2015 NAACP Image Award Nominations - Recording and Literature Categories

The 2015 NAACP Image Awards will be presented in a 2-hour special that will air live on Friday, February 6, 2015 on TV One at 9pm ET/8CT (tape-delayed for PT – Pacific Time).  The ceremony will be preceded by a one-hour pre-show, which will air live from the red carpet at 8pm ET/7CT (PT tape-delayed).

Nominees in the Recording and Literature categories for the 2015 / 46TH NAACP Image Awards:

RECORDING

Outstanding New Artist
• 3 Winans Brothers (BMG)
• Aloe Blacc (XIX Recordings/Interscope Records)
• Erica Campbell (My Block Inc./eOne Music)
• Jhene Aiko (Def Jam Recordings)
• Liv Warfield (Kobalt Label Services)

Outstanding Male Artist
• John Legend (Columbia Records)
• Kem (Motown - Capitol)
• Kendrick Lamar (Interscope Records)
• Michael Jackson (Epic Records)
• Pharrell Williams (Columbia Records)

Outstanding Female Artist
• Alicia Keys (RCA Records)
• Beyoncé (Columbia Records)
• Jennifer Hudson (RCA Records)
• Ledisi (Verve Records)
• Mary J Blige (Capitol)

Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration
• "Being With You" - Smokey Robinson feat. Mary J Blige (Verve)
• "Brand New" - Pharrell Williams feat. Justin Timberlake (Columbia Records)
• "Gust of Wind" - Pharrell Williams feat. Daft Punk (Columbia Records)
• "Love, Marriage & Divorce" - Toni Braxton & Babyface (Def Jam Recordings)
• "Stay with Me" - Sam Smith feat. Mary J Blige (Capitol)

Outstanding Jazz Album
• "Beautiful Life" - Dianne Reeves (Concord)
• "Dave Koz and Friends: The 25th of December" - Dave Koz (Concord Records)
• "Living My Dream" - Jonathan Butler (Rendezvous Music)
• "My Old Friend: Celebrating George Duke" - Al Jarreau (Concord)
• "Up" - Stanley Clarke (Mack Avenue Records)

Outstanding Gospel Album - (Traditional or Contemporary)
• "Duets" - Donnie McClurkin (RCA Inspiration)
• "Help" - Erica Campbell (My Block Inc./eOne Music)
• "I Will Trust" - Fred Hammond (RCA Inspiration)
• "Journey To Freedom" - Michelle Williams (eOne Music)
• "Where My Heart Belongs" - Gladys Knight (Shadow Mountain Records)

Outstanding Music Video
• "i" - Kendrick Lamar (TDE/Interscope)
• "It's You" - KEM (Motown - Capitol)
• "Love Never Felt So Good" - Michael Jackson feat. Justin Timberlake (Epic Records)
• "Pretty Hurts" - Beyoncé (Columbia Records)
• "You & I (Nobody in the World)" - John Legend (Columbia Records)

Outstanding Song
• "Good Kisser" - Usher (RCA Records)
• "i" - Kendrick Lamar (TDE/Interscope)
• "Pretty Hurts" - Beyoncé (Columbia Records)
• "The Man" - Aloe Blacc (Interscope Records)
• "We Are Here" - Alicia Keys (RCA Records)

Outstanding Album
• "Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics" - Aretha Franklin (RCA Records)
• "Beyoncé Platinum Edition" - Beyoncé (Columbia Records)
• "G I R L" - Pharrell Williams (Columbia Records)
• "JHUD" - Jennifer Hudson (RCA Records)
• "Love, Marriage & Divorce" - Toni Braxton & Babyface (Def Jam Recordings)


LITERATURE

Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction
• "A Wanted Woman" - Eric Jerome Dickey (Penguin Random House)
• "An Untamed State" - Roxane Gay (Grove/Atlantic - Black Cat)
• "Another Woman's Man" - Shelly Ellis (Kensington Publishing Corp.)
• "Momma: Gone" - Nina Foxx (Brown Girls Publishing)
• "The Prodigal Son" - Kimberla Lawson Roby (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group)

Outstanding Literary Work - Non-Fiction
• "Bad Feminist" - Roxane Gay (Harper Perennial/HarperCollins)
• "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption" - Bryan Stevenson (Spiegel & Grau)
• "Place not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America" - Sheryll Cashin (Beacon Press)
• "The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act" - Clay Risen (Bloomsbury Press)
• "Who We Be: The Colorization of America" - Jeff Chang (St. Martin's Press)

Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author
• "Forty Acres" - Dwayne Alexander Smith (Atria Books)
• "Queen Sugar" - Natalie Baszile (Pamela Dorman Books/Penguin Random House)
• "Remedy For A Broken Angel" - Toni Ann Johnson (Nortia Press)
• "The 16th Minute of Fame: An Insider's Guide for Maintaining Success Beyond 15 Minutes of Fame" - Darrell Miller (Dunham Books)
• "Time of the Locust" - Morowa Yejide (Atria Books)

Outstanding Literary Work - Biography/ Auto-Biography
• "Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine" - Louis Sullivan with David Chanoff (University of Georgia Press)
• "Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (with Great Hair)" - Rosie Perez (Crown Archetype)
• "Life In Motion" - Misty Copeland (Touchstone)
• "Mayor for Life" - Marion Barry, Omar Tyree (Strebor Books)
• "Stand Up Straight and Sing!" - Jessye Norman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Outstanding Literary Work - Instructional
• "10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse" - JJ Smith (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster)
• "101 Scholarship Applications: What It Takes to Obtain a Debt-Free College Education" - Gwen Richardson (Cushcity Communications)
• "Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed" – Bryant Terry (Ten Speed Press)
• "Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System" - Robbin Shipp, Nick Chiles (Agate Bolden)
• "Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life" - Joe Brewster, Michele Stephenson, Hilary Beard (Spiegel & Grau)

Outstanding Literary Work - Poetry
• "Citizen: An American Lyric" - Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press)
• "Digest" - Gregory Pardlo (Four Way Books)
• "The New Testament" - Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
• "The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013" - Derek Walcott, Selected by Glyn Maxwell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• "We Didn't Know Any Gangsters" - Brian Gilmore (Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC)

Outstanding Literary Work - Children
• "Beautiful Moon" - Tonya Bolden (Author), Eric Velasquez (Illustrator) (Abrams/Abrams Books for Young Readers)
• "Dork Diaries 8: Tales From A Note-So-Happily Ever After" - Rachel Renee Russell with Nikki Russell and Erin Russell (Simon & Schuster)
• "Little Melba and Her Big Trombone" - Katheryn Russell-Brown (Author), Frank Morrison (Illustrator) (Lee & Low Books)
• "Malcolm Little" - Ilyasah Shabazz (Author), AG Ford (Illustrator) (Simon & Schuster)
• "Searching for Sarah Rector" - Tonya Bolden (Abrams/Abrams Books for Young Readers)

Outstanding Literary Work - Youth/Teens
• "Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America" - Russell Freedman (Holiday House)
• "Brown Girl Dreaming" - Jacqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen Books)
• "Revolution" - Deborah Wiles (Scholastic Press)
• "The Freedom Summer Murders" - Don Mitchell (Scholastic Press)
• "The Red Pencil" - Andrea Davis Pinkney (Author), Shane Evans (Illustrator) (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

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Spike Lee's "Thriller" Movie Set to Go (A Negromancer Bits and Bites Blast)

According to Perez Hilton.com, Spike Lee will release a film entitled, "Brooklyn Loves You, Michael Jackson."  The movie is about Brooklyn residents who throw a concert as a tribute to Michael Jackson, he of Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, Invincible, etc. The movie is apparently loosely based on a party Lee threw in Brooklyn last summer as a tribute to the late King of Pop. Samuel L. Jackson, who has starred in several of Lee's early films, has signed on to star in the movie.  The most recent film about Michael Jackson, This is It, was hit mere months after the singer's passing last summer.