The Bayou Maharajah himself: James Booker. (photo by Henry Horenstein) “…His music pushes the boundaries of what is possible on the piano with an intricacy that surpasses Chopin. It was this complexity that attracted me to Booker. I needed to find out how a man could be both barely tolerated and completely loved – and how his music might make that possible.” ––Lily Keber, Director’s Statement  Bayou Maharajah , a film by director Lily Keber and producer Nathaniel Kohn on the life of the late New Orleans genius of jazz James Carroll Booker III made its Savannah, Georgia, debut before a full audience at the Telfair Museum’s Jepson Center for the Arts on December 19, 2013. Keber’s exceptional accomplishment in Bayou Maharajah has been acknowledged with several important awards. Among them are: the Oxford American’s Best Southern Film Award, and both the Audience Award and Special Jury Mention for a Louisiana Feature at the New Orleans Film Festival.

( AP photo of Davis protesters by David Tullis ) After many people had made their peace with the idea of Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis’ life ending at 7 p.m. on September 21, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Courts just after 7 p.m. issued a call for a “temporary delay” of his death, but then again at 10:20 said it would not block the execution. Officials then announced that Davis was executed at 11:08 p.m. Please click the link to read the full article by Aberjhani : Savannah Talks Troy Anthony Davis No. 16: Davis Executed - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

(photo by Stephen Morton of Virginia Davis on left with Martina Davis-Correia on their way to evidentiary hearing for Troy Anthony Davis) If the whole point behind continuing to seek the execution of Troy Anthony Davis after his two decades on death row in Georgia has been to take another life in exchange for that of slain officer Mark Allen MacPhail, some may say that Davis’s mother, Virginia Davis, paid that price on her son’s behalf when she passed April 12, 2011, in Savannah, Georgia, at the age of 65. To continue please click the following link : Savannah Talks Troy Anthony Davis No. 13: Death of Virginia Davis - National African-American Art | Examiner.com