Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 458

Dawn-Lyen Gardner Talks Launch of Season Three of 'Queen Sugar'

'Dawn-Lyen Gardner discusses her leading role in the Oprah Winfrey Network show, Queen Sugar. The show tells the story of one family in Louisiana and their struggle to keep their sugar cane farm afloat in the wake of a family tragedy. Gardner plays Charley Bordelon West, the savvy wife of an NBA star who returns to Louisiana from her glamorous life in Los Angeles. This segment is guest hosted by Rebecca Carroll.' -- Midday on WNYC
         
        

The Gospel According to André: A Conversation with André Leon Talley

'An intimate evening with André Leon Talley, legendary fashion editor, author and curator, in conversation with Vanessa Friedman, chief fashion critic of The New York Times. A contributing editor of Vogue and a resident fixture in the world of fashion, Talley shares stories of his journey from growing up in the segregated Jim Crow South to becoming one of the most influential tastemakers of our time, which is documented in the film, The Gospel According to André.

Review: Sons of Kemet --Your Queen is a Reptile

Sons of Kemet --Your Queen is a Reptile Review by Andre Spencer Anderson-Thompson | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
How many of you know the legacy of Anna Julia Cooper? How about Yaa Asantewaa? In a time, where colonialism, imperialism, and racism still haunt our world the British jazz group, Sons of Kemet, revamp jazz with a social consciousness and a sound that blends drums, saxophone, tuba, and spoken word into a sonic acuteness of awareness and aspiration.
The name of the band, Sons of Kemet, reveals that social consciousness, Kemet being the ancient name of Egypt before colonization. Furthermore, the song titles on their latest release, Your Queen is a Reptile (2018) exposes both historical recognition and a tribute to otherwise invisible people.
Track one is entitled, ´My Queen is Ada Eastman,´ who is the bandleader, Shabaka Hutchings great grandmother. Other titles include: ´My Queen is Harriet Tubman,´ ‘My Queen is Anna Julia Cooper,’ ‘My Queen is Angela Davis,’ ‘My Queen is Yaa Asantewaa’ to name a few. A recent Guardian article entitled, “The British jazz explosion: meet the musicians rewriting the rulebook,” sheds light on a cast of musicians that are breaking barriers in music and deserve attention and credit. Jazz, as a genre, feels dated and old. However, in that article we see the evolution and the collaboration of the music that is becoming mainstream.
In addition Sons of Kemet exposes the political engagement and forward thinking the music has always had. Through great creative giants like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, this musical form has always been breaking barriers. Sons of Kemet continues that legacy in a time where millennials hashtag, ‘woke,’ of ‘beingwoke,’ and government, policies, and power structures still dehumanize, contaminate, and affect the lives of the least of these.
In a interview on BBC 6, legendary radio broadcaster and DJ, Gilles Peterson, talks to Hutchings about the new album. Echoing sentiments from renowned African American author Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man), who defines “the blues” as, “an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness” Hutchings explains to Peterson that his music, which is considered as jazz, is “expressive music, music that has an undermining of the African American tradition, but it is music that reflects how we interact with our surroundings musically.”
Sons of Kemet consists of the Hutchings, sax and clarinet, Tom Skinner and Seb Rochford, drums, and Theon Cross, tuba. In the same interview, Hutchings describes the inspiration of the album title, My Queen is a Reptile, comes from a “Sun Ra quote that says when communities are oppressed the first thing they loose is the ability to envision their own mythological structures, I took that further and said if you want to achieve mental liberation or mental decolonization you have to image your own mythological structures, your own elements of reality, what are the stories you tell yourself…”
This dynamic, intelligent, and musically gifted group definitely provides “new stories.” In the opening track, “My Queen is Ada Eastman,” the instrumentation instantaneously awakens you, opens your ears, and provokes your mind. Then the spoken word artist articulately and profoundly commends, “Still here still grinding /Hustling and striving / In these dark times these dark / Minds I'm a diamond / Big Ben is still chiming / They don't wanna see us smiling / They wanna keep us grimy / But my politics still lively…” The song’s perfect harmonic instrumentation is already pleasing to hear, but the lyrics add the political awareness that shows that their music is fighting against and exposing the ugly truths of colonialism, imperialism, and racism as well as telling their own stories, their own reality.
Hutchings proclaims to Gilles Peterson that his intentional song titles are named in honor of women, which are against ‘patriarchy.’ In addition, he also considers and regards ‘hereditary privilege' as a source of inspiration because who is to say “my queen is superior to yours…” In this time, in the era of Donald Trump and Theresa May, Sons of Kemet and their latest album, My Queen is a Reptile is essential. If anything it will allow you to be interested in learning about Mamie Phipps Clark, Harriet Tubman, Anna Julia Cooper, Angela Davis, Nanny of the Maroons, Yaa Asantewaa, Albertina Sisulu, and Doreen Lawrence.
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Andre Anderson-Thompson was raised in Sacramento, California. He attended Morehouse College where he received a Bachelor’s degree in English. He continued his education at the University of Chicago to receive a Master in Arts in Teaching and began his teaching career in Chicago. He continues as an international educator, first in Tanzania and he currently resides and teaches in Bogota, Colombia.

The Truth About the Cash Bail Industry narrated by John Legend

Lets FREE AMERICA and Color of Change partner to #EndMoneyBail

Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration: A Conversation with Judith Weisenfeld

'In this episode, AAS 21 Podcast, host Professor Eddie Glaude and Professor Judith Weisenfeld discuss the development of ‘religio–racial’ identity during the Great Migration. Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Her latest book, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration is a historiography of twentieth-century black religious groups, including the Moorish Science Temple, the Nation of Islam, Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement, and Ethiopian Hebrews. The two discuss the racial claims of these groups, the impact they had on the development of African American identity, and their interactions with government entities, other religious groups, and African American communities.  Weisenfeld also sheds light on her research process, which pulls from marriage and divorce certificates, immigration and naturalization records, and FBI files in order to create a multifaceted view of the practitioners.'

KRS-One: In Conversation at Moogfest with Mark Anthony Neal (Part One)

'KRS-One with Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal, discussing current writing process -- including study of the "n-word" and its modifications/origins/implications -- and reads of note (Tali Sharot, The Influential Mind) and the influence of Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael) at Moogfest 2018 in Durham, NC.' -- RECOUNT magazine

TimesTalks Art + Design Festival: David Adjaye and Thelma Golden in Conversation

'A rare conversation with Sir David Adjaye OBE, one of the leading architects of his generation, and the influential curator and authority on contemporary art Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. Adjaye won renown for his design for the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in Washington D.C. in 2016 and was named “Cultural Event of the Year” by The New York Times. He is currently at work on a new home for the Studio Museum in Harlem, which under Golden’s leadership has confirmed its reputation as the world’s leading institution devoted to contemporary art by artists of African descent. The conversation was moderated by New York Times culture reporter Robin Pogrebin.'

Left of Black S8:E23: Black Women and the Pursuit of Happiness

Left of Black S8:E23: Black Women and the Pursuit of Happiness
Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal is joined by Bianca Williams, author of The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism (Duke University Press, 2018), which noted anthropologist A. Lynn Bolles describes as a “novel and innovative ethnography” that “pushes the boundaries of what anthropology can be considered in its broadest definition.” Williams, who is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, returned to Duke University, where she earned a Ph.D. in 2009, as part of the Symposium,  Black Women, Black Studies and Knowledge Production. In her book Professor Williams traces the experiences of African American women as they travel to Jamaica, where they address the perils and disappointments of American racism by looking for intimacy, happiness, and a connection to their racial identities.

Can’t Eat A Medal: Black Women Athletes Under Jim Crow

'The Edge of Sports host Dave Zirin talks with Penn State Professor Amira Rose Davis about her research on one of the most hidden aspects of sports history, black women before Title IX.  Davis is also co-host of the Burn It All Down feminist sports podcast.'

'My Fifth Career': Bettye LaVette Reinvents Bob Dylan For Herself

'There's been no shortage of musicians who've covered Bob Dylan songs over the years. On Things Have Changed, however, soul powerhouse Bettye LaVette reinvents the timeless music and lyrics of the folk singer into an intimate career retrospective all her own. LaVette talked to NPR's Don Gonyea  about her changing relationship with Dylan's music and reflects on a lifetime of defying an industry that has tried to box her in.'