Looking for that Union Label

 

The three major actors unions were in full force Saturday marching along 5th Avenue.  Can’t tell the players without a program: SAG = dark blue Ts, AFTRA = red caps and/or the navy and gold T-shirt , Equity  = bright blue Ts and/ or white caps. 

Drea Lewis walks for reform and helps the environment in her bamboo earrings.

 

Bi-coastal talent, Shonnese CL Coleman says, “I’m a proud member of SAG, AFTRA and AEA.  HEALTH CARE NOW!”

  

 

The actors’ unions don’t discriminate.  Thanks for the support, Archbishop!

Many of us are fortunate enough to have more than one designation.  I got creative with my combo.

That’s yours truly in what is now my absolute favorite picture of me (next to my headshot, of course)!  The brilliant photo was taken by Shonnese!

Learn more about how to join the unions or how to hire union talent at:  www.sag.org, www.actorsequity.org, www.aftra.org, and www.sagindie.org.

Shoot – The Waters Rise

Production photos from my four-days on the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border shooting a powerful short film entitled The Waters Rise. 

It was written and helmed by award winning director, Jessie Levandov.  The four person cast included:

Santana Dempsey as Blue

Kira Pearson as Leona

Roger Grunwald as Dunby

And me as July.  Photo by K. Pearson.

The weather was darn near perfect.

 

The cast and crew were a friendly, lively bunch.

    

Photo by K. Pearson.

We shot interiors at the gorgeous Genesis Farms, “a learning center for Earth studies".  It was founded in 1980 by the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell New Jersey.  I am now realizing that I never took a picture of their composting toilet. 

  

To see more photos from The Waters Rise, go to my flickr site.  

Always a Photographer, Never a Bride

My friends, Steve Wallace and Robye Patrick got married to each other on November 4 this year.  The whole wedding was, in my opinion, exactly as a wedding should be: friendly, fun, simple and relatively brief. 

They had another photographer in addition to yours truly.  I let him do his thing, which included formal, family shots and I concentrated on creating a photojournalistic album of the day.

I arrived at three p.m. while the bridal party was prettying up in the church’s Sunday School room.  Robye was the quintessential “Happy Bride.”

 

There was finger food and lots of silliness.

Even during the prayer circle!

 

Next, we headed outside to get the larger group shots.  I let the other photographer bark directions while I snapped up my little gems.

     

    

During the ceremony, I snuck up to the balcony to shoot this.

This was taken while riding shotgun in the livery cab on the way to the reception.

Sprits were high…

Steve’s Mom cried…

Everyone celebrated…

 

Love was definitely in the air!  I hope it’s catching, like the flu.

See more Wallace Wedding pictures at my flickr site!

Gonna

I have voted in every presidential election since I was 18 because I feel that it is a dishonor to my forebears who risked and, sometimes gave, their lives for my right to do so. 

Under the artificial lights of early morning Brooklyn.

My voting booth. 

In the corner on a grand piano sat the box for emergency and BMD affidavit ballots. 

 

Democracy in action.  Far more exciting than Top Models in Action.

The lines moved quickly. 

My brightly colored polling place.

This leaf fell right on my head as I was walking home.

I had to be on set all day, so I made a point of voting early in the morning.  While I was in line, a man drove up and blasted the entirety of Otis Redding’s “A Change is Gonna Come” and then drove off.  Good God, y’all, we have a Black President.

Gimme Five!

Around this time last year, I took stock of my bookshelves.   I was already pretty well schooled in the European classics and my bookshelves were looking very unbalanced.  So I decided that for the next 365 days I would only read, borrow and buy books by and about black people.  There’s so much great work out there, I’m going to do it for another year!

Here are five I picked up at a used bookstore in Brooklyn on Saturday.

$2.00.  Looking forward to reading this next.  This novel has been following me all year!

$2.00.  Swift read.  Finished it up Sunday evening.  Chapter 7 was my favorite.

$1.00.  I paid for the brothers but I will check out Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner from the LIBRARY – after October 31.

$5.00.  Never been much of a Baldwin fan but that could change.  Just like how I grew to like Brussels Sprouts.  I  really dug his essay on Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones.  I read it while riding the B65 bus back home.

$4.00.  I paid $4.00 for a book that was last priced at $0.50.  But… if I had gone to Borders, I would have paid $12.95!  

What are you reading?

Ode to the Caramel Apple

Oh Caramel Apple, it’s autumn again,

Your tangy sweetness invites us to sin.

How do you manage to always taste good,

Even when purchased in another neighborhood?

Your Midwest cousins were my first love indeed,

You’re no Affy Tapple, this I will concede.

But your rich, dark caramel is gooey enough,

Your unsalted chopped nuts are crunchy and rough,

Your sharp, green apple juices mingle with mine,

And make everything about you taste so fine!

You’ll go away soon, my non-perennial friend.

But I’ll meet you again, at next summer’s end.

Urban Decay

Bergen Street between Nostrand and New York Avenues.

 

New York Avenue at Atlantic.

Worn

 

Dinner and a show:  La Madeleine and Gypsy on Broadway starring Bernadette Peters.

 

Strand Bookstore Annex.  Closing sale.

Sweet Rhythm Jazz Club.  The Ray Anderson Quartet.

 

On stage.  Role of Hypollita.

 

Union Square Greenmarket.  Hydroponic tomatoes.

Panamania!

On my way home a couple of Saturdays ago, I ran into a parade!  Luckily I had my camera with me.       

It was a beautiful day for a parade.  The warm sum beamed down and it was still cool in the shade.

Now I know what a “real” Panama hat looks like.

 

The drummers showed out.

UPS was representing.

 

The Pan American Marching Band of New York City is comprised of men, women, girls and boys of all ages.

Pride in Brooklyn.

Heavy Metal

I met a stranger online… and went shooting with him on Saturday.  I also brought along some macro extension lenses.

My new photog friend is named Tyler and here’s his website!