Spike Lee’s grandmother made a great sacrifice. Lee is an Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter revered by many. His mother and grandmother played a role in shaping his creativity and artistic sense during childhood. “My mother was a cinephile and wanted her children to be well-rounded. She took us to Broadway plays as well as museums and libraries. And we went, kicking and screaming. That was the basis for our understanding of art and creativity,” Lee told Sleek Magazine. As Lee grew older, he acknowledged that film “discovered” him during his junior year of college, according to an interview with Hamilton College. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Lee started at Morehouse College in 1975 . His father, Bill, graduated from Morehouse in 1951, and his grandfather, Richard Shelton, graduated in 1926. Lee had been a C and D student and had not initially declared a major, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. During the first semester of his sophomore year at the HBCU,...

If you love streaming platforms, allow us to introduce you to Chris Witherspoon — the founder behind what is about to become your new favorite app, PopViewers. A veteran in the TV and film space, Witherspoon knows a thing or two about attending screenings and premieres, but he says one thing has been missing in the industry. “I recognize that oftentimes, the problem of critics is that they don’t adequately reflect the viewership and the people that are actually paying to go see the movies,” said Witherspoon in an interview with AfroTech. He explains that while people are paying to subscribe to a service, it doesn’t always reflect the audience and how they consume content. “Sometimes it aligns, but more often times than not, it doesn’t,” he continued. “And more recently I recognize the opportunity that I have now to amplify the voices of viewers and marginalized communities of Black and brown people that I think show up and engage around entertainment in a way that Hollywood really...