Jewish ‘Empire’ Star Ditches Oscars for #JusticeForFlint
Image by Getty Images
By Lior Zaltzman February 28, 2016
We already know everything about the Jewish stars at the Oscars, but one inspiring Jewish star is ditching the Academy Awards this years and spending the night in Flint, Michigan.
Jussie Smolett of smash-hit TV show “Empire,” will be joining “Creed” director Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay (“Selma”), Janelle Monae and many other artists in Flint, Michigan for “Justice For Flint,” a free event designed to raise money and awareness for the town’s water crisis.
The event will be hosted by comedian Hannibal Buress and live-streamed on revolt.tv. It will air at the same time as the 88th Academy Awards, where, for the second year in a row, no black actors are nominated.
Jussie Smollett is one of the more impressive and inspiring modern Jewish TV stars. The talented actor has been gracing our movie and TV screens since the early 90s but his real, colossal break-out was starring in the mega smash-hit “Empire,” a record breaking musical drama.
In the show, Smollett plays the gay son of the heads of “Empire Entertainment,” Luscious (Terrence Howard) and Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) Lyons. As musician Jamal Lyons, he is responsible for some of the show’s most catchy tunes.
But Smollett, the son of a Jewish father and African-American mother, is also an activist. He often shares politically charged posts on his widely followed social media accounts, and participates in different social justice campaigns and charities.
This Sunday night won’t be Smollett’s first time in Flint. He visited there last month and shared his love and support for the town on Instagram:
Earlier this week, Smollett serenaded the Obama’s as part of a tribute to singer Ray Charles.
In 2014, Smollett shared this picture of him lighting the Menorah with the hashtag “#Blewish” (Black and Jewish).
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
News Who would protect New York Jews better? Cuomo and Lander trade attacks on the campaign trail
-
News Rabbis revolt over LGBTQ+ club, exposing fight over queer acceptance at Yeshiva University
-
Opinion In Qatargate fiasco, Netanyahu’s ‘witch hunt’ narrative takes cues from Trump
-
Yiddish די הגדה ווי אַ לעבעדיקער דענקמאָל פֿון אַשכּנזישער פּאָעזיעThe Haggadah as a living monument to Ashkenazi poetry
אַמאָל זענען די פּייטנים, מיסטישע דיכטער־וויזיאָנערן, געווען אויבן־אָן בײַ די פֿראַנצויזישע און דײַטשישע ייִדן.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.