The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 36

6 fyi THE KANSAS CITY STAB Monday October -2811)1)1) is a new often past of the African airs at 8 pjn Channel 19 tonight through Wednesday The show will also be available Bar high-definition TV set ownenon Channel 18 Islamic university that flourished centuries before Harvard was founded It is here that he beholds a few 6f 50000 manuscripts stored In private collections books set forth in Arabic by countless black scholars Ilis eyes shining bright through recalled for philosopher wrote that place In the life all part of to enslave took so they Qouki took away by saying they By FRAZIER MOORE Th Aiioelaicd Prcn WeVe been had Even the most progressive Amcrl- cans might recognize Afrlcancul-ture chiefly for its artistic flair exotic rituais and the sort of rousing music made famous on "Graceland" by New York City white boy Paul Si- mon Many of the rest of us see Africa in die words of Skip Gates as little more than a repository of flies famine war disease and maybe some big (kites wants to show us what's wrong with this picture a picture that generations of historians have -blandly misleadingly painted for us as dark continent" were' raised to thmk that- Africans were just savages waiting i to discover them and on Europeans to discover them educate them in the University of said the 49-year-old Gates is black man whose particular upbringing was in a small town in West Virginia Wrong have been creating civilizations for 5000 Otherwise known as Dr Henry Louis Gates Jr this celebrated crosoft And next month brings his a 2100-page richly illustrated encyclopedia published by Basic Qvilas Books Now his documentary series the product of six months filming in 12 countries offers the viewer many pleasures Among them is the chance to ac-' company Gates to remote destinations such as ancient Nubia which ruled all of Egypt in the 8th century and today rewards its few visitors with the sight of pyramids where 40 generations of black kings today a lot of and queens are buried Or Ethiopia where in the ancient city of Aium a tiny fence-enclosed sanctuary is said to hold the Ark of the Covenant the chest containing the stones inscribed with the Ten Commandments Are they really in thereT Ethiopians Gates notes have fervently believed so for 2000 years Gates makes his most joyous encounter in Timbuktu site of a great wire-rim glasses Gates a reporter the German Hegel who' in 1790 Africa has no historical world that amazing? this discourse designed Gates said Africans out of history exploit them They humanity flllnfr katia masnn didn't have reason This too-familiar enduring wedge in the people are probably inferior: better at thinking Thatfe why important Gates "In your face Hegel! books on The dear lesson of quest is that long Africans gathered that would lari for later were their Henry Louis Gates lb pictured at the Blue Nile Mis below Ethiopia Lake Hum Gates explores Africa culture and history In a three-part series starting tonlghL writer and Harvard University pro- demies who only talk to each oth-fessor takes us on an eye-opening he said in a recentinterview odyssey through Africa's neglected 1 Extending himself to a general rr A cr st ir rr Is si it present and forgotten past in ders of the African His re- and obscured in large part by European colonization But as he proceeds to debunk torical myths passed down from colonists to the present day Gates confronts something shocking He leamsthat blacks played a key role In the slave trade capturing fellow Africans by the millions for sale to European traders easier just to blame Gates conceded the truth is it wouldn't have happened without the Indeed in Zanzibar Gates meets a black woman whose great-greatgrandfather was a prominent slave trader He asks her how she feds' about it Her reply It was just ness persists Gates a descendant of slaves one in your family many many hundreds of years ago purchased and sold someone in my family she says think we should treat that as a sorry part of history and that chapter is -l 1 1 i aOKCL Not likdy But they shake hands then hug anyway In his defiantly upbeat Gates is propos- tag a new chapter: and their parents she rode Sabrina to success she owes something to that sayS Sheri Parks co-host of a Baltimore radio show Matters and a University of Maryland Is it unfair to shackle the young witch to this pristine image? Jim Kaminsky co-editor of Maxim thinks sa a good thing to let everyone know an he says markable six-part series airs tonight ion book Wonders of the African through Wednesday on PBS World published by Knopf He co- is stuff that nobody knows edited i CD-ROM reference other than a handful of aca- carta released by Mi Harbor itself in risky waters doctrine is an racial divide ale believe-black genetically basketball than Timbuktu is so smiled exultantly I've got those spirited before many others in societies centuries Only advances arrested ABC Melissa Joan Hart Is stripping way some of her reputation with racy mart magazine coven stake Like being the centerpiece of ABCk saccharine lineup the birthplace of by and Meets IlLJJ tfinAliAf And there's a reason most of her fans with the exception of those who play drinking games to the show before going out are home watching TV Friday nights They're 8 years old! Sabrina's a good witch Hart seemed like a grad gift Why go bad even if you had a new movie the teen flick Me to promote? fit didn't help: The movie bombed) This is a gaihe of publicity It just elevates her status even says Neil Alperstein associate professor of popular culture at Loyola University He says stirring up the controversy caldron has peris for everyone Hart herself is luxuriating in the buzz and copies of Maxim are flying off foe shehes hungry young males Hart does stand to lose some less lusty Sabri-naphiles "Sometimes people will reject die celebrity when they do something so antithetical to their value sys- tern" says Loydak Alperstein Alter all Hart has two audiences to satisfy: the kids who watch her By RICHARD HUFF New York Dally New Location shooting has its problems lust ask Brenda Hampton the executive producer of die WB's family dramas Heaven and Last month Hurricane Floyd forced die cast and crew of to evacuate their Florida location And last week) seaside sets for the series were changed abruptly when Florida was hit by red tide an outbreak of micro- 1 scopic creatures that turned the shore into muck and sent red particles airborne However unsafe the shore I is staying put for now Backdrops aside Hampton's two series are different from most simply because they're designed to draw families to the set together: a task that has been hampered by the growing of multi-TV hones and the narrowing of target audiences But at least wid I with Hamnton lias been able to buck die trend In its four years on the ait it has become The WB's best-rated show and a critical darling On the flip side lacks the buzz of such WB series such as the Vampire and "Dawson's Creek1 TV- Wiw audience is Gates' multifaceted mission He has written a compan- finds in the sort of thing that makes programmers think twice about keeping a show on the air off to a rougi start" Hampton conceded first question was would Emilies watchashowat8pLin7 It seems to me families go to bed at 8 dock Itkaverytougi time siotWrie up against another family show (CBS' Loves we're just getting the pants beat off From the story standpoint Hampton said there isn't much more she can do to make Harbor compatible with And she is concerned that the show be around all season dont know what the network intends to she said with our huge drop-off we're doing as well as the other shows they have I dont know if stay with The producer also Is upset with the way the show has been attacked for not having a more diverse cast Itfeacharge Hampton takes seriously anl says is false An African-American child actor Orlando Brown was added before the hubbub over casting became an issue therek a prominent Latino role and behind foe scenes are a coupfe of key minority writers' have given the public another family show and we have made it very Hampton said would be nice that instead of get- ting criticism for something we didn't do for people to band together and support the own was on the set foe first day and that was it Lee says Tie knew it was important to not be a big presence on the set because hek an icon now It wouldn't have benefited anybody for him to be around because it quite possibly could have compromised my vision And not just from him saying anything just from him being there letter Baths has a customized sotafoB for every mnwdHing badge! F1EE Goasabdoas and Mi I tracks I'Sinr: Itgif Melissa Joan Hart is the latest former child star to share too much of her womanhood By TAMARA IKENBERG Til Baltimore San For anyone who grew up watching '80s prime-time sitcoms using zit cream and believing in the purity of Sabrina the Teenage Witdi a glance at the magazine racks recently was enough to provoke some deep soul-search- 1 COMMENT- fog' On foe cov- of Stuff magazine Alyssa Milano formerly the sweet Samantha Micelli of the made sultry in a drenched white tank topi Nearby Rebecca Gayheart the former Girl appeared (air-' brushed to death) topless in leather pants bn the cover of Details Most wicked of all though was the Image of Melissa Joan Hart star ofABCk uber-whofesome the Tteenage Witch' flaunting herself on boy magazines Maxim (foe in black lingerie) and Bikini (the wet witch ia well a bikini) The startling images alone elicited winces But in her pinup-accompanying Hart also offered up some disturbing dish like an episode of tequila-induced vomiting and the difference between good and great sex You could hardly think back on her old Nickelodeon kiddie sitcom "Clarissa Explains It without feeling dirty Nubile starlets appearing semi-nude on magazine covers is nothing shocking new: And any leap -from ingenue to sex kitten is a calculated risk something Hart seemed to have in mind wfoeri she declared on 'Showbiz Today know itk something I just decided to do I'm 23 1 can do what I want Itk my career" But this little witch has more at watch everything with my Hampton said you watch together: you can watch anything on TV If thereVsomething you thfok is wrong you can talk about it or change it aer said than done Watch- Thart easier dog groups often slam networks for not defivering shows that appeal to all audiences and are not finered with foul language and sex reflMnces And in recent years viewers haven't rushed to embrace family series Being clean and attempting to reach aU viewers poses other prob-lenis WB hasn't quite figured out how to promote and now Harbor: The former has at times been pitched as a teen se-ries with some spots pushing the younger cast members Heaven! stars Stephen Collins as a married minister attempting to rear afamily Harbor stan Gregory Harrison as a single father of four boys The shows air Monday nit at 7 and 8 respectively would promote '7th Heaven' as a family Hampton said -think people want family shovs I'd give it a 'TV-CS' rating: Warning this episode contains a While Heaven is The unsung hit Harbor" has hit trouble Early reviews weren't positive and Heaven" viewers aren't sticking around for Harbor" The latter series routinely loses 40 percent of its "7th Heaven" lead- Wedding" and Weddings and a Leek pic is about kwe of course but also about male bonding really wanted an opportunity to do that because we don't get to see ourselves like that" he says never see black men bond like they do in this Credited as a producer on Best Man" is one Spike Lee who "Thatk a difficult thing to da Kaminsky added that offering his readers favorite witch without a stitch wasn't a random decision The magazine he says has a vocal readership and had received thousands of letters suggesting Hart grace the covet Not dial his magazine would pander to every kinky reader demand Kaminsky assures Maxim -would never feature an under-18 1 starlet on its cover he says as Details did earlier this year when Wide ingenue Leeiee Sobies-ki displayed cleavage on its cover He also says there are no atm- twisting or tikis involved in getting women to pose for Maxim Hart and her man Ruila executive producer seemed eager to do some high-profile image tweak- ing 1 Whatever Hart's fans (and business partnersl thirik of her abrupt image shift it illustrates that going nude or semi-nude still seems to be the way adolescent females demonstrate their There are exceptions to die rule (see Jodie Foster and Claire Danes) But there are far more tales of squeaky-dean sweethearts doing some serious re-vamping some tragically (Dana Plato) others tri- 1 umphandy (Drew Barrymore) Empowered exploited whatever For an actress facing this al- most inevitable rite of passage this Director knew he had a good-looking movie with Best happens to be Malcolm Lee's cousin While the younger Lee who worked on several Spike Lee (hewas assistant director on 6 and acknowledges his cousin's importance as role model and mentor in Malcolm Leek altar-affairs as Best Best on its You're not going to find a hand- somer bunch of foespianslhan the Taye Dig's Nia Long ris Chestnut and Sanaa Lathan Inspired in spirit by such at-the- tilayered characters which black actors rarely get to Lee says get to play a lot of marginal-ized stereotypical roles the side: kick roles roles with not much sub- is how it goes: Girl gets popular in wholesome role Gill dfypinpt Mvnrvlnry ihii al characteristics Girl appears on cover of testosterone-fueled with only a sheet and a G-string covering secondary sexual charac- tensocs Think the Olsen twins will look good in leather? iM FITNESS IHSHOMSHINCSSCMIBI 21 bright bawdy The Best Man" dont think I could've gotten a better-looking cast or a more tal ented says Lee who makes his directorial debut wit with the film released everywhere Friday Lee al-so takes pride in the fact the roles in his film which he wrote are smart driven successful and African-American "Herek a chance to play real mul- T't Jj jN Quality Products By 9 ip mmnr MBMarw Are ypur shower walls damaged? 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