Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 826

Ronald McDonald Crashes Wage Theft Protest

Raise Up for 15 | NC Raise Up
Fast Food Workers converge on Durham, North Carolina to bring attention to corporate wage theft and find themselves in a heated exchange with corporate defender Ronald McDonald!

Truth in Advertising: Should Photoshop Use Be Regulated?

The Representation Project
A discussion of the "Truth in Advertising Act," a new piece of legislation which aims to put a regulatory framework around photoshopping in advertising. 

Remixing the Blues: Olu Dara

NBPC
In 2007 NBPC's New Media Institute brought emerging producers down to the Delta, Jackson Mississippi and set them loose on the Blues Traill to produce content using small format technology, locative media, camera phones and much more. Here a team of producers, including writer Charlie Braxton, explore a very special relationship between hip hop sensation Nas and his blues roots father Olu Dara.

Left of Black S4:E29: Senegalese Praise Poets and the Force of Blackness in Popular Music

Left of Black S4:E29:  Senegalese Praise Poets and the Force of Blackness in Popular Music
Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined in studio by  Ali Coleen Neff , Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African American Studies at William and Mary College. Neff is the author of Let the World Listen Right: The Mississippi Delta Hip-Hop Story (University Press of Mississippi).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.
Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in @ iTunes U
Follow Left of Black on Twitter: @LeftofBlack
Follow Mark Anthony Neal on Twitter: @NewBlackMan

USA Swimming Foundation Presents 6th Annual 'Make a Splash' Tour

USA Swimming Foundation
(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.), April 21, 2014 
The USA Swimming Foundation, in association with Phillips 66, will kick off the sixth annual Make a Splash Tour presented by Phillips 66 on May 6, 2014 in Sweeny, Texas, with a series of press events, water safety information sessions and free to low-cost swimming lessons at local partner pools throughout the country.
The national tour will feature appearances by newly appointed USA Swimming Foundation Ambassadors: three-time Olympic Gold Medalist and American-record-holder for 50 and 100-yard freestyle Nathan Adrian, Olympic Gold Medalist Anthony Ervin, andreturning this year are four-time Olympic Gold Medalist Janet Evans andswimming legend and Olympic Gold Medalist Rowdy Gaines. Celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary this year, the USA Swimming Foundation has raised over $16 million to-date in support of its mission to save lives and build champions.
"The USA Swimming Foundation is committed to preserving innocent lives and building safer communities,” said Debbie Hesse, Executive Director of the USA Swimming Foundation. “We are incredibly proud of the impact the Make a Splash Tour has made over the past five years and plan to continue educating and increasing awareness of swimming as a life skill. We are also thankful to Phillips 66, and our partners for helping us spread the message on the importance of water safety.”
The USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash initiative is a national, child-focused water safety campaign. Through this initiative, the Foundation seeks to change the startling drowning statistics through three key efforts: save lives by teaching children the lifesaving skill of swimming through its national Make a Splash Local Partner Network, raise national awareness of the importance of learning to swim, and bring together a coalition of partners aligned to end drowning in the U.S.
Currently, there are more than 600 Make a Splash local partners throughout the country and more than 2.2 million kids have taken swim lessons through the Make a Splash partner network. The initiative has garnered high-profile media attention from various outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, CNN Heroes, The Doctors, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, and the NBC News award-winning piece “A Swimmer’s Mission” with journalist Tamron Hall.
Olympic Gold Medalists Nathan Adrian and Anthony Ervin are no strangers to the importance of childhood swimming – Adrian’s parents felt very strongly about having each of their children participate in water safety and awareness programs when they were young, starting Adrian swimming at the age of five; while Ervin, after retiring from swimming back in 2004, returned to the Olympics in 2012 after spending several years teaching children to swim at clubs in New York City and Oakland, CA.
Olympic Gold Medalist Janet Evans knows about the importance of teaching children to swim. As a mother herself, she has dedicated her work to further the cause of battling childhood drowning and to share life-saving advice that can help parents protect their children. Having worked with the Foundation in 2013, Evans will serve as the official “Make a Splash Mom” in 2014.
Since 1973, Phillips 66's contributions have supported the USA Swimming community through National Championships and other international competitions, publication of club development materials, and many additional endeavors. The Make A Splash Tour, which the company has sponsored since the program’s inception in 2009, is a natural extension of its dedication to safety.
"Our support of the Make A Splash Tour emphasizes Phillips 66’s commitment to safety and recognizes the necessity of engaging our society in building awareness for such an essential lifesaving skill,” said Kristi DesJarlais, Manager, Corporate Brand and Community Investments for Phillips 66. 
Sobering Drowning Statistics: Approximately 10 people drown every day in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and at least one in five fatal drowning victims are children younger than 14. Only 13 percent of children who come from a non-swimming household will ever learn to swim, according to a national research study by the USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis.
Seventy percent of African American children, 60 percent of Hispanic/Latino children and 40 percent of Caucasian children have little to no swimming abilities. African American children drown at a rate nearly three times higher than their Caucasian peers, the CDC reports.
Drowning is also a silent killer; most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes and were in the care of one or both parents at the time, according to the Present P. Child Drowning study.
About the USA Swimming Foundation The USA Swimming Foundation serves as the philanthropic arm of USA Swimming.  Established in 2004, the Foundation works to strengthen the sport by saving lives and building champions— in the pool and in life. Whether we’re equipping our children with the life-saving skill of learn-to-swim through our Make a Splash initiative, or providing financial support to our heroes on the U.S. National Team, the USA Swimming Foundation aims to provide the wonderful experience of swimming to kids at all levels across the country. To learn more, visit www.usaswimmingfoundation.org.
About Phillips 66 Built on more than 130 years of experience, Phillips 66 is a growing energy manufacturing and logistics company with high-performing Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties businesses. This integrated portfolio enables Phillips 66 to capture opportunities in a changing energy landscape. Headquartered in Houston, the company has 13,500 employees who are committed to operating excellence and safety. Phillips 66 had $50 billion of assets as of Dec. 31, 2013. For more information, visit www.phillips66.comor follow us on Twitter @Phillips66Co.

For more information about USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash initiative and the 2014 Make a Splash Tour presented by Phillips 66, visit: www.usaswimmingfoundation.org/makeasplash

'Left of Black' Preview: Think of Beyoncé as a Contemporary Mami Wata

The Root


Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal sits down to talk with Ali Colleen Neff about her work with Senegalese praise poets, Mami Wata and sea punk. Neff is a visiting assistant professor at the College of William & Mary in the departments of anthropology and African-American studies.

Light And Dark: The Racial Biases That Remain In Photography

Syreeta McFadden/Courtesy of the artist

Huffpost Live: Karyn Washington, Black Beauty & Suicide

Huffpost Live
Karyn Washington, celebrated creator of the 'For Brown Girls' blog, lost her life to suicide at the age of 22. We take a look at Washington's legacy of black female empowerment, and explore issues of mental health in communities of color.Hosted by: Marc Lamont HillGuests:Janet Mock @janetmock (New York , NY) Writer and Social Justice AdvocateTai'sha Gooden @taigooden (Newport News, VA) Writer; Author of 'Amour Rising'Terrie M. Williams LCSW @TerrieWilliams (New York, NY) Mental Health ActivistTy Alexander @gorgeousingrey (New York, NY) Lifestyle Writer, GorgeousInGrey.com

A Small Tablet Company Brings High-Tech Hopes To Haiti

Left of Black S4:E28: Iconic Women Singers & African American Literature

Left of Black S4:E28:  Iconic Women Singers & African American Literature
Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined in studio by  Emily J. Lordi , author of Black Resonance: Iconic Women Singers and African American Literature (Rutgers University Press).  Lordi is an assistant professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.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.
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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
Follow Mark Anthony Neal on Twitter: @NewBlackMan