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Avril Lavigne Profile

Name: Avril Lavigne

Birth Name: Avril Ramona Lavigne

Height: 5' 2"

Sex: F

Nationality: Canadian

Birth Date: September 27, 1984

Birth Place: Napanee, Ontario, Canada

Profession: musician

Husband/Wife: Deryck Whibley (lead vocalist of Sum 41; born on March 21, 1980;
engaged on June 25, 2005; married July 15, 2006)

Father: John Lavigne

Mother: Judy Lavigne

Sister: Michelle Lavigne

Brother: Matt Lavigne

Avril Lavigne Biography

Avril Lavigne Whibley better known by her birth name of Avril Lavigne (born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian Grammy award-nominated pop punk singer, musician, fashion designer and actress. In 2006, Canadian Business Magazine ranked her the seventh most powerful Canadian in Hollywood.

Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, was released in 2002. Over 16 million copies were sold worldwide and it was certified six times platinum in the United States. Her second and third albums, Under My Skin (2004) sold 8 million copies and The Best Damn Thing (2007) currently over 5 million copies sold respectively, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Lavigne has scored six number one songs worldwide to date and a total of eleven top ten hits, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", and "Girlfriend" which became #1 hits in the ARC Top 40. In December 2007, Lavigne was ranked at #7 in the Forbes "Top 20 Earners Under 25", with an annual earnings of $12 million Currently, Avril Lavigne has sold about 30 million albums worldwide.

Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario on September 27, 1984, the daughter of Judy and John Lavigne. Lavigne's birth name is usually pronounced in an anglicized way as above ("La-Veen"). In French, it is commonly pronounced /av��il la��vi��/ (help��info)). Avril is French for "April", while la vigne means "the vineyard". Her French-Canadian parents are devoutly Baptist. She has an elder brother, Matthew, and a younger sister, Michelle. Lavigne's mother was the first to spot young Lavigne���s talent. At the age of two, Lavigne began singing along with her mother on church songs. The family moved to Napanee, Ontario, when Lavigne was five years old.

In 1998, Lavigne won a competition to sing with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain on her first major concert tour. She appeared alongside Twain at her concert in Ottawa, appearing on stage to sing "What Made You Say That". She was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario. During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folk singer Steve Medd, who invited her to sing on his song "Touch the Sky" for his 1999 album Quinte Spirit. She also sang on "Temple of Life" and "Two Rivers" for his follow up album, My Window to You, in 2000.

At the age of sixteen she was signed by Ken Krongard, the artists-and-repertoire (A&R) representative of Arista Records, who invited the head of Arista, Antonio "L.A." Reid, to hear her sing at the New York City studio of producer Peter Zizzo.

She then completed work on her first album, Let Go. The Matrix, who worked extensively with Lavigne on the album, commented on her songwriting, saying, "We had a fabulous and unique experience with Avril, who was then a 16-year-old rapidly growing songwriter with tremendous raw talent. The songs were conceived on piano and guitar by four people: The Matrix (3) and Avril. Avril was instrumental in the songs' creation. We were all very close during the making of the record.

Remembering 1968; Remembering Curt Flood

special to NewBlackMan

‘The Way It Is’: Curt Flood’s Revolution
By Nasir A. Muhammad and Stephane Dunn

I lost money, coaching jobs, a shot at the Hall of Fame. But when you weigh that against all the things that are really and truly important, things that are deep inside you, then I think I’ve succeeded.

–Curt Flood

1968. It was a historic year and most will remember it as such for the great American tragedies that defined it: the assassination of Dr. King in April of that year followed by the June murder of Presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy. But it was also a historic year for revolutionary black athletes and three amazing photos document it. In the most familiar two, Muhammad Ali appeared on a 1968 Esquire cover impaled-after his controversial refusal to be inducted into the US Army and Tommy Smith and John Carlos quite literally fired up the Olympics with the Black Power fist salute the world has never forgotten. Yet, the world may have forgotten too quickly another signature cover shot that ironically set the stage for one of the great revolutionary stands in major sports: Baseball great Curt Flood on the August 19, 1968 cover of Sports Illustrated as ‘Baseball’s Best Centerfielder.’

By August of that year, Flood, a St. Louis Cardinal, was arguably having his best career performance in a thirteen year career in Major League Baseball. A two time World Series champ, three time All Star, and five-time Gold Glove Award Winner, Flood held the Major League fielding record for most consecutive games without an error--226--and most consecutive chances without error--568. He had already achieved something that his legendary competitors, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente, had not yet--a perfect fielding percentage of 1.000. When he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, Flood was in elite company as one of the magazines few covers featuring a black baseball player. Flood, however, was about to become famous for more than his stats on the field.

The 1968 baseball season ended with the Cardinals squaring off against the Detroit Tigers in its third World Series appearance with Flood. Flood, the team’s co-captain, was having an ‘all-star’ performance in his best World Series performance until he misjudged a fly ball in the seventh inning of game seven. The Cardinals ended up losing. A year later, baseball underwent a series of changes and St. Louis began some restructuring efforts of its own, putting Flood at odds with the organization. Though Curt won his seventh Gold Glove, in October of 1969, after his twelve years with the team, the Cardinals decided to trade Flood and three teammates to the Phillies under baseball’s standard Reserve Clause. The reserve clause was a part of players’ contract that bound the player, one year at a time, in perpetuity, to the club owning his contract. So began the battle that made Flood, the “father of free agency.” In a dangerous career move, Flood famously resisted the trade, sacrificing a $100, 000 salary and the continuation of his storied career. After consulting with the Players’ union, Flood submitted a landmark manifesto to baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, demanding that he be declared a free agent: He stated, “It is my desire to play baseball, in 1970 . . . I have received a contract from the Philadelphia Club but I believe I have the right to consider offers from other clubs . . .”

His request was denied in favor of the Reserve Clause. Curt Flood took his fight to another level and sued MLB on the grounds that it had violated anti-trust laws. Flood stirred up baseball diehards and critics by likening the reserve clause to slavery. Flood was traded but sat out the 1970 season, refusing to be ‘the property of’ the Phillies or the Cardinals. Flood vs. Kuhn ended up in the Supreme Court, which ruled five to three in favor of MLB, upholding an earlier 1922 decision preserving the primacy of the Reserve Clause. Flood was subsequently traded again, this time to the Washington Senators with a $110.000 contract, but he came back to a hostile climate. 1971 was Flood’s last year in Major League Baseball. That same year Flood, who painted a portrait of King that hung in Coretta Scott King’s house, wrote the story of his battle in The Way It Is. He lost his lawsuit but won the battle for future baseball players; in 1975, two white players played a year without a contract and the court reversed its earlier position on the reserve clause.

Today, baseball players enjoy unprecedented financial and physical flexibility. Meanwhile, baseball continues to hold its grudge against Flood for taking on America’s pastime. When he died in 1997, Flood was still being ignored year after year by the Baseball Hall of Fame. And he still is. When we recall revolutionary black athletes, we should remember Curt Flood, one of the game’s best defensive players, and keep number 21’s legacy alive: After twelve years in the Major Leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system, which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States . . .”

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Read More About Curt Flood in Brad Snyder's A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports

Cash Rules Everything Around Me! Paying for Good Grades?

from NewsOne.com/Left of Black

Can Paying for Grades Fix No Child Left Behind?
by Mark Anthony Neal

CNN’s recent “Black in America” captivated a nation still grappling with how race is lived in America. The series featured many of the most prominent “talking heads”—scholars, journalists, college presidents and preachers—in the Black community. If there was one of these figures that stood out, it was Harvard economist Roland Fryer.

Though “Black in America” was short on solutions to all that ails us, it was Fryer who offered up one of the most provocative responses. He suggested that students should be paid for good grades to counter the so-called achievement gap between whites and blacks in schooling.

As the Chief Equity Officer in New York City’s Department of Education, Fryer is in a unique position to make this claim. He has implemented such a plan in several New York City public schools at the behest of Schools Chancellor Joel L. Klein and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Under his program, forth and seventh graders will be paid up to $250.00 and $500.00, respectively, for earning high grades on standardized test.

Why pay our kids to do what is nominally expected of them? Criticism of the program have ranged from “there is no price tag for the love of learning” to “it’s common sense for students to earn good grades in order to better their opportunities in life.”

But common sense doesn’t take into account the realities of life in the era of “No Child Left Behind.”

Read the Full Essay @

of Soul & Sneakers

from CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Marvin Gaye's "song & dance" for Nike
by Mark Anthony Neal

Moments before the start of National Basketball Association's annual All-Star Game in February of 1983, the legendary Soul singer Marvin Gaye took center court at the Los Angeles Forum to perform the "Star Spangled Banner." . Armed with only a first generation drum machine (programmed the day before by Gordon Banks), his own vocal genius and the legacy African-American protest, Gaye offered the most soulful rendition of the National Anthem that most Americans had ever heard. That singular moment in Gaye's career has been recaptured in a recent Nike commercial featuring the so-called Olympic "Redeem Team."

Give Nike credit for mining the digital crates of Black American culture to make explicit comment on the hegemony of basketball, black music and their products in the world. It's difficult to watch images of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony juxtaposed to classic footage of Marvin Gaye and not get warm fuzzies about America's role in the world and the position of black athletes and artists as ambassadors. The Nike commercial succeeds in part because it forces us to forget the silence of these same athletes on issues like China's support of the Sudanese government and Nike's own labor practices.

Read the Full Essay @

Hello World, Cullen Jones

from NPR's News & Notes

Gold Medalist Cullen Jones On Chasing History

The U.S. men's Olympic swim team won gold and set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle relay this week. But 24-year-old Cullen Jones, who swam the third leg of the race, made history in another way: He became the second African American to win a gold medal in the sport.

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with Whurl-a-Gurl #1

Hot Buttered Soul in Heaven

from The Root

From his days as a behind-the-scenes songwriter, a look back at the man who single-handedly changed the sound of soul music.

An Ode to Hot Buttered Genius
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheRoot.com

Aug. 11, 2008--That the career of Isaac Hayes could be neatly packaged into two generationally specific cultural touchpoints like Shaft and the Comedy Central animated series South Park says volumes about the man's longevity. But the timeless soundtrack that Hayes produced in support of Gordon Parks' groundbreaking blaxploitation film, the animated character of Chef (a hammer-like nod to that same film) and the later controversy surrounding Hayes' Scientology-related departure from South Park, provide little context for the genius of the man. At his peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Isaac Hayes' music and image embodied the potency and vibrancy of blackness during one of the most tumultuous eras in American history.

Perhaps the best measure of Isaac Hayes' social and political importance may be glimpsed in an incident in 1972 at the Wattstax music festival at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Modeled on Woodstock, Wattstax was designed to give something back to the black community, especially Watts, in the aftermath of the 1965 riots.

Black music mogul Al Bell and a young Rev. Jesse Jackson came to the concert to expound on the virtues of black politics and black business. But it was clear that the most important person to hit the stage that day was Black Moses, aka Isaac Hayes, who served as the closing act.

Writing about WattStax in his new book, In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era, Richard Iton observed: "Toward the end of the concert as Jackson passed the microphone to Hayes after introducing him, there was an exchange of words between the two. It was unclear what was said, but what was apparent was that Hayes, the show's headliner, had the power, and Jackson looked a bit resentful that that was the case."

Iton's comments are a reminder of how significant a figure Hayes was to black America, despite recent caricatures of him.

Hayes was never comfortable being referred to as "Black Moses," calling the term sacrilegious, but at least on that day in 1972, it was not only true; it was the Gospel.

Read the Full Tribute @

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Also See Oliver Wang's Soul Sides Tribute

Sunday Afternoon; Johnny Walker Black: Remembering Bernie Mac and Black Moses

Remembrances

Deaths of Isaac Hayes, Bernie Mac An Incredible Loss

Tell Me More, August 11, 2008 · Music and comedy fans everywhere are mourning the sudden loss of two enormous talents. Soul musician and composer Isaac Hayes and comedic actor Bernie Mac died over the weekend. Professor and culture critic Mark Anthony Neal explains how the lasting contributions of both Hayes and Mac put them in a class of their own among entertainers.

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