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40 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2021 Check with your club contact to confirm meeting place, date, and time. For Black History Month and in lieu of our annual Black Film Festival, the African American Cultural Club will watch trailers and discuss several films over Zoom in February. Here are three films for 2020 worth watching. Da 5 Bloods is a Spike Lee film. The story is about four Vietnam veterans who return to the country that bonded them in battle to claim a treasure they buried several decades earlier. The Bloods gave their leader the nickname "Stormin' Norman," who is played by Black Panther's Chadwick Boseman. It is he who educates the Bloods on the History of Black people dying for a country that does not love them. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by playwright August Wilson, also features Black Panther's Chadwick Boseman. It is a celebration of three real-life Black artists and legends. A blues singer, Ma Rainey, referred to as the "Mother of the Blues," played by Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman is the trumpet player, Levee, and trombone player, Colman Domingo as Cutler. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom contains several great speeches throughout the film, which is what the playwright, August Wilson is known for. This was Boseman's last film before dying in 2020 from stage 4 cancer. The Ride, directed by Alex Ranarivelo, features Black rapper Ludacris who plays Eldridge, the adoptive father of a white supremacist child. Although this is not a Black film, it deals with foster care, adoption, and racism. It is based on an inspiring true story of the San Diego Extreme sports legend, John Buultjens, who fell in love with cycling when he saw the movie ET as a child. In the movie, a young boy named John McCord who is athletically gifted, overcomes his troubled life. A racially charged incident lands him in juvenile detention. He is then placed with an interracial couple who want to help him heal from his abusive upbringing. Eldridge makes it his mission to overcome the challenges of John's white supremacist upbringing. They slowly begin to forge a relationship through his foster son's fascination with extreme sports by giving John his first bike. Rooted by this newfound passion for BMX bike riding, the family bonds and develops a mutual respect and love for one another. The next Zoom meeting will be on Monday, Feb. 1. For more information, please call Betty Ann James at (951) 572-5538 or email: infotoaacc@gmail.com. ~ Regina Thomas African American Cultural Club Jane Gentry and Betty Ann James, members of the African American Culture Club, displaying the traditional table to celebrate Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa means "first" in the East African language of Swahili. Kwanzaa is a unique American holiday that pays tribute to the rich cultural roots of Americans of African ancestry. It is based on the African agricultural celebration and collective principles which contribute to the unity and development of the African community. Kwanzaa is celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. The Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles) of Kwanzaa are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determiniation), Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), Imani (Faith).