Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 350

Revisiting Candyman: Chicago, Fear, and Public Housing

'Since its release in 1992, Candyman has haunted the public imagination. The film holds particular resonance with Chicagoans: After all, it’s set in the city’s Cabrini-Green Homes, and drew inspiration from a real-life Chicago crime. Now, with a 2020 reboot from Jordan Peele on the horizon, CHF invites you to revisit the horror classic with an eye towards what the film can tell us about fear, race, and public housing in Chicago. Panel discussion features Lisa Yun Lee, executive director of the National Public Housing Museum, and Michael Orange, director of the MATATU performative think tank, who assisted in the Cabrini-Green redevelopment project.' -- Chicago Humanities Festival  

Author Tomi Adeyemi On Her New YA Novel 'Children of Virtue and Vengeance'

'After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could've imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too. Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the stunning sequel to Tomi Adeyemi's New York Times bestselling debut, Children of Blood and Bone, the first title in her Legacy of Orïsha trilogy.' -- BUILD Series

Kings and Slaves: Diplomacy, Sovereignty, and Black Subjectivity in the Early Modern World

'Noted historian of the African Diaspora, Herman Bennett, author of African Kings and Black Slaves: Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic​ (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) delivered an evening lecture in honor of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the John Carter Brown Library's Associates.' -- Brown University 

Urban Migration is Surging. Can Smart Cities Meet the Challenge?

'Globally we are adding about 3 million people to urban areas each week. Over the course of the year, this number can be equated to roughly 50 Chicagos. This influx of people could make everyday life in urban areas more chaotic than ever. We will need a new playbook for how cities can better handle this massive influx of people. With such population surges, we can use citizen-centric data—computational power—to make the infrastructure of cities run smoother and more efficiently.' -- Big Think 

"These women were defining another way of looking at beauty" -- Mickalene Thomas Talks Pam Grier, Naomi Sims and the Black Women Who Inspired Her

'It’s a busy time for Mickalene Thomas. The prolific artist has just opened solo shows at New Orleans’s Contemporary Art Center and Baltimore Museum of Art; she also turned Miami Beach’s The Bass museum into an immersive art installation-cum-performance stage inspired by her mother’s apartment in the 1970s. Yet, despite her intense production schedule, Thomas found a moment to welcome Art Basel to her Brooklyn studio. While working on a host of spectacular collages, she talked about celebrating the women who inspired her: from actress Pam Grier and model Naomi Sims to everyday heroines like the beauty queens in the iconic African American magazine Jet. Collectively, they epitomized the Black is Beautiful movement – and ushered in a new era. ‘These women were defining another way of looking at beauty,’ Thomas says in this latest episode of Art Basel’s ‘Meet the Artists’ video series. ‘It’s not just the surface, it’s also the actions.’

The Activist: Patrisse Cullors Talks 'Black Lives Matter' and 'Reform L.A. Jails'

'What will it take to provide great opportunity for all? Patrisse Cullors, Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network and Founder and Chairperson of Reform L.A. Jails, joined The Atlantic’s Todd Purdum to discuss her own path to becoming an activist, her current work, and how the Black Lives Matter movement was formed.' -- AtlanticLIVE

How Abstract Expressionism Changed American Art

'In post World War II New York City, a new group of artists including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, & Clyfford Still started a movement known as Abstract Expressionism and took the art world by storm.' -- American Masters PBS

The Largest Slave Rebellion Was Hidden From U.S. History

'The largest slave revolt in U.S. history, The 1811 German Coast Uprising, happened outside New Orleans and you’ve probably never learned about it. Artist Dread Scott recently curated a historical reenactment of the revolt.' -- AJ+

Dick Gregory and the History of Black Comedy: A Conversation with Author and Literary Critic Mel Watkins

Mel Watkins, the author of, On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy and Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry, joins Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal in conversation at the North Star Church of the Arts.

Michael Eric Dyson's Argues in 'Jay-Z: Made in America' for the Value of Hip-Hop as Serious Study

'NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Michael Eric Dyson about his book which examines hip-hop's Jay-Z as a cultural icon. The book is called: JAY-Z: Made in America.' --
Morning Edition