Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 395

THE BRAVE S1 • E2: Turning Plastic Trash Into Cash in Haiti

'Soda and soap bottles don’t belong in the sea, but it’s too often where they end up. In fact, experts estimate that an entire garbage truck worth of plastic hits our oceans every minute—the vast majority of it coming from developing nations like Haiti. To alleviate the problem, the Plastic Bank pays people to collect plastic waste that can be recycled and reused. Richardson Gustave oversees the organization’s daily operations around his home city of Port-au-Prince, coordinating transportation and inspection, and ensuring that collectors have the equipment needed to complete this vital task.' -- Great Big Story 

50 Years of the Dance Theatre of Harlem

'Virginia Johnson joins All Of It to talk about the 50th anniversary of the Dance Theatre of Harlem.'
         
         

Mogul in the Making: A Conversation with Marsai Martin

'Fourteen-year-old actress Marsai Martin, the star of the TV series Black-ish, is also one of the youngest executive producers in motion picture history. Her company, Genius Productions, is behind the new comedy Little, a sort of reversal of the Tom Hanks classic Big, in which an overbearing professional woman is transformed into an adolescent – an example of Martin proving that you can do anything at any age. Nancy Giles chatted with the young mogul, whose parents are trying to make sure she doesn't grow up too quickly.'  -- CBS Sunday Morning 

Stanley Nelson on the Challenges of Making ‘Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool’

'Director Stanley Nelson dropped by TheWrap’s studios at Sundance to talk about the challenges of making a two-hour documentary about legendary musician Miles Davis.' -- TheWrap

Rashid Johnson & Sanaa Lathan on Cultural Relevance of 'Native Son'

'Director Rashid Johnson and actress Sanaa Lathan spoke to EBONY about making the film Native Son for HBO, and the importance of modernizing Richard Wright’s classic and complicated novel: “We wanted to stay true to as much of the story as we could while being aware of telling [it] in a contemporary time and with an awareness of some of the sensitivities and some of the criticisms of the story,”-- EBONY Magazine

Author Kwame Alexander Wants to Help Young People Imagine a Better World

'Author Kwame Alexander  doesn’t talk down to kids. Instead, he finds new ways to engage them, often through poetry. His newest work, The Undefeated , is a picture book with illustrations by artist Kadir Nelson. It features a poem that Alexander first started writing over ten years ago, inspired by the birth of his second daughter and the presidency of Barack Obama.' -- The Takeaway

“Black Rome”: The Brazilian State Where African-Americans Are Finding Their Roots

'Renee Adolphe was living the "American Dream." She had a successful career, owned a home and two cars. Yet, she gave it all up to live in an impoverished community in the heart of Brazil. It may seem like an extraordinary story, but Renee is just one of many ex-pat Americans in South America, searching for her roots. Correspondent Leone Lakhani takes us inside the Brazilian state of Bahia, also known as “Black Rome".' -- Matter of Fact

Legendary Contralto Marian Anderson's New York Roots

'Eighty years ago, the legendary contralto Marian Anderson performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The April 9, 1939, concert was an iconic moment: Anderson, a black woman, had been invited to sing there by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her from performing at Constitution Hall. That day, she sang in front of the statue of the Great Emancipator for an integrated audience of 75,000—a far larger crowd than could have fit into DAR's venue. Lesser known is how, by that point in her career, she had already been playing in front of integrated audiences for years. Fifteen years earlier, in April 1924, Anderson took the stage at Town Hall in Manhattan's Midtown for one of her first major concerts outside of her native Philadelphia. At the time, it was one of the few large venues she could perform in as a black woman.' -- WNYC News
         
       

For Eritrean Americans, Nipsey Hussle’s death is like losing a family member

'The death of rapper Nipsey Hussle has sparked vigils in the Eritrean diaspora across the US and the world. For many, Hussle was more than just an artist, he was known for his investment in the community and bringing Eritrea into the limelight.' -- PRI's The World
         
        

Brooklyn's Loss is LA's Gain: Morgan Parker and Tommy Pico

'Co-hosts Eric Newman and Kate Wolf talk with poets Morgan Parker and Tommy Pico about their respective new works, Magical Negro and Junk. Parker and Pico discuss how they use poetry to explore the experiences of oppressed communities, shuttling between the sublimity and nuance of everyday experiences and the larger cultural and political questions that saturate bodies, spaces and relations. They also talk about how their aesthetic practice has changed as they have moved into writing novels and screenplays.' -- LA Review of Books