Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 71

Rapper and Poet Omar Offendum Brings "Little Syria" to the Stage

'Rapper and poet Omar Offendum's “Little Syria” uses music to tell the story of the Little Syria neighborhood of Manhattan, which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century, before many of its residents were displaced by construction and left for Brooklyn. The Takeaway speaks with Offendum about how he approached telling this history on stage.'

A Slavery-era Instrument is on the National Mall, Singing 'Songs of Liberation'

'An unusual artwork in the Sculpture Garden on the National Mall also makes unusual sounds: archaic and uncanny. It's an old-fashioned steam calliope, an instrument once commonly seen in carnivals and on riverboats many decades ago. But this calliope was designed in 2018 by a leading American artist, Kara Walker, and plays music composed by Jason Moran, a luminary in the world of jazz. The Katastwóf Karavan looks like a circus wagon. It's decorated with certain images Walker is famous for: silhouettes. But Walker's work is far from the sentimental black and white portraits that used to hang in oval frames in wealthy homes. It shows slavery at its most brutal in the antebellum South. Her silhouettes seem cut from history's shadows. "It's the liminal space – that's what I'm always drawn to," Walker told NPR. "The ambivalent, the liquid, the fluid".'

The Limits with Jay Williams: Desus and Mero On the Wild West of Media

'For years, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero lived the lives of many struggling New Yorkers: juggling multiple odd jobs, battling roaches, and just trying to make ends meet in the Bronx. But they also spent plenty of time online, where their constant back and forth on Twitter was so funny that followers demanded they make a podcast. Their eponymous show, Desus and Mero, has since exploded over the last decade, so much so that it is now coming for the throne of late night on Showtime. And still, even as their fame has catapulted, they've managed to keep the most authentic versions of themselves intact on camera and off. On this week's episode of The Limits with Jay Williams, Desus and Mero talk about that journey, and the kind of hustle and hard work it takes to make for good podcasting and longevity in show business. Plus, they don't hold back with Jay, getting into it on the NBA, the best rappers in the game...and the virtues of the Filet-O-Fish.'

Creative Control: What We Know (and don't) About Social Media Algorithms

'It feels strange to think back to a time when we weren’t so concerned with social media algorithms. For years, we accepted this idea that algorithms were there to serve us more of what we love online. Which is true…to a certain degree. Since 2016, that rosier depiction of algorithms has completely disintegrated. Now when we talk about algorithms, we’re talking about issues like mental health, addiction, political interference, and government regulation. I wanted to get a better understanding of where we are now with social media algorithms. And it's a lot to unpack so I'm going to be tackling this topic in three separate episodes. Up first: what we know (and don’t know) about algorithms.'

Black Girl Songbook – Donnie Simpson: The Golden Voice and R&B’s Golden Girls

'Black Girl Songbook host Danyel Smith is joined by one of the most recognizable voices in music journalism, Donnie Simpson. He talks about his childhood—growing up in his mother’s record store and his love for music, to George Clinton being the spark that turned his aspirations to radio. Simpson also talks about his iconic interviews with artists like Sade and Vesta Williams, to being a part of Janet Jackson’s pre-show prayers on tour. Plus, Simpson gleams with joy as he talks about his deep friendship with Aretha Franklin, and what she meant to him.'

IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit: 'Reservation Dogs' Showrunner Sterlin Harjo

'On this episode of the Filmmaker’s Toolkit podcast, showrunner Sterlin Harjo talks about why he could only make (this version) of Reservation Dogs in his native Oklahoma, and what opportunities open up to a series when rooting it in a specific place that TV hasn't really seen before – and certainly not from a Native perspective. That, plus the steps in teaching an audience how to laugh at survival humor, the benefits of taking an epic approach to outwardly small stories, the trouble with manufacturing hail, and why the show's mythological elements live very matter-of-factly alongside its teen comedy.'

Many Lumens with Maori Karmael Holmes: Jeff Chang

'Many Lumens host Maori Karmael chats with kindred spirit and prolific writer Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. In their conversation they time travel back to the 80’s and 90’s, looking at how hip-hop transformed their politics and shaped their outlooks on the world. They also discuss how to learn from failure, Black and Asian solidarity, and the significance of chosen family.'

Left of Black S12 · E24 | Kristen Henning on the Criminalization of Black Adolescence

What happens to our youth if the normal and typical responses of teenage angst are heavily policed with high punitive consequences, even leading to death as we saw with the murder of Tamir Rice and other Black & brown adolescents? What does it mean to have a dominant police presence in our schools that are predominantly African American and Hispanic in a nation with a pervasive history of excessive police violence? Left of Black Host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined by Kristin Henning, Professor of Law at Georgetown University and author of The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth, published by Pantheon Books. 

 

Black Genius: Leveraging Philanthropy to Invest in Black Educators

'When the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education (CAFÉ) Group present ed $5 million in grants at its 2nd annual Luminary Awards, it brought to more than $10 million the amount the organization has awarded Black leaders in education since its 2021 launch. The CAFÉ Group President Liz Thompson and husband Don share how they are leveraging Black philanthropy via The 1954 Project—and why we all should follow their lead.'

"I Don't Believe You Can Make a Whole Politics Out of Deference" - Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò on Elite Capture

'Millennials Are Killing Capitalism welcomes back Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò. In this episode we talk about his latest book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) which hits book stores this week.  In this conversation we talk about elite capture as a concept. We talk about how elite capture has morphed dominant understandings of what folks mean by the term “identity politics” in stark contrast to the version of it put forth in the Combahee River Collective Statement back in 1977. Femi dispels notions that the ways elites have captured and reappropriated this term are unique to identity politics, and argues persuasively that in fact elite capture is a system behavior that shows up in all kinds of places and ways within our social systems, and that social movements and our radical ideas are not immune to this process.'