Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 367

Coming in 2020: Day's End, David Hammons

'Featuring interviews with Darren Walker (President, Ford Foundation), Lorna Simpson (Artist), Alex Fialho (Programs Director, Visual AIDS), Scott Rothkopf (Deputy Director for Programs and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator), Adam D. Weinberg (Alice Pratt Brown Director), and Guy Nordenson (Structural Engineer)'-- Whitney Museum of American Art

S2. EP 10 | Professional Black Girl SHANTRELLE P. LEWIS

'Shantrelle P. Lewis. Curator. Filmmaker. Author. Social Entrepreneur. Co-Founder of Shoppe Black. Lukumi Priest of Sango. Professional Black Girl.' 

Tiny Desk Concert: Mumu Fresh Feat. Black Thought & DJ Dummy

'Mumu Fresh sings that the teacher arrives when the student is ready. During a recent trip to the Tiny Desk, she came bearing life lessons from the depths of her soul. A regal combination of black power and Native American pride, Mumu Fresh — also known by her birth name Maimouna Youssef — is an abundantly gifted singer and emcee who prances between genres and styles. The Baltimore native fuses her rich multi-octave range and ferocious rap delivery with spiritually-inclined lyrics so potent and mindful they precipitated a wellspring of emotion throughout the room.' -- NPR Music

'The Knowledge Gap'

'Education journalist Natalie Wexler joins All Of It to discuss her book,  The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System--and How to Fix It.'            
        

The Calm Spark of South African Jazz Master Abdullah Ibrahim Persists

'The South African pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim (aka "Dollar Brand") has had a notable career, helped early on by Duke Ellington, and  acknowledged later by Nelson Mandela, who called Ibrahim “our Mozart.” In 2019, Abdullah Ibrahim became a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and he’s recently released a new album, The Balance, (which is his 70th or 71st LP, and that's not including his work as a sideman, which might push the total album credits to over 100!) It's full of "lush horn lines, lilting melodies, and uplifting chord progressions, characteristic of Abdullah's own particular brand of Township Jazz." -- Soundcheck

Cite Black Women S1:E9: Centering and Celebrating Black Women in Sociology

'This episode of Cite Black Women features the recorded audio from the panel Cite Black Women: Centering and Celebrating Black Women in Sociology, that took place at the American Sociological Association Meeting in 2019: What started out as a small idea on twitter turned out to be a mini-movement in Philadelphia. Panelists include Dr. Whitney N L Pirtle, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced; Dr. Christen Smith, founder of Cite Black Women. and Associate Profesor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin;  Dr. Crystal Marie Fleming, Associate Professor of Sociology, Africana Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Stony Brook University;  Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom is digital sociologist, professor, writer and columnist. She is an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a faculty associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society; Dr. Zakiya Luna is Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of California Santa Bárbara.' 

Dick Gregory: Callus on My Soul (dir. Bill Duke)

'A brief documentary glimpse into the extraordinary life and mind of living comedy legend, passionate social activist, world famous nutritionist, and American pioneer, Dick Gregory. Told through an assortment of interviews and found footage.' 

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool | Q&A w/ Stanley Nelson & Quincy Troupe

'Q&A footage from the New York opening weekend of the documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. Stanley Nelson is the film's award-winning director. Quincy Troupe is the co-author of Miles' autobiography.' -- reelblack

21st Century Globalized Capitalism in Microcosm: American Factory

'LARB's Medaya Ocher talks with Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert about their new film American Factory which documents the recent history of an American factory in Dayton, OH that was closed last decade and re-opened this decade under Chinese ownership and management. The tale is rife with paradoxes: the communists are the capitalists; and the workers from the land of Reagan and Trump channel socialist solidarity as they move to form a union against the wishes of the folks from the People's Republic. The conversation fills in the backstory; and, along the way, reveals what makes this highly political documentary so compelling - the filmmakers' drive to capture the humanity of all the players in the drama. -- LA Review of Books 

The Problem with Free Speech in an Unfree World

'Writer P.E. Moskowitz examines the limits of the First Amendment in American society - as a concept rooted in an equality that will never exist in a capitalist society, and as a cultural battleground almost exclusively fought on the right's terms - for the right's gains. Moskowitz is author of The Case Against Free Speech: The First Amendment, Fascism, and the Future of Dissent from Bold Type Books.' -- This is Hell!