Welcome to the Nia Network: A Program Bureau, a division of Celeste Bateman & Associates. The program bureau features visual and performing artists, historians, writers and motivational speakers of African descent who present in various venues nationally and internationally. CB&A has compiled a roster of extraordinarily talented individuals who are available to perform and present at colleges and universities, performing arts centers, schools, churches, corporations, festivals, trade shows, etc. What makes this program bureau unique is that all of the participants present topics and art forms pertaining to the African Diaspora.
Nia is the Swahili word for ‘purpose.’ Our purpose is to promulgate what is rich and positive about African, Caribbean, and African-American culture, history, heritage and art. For booking information, email us at info@celestebateman.com or call 973.705.8253.
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to take on additional artists/speakers at this time, but please feel free to forward your information for future consideration.
Nia is the Swahili word for ‘purpose.’ Our purpose is to promulgate what is rich and positive about African, Caribbean, and African-American culture, history, heritage and art. For booking information, email us at info@celestebateman.com or call 973.705.8253.
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to take on additional artists/speakers at this time, but please feel free to forward your information for future consideration.
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Donald Bogle
“Let’s all nod in appreciation to Donald Bogle for putting everything in historical perspective…. Mr. Bogle continues to be our most important noted Black cinema historian.”
Spike Lee
Donald Bogle, whose book Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography was published to glowing reviews, is one of the foremost authorities on American popular culture and the author of three prize-winning books on the subject. His book, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, winner of the Theatre Library Association Award as Best Film Book of the Year, is considered a classic study of African American movie images. It is now in its fourth edition.
His most recent book, Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood,looks at the African American Films colony in Los Angeles from the early years of the 20th century to the mid-1960s. It has been described as a “deliciously entertaining” look at the way such performers as Lena Horne, Nat “King” Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Hattie McDaniel, Steppin Fetchit, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Dorothy Dandridge lived and worked, played and socialized. Reviewing the book for The Los Angeles Times, Carl Franklin (director of the films Devil in a Blue Dress and One False Move) praised Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams as “…a valuable historical document, entertaining and educational, uplifting and sad; it is a formidable chronicle of the perseverance of a community…” Entertainment Weekly selected this “meticulously researched, engrossing book about African American involvement in the movie business…” as the Editor’s Choice. “Shameful, funny, enlightening, and sobering, this tale of the movieland’s dark side is a must-read for any student of film.” In The Boston Globe, critic Renee Graham wrote that a lost era is “brought to dynamic life in Donald Bogle’s Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams. With such books as his fine biography of Dorothy Dandridge, as well as Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks, Bogle is unsurpassed in excavating the treacherous and triumphant history of African-Americans in Hollywood.” The Los Angeles Times listed Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams on its Bestseller List.
Bogle is also the author of Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television, the first comprehensive examination of African Americans on the primetime network scene. In The New York Times, Julie Salamon wrote that Bogle’s “thoroughness and insightful analyses are admirable. This is a valuable chronicle.” “A revealing, thought-provoking and richly detailed look at the small screen’s highlights,” wrote Essence. “It is a testament to Bogle’s talent that he makes this story as entertaining and enlightening as any documentary. And in Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker commented: “Thorough, engagingly opinionated…Bogle’s rigorous history is a valuable one for the depth of its research and its refusal to patronize either TV or its audience.”
He adapted his book Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of America’s Black Female Superstars, into an acclaimed four-hour, four-part documentary series for PBS (the series was named one of the best documentaries of the year by the Association of American Women in Television and Radio). He wrote the scripts for the episodes, headed the film research team, and was an executive producer of the series. Additionally, he is well-known for his distinguished work Blacks in American Film and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia.
A former writer for Ebony, Donald Bogle has appeared as a commentator for numerous television documentaries, including Spike Lee’s Jim Brown: An All-American; HBO’s Mo’ Funny: Black Comedy in America (executive produced by Richard Pryor) and the American Movie Classic channel’s Small Steps...Big Strides, which chronicled the history of African Americans in motion pictures. In addition to Ebony, his articles have appeared in Film Comment, Spin, Essence, Elan, University Review, and Freedomways. He is a frequent lecturer on films and African American performers at colleges, museums, and libraries around the country and has been interviewed on numerous television programs including The Tavis Smiley Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Charlie Rose Show, Nightline, and Entertainment Tonight.
At Spike Lee’s request, Bogle wrote the foreword, which examines the Jazz hero in American motion pictures, for Lee’s Mo Better Blues book. He also wrote the introductory essay on early African American filmmakers for A Separate Cinema: Fifty Years of Black Cast Posters and the introduction to the Da Capo edition of Ethel Waters’ autobiography, His Eye Is On the Sparrow as well as the liner notes for the CDs The Incomparable Ethel Waters and Dorothy Dandridge: Smooth Operator. He has served as a consultant for and was author of the film history chapter in Creative Fire, one of three volumes in Voices of Triumph, Time-Life’s prestigious series on African American history and culture.
Bogle has been curator on a number of important film series in New York including a major retrospective at the American Museum of the Moving Image on the career of Sidney Poitier. He conducted a public interview with Mr. Poitier for the launch of the retrospective, and during the Museum’s Spike Lee retrospective he also conducted the public interview with Mr. Lee. For New York’s Film Forum, Bogle has been curator or co-curator of a number of film retrospectives including Black Women in the Movies: Actresses, Images, Films; Blacks in the Movies: Breakthroughs, Landmarks, Milestones; the highly successful Blaxploitation, Baby!; and Dorothy Dandridge. He also served on the Film Forum’s Board of Directors.
Donald Bogle was raised in the Philadelphia area. He currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.
He is available for talks, workshops, panel discussions, book signings, and slide presentations on the history of Black movies from the early 20th century to the present; African Americans in television and Black Hollywood.
Spike Lee
Donald Bogle, whose book Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography was published to glowing reviews, is one of the foremost authorities on American popular culture and the author of three prize-winning books on the subject. His book, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, winner of the Theatre Library Association Award as Best Film Book of the Year, is considered a classic study of African American movie images. It is now in its fourth edition.
His most recent book, Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood,looks at the African American Films colony in Los Angeles from the early years of the 20th century to the mid-1960s. It has been described as a “deliciously entertaining” look at the way such performers as Lena Horne, Nat “King” Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Hattie McDaniel, Steppin Fetchit, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Dorothy Dandridge lived and worked, played and socialized. Reviewing the book for The Los Angeles Times, Carl Franklin (director of the films Devil in a Blue Dress and One False Move) praised Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams as “…a valuable historical document, entertaining and educational, uplifting and sad; it is a formidable chronicle of the perseverance of a community…” Entertainment Weekly selected this “meticulously researched, engrossing book about African American involvement in the movie business…” as the Editor’s Choice. “Shameful, funny, enlightening, and sobering, this tale of the movieland’s dark side is a must-read for any student of film.” In The Boston Globe, critic Renee Graham wrote that a lost era is “brought to dynamic life in Donald Bogle’s Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams. With such books as his fine biography of Dorothy Dandridge, as well as Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks, Bogle is unsurpassed in excavating the treacherous and triumphant history of African-Americans in Hollywood.” The Los Angeles Times listed Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams on its Bestseller List.
Bogle is also the author of Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television, the first comprehensive examination of African Americans on the primetime network scene. In The New York Times, Julie Salamon wrote that Bogle’s “thoroughness and insightful analyses are admirable. This is a valuable chronicle.” “A revealing, thought-provoking and richly detailed look at the small screen’s highlights,” wrote Essence. “It is a testament to Bogle’s talent that he makes this story as entertaining and enlightening as any documentary. And in Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker commented: “Thorough, engagingly opinionated…Bogle’s rigorous history is a valuable one for the depth of its research and its refusal to patronize either TV or its audience.”
He adapted his book Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of America’s Black Female Superstars, into an acclaimed four-hour, four-part documentary series for PBS (the series was named one of the best documentaries of the year by the Association of American Women in Television and Radio). He wrote the scripts for the episodes, headed the film research team, and was an executive producer of the series. Additionally, he is well-known for his distinguished work Blacks in American Film and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia.
A former writer for Ebony, Donald Bogle has appeared as a commentator for numerous television documentaries, including Spike Lee’s Jim Brown: An All-American; HBO’s Mo’ Funny: Black Comedy in America (executive produced by Richard Pryor) and the American Movie Classic channel’s Small Steps...Big Strides, which chronicled the history of African Americans in motion pictures. In addition to Ebony, his articles have appeared in Film Comment, Spin, Essence, Elan, University Review, and Freedomways. He is a frequent lecturer on films and African American performers at colleges, museums, and libraries around the country and has been interviewed on numerous television programs including The Tavis Smiley Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Charlie Rose Show, Nightline, and Entertainment Tonight.
At Spike Lee’s request, Bogle wrote the foreword, which examines the Jazz hero in American motion pictures, for Lee’s Mo Better Blues book. He also wrote the introductory essay on early African American filmmakers for A Separate Cinema: Fifty Years of Black Cast Posters and the introduction to the Da Capo edition of Ethel Waters’ autobiography, His Eye Is On the Sparrow as well as the liner notes for the CDs The Incomparable Ethel Waters and Dorothy Dandridge: Smooth Operator. He has served as a consultant for and was author of the film history chapter in Creative Fire, one of three volumes in Voices of Triumph, Time-Life’s prestigious series on African American history and culture.
Bogle has been curator on a number of important film series in New York including a major retrospective at the American Museum of the Moving Image on the career of Sidney Poitier. He conducted a public interview with Mr. Poitier for the launch of the retrospective, and during the Museum’s Spike Lee retrospective he also conducted the public interview with Mr. Lee. For New York’s Film Forum, Bogle has been curator or co-curator of a number of film retrospectives including Black Women in the Movies: Actresses, Images, Films; Blacks in the Movies: Breakthroughs, Landmarks, Milestones; the highly successful Blaxploitation, Baby!; and Dorothy Dandridge. He also served on the Film Forum’s Board of Directors.
Donald Bogle was raised in the Philadelphia area. He currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.
He is available for talks, workshops, panel discussions, book signings, and slide presentations on the history of Black movies from the early 20th century to the present; African Americans in television and Black Hollywood.