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First Film About Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman is considered one of the most heroic people in American history.

Born Araminta Ross, or Minty, Tubman was an abolitionist and political activist, and fought in the American Civil War. But across America, Tubman is best known for rescuing more than 70 enslaved people through a system called the Underground Railroad.

And now, a new film tells her story. Harriet is the first full-length film about Tubman’s life. It opened in theaters across the United States.

For many people who know only children’s book stories about Tubman, Harriet offers a more detailed story of the woman known in her day as the Moses of her people.

Moses was a biblical leader who led his fellow Jews out of slavery.

The film Harriet centers on Tubman’s escape from slavery in Maryland in 1849 and the rescues that led so many enslaved people to freedom.

Cynthia Erivo plays Tubman. Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Erivo is an English actress, singer, and songwriter. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Tony Award and a Grammy Award, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards.

She said stories that present Tubman as an older woman do not give a complete picture.

“It is important to know this was a really young woman who took a lot of risk in what she was doing,” Erivo said.

Harriet director Kasi Lemmons said she was moved to make the film after the recent discovery of a photo of Tubman. “There was this very small, young woman who managed to do incredible things,” said Lemmons. The picture was believed to be taken in the 1860s when Tubman would have been in her early forties.

Earlier this year, that picture was on show at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

Today, many Americans still only have basic knowledge of Tubman’s life. Some do not know, for example, that she served in the Union Army as a spy during the American Civil War. In 1863, she led 150 black soldiers on a gunboat raid in the state of South Carolina. The raid freed more than 700 enslaved people.

Tubman also became a leader in the fight to establish voting rights for women. She was in her early 90s when she died in 1913.

Efforts to make a full-length movie about Tubman have been discussed for several years. But Lemmons said her project came to life when she found Erivo. But Erivo is British, not American, and some people are displeased by Lemmons’ choice as a result.

Erivo, however, believes there are common experiences between black people of both countries.

Director Kasi Lemmons says Tubman herself was the spiritual guide of the movie’s production.

“I really thought about this as…[bringing] Harriet to life so that young girls could see this young woman heroine, and that the world could see her as this fierce, strong, feminine presence that she was,” Lemmons said.

Harriet earned $12 million from movie goers last weekend. The website Metacritic reports the film received generally favorable criticism.

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INVENTION SCHOOL’S SIGNATURE SERIES

The technological progress of Africa and its diasporans was dramatically broken beginning with slavery and later through its colonization by European powers. With the arrival of the 21st century, a new era of an awakened Africa has dawned. In the graphic novel series “Invention School”, curious young African students explore their creative potential for solving everyday problems through a subset of engineering skills under the watchful and loving guidance of an expatriate African American engineering professor. Watch this uplifting graphic novel series. If you find the series and its content useful, please share widely.

GORGING YOUR LEARNING APPETITE

Powerful media giants continue feeding us steady diets of stories, games, music, and images of exploitation, mayhem, helplessness, victimization, sexism, murder, adultery, preposterous wealth, torture, drugs, deceit, vampires, zombies, thuggery, glorified gangsterism, demonic spirits, horror, war, despair, brutality, crime, vengeance, sex, addiction, psychic disorders, occultism, savagery, lust, hate, prejudicial beauty/virtue standards, and stale mind-numbing escapism. Never underestimate the power of the subliminal messaging in this media content to accustom your subconscious to your further takeover and control. The groundwork is being laid and we are being deliberately manipulated for easier subjugation. The “collusion” between Hollywood and complicit agencies like the CIA is clear. Hollywood has played a little known role as a propaganda machine for the US national security apparatus for many years. Carefully look at the proportion (you’ll be shocked) of currently available movie fare that embodies these themes rather than embodying themes that uplift, transform, and inspire. “Just coincidence”, you say? After a steady diet of this psychic fare (garbage in, garbage out), what normal person would ever be in a position or mindset to connect and collaboratively formulate creative solutions and healing to man-made problems that beset humanity, earth lifeforms, and Mother Earth herself? These incapacitating but profitable offerings by these media giants stifle any visions of progress and action we might otherwise take to deliver ourselves out of the quagmires our modern societies have created that affect the entire world. Why do these companies market and sell so much of this awful, depraved content?? Could it be: