Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 851

Getting Girls of Color Excited About Programming and Code

Mashable Originals
In college and during her career, Kimberly Bryant often found herself the only black female scientist in the room. The biotech engineer founded the Bay Area non-profit Black Girls CODE in 2011 so that today's young girls will never find themselves in that position. Bryant realized that it wasn't a lack of interest in science that led to a dearth of diversity in her field; it was a lack of access. Black Girls CODE's goal is to drive access and exposure, closing the digital divide.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects" (Official Music Video)

DapTone Records

Directed By Ryan Louie

Check out the official music video for Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings' "Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects," as heard in the 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

"Aint No Chimneys In The Projects" can be found on the band's album "Soul Time!" Get it on iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/mq7wfewLyrics:
When I was a child, I used to wonder
How Santa put my toys under the tree
I said, "Mama, can you tell me how this can be
When there ain't no chimneys in the projects?"

Ain't no chimneys in the projects (not in the ghetto)
Not in the projects
Ain't no chimneys in the projects

Mama sat me down and said, "Baby, Santa Claus does magic things."
As soon as you're asleep, a chimney will appear
And in the morning you will see all he brings.
Don't you worry that there ain't no chimneys in the projects."

Ain't no chimneys in the projects (not in the ghetto)
Not in the projects
Ain't no chimneys in the projects

Now I'm all grown and I see
It wasn't Santa who got that magic done
Mama, now I know you were the one
There ain't no chimneys in the projects

Ain't no chimneys in the projects (not in the ghetto)
Not in the projects
Ain't no chimneys in the projects

Skin in the Game—Supporting The Black Doctoral Network

Skin in the Game—Supporting The Black Doctoral Network by Mark Anthony Neal | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
My graduate school career began well before Facebook, Twitter and to some extent, even email.  What I remember most about those times was the sense of isolation that I experienced, seeing few other students who looked like me or shared any of my experiences.  I can remember the feeling of excitement whenever attended a national conference, knowing I’d have an opportunity to connect with established Black scholars. 
I have vivid memories of attending my first Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference in 1992.  Black literary critic Houston Baker Jr. was the association president that year and it was also the first time that I saw Wahneema Lubiano, now my colleague at Duke, in action.  But I most remember the hour that Tricia Rose spent with me, giving counsel on how to navigate the graduate experience. That particular moment of mentoring has stayed with me for more than twenty-years and continues to inform my own sense of mentoring.
Most recently I thought about the issue of mentoring after attending the first gathering for The Black Doctoral Network in Philadelphia.  Though such a gathering could have easily devolved into the “Big Hookup”—and I’m sure there was plenty of that—what I witnessed was a profound hunger for fellowship and mentoring, even among those who are relatively established in their fields. 
I couldn’t have imagined an organization like the Black Doctoral Network when I was a grad student or even as an untenured junior professor.  What Maurice Green and his team have created is something with the potential to be a real game changer, especially at a moment when it behooves all of us to be getter about sharing information that impacts our research and resources across disciplines and institutions.  
But let’s be clear, beyond the spiritual sustenance that The Black Doctoral Network offers, particularly via its Facebook site, we all have to have a hand in helping to sustain the organization.  So if you’re not fee-paying member of The Black Doctoral Network, I urge you to pay the nominal fee to support this groundbreaking effort today.
***
Mark Anthony Neal is Professor of African & African-American Studies at Duke University and a Fellow at the HipHop Archive and Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.  He is a board member of The Black Doctoral Network. 

MHP Show: Teaching Structural Racism in the Classroom

MHP Show
Teaching structural racism in the classroomEnglish Professor Shannon Gibney joins to discuss the challenges she faced in teaching structural racism in her classroom.

'Negro Spirituals' & the Legacy of the Fisk Jubilee Singers

Duke Forum for Scholars & Publics
In October 2013, Duke Performances brought the Fisk Jubilee Singers to Duke and Durham for a four-day residency to share the tradition of Negro spirituals. 
Dr. Paul T. Kwami, musical director of the Jubilee Singers, worked with over 500 singers from the Durham School of the Arts and Duke University. Seventy-five choral students from Durham School of the Arts performed with the Jubilee Singers at the culminating sold-out concert at Duke's Baldwin Auditorium. Dr. Kwami also participated in a panel discussion on the history and influence of the Jubilee Singers at Duke's Forum for Scholars and Publics, with Professor Maurice Jackson, and Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, dean of Duke Chapel. 

Black Folk Don't: Go Green

Black Folk Don't
Back by popular demand, and with topics by the people, Black Folk Don't brings new topics to a new location, California! First up, are black folk green? What does going green even mean? 
Tune in to new episodes every Monday, and share your thoughts with @blackfolkdont on Twitter. A special presentation of BlackPublicMedia.org, directed by Angela Tucker, and supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

MHP Show: What do Harvard and Hip-hop have in Common?

MHP Show

What do Harvard and hip-hop have in common?Marcyliena Morgan, Amber Rose Johnson, Walter Kimbrough & Jean Grae join the MHP panel to discuss how hip-hop can be used as a tool for academic engagement.

1Hood Media Presents: Rosa Clemente

1Hood Media 
Rosa Clemente, community organizer, journalist, Hip Hop Activist, and Vice Presidential Running Mate (2008 Green Party) served as a panelist on 1Hood Media's program Under Attack: How the Media Misrepresents People of Color. Here Rosa speaks on the current definition of family. Footage taken by Willy PGH.

Blank on Blank Presents: Tupac Shakur on Life & Death

Blank on Blank
"If I was white I would have been like John Wayne... I feel like a tragic hero in a Shakespeare play" - Tupac Shakur
Interview by Benjamin Svetkey
March 1994
Microcassette recorder
Related profile appeared in Entertainment Weekly

Tupac Episode GIFs
http://blankonblank.org/interviews/tu...

Executive Producer: David Gerlach
Animator: Patrick Smith

Left of Black S4:E11: The Politics of Hip-Hop & the Hip-Hop of Queerness w/ Jasiri X, C. Riley Snorton & Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

Left of Black S4:E11:  The Politics of Hip-Hop & the Hip-Hop of QueernessLeft of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined, via Skype, by artist and activist Jasiri X, who discusses the value of social media, his work with legendary activist Harry Belafonte and the 1Hood Media Academy.Later Neal is joined, also via Skype, by C. Riley Snorton and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan to discuss a special issue of the journal  Palimpsest dedicated to the Queerness of Hip-Hop | The Hip-Hop of Queerness. Snorton, an assistant professor of Communications at Northwestern and the author of the forthcoming  Nobody Is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low  (University of Minnesota Press), is the co-editor of the special issue along with noted writer and critic Scott Poulson Bryant, and Sullivan, an assistant professor of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, contributed the essay  “Fat Mutha: Hip Hop’s Queer Corpulent Poetics”***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: leftofblackFollow Mark Anthony Neal on Twitter: @NewBlackManFollow Jasiri X on Twitter:  @Jasiri_XFollow C. Riley Snorton on Twitter: @CRileySnortonFollow Mecca Jamilah Sullivan on Twitter: @Mecca_Jamilah