Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 721

"We gon be Alright..." Sound & Visuals from Kendrick Lamar + Text by Krista Thompson

'Despite the prominence of visual expression in contemporary hip-hop, many art historians, curators, and critics often frame hip-hop primarily as a musical genre or employ analytical approaches derived from the study of hip-hop's sonic iterations." -- Krista Thompson, Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice (216)

Joy Reid: #WhoIsBurningBlackChurches

The FBI and ATF are now helping investigate a string of fires at black churches in the South since the massacre in Charleston.  Joy Reid talks with All in with Chris Hayes about #WhoIsBurningBlackChurches.

"Who Owns the Soul?" At the Intersection of Commerce + Black Politics

Fear of a Black Planet @ 25—#DukeHistoryofHipHop : “Who Stole the Soul"”

In commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the release of Public Enemy’s seminal Fear of a Black Planet , students in the “History of Hip-Hop” course, co-taught by Patrick Douthit (9th Wonder) and Mark Anthony Neal, at Duke University were charged with creating digital projects that translated the album’s historical significance into contemporary contexts. In this film short students make connections to the corporate ownership of Black music and Black political resistance.
Many thanks to digital consultant Archana Gowda and Duke librarian Karen Jean Hunt, for their contributions to this project, as well as course teaching assistants Gloria Ayee, I. Augustus Durham and Dr. Danielle Parker. This project was supported by the Department of African & African American Studies and the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Anthony Pinn: What Atheists Can Learn from Hip Hop Culture

Anthony B. Pinn,  the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University, discusses what Atheists can learn from Hip Hop Culture. Pinn is the author/editor of several books including The Hip Hop and Religion Reader (2014) and Religion in Hip Hop: Mapping the New Terrain in the US.

Jonathan Kozol Reads from his First Book 'Death at an Early Age'

Perhaps best known for his classic Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools , Jonathan Kozol reads from his first book Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (1968) as part of NPR's 50 Great Teachers series. In the  book Koz0l recounts being fired from a Boston school for teaching a Langston Hughes poem.

#LeftofBlackSummer: Talking #BlackMusicMatters with Guthrie Ramsey, Jr. + Shana Redmond

#LeftofBlackSummer: Talking #BlackMusicMatters with Guthrie Ramsey, Jr. + Shana Redmond
Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan) is joined via Skype by Shana Redmond—Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and Guthrie Ramsey, Jr.–Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.
Neal and his guests discuss the role of Black music in  Black political struggles and current artists that are in conversation with multi-genre traditions of Black music. Redmond is the author Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora  (New York University Press, 2013) and Ramsey is now classic Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (University of California Press, 2003) + The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History and the Challenge of Bebop (2013). 

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

Black Music and the Aesthetics of Protest

Neo Muyanga’s opera The Struggle serves as a departure point for a panel discussion exploring the role of Black opera and other genres of Black music in achieving racial justice and social change and the future revolutionary potential of historically defined Black musical genres. Moderated by Tamara Levitz, Professor of Musicology, UCLA, the panelists include Guthrie Ramsey, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professorof Music , University of Pennsylvania; Robin Kelley, Gary B. Nash Professor of American History, UCLA; Shana Redmond, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California; and Gayle Murchison, Associate Professor of Musicology, College of William and Mary; Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of African and African-American Studies, Duke University.

Soul vs. Soul: "Hello Like Before"--Bill Withers + Jon Lucien

"Hello Like Before'" is a timeless tale--reconnecting with a long lost love, both remembering and wondering, with a tinge of hurt and hope.  And these were two Grown men singing this song, written and originally recorded by Bill Withers, on his debut on the Columbia label in 1975, after making his name on Clarence Avant's Sussex Label. Jon Lucien's "Rashida" could have been the prequel, especially as Withers' label-mate put his own dark and sexy spin on "Hello Like Before" a year later.

#BlackMusicMatters: 15 Songs Every Lover of Black Music Should Know

photo credit: Whitney Thomas#BlackMusicMatters: 15 Songs Every Lover of Black Music Should KnowCurated by Dyana Williams | @DyanaWilliams | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Legendary radio host and music industry insider, Dyana Williams--also known as the Mother of Black Music Month--collaborated with NewBlackMan (in Exile) to curate a playlist of songs  that every “Lover of Black Music Should Know.”
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It’s a Wonderful World—Louis Armstrong


Blue in Green—Miles Davis


 
Strange Fruit—Billie Holiday



Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud—James Brown


Someday We’ll All Be Free—Donny  Hathaway


One Nation Under a Groove—Funkadelic


Four Women—Nina  Simone


My Favorite Things—John Coltrane


Here’s to Life—Shirley Horn


The Creator Has a Master Plan—Leon Thomas


Daydreaming—Aretha  Franklin


By the Time I Get to Phoenix—Isaac Hayes


Completeness—Minnie Riperton


Hot Fun in the Summertime—Sly and the Family Stone


Tell Me a Bedtime Story—Herbie Hancock

"Everything was analog; nothing was digital"--Bilal on his New Album 'In Another Life'

Bilal talks about his new recording In Another Life with NPR's All Things Considered.