As I skimmed through the Huffington Post article about the massive Wayne County Jail Fail and its...

Jamil was my son, my friend and my travel buddy. We did just about everything together, but even now I realize how much more that I could have done with him. I write this with a very heavy heart because I chose work over spending time with him and our family over the weekend. I believed that I would have more time to spend with him if I...

Emergency manager takes on critics in candid interview about city’s futureKEVYN ORR, Detroit’s emergency financial manager, discusses the challenges facing Detroit while admonishing his critics to look at the facts on the city’s books. — Andre Smith photosKevyn Orr, Detroit’s emergency financial manager, unfazed by criticisms and mounting o...

Detroit --- On a particularly sun drenched Monday morning in Detroit, the planets aligned and I returned to my high school alma mater to connect with former classmate, acting great and all-around "nice guy" Courtney Vance. The consummate actor traveled to Detroit to address students at Detroit Country Day School regarding his journey to success,...