Kofi Siriboe’s short film “Jump” Identifies Mental Health

Kofi Siriboe released his short film “Jump” yesterday and it has already been getting buzz. The film follows Ziggy, a African American male that is detached from reality. Ziggy continues to see a young girl that is telling him to follow her, but every time he finds her, no one is ACTUALLY there. He repeats the words, “I don’t wanna live, I don’t wanna die”, directly signifying his complex with living a life of depression and actually not wanting to ending the life he know (with friends) but doesn’t enjoy. His friend tries to reach out to him but he’s not interested in hanging out or talking. It ends with Ziggy on the bridge considering what to do next…

I’m proud of Kofi Siriboe for this wonderful film. Keep up the good work! OnPoint!

Check out the short film below:

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Kofi Siriboe Brings Awareness To Mental Health in Black Communities

Actor Kofi Siriboe from the film Girls Trip and TV Series Queen Sugar has created a documentary called What the Fuck Is Mental Health? Tackling the unrecognized issues of mental illness in black communities. In the short documentary, a group of young Black speak on their personal experience with mental health and how they have overcome.

Siriboe expressed to the Huffington Post about being inspired to make a documentary dealing with mental health:

Making WTF Is Mental Health? Has been a part of the healing process for me, one I’m still exploring. It’s the combination piece to Jump, a short film I made after a mentor and a big brother figure died by suicide, just before I got the call that I’d then cast in Queen Sugar. I started working on this beautiful, emotional show and felt how liberating it was to channel my fears into art. As I began to mold Jump, I realize the true conversation I was craving centered on young black people who are figuring out this mental health thing, too.

He also explains that he wants Black people to express themselves:

Everybody doesn’t have that language and doesn’t understand that there is a community or world out there of people dealing with similar things, so I want to explore what it is and what it means to us. A lot of our project is just asking questions, and I think with the questions, they’re able to give us answers and able to define these definitions for ourselves rather than what we are accustomed to being told.

It is no secret that Black people have a hard time expressing themselves. It is however difficult for many people to understand WHY Black people have such a hard time expressing themselves. This documentary is just the beginning of a well-needed discussion on mental health in black communities.

BET Founder Credits The President For Lowering Black Unemployment Rate

Robert Johnson, the founder of BET and the nation’s first Black billionaire, gave Trump supporters something to crow about after he incorrectly credited the president for improving the job outlook for African Americans.

“When you look at African American unemployment, in over 50 years since the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been keeping the numbers, you’ve never had two things: African American unemployment this low and the spread between unemployment among whites and African Americans narrowing,” Johnson said Friday on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

That comment pleased President Donald Trump. Watching a Black man of Johnson’s influence praise Trump also warmed the hearts of right-wing conservative media. Outlets like Breitbart joyfully shared the Johnson’s remarks.

The BET founder, however, failed to note that the Black unemployment rate had declined steadily during President Barack Obama’s presidency. Indeed, economists have credited Obama’s financial recovery initiative from the historic recession for the declining unemployment.

In 2010 during the recession, the Black unemployment rate hit 16.8 percent, but it has continued to decrease falling to 7.8 percent when Trump took office. Johnson cited the December jobs report showing that unemployment among Black workers was at its lowest since the Labor Department began tracking the data in 1972. It fell to 6.9 percent, but it remains nearly double the white unemployment rate of 3.6 percent.

Johnson met with Trump in the weeks after the 2016 election when he was parading high-profile individuals under consideration for cabinet posts in front the media at his golf club in New Jersey. After that meeting, he urged African Americans to have an open mind about Trump.

WINNERS Of The 2018 NAACP Image Awards

Outstanding Actress In Motion Picture – OCTAVIA SPENCER (Gifted)Outstanding Actor In Comedy Series -ANTHONY ANDERSON (Black-ish)Outstanding Actress In Drama Series – TARAJI. P HENSON (Empire) Outstanding Actress In Comedy Series – TRACEE ELLIS ROSS (Black-ish)

Outstanding Actor In Drama Series – OMARI HARDWICK (Power)

Outstanding Comedy Series – Black-ish

Chairman Award – WILLIAM LUCY

Outstanding Documentary (Television) – “THE 44th PRESIDENT: IN HIS OWN WORDS”

Outstanding Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special – The New Edition Story

Outstanding Talk Series – The Real

Outstanding Writing In Motion Picture (Film) – JORDAN PEELE (Get Out)

Outstanding New Artist – SZA

Outstanding Directing In A Dramatic Series – CARL FRANKLIN (13 Reasons Why)

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series – JOE MORTON (Scandal)

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series – JAY ELLIS (Insecure)

Outstanding Jazz Album – SOMI (Afrique)

Outstanding Supporting Actress In Comedy Series – MARSAI MARTIN (Black-ish)

Outstanding Performance By A Youth (Series, special, Television Movie, or Limited-Series) – CALEB MCLAUGHLIN

Outstanding Female Artist – MARY J. BLIGE

Outstanding Children’s Program – DOC MCSTUFFINS

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Motion Picture – TIFFANY HADDISH (Girl’s Trip)

Outstanding Directing In A Television Movie Or Special – ALLEN HUGHES (The Defiant Ones)

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Motion Picture – IDRIS ELBA (Thor: Ragnarok)

Outstanding Host In A Talk Or News/Information (Series or Special) – Individual Or Ensemble – ROLAND MARTIN

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture – Detroit

Outstanding Reality Program/Reality Competition – THE MANNS

Outstanding Literary Work – CHILDREN – LITTLE LEADERS: BOLD WOMEN IN BLACK HISTORY

Outstanding Supporting Actress In Drama Series – NATURI NAUGHTON (Power)

Outstanding Director In A Motion Picture – JORDAN PEELE (Get Out)

Outstanding Writing In A Drama Series – GINA PRINCE- BYTHEWOOD (Shots Fired)

Outstanding News/Information (Series or Special) – Unsung

Outstanding Literacy Work – Poetry – INCENDIARY ART: POEMS – PATRICIA SMITH

Outstanding Variety Or Game Show (Series or Special) – LIP SYNC BATTLE

Outstanding Gospel/Christian Album (Traditional or Contemporary) – GREENLEAF SOUNDTRACK

Outstanding Writing In A Comedy Series – JANINE BARROIS (Claws – Batsh*t)

Outstanding Literacy Work – Debut Author – STEPHANIE POWELL WATTS (No One Is Coming To Save Us)

Outstanding Host In A Reality Competition, Game Show Or Variety (Series or Special) – Individual or Ensemble – LL COOL J (lip sync battle)

Outstanding Literacy Work – Fiction – THE ANNOTATED AFRICAN AMERICAN FOLKTALE

Outstanding Directing In A Comedy Series – ANTON CROPPER (Black-ish)

Outstanding Character VoiceOver Performance (Television or Film) – TIFFANY HADDISH (Legends Of Chamberlain Heights)

Outstanding Documentary (FILM) – STEP

Outstanding Song (Traditional) – BRUNO MARS (That’s What I Like)

Outstanding Actor In A Television Movie, Limited-Series Or Dramatic Special – IDRIS ELBA (Guerrilla)

Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album – BRUNO MARS (That’s What I Like)

Outstanding Literacy Work – Youth/Teens – CLAYTON BYRD GOES UNDERGROUND

Outstanding Writer In A Television Movie Or Special – ABDUL WILLIAMS (The New Edition Story)

Outstanding Literacy Work (Biography/Autobiography) – BEING MS.BURTON FROM PRISON TO RECOVERY TO LEADING THE FIGHT FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN

Outstanding Album – DAMN (Kendrick Lamar)

Outstanding Actress In A Television Movie, Limited-Series Or Dramatic Special – QUEEN LATIFAH (Flint)

Outstanding Literacy Work (Nonfiction) – DEFINED MOMENTS IN BLACK HISTORY: READING BETWEEN THE LINES

Outstanding Literacy Work (Instructional) – THE AWAKEN WOMAN: REMEMBERING AND REIGNING OUR SACRED DREAMS

Outstanding Male Artist – BRUNO MARS

Outstanding Duo, Group Or Collection – KENDRICK LAMAR FT. RIHANNA – Loyalty

Outstanding Song – Contemporary – Humble (Kendrick Lamar)

Why is Azealia Banks so Negative?

Lately I have been hearing Azealia Banks name everywhere, not because she has new music out or is now on the top charts but because she is bashing another artist.

My opinion on the whole situation is that Banks needs to stop picking petty twitter wars with other artist and work on her craft. It’s sad to say but the most I have heard her name is because of the drama she is causing. First off for a woman that says she feels so strongly about black culture, why does she have to be the one to contribute to the stereotype of an angry black person?

Apparently Banks has a problem with the way Iggy Azalea acts and raps in her music. She feels as though Iggy is mocking black people by rapping the way she does. So I read a little on the twitter war between the two and I have come to the conclusion that Azealia Banks is looking for attention. I never heard of music including Hip Hop being only for one race. Hip Hop was originally created to help empower young black people , in low income areas, to do more with their life than sit on the block and hang out. The music empowered many young people to want to do something with their life. Now Hip Hop has evolved and a broad range of people, from every background, listening to it every day, this includes white people. So if someone from a different race wants to become one with Hip Hop who is anyone to tell them they can’t. No one said you can’t have your opinion but when opinionated outburst make you more famous than your musical talent there is a problem. Bank says Iggy likes black culture but not black issues. My first question is why does she care so much about how Iggy lives her life? Also does Azealia Banks even know what it means to have black culture?

Then she goes in on Kendrick Lamar for making a comment that makes sense and it’s the black people that don’t want to admit that we have a problem within, which will cause change to never happen. I agree with Lamar, the Michael Brown situation should never happen but has black people we need to unite and uplift ourselves from thinking negatively. There are black people that respect themselves but there are many that don’t. Like Ferguson anyone who thinks rationally would say rioting is the dumbest thing people can do to get their point across not only did you embarrass black people you also became the stereotype that white people picture you as. For instance white people now a days put feel in black people when they say specific things but black people feel as though they have to put fear in white people by war. No that’s not the way it works. Its all a mind game, they say the things they say and do the things they do becasue they know how the majority will act. In the end the idea is to get the majority of black people to stop being ignorant to the fact that we are bringing each other down and we have to do better. We can’t act out of anger and must think rationally before fighting a war. So when a quote on quote artist comes out and only promotes negativity it really bothers me because we have a generation of black youth that is already confused, we don’t need ignorant people poisoning their mind any more than it already is.

The point to this whole thing is that Azealia Banks is disrespecting people that have or is now proving themselves in the industry and contributing to the irrational way of looking at the issues black people face today. At the end of the day bashing other artist on twitter will not make you sell more nor will it give you cool points in the industry. My suggestion is for her to take a step back and evaluate herself.