Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 91

Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation

'In this documentary short, filmmaker JJ Anderson traces the life and career of Ulysses Jenkins, a pivotal influence in contemporary art of the last 50 years. The film follows Jenkins’s start as a painter and muralist and his evolution into a seminal video artist with landmark works such as Mass of Images and Two-Zone Transfer. The film is presented in conjunction with Jenkins’s career retrospective—and first solo museum exhibition, organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Featuring in-depth interviews with Jenkins as well as artists Todd Gray, Maren Hassinger, Senga Nengudi, May Sun, and Matthew Thomas; scholar Dr. Bridget Cooks; and exhibition curators Erin Christovale and Meg Onli.'

How To View Urban Farming Through a Queer Lens

'At this moment in human history, our most urgent mission is to take care of our planet -- and of one another. Karen Washington, co-founder of Rise & Root Farm and a longtime activist and community gardener, joins DeVonne Jackson Perez -- native New Yorker, urban farmer and sustainable stylist -- in a stimulating conversation about sustainability and urban farming.'

Artists Live – Tara Betts in conversation with Eve Ewing

'Artists Live is a series of intimate dialogues which engage a diverse range of artists at different stages in their careers by examining their artistic practice and trajectory. The conversations explore a variety of topics as they reveal individual artist's stories. Dr. Tara Betts is the author of Break the Habit, Arc & Hue, and the forthcoming Refuse to Disappear.  Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author of four books: the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919, the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side, and most recently a novel for young readers, Maya and the Robot. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks.'

An Evening With a Freedom Rider: Charles Person

'An author and Marine Corps veteran, Charles Person was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders who set out on May 4, 1961, to protest segregation and discrimination against Black Americans in the South. The youngest rider to participate that day, 18-year-old Charles Person made a decision that would shape America and the civil rights movement as we know it. Person visits Crystal Bridges to discuss the impact and story of that ride, as captured in his 2021 book Buses Are a Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider.'

 

Valeisha Butterfield Jones on Making the Music Industry More Equitable

'Valeisha Butterfield Jones, the newly-appointed co-president of The Recording Academy, discusses the organization's new inclusion rider and her mission to increase diversity and equity in the music industry.'

Cass Sunstein for Big Think | "Sludge" How Bureaucracies Abuse Your Time

'"Sludge" constitutes the obstacles, such as bureaucratic paperwork, that society puts in place to prevent a person from accomplishing something they want to do. Sludge can be good when it ensures that people do not behave recklessly or impulsively. But oftentimes, sludge is nothing more than an obstacle to freedom. Sludge can be found everywhere, from the criminal justice system to acquiring a mortgage. Much of this sludge needs to be eliminated. Cass R. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard.'

Art21 "New York Close Up" | Azikiwe Mohammed is a Guy Who Makes Stuff

“The word artist is a little funky … I would self-describe as a ‘guy who makes stuff.’” 

'Rejecting the centuries long cult of the genius artist, Azikiwe Mohammed embraces the modest, the eclectic, and above all the helpful. Mohammed works in a range of mediums and skill sets from painting to puppets to furniture to tapestries, informed by the unpretentious aesthetics of the Black homes and spaces he traverses. Exploiting what he describes as a “bonus of the art space”, Mohammed sells and exchanges these art objects to operate more “useful to humans” activities. In his home of New York City the artist organizes free food distribution across the boroughs through the New Davonhaime Food Bank, and creates space for creative expression through his free mobile school, the Black Painters Academy. For his latest project, Mohammed opens Big Apple Gifts and Souvenirs in the Seaport area in Lower Manhattan, selling classic souvenirs like shirts, umbrellas, and jewelry that nod to the people and neighborhoods typically overlooked in New York City tourist shops. Animated by Mohammed’s humor and energy, this short documentary film captures an artist charting a creative path uniquely his own, sharing the fruits of his labor with the communities of New York City.'

Famed Gee’s Bend Quilters are Now on the Runway and Online

'A blockbuster exhibition in the early 2000’s made the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, famous for their visually stunning quilts. But the success didn’t translate into meaningful economic gains for their isolated community. Now, new opportunities are helping change that. With support from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, the quilters now have sold-out Etsy shops and collaborations with high-profile fashion designers. PBS NewsHour's Megan Thompson reports.'

The Indicator from Planet Money: Race, Racism, and Tax Law

'When it comes to the U.S. tax code, "the only color that matters is green." At least that's what Dorothy Brown used to think. After all, the many pages of forms you might be sifting through this tax season make no mention of race. But then Dorothy became a tax law professor, and began researching the relationship between race and taxes. In this episode, she explains how our tax laws often enrich White Americans while impoverishing Black Americans — and what could be done about it.'

A Pennsylvania Museum is Paying Black Residents Back on Their Overtaxed and Undervalued Homes

'Research shows that homes owned by people of color in the U.S. are often overvalued when they're being taxed and undervalued when they're being sold. Now a Pittsburgh artist, Harrison Kinnane Smith,  along with the Mattress Factory Museum, have found a way to highlight the disparities. Bill O'Driscoll of member station WESA reports.'