Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 804

The Spin: Staceyann Chin, Dr Salamishah Tillet & dream Hampton Talk #Ferguson & Brazil's 'Virginity Test'

The Spin 8.20.14

Michael Brown & Renisha McBride: Is America addicted to false notions of white innocence and black guilt? 

Brazil's Sao Paulo holds virginity tests for under 25 year olds applying for state jobs. 

Leadership, Power & the challenge of the Ivy League. 

Featuring Staceyann Chin, Dr Salamishah Tillet, & dream Hampton with host Esther Armah

How Do You Have 'The Talk' with Your Black Child If You're not Black Yourself?

Credit: Stephanie Boone PRI | The Takeaway
"Raising a black child has certainly awoken my awareness to race in America," Fisher-Paulson says.

Rage On by David Wall Rice

Rage On By David Wall Rice | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
The killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed, Black teenager who was gunned down by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer and left dead in the street for hours, is a horror that pushes on the collective conscience of the Nation –again.  We've been here before.  It is soul stirring, but has become normal for those who understand the angles of living as a Black person in the United States of America. 
Then there is the other, those who privilege remove and respectability.  It must be noted though that the malaise of cognitive dissonance that envelops the 'respectable' in their judgment of the rebellious protester, and even the peaceable one is bound in a National lie.  The lie is that we value Black lives.  And the rage comes because the lie is told with smiles and platitudes, smoking gun in hand and a corpse at the liar's feet.
Michael Brown. Ezell Ford. Eric Garner. Renisha McBride. Trayvon Martin. Jordan Davis. Oscar Grant . . .
The turn, then, is that the protest, the anger, the rage is the truth.  It is healthy and justifiable.  But we are told to muffle it, conflating "there is never an excuse for violence against police, or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting."  The statement, wrong on its face, misrepresents the people and core functions of rebellion against a society, and a government, and a city, and its militarized police force with crosshairs trained on the activist as aggressor when terrorism has been visited upon him and her.
Rage here is the real, but not in the Grier and Cobbs (1968) sense, exactly.  It is cathartic and common sense.  Rage is a hammer, a tool that can be situated to effectively confront and ameliorate violent racism that is pushed onto the Black community. It is a truth that we are told to tuck into a perverted democracy that asks us to play equality by an oppressor's standard.
Rage on then.  Inhabit an authentic democratic space demanding the representation of equality. Rage and protest. Rage and read. Rage and write. Rage and learn. Rage and teach. Rage and resist the justified killing of Black people.
With the killing of Michael Brown, to not rage is to lie.
***

David Wall Rice is associate professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Morehouse College. At the College he also leads the Identity Orchestration Research Lab and serves as faculty for the Cinema, Television and Emerging Media Studies (CTEMS)program.  In addition to social critique and commentary across media outlets, David has is currently at work on his writing his second book, Race, Gender, Class and Context: Being and Becoming More.

Remembering 'WattStax': Black Business, Black Activism & Black Art

Staple Singers


“Like the live recordings of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley and Donny Hathaway, the WattStax recordings presented black popular music in an organic context that highlighted massive audience interaction with the music…The singular presence of Rev. Jesse Jackson, harking to Adderley and in particular  the Country Preacher recording session at Jackson’s Operation Breadbasket , suggested that the triad of black corporate responsibility, political activism , and quality aesthetics could serve as a paradigm for African American empowerment beyond the limitations of grassroots and organic movements.” – What the MusicSaid: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1998)

'Fit the Battle': Honoring the Art and Politics of Paul Robeson @ The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (Aug 21st)

'Fit the Battle' is a performance and commemoration created for Peekskill, NY that honors the legacy of singer, Civil Rights activist, actor and athlete Paul Robeson and his celebrated baritone voice.It will take place on Thursday, August 21st from 6-8 PM at Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (1701 Main St, Peekskill, NY 10566).The project is directed by Justin Randolph Thompson , a sculptor and new media artist born in Peekskill, NY, in collaboration with Bradly Dever Treadaway and Jason Thompson. The piece uses monumental sculpture and the largest ever gathering of Baritone Saxophones to immortalize the fervor and spirit of this critical figure of American history and his global reaching vision of unity. Duke University Professor of African & African American Studies, Mark Anthony Neal, will offer a keynote address linking Robeson's work as an artist and activist.

"They Don't Really Care About Us" (The Prison Video)--Michael Jackson

Historian Blair LM Kelley Reflects On Michael Brown And Dred Scott

Here & Now | WBUR
There have been violent protests against the police in Ferguson, Missouri, for more than a week, since police shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown.An African-American professor watching the situation sees a link between what’s happening in Missouri today and what happened in the state in the 1800s when it was at the center of the national debate and divide over slavery.Blair Kelley, who teaches history at North Carolina State University, finds parallels between Michael Brown and Dred Scott, a slave who sued for his freedom and ultimately lost his case in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857.

'August 19, Midnight in Ferguson' by Stephane Dunn

August 19, Midnight in Ferguson  by Stephane Dunn | NewBlackMan (in Exile)                 Garrett Morgan is turning over in his grave
          The gas is on, the people don’t have masks
          Sam Greenlee is turning over in his grave
          A Spook Who Sat by the Door is rising            Gil Scott Heron is turning over in his grave            Revolution is being televised in Ferguson city streets
            Nina Simone and Lorraine Hansberry are turning over in their graves               Oh, To be Young, Gifted, and Black that's where it's at
       Emmett Till is turning over in his grave
            Mamie, Sabrina, and Leslie pray, cry, and agree
             Dred Scott is turning over in his grave

            Or maybe his bones are being redeemed

"Phoenix"-- Buckshot LeFonque (aka Branford Marsalis) feat Frank McComb

Course: Michael Jackson & The Black Performance Archive | Duke University, Fall 2014

Course is Open to the Public
Michael Jackson & The Black Performance Archive
Duke University | Fall Semester 2014Wednesday @ 6:15pm – 8:45pm | White Lecture Hall (107)Duke East Campus
Instructor:
Mark Anthony Neal, Ph.D. | man9@duke.edu| 919.684.3987Twitter: @NewBlackMan  
Course Description
A central premise of ‘Michael Jackson and the Black Performance Archive’ is the question, “Where did Michael Jackson come from?”  While there are facts—he was born on August 29, 1958 in a Rust Belt city named Gary, Indiana—what the course aims to answer are the broader questions of Jackson’s cultural, social, political and even philosophical origins.
The course posits the Black Performance tradition as a living and breathing archive that helped produce Jackson’s singular creative genius within the realms of music, movement and politics, including the influence of Black vernacular practices like signifying and sampling, the network of Black social spaces known as the Chitlin’ Circuit, the impact of Black migration patterns to urban spaces in the Midwest (like Gary, Chicago and Detroit—all critical to Jackson’s artistic development) and Black performance traditions including Blackface minstrelsy. 
As such the course thinks of Jackson’s relationship to the archive in three specific ways: 
1) The literal archive of Michael Jackson’s recordings and performances 2) Michael Jackson’s relationship to the archives of African American Performance and American Ephemera 3) Michael Jackson as Archive—exploring Jackson as Intellectual Property
In addition the course will examine the social constructions of Blackness and gender (Black masculinity) through the prism of Michael Jackson’s performance, highlighting his role as a trickster figure and shape-shifter with the context of African-American vernacular practices.
Books
Blues People: Negro Music in America | Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story of America’s First Black Star |  Camille F. Forbes
The One: The Life and Music of James Brown | RJ Smith
Moonwalk | Michael Jackson
Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson  | Joseph Vogel

Michael Jackson, Inc.: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire | Zack O’Malley Greenburg