Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 471

Lessons in Love from Holland-Dozier-Holland

'Vinson Cunningham wrote in The New Yorker that, “with all due respect to Smokey Robinson, the Motown Sound as we know it was created by Holland-Dozier-Holland.” Brian Holland, Eddie Holland, and Lamont Dozier wrote “Heat Wave,” “Baby Love,” “How Sweet It Is,” and many other hits. Cunningham says that those classics reflect a uniquely tragic view of love: it’s guaranteed to go bad before it even starts.' -- New Yorker Radio 

Left of Black S8:E14: Melissa Harris Perry and Brittney Cooper

Left of Black S8:E14:  Melissa Harris Perry and Brittney Cooper
On location in Winston-Salem, NC at Wake Forest University Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal is joined by Melissa Harris-Perry, the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University and scholar and author Brittney Cooper (@ProfessorCrunk), author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower.
Professor Harris-Perry is the author of the award-winning Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, and Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. She is the founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest University. Professor Cooper is Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University.  She is also the author of Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women (University of Illinois Press), and a co-editor of The Crunk Feminist Collection (The Feminist Press 2017)

Jazz Night in America: Christian Scott Performs Songs From The Centennial Trilogy

'Spend enough time in New Orleans and you come to understand it as a place for every kind of convergence. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah understands this to his core: he grew up immersed in ritual Mardi Gras Indian traditions, and distinguished himself as a jazz trumpeter by his early teens.  In this episode of Jazz Night in America, join Scott aTunde Adjuah for an electrifying performance at the New Orleans Jazz Market, where he drew from The Centennial Trilogy, an acclaimed recent release.' -- Nate Chinen for Jazz Night in America

Noliwe Rooks on The Economics of Educational Apartheid in America

'American studies scholar Noliwe Rooks examines the economics of educational apartheid - from the business that require and reinforce racial and economic segregation in American schools, to the bipartisan effort to turn poor communities into experiments for capital - and explains why integration is the only path to equality for American children. Rooks is the author of Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education  from The New Press.'

'The Hate U Give' Author Angie Thomas On YA Fiction, Being Black In America And More

'Author Angie Thomas (@angiecthomas) has received critical acclaim for her debut novel, "The Hate U Give." The story follows 16-year-old Starr Carter as she navigates two worlds: the poor black neighborhood where she lives, and her upscale suburban prep school. The plot is inspired by the real-life police shooting of an unarmed black man, Oscar Grant, in California.' -- Here & Now

"Please, Don't Touch My Hair" -- A Conversation About Natural Hair and the Law

'Black women across the world are embracing their naturally kinky and coily hair. However, in recent years, some schools and businesses have enforced grooming standards that deem natural hair unprofessional—leaving many black women and men to wonder what recourse they have when faced with natural hair discrimination in professional and academic settings. In this episode of Black and Highly Dangerous , law professors, Drs. Wendy Greene and Angela Onwuachi-Willig, discuss their recent research on  natural hair within the context of the law and workplace discrimination.'

"I am by no means a great artist, I'm just a Hard-Working Sista" -- The Carrie Mae Weems Distinguished Lecture at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

'Artist Carrie Mae Weems is considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists today. Crystal Bridges recently acquired the artist’s photograph series, The Kitchen Table, which was on view in the 2016 temporary exhibition Black Unity. Weems’s work investigates family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. She has developed a complex body of artwork employing photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation, and video. In a recent review of her retrospective in The New York Times, Holland Cotter wrote, “Ms. Weems is what she has always been, a superb image maker and a moral force, focused and irrepressible.” -- Crystal Bridges

"I am by no means a great artist, I'm just a Hard-Working Sista" -- The Carrie Mae Weems Distinguished Leature at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

'Artist Carrie Mae Weems is considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists today. Crystal Bridges recently acquired the artist’s photograph series, The Kitchen Table, which was on view in the 2016 temporary exhibition Black Unity. Weems’s work investigates family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. She has developed a complex body of artwork employing photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation, and video. In a recent review of her retrospective in The New York Times, Holland Cotter wrote, “Ms. Weems is what she has always been, a superb image maker and a moral force, focused and irrepressible.” -- Crystal Bridges

Depression and Anxiety: How Inequality is Driving the Mental Health Crisis

'A 30-year field study of wild African baboons by the incredible Stanford University professor Robert Sapolsky has shown that there is a remarkable relationship between depression, anxiety, and social hierarchies. Male baboons—who live in a very strict pecking order—suffer the most psychological stress when their social status is insecure, or when they are on the bottom rung, looking up at the luxuries of others. Does it sound familiar yet? "If you live in the United States... we’re at the greatest levels of inequality since the 1920s," says Johann Hari. "There’s a few people at the very top, there’s a kind of precarious middle, and there’s a huge and swelling bottom." It's no coincidence that mental health gets poorer as the wealth gap continues to widen: depression and anxiety are socioeconomic diseases. Could an economic revolution end the depression epidemic? And, most curiously, what can we learn from the Amish on this front? Johann Hari is the author of Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions.' --  Big Think

Tiny Desk Concert: Roy Ayers

'Roy Ayers arrived at his Tiny Desk performance beaming with positivity. The 77-year-old jazz-funk icon and vibraphonist sauntered through the office with a Cheshire grin on his face, sharing jokes with anyone within earshot. Accompanying him was a trio of brilliantly seasoned musicians — keyboardist Mark Adams, bassist Trevor Allen and drummer Christopher De Carmine. Later during the performance, pride washed across Ayers' face as his bandmates took the spotlight.' -- Abby O'Neill, NPR Music