Former United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (both center) pose next to their portraits at their unveiling at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Barack’s portrait was painted by Kehinde Wiley (far left). Michelle’s was painted by Amy Sherald (far right).
Credit: © Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas. 

Until recently, tracksuits, flatbill hats, jeans, Nike T-shirts, and puffer jackets did not appear in many portraits in museums. Now in the National Portrait Gallery and galleries across the world, American painter Kehinde Wiley has livened up modern-day portraits. Wiley is known for his large, highly detailed, brightly colored portraits. His style has been called urban Baroque, a reference to the Baroque art movement of the 1500′s and 1600′s. Baroque art is large in scale and filled with dramatic details.

In 2017, Wiley was selected to paint the presidential portrait of former United States President Barack Obama. Wiley became the first Black American artist to paint an official presidential portrait. Wiley’s portrait of Obama was unveiled in 2018. It hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Wiley was born on Feb. 28, 1977, in Los Angeles, California. He was interested in painting from a young age. Wiley received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2001.

Wiley served as artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York City from 2001 to 2002. It was in Harlem that Wiley developed his unique approach to portraiture. He approached strangers on the street, asking them to pose for him. He photographed the subjects in their street clothes and then painted them in a classical European style. He called this process “street casting.” Wiley continued this process in such places as Morocco, Haiti, and India. Wiley’s signature background depicts flowers and foliage or abstract shapes. The bright, detailed backgrounds are reminiscent of the Baroque style.

Encanto opened in the United States on Nov. 24, 2021.  The story introduces the Madrigals, a compelling and complicated extended family who live in a wondrous and charmed place in the mountains of Colombia. 
Credit: © Disney

Encanto is an animated motion picture released by the Walt Disney Company in 2021. The movie is set in Colombia and features Disney’s first entirely Latino voice cast. 

The film’s soundtrack, released in 2021, became a worldwide hit. The album spent more than a week at the number one spot on Billboard magazine‘s “200 Albums” chart. Encanto became Disney’s first animated film to have two songs in the top 10 on Billboard magazine’s “Hot 100” chart. The song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” performed in the film by Adassa, Stephanie Beatriz, Mauro Castillo, Rhenzy Feliz, Carolina Gaitán, and Diane Guerrero, reached number 2. “Surface Pressure,” performed in the film by Jessica Darrow, broke the chart’s top 10. The soundtrack featured original songs written and composed by the American musical theater composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. It also featured instrumental music by the American composer Germaine Franco. 

Encanto tells the story of the magical Madrigal family. The family was led to a safe haven and magical home known as Encanto by its matriarch (ruling mother). The Madrigals’ magic comes from the flame of a candle that gives a unique power to each descendent. The movie’s protagonist (main character), Mirabel, is the only member of the family who did not receive a magical gift. According to prophecy, it is up to her to restore the family’s magic when it starts to falter and repair the bonds among the family members.  

Members of the Madrigal family include Mirabel (voiced by Beatriz); Luisa (Darrow); Isabela (Guerrero); Pepa (Gaitán); Félix (Castillo); Dolores (recording artist Adassa); Camilo (Feliz); Bruno (John Leguizamo); and Abuela Alma (Olga Merediz, singing, and María Cecilia, speaking). Colombian singers featured in Encanto included Maluma, who provided the voice of Luisa’s love interest Mariano, and Sebastián Yatra, who sang the film’s main theme, “Dos Oruguitas.”  

The film was directed by the American screenwriter Jared Bush and the Japanese-born American animator and character designer Byron Howard. The American playwright Charise Castro Smith co-directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Bush.  

American entertainer Olivia Rodrigo
Credit: © Tinseltown, Shutterstock

In the past year, American actress, singer, and songwriter Olivia Rodrigo has transformed from a Disney Channel star to a big name in pop music. Rodrigo first became known as an actress on television programs produced for the Disney Channel.

Olivia Isabel Rodrigo was born on Feb. 20, 2003, in Temecula, California, southeast of Los Angeles. Rodrigo began taking voice, piano, and guitar lessons as a child. She acted in middle and high school performances and began acting professionally in 2016. She played a leading character, Paige Olvera, on the Disney TV series “Bizaardvark” (2016-2019).

In 2019, Rodrigo gained the lead role of Nini in “High School Musical: The Musical—The Series.” She wrote and performed original songs for the series, including “All I Want” (2019) and a duet with Joshua Bassett, “Just for a Moment” (2020).

She released her first single “Drivers License” on Jan. 8, 2021. It soon hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is now nominated at the 64th Grammy Awards for song of the year, record of the year, and best pop solo performance. Rodrigo is also nominated for best music video or film for “Good 4 U” (2021), best pop vocal album for Sour (2021), album of the year for Sour, and best new artist.

After “Drivers License,” her next two singles— “Deja Vu” (2021) and “Good 4 U”—also debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard “Hot 100″ chart. She became the first recording artist to start a career with three singles in the top 10. Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour, included elements of pop, folk, and rock music.

Besides releasing catchy singles, Rodrigo also took a trip to the White House this summer. She met with President Joe Biden and the immunologist and Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, Anthony Fauci, to discuss the importance of young people getting vaccinated against COVID-19. In December, Rodrigo was named Entertainer of the Year by Time magazine. She announced a world tour for 2022 in which she will travel to Europe, Canada, and across the United States.

Credit: Columbia Pictures/Marvel Studios

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) has become the first motion picture to earn $1 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic era. The movie is the latest in a trilogy about the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man. British actor Tom Holland and American actress, dancer, and singer Zendaya star in the new blockbuster.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted every aspect of our lives over the last two years. Hollywood is no exception—the movie industry has suffered, with crowds nervous to venture in public and theaters shuttered to prevent the spread of the disease. It appears that Spider-Man, however, has come to the rescue, defeating the pandemic malaise. The motion picture was released on Dec. 17, 2021, and has been drawing out reluctant theater-goers around the world.

Spider-Man was created by the American writer Stan Lee and the American artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared as the Amazing Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy comic book #15, published by Marvel Comics in August 1962. By the end of the 1960’s, Spider-Man had become one of the most popular comic book characters in American publishing history. Spider-Man is the superhero identity of Peter Benjamin Parker. As a high school science student, Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, which gave him superhuman powers.

Spider-Man has been featured in many motion pictures, television series, and video games. Recent Spider-Man movies include Spider-Man (2002), starring Tobey Maguire, and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), starring Andrew Garfield.

British actor Tom Holland
© Tinseltown, Shutterstock

Tom Holland has starred as Spider-Man in Marvels’ Captain America: Civil War (2016); Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017); Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019); and now Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). He also played Spider-Man in other Marvel superhero movies of the 2010’s, including Avengers: Endgame (2019). Zendaya has played MJ, short for Mary Jane Watson, in the three Spider-Man films with Holland. She made her first theatrical motion-picture appearance in a supporting role in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

American actress, singer, and dancer Zendaya
© Tinseltown/Shutterstock

The success of Spider-Man: No Way Home is giving hope to the movie industry. There is nothing like the Spider-Man’s “spider-sense” and powerful webs pulling people into the theaters!

Lorde is a New Zealand pop singer and songwriter. She became the first New Zealand solo artist to have a number-one hit in the United States, with the song “Royals” (2012).
© Daniel DeSlover, ZUMA/Alamy Images

In a new EP (extended play) recording, the New Zealand pop singer and songwriter Lorde paid tribute to the Māori, the indigenous (native) people of New Zealand. After her third album, Solar Power, was released on Aug. 20, 2021, Lorde re-recorded five songs from the album in the Māori language, the language of the native Māori people of New Zealand. Lorde is not Māori but acknowledges the influence Māori culture has had on her life. The songs were released on her third EP Te Ao Mārama, which translates to “world of light” in the Māori language, on Sept. 9, 2021. The EP’s name builds off her album Solar Power and a well-known Māori phrase.

Lorde worked with several qualified translators to re-write the songs in Māori. Many of the lines are not translated exactly but use Māori to capture the meaning of the original English lines. The cover features a colorized version of the print  Serene by New Zealand artist Rei Hamon. The album is a celebration of New Zealand.

The Māori are a Polynesian people of New Zealand. They were the first people to live in what is now New Zealand. Māori made a living by fishing, hunting, and farming. By the 1700′s, all of New Zealand was under Māori control. Europeans started arriving in New Zealand in the late 1700′s and eventually took over the land and power. Today, the Māori make up about 15 percent of New Zealand’s population.

Lorde was born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor on Nov. 7, 1996, in Takapuna, near Auckland. She was signed to a recording contract at age 13 and began writing songs soon after that. At the age of 16, she became the youngest person in more than 25 years to have a number-one hit on the United States  Billboard singles chart “Hot 100.” The song, “Royals” (2012), also made Lorde the first New Zealand solo artist to have a number-one hit in the United States. “Royals” reached number one on the singles charts in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as well. In 2013, Lorde won a Grammy Award for best pop solo performance for “Royals.” She also shared a Grammy for song of the year with the song’s co-writer, the New Zealand songwriter and musician Joel Little.

Timothée Chalamet as Paul and Rebecca Ferguson as his mother, Jessica, in Dune (2021).
Credit: Warner Bros.

This month, an exciting new motion-picture adaptation, titled Dune (2021), appeared in theaters. The film starred actor Timothée Chalamet as the lead character, Paul Atreides. Dune was directed by Denis Villeneuve.

Dune is a science fiction novel by the American author Frank Herbert. It was published in 1965. The title refers to the desert planet Arrakis, where the action of the novel takes place. Dune is notable for its imaginative desert setting and its religious and environmental themes.

The novel tells the story of Paul Atreides, the heir of a noble house that is taking control of Arrakis. The planet is important because it is the only place where deposits of the fictional spice melange are found. Melange is a druglike substance also used in interstellar travel (travel among the stars).

When House Atreides is betrayed by the evil House Harkonnen, Paul is cast out into the desert along with his mother, Jessica. Jessica is a member of an order of mystics called the Bene Gesserit. In the desert, Paul and Jessica take up with a mysterious people known as the Fremen. The Fremen survive in the desert wearing stillsuits, special suits that conserve and recycle their body fluids. The Fremen follow a religion that revolves around melange, giant sandworms that live in the open desert, and transforming Arrakis into a more habitable world.

Dune features a large and complex cast of characters. Notable people in House Atreides include Paul’s father, Duke Leto; the swordmaster Duncan Idaho; the minstrel Gurney Halleck; the doctor Wellington Yueh; and the mentat Thufir Hawat. Mentats are human beings trained to replace advanced computers, which have been banned. Notable characters in House Harkonnen include the evil Baron Vladimir; his nephews Glossu “the Beast” Rabban and Feyd-Rautha, and the mentat Piter de Vries.

Herbert wrote five more books in the “Dune” series. Dune‘s direct sequels are Dune Messiah (1969) and Children of Dune (1976). God Emperor of Dune (1981) shifts the action thousands of years into the future, to an Arrakis transformed by Paul’s son, Leto Atreides II. Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) continue the saga of the Atreides family. Following Frank Herbert’s death in 1986, his son Brian and the American author Kevin J. Anderson wrote a number of additional novels set in the Dune universe.

A motion-picture adaptation, also titled Dune, was directed by David Lynch and released in 1984. The Dune saga has also been adapted into two television miniseries, “Dune” (2000) and “Children of Dune” (2003).

Frida Kahlo’s painting Self Portrait with Monkeys hangs at an exhibition.
© Dieter Nagl, AFPGetty Images

People in the United States observe National Hispanic Heritage Month each year from September 15 to October 15. During this period, many Latin American countries celebrate their independence. These countries include Cuba, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

Frida Kahlo remains an influential painter and feminist icon. Kahlo was an important Mexican painter known for her harsh, revealing self-portraits. Despite living in the 1900′s, she refused to conform to strict gender stereotypes. She boxed, challenged men, dressed in masculine clothing, and smoked. Kahlo was also known for her fashion, wearing traditional-style, colorful dresses, and adorning her hair with flowers and braided styles. Always known for living honestly, Kahlo was openly bisexual.

At the age of 18, she was severely injured in an accident while riding on a bus in Mexico City. Kahlo lived in constant pain and was crippled for the rest of her life. She underwent about 35 operations, including the amputation of one leg. Unable to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, Kahlo taught herself to paint. In 1929, she married the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Their stormy relationship involved separations, divorce, and remarriage.

Frida Kahlo was an important Mexican painter known for her self-portraits that reflected her physical and emotional suffering. Many of her other paintings include symbolic images and elements from Mexican history.
© Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Kahlo’s paintings are mostly self-portraits that reflect her physical and emotional suffering. She painted with jarring colors and odd spatial relationships. Many of her pictures include startling symbolic images and elements from Mexican history. She often portrayed herself wearing colorful Mexican Indigenous dress and ornaments. Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán, in southwest Mexico City. She died on July 13, 1954.

Diego Rivera was a Mexican artist who was famous for painting murals that portrayed Mexican life and history. Rivera is shown here standing in front of one of his paintings.
© Ed Clark, Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Diego Rivera became famous for murals that portrayed Mexican life and history. Rivera was a controversial figure because of his radical political beliefs and his attacks on the church and clergy.

Rivera was born on Dec. 8, 1886, in Guanajuato. In the 1920′s, he became involved in the new Mexican mural movement. With such Mexican artists as Jose Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros, he began to experiment with fresco painting on large walls. Rivera soon developed his own style of large, simplified figures and bold colors. Many of his murals deal symbolically with Mexican society and thought after the country’s 1910 revolution. Some of Rivera’s best murals are in the National Palace in Mexico City and at the National Agricultural School in Chapingo, near Mexico City.

Diego Rivera was a Mexican artist famous for his murals. His Detroit Industry Murals are a series of frescoes consisting of 27 panels portraying industry in Detroit. Together they surround the Rivera Court in the Detroit Institute of Arts. A main panel on the north wall shows laborers working at the Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge plant. The artist painted the murals in 1932 and 1933.
Detail of a mural depicting Detroit Industry (1932-33), fresco by Diego Rivera; Detroit Institute of Arts/Gift of Edsel B. Ford (Bridgeman Images)

Rivera painted several significant works in the United States, which he visited in the early 1930′s and again in 1940. Perhaps his finest surviving United States work is a mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Rivera died on Nov. 25, 1957.

The Tony Awards are given annually to recognize achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at a ceremony in New York City.
Tony Award Production

After its longest shutdown, Broadway reopened in New York in September 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic forced the closure of theaters in March 2020. Many Broadway productions relied on government funding to return to the stage. As a result, fewer musicals, plays, and revivals were eligible for the 2021 Tony Awards.

Moulin Rouge! won the most awards of any show of the night. Of its 10 Tony Awards, Moulin Rouge! brought home best musical. The musical had performances for seven months before the Covid-19 shutdown.

The Inheritance won best play. With The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez became the first Latino writer to win best play. Lois Smith won best-featured actress in a play as The Inheritance‘s sole female actor. At age 90, Smith became the oldest performer to win a Tony Award for acting.

A Christmas Carol became the first play to win best original score. All five nominees for the award were plays.

A Soldier’s Play won best revival of a play.  

Slave Play made history with a record 12 nominations. Despite its nominations, Slave Play was shut out of any awards.

The Tony Awards are presented annually for distinguished achievements the previous season in the Broadway theater in New York City. The awards are named for Antoinette Perry, an American actress, producer, and director. They are administered by the League of American Theaters and Producers and the American Theater Wing.

The Tonys honor achievements in about 20 categories, including best new play, best new musical, and best revivals of a play and a musical. Tonys are awarded for acting, directing, designing, orchestrations, and choreography. Special awards are also made for lifetime achievements in the theater and to a distinguished American regional theater.

A Tony Awards committee appoints a group of theater professionals to select four nominations for each category. Several hundred theater professionals and journalists then vote on the winners. Winning a Tony, or even being nominated for the award, has become important to the box-office success of many Broadway shows. The Tony Awards were founded in 1947.

Camilla Cabello performs for her ‘Never Be The Same Tour’ live at The Fillmore Detroit on April 25, 2018.
Credit: © Brandon Nagy, Shutterstock

People in the United States observe National Hispanic Heritage Month each year from September 15 to October 15. During this period, many Latin American countries celebrate their independence. These countries include Cuba, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

The latest princess to go from rags to riches in Cinderella (2021) is the Cuban American singer and songwriter Camila Cabello. Cabello creates pop music influenced by her Cuban and Mexican heritage. Cabello became known while she was a part of the all-female pop group Fifth Harmony. She now writes and performs her own songs, often addressing the immigrant experience in the United States.

Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao was born March 3, 1997, in Havana, Cuba. Her mother was a Cuban architect and her father worked a number of jobs, including construction while living in Mexico City, Mexico. Cabello and her mother traveled back and forth between Cuba and Mexico before moving to Miami, Florida. Her father later immigrated to the United States to join them. Cabello was shy growing up. She surprised her parents when she asked to audition for the television reality music competition program “The X Factor” in 2012.

Cabello auditioned in Greensboro, North Carolina for “The X Factor” and was listed as an alternate. She asked for another audition and then made it to the next round, which was a pre-season boot camp (intensive training session). At the boot camp in Miami, producers of the show grouped her with four other contestants: (1) Ally Brooke Hernandez, (2) Dinah Jane Hansen, (3) Lauren Jauregui, and (4) Normani Kordei. Later in the season, they formed Fifth Harmony. The group placed third on the show and landed record deals with its creator, the British record executive Simon Cowell, and Epic Records.

Fifth Harmony released its first EP Better Together in 2013 and its first album Reflection in 2015. EP stands for extended play and is a type of musical recording that includes several songs but is not considered a full-length album. Fifth Harmony’s “All in My Head (Flex),” featuring the American rapper Fetty Wap, was voted the song of the summer at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. Outside the group, Cabello began working with other artists such as the Canadian singer and songwriter Shawn Mendes and the American rapper Machine Gun Kelly. In 2016, Fifth Harmony announced via Twitter that Cabello was no longer in the group.

Cabello’s first single as a solo artist, “Havana,” featuring the American rapper Young Thug, was released in 2017. The single held the number one spot on Billboard magazine’s “US Pop Singles” chart for seven weeks. Cabello headlined for Bruno Mars on his 24k Magic Tour in 2017 and Taylor Swift’s Reputation Stadium tour in 2018. Cabello released her first solo album, Camila, in 2018. It reached number one on the “Billboard 200” chart. She later released the album Romance in 2019.

Cabello won MTV’s video of the year award in 2018 for “Havana” and in 2019 for “Senorita,” with Shawn Mendes. She also won the MTV Europe Music Awards for best song and best video with “Havana.” She received a Grammy nomination in 2019 for best pop solo performance for “Havana” and best pop vocal album for Camila. She received a nomination for best pop duo/group performance for “Senorita.”

N. K. Jemisin, American fantasy and science fiction author
© Laura Hanifin 2015 (licensed under CC BY 4.0)

In honor of international literacy day, World Book is celebrating the writer of the “Broken Earth” trilogy, N. K. Jemisin. Jemisin is an American author of fantasy and science fiction. She is known for creating dynamic fantasy worlds destabilized by cultural conflict, inequality, and oppression. In 2016, she won a Hugo Award, the most prestigious award in science fiction, for her novel The Fifth Season (2015). Jemisin became the first Black American author to win in the novel category. The book’s sequels, The Obelisk Gate (2016) and The Stone Sky (2017), won Hugo Awards in 2017 and 2018, making Jemisin the first author to win in the novel category three years in a row.

The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky make up Jemisin’s “Broken Earth” trilogy. The trilogy is set in the Stillness, a post-apocalyptic world wracked by earthquakes and other disasters. A race of people called Orogenes have the ability to control natural forces, but they are feared, oppressed, and persecuted for their powers.

Jemisin began her career in fantasy and science fiction writing short stories. Her first published novels were the “Inheritance” trilogy: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Broken Kingdoms (both 2010) and The Kingdom of Gods (2011). The trilogy takes place in an empire where gods have been enslaved to human beings. The novels The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun (both 2012) are set in an ancient Egypt-like world where people known as Gatherers accumulate magic power by harvesting people’s dreams. The protagonists of The City We Became (2020) are avatars (living embodiments) of the five boroughs (sections) of New York City. Jemisin’s short fiction was collected in How Long ’til Black Future Month (2018).

Nora Keita Jemisin was born Sept. 19, 1972, in Iowa City. She grew up with her mother in Mobile, Alabama, spending summers with her father in New York City. She earned a B.S. degree in psychology from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1994. She earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1997. She worked as a counselor, psychologist, and university administrator before becoming a full-time writer.