Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 26

Frieze Masters Podcast: Amy Sherald, Ekow Eshun & Jenni Sorkin

'Frieze Masters presents this conversation with Amy Sherald, Ekow Eshun and Jenni Sorkin in partnership with Hauser & Wirth. The panelists discuss Sherald’s practice and the relevance of her work within the canon of historical portraiture. This episode also marks the release of the artist’s first substantial monograph by Hauser & Wirth Publishers, providing a unique insight into her work and studio practice, alongside newly-commissioned texts. "When I'm considering my Americanness, and my American story, I think farming and agriculture is essential to that. It's the reason that the US is a superpower. And it's the way that black families were able to sustain themselves. It was legacy, it was the way that we planted our seeds, it was the animals that we raised," says Sherald.

Ryan Coogler & Gina Prince-Bythewood | Directors on Directors

'Gina Prince-Bythewood and Ryan Coogler sit down for a conversation about Hollywood, The Woman King, and creating art. The two directors trade war stories and examine how their movies, both of which unfold in African kingdoms (one imagined and one reclaimed), manage to walk the line between art and populism.'

'Unlocking Our Fifth Freedom' by Dr. Gail C. Christopher

Unlocking Our Fifth Freedom

by Dr. Gail C. Christopher  | @drgcchristopher | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

 

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden recently signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act. This landmark United States federal law passed by the 117th U.S. Congressrepeals the Defense of Marriage Act(DOMA), requires the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages in the U.S., and protects religious liberty.

 

While we must all applaud this amazing bi-partisan breakthrough, we should all be appalled that such a law was needed in this democratic nation, in this the 21st-century. Why is there a need to protect a fundamental human right and freedom for adults to love and marry interracially or to a person of the same gender? I think the answer is because America is a nation and a democracy that is yet becoming. We are, in the global context, still a young nation learning how to be a multiracial, multi-ethnic, diverse, self-governing democracy. We still have a lot of work to do.

 

Congressional and presidential leadership are a vital part of this important work. I am reminded of the leadership of President Franklin D Roosevelt, who galvanized and lifted the consciousness of the American people by reminding them of the meaning of democracy in a time when the Great Depression was limiting hope. In his 1941 State of the Union address, President Roosevelt articulated four freedoms - the freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom to be free from want and freedom from fear.

 

 It was another iteration of our founding principles, every person’s right to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness. But here we are in 2022, still needing to codify into law a fifth freedom - a freedom to love. I believe this is our most important freedom. And although it was not articulated by then President Roosevelt or by the founding fathers, freedom to love is the required element in a lasting democracy. By signing this legislation, President Biden affirmed this truth.

 

It is also meaningful that this freedom became law during the same week that the White House hosted a summit of leaders from 49 African countries. During this summit, President Biden spoke directly about what he described as America’s original sin of slavery: "We remember the stolen men and women and children were brought to our shores in chains…My nation’s original sin was that period." There is a clear relationship and through line from this original sin and the present day need for the landmark Respect for Marriage Act. Denial of a person’s freedom to love and marry is a denial of a person’s humanity. The institution of enslavement of Africans and the decimation of Native American people could only have been justified by denying our humanity.

 

It is time for America to begin the real work of seeding and growing a democracy capable of valuing the humanity of all people. This requires developing the skills and the capacities to begin to see ourselves in one another, to develop automatic responses of empathy and compassion needed to build bridges of trust that are required for carrying the weight of the truth of our nation’s inhumane and horrific past acts. While laudable, the Respect for Marriage Act is like a tourniquet applied to the bleeding limb of a wounded soldier; it will only be lifesaving if the body receives the care it needs immediately. For America, that care is the will to move forward, to heal and repair the vestiges of past wrongs, and create and sustain equitable communities.

 

The immediate care that our national body politic requires is an investment to create and support a new cultural infrastructure, a psychological emotional infrastructure of love and caring that is strong enough to withstand and repel the attacks of false narratives and hate, driven by nefarious motives for power and control.

 

The good news is that communities and college campuses are doing this work all across America. Philanthropy is supporting their efforts. But the original sin was committed by this federal government and enforced for centuries by all branches of our government. America’s national, state, and local governments organized and institutionalized lovelessness throughout history. People were lynched and brutalized, families were destroyed, women were raped and children were taken. All this was done in the name of a belief in a false hierarchy of human value. A unified and robust correction is long overdue.

 

Congressional efforts are currently underway through H.Con.Res.19 - Urging the establishment of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation and H.R.40 - Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, introduced by Congresswoman Barber Lee and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Both H.Con.Res.19 and H.R.40 have significant co-sponsorships –168 and 196, respectively in the 117th Congress. In this time of increasing and expanding polarization, congressional and presidential leadership are critically needed to further these efforts to assure the viability of our democracy by building our capacity to love one another equally as human beings.

 

For America, freedom to love is the beginning of our transformation.

 

***

 

Dr. Gail C. Christopher is the Executive Director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity, Senior Scholar at the Center for Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University, former Senior Advisor and Vice President of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Her new book, RX-Racial Healing is available HERE. Follow Dr. Christopher on Twitter @drgcchristopher. 

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How New Balance Amplifies Black Voices Through Design | Fast Company

'In the wake of the BLM movement, Black employees at New Balance started an employee resource group called Black Soles to foster a supportive and impactful space for Black employees. This propelled the external campaign, 'Conversations Amongst us,' with Chicago-based designer Joe Freshgoods. The sneaker and apparel line honors the Black community and shares stories of the Black experience. Our host Chris Denson finds out more.'

This Is Hell!: The Rise of the Advertising-Surveillance Complex with Matthew Crain

'This Is Hell! talks to media and communication scholar Matthew Crain about his Boston Review article "How Capitalism - and not a few bad actors - Destroyed the Internet".'

This Is Hell! · The Rise of the Advertising-Surveillance Complex / Matthew Crain

In 'Nanny,' an Undervalued Caretaker Must Contend with Spirits and Rage

'The Sundance favorite Nanny is a moody thriller starring Anna Diop as Aisha, a Senegalese immigrant who cares for the young child of a rich Manhattan couple. As her tenure with the family progresses, the workplace dynamic becomes fraught and the lines between the real and the imagined are blurred. Nanny is the feature debut of writer and director Nikyatu Jusu and is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.'

#BlackEphemera: Aretha Franklin Covering Dinah Washington Covering Hank Williams, Sr.

 Black Ephemera: The Crisis and the Challenge of the Musical Archive (2022)

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism: "To Elevate the Level of Struggle" -- Charisse Burden-Stelly & Jodi Dean on Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women's Political Writing

'Charisse Burden-Stelly returns to Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, and is joined by Jodi Dean to talk about their new book Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women’s Political Writing.  Burden-Stelly is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University. Along with Gerald Horne she co-authored W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life In American History. She is a co-editor of the book Reproducing Domination On the Caribbean and the Postcolonial State. She is also the author of the forthcoming book Black Scare / Red Scare. Dean teaches political, feminist, and media theory in Geneva, New York. She has written or edited thirteen books, including The Communist Horizon, Crowds and Party, and Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging. She is also a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The first collection of its kind, Organize, Fight, Winbrings together three decades of Black Communist women’s political writings. In doing so, it highlights the link between Communism and Black liberation. Likewise, it makes clear how Black women fundamentally shaped, and were shaped by, Communist praxis in the twentieth century.'

Marian Goodman Gallery Presents: Julie Mehretu in Conversation with Robin Coste Lewis

'In this episode of Marian Goodman Gallery Presents, Julie Mehretu speaks with poet Robin Coste Lewis about their collaboration at the Galerie Marian Goodman in Paris, currently on view through 14 May 2022. This presentation marks the intersection between art and poetry: a new series of medium-sized paintings and two large-scale prints by Mehretu are presented in tandem with an audio recording and installation by Lewis. The collaboration between Mehretu and Lewis also marks the culmination of a political and aesthetic friendship between the two, which grew over time and which meditates on the relationship between the history of time, mark-making, human migrations, desire and the abstract.'

How a Black Neighborhood Association in Pittsburgh Helped Shape Emergency Medicine

'Kevin Hazzard, author of American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics, tells the story Freedom House, a Black neighborhood nonprofit in Pittsburgh that, with the help of a pioneering physician, trained some of the nation's first paramedics.'