Good Times is an American sitcom television series that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974 to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was television's first African American two-parent family sitcom. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, itself a spin-off of All in the Family. Florida and James Evans and their three children live at 921 North Gilbert Avenue, apartment 17C, in a housing project in a poor, black neighborhood in inner-city Chicago; the project is unnamed on the show but is implicitly the infamous Cabrini–Green projects, shown in the opening and closing credits. Florida and James have three children: James Jr. known as "J. J.". When the series begins, J. J. is 17, Thelma is 16 and Michael is 11. Their exuberant neighbor and Florida's best friend is Willona Woods, a recent divorcée who works at a boutique, their building superintendent is Nathan Bookman, who James, Willona and J. J. refer to as "Buffalo Butt" or more derisively, "Booger."

The characters originated on the sitcom Maude as Florida and Henry Evans, with Florida employed as Maude Findlay's housekeeper in Tuckahoe, New York and Henry employed as a New York City firefighter. When producers decided to feature the Florida character in her own show, they changed the characters' history to fit a new series, well into development rather than start from scratch to create a consistent starring vehicle. Henry's name became James, he worked various odd jobs, there was no mention of Maude but it was mentioned that Florida was a maid once before in the episode'The Checkup' and the couple lived in Chicago. Episodes of Good Times deal with the characters' attempts to overcome poverty, living in a high-rise project building in Chicago. James Evans works at least two jobs manual labor such as dishwasher, construction laborer, etc, he is unemployed, but he is a proud man who will not accept charity. When he has to, he hustles money playing pool. Ned the Wino is the local drunk who frequents the neighborhood and the apartment building where the Evans family reside.

In the season one episode "Black Jesus," J. J. uses Ned the Wino as the model for a portrait of Jesus. Another episode is centered on Michael's plan to "clean up" Ned and get him off the booze by letting him stay at the Evans' house. Carl Dixon is an atheist shop owner who Michael works for. Despite their religious differences and Florida begin dating and become engaged in the final episode of season four. Carl breaks off the engagement. After a talk from Bookman, Carl again asks Florida for her hand in marriage; the two marry move to Arizona. Florida returns at the beginning of this time without Carl for Thelma's wedding. Carl is referenced in that season's second episode "Florida's Homecoming Part 2," but he is never mentioned again. Florida revealed to Willona he died from his battle of lung cancer. Marion "Sweet Daddy" Williams is a menacing neighborhood numbers runner and pimp, who has a reputation for wearing flashy clothing and jewelry, he is accompanied by bodyguards and comes across as cool and threatening, but has shown a soft heart on occasion when he decided not to take an antique locket that Florida had given to Thelma because it had reminded him of his late mother..

Alderman Fred C. Davis is a local politician with a shady disposition whom the Evans despise. Spoofing President Richard M. Nixon, he would state in a speech "I am not a crook." He relies on the support of the Evans family for reelection or support and resorts to threats of eviction to secure their support. In a running joke, Alderman Davis forgets Willona's name and calls her another similar-sounding name that began with a "W", thus earning him her everlasting ire as well as the nickname "Baldy." Lenny, is a neighborhood hustler and peddler who tries to sell stolen items that are attached to the lining of his fur coat. He approaches people with a laid-back rap and a rhyme, he is rebuffed by the people he approaches and responds by saying "that's cold" or uses a small brush to "brush off" the negativity. "Grandpa" Henry Evans is James' long-lost father. He abandoned the family years before because he was ashamed that he could not do more to provide for them; this hurt James who disregarded his father's existence, telling everyone he was dead.

Thelma learns about her grandfather. She meets him and invites him to the Evans' home to surprise James for his birthday, not knowing that James was well aware of his whereabouts but chose to stay out of his life. After Henry arrives at the Evans home and meets the rest of the family, he realizes that James would not welcome him in the home and decid

Allan Rohan Crite was a Boston-based artist born in North Plainfield, New Jersey. He won several honors, such as the 350th Harvard University Anniversary Medal. Crite's mother, was a poet who encouraged her son to draw, he showed promise early, enrolling in the Children's Art Centre at United South End Settlements in Boston and graduating from The English High School in 1929. Crite's father was an doctor and engineer, one of the first black people at that time to have earned an engineering license. Accepted at Yale, he instead went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1936. Crite decided to attend Harvard Extension School, where he completed his studies, receiving an ALB in 1968, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Suffolk University in Boston. Crite was among the few African-Americans employed by the Federal Arts Project. In 1940, he began a 30-year relationship with the Boston Naval Shipyard when he took a job as an engineering draftsman. During his years, Crite both lived and worked in the Allan Rohan Crite Research Institute at 410 Columbus Avenue in Boston's South End.

He died of natural causes in his sleep at age 97. Crite hoped to depict the life of African-Americans living in Boston in a new and different way: as ordinary citizens or the "middle class" rather than stereotypical jazz musicians or sharecroppers. Through his art, he intended to tell the story of African Americans as part of the fabric of American society and its reality. By using representational style rather than modernism, Crite felt that he could more adequately "report" and capture the reality that African Americans were part of but unaccounted for. Crite explained his body of work as having a common theme: I've only done one piece of work in my whole life and I am still at it. I wanted to paint people of color as normal humans. I tell the story of man through the black figure, his paintings fall into two categories: religious themes and general African-American experiences with some reviewers adding a third category for work depicting Negro spirituals. Spirituals, expressed a certain humanity.

Crite was a devout Episcopalian, his religion inspired many of his works. His 1946 painting Madonna of the Subway is an example of a blend of genres, depicting a Black Holy Mother and baby Jesus riding Boston's Orange Line. Other pieces such as School's Out reflect on the themes of community, society. On his faith and the role of liturgy in his pieces, Crite said in an interview: It was useful, because it gave me a framework of discipline within which to do my work. So I used that, for example, as the frame of discipline to illustrate the spirituals, by making use of the liturgy, the vestments, everything like that -- using the vestments and appurtenances as, you might say, a vocabulary, his work is recognizable to the use of rich earth tone colors. According to one biographer, his favorite color was "all colors" and his favorite time of year was "anything but winter." According to one reviewer, "Crite's oils and graphics when restricted to black and white, are bright in tonality and varied in line rhythmic, dramatic in movement, patterned."Crite's works hang in such major American art galleries as the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts, Grossman Library, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Boston Athenaeum, to which he left a substantial collection upon his death in gratitude for his long tenure there as a visiting artist and which now holds the largest public collection of his paintings and watercolors.

Among Crite's illustrated books are 1948's Three Spirituals from Earth to Heaven, in which he illustrated religious stories from such African-American spirituals as Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Nobody Knows the Trouble I See. Crite's major exhibitions include 1920's Harmon Foundation Exhibitions, 1930s Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1936 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. 1939 Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1978,The Boston Athenaeum, 1997, the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, 2001. His works were shown in a coordinated series of posthumous exhibitions in 2007-08, at the Boston Public Library, the Boston Athenaeum, the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists. In February 2020, Crite's work was featured as part of the group exhibition, "Personal Space: Self-Portraits on Paper," at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. "School's Out" at Smithsonian American Art Museum

Path of Unreason is a science fiction novel by American writer George O. Smith, it was published in 1958 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000 copies, of which only 3,000 were bound. The novel is an expansion of Smith's story "The Kingdom of the Blind" which first appeared in the magazine Startling Stories in 1947; the novel concerns a physicist, trying to explain the mysterious "Lawson Radiation" while his researches drive him insane. Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale gave Path a negative review, rating the novel with two stars out of five and writing that "it is a story that Smith evidently had a lot of fun writing but that the reader will find more difficult to enjoy." Chalker, Jack L.. The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 306. Tuck, Donald H.. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. P. 400. ISBN 0-911682-22-8. Path of Unreason title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Keith Browner Sr. is a former American football defensive end and outside linebacker. He is the father of Keith Browner, Jr., a linebacker for the Cal Golden Bears and plays defensive end for the Houston Texans. Browner was drafted out of the University of Southern California with the 30th pick in the second round, he played in the National Football League between 1984 and 1988 for Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Oakland Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers and in Arena Football between 1990 and 1997. His eldest brother, Ross Browner, was elected to the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1999. Another brother, Joey Browner played for the USC Trojans and was one of the top players in the NFL in the 1980s, his nephew, Rylan Browner, plays football for the University of Arizona. His son, Keith Browner Jr. plays college football defensive end for the University of California, Berkeley. His twin daughters are Amber Browner and Ashley Browner, both basketball players for San Diego City College

Siwatu-Salama Ra is an environmental and racial justice organizer, born and raised in Detroit. She grew up in the environmental justice movement, formally the co-director of East Michigan Environmental Action Council. In addition to her work locally and across the country, Siwatu represented Detroit and the United States at global social justice and climate justice events in France and Senegal, she led youth organizing and media justice work including the Young Educators Alliance and Detroit Future Youth. On March 1st, 2018 Siwatu was incarcerated for defending herself, her mother, daughter. At the time she was in her third trimester of pregnancy and was forced to give birth to her son during her imprisonment. After nearly nine months at Huron Valley Correctional Facility for assault and firearm felonies, her case has been cited as an example of a racist justice system in the United States and highlighting the issues with mandatory minimum sentencing. In August 2019 she won her conviction was reversed.

She continues to fight against injustices and organize for Environmental Justice and a world without prisons. FreeSiwatu.org At 19, Ra opposed Marathon Oil Refinery and the Detroit Renewable Power trash incinerator. She is co-director of East Michigan Environmental Action Council. Channell Harvey brought her daughter to Ra's mother's home and Ra asked her to leave. Parties in the case dispute the events which led to Ra's imprisonment after this event. Ra claims Harvey rammed Ra's parked car while Ra's 2-year-old daughter was playing in the vehicle. Ra's legal team claims Harvey was trying to hit her family with the car. Ra pointed an non loaded owned gun which she owned a conceal carry permit for. Michigan is an open carry state.l. Harvey claims after a verbal argument, Ra went to her car where she removed her toddler and retrieved a pistol, she cocked the pistol and pointed it at Harvey, at which point Harvey accidentally hit Ra's vehicle while attempting to drive away. Ra claimed the pistol was unloaded and used to deter any violence by Harvey.

The jury focused on why the gun was in the car, an issue not presented to them during the case. The jury was instructed that Ra had to be in fear of imminent death in order to justify pulling her weapon, an issue becoming central to her appeal. Ra was found guilty of assaulting Harvey; the jury did not believe. She was convicted of a felony firearm conviction with a mandatory minimum sentence of two years; the jury of the trial were not informed. The judge Thomas Hathaway, refused to grant a request to postpone Ra’s sentence until after she gave birth due to her high risk pregnancy because of the mandatory minimum sentence law. Ra was incarcerated in Huron Valley Correctional Facility, a prison with overcrowding problems and structural issues. Ra was shackled to her bed during a vaginal exam. Ra gave birth to her son at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, in Ann Arbor, MI, in the presence of four armed guards, she was not allowed to contact her family during the birth and was not allowed to breastfeed her son.

After 48 hours, her son was temporarily put into the care of her relatives. Ra's post-conviction appeal is being handled by Wade Fink Law, P. C.. Attorney Wade Fink replaced prior counsel and secured Ra's release from prison. Ra's attorneys raised a number of issues on appeal, including that Ra was not permitted to defend herself using a self defense theory. Fink was successful in reversing the convictions. On August 20, 2019, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed Ra's convictions, holding that Ra's use of a firearm did not constitute deadly force, but rather non deadly force, making trial jury instructions incorrect. Ra's attorney, Wade Fink of Wade Fink Law, P. C. in Birmingham, stated that the "Michigan Court of Appeals again showed itself to be the thoughtful, deliberative judiciary that citizens can rely upon to do justice.” Whether the case will be retried by the Wayne County Prosecutor remains to be seen. The jury did not believe that Ra had an honest and reasonable belief that deadly force was necessary to defend herself or her family.

This has been seen as racially motivated opinion and that the law sets a different standard of self defense for black people. “Siwatu should be home getting ready to deliver her baby, being with her family. Instead, she isolated being punished for protecting herself, her child and mother; this is a shameful, shameful reality, it’s clear that we need to challenge a criminal justice system that would try a pregnant black woman for upholding ‘stand your ground’ laws and her Second Amendment rights.” Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter. “No one should be imprisoned for exercising their right to self-defense." National Rifle Association. After the case was reversed, conservative columnist David French of conservative media publication "The National Review" stated:Prosecutors have a right to appeal the decision to their state supreme court, they should not. Ra has suffered immensely, she gave birth while imprisoned, her child was taken from her two days later. She spent months separated from her newborn – after a conviction under the wrong legal standard.

The court of appeals reached the just result. Ra’s legal ordeal needs to end. After Ra's convictions were reversed, she returned to the trial court where Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy had to decide whether or not to retry the case. Prosecutor Worthy received over 900 letters from the community, thousands of phone calls, asking her not to re-try Ms. Ra, her attorney, Wade Fink argued that because prosecutors had told the court that Ms. Ra

The Swan was a theatre in Southwark, England, built in 1595 on top of a standing structure, during the first half of William Shakespeare's career. It was the fifth in the series of large public playhouses of London, after James Burbage's The Theatre and Curtain, the Newington Butts Theatre and Philip Henslowe's Rose; the Swan Theatre was located in the manor of Paris Gardens, on the west end of the Bankside district of Southwark, across the Thames River from the City of London. It was at the northeast corner of the Paris Garden estate nearest to London Bridge that Francis Langley had purchased in May 1589, four hundred and twenty-six feet from the river's edge. Playgoers could arrive by water landing at the Paris Garden Stairs or the Falcon Stairs, both short walking distances from the theatre; the structure belonged to the Monastery of Bermondsey. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it became royal property and passed through several hands before being sold to Langley for £850; the Mayor of London opposed Langley's permit to open a theatre, but his protests held no ground as the property had belonged to the crown and the Mayor had no jurisdiction.

Langley had the theatre built certainly in 1595–96. When it was new, the Swan was the most visually impressive of the existing London theatres. Johannes De Witt, a Dutchman who visited London around 1596, left a description of the Swan in a manuscript titled Observationes Londiniensis, now lost. Translated from the Latin, his description identifies the Swan as the "finest and biggest of the London amphitheatres", with a capacity for 3000 spectators, it was built of flint concrete, its wooden supporting columns were so cleverly painted that "they would deceive the most acute observer into thinking that they were marble", giving the Swan a "Roman" appearance. When Henslowe built the new Hope Theatre in 1613, he had his carpenter copy the Swan, rather than his own original theatre, the Rose, which must have appeared dated and out of style in comparison. In 1597, the Swan housed the acting company Pembroke's Men. Actors Richard Jones, Thomas Downtown, leader Edward Alleyn joined the troupe after leaving their positions in Lord Admiral's Men at the rival playhouse The Rose.

In 1597 Pembroke's Men staged the infamous play The Isle of Dogs, by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson, the content of which gave offence, most for its "satirical" nature on the attack of some people high in authority. Jonson was imprisoned, along with Gabriel Spenser, an actor in the play, others. Langley in trouble with the Privy Council over matters unrelated to theatre, may have exacerbated his danger by allowing his company to stage the play after a royal order that all playing stop and all theatres be demolished; this order may have been directed at Langley alone. They were granted licenses to perform; the Swan continued to operate without a license until 19 February 1598, when the two licensed companies called attention to them. Following the scandal, the Swan only held sporadic performances. Another scandal rocked the Swan in 1602, when Richard Vennar advertised a new play, England's Joy, to be performed at the Swan on 6 November. Vennar claimed the play was a fantastical story in honour of Queen Elizabeth, seats sold out quickly.

However, the play was never performed. The townspeople were enraged and vandalised the theatre, the theatre never seemed to recover its former popularity; because both court and city were interested in limiting the number of acting troupes in London, because there was a glut of large open-roof venues in the city, the Swan was only intermittently home to drama. Along with The Isle of Dogs, the most famous play to premiere there was Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, performed by the newly merged Lady Elizabeth's Men in 1613; the theatre offered other popular entertainments, such as swashbuckling competitions and bear-baiting. For the next eight years, the building was used for special entertainment. After 1615 the Swan was deserted for five years, but used again in 1621 by some actors who are unknown, they did not stay for long. The building grew decrepit over the next two decades. In Nicholas Goodman's 1632 pamphlet Holland's Leaguer, the theatre is described as "now fallen into decay, like a dying swan, hangs her head and sings her own dirge."

Historical sources do not mention the Swan after that date. Media related to The Swan at Wikimedia Commons Shakespearean Playhouses, by Joseph Quincy Adams, Jr. from Project Gutenberg