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WEEK IN WOMEN: Ledisi to play Mahalia Jackson in REMEMBER ME – Brandy McDonnell reports

Brandy McDonnell , , , ,
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Grammy-nominated R&B recording artist Ledisi will again portray legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in the planned biopic Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story. Ledisi previously played Jackson in the Oscar-winning 2014 fact-based film Selma, director Ava DuVernay‘s chronicle of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Columbus Short (ABC’s Scandal, Stomp the Yard) will play MLK, who was a close friend of Jackson’s, in Remember Me. Janet Hubert (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Wendy Raquel Robinson (The Walking Dead, The Steve Harvey Show) also will co-star in the biopic.

Named after one of Jackson’s signature songs, Remember Me will be set during the tempestuous years between 1956 and 1963, and it chronicle the Queen of Gospel’s friendship with King and her often overlooked contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. She was a key inspiration of MLK’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech and often accompanied King to perform at his events. Continue reading on THE WEEK IN WOMEN

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Brandy McDonnell

Brandy McDonnell writes features and reviews movies, music, events and the arts for The Oklahoman, Oklahoma's statewide newspaper, and NewsOK.com, the state's largest news Web site. Raised on a farm near Lindsay, Okla., she started her journalism career in seventh grade, when she was elected reporter for her school's 4-H Club. Taking her duties seriously, she began submitting stories to The Lindsay News, and worked for the local weekly through high school. She attended Oklahoma State University, where she worked for The Daily O'Collegian and earned her journalism degree with honors. She worked for three years at small Oklahoma dailies The Edmond Sun and Shawnee News-Star. In 2002, she joined The Oklahoman as a features reporter, writing about movies, the arts, events, families and nonprofits. She moved to The Oklahoman's entertainment desk in 2007. In 2004, she won a prestigious Journalism Fellowship in Child & Family Policy from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Along with her membership in AWFJ, she also is a founding member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. Brandy writes The Week In Women blog for AWFJ.org.