Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys

Special Guest:  Amber Stevens West can be seen starring opposite Jerrod Carmichael, David Alan Grier, and Loretta DeVine on NBC’s The Carmichael Show.  Previously Amber starred opposite Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in Sony’s 22 JUMP STREET, which Chris Lord and Phil Miller directed. For four years, Amber starred on ABC Family’s hit series GREEK and recently recurred on 90210 for the CW.  Last year, she filmed JESSABELLE for Lionsgate and co-starred opposite Laura Prepon and Bryan Greenberg in the independent film THE KITCHEN.

Dilman Dila is a writer, filmmaker and a social activist who believes that stories are an important tool in creating a better world. Dilman was shortlisted for the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2013, long listed for the Short Story Day Africa prize, 2013, and nominated for the 2008 Million Writers Awards for his short story, Homecoming. Dilman’s first works appeared in print in The Sunday Vision in 2001, and have since featured in several e-zines and book anthologies, including the African Roar 2013, Storymoja, and Gowanus Books. His first novella, a romance, Cranes Crest at Sunset, was released in 2013 during the Hay Festival in Nairobi. www.dilmandila.com ‘A Killing in the Sun’ is a collection of speculative fiction from Africa. It draws from the rich oral culture of the author’s childhood, to tell a wide variety of stories. Some of the stories are set in a futuristic Africa, where technology has transformed everyday life and a dark force rules. Others are set in the present day, with refugee aliens from outer space, ghosts haunting brides and grooms, evil scientists stalking villages, and greedy corporations creating apocalypses. There are murder mysteries, tales of reincarnation and of the walking dead, and alternative worlds whose themes any reader will identify with. This collection is deftly crafted, running along the thin boundary of speculative and literary genres.

Actor Arlen Alexander Escarpeta. He is best known for his roles in the films Friday the 13th,Brotherhood,Final Destination 5, and Into the Storm (2014). Escarpeta will be playing the role of Bobby Brown in the new Whitney Houston Biopic, Whitney (film), airing on Lifetime (TV Network) January 17, 2015. Golden Globe® Award winner and Academy Award® nominee Angela Bassett makes her directorial debut with the Lifetime Original Movie "Whitney," featuring Yaya DaCosta (Lee Daniels’ "The Butler") in the lead role with Arlen Escarpeta ("Final Destination 5") alongside her as Bobby Brown.  "Whitney" chronicles the headline-making relationship between the iconic singer, actress, producer and model Whitney Houston and singer and songwriter Bobby Brown from the time they first met at the very height of their celebrity to their courtship and tumultuous marriage. Throughout it all, difficulties followed the superstar couple while they dealt with the overwhelming rewards and consequences of the fame and fortune created by Houston’s meteoric rise that would soon overshadow them both. Movie Trailer: http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/whitney/video

INTO THE GO-SLOW is a novel about sisters, the legacy of the Black Power Movement, and the troubled bond between African Americans and Africans.  It’s 1986, and twenty-one-year-old Angie is adrift in her hometown of Detroit. Her older sister, Ella, had disappeared in Lagos a decade earlier, and Angie decides to retrace her steps. Against a backdrop of Nigeria’s infamous go-slow—traffic as wild and surprising as a Fela lyric—Angie begins to unravel the mysteries of the past, and opens herself up to love and life after Ella. BRIDGETT M. DAVIS’s debut novel, Shifting Through Neutral (Amistad 2004), was a finalist for the 2005 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Davis is the books editor at Bold As Love Magazine, a black-culture website, and her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Essence, O, The Oprah Magazine, and The Root.com, among other publications. She is a professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, where she is the director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in Residence Program, and she is the curator of the popular monthly Brooklyn reading series, Sundays @ . . .http://bridgettdavis.com/

Special Guest: Actor Stephen Hill.Stephen Hill is an award winning actor (Best Male Actor, ABFF Star Project 2010) and is known for solid work in a variety of roles in film, TV, theater, web series, etc. As an accomplished actor, he can be seen on Law & Order SVU, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Louie, Political Animals, and Do No Harm. Hill can also be seen in the award winning documentary, Jackie Robinson: My Story, as he embodies the role of Jackie Robinson. Known for his versatility by seamlessly delivering compelling performances in both comedic and dramatic roles, Hill gives stellar performances as the lead in the feature films Christmas Wedding Baby, and Stay Cold, Stay Hungry. On the small screen, he stars opposite Jane Curtain in an episode of the CBS series Unforgettable, and plays the role of Clarence, right hand man to Jeffrey Wright's Dr. Narcisse on the final season of HBO's hit series Boardwalk Empire. Hill recently enjoyed the opportunity to display his "leading man" charisma in the short film/video Runaway by Grammy nominated vocalist Carolyn Malachi. http://stephenhillactor.wordpress.com/

Samuel F. Reynolds, a former skeptic, had a life-changing visit to an astrologer and has since spent 23 years doing charts and studying astrology. Now Samuel consults and teaches astrology full-time. He also serves on a few astrology organizational boards and writes horoscopes for Ebony.com, MySign.com, andPride, a British Black women’s magazine. His site is UnlockAstrology.com. 

David Ajala is becoming a force of nature on the entertainment landscape. He was most recently seen in Fast & Furious 6 alongside the late Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. Ajala also completed work on the Wachowski feature Jupiter Ascending, and the indie film Kill Command. Additional notable credits include, One Day, The Dark Knight, and Payback Season. Appearing in A wide range of television roles, Ajala was a rapper in the television series Trexx and Flipside, in addition to major guest roles in award winning shows including Law & Order: UK, Death in Paradise, Silent Witness, and the wildly popularDr. Who. Ajala began his career performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Courtyard Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon. He's performed in productions of The Witness, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, among others. Ajala was awarded Best Acting Performance by the Royal Television Society in 2009. David currently plays Will Van Renseller on ABC's tv show Black Box.

Dr. Carl Hart, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University. He is also a Research Scientist in the Division of Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Hart is a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and on the board of directors of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the Drug Policy Alliance. A native of Miami, Florida, Dr. Hart received his B.S. in psychology at the University of Maryland, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. in experimental psychology and neuroscience at the University of Wyoming.  He lives in New York City.  For more on Dr. Hart, visit: http://www.highpricethebook.com/. His book HIGH PRICE: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (Harper Perennial, paperback on sale 6/10/2014), is based on 22 years of research as a groundbreaking neuropsychopharmacologist about the study and science of drug addiction, but it is also a provocative and eye-opening memoir where he recalls his journey of self-discovery, how he avoided a life of crime and drugs and avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now studies.  Carefully culling through past studies and his own research, Hart goes beyond the hype as he examines the relationship between drugs and pleasure, choice, and motivation, both in the brain and in society. 

Mitchell S. Jackson is a Portland, Oregon native who lives in Brooklyn, New York.  He received an M.A. in writing from Portland State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University.  He has been the recipient of fellowships from Urban Artist Initiative and The Center For Fiction. A former winner of the Hurston Wright Foundation’s award for college writers, he teaches writing at New York University and is the literary editor of Dossier Journal. Jackson published the eBook collection Oversoul Stories and Essays in the summer of 2012. Bloomsbury USA will publish his novel The Residue Years in August of 2013. The Residue Years switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace. Grace is just out of a drug treatment program, trying to stay clean and get her kids back. Champ is trying to do right by his mom and younger brothers, and dreams of reclaiming the only home he and his family have ever shared. But selling crack is the only sure way he knows to achieve his dream. In this world of few options and little opportunity, where love is your strength and your weakness, this family fights for family and against what tears one apart.

Special Guest: Marinah Farrell: President of the Midwives Alliance of North America. Politics and traditional medicine are what led Marinah to midwifery, and she has a firm commitment to both political activism and birth work. Marinah has been the president of various non-profit boards, has worked in waterbirth centers and medical facilities for international NGOs, in free-standing birth centers in the U.S, and has been the owner of a long standing homebirth practice. Website:www.mana.org Special Guest: Ynanna Djehuty is an Afro-Dominicana born and raised in the Bronx. She is a midwife in training at Maternidad La Luz, a writer and certified birth doula. The focus of her work is the empowerment of women and people of the African Diaspora, specifically discussing the Afro-Latina Identity. Website: thesewatersrundeep.com

Betty Jo Haskins was born in Muskegon, Michigan. The family moved to Detroit when she was six years old.  Bettye did not get her start in the church, but in that very same living room, where there was a jukebox, filled with the blues, country & western, and R&B records of the time. The "5" Royales, Dinah Washington, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Red Foley, ...these were her roots. At 16 years old Betty Jo changed her name to Bettye LaVette. Bettye's first single was "My Man - He’s a Loving Man.", in the fall of 1962. The record charted #7 R&B and put her on her first national tour, with Ben E. King, Clyde McPhatter, and another newcomer, Otis Redding. Some of Bettye’s albums include: “Let Me Down Easy”, “Tell Me a Lie”, “A Woman Like Me”, “ I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise”, "The Scene of the Crime", and “Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook.” Bettye has won many awards including: W.C. Handy Award in 2004 and the “Pioneer Award” from The Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 2006. “The Scene of the Crime” album was nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best Contemporary Blues Album” and “CD, Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook” was nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best Contemporary Blues Album.” Late 2012 saw the release of her album, "Thankful N' Thoughtful", and her autobiography, variously described as 'engrosing', 'riviting', 'hair-raising' and only suitable for the over 18s, "A Woman Like Me", co-written with David Ritz. Website: www.bettyelavette.com

Special Guest: Norman H. Edelman, M.D., is the American Lung Association’s leading medical authority. Having served as the Association’s Chief Medical Officer for 25 years, he is a highly sought after expert on all matters pertaining to lung health and is a seasoned media veteran. Dr. Edelman also provides patient care as a teaching clinic supervisor and is a Professor of Preventive Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Physiology and Biophysics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. From 1996 – 2006, he served in a dual capacity as Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine at Stony Brook.  website: http://www.lung.org  

LiV Warfield, a native to Peoria, IL, has one of the most distinct and promising voices in R&B/soul today. Her singing career can be traced back to her college years in Portland, OR, where she’s known as their “most soulful singer” (Portland Monthly). LiV’s performed alongside a host of legendary artists such as Al Green, B.B. King, Dave Matthews Band, The Roots, and most notably, Prince. As a current member of his live vocal group New Power Generation, LiV aspires to preserve the experience of live music. Her 2014 breakout full-length ‘The Unexpected’ was executively produced by Prince who helped cultivate her alternative R&B/Rock ‘n’ Roll sound.   Vh1 Soul reintroduced its popular “You Oughta Know” promo campaign with LiV as their first featured artist of 2014.  Website:http://www.livwarfieldmusic.com/ Why do you lie? video: http://vevo.ly/97vKjz

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). An estimated, 1.5 million Americans have lupus. Special Guest: Annette Myarick is the CEO for the Lupus Foundation of America’s (LFA) Philadelphia Tri-State Chapter. Prior to joining the LFA in 1991, she was with the Arthritis Foundation’s Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter for 14 years, most recently as the Vice President for Public Health Strategies. Annette has a Bachelor’s degree in Community Health Education from Temple University. Special Guest: Leyla Moreno is a native of Panama. Leyla was recognized in 2008 and 2009 by Impacto Latin Newspaper and the Philadelphia Multicultural Congress as one of the ten Most Influential Latino Leaders under 40. She graduated (cum laude) with a degree in Political Science and Latin American Studies from Temple University. Leyla is a board member of the Lupus Foundation of America’s (LFA) Philadelphia Tri-State Chapter. Special Guest: Tabitha Borrero is 35 years old, lives in New Jersey and was diagnosed with lupus in 2002. Since her diagnosis, Tabitha has been a warrior and champion for the cause. Her candid approach at living with lupus, exemplifies the daily struggles and emotional distress the disease can cause. But, more importantly, she shares the joy and daily accomplishments of living life with lupus. The energy Tabitha brings to being a lupus warrior, reminds us that the battle is never over. She reminds us that we are warriors and warriors don’t quit.

Joy Keys gets interviewed by Kevin Stone & Tamika Morris of ISTA Entertainment.  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ista-network This is a pre-recorded interview. Joy Keys is a mother, trainer, speaker, mentor, actress, writer, producer and director. She is a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG). Keys is a Leeway Art and Change grantee. Joy Keys is the host of "Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys" on BlogTalkRadio.com. She has interviewed Pulitzer Prize winning Authors ( Isabel Wilkerson and Charles Fuller), National News stars, ( Soledad O'Brien and Marc McEwen), Grammy winners (Esperanza Spalding and Tyrese), World Renowned Activist (Ayaan Hirsi Ali) and Movie Stars (Pam Grier and Blair Underwood), just to name a few. Joy Keys is passionate about making a difference in her local and global communites.