Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 581

“Just One More Time” What Jimmy Connors Taught Me by Mark Anthony Neal

“Just One More Time” What Jimmy Connors Taught Me by Mark Anthony Neal | @NewBlackMan | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
By many measures, tennis star Jimmy Connors was old that late summer of 1991; old for an elite athlete; old in a sport, when most turn pro in their teens; old in the eyes of the hubris that so defines the idea of  being young.  At 25 I was at the peak of such hubris, still with the building blocks of the life that I know claim.  
In my first semester of graduate school, and newly wedded, Connors became a passing commentary in a poetry seminar that I was enrolled in.  As a New Yorker, I was of course aware of Connors; you couldn’t claim New York City as home and not find an affinity with some tennis player -- any tennis player -- when the US Open came to town and and became the city’s energy. Where John McEnroe always seemed the pretentious brat, there was always grown man element to Connors’s badassness.  
Indeed my professor that day, was a women of a certain age, who no doubt would have found Connors as alluring that September of 1991 as she did when he was at his peak in the mid-1970s and engaged to Chris Everett.  Connors was already an old-man in the sport -- past 30 -- when he won the US Open in 1983, his last win in a major.  There was no reason to think that this now 39-year-old man, a year removed from wrist surgery, and ranked 174th in the world, would be anything but a broken-down disposable body during that tournament.
But what Connors possessed, channeling the late Derrick Bell for a moment, from his “Space Traders” short story, was “cunning and guile.”  Even when he dominated the sport, Connors was more known as a finesse player, and that improvisational mode -- what baseball players used to assign to the “crafty” left-handed -- is a thing that never leaves you, that in fact, is more finely tuned with age, as your physical gifts begin to betray you.
Connors’ run ended in the semi-final round against a bigger, stronger, younger (and infinitely less interesting) Jim Courier. Yet there was no denying there was an infectious beauty to what Connors achieved that late summer -- the season a metaphor for the closing moments of a distinguished career.  It was that beauty that brought Connors to the table in the first place in that now long forgotten poetry seminar.  Wrapped in the aesthetics of the aging body in movement are the possibilities of that moment and the ones imagined thereafter.  As Connors’ longtime nemesis Ilie Nastase remarked "What Jimmy has...is what we would all kill for: Just one more time."
***
“Just one more time” -- those words resonate, as does the example of Jimmy Connors as I endure my 51st trip around the sun.  I am now close to the age that my dear professor was when we sat in that poetry seminar in the fall of 1991.  What I could not appreciate then, or even consider, was that the abundance of tomorrows would slowly diminish. The betrayal of aging is that you might be well past many of those tomorrows before you realize how relatively few there will be left.  The grace of aging comes with the ability to imagine those “just one more time(s)” with the passion that you expect the waking dawn.
As an academic, so much of my life revolves around the work that gets done during the summer months, which lay folk assume, is the time teachers of any rank, are “off.”  Do to familial demands on my time and energies that were both planned, and in some cases not anticipated, this past summer was a lost summer. When I was 25, I always took for granted there would be other “another summer(s)” (“sound of the funky drummer”); indeed there have been 25 of them. But as I take an accounting of the where that I stand, there’s that slow realization, that there are fewer summers ahead of me, and no doubt much less productive ones, in any event.
From this vantage the hubris of youth, looks like the Facebook feeds of any number of my  younger colleagues -- faster, stronger, smarter, and with a strong selfie-game -- and youth is an annoyance, if I’m being honest about it all.  
Recently my partner of more than 28 years (25 in marriage), without even a hint of her signature sarcasm, asked if I “felt old” watching our 18-year-daughter start her run of another summer(s) in Chicago.  There is a certain timelessness about 18-year-olds; ain’t never been an 18-year-old that done some shit that some other 18-year didn’t think about at some point -- ain’t no surprises there.  
What makes me feel old are 30-year-olds -- thinking about the millennial that told 50-year-old me and 49-year old Bakari Kitwana on social media that the “movement” was focused on the experiences of 30-somethings and younger -- and then you remember some stupid-ass shit you wanted to say to some version of yourself 20 years ago, but had enough home training to know better. 
Grace teachers that you don’t offer insight until asked; Age teaches that such insight is best shared by the example of grace.  And like Jimmy Connors a generation ago, I’m just trying to do it “just one more time” as often as possible until those tomorrows are done.

#ProfessionalBlackGirl - Episode 1: YABA BLAY

On this debut episode of #ProfessionalBlackGirl we meet Dr. Yaba Blay -- Professor + Producer + Author + Content creator + Black beauty scholar-activist + Mother + Grandmother + Magic Woman + Sister + Sista and #ProfessionalBlackGirl.

#ProfessionalBlackGirl is a celebration of me. It’s a celebration of you. It’s a celebration of all your homegirls from elementary school through college to right now. Professional Black Girl is a celebration of US. 

Why 1,300 Inmates Rioted at Attica Prison in 1971

'Historian Heather Ann Thompson discusses her new book, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy , a detailed account of the prison uprising when nearly 1,300 prisoners took control of the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate NY to protest years of abuse. She details the state’s violent response, previously unreleased facts and the victims’ fight for justice in the 45 years since.' -- +WNYC - New York Public Radio 

Peace Council: Toxic Masculinity and the Shooting death of Tiarah Poyau

'Claudia Garcia-Rojas, a Chicago-based writer and activist, and co-director of the Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls & Young Women joined Jesse and Jill of the Peace Council to discuss the story of Tiarah Poyau, a college student who was fatally shot at the J’Ouvert festival in Brooklyn after telling a man to stop grinding against her. Garcia-Rojas who is a Black Studies doctoral candidate at Northwestern  also spoke about the culture of Toxic Masculinity and how it has affected women in society.' -- Vocalo   

How NYC's First Puerto Rican Librarian Brought Spanish To The Book Shelves

'When Pura Belpré became a librarian in 1921, she couldn't find Spanish language books for kids — so she wrote them herself. Belpré would go on to become a champion of bilingual library programs.' -- +NPR   

#SouthernAccent: on Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art

Deborah Grant, In the Land of the Blind the Blue Eye Man is King'The American South is rooted in a complex social, political and cultural history. The exhibit Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art includes 120 works from 60 artists that challenge myths about the South and explores it's wide range of perspectives. Host Frank Stasio talks with Miranda Lash, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY and co-curator of "Southern Accent," about the process of curating contemporary images of the South. He also talks with Stacy Lynn Waddell, a Chapel Hill-based artist, and Dario Robleto, a Houston-based artist, about their contribution to the exhibit. "Southern Accent" is on display at the Nasher Museum of Art in Durham through Sunday, January 8.'

Project Bronx: Things Nuyoricans (Puerto Ricans) Are Tired of Hearing

'Nuyorican = A person born / raised in New York to parents or grandparents from Puerto Rico; Here are some of the ridiculous things people say to us.' -- +ProjectBronx 

The Fire Last Time: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf

'Before Colin Kaepernick, there was Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. In 1996, the Denver Nuggets guard said that on principle he could not stand for the national anthem because the flag in many countries represents "oppression and tyranny." He was fined, suspended, attacked, and yet we will hear on this week's podcast why he has no regrets. We will also hear what advice Mahmoud Abdul Rauf has for Kaepernick and why he holds the words of Arundhati Roy and Malcolm X close to his heart.' -- Edge of Sports

[Teaser] 'Friskin The Whiskers' -- Celebrating the Harlem Jazz Rent Party

“Harlem Rent Party” (1929), by Mabel Dwight' Friskin' the Whiskers is a street-based social performance that draws upon famous New York jazz musicians’ rent parties designed to entertain and pay the rent. The work involves an open call to tri-boro based jazz musicians to battle for change and prizes in an exchange referred to as “cutting contests” where musicians will duel each other in a game for rent money. The exchange happens across an elaborate faux inlayed gaming table with inset recording horns and sub woofers meant to pull from the elitist realm of gambling while connecting it with the folk tradition of quotidian entertainment.' -- Justin Randolph Thompson with Bradly Dever Treadaway and Jason Thompson
Friskin The Whiskers - Teaser from Bradly Dever Treadaway on Vimeo.

Animating The Archives -- Understanding Copyright

'Confused by copyright? This short film explains how copyright relates to visual art and how you can use and share Tate content in your own projects.'