November 24, 1955 – June 22, 2007
Michael Allen was best known for playing jazz & blues in the Soulard area at clubs like The Grizzly Bear. He played with legendaries like the Platters, Mae Wheeler, Johnnie Johnson and Roland Allen.
Michael Kevin Austin was born in St. Louis to the late Fire Captain Deacon Daniel Austin and Elzary Diggs Austin. He was the fifth of their five children.
Michael confessed a belief in Christ at an early age. He was baptized and educated at St. Marks Catholic Elementary School and graduated in 1974 from Northwest High School. He studied commercial art at Florissant Valley Community College and music at Gadsden State College in Alabama, earning a “Who’s Who Among American College Students” honor. Mike joined the United States Army and played drums in the Army band.
Michael had one child, Whitney Wayne. He later married Sondra Tillman, and two daughters, Claudia and Alana, were born to this union.
Michael had an entrepreneurial spirit and was CEO of Austin’s Modern Methods. He taught drum lessons, and he played drums at St. Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist Church until his health failed.
Michael passed from this life on Friday, June 22, 2007 at John Cochran Veterans Medical Center in St. Louis.
Michael leaves to cherish his memory his wife, Sondra; children, Whitney, Claudia and Alanna; two brothers, Arthur Kincade Jr. (Besse) and James Austin; two sisters, Danielle Hawthorne (Robert) and Michelle Austin-Gray; and a host of nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles, cousiOusmane Sembene, Senegalese filmmaker
The Senegalese filmmaker, writer and social activist Ousmane Sembene, regarded as one of the pioneers of African cinema, died June 10 in Dakar. He was 84.
Born into a fisherman’s family in the village of Ziguinchor, Sembene was largely self-taught. He worked from a young age in various manual jobs, but taught himself to read and write in French. Many of his films and books were based on these experiences.
Sembene published his first novel in 1956, Le Docker Noir drawing from his own experiences as a dock worker in Marseilles, France. Then in 1962 he was offered a scholarship to the Gorky Film Institute in Moscow. In 1963 he returned to Senegal, formed a production company and made the black and white short Borom Sarret about the life of a poor cart driver.
He wrote more than half-a-dozen books, many critically acclaimed, including Voltaiques, a volume of short stories published in 1962. It included the short story “The black girl from …” which he turned into a film two years later and which is credited with being sub-Saharan Africa’s first feature film.
He went on to make at least 10 movies, including his last film Moolade, which won a prize at Cannes when it was released in 2004. Like his novels, his films tackled issues from female circumcision to the plight of railroad workers.
As co-founder of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and Fespaco, the pan-African festival of film and television held in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso every two years, Sembene had left a lasting legacy for a new generation of African filmmakers.
“He definitely has inspired and paved the way for African cinema and
younger filmmakers, but he equally challenged the way we talked about history as a discipline,” said Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo, who runs the African Film Festival here in St. Louis.
“Another library has burned, but if we take heed of Sembene’s lesson, we understand that we must continue to honor his spirit, disseminate his message, and keep his stories alive.”
ns, in-laws, and friends.