Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 919

"I'll have something cold, something soft"--Happy Birthday Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night.

Happy Birthday Nancy Wilson

Ms. Wilson on The Arsenio Hall Show (1991) backed by Teena Marie, Phyllis Hyman, Phillip Bailey, Howard Hewitt, and George Duke among others.

Harry Belafonte: "We Must Unleash Radical Thought"

Democracy Now
Along with his rise to worldwide stardom, the musician and actor Harry Belafonte has been deeply involved in social activism for decades. One of Dr. Martin Luther King's closest confidants, Belafonte helped organize the March on Washington in 1963. On Friday, the NAACP awarded Belafonte their highest honor, the Spingarn Medal. "Numerous strategies in the quest of our freedom have been played out at all levels of the social spectrum," Belafonte says in his acceptance speech. "What is missing I think from the equation in our struggle today is that we must unleash radical thought... America has never been moved to perfect our desire for greater democracy without radical thinking and radical voices being at the helm of any such a quest."

Harlem Reacts to 'Harlem Shake' Videos

SchleppFilms
Street interviews with members of the Harlem community, and their views about the popular 'Harlem Skake' video trend.

Videos shown to participants included versions from DizastaMusic, TheSunnyCoastSkate, & PHLOn NAN

'Like' Us Facebook.com/SchleppFilmsComedy

For the Record, only 2 people interviewed did not make the final cut. One because the microphone was off. And the other because he only spoke for 30 secs. No one was omitted because they did not fit the 'mold'. This is what the people who stopped to talk with us had to say.

Shot & Edited By Chris McGuire
Sound by John Farmakis

Song 'Headspin Long'
Licensed by Apple Garage Band

Black Film from Spike Lee to Tyler Perry: Duke Summer Session 2013

Black Film from Spike Lee to Tyler Perry Mark Anthony Neal
Duke University African & African American Studies—AAAS 390s-01 Program in Art of the Moving Image—AMI 390s-01 Visual and Media Studies—VMS 290s-01
Summer Session One M.T.Th—12:30 pm – 2:35 pm Allen Building 326
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.

MHP Show: The Role of Family Dynamics in Violence & Poverty

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

with Waldo E. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D., MSW is Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration and Faculty Affiliate, Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture of the University of Chicago.

Left of Black S3:E19 | The Black Revolution on Campus & the Roots Black Studies

Left of Black S3:E19 | The Black Revolution on Campus & the Roots Black Studies
In January of 1969,  WCBS-TV in New York City began to broadcast a series of half-hour lectures under the banner of Black Heritage: A History of Afro-Americans.  The series, which ran six days a week until June of 1969 (108 episodes in all), was produced by historians John Henrik Clarke, Vincent Harding and political scientist William Strickland—the later two who were founding members of the Institute of the Black World, a groundbreaking thinking tank that was based at the Atlanta University Center.  According to historian Martha Biondi, by providing “ordinary Americans access to the Black history courses beginning to be offered on college campuses…these men personally bridged the gap between scholarship and activism.”

Left of Black is proud to be of the many progeny of this visionary project, born during an era in which Black student activism on American college campuses helped transform institutions that less than a generation earlier, Black students were largely denied access to.  This moment is chronicled in Martha Biondi’s new book The Black Revolution on Campus (University of California Press).  A historian at Northwestern University, Biondi joins Left of Black via Skype to talk about what she describes as “an extraordinary chapter in the modern Black freedom struggle.”  Biondi is also the author of To Stand and Fight: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City (Harvard University Press, 2003).

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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

On the February 18th Left of Black: The Black Revolution on Campus & the Roots Black Studies

On the February 18th Left of Black:  The Black Revolution on Campus & the Roots Black Studies
In January of 1969,  WCBS-TV in New York City began to broadcast a series of half-hour lectures under the banner of Black Heritage: A History of Afro-Americans.  The series, which ran six days a week until June of 1969 (108 episodes in all), was produced by historians John Henrik Clarke, Vincent Harding and political scientist William Strickland—the later two who were founding members of the Institute of the Black World, a groundbreaking thinking tank that was based at the Atlanta University Center.  According to historian Martha Biondi, by providing “ordinary Americans access to the Black history courses beginning to be offered on college campuses…these men personally bridged the gap between scholarship and activism.”
Left of Black is proud to be of the many progeny of this visionary project, born during an era in which Black student activism on American college campuses helped transform institutions that less than a generation earlier, Black students were largely denied access to.  This moment is chronicled in Martha Biondi’s new book The Black Revolution on Campus (University of California Press).  A historian at Northwestern University, Biondi joins Left of Black via Skype to talk about what she describes as “an extraordinary chapter in the modern Black freedom struggle.”  Biondi is also the author of To Stand and Fight: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City (Harvard University Press, 2003).
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Left of Black airs at 1:30 p.m. (EST) on Mondays on the FranklinCenterAtDuke Channel on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/FranklinCenterAtDuke
Viewers are invited to participate in a Twitter conversation with Neal and featured guests while the show airs using hash tags #LeftofBlack or #dukelive.  
Left of Black is recorded and produced at the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University.
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Follow Left of Black on Twitter: @LeftofBlack Follow Mark Anthony Neal on Twitter: @NewBlackMan Follow Martha Biondi on Twitter: @MarthaBiondi

Historian Barbara Ransby: What Obama Could Learn From Ella Baker and Essie Robeson in His Second Term?

Democracy Now
We're joined by historian Barbara Ransby, author of the new biography, Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson. She is also author of a biography on Ella Baker.

Could the Next Pope Come from Africa?

Al Jazeera English
Pope Benedict's decision to step down has led to a debate about whether the next leader of the Catholic church should come from Africa.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports.