Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 31

Cimafunk on his Afro-Cuban Roots, Funk Influence, and Band Built on Connection

'One of the most significant things we learn about the musician Cimafunk is his recognition and allegiance to his Afro-Cuban culture. During our conversation he explains the origins of his stage name and how it reflects the history of the transatlantic slave trade. NPR also discusses how two strands of the African diaspora are joined every time he takes the stage. The music is exhilarating and after listening to this conversation maybe you’ll understand why it is.'

The Rise and Success of the First Black Female Billionaire Sheila Johnson

'Business mogul Sheila Johnson was recently named CEO of the Year by The Washington Business Journal.  Johnson was most recognized as the co-founder of BET and the first female African-American billionaire. But today she is known as a pioneer across all industries. CBS News' Michelle Miller has more.'

A Proud Group of Black Californians Keep Traditions of the Old West and Cowboy Culture Alive

'In Oakdale, Calif., many groups of Black horse riders bring their steeds and families, celebrate the traditions of the Old West, and explore their roots with American cowboy life.'

Curriculum Culture Wars: Kimberlé Crenshaw and Randall Kennedy on How to Teach About Race | The Atlantic Festival

'The Atlantic’s Adam Harris sits with Kimberlé Crenshaw of the African American Policy Forum and Professor Randall Kennedy of Harvard Law School to unpack the complex issue of teaching race and racism. This discussion is part of an Atlantic Festival session examining the curriculum culture wars.'

NowThis News: What Tackling Food Insecurity Really Looks Like

'"Every single week we’re out there … and that is how you stabilize the social determinants of health" — Combating food insecurity is a year-round task and that’s why Dion’s Chicago Dream delivers fresh produce every week to those who need it.'

Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo: Earth & Iron: Archival Visions of Land and Struggle

'Contemporary Artist Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo's Earth & Iron: Archival Visions of Land and Struggle brings together past and present notions of revolution, liberation, and land sovereignty. With painted and collaged images based on early twentieth-century colonial photography taken in West Africa and the Caribbean, Adeyemo reaches into the past to envision alternative futures. Adeyemo understands the act of painting, cutting, and pasting as an opportunity to restructure Black and Indigenous relationships to land and labor.  Restoring ancestral practices through archival visions is, in the artist’s words, “an exercise in Black fugitivity, tenderness, and collectivity” and a meditation on what once was and what could be.' -- BRIC TV

Why Now? With Claire Potter (E2):

'In Episode 2 of “Why Now?”with Claire Potter,  Kerri Greenidge talks to us about her new book, The Grimkés: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (Liveright, 2022.) Greenidge is Mellon Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University and an expert in abolitionism and 19th-century African-American history. She is also the author of the prize-winning biography Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter (W.W. Norton, 2019.) '

Political_Junkie · Why Now? Episode 2: The First Family of Abolition

Beverly McIver: A Career in the Arts

'A retrospective celebrating the work of Duke art professor Beverly McIver comes to the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem in early December 2022. This retrospective shines light on McIver’s three decades of often-personal portraits and other paintings. The Greensboro native has taught at Duke University since 2014.'

Could Lab Cultivated Meat be the Future of Our Meat Alternatives?

 'According to the USDA, the average American consumes around 250 pounds of meat every year.  Producing the meat for our meals has a meaningful effect on our planet. Meat productions uses almost a third of the world’s agricultural water supply, and it is a significant contributor to global CO-2 and methane emissions. While plant-based meats have been a common alternative, food scientists have been experimenting with new ways to create sustainable meat substitutes. The FDA just greenlit a California startup, UPSIDE Foods’ lab-cultivated meat product, which the company says is a safe alternative that can reduce water consumption, CO2 emissions, and antibiotic resistance issues in conventional meat production. The Takeaway talked to WIRED’s climate and food reporter Matt Reynolds about the environmental, ethical, and financial impacts that lab-cultivated meat can have on the factory farming industry.'

 

Soundcheck: Gentle Psychedelic Soul of Crooner Nick Hakim

'New York singer/songwriter Nick Hakim has been producing records of gently psychedelic soul here for almost a decade.  Occasionally, he drops the gentle psychedelia in favor of something more obviously trippy – it happens several times on his newest album, Cometa. (The title is Spanish for “kite,” although the American-born Hakim sings in English.) He is one of those singers whose voice rarely seems to rise above a whisper – and though he’s probably sick of being compared to the ill-starred but still-mythic English folkie Nick Drake, Hakim’s songs can sound a little like Nick Drake fronting a psychedelic soul band from the early 70s. Nick Hakim and his band perform these songs in-studio.'