Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 231

Merry Clayton Bares Her 'Beautiful Scars'

'Seven years after surviving a car crash that took her legs and nearly took her life, singer Merry Clayton is releasing a new album, Beautiful Scars. Clayton spoke with Morning Edition's Rachel Martin about the genesis of Beautiful Scars, Diane Warren's involvement and what the title track means to her.' 

The CDC Says Racism Is A Public Health Threat. Here's What It Means

"The CDC has declared racism a "serious threat" to public health. Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep speaks with Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, who worked for the CDC and now studies race and health at Emory University."

Harlem On My Mind: Arturo Schomburg

"The Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture is based in Harlem, but its roots are on the island of Puerto Rico with a little Afro Puerto Rican boy named Arturo Schomburg. Determined to collect a record of Black history that could tell us who we are and where we’ve been, Arturo Schomburg amassed a personal collection of 10,000 Black books, artwork and documents. That collection eventually became the Schomburg Center we know today, which is part of the New York Public Library system. Into America host Trymaine Lee speaks with Vanessa Valdés, author of Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Shola Lynch, curator of the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division of the Schomburg Center, and Arturo Schomburg’s grandson, Dean Schomburg to better understand who Arturo was and the impact of his legacy on Black identity and Black culture."

Reimagining Blackness & Architecture: The Frozen Neighborhoods | Olalekan Jeyifous

"What if we gave a community everything they needed to thrive? Artist and architect Olalekan Jeyifous discusses his project “The Frozen Neighborhoods” and a vision for a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York where the community develops sustainable practices that support people and the planet." -- The Museum of Modern Art

Invisible Blackness – Discovering The Black Family, an Interview with Malcolm Jamal Warner

'Malcolm-Jamal Warner is an American actor, director, producer, musician, and writer. He is best known for his role as Theodore Huxtable on the NBC show The Cosby Show. In this episode Invisible Blackness host Adrian Younge and Malcolm have a vulnerable discussion about how the Huxtables redefined the public perception of the black family in America.'

Kyle Abraham: 'When We Fell' (2021)

'Created in a three-week-long COVID-compliant residency at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, NY, When We Fell was filmed in 16mm at NYCB’s Lincoln Center home, co-directed by choreographer Kyle Abraham and cinematographer Ryan Marie Helfant.' -- nycballet

"In A Class By Itself": Frankie Crocker, The 1970's, and Building WBLS

"Radio legends Vy Higginsen, Ken "Spider" Webb, Fred Buggs, Bob Lee, and music icon, Robert Bell discuss the importance of having a radio station like WBLS in the 1970s that not only celebrated the African American Musical landscape but also transformed the lives within the community it served." -- WBLS

Left of Black S11 · E22 | Black Success and White Mobs with Koritha Mitchell

Picture this: an angry mob of white citizens roaming the streets of their city to execute "justice" by seeking, not criminals who have harmed others, but Black families who achieved some level of financial success in their pursuit of the "American dream." From the Reconstruction era all the way to the Obamas in the White House, white anger at the sight of Black excellence has been an all-too-common scenario. Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined by award-winning author and Associate Professor of English at Ohio State University, Koritha Mitchell, as they discuss her latest book, From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture, published by University of Illinois Press.

The Time of the Black Radical Tradition: Josh Myers on Cedric Robinson

"In his seminal text, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, Cedric J. Robinson posits the group of black intellectuals challenging Marxism at the height of anti-colonial consciousness as forming a distinct, political tradition, one whose critiques constituted “the continuing development of a collective consciousness informed by the historical struggles for liberation and motivated by the shared sense of obligation to preserve the collective being, the ontological totality.” Josh Myers is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. He is the author of We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989 as well as a new biography of Cedric Robinson, which is called Cedric Robinson: The Time of the Black Radical Tradition, forthcoming with Polity Books."

'This Is About Lifting Culture,' Says History-Making Producer Charles D. King

"Judas and the Black Messiah has made Oscar history as the first Best Picture nominee with an all-Black producing team. And it's not the first time producer Charles D. King has made Hollywood history."