Beverly Johnson is the first African-American supermodel, as well as an actress, author, activist, businesswoman and TV personality. She was the first Black model to appear on the cover of U.S. Vogue magazine in August 1974. A year later, she became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of the French edition of Elle magazine. Her beautiful face has graced over 500 magazine covers. Before modeling, Johnson aspired to become a lawyer. She was studying criminal justice at Northeastern University when she entered the fashion industry.

In 2006, Johnson was honored at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball along with Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Tina Turner and other female African Americans in entertainment, civil rights, and the arts. Named by one of the 20th Century's most influential people in fashion by the New York Times, she changed the beauty ideal in modeling. As of 1975, every major American fashion couturier began using African American models.  The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. has a portrait of her on display as part of its "The Black List" exhibition, featuring photographs of 50 iconic African Americans.  

Born in Chicago on August 21, 1932, Melvin Van Peebles is best known as the incendiary iconoclast who financed, wrote, produced, scored, edited, distributed and starred in "Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song" (1971) the politically-progressive picture which single-handedly inspired the rise of the blaxploitation genre. What few folks realize, however, is that moviemaking was only a fraction of this Renaissance man's many talents.  

"How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)", a retrospective on the versatile maverick's entire career, reveals a man who also spent time as a novelist (in French), playwright, composer, painter, astronomer, enlisted man in the Air Force, and as a stock trader with a seat on the American Exchange on Wall Street.  Last year, Van Peebles started doing shows in NYC with members of Burnt Sugar, under the name Melvin Van Peebles wid Laxative.  In November, 2011, Melvin Van Peebles wid Laxative performed his song Love, that's America at Zebulon Cafe Concert, two weeks after the venue showcased the original video for this single involving Occupy Wall Street footage, which was uploaded to YouTube in October 2011.  

In speaking with blackfilm.com, Peebles shares his thoughts with me on just about everything and his documentary ''How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company''. 

[This interview was conducted in 2006]

KW: Hey, Melvin  [Peebles], thanks for the time.

MVP: No problemo. 

KW: Congratulations on your new movie, and recent lifetime achievement awards, even if, in my opinion, the recognition is a bit overdue.

MVP: Thanks, I'm really a happy camper, as they say. 

KW: Do you still have your seat on the American Stock Exchange?

MVP: No longer. Unless you're going to be there continually, you don't want to keep your seat because, first of all, it costs, but also, doing stocks is not something you can phone in. You got to do it right, otherwise. 

Mr. Baruti Kafele was born in Orange, New Jersey. He is the son of Mrs. Delores C. James and Mr. Norman G. Hopkins. He has been a Principal at Newark Tech for the last four years (grades 9 to 12). Newark Tech High School is a regional public high school located in Newark that offers occupational and academic instruction for students in Essex County, New Jersey, operating as part of the Essex County Vocational Technical Schools. Created in 1914, the Essex County Vocational Technical School District is one of New Jersey's oldest and grandest Vocational Technical School Systems. It provides both technical education and academic instruction for high school and adult students in the Essex County region.

The district has four high schools: Bloomfield Tech, Newark Tech, North 13th Street Tech and West Caldwell Tech where about 2,200 students are enrolled. Newark Tech is the largest of the four schools in the Essex County Vocational Technical School District and is located on Market Street in Newark. It has over 700 students in its programs which include Health Careers, Dental Assistant and Music Production, among several others.

During the last two years, Essex County Newark Tech has been listed by U.S. News and World Report Magazine as one of the best high schools in the United States. Mr. Kafele previously was selected Teacher of the Year in the East Orange School District and Essex County Public Schools. In addition, he was listed for "Who's Who Among America's Teachers" six times. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Kean University where he earned his B.S. degree in Management Science/Marketing in 1986. Furthermore, he received in Master's degree from New Jersey City University in 1996.

واريس ديري

In 1965, Waris Dirie (in Somali: Waris Diiriye) was born in Gallacaio desert, Somalia.  Her first name means in Somali Desert Flower. The daughter of Somalian nomads, Waris Dirie fled her native country at the age of 13 to escape an arranged marriage with a 60-year-old man. After fleeing Somalia, she ended up in London working as a housemaid. She was regularly beaten and practically kept as a slave with an illegal status at some point. In England, she was spotted by well-known British fashion photographer Terence Donovan.  It was a serendipitous moment which would determine a great future. Waris Dirie became a supermodel.  This sounds like a Cinderella story.

Waris Dirie worked for these brands: André Courrèges, Chanel 'Allure' fragrance, Express Jeans, H&M, Levi's, L'Oréal, Oil of Olay, Prescriptives make up, Revlon and so on.  She did many fashion shows, such as “Ready to wear – Spring/Summer 1996 (John Galliano, Ralph Lauren”, “Ready to wear – Autumn/Winter 2000 (Xuly Bet)”.  She did the cover of the 1987 Pirelli calendar.  She also appeared in prominent magazines like Elle, Glamour, Vogue and Marie Claire. Her modeling career has been showcased in the 1995 BBC documentary A Nomad in New York. We often hear supermodels say that their career was not planned.  Nothing from Waris  Dirie’s upbringing could have predicted the future that she had.  So, much like several other supermodels, it wasn’t her intention to be in the fashion business.

Honourable Dr. -Senator Oliver was born in 1938 in Wolfville (Nova Scotia), Canada. He is the son of the late Helena and Clifford H. Oliver. Senator Oliver is a descendant of African-American slave refugees who came to Canada during the War of 1812. Nova Scotia is home to (Canadian) descendants of U.S. slavery.  For more than 400 years, Blacks have been an integral part of the warp and weave of Canadian society and economy. Some were refugees from the United States, others were Black Loyalists (inhabitants of British America of African descent who joined British colonial forces during the American Revolutionary War) and so on. For instance, as an interpreter for the French and Natives in the early 1600s, Mathieu da Costa, a free man, undoubtedly played a role in the development of the fur trade industry along the Atlantic seacoast. Today, there are more than 800,000 Blacks in Canada and Statistics Canada projects that number will be more than double by 2031.

With long and deep ties to Canadian culture and history, Sen. Oliver is the nephew of Canadian opera singer Portia White and labor union activist Jack White; he is also the cousin of political strategist Shelia White and a descendant of politician Bill White. The latter, his maternal grandfather William A. White was born in 1874 to ex-slave parents in Virginia. He migrated to Canada in 1900, after a Canadian teacher of his in the U.S. state of Maryland impressed him so much that he perceived Canada as a land of opportunity for Blacks. He would later become Canada's first Black military officer and a chaplain.

Sen. Oliver's family is one of Canada’s most prominent Black families.  Sen. Oliver is currently one of two Black Conservative politicians in the Canadian Senate and has been active in politics for decades. Hence, he served as Director, Legal Affairs for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) in six consecutive general elections, 1972-88; he also held many Executive Offices with the CPC - as National Vice President (Atlantic region), Director of the PCP Canada Fund, and a member of the Audit Committee of this Fund. Furthermore, Hon. -Sen. -Oliver served for years as Constitution Chairman and was a member of the Finance Committee for the Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia. He is a former Vice-President of that Party.

Jeannie Mai (born January 4, 1980) wears many hats.  She is an American makeup artist, fashion expert, actress and TV personality.  The eldest of three children, Mrs.  Mai and her two younger brothers grew up in San Jose, California.  She is the daughter of an immigrant father from Vietnam and mother from China.  She identifies herself as an afro-mexicasian because she grew up on the east side of San Jose where all her friends were African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians.  She once declared to the media that she feels at home whenever she is around these ethnicities.  Besides English, she speaks Vietnamese.  In her early life, Mrs.  Mai was a member of a family of 16 living under the same roof.  It included her extended family (aunts, uncles…).  This experience helped to shape her and to learn about the gift of sharing.  It also allowed her to develop communication skills, an invaluable asset for a future career.  Mrs.  Mai has a sparkling, spunky and feisty personality. Mrs.  Mai began to entertain people around her at an early age using her mother’s makeup to prepare herself before pretending to interview her family members.  Later, at age 18 she launched her career as a makeup artist for MAC Cosmetics while still living in San Jose.  As a trainee, she worked her way up from face to face until she was eventually traveling the world to do make up work with a roster of celebrity clients such as Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys and Rosario Dawson. Mrs.  Mai also worked with other prominent people such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston.  She has served as a celebrity makeup stylist for MTV, TRL, KCL Los Angeles, and Good Morning Sacramento.

In 2003, Mai began auditioning for local television networks with self-written scripts to demonstrate her unique hosting talents. She landed a gig co-hosting the Emmy-nominated Asian American Magazine-Style show "Stir," on International Channel Networks. Not long after, the San Francisco local music channel, CMC, invited her to be the first female VJ to host her own music countdown. After attracting attention for her energetic personality and knack for style, Mai became an entertainment reporter and producer of the WB's "Daily Mixx." In 2005, Mai got her first prime time hosting role on "Character Fantasy" on the USA Network where she inspired guests each week to live their fantasies. Soon after, she appeared on MTV's "Granted" alongside Frankie Muniz and hosted various segments related to fashion and entertainment news on networks such as E!, Lifetime, TLC, and NBC.