Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 58

Right to Offend: Kevin Hart on Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock & The Current State of Comedy

'Kevin Hart reflects on how the pioneers of Black comedy turned the stand-up stage into one of the most important platforms for social discourse in America, in this bonus scene from Right to Offend.'

Young Computer Scientist Transforming Her Mississippi Hometown into a Tech Hub

'Nashlie Sephus, 35, is a computer scientist and AI researcher who dreams of transforming her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi into a tech hub. Her dream is about to come to life, thanks to her successful nonprofit the Bean Path.'

A Retrospective of Artist Robert Colescott at the New Museum

'The late artist Robert Colescott (1925–2009) is most known for his 1970s satirical renditions of famous paintings to demonstrate the absence and lack of recognition of black people in art and cultural history. Today, The New Museum presents a new retrospective of the artist's work, called, Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott. Curator Lowery Stokes Sims and Raphaela Platow, former director and chief curator of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati when the Colescott show was organized there, joins All Of It to discuss Colescott's legacy and why his art matters.'

Believing Women: Anita Hill in Conversation

'As a teacher, legal scholar, and advocate Anita Hill has been in the public eye since her landmark testimony during Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991. But, the issue of gender violence that compelled her to testify over thirty years ago is still endemic to American life. At CHF, Hill discusses her latest book Believing, a combination of memoir, law, social analysis, and call to arms on one of the most important topics of our day. Hill is joined in conversation by journalist Laura S. Washington.'

The New Yorker Radio Hour: Alan Alda, Podcaster

'Alan Alda spent his early years in the burlesque theatres where his father, the actor Robert Alda, would perform. Those early years opened his eyes in more ways than one: “I was very aware of the naked women,” he told The New Yorker’s Michael Schulman, “but I was also aware of the comics.” Watching from the wings, Alda grew an appreciation for being funny, being creative, and being present. He put those skills to use for eleven years on “M*A*S*H” and in dozens of other performances on stage and screen—recently, as a divorce lawyer for Adam Driver’s character in “Marriage Story.” But it was only later in life that Alda realized his skills might be useful in another arena: science. Alda made it his crusade to help scientists communicate their ideas to a broad audience. “What occurred to me,” Alda told Schulman, “was that if we trained scientists starting from actually improvising, they would be able to relate to the audience the way they were relating to me.” On “Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda,” Alda interviews luminaries from the fields of science, politics, and entertainment, drawing on his training to make their specialist knowledge accessible to listeners. Interviewing, he thinks, isn’t unlike performing with a scene partner: “You have to relate to the other person,” says Alda. “You have to observe the other person. You have to be watching their face, their body and language” to determine what it is the guest “really means”.'

Is Love a Luxury or a Necessity? Let's Ask bell hooks and Howard Thurman

'From bell hooks to Martin Luther King Jr., to Howard Thurman — Nick Bates breaks down how to cultivate a love ethic in three steps. Bates is the associate director of the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground at Boston University.'

Dope Labs with Zakiya Whatley & Titi Shodiya Talk Black Music with 9th Wonder & Mark Anthony Neal

9th Wonder and Mark Anthony Neal (Duke University Professors) joined Dope Lab hosts Zakiya Whatley and Titi Shodiya (Duke University Alums) in a dive into the roots of hip hop and jazz and tracing how Black music and artists have been at the forefront of music and popular culture.

Getting Even with Anita Hill: Diversifying Silicon Valley with Arlan Hamilton

 

'Arlan Hamilton is not the typical Silicon Valley venture capitalist. She built a venture capital fund from the ground up while experiencing homelessness.  Anita Hill sits down with Hamilton to discuss the personal obstacles Hamilton faced as well as how she is providing solutions to the systemic disadvantage that entrepreneurs of color face in trying to navigate Silicon Valley.'

'Choice' by Lisa B. Thompson

Choice

by Lisa B. Thompson | @DrLisaBThompson | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

This is the moment that my generation feared and fought against becoming a reality. As a Black feminist scholar and artist who often examines sexuality and Black motherhood, I know what the end of Roe means for this country. There is a special place in my heart for people and organizations that center reproductive choice, reproductive justice, and reproductive care. I’m grateful for their willingness to lobby, educate, and strategize. Their work allowed me to become a mother when it was best for me and my child. I want that for everyone.

 

I’m a daughter of a pre-Roe Black southern migrant. My late mother’s entire life was shaped by a lack of reproductive freedom. I’ll never forget my her laughing as she told me that all of her beloved children–me and my siblings–were “mistakes.” My mother and father had 4 children during their marriage. The oldest and the youngest are 14 years apart. I joke that I was their “old my Gawd child,” a baby who arrived at the worst time. At the start of middle-age, she thought she was finally free to go back to school, to become a professional, and maybe have time to take up hobbies—she loved the arts, gardening, reading and baking. She desperately wanted to define herself beyond the role of wife and mother, but here I came along.

 

When I started elementary school, she entered the workforce in earnest and eventually returned to college, but she never had the opportunity to truly pursue her dreams. Despite being unfulfilled, my mother never made me feel unwanted, in fact just the opposite. I always felt deeply cherished and supported. I suspect that she was living through me. As a believer in reproductive freedom, I’m fine if she had made the decision, could have made the decision, not to continue with the pregnancy that produced me. In my opinion that’s unconditional love.

 

I often imagine what my mother and her contemporaries could have made of their lives if they could have planned their entry into motherhood like I did or chose not to become mothers at all like so many of my friends. Reliable contraceptives, and abortion gave my generation that freedom. We built careers and families in ways our mothers could never imagine. I never took my reproductive freedom for granted nor did my friends. We knew the price of unfreedom whenever our mothers looked longingly at the degrees, careers and other prizes we were able to obtain that often stood beyond their reach.

 

As a university professor I’m afraid to think about what will happen to the brilliant and ambitious people that enter my classrooms every year with dreams of their own. How will this Supreme Court’s ruling shape their lives? Will it keep others from ever making it into a college classroom? The answer chills my soul, but also gives me the determination to fight for their reproductive freedom like the women of my mother’s and grandmother’s generation did for mine. I believe we will triumph just like those bold and tenacious women did. We must. Our lives and the future depend on it.

 

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Lisa B. Thompson is a playwright and the Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor African and African Diaspora Studies and Advisor to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts for Faculty Mentoring and Support at the University of Texas, Austin. Her latest play is The Mamalogues.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): The Drug-Resistant Bacteria Crisis No One’s Talking About

'COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the world for the past two years, but there’s a potentially deadlier threat creeping across the globe right now that hardly anyone is talking about. According to a recent report in the medical journal The Lancet, drug-resistant bacterial infections were linked to five million deaths worldwide in 2019. According to a UK government study, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could kill ten million people annually by the year 2050. Moreover, as with COVID-19, drug-resistant bacterial infections aren’t equitable, and poor and marginalized populations are the hardest hit, both in North America and around the globe. TRNN correspondent David Kattenburg speaks with Dr. Shira Doron and Dr. Tomislav Meštrović about the growing AMR crisis, why it has garnered so little public attention, and what can be done to address it.'