Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 834

W. Kamau Bell On The Danger Of The White Obsession With Lupita Nyong'o

HuffPost Live
Comedian W. Kamau Bell sits down with Marc Lamont Hill to chat about his new stand-up tour 'Oh Everything', comedy and White obsession with Lupita Nyong'o.

Portlandia's "History of Hip-Hop"

Portlandia – I Missed Hip Hop

Carrie teaches Fred about the history of Hip Hop.

Historian Peniel Joseph Talks New Book 'Stokely: A Life'

David Fenton / Getty Images

Summer @ Duke: Black Cinema from Spike Lee to Tyler Perry to Ava Duvernay

She's Gotta Have It (dir. Spike Lee, 1986)Black Cinema from Spike Lee to Tyler Perry to Ava DuvernayProfessor Mark Anthony Neal
Duke UniversityAfrican & African American Studies—AAAS 390s-01Program in Art of the Moving Image—AMI 390s-01Visual and Media Studies—VMS 290s-01
Summer Session OneM.T.Th—12:30 pm – 2:35 pmPerkins LINK 2 – 060
The release of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (1986) began a relative renaissance of mainstream Black filmmaking—a dynamic that was furthered with the emergence of accessible digital technology in the 1990s.  As Lee has maintained his status as a pseudo-Hollywood outsider (with measured critical acclaim), Tyler Perry has leveraged the spending habits of his base-audience to become the most commercially successful Black filmmaker of his generation. Within these two narratives are the struggles faced by Black independent filmmakers.
The course will examine contemporary Black film, with an emphasis on the role of Black film in the hyper-visuality of Blackness in the digital era, as well as the debates over what constitutes “Black” film, the distribution and promotional challenges faced by independent Black filmmakers, and the role of non-Black filmmakers in presenting the Black experience in film.

Directors examined may include: Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Kasi Lemmons, John Singleton, Ava Duvernay, Dee Rees, Tonya Hamilton, Haile Gerima, Charles Burnett, Leslie Harris, Mira Nair, and Tim Disney.

Left of Black Preview: Black, Gay, Southern Men Embodied in 'Sweet Tea'

Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal sits down with professor E. Patrick Johnson to talk about his play  Sweet Tea. Professor Johnson is the Carlos Montezuma Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University.Sweet Tea was published as a book in 2011. At the time, Amazon described it this way:
Giving voice to a population too rarely acknowledged, Sweet Tea collects more than sixty life stories from black gay men who were born, raised, and continue to live in the South. E. Patrick Johnson challenges stereotypes of the South as 'backward' or 'repressive' and offers a window into the ways black gay men negotiate their identities, build community, maintain friendship networks, and find sexual and life partners--often in spaces and activities that appear to be antigay. Ultimately, Sweet Tea validates the lives of these black gay men and reinforces the role of storytelling in both African American and southern cultures.
The stage version of Sweet Tea will be touring this spring at Williams College, Morehouse College, Spelman College and Brown University.

Ava DuVernay's 'Black Women in Hollywood' Speech

Essence

Ava DuVernay speaks on why the pre-Oscars event gives Black women in Hollywood a sense of validation.

Prince on the 'Arsenio Hall Show': Hair and Omelettes

The Arsenio Hall Show
Prince sat down to answer questions from his fans in Arsenio's audience. They asked him about his pet peeves and chores he does around the house. You won't believe the things people to do Prince and what he'll make you for breakfast--it's not pancakes. 

Book Trailer: 'The Cultural Impact of Kanye West' (edited by Julius Bailey)

The Cultural Impact of Kanye West (Palgrave Macmillan) ed. by Julius Bailey
The ability of popular art to offer societal critiques and challenge received ideas has been recognized throughout history. Through rap and hip-hop, composers, singers, and entertainers have recently provided a voice questioning and challenging the sanctioned view of the times. This book offers an in-depth reading of the works and cultural impact of Kanye West. Looking at the moral and social implications of West's words, images, and music in the broader context of Western civilization's preconceived ideas, the contributors consider how West both challenges religious and moral norms and propagates them.

The Ebony Fashion Fair: Changing History On The Catwalk

Left of Black S4:E22: Archibald Motley—Jazz Age Modernist

Left of Black S4:E22:  Archibald Motley—Jazz Age Modernist
On location at The Nasher Museum of Art, Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined by noted Art Historian Richard J. Powell, curator of the new exhibit Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, the first retrospective of Motley’s work in two decades.  Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University.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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