June 09, 2022

LAWT News Service

Vintner Iris Rideau, the first Black woman in the United States to establish a winery, will release her memoir, “From WHITE to BLACK: One Life Between Two Worlds,” on June 19, in celebration of Juneteenth.

The memoir tells Rideau’s moving and inspiring rags-to-riches story of accomplishing the nearly impossible by a Black woman born into a Creole family in New Orleans during the Jim Crow era. The book will be released in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats by 8790 Publishing Company. Kirkus Reviews calls the memoir “an historically rich, exuberant, and vividly detailed portrait of an extraordinary life.” 

Rideau (née Duplantier) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1936. She grew up in the 7th Ward of the city, a Creole section of town, which was considered a relatively safe haven for the family. However, the cruelty Rideau suffered under the harsh rule of Jim Crow caused her to know by the age of ten that she needed to leave the South for a better life in California.

The arc of Rideau’s life is traced in her memoir, highlighting periods of turmoil, including sexual assault and racism. By sixteen, she was a single mother working in a sewing factory while attending night school.

Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center, says of her memoir, “An inspiring and oftentimes defiant read…a wonderful and poignant story of triumph and transcendence.”

After a year, Rideau made her way out of that sweatshop and secured her first job working for an insurance agency, a move that helped launch her career. After the Watts Riots in 1967, Iris founded Rideau Insurance Agency to provide insurance to thousands of ineligible homeowners, Black-owned businesses, and non-profit agencies such as the Urban Leagues that “white” insurance companies wouldn’t touch.

In the late 1970s, Rideau founded her second company, a securities firm specializing in pension plans for public employees. Her success caught the eye of the then-mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley. He brought her on to provide casualty insurance to the city’s federal programs and implement the city’s supplemental pension fund managed by the Hartford Investment Group.

From there, she moved up the corporate ladder, eventually becoming influential in the world of Los Angeles politics and the financial world. “Rideau doesn’t wait for opportunities—she makes her own, whether as a successful entrepreneur, a political change agent, or as a winery owner,” says The Wine Spectator.

Having managed both companies for 30 years and later selling both, Rideau left Los Angeles and moved to the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara’s Wine Country where she founded Rideau Winery in 1997. The winery became known for its award-winning Rhone varietal wines. Rideau sold her wines directly from her historic Adobe tasting room and at many memorable Creole-inspired winery events.

Scott Williams, executive producer of “NCIS,” adds, “Iris Duplantier Rideau is not only a modern-day pioneer, groundbreaking businesswoman, and award-winning winery owner, she’s also a brilliant writer to boot. ‘From WHITE to BLACK’ is a beautifully told true story of extraordinary perseverance, limitless vision, and the power of faith in oneself. Ms. Rideau’s illuminating ride through a long-ignored aspect of American history is endlessly fascinating and will leave you deeply inspired.” 

Rideau will appear in the KPBS series, “Fresh Glass,” premiering in September 2022.

Her memoir is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

June 02, 2022

LAWT News Service

Leaders from the global Black diaspora gathered in Los Angeles for AFRICON, one of the country’s biggest celebrations of the African continent and the diaspora.

Presented by Amplify Africa, the second annual event was held May 25-28, and brought together music, innovation, business, activism, education and more, to uplift, acknowledge, and celebrate the diversity of the African continent through the lens of entertainment, business, media, technology and leadership.

In addition to panels and celebrations, this year’s AFRICON also raised funds for I Heart Africa, the philanthropic organization founded by Chaka Bars, that is working to resettle 100,000 people displaced by a volcanic eruption in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The four-day event featured a range of panels and performances including a rare DJ appearance by Jidenna as part of ChiefyChiefy. Elsa, Chaka, Kweku Mandela and more were honored at the AFRICON Afro Ball gala for their contributions to African excellence.

Panel topics included Black Media: Controlling Our Own Narrative, Creating Generational Wealth Through Innovation & Investments, Deconstructing the Standard of Beauty, Investing in Africa's Future, Civil Rights & Advocacy in the Black Diaspora, Political Engagement of the Diaspora: Home & Abroad, and more.

Attendees included Isaac Kigozi, who heads Trade and Investment in Uganda; Tunde Ogundipe, senior vice president at Sony, Caroline Wanga,  CEO of Essence Magazine; Elon Johnson, senior creative executive at Tyler Perry Studios; Deniece Laurent-Mantey, foreign affairs officer at the U.S. Department of State; Ava Hall, former vice president at BET International; and Prince Joel Makonnen-Haile Selassie, entrepreneur and great-grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia.

Amplify Africa is a leading media and entertainment company whose mission is to amplify Africa and the African diaspora through global community and storytelling, for a diverse audience of the African diaspora inclusive of African Americans, Caribbeans, Afro-Latinx, Afro-European, Afro-Asian, indigenous Africans across the globe, Africans on the continent and African culture lovers around the world.

With more than half of the population in many African nations under the age of 25, the continent is currently undergoing a renaissance of vibrant new music, fashion, art and political expression.

Amplify Africa captures the spirit of this unprecedented boom in youth culture off of the continent, by focusing on emerging and progressing trends while blending traditional aesthetics with a futurist lifestyle.

Amplify Africa’s vision is to connect the continent to the Black global experience of African American, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, and Afro-European communities.

To learn more, visit africon.global.

May 12, 2022