Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 166

Merry Clayton On 'Beautiful Scars' And A Life Of Singing

'In the late 1960s, Merry Clayton was one of the most sought after backup singers. Her album, released in 2021, is called Beautiful Scars. In this episode of World Cafe Words and Music from WXPN, Clayton talks about a life of singing, doing homework with Bobby Darin, what Ray Charles heard in her voice and more.'

Unscripted: Joshie Jo Armstead on Melvin Van Peebles

In this clip from Unscripted: Conversations w/ Christian John Wikane, singer-songwriter Joshie Jo Armstead discusses the genius of the late Melvin Van Peebles. Armstead performed in Van Peebles's musical Don't Play Us Cheap (1972).

Carl Hancock Rux: I Dream a Dream That Dreams Back at Me

“We have to constantly be in conversations with our dreams, our hopes, and our ambitions in order to change the world.” - Carl Hancock Rux 

'Take a behind-the-scenes look back at "I Dream a Dream That Dreams Back at Me," a site-specific  celebration conceived and curated by Carl Hancock Rux and featuring original lyrics by Lynn Nottage, costumes by Dianne Smith, music by Nona Hendryx, Vernon Reid, Helga Davis, Toshi Reagon, BIGLovely, Marcelle Davies-Lashley, and Kimberly Nichole.' -- Lincoln Center

Why So Many Haitians Make The Risky Journey To The U.S.

'Here & Now's Tonya Mosley speaks with Francesca Momplaisir, a native Haitian and author of the novel My Mother's House about what it's like for Haitians to flee their country.'

Pass the Freedom to Vote Act: Time is Running Out to Protect the Right to Vote in 2022 and Beyond by Ben Jealous

Pass the Freedom to Vote Act: Time is Running Out to Protect the Right to Vote in 2022 & Beyond

by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

 

Republican-controlled state legislatures have imposed new voting restrictions. They are getting ready to create more safe congressional seats for Republicans through abusive partisan redistricting. They are undermining faith in elections with false claims about election fraud and demands for fake “audits.”

 

The good news is that there is new momentum in Congress and a new bill to protect our democracy. We need to get it passed.

 

The new Freedom to Vote Act would protect the right to vote, end unfair partisan gerrymandering, and shine a light on the flood of dark money that allows billionaires to buy our elections in secret. It includes key sections of the earlier For the People Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives but was blocked in the Senate by Republican filibusters.

 

The Freedom to Vote act also addresses one of the worst things about some of the new voter suppression laws: provisions that give state officials the power to override voters and overturn election results.

 

There are other good things in the bill. It would make Election Day a federal holiday. Every state would have automatic voter registration, early voting and drop box accessibility. These would be major advances in making voting more accessible to everyone.

 

Voting rights advocates are rallying support for the Freedom to Vote Act. One of the sponsors, Democratic Sen. Joe Machin of West Virginia, worked hard to come up with a bill that he could support. He still hopes to get some Republican senators to join him.

 

That is an uphill battle. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled that no Republican senators will support this compromise. And he will use the Senate’s filibuster rules to prevent the Senate from passing election protections that are supported by huge majorities of the American people—something he has already done with the For the People Act.

 

Ideally, voting rights should be a nonpartisan issue. Congress repeatedly passed extensions of the Voting Rights Act that were signed by Republican presidents. But right-wing politicians and judges have spent years trying to undermine the Voting Rights Act in the name of “states’ rights” or “state sovereignty.”

 

With help from right-wing justices on the Supreme Court, states have imposed all kinds of new voting restrictions in recent years.

 

The number of new restrictive voting laws jumped massively after former President Donald Trump was defeated in last year’s presidential election. Grassroots organizing helped drive strong turnout among Black voters in key states, and Republicans have decided to respond by making it harder for people to register and vote. That makes it clear that the new voter suppression rules have nothing to do with “election integrity” and everything to do with maintaining power at all costs.

 

The Constitution very clearly gives the federal government the right to step in when states undermine democracy with restrictive and discriminatory voting rules. That’s what Congress did more than 50 years ago when it passed the Voting Rights Act.

 

President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate must do whatever it takes to pass the Freedom to Vote Act. With democracy and voting rights at stake, we cannot let Jim Crow-era filibuster rules in the U.S. Senate have the final word.

 

***

 

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way. Jealous has decades of experience as a leader, coalition builder, campaigner for social justice and seasoned nonprofit executive. In 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

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The Evolution of Black TV

'The 1980s and 1990s were full of memorable Black characters on the small screen, from Carl Winslow and Steve Urkel of Family Matters to Will, Uncle Phil, and Aunt Vivian of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to identical twin sisters Tia and Tamera of Sister, Sister.  Though there were countless Black characters in front of the camera, behind the scenes was a different story. From the writers rooms to the executive suite, Black creators were few and far between. In decades since, it’s gotten better but there’s still much work to be done.  For more on this, The Takeaway spoke to  Hannah Giorgis, culture writer for The Atlantic, and Kim Bass, creator of Sister, Sister and Kenan and Kel.'

The Birth of Climate Disinformation

'Fossil fuel companies have been lying to the public for decades; it's well-documented that almost as soon as climate change became a scientific reality, they actively downplayed the crisis. But to keep Americans unaware of the growing urgency of our environmental problem, those same companies needed a way to paint themselves as heroes. Advertising allowed fossil fuel companies to sell themselves, not their products, as the good guys. The depictions of billion-dollar companies were often folksy, innovative, innocent, and brazenly, stereotypically American. The strategy was genius. Journalist and podcast host Amy Westervelt wanted to go back to the beginning — to find out how advertising, the media, and the fossil fuel industry became so intertwined. Her podcast Drilled profiled several of the men who invented the public relations business we know today — starting with a man named Herb Schmertz.' 

 

Carmelo Anthony on His New Memoir

'Carmelo Anthony, ten-time NBA All-Star currently playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and formerly of the New York Knicks, joins All Of It to discuss his new memoir, Where Tomorrows Aren't Promised: A Memoir of Survival and Hope.'

Helga—The Armory Conversations: Antwaun Sargent

“There’s a real potential in art making to have someone reassess everything that they had thought about a history.”

'Curator, critic and writer, Antwaun Sargent engages Helga Davis in a discussion around the motivations behind his work as a curator and the circuitous path that led him to a life in and around art.'

Amythyst Kiah's Roots Music Deals With Loss, Grief, and Pain

'Tennessee-based songwriter Amythyst Kiah loves both roots and alternative music; and her songs often clothe dark subjects - suicide of a loved one, a descent into alcoholism - in bluesy stomps and ecstatic rock. The singer, guitarist, banjo player, and scholar (she holds a degree in Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies), has made records on her own and is a member of the formidable quartet called Our Native Daughters. On her 2021 solo album Wary + Strange, Amythyst Kiah sings of loss, grief, death, and hangovers and dealing with them all; she and her band play some of these tunes remotely for Soundcheck.'