Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 8

In Context: How The U.S. Stole This Paradise Island

'The story of what happened to the Chagossians still isn’t widely known. But it’s one filled with lies, conspiracy and a violent plan by the U.S. and UK to remove them from their homeland for a military base.'

At the HBCU Swingman Classic, Pro baseball Confronts its Decline in Black players

'Jackie Robinson's sport is at a low point in professional Black American representation. An exhibition game spearheaded by Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. and others aims to help change that.'

Left of Black S13 · E17 | Dr. Tara T. Green on the Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Not much has been written on the life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson––until now. For many people she was mainly known as the wife of famed poet and novelist, Paul Laurence Dunbar. But Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a poet, essayist, and activist very much in her own right and power. Prof. Tara T. Green, Chair of African American Studies at University of Houston, joins Left of Black host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss her latest book, Love, Activism, and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson (Bloomsbury Publishing).

The Fantastical, Wearable Art of Nick Cave Embodies a ‘Spirituality of Style’

'The US artist, designer and dancer Nick Cave is perhaps best known for his Soundsuits series. Built from found objects, these fantastical, wearable sculptures seem like clothing made for an uncanny parallel universe or a peculiar future, once they are meticulously finished and joyfully danced in. But, as this short documentary explores, Soundsuits – deeply influenced by Cave’s time finding liberation on the dance floor as a queer Black man – are, like the rest of his work, very much intended to grapple with the here and now. Created to accompany the career-spanning exhibition Nick Cave: Forothermore, which was on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City from November 2022 to April 2023, this film features Cave and the US art scholar Meida McNeal detailing how his works incorporate elements of disco and carnival culture, and exist in response to marginalisation and oppression.'

Nick Cave: Forothermore from Guggenheim Museum on Vimeo.

New Books Network: Kidada E. Williams | I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction

'In I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction (Bloomsbury, 2023), Kidada E. Williams offers a breakthrough account of the much-debated Reconstruction period, transporting readers into the daily existence of formerly enslaved people building hope-filled new lives. Drawing on overlooked sources and bold new readings of the archives, Williams offers a revelatory and, in some cases, minute-by-minute record of nighttime raids and Ku Klux Klan strikes. And she deploys cutting-edge scholarship on trauma to consider how the effects of these attacks would linger for decades--indeed, generations--to come.'

Conversations in Atlantic Theory • Rima Vesely-Flad on Black Buddhists & the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation

'Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad is the author of Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press, 2017). She is the Visiting Professor of Buddhism and Black Studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she teaches classes on Buddhism and social justice. In this discussion we explore her latest monograph, Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition:The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (New York University Press, 2022). Dr. Vesely-Flad Black Buddhist teachers’ insights into Buddhist wisdom, and how they align Buddhism with Black radical teachings, helping to pull Buddhism away from dominant white cultural norms. You can learn more about her work on her website BuddhismandBlackVoices.com.'

Climate Change, Decolonization, & Global Blackness | Danielle Purifoy: "Plantations Are Not Forests"

'Danielle Purifoy, an assistant professor of Geography at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examines the contemporary timber industry as a reproduction of plantation power via remote control which occurs through absentee landowners, Black family land grabs, new markets for energy, and legal regimes designed to "devalue" common property in favor of individual ownership and profit-seeking productivity. Black rural histories can teach us about alternative modes of forest relations and interdependence that counter the economic interests driven by capitalism.'

SciGirls Stories: Black Women in STEM | Shakiyla Huggins – Meeting the Challenge

'Shakiyla Huggins recounts how a fifth-grade teacher recognized her gift for math and really challenged her mind, awakening her to a love of math and teaching that put her on a path to STEM education, where she shines the brightest.'

Brandee Younger: Tiny Desk Concert

'In her stunning Tiny Desk, the artist Brandee Younger demonstrates her ability to showcase all sides of the harp, from an instrument in classical music to contemporary pop.' 

Donovan X. Ramsey: Why the Crack Cocaine Epidemic Hit Black Communities 'first and worst'

  '"We won't heal until we make sense of the crack epidemic," Donovan X. Ramsey tells NPR Fresh Air co-host Tonya Mosley. His book, When Crack Was King, examines the drug's destructive path through the Black community.'