Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 38

Newly Unearthed Photographs of the Black Panthers

'What can newly unearthed photos of the Black Panthers from the 1960's tell us about the current state of our country? Jeffrey Henson Scales, photographer of the New Book, In A Time of Panthers: Early Photographs shares with The Takeaway how he found these photos he took almost 50 years ago and what they mean to him now.'

The Bigger Picture with Vincent Brown: Why Gordon Parks’ Most Famous Photo Almost Wasn’t Released

'During World War II, renowned photographer Gordon Parks created an image that was seen as a searing indictment of racial politics in the U.S. with Ella Watson, a cleaner who posed with her mop and broom in front of the American flag. Host Vincent Brown discusses Parks’ motivation for taking the photo, how he worked with Watson and his philosophy that the camera could be used “as a weapon”.'

Jazz Night in America: BADBADNOTGOOD Live at Brooklyn Steel

'BADBADNOTGOOD thrilled audience members at Brooklyn Steel with alternatively fiery and dreamy performances of songs from Talk Memory, the band's 2021 album. Known for a distinct blend of hip-hop and jazz, the Canadian instrumental band's recent offering added a swirl to those influences, incorporating splashes of psychedelia to its tight, sophisticated sound.'

The Limits with Jay Williams: Amanda Seales on Black Hollywood, Therapy, and Authenticity

'The Limits host Jay Williams speaks with comedian Amanda Seales. She might be best known for starring as Tiffany DuBois on Issa Rae's Insecure. But in 2019, she became the second Black woman to ever have her own comedy special on HBO, I Be Knowin'. She has her own podcast, Small Doses: Potent Truths for Everyday Use. And now she's back on the road, touring with her wildly popular variety game show, Smart, Funny, and Black. Seales always tells it like it is, and this episode was no different. She talked to Williams about the realities of Black Hollywood, the downsides of "doing it all," and how she keeps a healthy mind in difficult times.'

The Bigger Picture with Vincent Brown: How an FBI Poster Became a Black Power Symbol

'How did an FBI Wanted poster, intended to make a criminal out of activist and academic Angela Y. Davis, transform her into a symbol of Black Power and liberation? The Bigger Picture host Vincent Brown considers the impact of Davis’ image and the ways in which style can be a form of political activism. Professor Davis also shares her own complicated feelings about the image, which have evolved over the past 50 years.'

On Visual Satirist Ollie Harrington | Faculty Bookwatch with Richard J.Powell, Walter O. Evans and Jasmine Nichole Cobb

'A conversation between Dr. Richard J. Powell and the art collector Walter O. Evans about Ollie Harrington, the brilliant visual satirist who receives extensive attention in Powell's Going There: Black Visual Satire (Yale University Press, 2020). Amplifying Powell's extensive analysis of Harrington's long career and powerful work, Evans brings not only his deep understanding of Harrington's art but also his personal experience. As Harrington's supporter and advocate, Evans spent significant time with him in the US and in Berlin, where Harrington lived and worked for decades. The Faculty Bookwatch program promotes interdisciplinary conversations on major recent books by Duke humanities, interpretive social sciences, and arts faculty members. This conversation was moderated by Jasmine Nichole Cobb, Bacca Foundation Professor of African & African American Studies and of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University.'

Staying Alive: the History and Hope of "Black Horror"

'Horror is nearly as old as the film industry itself. But over the decades, cinema's monsters have evolved. At the beginning, there were supernatural terrors, but also human ones. Audiences saw Black characters, or sometimes white actors in blackface, often as a source of fear, violence, and evil. In an attempt to counteract those narratives, slowly a genre of Black horror was born⁠—a place to not only tell scary stories, but fight the demons of the real world.  On the Media producer Rebecca Clark-Callender dives into the history of Black horror to see what it is and who its for, featuring: Robin R. Means Coleman, Ida B. Wells and Ferdinand Barnett Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University and author of Horror Noire: A History of Black American Horror from the 1890s to Present; Tananarive Due, an author, screenwriter, and lecturer on Afrofuturism and Black Horror at University of California, Los Angeles; Rusty Cundieff, writer and director of Tales from the Hood (1995); and Betty Gabriel, actor widely known for her acclaimed performance as "Georgina" in Jordan Peele's blockbuster Get Out.'

How The White Wall Contributes to the Racial Wealth Gap

'New York Times finance reporter Emily Flitter joins The Takeaway to talk about her new book, The White Wall: How Big Finance Bankrupts Black America, which includes a deeply reported look into systemic racism within the American financial industry and the practices keeping the racial wealth gap in place. "She also gives a voice to victims, from single mothers to professional athletes to employees themselves: people who were scammed, lied to, and defrauded by the systems they trusted with their money, and silenced when they attempted to speak out and seek reform."

Revisiting San Juan Hill, the Neighborhood Destroyed to Make Way for Lincoln Center

'In New York City, the area dominated by Lincoln Center was formerly home to Black and Puerto Rican communities. Etienne Charles' new musical work addresses that difficult past.'

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism: 'Scenes of Subjection' at 25, and the Survival Programs of Black Anarchism with Saidiya Hartman

'Saidiya Hartman joins Millennials Are Killing Capitalism to discuss the new 25th anniversary edition of her groundbreaking and influential work Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America. This 25th anniversary edition features a new preface by the author, a foreword by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an afterword by Marisa J. Fuentes and Sarah Haley, notations with Cameron Rowland, and compositions by Torkwase Dyson. Hartman shares some clarifications on where the pessimism in Scenes lies. She also offers scathing critiques of the limits of emancipation, of the structure of citizenship, and of the project of inclusion within US empire and racial capitalism.'