Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 763

Duke Symposium to Explore Impact of ‘Scandal’ TV Producer Shonda Rhimes

Duke Symposium to Explore Impact of ‘Scandal’ TV Producer Shonda Rhimes
DURHAM, NC - The popular television shows “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” that comprise ABC’s Thursday night primetime viewing have become “must-see TV” for millions of Americans. 

All were produced by black screenwriter Shonda Rhimes. 

A Duke symposium, Jan. 29-30, will explore Rhimes’ impact on mainstream television through her inclusion of richly drawn, complex black female characters such as Olivia Pope. Pope, played by actress Kerry Washington, is the first black female lead of a primetime drama since the mid-1970s. 

“ShondaLand, the Symposium,” named for Rhimes’ production company, will bring together female scholars in the fields of history, women’s studies, law, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, black diaspora studies and media studies to explore the implications of Rhimes’ work.

The event begins with a 7:30 p.m. reception and 8 p.m. season premiere watch party of all three ABC shows on Thursday, Jan. 29, at Durham’s Full Frame Theater on the American Tobacco Campus (320 Blackwell St.). The event, as well as parking, is free and open to the public. 

The symposium continues the following day at the Forum for Scholars & Publics (011 Old Chemistry building) on Duke’s West campus. A 9:30–11:30 a.m. panel discussion, “I Woke Up Like This: Desire & Respectability in ShondaLand,” will address black women and desire, and how respectability might stifle sexuality. 

A second panel, from noon to 2 p.m., “You Gotta Testify Because the Booty Don’t Lie: The (Il)Legality of Black Womanhood,” will examine the ways black women’s bodies are, and are not, protected by the law and how women, in the context of ShondaLand, might be emboldened to challenge the status quo.  

The symposium is co-sponsored by the Duke Forum for Scholars and Publics, the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship, and the Durham County Library.

For more information, visit the Duke Forum for Scholars and Publics website.

Larry Wilmore's 'Nightly Show' Brings A New Voice To Late Night TV

Larry Wilmore, the former Daily Show correspondent becomes the only Black man currently hosting an entertainment show on late night TV. 

Using Graphic Novels to Teach a New Generation about Black History

In this preview of Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal is joined by Joel Christian Gill to talk about his graphic novels, STRANGE FRUIT vol. 1: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History  and BASS REEVES: Tales of the Talented Tenth (Fulcrum Books). Gill is the Associate Dean of Student Affairs at the New Hampshire Institute of Art.

Op-Doc: The Black Panthers Revisited

In this short Op-Doc for New York Times Video, director Stanley Nelson draws links between the police violence that led to the formation of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and the contemporary mobilization in-response to police violence. Nelson's latest film THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY: Vanguard of the Revolution makes its world premiere at this year's SUNDANCE FESTIVAL.

José James & Talia Billig: "A Change Gonna Come"--#PeacePowerChange

José James is joined by Talia Billig in this stirring rendition of Sam Cooke's iconic "A Change is Gonna Come." #PeacePowerChange

Felipe Luciano on Defending Black Life from THE BLACK PANTHERS: Vanguard of the Revolution (dir. Stanley Nelson)

“The cops were beyond a symbol of capitalism; these MFers were killing people”--Felipe Luciano from Stanley Nelson's new film THE BLACK PANTHERS: Vanguard of the Revolution .

Left of Black S5:E16: On Prison Art, Public Culture and Racial Icons

Left of Black S5:E16:  On Prison Art, Public Culture and Racial Icons

Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan) is joined in-studio by Professor Nicole Fleetwood, who talks about her forthcoming project Carceral Aesthetics: Prison Art and Public Culture.  Fleetwood is Associate Professor of American Studies and Director of the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.  She is author of Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness (University of Chicago Press 2011)  and On Racial Icons, which will be published by Rutgers University Press later this year.
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).
*** Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in @ iTunes U*** Follow Left of Black on Twitter: @LeftofBlack

AfroBytes: FIRST KISS (a film by Ashley Denise)

"In this clever short, from Ashley Denise, a group of strangers are paired up for their first kiss to some rather hilarious results." 
AfroBytes is a series of curated shorts about the Black experience with a spotlight on innovators, disruptors and content creators in the digital space. AfroBytes’ first series shines a spotlight on Project Catalyst, a trans-media platform that combines creative community building, with cinema, art, music and technology. -- National Black Programming Consortium

Christopher Emdin Discusses High Poverty Rates in US Public Schools

Columbia University Professor Christopher Emdin discusses new report from the Southern Education Foundation which shows that 51% of public school students come from low income households. -- Al Jazeera America

The Carpetbagger: David Oyelowo on MLK and SELMA

"I think I was the beneficiary of being able to go in quite cleanly because of a culturally removed sensibility in approaching it" says David Oyelowo of his portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. in SELMA--New York Times Video