Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 155

Terence Blanchard Is The First Black Composer At The Metropolitan Opera

'Terence Blanchard joined The Takeaway with host Melissa Harris-Perry. Terence Blanchard is a 6-time Grammy winner, jazz trumpet player and composer of over 40 film scores, earning him a BAFTA and Academy Award nominee for Best Original Score for Spike Lee’s 2018 film, BlacKkKlansman. Blanchard also happens to write operas. He composed Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on Charles Blow’s memoir of the same title, and it is the first opera by a Black composer to be housed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.  Blanchard and librettist, Kasi Lemmons, give music and lyrics to Blow’s story about growing up in rural Louisiana, surviving sexual abuse, and navigating the oppressive restrictions of masculinity, and it is Blanchard’s second opera House after premiering at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2019.'

“Airbrush, Instamatics, and Funk: Art, Pop, and New York City’s Long 1970s”: Uri McMillan @ Harvard Radcliffe Institute

'A presentation from 2021–2022 Walter Jackson Bate Fellow Uri McMillan, a performance historian at UCLA, where he is an associate professor in the Departments of African American Studies, of English, and of Gender Studies. His research—a synthesis of art history and visual culture, feminist theory, performance studies, and Black diaspora studies—is primarily centered on African diasporic artistic production, with a particular focus on aesthetic and performance cultures. At Harvard Radcliffe Institute, McMillan is completing “Airbrush, Instamatics, and Funk: Art, Pop, and New York City’s Long 1970s.” In this dynamic cultural history, he traces a network of select New York City–based artists who restlessly and promiscuously moved across fields of cultural production in dual efforts: to creatively explore new aesthetic forms and melt the edges between seemingly disparate mediums and disciplines.'

Afropop Worldwide: The Black History Of The Banjo

'Afropop Worldwide traces the history of this most American of instruments from its ancestors in West Africa through the Caribbean and American South and into the present, as a new generation of Black women artists reclaim the banjo as their own. Rhiannon Giddens, Bassekou Kouyate, Bela Fleck and more talk claw-hammers, trad jazz, Appalachian folk, African ancestors and the on-going story of American music, which would be woefully incomplete without a Black history of the banjo.'

Afropop Worldwide · The Black History Of The Banjo

Glitch in the Code: Black Girls and Algorithmic Justice

'Imagine you’ve forgotten once again the difference between a gorilla and a chimpanzee, so you do a quick Google image search of “gorilla.” But instead of finding images of adorable banana-obsessed animals, photos of a Black couple show up. Is this just a glitch in the algorithm? Or, is Google an ad company, not an information company, that’s replicating the discrimination of the world it operates in? How can this discrimination be addressed and who is accountable for it? UCLA professor, MacArthur Fellow, and best-selling author of “Algorithms of Oppression,” Dr. Safiya Noble joined At Liberty to answer some of these questions.'

At Liberty · Glitch in the Code: Black Girls and Algorithmic Justice

The Quarantine Tapes 206: Melvin Gibbs

'Paul Holdengräber is joined by the brilliant Melvin Gibbs on this two part episode of The Quarantine Tapes. They discuss the release of Melvin’s latest EP, 4 + 1 equals 5 for May 25, five tracks created in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Paul and Melvin dig into Melvin’s experience visiting the site of George Floyd’s death and the incredible statement he wrote to accompany the album. Melvin and Paul go on to dig deep into Melvin’s career and the many amazing musicians he’s worked with and been inspired by over the years. They talk about Body Meπa, his latest collaboration with Greg Fox, Grey McMurray, and previous Quarantine Tapes guest Sasha Frere-Jones. In a fascinating episode, their conversation touches on the history of jazz, the connection between protest and music, and Melvin’s tentative hopes for the future.'

Walltown Forever: Brandon Williams on Resisting Displacement Through Multi-Racial, Intergenerational Organizing

'Wednesdays at the Center welcomed Brandon J. Williams, a Duke Alum and a community builder who believes in the power of everyday people to transform society. For eight years and counting, he has been a resident of a historically Black working-class neighborhood in Durham, NC, called Walltown. Brandon used to lead a youth organization in the community and is now organizing with neighbors to resist gentrification and displacement. Walltown was founded in 1906 by George Wall, a formerly enslaved man who moved from Randolph County to Durham, NC, to work for Trinity College(eventually Duke University). Since then, the neighborhood has been home to generations of Black working-class families who, in the face of structural racism, have embodied a spirit of self-determination and resilience. When Northgate Mall, under the ownership of the Rand family, sought to encroach upon residential space, residents organized to keep their land. Now that the mall is in a state of redevelopment, Walltown has organized again.' -- John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University

The Urban Griot, Dr. Billy Taylor: A Centennial Celebration

'In the grand history of Black American music, no one ever embodied a combination of instrumental prowess, composerly ambition, educational authority and institutional savvy quite like Dr. Billy Taylor. A pianist who honed his skills at the dawn of modern jazz, Dr. Taylor made his most lasting contribution as a spokesman for the art form — indelibly coining the phrase "America's classical music" and going on to spread its message on National Public Radio, on CBS Sunday Morning and through the educational organization Jazzmobile. "He helped always tell the story of Black music in America," says Jason Moran, who succeeded him as artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center. "And he told it from the piano, and somehow he was able to distill the language that was always appropriate for expressing the construction and the emotion of the music", Moran tells Jazz Night in America.'

Unscripted: Conversations w/ Christian John Wikane: Janice Pendarvis on Luther Vandross

'Whether touring with Sting or appearing on Saturday Night Live with Debbie Harry, Eddie Murphy, Philip Glass, and Vanessa Williams, Janice Pendarvis is the secret sauce in any vocal blend. In this clip from Unscripted: Conversations w/ Christian John Wikane, Pendarvis discusses Luther Vandross.'

A New Museum in Nashville Centers the Artistry of Black Musicians

'For decades, Nashville's tourism has drawn in mostly white tourists for its country music, bachelorette parties and honky-tonks on lower Broadway. But with the opening earlier this year of the National Museum of African American Music, the city hopes to serenade more diverse tourists. Ambriehl Crutchfield reports for All Things Considered.'

The Harder They Fall Q + A with Jonathan Majors, Regina King & Director Jeymes Samuel

'BBC Radio 1Xtra speak to some of the stars from the film The Harder They Fall, including Jonathan Majors, Regina King & British director Jeymes Samuel.'