Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
▪ Comedian D.L. Hughley announced he tested positive for covid-19 after collapsing onstage during a performance in Nashville, Tenn. The stand-up comedian, 57, lost consciousness while performing at the Zanies comedy nightclub on Friday night and was hospitalized, news outlets reported. On Saturday, Hughley posted a video on Twitter in which he said he was treated for exhaustion and dehydration afterward. “I also tested positive for covid-19, which blew me away,” he says in the video. “I was what they call asymptomatic. I didn’t have any symptoms, the classic symptoms.” Hughley plans to quarantine in his Nashville hotel room for 14 days. The remaining two nights of his four-night engagement at Zanies were canceled, according to the club’s online calendar. Hughley said he still hasn’t exhibited any of the typical symptoms associated with the coronavirus, including shortness of breath and fever. However, fatigue is listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as among symptoms of the disease.
▪ John Legend, Gabrielle Union and Ava DuVernay are some of the many black cultural leaders who have signed a letter to fight against racism, promote equal pay and ask industries to disassociate from police. The letter was released Friday by a new organization called the Black Artists for Freedom, which describes itself as a collective of black workers in the culture industries. The letter was published to celebrate the Juneteenth holiday that long commemorated the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. The organization said the letter was inspired by the recent protests against police brutality and systemic racism. “They are working in the spirit of the Black Radical Tradition to reclaim our freedoms,” the letter said. “Their courage and imagination have inspired us to build on their necessary demands including chiefly, the abolition of police and the complete dismantling of the racist prison-industrial system.” The letter included signatures from black workers in film, television, music, publishing, theater, journalism and education. It had a list of prominent names such as Sterling K. Brown, Lupita Nyong’o, Janelle Monae, Lena Waithe, Barry Jenkins, Lee Daniels and Tessa Thompson. “No more stereotypes,” the letter read. “No more tokenism. No more superficial diversity. No longer will we watch Black culture be contorted into a vehicle for self-congratulation, complacency, guilt relief, experiential tourism, fetishism, appropriation and theft.”