Celebration and jubilation are found all over the city of New York City (in all of the five boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island). The New York Knicks successfully won the NBA Championship again after 53 years. The score of the game was 94 to 90 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday night. The end of the game started a new chapter of NBA history. This victory once again reminds us that heart will always go a long way in getting goals accomplished. We witnessed millions of New Yorkers coming together, regardless of background, cheering their team on in subways, in MSG, in parties, and in other locations. In each game of the series, the Knicks were down many points, but they came back to win the game. The Knicks won the series being 4-1. The vast majority of the people in New York City celebrated peacefully, and of course we disagree with the minority of people being violent and destroying innocent property. The New York Knicks worked as a collective to get the ultimate goal accomplished. The team had the shooting guard leader Jalen Burnson along with Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Karl-Anthony Towns worked extremely hard in offense and defense to achieve their ultimate goal. The NYC Knicks defeated the Atlanta Hawks, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the San Antonio Spurs. This was the first time that the NY Knicks came to the NBA Finals since 1999. In 1999, I was a teenager. Now, I am in my early 40s witnessing the Knicks having a victory. Fans like Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Tracy Morgan, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon, Larry David, and other people certainly felt tremendous joy. The coach Mike Smith used strategy in getting the victory accomplished. Past Knicks icons like Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Walt Frazier, Bernard King, Charles Oakley, Allan Houston, and Latrell Sprewell celebrated the current 2026 NBA Champion Knicks team with great reverence. The coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Mitch Johnson, shake the hands of Brunson, but Victor Wembanyama refused to do so and just walked into the locker room. The better team was the New York Knicks, and they earned their victory with grit, determination, and transparent basketball skills.
There are black Afro-Iraqis in the world. They are of African Zanj heritage. The Zanj people originally came from the area of the land of Zanzibar (in Eastern Africa near the Indian Ocean) filled with Bantu human beings. There was the Zanj rebellion from 869 to 883 A.D. to fight against the Abbasid Caliphate that mistreated Zanj workers in Iraq. They were unsuccessful, but this history is very unknown for tons of people. Some Afro-Iraqis now can speak Swahili and Arabic. They came be from 500,000 people to about 2,00,000 people worldwide today. They live heavily in Basra, Maysan, and Shi Qar. Most of them are in the religion of Shia Islam. They date back to the Arabic slave trade and slavery in Iraq between the 9th century and to the 19th century. Many African migrants were sailors and laborers. Also, many Africans were slaves who were brought from the East African coast to Iraq. The Ottoman Empire enslaved many black people too in the 19th century. The import of slaves via the Indian Ocean slave trade of the Persian Gulf was prohibited by the Suppression of the Slave in the Persian Gulf by January 1847. Slavery in Iraq was banned as late as 1924 via the royal decree issued by King Faisal I of Iraq. Afro-Iraqis still face racial discrimination in Iraq. Many Afro-Iraqis today are scholars, musicians, athletes, and politicians. They play percussion instruments like drums and tambourines in ceremonies. Jalal Dhiyah was an Afro-Iraqi civil rights activist, politician, and community activist who was assassinated in Basra on April 26, 2013, while he was a candidate for the provincial elections. Dr. Thawra Yousif was the deputy director of the Lotus Cultural Women's League. Randa Abd Al-Aziz is an Afro-Iraqis journalist and news reporter. Abbas Al-Harbi is an Australian theater and film director, screenwriter, and playwright.
Afro-Peruvians have a strong black culture too. They mostly descend from enslaved Africans brought to Peru after the arrival of the conquistadors. The first Africans arrived, as enslaved people, with the conquerors in 1521, and some, taken by force, with colonists to work, for no payment, in 1525. Between 1529 and 1537, when Francisco Pizarro was granted permits to import 363 Africans to colonial Peru, a large group of Africans were captured in order to provide, by force, labor for public construction, building bridges and road systems. They also fought alongside the conquistadors as soldiers and worked as personal servants and bodyguards. In 1533, enslaved Afro-Peruvians accompanied Spaniards in the conquest of Cuzco. Two types of African people were forced to Peru. Those born in Africa were commonly referred to as a slur by racist Spanish imperialists, which was also used in a derogatory sense. These slaves could have been directly captured and shipped from west or southwest Africa or transported from the Spanish Indies or other Spanish colonies. Afro-Peruvians previously forced to acculturate to Spanish culture and who spoke Spanish were called negros ladinos ("hispanicized blacks"). Some were biracial human beings, descendants of Spanish men and African women. People of color performed skilled and unskilled functions that contributed to Hispanic colonization. In urban areas Afro-Peruvians were cooks, laundresses, maids, handymen, and gardeners. In some cases, they worked in the navy, hospitals, churches and charitable institutions. In 1587, 377 people of African descent worked in the shipyards. The industry included a significant number of black people working in quarries, kilns and construction projects. There were not enough Spanish workers to build the colony, so black people essentially kept the economy running. Gradually, Afro-Peruvians were concentrated in specialized fields that drew upon their extensive knowledge and training in skilled artisan work and in agriculture.
In the social hierarchy of the slave stratum, the black artisans had the highest rank due to their skills. They worked as carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, swordsmiths and silversmiths. This group enjoyed more freedom than their fellows who worked at large haciendas or in private households. Spanish small-business keepers would dispatch a whole team of servant-artisans to do a job independently and then return to their owner. As the prices for artisans rose, black artisans gained better treatment and sometimes took a role of a low-ranking employee. Skilled trades were a major avenue of social progress for the black population. Due to their high skills, Afro-Peruvians gained prestige among Spanish noblemen. They occupied a relatively low social stratum but had some status related to the natives and were considered above the emerging class of mestizos (descendants of indigenous people and Spanish colonists).
As the mestizo population grew, the role of Afro-Peruvians as intermediaries between the indigenous residents and the Spaniards lessened. The mestizo population increased through liaisons between Spanish and indigenous Peruvians. The elite Spanish developed a caste system based on racial descent and color, to protect their privileges and their Spanish and mestizo children. In this system, Spaniards were at the top, mestizos in the middle, and Africans and the indigenous populations at the bottom. Mestizos inherited the privilege of helping the Spanish administer the country. As additional immigrants arrived from Spain and settled Peru, the mestizos tried to keep the most lucrative jobs for themselves. In the early colonial period, Afro-Spaniards and Afro-Peruvians frequently worked in the gold mines because of their familiarity with the techniques. Gold mining and smithing were common in parts of western Africa from at least the fourth century. But, after the early colonial period, few Afro-Peruvians would become goldsmiths or silversmiths.
In the end Afro-Peruvians were relegated to heavy labor on sugarcane and rice plantations of the northern coast, or the vineyards and cotton fields of the southern coast. In the countryside they were represented in wet-nursing, housekeeping, domestics, cowboys, animal herding, etc. After Indians became scarce as labor force on haciendas, the people of color gained a title of yanakuna, hitherto assigned only to indigenous servants with full right to own a piece of land and a day to work on it. Afro-Peruvians often exercised agency by using huido (translated as escape, flight) from haciendas and changing masters on their own initiative or joining the cimarrones (armed gangs of runaway slaves that formed small communities in the wilderness and raided travel merchants). The indigenous population were used to work in the silver mines, where they had more expert knowledge than West Africans or Spanish, even in the pre-Columbian eras. About 95,000 slaves were brought to Peru. Many slaves were trasnported to Cuba and Hispaniola at first. Then, traders brought them to Panama and Peru. Planters and others also purchased slaves in Cartagena, Colombia or Veracruz, Mexico, at trade fairs, and they returned to Peru with the new slaves imported by the slave ships. As a result of the "New laws" of 1548 and the influence of the denunciation of the abuses against Native Americans by Friar Bartolomé de las Casas, slaves gradually replaced natives at the encomiendas.
There were many free black populations in Peru centuries ago too Many black people and biracial people were excluded from education. Universities and schools largely run by the Catholic Church forbade the non-white population to enroll, under the justification that they were "unworthy of being educated" which is a racist lie. Wealthy, skilled, capable biracial people however made their way through the political ladder and achieved occupation of minor official posts. In 1821, General José de San Martín outlawed the slave trade in Peru. In 1835, President Felipe Santiago Salaverry signed a decree again legalizing the deportation of slaves through the other Latin American countries. Thus, two years after his death, will be removed from the constitution the principle of "emancipating soil" according to which a slave entering Peru is, de facto, made free. In 1854, President Ramón Castilla y Marquezado declared slavery abolished. Today, Afro-Peruvian communities celebrate the landmark decision of Castilla with a popular refrain or poem of celebration that reads, "Que viva mi papa, Que viva mi mama, Que viva Ramon Castilla, Que Nos dio la liberta." That means Hooray for my Dad, Hooray for my Mom, Hooray for Ramon Castilla, Who gave us liberty. Peruvian slave traders were so wicked that they kidnapped Polynesians, primarily from the Marquesas Islands and Easter Island and forced them to perform physical labor in mines and in the guano industry of Peru and Chile.
Afro-Peruvian music has its roots in the communities of black slaves brought to work in the mines along the Peruvian coast. As such, it's a fair way from the Andes, culturally and geographically. However, as it developed, particularly in the 20th century, it drew on Andean, Spanish, and African traditions, while its modern exponents also have affinities with Andean nueva canción. As a result, the hotbed for Afro-Peruvian music are the small coastal towns of Chincha and Cañete, not too far south of Peru's capital, Lima. The music was little known even in Peru until the 1950s, when it was popularized by José Durand, Porfirio Vásquez, Nicomedes Santa Cruz, and Victoria Santa Cruz, whose body of work was taken a step further in the 1970s by the group Perú Negro. At an international level, this form of music has had recent publicity through David Byrne's Luaka Bop music label, with the edition of the compilation by the group Perú Negro and the albums by Susana Baca. There are demonstrations that are still valid, such as the "Danza de Negritos y Las Pallitas" developed at Christmas time in the towns of the central coast of Peru.
Afro Peruvians are found in mainly in two sectors: north coast (between La Libertad, Lambayeque, Piura and Tumbes); and on the south central coast (especially in Lima, Callao, and in the provinces of Cañete, Chincha, Pisco, and Nazca). The highest concentration of Afro-Peruvians in the country is found in Yapatera in Morropón (Piura); composed of about 7000 farmers, most of whom are descendants of former African slaves, where a large number of people of "Malagasy" or "Mangache" origin (from Madagascar) stand out. The Province of Morropón is known for its black communities in cities such as the capital city of Morropón, around Chulucanas, in addition to Yapatera, there are Chapica del Carmelo, Salitral, Buenos Aires, La Mantaza, (Hacienda Pabur), San Juan de Mustache and Canchaque. Between the provinces of Ayabaca and Sullana you can also find black communities such as Las Lomas, La Tina (near the border) or Pacaipampa.
In November 2009, the Peruvian government issued an official apology to Peru's Afro-Peruvian people for centuries of racial injustice; it was the first such apology ever made by the government. It was announced by Women's and Social Development Minister Nidia Vilchez, and initially published in the official newspaper El Peruano. Afro-Peruvians continue to fight for justice. They are many Afro-Peruvian people who are Enrique Verastegui, Juan Jose Cabezudo, Andy polo, Victoria Santa Cruz, Amador Ballumbrosio, Jefferson Farfan, Susana Baca, Luca Reyes, Andres Santa Cruz, Teresa Izquierdo, and so many human beings.
Afro Portuguese people existed in Portugal for centuries. The early reports of Africans in Portuguese territory, account with the first slaves brought to Portugal as early as 1444 in Lagos. However, from the 1480s until the 16th century, Lisbon became the principal entry port. The city not only consumed a significant number of enslaved people but also acted as a redistribution hub, sending captives to other Portuguese cities and abroad, particularly to Castile and Aragon. The presence of African slaves was a defining characteristic of Portuguese society, frequently noted by travelers in their accounts. Their numbers increased over time, though it remains difficult to determine their precise proportion within the Portuguese population. They were responsible for daily domestic tasks as well as economic activities, contributing to their owners' financial gains.
There are also records of there being Black slaves in Lisbon in the Middle Ages. By the mid-16th century, there were approximately 10,000 Africans in Lisbon, around 10% of the city's population. By the end of the 16th century, the predominantly African neighborhood of Mocambo was established in the modern neighborhood of Madragoa. Most enslaved people imported into Portugal came from sub-Saharan Africa, including Arguin, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau , São Tomé and Príncipe, Benin, Saint George of the Mine, Angola, and Mozambique. Various groups were involved in the slave trade, including monarchs, officials, shipowners, crew members, merchants (both Portuguese and foreign), nobles, and clergy members. However, precise records of the number of captives sent to Portugal remain incomplete. Estimates suggest that in the 16th century, around 2,000 to 3,000 enslaved people arrived annually from different regions. Black people fought for liberation in Portugal. By 1593, the Bairro do Mocambo (Mocambo Quarter) was established as a settlement for freed Africans. Enslaved and freed individuals contributed significantly to Portuguese history, with some achieving social mobility, such as João de Sá, who served at the court of King João III. Many enslaved people were sent to Portugal. Later, that number declined as the slave trade dealt with the Americans. Importation of enslaved people into Portugal was banned in 1761.
Black Portuguese citizens are primarily descendants or migrants issuing from the five former Portuguese colonies in Africa: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The colonies were abolished in 1951, transformed into overseas provinces by the Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and became integral parts of Portugal. A minority also originate from other Sub-Saharan African countries. These communities arrived in continental Portugal after the independence of the African overseas provinces in the mid-1970s and after the Portuguese economic growth in the late 1980s. They should not be confused with the population – of overwhelming white European descent – that "returned" from the colonies immediately after their independence. This different ethnic group is the one formed by the so-called retornados (meaning "those who came back") — Portuguese settlers and descendants of Portuguese settlers born in former African colonies who relocated to continental Portugal after their independence and in the first half of the 1980s.
One of the primary settlement areas for communities in Portugal, especially the Cape Verdean one, were the lands north of Lisbon, near the present-day parish of Benfica. Starting from the 1970s, numerous clandestine neighborhoods (bairros) emerged here, often lacking basic services and plagued by crime-related issues. From 1993 onwards, with Portugal's slum eradication program, many people have been provided with alternative public housing and, despite the initial discrimination, many have nowadays found success. For instance, in Amadora only around 10,000 people used to live in shanty towns. By the 21st century, many black African immigrants have traveled to Portugal. In 2015, Francisca Van Dunem (Angolan-Portuguese) became the first black Portuguese minister in the Portuguese government. From the inauguration of Portuguese democracy until 2024, 6 Portuguese people of African descent had been elected MPs. In recent years, a renewed interest towards immigration to Portugal has emerged, particularly in Portuguese-speaking African countries and for study purposes. For instance, the number of students coming from a Portuguese-speaking African country has increased by 170% from 2017 to 2022. Moreover, as Portugal started returning tuition fees to those who come to study and then stay in the country to work student visas are in high demand. Many Afro-Portuguese people are Aladje, Asumah Abubakar, Bruno Alves, Felix Correia, Celio Dias, Marta Dias, Susana Costa, and other human beings.
Afro-Panamanians are Panamanians of African descent. They make up 31% of the Panamanian population. The population can be mainly broken into two categories: "Afro-Colonials", those descended from slaves brought to Panama during the colonial period; and "Afro-Antilleans", West Indian immigrant descendants with origins in Trinidad, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Belize, Barbados, and Jamaica, whose ancestors were recruited to build the Panama Canal. Afro-Panamanians can be found in the towns and cities of Colón, Cristóbal and Balboa, the Río Abajo area of Panama City, the Canal Zone and the province of Bocas del Toro. The first Africans to arrive in Panama came with Vasco Núñez de Balboa, in 1513. Panama was a very important territory because it had the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Goods were taken from ports in Portobelo and Nombre de Dios, transported overland to ports in Panama City and boarded on ships headed to South America. Initially, indigenous labor was used. Due to abuse and disease, the indigenous population was decimated. Bartolomé de Las Casas advocated getting slaves from Africa. By 1517, the trade in Africans was underway. Initially slaves were used to work and maintain the ships and port. They were later used to transport goods across the isthmus. The transportation of goods was grueling, not only due to the 60 kilometers of harsh tropical rainforest that had to be forced through, but also to bad weather and attacks by indigenous people. The enslaved people most probably came from Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Cameroon.
When registered as slaves, certain Africans used their African ethnicity and possible places of origin as first or last names. This resulted in names such as Luis Mozambique, Congo Anton, Christopher Sape, Miguel Biafara, Bran Gaspar, Pedro Mandinga, Anton Bañol and John Jolofo (Wolof), to name a few. This confirms the contribution of slaves from Senegambia, Ghana, Central Africa and Mozambique. Thus, the name of Africans living in Panama allows us to draw some lines on its possible origin: Mozambique, Congo and the region Kasanga, Congo-Angola, Sao Tome, the island of the same name in the equatorial region, and the region situated between Portuguese Guinea and Senegal in West Africa: Manding, specifically, gelofo/Wolof, Bañol (Banyun, established in Senegambia and Guinea Bissau), Zape (Sierra Leone), Bioho (Bijagos), Biafara, and Bran. They came through several circuits and networks that joined the "Middle America" with the economy in the South Atlantic, in which Panama and Cartagena were central ports and points of passage required for the transfer of Africans during the colonial period. On the African side, and according to Enriqueta Vila Vilar, major African ports' output of forced labor during the sixteenth century were the islands of Santiago in Cape Verde, São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea and Luanda in Angola, confirming what Rodney Hilton called "almost exclusive relations between Upper Guinea and the middle region of America." In West Africa existed, by then, a group of Portuguese merchants called "reindeiros", who had a monopoly on the sale of captives and "selling" the right to sell slaves, of whose earnings the Crown received a percentage. The buying and selling of people involved a complex network of officials and employees installed at key points in the sales network and was articulated across the Atlantic.
Some African slaves used the isolated nature of transporting goods as an opportunity to escape slavery. Many people of African descent escaped into the sparsely settled terrain and formed Cimarroneras, or maroon societies. These ex-slaves were known as Cimarrones. Cimarrones would mount attacks on transport caravans so often that the attacks became very disruptive to trade by the 1550s. The most famous of these Cimarrones was Bayano. In 1570, all Maroons were pardoned to stop the raiding. Famous Cimarrones proceeded to found Cimarroneras. Luis de Mozambique founded Santiago del Principe Cimarronera and Antón de Mandinga founded Santa la Real. It was with the Cimarrones of Panama that Sir Francis Drake alliance in 1572 in order to carry out his first independent attack on the New World Spanish colonies.
By the 1800s, many black people came to Panama from Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, etc. Afro-Caribbean workers helped build the Panama Canal. Panama being independent from Spain and slavery by 1821. Afro-Panamanians fought for equality and justice to this day. By the 1960s, Afro-Panamanians began to organize themselves politically, aligned with the labor movement. National Center of Panamanian Workers (CNTP) was at the center of Afro-Panamanian rights. A few Afro-Panamanians broke into the upper circle. A few were elected to the national assembly of the People Party, aligned with CNTP. One Afro-Panamanian was elected to the supreme court.{cn|october 2022} During the 1970s, they organized congresses dealing with issues surrounding Afro-Panamanians, like discrimination of the National Symphony Orchestra against black people. The Center of Panamanian Studies was formed. The University of Panama also began to focus more on Afro-Panamanian subjects as a discipline. Afro-Panamanians include many people like Tatyana Ali, Renan Addles, Yenith Bailey, Princess Angela of Liechtenstein, Felipe Baloy, Aloe Blacc, Tyson Beckford (he has a Jamaican mother and a Panamanian father of Chinese-Jamaican descent). Ursula Burns, Shayaria Camarena, Billy Cobham, and other people. I remembered Afro-Panamanian people in my elementary school over 30 years ago.
There are black people in Iceland too. There are about 3,000 to 4,000 people in Iceland or 1 percent of the total population. Hans Jonatan awas a runaway slave from St. Croix who lived in Iceland. There are social networks that connect black people in Iceland all of the time. some black people in Iceland were born in Iceland. Others have migrated form other nations from the Caribbean, Africa, and the Americas. Many black people came from Somalia and Jamaica. Afro-Icelandic people face economic inequalities, discrimination, etc. like all black people do globally. Groups that help black people in Iceland are Black Lives Matter Iceland, The Afro-Icelandic Association, Icelandic Human Rights Center, the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman, and other cultural events plus festivals. Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir (who was born on June 5, 2001) is an Afro-Icelandic professional footballer who plays as a forward for National Women's Soccer League club Angel City FC and the Iceland national team. In 2020, she won the Icelandic championship with Breiðablik, while also being named the Úrvalsdeild Player of the Year and winning the Úrvalsdeild Golden Boot award. In 2021, she was named the Icelandic Women's Footballer of the Year and in 2022, she won the Frauen-Bundesliga with VfL Wolfsburg. She was born in Keflavik, Iceland. She played for the Icelandic national team. Her mother is Ghanian and her father is Icelandic. Natasha Moraa Anasi-Erlingsson (who was born on October 2, 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for Grindavík/Njarðvík of the Besta deild kvenna. Born and raised in the United States, Anasi played college football for the Duke Blue Devils before moving to Iceland in 2014, where she joined Úrvalsdeild kvenna club ÍBV. She moved to fellow Icelandic club Keflavík ÍF in 2017. After receiving Icelandic citizenship in December 2019, Anasi made her international debut for the Iceland national team in March 2020.
From 1996 to her passing, Aaliyah's career took off into the next level. By February 1996, Aaliyah was featured on Kris Kross's single Live and Die for Hip Hop, which featured Jermaine Dupri (the song's producer), and rapper Da Brat. Aaliyah left Jive Records in 1996 and signed with Atlantic Records. She worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliot (who are from my state of Virginia. Timbaland is from Virginia Beach and Missy Elliot is from Portsmouth in the 757). Both producers of Timbaland and Missy contributed on her second studio album of One in Million. All three human beings acted as family and go along with each other well. The album had hits like If Your Girl Only Knew, Hot Like Fire, and 4 Page Letter. One in a Million peaked at number 18 on the Billboard 200. It was certified double platinum by the RIAA on June 16, 1997, which means that shipments of two million copies existed. It sold 3 million copies in America and over 8 million copies worldwide. One in a Million was an album that changed R&B forever with futuristic electronic beats, hip hop influences, and a up-tempo style. The album had trip-hop, electronica, funk, etc. Aaliyah left her former mentor R. Kelly for good, because R. Kelly did actions that were grotesque and evil. The album had producers like Jermiane Dupri, Vincent Herbert, and Craig King. Aaliyah was more grown and mature in the album. One in a Million was nominated in the Soul Train Music Awards and the 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Award. In 1997, she graduated with a 4.0 GPA from the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, where she majored in drama. She was in the show New York Undercover in 1997 too. Also, she participated in the Children's Benefit Concert, a charity concert at the Beacon Theater in New York.
She also became the spokesperson for the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. During her campaign with Tommy Hilfiger, the company sold over 2,400 pairs of the red, white and blue baggy jeans she wore in their advertisements. In December 1997, she performed the Christmas carol "What Child Is This?" at the annual Christmas in Washington television special. She also contributed to the soundtrack album for the animated film Anastasia, performing a cover version of "Journey to the Past" that earned songwriters Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. She performed the song at the 70th Academy Awards, becoming the youngest singer to perform at the event. Also in 1998, she released the song "Are You That Somebody?", which was featured on the Dr. Dolittle soundtrack. The song peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned her first Grammy Award nomination.
In 1999, Aaliyah landed her first big-screen acting role in Romeo Must Die. She starred opposite martial artist Jet Li, playing a couple who fall in love amid their warring families. Released on March 24, 2000, the movie grossed US$18.6 million in its first weekend, ranking number two at the box office. She purposely stayed away from reviews of the film to "make it easier on" herself, but heard "that people were able to get into me, which is what I wanted." In contrast, some critics felt there was no chemistry between her and Li, as well as viewing the film as too simplistic. This was echoed by Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times, who wrote that while she was "a natural" and the film was conceived as a spotlight for both her and Li, "they have so little chemistry together you'd think they're putting out a fire instead of shooting off sparks. In addition to acting, she served as an executive producer of the film's soundtrack, for which she contributed four songs. "Try Again" was released as a single from the soundtrack; the song topped the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist to top the chart based solely on airplay; this led the song to be released in a 12-inch vinyl and 7-inch single. The music video won the Best Female Video and Best Video from a Film awards at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. It also earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocalist. The soundtrack went on to sell 1.5 million copies in the United States.
After completing Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah began to work on her second film, Queen of the D____. She played the role of an ancient vampire, Queen Akasha, which she described as a "manipulative, crazy, sexual being." Filming both Romeo Must Die and Queen of the D____ delayed the release of her next album. She had not intended for her albums to have such a gap between them: "I wanted to take a break after One in a Million to just relax, think about how I wanted to approach the next album. Then, when I was ready to start back up, Romeo happened, and so I had to take another break and do that film and then do the soundtrack, then promote it. The break turned into a longer break than I anticipated." Ultimately, she filmed Queen of the D_____ and recorded her third album at the same time, so that the album could be released in 2001. She enjoyed balancing her singing and acting careers. Though she called music a "first" for her, she also had been acting since she was young and had wanted to begin acting "at some point in my career", but "wanted it to be the right time and the right vehicle" and felt Romeo Must Die "was it." Connie Johnson of the Los Angeles Times argued that Aaliyah's focus on her film career may have caused her to not give the album "the attention it merited."
There are tons of early black women basketball icons and women basketball icons of all colors too. There was Senda Bernson or the Mother of Women's Basketball. She adapted James Naismith's original rules for Smith College in 1892, forming the first women's collegiate game and governing rules. Ora Washington was one of the greatest women athletes in human history. She was a great African American athlete in the 1930s and 1940s who starred for the Philadelphia Tribune Girls, leading them to multiple Women's Colored Basketball Championships. She played tennis too. She was the first black woman to dominate a sport in the modern era. She was born in Caroline County, Virginia. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. Nera White led the Nashville Business College team to 10 AAU National Championships and was the first woman inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (being 6 feet one). Lusia Harris was the 6 feet 3 center for Delta State University. Harris led her team to three consecutive AIAW National Championships (1975-1977). She scored the first points in the Olympic women's basketball history in 1976. We know about Nancy Lieberman or Lady Magic. She was a three time All-American at Old Dominion University, a multi-time Olympian, and a pioneer in women's professional leagues and coaching. Ann Meyers Drysdale is the first four time women's basketball All-American at UCLA. She made history in 1980 by singing a free agent contract with the NBA's Indian Pacers, participating in their rookie camp. Cheryl Miller is the most dominant college player in history. At USC, she led the Trojans to back to back NCAA championships (in 1983 and 1984), won three gold medals, and was the first woman to dunk in a regulation game. Robin Roberts of ABC is also a pioneering legend of women's basketball too.
By Timothy
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