Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 17

Conversations in Atlantic Theory | Christopher Freeburg on Counterlife: Slavery after Resistance and Social Death

'A conversation with Christoper Freeburg on Counterlife: Slavery after Resistance and Social Death published in 2021 by Duke University Press. Dr. Freeburg is the John A. and Grace W. Nicholson Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  Dr. Freeburg is an award-winning author of three scholarly books and numerous articles including, Melville in the Idea of Blackness (Cambridge UP, 2012), Black Aesthetics and the Interior Life (University of Virginia Press, 2017), and Counterlife: Slavery after Resistance and Social Death (Duke University Press, 2021).  His book in-progress, Soul: A Brief History of Black Cultural Life is this culmination of his life’s worth of teaching African American history and culture from the church to hip hop, from slavery to the present.'

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism | The War Against Us in Our Names - Of Black Study With Joshua Myers

'In Of Black Study Joshua Myers examines the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Sylvia Wynter, Jacob Carruthers and Cedric Robinsonas well as June Jordan and Toni Cade Bambara, and what each contributed to Black Studies approaches to knowledge production within and beyond Western structures of knowledge.  In this part of our two conversation on this book, Professor Myers talks about the selection of the six thinkers he centers the book around, and the type of project he is engaged in with the text. We also spend about an hour talking about two of the books chapters, the one centered around the interventions of W.E.B. Du Bois and Sylvia Wynter, as well as looking at each of their relationships to Marxist thought and analytical approaches, and their relationships to science, the humanities and academic disciplinary traditions. As well as what each of them finds among the Black masses and how what they finds there influences their work.'

'Growing Our Kids to Become Advanced Thinkers': Media Literacy as a Tool Against Misinformation | Here & Now

'In New Jersey, officials are looking to a new generation to help stop the spread of misinformation and the damage it causes. The state's Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law this month that requires all children in K-12 public schools be taught media literacy. Classrooms around the country may teach these concepts informally, but this is the first time a state has implemented this kind of mandate.'

For Black Men, Barriers To Mental Health Care Can Be Complex

'Black men must contend with the long history of neglect and abuse that has influenced how generations of African-Americans feel about health services, a lack of Black mental health professionals, and the understanding that shielding emotions are a way to face the pressures and dangers of racism.  NPR host Michel Martin talks with writer Damon Young, author of What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays, and psychologist Earl Turner of Pepperdine University, on making therapy more accessible for Black men.'

Left of Black S13 · E12 | Sophia Chang on 'The Baddest Bitch in the Room'

What does it mean to take up space where you weren't even expected to appear? Not meekly hiding in the corner, but boldly taking space and letting your voice, and your story, be heard and known? Left of Black host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal welcomes Sophia Chang, the first Asian woman in hip hop, as well as the former manager of A Tribe Called Quest, Raphael Saadiq, Q-Tip, and members of Wu-Tang Clan such as RZA, GZA, and Ol' Dirty Bastard. She discusses her memoir, The Baddest Bitch in the Room, published by Catapult Books.

The Passion Behind the Music with Guthrie Ramsey Jr. | Black America

'Musicologist and Author, Dr. Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. discusses his latest work, Who Hears Here? On Black Music Pasts and Present, his inspirations in music and how he is passing it down to generations to come.'

Here & Now | The World's Richest 1% Raked in 2/3 of All New Wealth

'A report from Oxfam says that the wealthiest 1% of the world population gained two-thirds of the wealth generated since 2020. That's $26 trillion for the richest at just $16 trillion for the rest of us. Part of the eye-watering gap is blamed on the chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But is that all that's at play here? Friend of the show and host of Public Radio's "Full Disclosure" Roben Farzad joins host Scott Tong to dive into the news behind the numbers.'

Roberta Flack's First Piano Came from a Junkyard – Five Grammys Would Follow

'At 85, Roberta Flack is still telling stories. For some five decades, Flack captivated audiences around the world with her soulful, intimate voice. She won five Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award, and inspired generations of musicians including Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys. But the musician can no longer sing or speak; in November, she announced she has ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a neurological disease. Recently, Flack teamed up with writer Tonya Bolden and illustrator Hayden Goodman to publish a book for children: The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music.'

Helga | Choreographer Bill T. Jones on the violence within seduction

"I knew that there was a power I had when I stripped off my shirt and looked you in the eye as I moved my hips. But I also knew the other side of that attraction to me was the impulse to kill me."

'Legendary dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones has made a career of engaging his audience with brutal, unapologetic honesty. His seductive work has grappled with provocative political issues ranging from sexuality, race, and censorship to power and the AIDS epidemic — while also innovating in the expressive possibilities of movement itself. In this episode, Jones talks about what it meant to grow up as a “Black Yankee” in the 1950s and 1960s and as one of 12 children. He also reflects on the adjacency of violence to the power of seduction, and how, after decades as a performing artist, the body may retire but the mind never will.'

The Takeaway: Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow on The Big Payback

'The Big Payback is a new documentary film that chronicles the efforts for reparations on both the national level with H.R. 40 through Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and on the local level in Evanston, Illinois by following the work of Alderman Ruth Rue Simmons. Co-Directors Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow talk about their film which makes its television premiere on PBS’ Independent Lens.'