‘Blues for an Alabama Sky’ Review: Samira Wiley Stars in a Richly Rewarding Production of Pearl Cleage’s Play

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Grammy and Oscar winning singer-songwriter Sam Smith has announced their fourth studio album, “Gloria,” will be released on January 27, 2023 via Capitol Records. Made with longtime collaborators Jimmy Napes, Stargate and Max Martin stablemate Ilya, the album is described in the announcement as “not only a creative revelation but something of a personal revolution for the celebrated artist. Lyrically, the subjects dive deep and wide, into contemporary narratives around sex, lies, passion, self-expression and imperfection.” Smith says, “It feels like emotional, sexual and spiritual liberation. It was beautiful, with this album, to sing freely again. Oddly, it feels like my first-ever record. And it feels like a coming of age.”

A police officer in Alabama was shot multiple times Sunday after police responding to a report of gunfire on an interstate faced off with a suspect at an apartment complex, police said. The officer with the Hoover Police Department is expected to survive. Hoover is just south of Birmingham.

Dolly Parton expressed her disappointment on Sunday for not being "on old Rocky Top" for Tennessee’s upset victory over Alabama in what was the best college football game of the season so far. The legendary singer congratulated the Volunteers on the victory said she was not in the area for the game. Dolly Parton discusses their new book "Run, Rose, Run: A Novel" co-written with James Patterson at "Dollyverse Powered By Blockchain Creative Labs on Eluv.io" during the 2022 SXSW Conference And Festival at ACL Live at The Moody Theater on March 18, 2022 in Austin, Texas.  (Rick Kern/FilmMagic) "I said it's great to be a Tennessee Vol! What a win last night.

Sam Faiers has marked her eight-year anniversary with her partner, Paul Knightly, after the Ferne McCann voice note drama.The former TOWIE star, 31, took to Instagram on Saturday, where she shared a selection of pictures of herself and Paul throughout the years, that Paul later reshared on his own account. The first picture showed Sam in a green dress with a plunging neckline as she is sitting on Paul's lap, who is wearing a white shirt, in a snap taken at the start of their relationship.

An 18-year-old is behind bars on "very serious charges" after allegedly raping, robbing and torturing a college student in south Alabama earlier this month. The Mobile County Sheriff's Office said Elijah Persons knew the woman he is accused of attacking and had planned to meet her in Semmes, which is approximately 20 miles northwest of Mobile, on Tuesday, Oct. 4, according to WALA in Mobile.

Phil Vickery appears to have snuck into the National Television Awards last night, Thursday 13 October, just days after he was spotted kissing his ex wife's good friend. Phil, 61, split with ex wife and fellow TV star Fern Britton in 2020 and is since thought to have begun dating her friend Lorraine Stanton. The apparent new flames were spotted kissing while out in London together, where Lorraine, who is an extremely close friend of Fern, 65, carried a Fortnum & Masum bag as she leaned over a suitcase and an overnight bag for a kiss from Phil.

A middle school teacher in Alabama spends his free time as a drag queen, and recently made sexually driven comments at a Drag Queen Story Time that was geared toward kids. James Miller, a teacher at Mountain Gap Middle School in Huntsville, Alabama, operates the Facebook page "Madge D. Ivine (Miss Majesty Divine)," where he frequently posts pictures of himself attending drag events such as Drag Queen Story Time.

An Alabama inmate said prison staff poked him with needles for over an hour as they tried to find a vein during an aborted lethal injection last month. At one point, they left him hanging vertically on a gurney before state officials made the decision to call off the execution. Attorneys for 57-year-old Alan Eugene Miller wrote about his experience during Alabama's Sept.

The FBI is tracking a lead in the Gilgo Beach serial killings case to Alabama.  In a Friday Facebook post, the Mobile Police Department said that the FBI is seeking relatives and friends of a long-deceased man named Elijah "Lige" Howell/Howard, who lived from 1927-1963.  Howard lived in Prichard, Alabama, with his wife Carrie and passed away in Mobile in 1963 "with Ms.  Lillie Mae Wiggins Packer," police wrote.

Fern Britton has shared a cryptic message about survival just hours after appearing to take a swipe at her ex-husband Phil Vickery.MORE: Fern Britton breaks silence after ex-husband Phil Vickery is pictured kissing her best friendTaking to Twitter, the former This Morning host touched upon feeling "content" and having "survived" in the candid tweet.WATCH: Fern Britton recalls moment marriage to Phil Vickery broke down"My life has been pretty good," she wrote. "Not always perfect or pleasing or easy but I wouldn't change those things.

Former Alabama escapee Casey White pleaded not guilty Tuesday at his arraignment on escape and felony murder charges after his alleged accomplice in the jailbreak shot herself in the head rather than face arrest. Vicky White, a former Lauderdale County, Alabama, corrections official, walked Casey White out of jail on April 29, and the duo led investigators on an 11-day manhunt spanning multiple states and involving disguises and multiple cars. The two were not related but were allegedly involved in a jailhouse romance.  Deputies in Indiana recaptured Casey White after a car chase as the alleged lovers tried to evade capture.

A man in Alabama allegedly poured boiling water down his 1-year-old baby's throat while he was out on bond in relation to a domestic violence charge. Eugene Lamont Sneed, 23, was out on bond in relation to a 2020 domestic violence charge when he allegedly poured the boiling hot water down the throat of his daughter on Sunday, who is only 1, according to FOX 17. Niktoria Lett, the mother of the 1-year-old, Royalty, said that the baby was left alone with Sneed, who is the baby's father, on Sunday.

The tale of Goldilocks is getting the feature film treatment.

A south Alabama pastor was arrested Tuesday after being indicted on rape and sex abuse charges, news outlets reported. A grand jury indicted Gregory Renee Adams, 64, on five counts of rape, two counts of sodomy and two counts of sexual abuse by force, according to court documents.Two of the charges involved victims who were between the ages of 12 and 16, according to the indictment.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) ripped the Biden White House for interfering with his state's school policies on gender, claiming the administration is "acting beyond [its] authority." While appearing on "Fox & Friends First" Thursday, Marshall also criticized the administration's push for "genderless" schools, arguing it will backtrack the progress made with Title IX protections. STEVE MARSHALL: We have a broader obligation to our citizens to make sure that we're enforcing our own policy.

Undeterred by repeated losses, the Biden administration’s war on red states and our "Neanderthal thinking" rages on.This month, my colleagues and I are fighting Biden and his comrades at the United States Department of Agriculture in court to protect the right of states to run their public schools as they see fit.This time, the fight isn’t over curriculum or masking — it’s whether states still possess the paltry authority to require boys to use the boys’ bathroom at school.  The United States Constitution leaves no doubt as to the states’ broad authority over their own public schools, but the Biden administration supposes that everything — even schoolchildren — has a price.  The USDA is the federal agency that directs the myriad "cooperative" federal food programs — including the Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program (WIC), and the Child Nutrition Program (including the school-lunch program).These programs both tug at the heart strings and come with a hefty price tag for states, so the Biden administration has found them to be ideal vehicles for forcing genderlessness into our state governments, and more particularly, our public schools.  By issuing a USDA memorandum and accompanying administrative rule, the administration has waged a campaign to impose the left’s extremist "gender identity" agenda on schoolchildren with the implied threat that if states resist, their programs and public schools will get less money from the federal government.  The Biden administration is threatening the state of Alabama and warning that it might lose federal funding if it doesn't enforce radical gender mandates.

Paul Bettany looks quite a bit different on the set of his new movie, The Collaboration, on Monday (September 26) in Boston, Mass.