Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 270

The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song (Extended Trailer)

'The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song will explore the 400-year-old story of the black church in America, the changing nature of worship spaces, and the men and women who shepherded them from the pulpit, the choir loft, and church pews. The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song  is a production of McGee Media, Inkwell Films and WETA Washington, DC. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Dyllan McGee are executive producers.'

David Dinkins: Leading New York Is The 'Greatest Job There Is'

'Winning the office in 1989, David Dinkins (1927-2020) earned the glare of national attention not only as the mayor of one of the country's most important cities, but also as that city's first black mayor. It was a difficult time for the New York City. Race relations were fractured, the economy was struggling, and many neighborhoods were gripped by a crack epidemic. In a conversation with NPR's Michel Martin, Dinkins chronicles that period, and his political journey, in the book A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic.'

Kwame Alexander Offers New Poems On Race And Hope As 'Psalms And Balms' For The Soul

 

'With his new book of poetry about race in America, Morning Edition poet-in-residence Kwame Alexander hopes to "shine a little light for the world." In the book, Light For The World To See: A Thousand Words On Race And Hope, Alexander writes three poems on three events: the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Colin Kaepernick's kneeling protests before NFL games, and the election of Barack Obama as president.' --
Morning Edition

Inside the Libertarian Plot to Tear Down Public Education

'Historian Jack Schneider and journalist Jennifer Berkshire explore the right's systematic, decades-long attack on public schools - through the defunding of districts and demoralizing students, educators and parents - in partnership with a neoliberal Democratic Party willing to sell out children and workers for the same libertarian elites. Jack and Jennifer are authors of the book A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School from The New Press.' -- This is Hell!

This is Hell! · Inside the libertarian plot to tear down public education.

Cite Black Women: Black Feminist Physics – A Conversation with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

'In this episode Cite Black Women podcast host Christen Smith sits down with theoretical physicist and feminist theorist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein to discuss Black feminist physics, the intersections between the matrix of violence against Black women and science, her radical Black feminist upbringing and her forthcoming book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, & Dreams Deferred (March 2021, Bold Type Books). Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Core Faculty Member in Women’s Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She is also a columnist for New Scientist and Physics World. Her research in theoretical physics focuses on cosmology, neutron stars, and dark matter. Using ideas from both physics and astronomy, she responds to deep questions about how everything in the universe got to the be the way it is.' -- Cite Black Women

Cite Black Women · S2E10 Black Feminist Physics: A Conversation with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

"What They Were Fighting For, We're Still Fighting For Today": Letitia Wright and Steve McQueen on Bringing 'Small Axe' to the Screen

'Director Steve McQueen is best known for his Best Picture-winning film, 12 Years a Slave, and his 2018 crime drama, Widows. But for his latest project, the British filmmaker decided to return home to direct not just one but five movies that make up the anthology series, Small Axe. Together, the films tell mostly true stories of Black British life from the 1960s to the 1980s. The first part in the series, “Mangrove,”  focuses on an undertold part of British history from the late 60s. McQueen’s film centers around the trial of a group called the Mangrove Nine, who were arrested for protesting how law enforcement officials were targeting a West London Caribbean restaurant called the Mangrove. All nine were ultimately acquitted of the most serious charges, and the trial included one of the first judicial acknowledgments of racism within the British police force. To learn more about the story and why McQueen chose to bring it to the screen, The Takeaway spoke with the director alongside actress Letitia Wright, one of the stars of “Mangrove”.' -- The Takeaway

'Waste' Activist Catherine Coleman Flowers Digs Into The Sanitation Crisis Affecting The Rural Poor

Michael Carson/The New Press

'Hookworm is an intestinal parasite often associated with poor sewage treatment and the developing world. It was long thought to have been eradicated from the United States — until a 2017 study revealed otherwise. According to the study, more than one in three people in Alabama's Lowndes County tested positive for hookworm infection. Hookworm spreads when people walk or play in soil contaminated with feces and the larvae of the worms penetrate their skin. "This is not something that we test for in the U.S. because people don't anticipate that we have it," says activist and author Catherine Coleman Flowers. It was Flowers' activism that spurred scientists to conduct the hookworm study. For 20 years, she's worked with advocacy organizations, philanthropists, business leaders and elected officials to shed light on the gaps in access to basic sanitation in rural America.' -- Fresh Air

Minneapolis Group Is Growing Food To Protect Members From Effects Of Racism, Disease

'Access to fresh food in North Minneapolis has been a struggle for decades. Members of Appetite for Change are growing food to protect themselves from the health effects of both racism and the pandemic.' -- All Things Considered

Laughing to Keep From Dying Event: Danielle Fuentes Morgan in conversation with W. Kamau Bell

'Danielle Fuentes Morgan and W. Kamau Bell are in conversation in support of Professor Morgan's book Laughing to Keep From Dying: African American Satire in the Twenty-First Century. In the book Morgan argues that by subverting comedy's rules and expectations, African American satire promotes social justice by connecting laughter with ethical beliefs in a revolutionary way.  Dr. Morgan is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California who specializes in African American literature and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.  Bell is a stand-up comedian and the host and executive producer of the Emmy Award winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell.'

James Baldwin’s Turkish Decade Revisited with Dr. Magdalena Zaborowska

'Professor Magdalena Zaborowska  discusses aspects of James Baldwin’s life in Istanbul by revisiting her Duke University Press book, James Baldwin’s Turkish Decade (2009). She outlines phases in Baldwin’s life that he chose based on homophobia and racism in the United States. Therefore, an alternative family of friends was formed through exploring exile in Turkey. Baldwin primarily lived in a small room and wrote exhaustively to finish his third novel – Another Country.' -- John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University