Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 623

Vocalo: Royce Da 5'9" Talks 'Layers' + Career + Struggle with Alcoholism

'Detroit native Royce Da 5’9” has recently released his much anticipated album, Layers, an introspective album that is both personal and political. The talented wordsmith spoke with Jesse Menendez about the new album, his career, and his struggle with alcoholism.' -- Vocalo
  

Natalie Y. Moore Reads from New Book--The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation

'Author and Journalist Natalie Y. Moore shares an excerpt from her latest book, The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation .' -- +JET Magazine 

After Very Visible Roles, Lupita Nyong'o Looks To Disappear Into Character

'Now starring on Broadway in Eclipsed, a searing story of young women held captive in Liberia. After that and 12 Years a Slave, Lupita Nyong'o says she's ready for some lighter material.'

Left of Black S6:E27: Organizing a Hip-Hop Electorate in an Age of Anti-Black Violence

Left of Black S6:E27:  Organizing a Hip-Hop Electorate in an Age of Anti-Black Violence
Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan) is joined in-studio by Bakari Kitwana (@TheRealBakari), veteran journalist and activist.  Neal and Kitwana discuss the founding of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention, the Black Live Matters Movement, and the impact of down ballot elections in the context of anti-Black police violence. 
Kitwana is the executive director of Rap Sessions, which is currently touring the nation leading town hall discussions on the theme “Election 2016: Reform or Revolution?” His books include The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture, Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America, and  the forthcoming Hip-Hop Activism in the Obama Era. Kitwana has served as Editorial Director of Third World Press, Executive Editor of The Source—the nation’s top-selling music magazine— and co-founder the first ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention.Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University and in conjunction with the Center for Arts, Digital Culture & Entrepreneurship (CADCE).
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Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in @ iTunes U
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Follow Left of Black on Twitter: @LeftofBlack

Cave Canem: New Works

'Sponsored by the School of Writing  at The New School and the Cave Canem Foundation--Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. This event features E. Ethelbert Miller, Jarita Davis, Camille Rankine.'  

Beyonce Returns To The Spotlight With New Album 'Lemonade'

'NPR's Audie Cornish talks to Treva Lindsey, an assistant professor of women's, gender and sexuality studies at Ohio State University, about Beyonce's new album Lemonade, which was released as a visual album on Saturday night.'

Tiny Desk Concert: Anthony Hamilton

'Anthony Hamilton's soul sound was refined in the churches of Charlotte, N.C. Watching the Grammy winner perform, you get the hunch that it's harder for him to keep the soul inside than it is to actually unleash it. What he and his backup singers, The Hamiltones, do would be better classified as a musical purge, with a stage show that can double as couples therapy and church service. Their warm harmonies have the ability to shrink theaters and stadiums, so we knew this intimate setting was perfect for them.' -- +NPR Music  

Deconstructing #HB2: What Do Bathrooms Have to Do With Living Wages?

'In a press conference officially announcing the April 25th Moral Day of Action against the discriminatory House Bill 2 that was hastily passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory, Moral Monday Architect Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II questions why North Carolina's Chamber of Commerce hasn't come out against a bill that also restricts the rights of local governments to set minimum wage standards.' -- +NC Forward Together Moral Movement Channel 

#TheSpin: Afrika Bambaataa Accused + Badu on the Twitter + Student Uprising at Ohio State University

On this episode of #TheSpin hosted by Esther Armah, she is joined by Yaba Blay and Treva Lindsey in a discussion of recent accusations of child sexual abuse against Afrika Bambaataa, Erykah Badu's comments about childhood sexuality and the student protests at the Ohio State University.  Dr. Blay is Dan Blue Endowed Chair in Political Science at North Carolina Central University and Dr. Lindsey is Associate Professor of Women + Gender Studies at The Ohio State University.

Tell the Negroes to Wait: President Obama + Black Lives Matter & Compromising with White Supremacy

Tell the Negroes to Wait: President Obama + Black Lives Matter & Compromising with White Supremacyby Lawrence Ware + Lauren Whiteman | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Many are quick to echo Steve Harvey and tell those that push President Obama to be more responsive to the needs of black folks that he is not just President of Black America, but, in fact, he is the President of the United States of America. The point they attempt to make is that the President cannot just cater to the needs of one constituency. He must, being president of all, cater to all perspectives. His recent comments should appease the All Lives Matter vote.
Recently, the Movement for Black Lives was discussed while President Barack Obama spoke at a London town hall. He praised Black Lives Matter for its ability to highlight issues, but criticized what he felt were lackluster efforts to create solutions. He said that “they yell too much” and that “yelling is not what will get the job done.”
We are disappointed. Almost hurt. And it’s not the first time.
The implication that Black Lives Matter is not doing its job correctly because they are not being polite in their dealings with lawmakers and politicians reeks of respectability politics. Somehow, the President has placed the responsibility of implementing socially just policy on private citizens, not the elected officials. He has shifted the burden onto BLM, but none of the support or benefits.
Like all citizens, members of the Black Lives Matter movement have a first amendment right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances”, even if that means they need to yell to get a point across. Also, to refer to the movement’s actions strictly as “yelling” distracts from their accomplishments and is a thinly-veiled attempt to silence them, or at the very least, make dealing with them more convenient. Black Lives Matter has no obligation to comply with either wish.  This is all reminiscent of what happened on April 12, 1963.
A little over fifty years ago this month, eight white clergymen taught us that expressions of injustice do not always take the form of harmful language or acts of violence. In response to the civil rights protests taking place in their city, these men penned an open letter entitled “A Call For Unity.” They urged the “Negroes” of Birmingham, Alabama to exercise patience with what was, up until then, glacial racial progress. In the letter they stated:…We are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely. (Emphasis my own)These men are all but saying, “The good Negroes are being incited to action by those bad, outsider Negroes.” Their words reek of xenophobia (fear of the ‘other’) and unconscious racism (racial animus that the holder is unaware they possess). In response to the clergymen, King felt compelled to respond. Sitting in a jail cell for the very demonstrations “A Call For Unity” decries, Martin King writes:Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.In just one paragraph, King links the struggle for racial justice in Birmingham to the cosmic struggle for justice everywhere. He even implies that Socrates (the father of the Western philosophical tradition) would approve. For King—who once said that if he was stranded with only two books to read, he would want a copy of the Bible and Plato’s Republic— one could have no greater intellectual ally.The eight clergymen’s plea for patience rings hollow. They sit in relative comfort, and either fail or refuse to see that they are benefactors in a racial system that exploits black folks in the South. Of course they sense no urgency. Their lives are not in danger. I cannot help but notice an echo in what the president said about those in BLM. Yes, President Obama is a black man in the White House—but as Louis Farrakhan reminds us, we should never lose sight that it is still the WHITE house. That is, the Presidency in this country is an office invested in maintaining and acting out the norms of white supremacy.For the past seven years, many Black folks have been less critical of President Obama because we finally had someone who looked like us in the country’s highest office. As valuable that imagery is, we cannot forget that, as our grandmothers said, all your skinfolk ain’t your kinfolk—meaning, people that look like us are still capable of perpetuating anti-Blackness. President Obama has lectured us on respectability for the last time. We must hold Black leaders to the standards they inspire. Oppressed people need more than rhetoric. They need policy. He spent the first two years in office trying to build bridges with those who maintain white supremacy and now he wants to lecture those engaged in a movement to that was formed under his watch. What oppressed people need is neither always convenient nor expressed according to the expectations of those who need to hear them. If we were politely asking for our needs to be met, we would die before we attracted the attention of those in power. In fact, many already have. We aren’t asking President Barack Obama to hold a sign with the words Black Lives Matter—we don't need the spectacle of support. We need actions that stem from support. He  needs to take advantage of the last few months of his presidency and use his bully pulpit to call attention to the issues BLM activists are protesting.. Not lecturing those dying on how to die quietly. But, for many, seeing President Obama have moments of public blackness have been enough. That’s just not enough for us; not anymore. After all, it’s nice to hear Amazing Grace sung at memorial services, but we can get that at the church ‘round the corner.***
Lawrence Ware is an Oklahoma State University Division of Institutional Diversity Fellow. He teaches in OSU’s philosophy department and is the Diversity Coordinator for its Ethics Center. An advisor to Democratic Left and contributing editor at RS: The Religious Left, he has also been a commentator on race and politics for the Huffington Post Live, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and PRI’s Flashpoint. He is an ordained minister in the Progressive Baptist Convention. Find him on Twitter @law_ware.
Lauren Whiteman is an Assistant Director of Student Life and Coordinator for African American Student Programs and Services at the University of Oklahoma. She serves as the advisor for African American Student Life, the Black Student Association, the National Pan-Hellenic Council and OU Unheard. Lauren’s work focuses on the miseducation of Black and African American students in higher education, advocacy, and student development.