Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 713

"Baartman, Beyoncé and Me"--Black Women and the Beauty Ideal

In her documentary Baartman, Beyoncé and Me filmmaker Natalie Bullock Brown plans to explore the roots of the American beauty ideal and ask how it affects the self-perception and treatment of African American women and girls in our society. She's joined by Omisade Burney-Scott of Ananse Consulting and Duke University professor Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to share their thoughts on the subject.-- Black Issues Forum (WUNC-TV)

Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) on Amy Winehouse's Legacy

Watch behind-the-scenes interview with Yasin Bey ("Mos Def") on the legacy of the late vocalist Amy Winehouse. -- A24

When the Police Ask "Why are You Filming?"

Protesters Evoke #SandraBland + #KindraChapman in NY Penn Station during #BlackLivesMatter Demonstration

Demonstrators have hit the streets for #BlackLivesMatter and a call for justice for women like #SandraBland, leading up to the arrest of several dozen protesters following an impromptu demonstration at New York’s Penn Station. Alexey Yaroshevsky reports from New York City for +RT America 

#SandraBland's Family Speaks Out After "New" Video of Her Traffic Stop is Released

The family of #SandraBland question the circumstances of her arrest, the legitimacy of the dashcam, and depictions of her as unstable-- +Al Jazeera America 

Get Free--Hip Hop Civics Education: Blueprint for the New Civil Rights Movement

Get Free--Hip Hop Civics Education: Blueprint for the New Civil Rights Movementby Sheena C. Howard | @DrSheenaHoward | HuffPost BlackVoices
How does hip-hop shape the cultural and political landscape of millennials? That is one question amongst many that Dr. Bettina Love seeks to answer next year as she conducts research at Harvard University on civic engagement and hip-hop.
In 2013 Harvard University and the Hiphop Archive established the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship. The announcement of the fellowship made national and international news headlines. The first cohort has been selected and is set to begin work on their hip-hop related projects during the 2015-2016 academic year. One of the Nas Fellows, Dr. Bettina Love, will be working on a project titled, Get Free: Hip Hop Civics Education. However the marriage between hip-hop and education continues to be a point of contention for those both inside and outside of academe.
When the University of Arizona created a hip-hop minor in 2013 the "controversy" received press from the likes of BBC World news, The Huffington Post and found itself on the receiving end of jokes from public figures such as Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s, The Colbert Report. Colbert weighed in via Twitter stating, "The University of Arizona is offering a Minor in Hip-Hop. And if you go on to grad school, you can get your Doctorate in Dre," he tweeted, invoking famed rapper-producer Dr. Dre. Age-old debates continue to persist about the legitimacy of hip-hop in the classroom.
Some educators feel that including hip-hop in the classroom dilutes the academic vigor of an institution. Artist KRS ONE has been vocal about his concerns with scholars teaching hip-hop in the classroom. At the same time, millennials have grown up with loud opposition to the humanities and a liberal arts education due to low employment rates and high student loan debt, particularly during the Great Recession. In a 2010 article that was less than optimistic about the future of the humanities within American higher education, Dr. Frank Donoghue wrote, "When we claim to wonder whether the humanities will survive the twenty first century, we're really asking, 'Will the humanities have a place in the standard higher-education curriculum in the United States?'" Yet, hip-hop continues to permeate higher education. Since the early 1990s, colleges have offered hundreds of classes on hip-hop and all major universities now offer at least one course including hip-hop, largely under the umbrella of the humanities.
As the population of high school graduates moves towards a majority of students of color, the inclusion of the cultural and artistic phenomenon of hip-hop, an art form birthed out of the Bronx, NY by African-American youth, is essential.
The impetus of Dr. Bettina Love's fellowship project, Get Free: Hip Hop Civics Education, is to nurture the ways in which students intellectually connect with the art form but also to create a space within the humanities where diverse solutions to today's problems can be addressed. This speaks to the ways in which hip-hop and by extension, the humanities, will have a permanent place in higher-education curriculum in the United States. According to Dr. Bettina Love, "centering Hip Hop in the classroom exposes students to the ingenuity, genius, and creativity of urban youth past and present. When Hip Hop scholars place Hip Hop in the context of higher education, the robustness of Hip Hop culture allows us to have complex class discussions about the contemporary everyday realities of urban youth who endure the social, economic, physiological, and psychological trauma of coping with the racial injustices of 'post-racial' America."
As millennials architect the Civil Rights Movement of our time to destroy systemic racism, police brutality, economic disenfranchisement, failing public schools in urban areas and White supremacy, hip hop can be accredited as the blueprint of the movement. Hip hop is one of the premier pedagogies for self-determination and resistance - particularly at this moment in time when high levels of state violence and domestic terrorism towards people of color has birthed the banner axiom that Black Lives Matter, according to Nas Fellow Dr. Bettina Love.
Dr. Love will begin her fellowship work in January of 2016 on campus at Harvard University, at which time she will work on creating a curriculum that teaches students how to use the fifth element of Hip-hop - Knowledge of Self and Community - to help create counter-narratives that reflect students' current social and cultural identities, while imagining new possibilities for justice.
For Dr. Love, a professor at the University of Georgia, the recent police killings of unarmed Black men and the subsequent failure to indict police officers in these cases has shown us that urban youth are users of multi-modal platforms in which they have created hashtags like #ICantBreathe (referring to Garner's documented last words), #HandsUpDontShoot (in reference to Brown's alleged last action), and #BlackLivesMatter in order to bring the pain and realities of Black people to the forefront of public conversation. Dr. Love states, "these highly visible platforms for discussing such issues highlight the need for informal and formal educational spaces for youth to learn, discuss, vent, heal, resist, and escape - if not only in their minds - from the stress and fatigue of subtle and overt racial hostility toward Black and Brown bodies. 
Thus, it is equally important for educators to establish curricula that teach urban youth how to create sustainable change through local and community engagement, rooted in the culture and fearless voice of urban America".
As higher education continues to embrace hip-hop despite the controversy surrounding its inclusion, scholars like Dr. Love remind us that courses within the humanities that connect current sociopolitical concerns juxtaposed with the need to educate an increasingly diverse student population is key to the future of higher education.
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Sheena C. Howard is the author of Black Queer Identity Matrix  and Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation and  Professor of Communication Studies at Rider University.

Revisiting an Underground Classic of Black Satire: 'Oreo' by Fran Ross

Erik CarterIn 1974, Fran Ross published her first and only novel, Oreo. The satirical tale of a biracial teenager’s Theseus-style quest to find her father was almost completely overlooked in its era. Now, more than 4 decades later, its re-issue is being met with critical praise.  On the Media's Mythili Rao explores why Ross’s take on racial identity was so ahead of its time with Mat Johnson , Harryette Mullen , Mark Anthony Neal and Danzy Senna.

Duke Professor Mark Anthony Neal Discusses #SandraBland Arrest Video with France24

Duke University Professor and Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal discusses the arrest video of the late #SandraBland and the lack of professionalism and restraint exhibited by the arresting officer with France24's Mark Owen.

The Death of Coalhouse Walker, Jr. (from Ragtime)--Remembering E.L. Doctorow

Sam Jackson...Howard Rollins...Frankie FaisonOne of E.L. Doctorow's literary contributions was the novel Ragtime (1975) which was adapted into a Tony Award winning musical and film, that was nominated for eight Academy Awards.  The late actor Howard E. Rollins, Jr. was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the pianist Coalhouse Walker, Jr.  Walker is transformed in the novel and film after the death of his wife Sarah (portrayed by Debbie Allen) at the hands of law enforcement.

Senior Policy Analyst Vernon Herron: Officer Let Emotions Control Him During #SandraBland Incident

'The Waller County Sheriff’s Department is under more scrutiny after the release of dashcam video showing activist #SandraBland’s traffic stop arrest and her interaction with an officer just days before her body was found hanging in a Texas jail cell. Simone Del Rosario speaks with policy analyst Vernon Herron of the University of Baltimore, Maryland about the case.' -- +RT America