Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 674

#UnderTheSoulCovers--”A Song for You”: Donny Hathaway + Aretha Franklin

#UnderTheSoulCovers--"A Song for You”: Donny Hathaway + Aretha Franklinby Mark Anthony Neal | @NewBlackMan | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
You begin with the premise that “A Song for You” was written by and recorded first by Leon Russell, who even in 1970, looked like the lost member of ZZ Top, perhaps jettisoned from the group because he was too soulful. Forget a “Wind Beneath My Wings” or a “I Believe I Can Fly”; Russell’s “A Song for You” is the definitive pop standard of the later part of the 20th Century.  
Russell has some real street-cred; he was instrumental in the very early success of the Greenwood, Archer, and Pine Street Band aka The Gap Band or the house that Uncle Charlie Wilson first built, as well as co-writing “Superstar” for the pop duo The Carpenters, before it became a signature tune for Luther Vandross, who perhaps imagined the song more closely in the tradition that Russell might have imagined it.
There was much to work with when Donny Hathaway covered “A Song for You” on his second album Donny Hathaway (1971)--an album in which Hathaway covered songs by Mac Davis, Billy Preston, George Clinton and Van McCoy.  You can be forgiven for believing that “A Song for You” was Hathaway’s song, because the late stylist for damn sure made you believe that it was his. The Donny Hathaway catalogue is unimaginable without the song, though it would be nearly a decade after Hathaway’s studio version, and a year after his death, that most listeners would hear his live version of song on In Performance.  Russell by then, was a footnote to his own composition.
Donny Hathaway was in the studio when Aretha Franklin recorded the session that became Let Me In Your Life (1974), which should be most remembered as Franklin’s last great studio recording, and perhaps among the three best of all of her recordings.  Though Hathaway played acoustic and electric piano on the Bobby Womack penned single “I’m in Love” (which topped the R&B charts) and Franklin’s cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Until You Come Back to Me,” which was her last major pop hit until “Freeway of Love” more than a decade later, he does not appear on Franklin’s version of “A Song for You,” which closes the album.
Franklin could have chosen to make a statement--taking the song to church, much like Hathaway did--but instead chose to swing it, accompanying herself on the electric piano, perhaps as a nod to the exquisite and underrated, Quincy Jones produced album that precedes Let Me in Your Life.

BK Stories: Free--At What Cost? The Story of Stephanie Dorceant's Attack by an Off-Duty NYPD Officer

'On July 11th, 2015, Stephanie Dorceant and her girlfriend were heading home when a white off-duty police officer in plain clothes, who was later identified as Officer Salvatore Aquino, attacked Stephanie after calling her a "dyke". Mr. Aquino did not show signs that he was a police officer or identify himself as such until after the assault.'  This video is from +BRIC TV — the first 24/7 television channel created by, for, and about Brooklyn. 

J. Kameron Carter: Postracial Blues

'Though we often think of this age as post-racial, there are many ways in which America still turns a blind eye to inequality. Could it be nationwide we've settled into a lull that accepts racism in its many new forms? J. Kameron Carter, author of Race: a Theological Account, deals with what it means to live with race and religion in the 21st century.' 

Filmmaker Ayoka Chenzira on the Power of Storytelling

'Groundbreaking filmmaker Ayoka Chenzira shares her passion for storytelling and explains why the moving image can shift the narrative around disenfranchised groups and help people expand their vision of the world.' -- +Womenetics  

Black Citizenship in Crisis: World War I and Its Aftermath

'World War I supplied a new field in the battle for freedom rights. Nearly four decades after the end of Reconstruction, African Americans still sought the basic rights of American citizens, and they pushed their fellow Americans to make the world safe for democracy at home as well as abroad. Their triumphs and failures would shape the subsequent civil rights movement and its aftermath. Adriane Lentz-Smith is the Andrew W. Mellon Associate Professor of History at Duke University. Her most recent book is Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I (Harvard University Press, 2009).'

Duke Political Scientist Kerry Haynie on the Importance of Teaching + Scholarship + Mentoring

'A conversation with Kerry Haynie, an associate professor of political science and African and African American Studies at Duke, about his approach to mentoring, including the changes that grad students go through.' -- Duke Graduate School

The Bitter and the Sublime: Deb Willis on African American History Through Photographs

'Deborah Willis, chair of Tisch's Photography & Imaging Department and a leading scholar of African American photography, has devoted her career to questions of black representation through images. In this video, Willis—recipient of Guggenheim, Fletcher, and MacArthur fellowships—discusses the power of 19th-century photographs of the enslaved black body, and reflects on how African American photographers have documented their communities over the years.' -- +New York University 

Hank Willis Thomas: Artists Should Work in Society's Subconscious

'Hank Willis Thomas has made it his mission to “not make sense out of things we think make sense,” challenging our perceptions of identity, history, and symbols. In his  99U talk, Thomas shares what he’s learned from creating his provocative body of work, including the repurposing of iconic brand imagery as a commentary on race and class, particularly in regard to African-American males.' 

Left of Black S6:E10: #BlackCodeStudies + The Spectacle of Black Death

Left of Black S6:E10:  #BlackCodeStudies + The Spectacle of Black Death
Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan) is joined on location by Historian and Digital Humanist Jessica Marie Johnson (@jmjafrx), who discusses Hurricane Katrina, the spectacle of State-sanctioned Anti-Black Violence, and Black Code Studies. Johnson is Assistant Professor of History at Michigan State University and the Curator of African Diaspora, Ph.D. and Diaspora Hypertext. This episode was recorded on location at Lehigh University.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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National Museum of African American History & Culture Loops Black Panther Film on Outer Exterior

The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) opens its doors on the National Mall in Washington next year, but the museum's structure proved to be a fine canvas for their first exhibit, which was a looped screening of Stanley Nelson's The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution projected on two sides of the museum's outer exterior -- +CBS This Morning