Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 415

To the Needy Master: On Black Public Thought Under White Supremacy

'Writer Mychal Denzel Smith explores the burden of presenting the Black experience to a White audience - from the demands of media gatekeepers to constantly explain and justify the basic humanity of Black people, to the active passivity of a White society uninterested in examining the historical or present consequences of their status atop American society. Smith wrote the article "The Gatekeepers: On the Burden of the Black Public Intellectual" for Harper's.-- This is Hell! 

Janelle Monáe On Her 'Dirty,' World-Dominating Year

'Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer can be found on just about every list of the best albums of 2018 — and it topped NPR's. The songwriter, actress and self-styled media exec says it could only have happened now.' -- All Things Considered

Ryan Coogler on Film School: "What You Don't Know, You're Afraid Of"

'Ryan Coogler joins Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about 'Black Panther,' his experience with film school, and more.'

Bethann Hardison On Model Diversity And The Ever-Changing Face Of Fashion

'Bethann Hardison has had just about every job in the New York fashion industry, from working wholesale and retail in New York's garment district, to modeling, to owning her own model management company. Along the way she's become a kind of "Mother of Models" to big names in the industry, such as Naomi Campbell and Tyson Beckford. She's been an advocate and a vocal activist focused on bringing more diverse faces to catwalks, billboards and magazine covers. Hardison joins Stretch & Bob for an in-depth conversation about her long career in this "fickle" industry, her experience growing up in 1950s Brooklyn and where she hopes the industry goes in the future.' -- What's Good with Stretch & Bobbito

Daniel José Older: 'Shadowhouse Fall' and Urban Fantasy Fiction

'Sierra Santiago and her friends live in a magical version of Brooklyn, where shadowshapers like Sierra have discovered a way to use art to connect with ancestral spirits. In Shadowhouse Fall, the second book in his Shadowshaper Cypher series, Daniel José Older has created characters who interact with magical forces—including power-hungry supernatural villains—while simultaneously battling real-life evils like bigotry and police abuse. Join Older  in conversation with Mikki Kendall as he discusses how he maintains the delicate balance between these two equally menacing worlds, and why this high-stakes combination seems to be attracting not only Young Adult audiences, but also a steady stream of awards and starred reviews.' -- Chicago Humanities Festival

Singer-Rapper-Activist Tunde Olaniran Takes Pursuit Of Boldness Beyond Flint

'Singer, rapper, activist Tunde Olaniran (@tundeolaniran) is bringing his Flint, Michigan, sound to the national stage. a native of Flint, Michigan,  Olaniran's new album Stranger was released in October; with Meghna Chakrabarti'-- On Point

Hollywood's Obsession with Women of Color as "the Help"

'Yalitza Aparicio will grace the cover of Vogue Mexico’s January issue. The cover, which is already making the rounds on social media, is stunning, shot in Mexico City, by Mexican photographers. Roma is Aparicio’s first film. But it’s not the first time a woman of color has broken through in the film industry by playing a maid.   On the day she accepted her Oscar, Hattie McDaniel had to get special permission to enter into the segregated venue where the ceremony was held in Los Angeles. She was then forced to sit at a small table in the back of the room, while her white co-stars sat up front at the Gone With The Wind table. So nearly 80 years later, with the release of yet another film starring a woman of color as a maid, the question arises: has the film industry fully embraced women of color as more than just “the help”? Soraya McDonald, Culture Critic for ESPN’s The Undefeated joins us to discuss.' -- The Takeaway

Rinku Sen: Racial Justice, Feminism, and Economic Empowerment

'Rinku Sen is a writer and a political strategist. She is currently Senior Strategist at Race Forward , having formerly served as Executive Director and as Publisher of their award-winning news site Colorlines . She is also a James O. Gibson Innovation Fellow at PolicyLink . Under Sen’s leadership, Race Forward has generated some of the most impactful racial justice successes of recent years, including Drop the I-Word , a campaign for media outlets to stop referring to immigrants as “illegal,” resulting in the Associated Press, USA Today, LA Times, and many more outlets changing their practice. Her books Stir it Up and The Accidental American theorize a model of community organizing that integrates a political analysis of race, gender, class, poverty, sexuality, and other systems. She writes and curates the news at rinkusen.com .' -- LIFT Economy

#BackChannel: Black Women In The Penal System, Michelle Obama’s Memoir & Lauryn Hill's Impact

On this episode of #BackChannel hosted by WUNC’s Frank Stasio regular contributors Natalie Bullock Brown and Mark Anthony Neal discuss the case of Cyntoia Brown, a Tennessee woman serving a life sentence for killing a sex-trafficker in self-defense when she was a minor. They also talk about the controversy surrounding Prada’s monkey figurines that many have compared to racist caricatures of African-Americans. Brown and Neal review Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming, which is among the fastest selling nonfiction books in history, and talk about the new HBO documentary Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland. And in the last segment Brown and Neal are joined by Joan Morgan, author of She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. 

ComplexCon(versations): How "Belly" Changed Hip-Hop & Hollywood

'Hype Williams changed the way the world viewed rap and rappers when he made his feature-film debut 20 years ago with “Belly.” Williams, along with his film's stars Nas and T-Boz, break down the movie’s enduring legacy.' -- Complex