Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 759

The Remix with James Braxton Peterson: #OscarsSoWhite — is Anyone Surprised?

"On this episode of The Remix, James Braxton Peterson talks to Maori Karmael Holmes, founder of Blackstar Film Festival, and Alex Gibson of the Philadelphia Film Society. They discuss DuVernay's Oscar snub and the future of more diverse Hollywood films. And they give their picks for independent films that may have been ignored by the Academy but that are great viewing choices."

The Spin: Revolutionary Black Love

Joan Morgan, Brittney Cooper and Cristina Greer join Esther Armah on The Spin in a conversation about Revolutionary Black Love.

John Hope Franklin Remembers Meeting James Weldon Johnson

The late historian John Hope Franklin recalls meeting James Weldon Johnson ('Life Ev'ry Voice and Sing") as a undergraduate student at Fisk University in the 1930s.  Franklin would have turned 100 years-old this year.

Choreographer Ronald K. Brown on THE SUBTLE ONE

Choreographer Ronald K. Brown discusses The Subtle One , his collaboration with noted Jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran. Brown and Moran will be in-residence at Duke University February 17-21st, where Duke Performances will present The Subtle One.

SELMA, BLACK MESSIAH & the Ethics of Loving Black by Mark Anthony Neal

Photographs by Dawoud Bey--"The Birmingham Project"SELMA, BLACK MESSIAH & the Ethics of Loving Blackby Mark Anthony Neal | NewBlackMan (in Exile) “Could you be love, and be loved?”—Bob Marley “Oh, in another life, I bet you wouldn't know that”—D’Angelo It was one of most genuine Loving Black moments that we’re likely to see in American cinema this year; Niecy Nash, portraying Coretta Scott King’s childhood friend Richie Jean Jackson, welcomes into her home, or quite literally her kitchen, a group of hungry Negroes.  The group, which included Martin Luther king Jr, Ralph Abernathy, James Orange, Hosea Williams and James Bevel, would use Jackson’s home to strategize the Selma campaign.  That scene though, with the free flow of grits and gravy...bacon and biscuits was a reminder of the ethic of Loving Black; you can’t be on the front lines with your belly empty.   History don’t often remember who was cooking it up in the Kitchen—unless it’s a tireless Black domestic praying for a new day—and yet Ava Duvernay gave us this small glimpse of Loving Black, to not only acknowledge the labor of women who were on the first line, if not the front line, but as a gesture of love to us. I’ve thought often about such gestures recently with regards to corporate media production. The occasions where We truly feel loved, by and within, that enterprise, are few and far between. Ava DuVernay’s SELMA and D’Angelo’s BLACK MESSIAH are visuals and sonics of Loving Black—an  ethical practice in which you never have to question that they (our artists)  and theirs (their art) are all in for us.  Loving Black is not simply the act of loving Black (though that’s something to aspire) but a something else, as in a politics in loving, as only Black can love itself, in a world where Black is so often perceived as absence, deficit and pathology.  A something unconditional. Loving Black are those women like Diane Nash, Jackson, Coretta Scott-King, Amelia Boynton (who still walks the earth at age 103), and Ella Baker, held tight the movement, even through benevolent patriarchy and homophobia of its male leadership. Baker, for example, might not have appeared in the film, but her spirit clearly informs DuVernay filmmaking; Baker is in that kitchen with Jackson; she is on that bridge being beat with Lorraine Toussaint’s Boynton. Loving Black. It is in the spirit of Loving Black, that I have been fundamentally stunned at the rancor and disparagement directed at SELMA and BLACK MESSIAH.   In a media landscape in which our humanity is regularly assaulted--and often enough at the hands of those who are ostensibly us--SELMA and BLACK MESSIAH are nothing short of open arms;  D’Angelo’s mumbling  sweet nothin’s in our collective ears—come a little closer.   Lacking in ridiculous claims for refunds for BLACK MESSIAH (as if the standards of art and love, wouldn’t demand refunds for much what passes for commercially viable Black music) or those Historians of the trained and arm-chair variety, who apparently attended screenings of SELMA with historical reference volumes sitting in  their laps—is what Historian and Cultural Critic Treva Lindsey calls a “Critical generosity.” Loving Black is about loving back what loves you, and loving it enough that when it don’t feel like love, it is love that delivers that message. Almost two generations ago, Bob Marley asked—in the midst of the first post-Civil Rights era nadir—“could [we] be love and be loved?”  The question. remains as relevant during this second nadir.  While we claim that #BlackLivesMatter, perhaps the relevant point should be do #BlackLivesLove?

Jay Smooth: Marshawn Lynch and the Theater of Disobedience

'In this installment of The Illipsis , Jay Smooth caps off the most recent NFL season by celebrating "this season's real MVP," Seattle Seahawks running back the Marshawn Lynch, whose ornery standoffishness should be considered a kind of guerrilla theater'. -- Fusion

Visual Literacy and Documenting a New Era of Social Protest

In this preview of the next Left of Black, filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris discusses the importance of visual literacy, as a new generation of photographers document the social protest in Ferguson and beyond. Harris latest film Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People premieres on PBS on Monday February 16, 2015 as part of the Independent Lens series.

John Hope Franklin on Reparations

The late historian John Hope Franklin , who would have been 100 this year, talks about the idea of Reparations for slavery, segregation and other racial injustices.

#DukeHipHop: Playlist from February 4, 2015

The History of Hip-Hop with 9th Wonder and Mark Anthony Neal:
Playlist from February 4, 2015 Class

Are Gun Companies Targeting Hip-Hop Fans Through YouTube Ads?

The Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) Founder, Adisa Banjoko is calling for Google and Youtube to stop serving ads for U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) and other gun related companies during rap songs play cycles.

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