Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Jesse Williams vowed not to be discouraged after leaked video and images of his onstage nude scene in the Broadway play “Take Me Out” were posted online. “I’m not down about it. Our job is to go out there every night, no matter what,” Williams told The Associated Press on Thursday. The leaked video and images prompted an outcry from the show’s producers and the union that represents actors and stage managers. “We do need to keep advocating for ourselves. And it’s wonderful to see a community push back and make clear what we do stand for,” Williams said. He is starring in a revival of Richard Greenberg’s exploration of what happens when a Major League Baseball superstar comes out as gay, tracing the way it unsettles the team and unleashes prejudices. While Broadway shows have a strict policy against recording anything onstage, Second Stage Theater, which is producing the revival, is asking audience members to put their phones into a locked pouch that is only opened at the end of the show, to protect the actors. Producers said they would beef up security in the wake of the violation.
■ Young Thug and Gunna’s latest collaboration, “Pushin P,” spurred viral memes and landed in the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 list. Now, their lyrics are being used to build a criminal case against them. The two stars from Atlanta, whose names are Jeffery Williams and Sergio Kitchens, respectively, were among 28 defendants charged Monday with conspiracy and street gang activity under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Both men remain in police custody. Spread throughout the 88-page indictment, among accusations of felony drug possession with intent to sell, armed robbery and murder, are details from their music videos and lyrics cited as evidence of their alleged guilt and association with the Bloods-affiliated gang, Young Slime Life. “It is intensely problematic that the state relies on song lyrics as part of its allegations. These lyrics are an artist’s creative expression and not a literal recounting of facts and circumstances,” read a motion filed Thursday by Kitchens arguing for his release on bond, according to Rolling Stone. “Under the state’s theory, any artist with a song referencing violence could find herself the victim of a RICO indictment.” Art has a degree of First Amendment protection, meaning artists should not be punished by the government for the art they produce. In the case of Young Thug, the prosecutors are arguing that the rapper’s lyrics prove his involvement in criminal activity and therefore are not protected as pure artistic expression. At a news conference earlier this week, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said, “The First Amendment does not protect people from prosecutors using it as evidence if it is such.”