Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 493

#MixShorts -- Love Languages: Three Generations (for Misha + AC) by Mark Anthony Neal

#MixShorts -- Love Languages: Three Generations (for Misha + AC)by Mark Anthony Neal | @NewBlackMan | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Standing in front of that dormitory on that Chicago Street, I was no more prepared to bid her a “goodbye” as I was saying “hello” almost 18 years earlier.  17-years and 48-weeks to be exact, from the vantage of that moment, accounting for those two-weeks as a newborn before she called our home, her home, and now the two weeks since she’s been at college.
The vast majority of those days she spent, either sitting behind me in cars -- the Honda Accord, the Mercury Sable (which took us to Austin), the Town & Country which took us to Durham, talking it seems, since she was 6-months-old -- or riding shotgun -- most famously in the Chrysler 300 (which I still miss) that she dubbed the “Black Man’s Car” -- as she did for so many rides to school and swim practices.
And always digging for the aux chord -- until the most recent “softball dad” car came with the bluetooth -- listening to Ambrosia and Gino Vanelli as easily as we did J. Cole and Rihanna; like my dad and me, daughter and daddy’s love language is in the mix.  
I am reminded as much daily -- she still poaching my Google Play account (though she has her own) to listen, on occasion, to that “Chuck Leonard” playlists that animated so many of my days when I was her age.  The analytics tell me that Elton John is a favorite of hers, especially “Your Song,” which has been played  almost 4 times as much as any of the songs on the playlist.
***
My father was a man of few words -- and a few hundred songs.  If I have any skill at reading “texts,” it was because he was the first “text” I had to decipher, as the LPs -- he never messed with ‘45s -- on the Fisher turntable dropped in succession; his moods listening to Bobby “Blue” Bland and B.B. King generating more introspection, while the two organ playing Jimmy (ies) -- Smith and McGriff -- produced something just short of ebullience in the man.
I was always better with my words, though the songs always seemed the better way to say what I mean; same 26-letters in the alphabet; same words in the dictionary, authorship is in the curation.  
Almost twenty-years ago, didn’t quite know what to say to the baby-girl I was now charged with helping move through the world, so Marvin & Tammi was always the obvious choice, since I could sing Marvin’s part -- had been practicing for a lifetime -- softly in her ear. By the time she was a year-old, she had her first official mixtape -- can still hear Bebe Winans’ “In Harm’s Way” and Curtis Mayfield’s “Miss Black America” in her nursery.  She and her sister -- whose love language is ideas, and thus she is as expected a mind-full -- now share a playlist called “The Whurl-a-Gurls” with a nod to Toomer’s Karintha whose “running was a whir.” That every once and awhile, the three of us breaking out into Mr. Davis's "Candy Man."
And though she never had no problems with words, she spoke back to me with the music; 16 years later I still can’t hear Jill Scott’s “The Way” without hearing my daughter sing “g..r..i..t..s..” along with her.

Why Inequality and Injustice Makes Us—and Our Brain—So Angry

'Get mad when you read the news these days? It's more than just what you're reading. When you perceives unfairness or inequality, says Molly Crockett, the brain receives it more-so as an attack on your identity. It's a startling realization that helps explain both Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump—because despite all evidence to the contrary (i.e. that Britain would lose billions and perhaps trillions if they left the E.U. without a plan, and in America, that electing a reality star with a proclivity towards grabbing women's genitals might not be a good thing for anyone at all) much of the western world has voted with their outrage minds rather than with their rational minds. This video is part of a series curated by Tali Sharot, author of the new book The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others.' -- Big Think

How Country Music Went Conservative

'Country music is frequently assumed to be the soundtrack of the Republican Party. But it wasn't always so. Bob Garfield talks to reporter  J. Lester Feder about the political history of country music and how the genre found its home in the modern Republican party.' -- On The Media
         
       

Theaster Gates: Are Artists Activists?

'At Emory University, Theaster Gates engages in a conversation on social activism and artists at Emory University. Gates, an award-winning Chicago potter and artists who blends art installation with social practice, is best known for turning abandoned buildings in neglected neighborhoods into vibrant cultural hubs that serve the community. “Theaster Gates embodies an engagement with art, activism, and archives that energizes all of us,” says Rosemary M. Magee, director of the Rose Library. Gates is director of arts and public life at the University of Chicago, where he is a professor of visual arts.' -- Emory University

Distract, Distort, Isolate: Henry Giroux on Trump and the Authoritarian Style in American Politics

'Cultural critic Henry Giroux examines the rise of authoritarianism in American culture and politics, and the collapse of democratic institutions and language that set the stage for the Trump Administration's toxic blend of cruelty and capitalist supremacy that will rule until the left can reclaim the power of democratic ideas and action. Giroux is the author of the new book The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of American Authoritarianism from Routledge.' -- This is Hell!

Left of Black S8:E4: Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance

On this episode of Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal sits down with Professor Uri McMillan to discuss his recent book  Embodied Avatars: Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance . McMillan is an Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles with joint appointments in the Departments of African-American Studies and Gender Studies and active affiliation with the Center for Performance Studies. 

Nikky Finney: Sipping Kerosene at the Refectory

'Famed poet Nikky Finney opens the Health Humanities & Social Justice Breath, Body, Voice Conference at Duke University with a reading from work at the Hayti Heritage Center. Finney is introduced by Duke University Historian Thavolia Glymph and later engages poet and theorist Alexis Pauline Gumbs in conversation. Finney is the author of four books of poetry, On Wings Made of Gauze, RICE, The World Is Round, and Head Off & Split, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2011. She  now holds the John H. Bennett, Jr., Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She travels extensively, never lecturing, always inviting and hoping for conversations that just might improve the human condition.' -- Duke Franklin Humanities Institute

The Legacy Series: Nelson George talks with Musician and Producer James Mtume

"It was always about, what was the next planet" -- In this new series produced by veteran cultural critic and filmmaker Nelson George, legendary musician and producer James Mtume talks about working with Miles Davis in the early 1970s. Shot and edited by Malika Weeden.

Women in Hip-Hop -- The Cardi B Conundrum

'Cardi B’s hit single “Bodak Yellow” recently peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and made history. Cardi B is the first female hip-hop artist to top the chart since 1998. There have only been four other female rappers to do so. Women in hip-hop have a strong legacy, but why has their success in popular music been limited of late?.  1A host Joshua Johnson is joined by Marjua Estevez Senior editor, Vibe; Fredara Hadley Visiting assistant professor of ethnomusicology, Oberlin College; Mark Anthony Neal Professor of African and African American Studies, Duke University; Scott Heath Assistant professor, Georgia State University.' 

Lester Spence: How the 'Free Market' has Devastated Black Communities

'Lester Spence is an associate professor of political science and Africana studies at Johns Hopkins University. He specializes in the study of black, racial, and urban politics in the wake of the neoliberal turn. An award winning scholar (in 2013, he received the W.E.B. DuBois Distinguished Book Award for his book, Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics) and teacher (in 2009, he received an Excellence in Teaching Award), he can regularly be heard on National Public Radio and the Marc Steiner Show. Raised in Inkster, Spence holds both a BA and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan. He has lived in Baltimore since 2005 and is a father of five.' -- TEDx Talks