Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 943

Duke Department of African & African American Studies to Launch Summer Institute for High School Teachers

AAAS to launch institute to train teachers in new ways of teaching African-American history
New Depth for High School Study of African American Experience by Deborah Hill | Duke News & Communication
Durham, NC - In the summer of 2013, Duke's Department of African and African American Studies (AAAS) will launch a new summer institute to help high school teachers use more historical literature and fiction to enrich English and social studies classes focused on African American history.
The goal of the project, led by Wahneema Lubiano, associate professor and associate chair of the department, is to expand the use of historical fiction, social research and literary criticism in teaching history. Participants will be exposed to books, short stories, films, music and documentaries that have not traditionally been standard high school fare. The project will develop original lessons plans that will be publicly available on the institute's website.
Institute fellows will read novels such as Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," Gloria Naylor's "Linden Hills," Black Artemis' "Picture Me Rollin'" and Kyle Baker's graphic novel titled "Nat Turner," as alternatives to commonly used literature. They will also be exposed to social research and literary criticism by luminaries such as Africanist John Henrik Clarke's "William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond;" American Studies scholar George Lipsitz's "Midnight at the Barrelhouse;" and "Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews of Former Slaves," compiled by the Works Progress Administration, as well as work by literary critics Hortense Spillers and Val Smith.
Music by Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells will be part of the curriculum, as well as film and documentary excerpts from "Drop Squad," "The Doll," "CNN Black in America," and "The Brother From Another Planet."  
Story narrative is a powerful part of the human experience, and both novelists and historians engage in storytelling. Lubiano hopes the readings and film excerpts will help participants explore the often-blurred boundaries between fiction and fact. The institute will cultivate discussion on the origins and perpetuation of inequality and the social phenomenon of colorism – discrimination  within a race that is based on skin lightness – and  the similarities and differences in the vision of African American life across fiction and history.
"History, fiction, and social narratives are products of the way that humans both think and imagine the world," said Lubiano. "All narrative calls on us continually to interpret and reinterpret.  I'm interested in social facts and narrative representations.  I think that close reading all manner of texts opens up students' minds to the complexity of our world."
The summer institute, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities through a $200,000 grant, will support 25 teachers from across the United States. The faculty team will provide the 25 institute fellows with exposure to historical fiction, economic history, ethnography, genetics and quantitative social science. The team offers cross-disciplinary expertise that will aid in guiding institute fellows' interpretation and appreciation of the historical fiction, non-fiction, film and analysis.
Duke faculty include Lubiano, a scholar of contemporary African American fiction, cultural studies and critical race theory; AAAS Chair and economist Sandy Darity, whose recent work emphasizes the relationship between literature and social science research; and AAAS/History Associate Professor Thavolia Glymph, whose work focuses on slavery and Reconstruction.
The institute team also includes Bowdoin College literature scholar Tess Chakkalakal (a former postdoctoral fellow on racial and ethnic inequality at Duke), and University of South Carolina School of Education Professor Daniella Ann Cook, who specializes in the pedagogical use of fiction and ethnography.

Election 2012: A Political Farmer’s Market

Election 2012: A Political Farmer’s Market by Lori Latrice Martin | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
With Election Day a week away, many are reflecting upon the nation’s past and contemplating the nation’s future. The subject of whether or not President Obama can capture the hearts, minds, and imagination of enough Americans to win a second term has garnered a great deal of attention and print in some of the country’s leading newspapers.
One subject receiving a great deal of attention is whether or not President Obama has taken blacks for granted and whether the loyalty that blacks have shown to the Democratic Party, specifically to the nation’s first black president, has come at a cost.
President Obama’s attention, or lack thereof, to a laundry list of issues facing blacks is routinely compared with that of past administrations. At the same time, blacks scholars critique other black scholars for what they say is a failure to call out the president for turning the proverbial blind eye to matters, including: racial wealth inequality; racial health disparities; the mass incarceration of men of color; unemployment and employment discrimination; and racial differences in academic achievement and educational attainment; to name a few.
Such critiques are often limited in focus and misguided as they involve the comparison of what amounts to political apples and oranges. Not only are comparisons made between the current administration and previous administrations, but also between the days leading up to Election Day 2008 and Election Day 2012.
For one, this president and this presidency is unlike any other in history. The significance of the ascension of a black man to the highest office in the land cannot be overstated, muted, or overlooked. Race is as significant today as it has been in the past. Racism today is alive and well. It may not look like the racism of the days of old, but it is certainly not dead.
To say that race remains very visible marker in America society, is an understatement. Moreover, we must not forget that race is a social construct and as such we continue to give meaning to what it means to have membership in a particular racial group.
Membership is no more voluntary for the president than it is for anyone else. Thus, “the price of a black presidency,” includes the mistrust of a segment of the population still beholden to a narrative that says certain groups are more deserving of benefits and others more deserving of society’s burdens. Consequently, we continue to live in a society that differentiates access to wealth, status, and power on the bases of a number of sociological factors, including race. This system not only predated President Obama’s historic victory in 2008, but also his birth and the births of every one of us in this country.
This country was built upon a very powerful racialized social system that no one election or administration can dismantle, no matter how loud black intellectuals shout or no matter how silent they remain. Whether President Obama yells from his bully pulpit, with his fingers clutched and raised in the air, the system that privileges members of the dominant racial group in this society, over and above other groups, will remain intact.
Election Day 2012 will not be like Election Day 2008, not because President Obama has failed the nation or the black community, but because Election Day 2008 was an historic and unprecedented event, the likes of which may only be comparable to the election of Nelson Mandela after the dismantling of the oppressive Apartheid system in South Africa. No one expected that Mandela would be able to turn right-side up, what had been upside-down for some many years. Similarly, President Obama should not be saddled with the same unattainable expectations. The list of problems President Obama inherited from the previous administration are well documented, as are the list of inequalities, between blacks and whites, the rich and the poor, and men and women, which were written into the nation’s founding documents and principles.
Thus, comparing this president and this election to any other is tantamount to comparing political apples and oranges. Efforts to change societal patterns in fundamental ways will require a radical transformation, not attainable in four-, or even eight years. The groundwork is being laid however, in the uprisings we’ve seen spring up over worker’s rights, health care, education, equal pay, and the like.

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Lori Latrice Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of the forthcoming, Black Asset Poverty and the Enduring Racial Divide (First Forum Press, a Division of Lynne Reinner Publishers).

Hymn to Working Class New York

Hymn to Working Class New York  by Mark Naison | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile) As we struggle through the aftermath of the worst storm in New York’s history, my thoughts turn to the first responders- firefighters, police officers, EMS workers- and the role they played in the last great tragedy to strike New York, the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11.
The heroism these men and women displayed then, and in our current circumstances, is not a surprise to me. For the fifteen years I spent coaching and running youth programs in Brooklyn in the 80’s and 90’s, civil servants, especially fire fighters, were an integral part of the coaching cohort I interacted with daily, both in my own neighborhood, and throughout Brooklyn and Staten Island, and there was never a doubt in my mind, based on that experience, that they would sacrifice their health, well being and if necessary their lives if called on to rescue people in trouble.
My relationships with many of these individuals, especially those who represented opposing parishes—in CYO basketball—or opposing teams—in sandlot baseball—was  not always easy. They were, like me, stubborn, intimidating, over bearing and fiercely competitive and we had many arguments in the midst of closely contested games. But they were also selflessly devoted to their players, with whom they spent countless hours at games and practices, and whatever their private political or racial attitudes, were determined to maintain Brooklyn sports leagues as a place where young people from every neighborhood and racial and ethnic background could find an outlet for their talents.  Never did I see any of them participate in, or tolerate, the slightest amount of race baiting from their players and parents, even though some of them came from neighborhoods, such as Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge or Rockaway, then infamous for racial exclusivity. When push came to shove, they were as fair as they were loyal, and I never felt the slightest hesitation taking interracial teams from Park Slope into gyms or ball fields in all white neighborhoods because I knew we would always be protected.
This kind of quiet heroism, I felt, allowed for more dramatic forms of heroism when circumstances called for it. It surprised me not at all that some of my fellow coaches ran up the stairways of the World Trade Center to their death while other people were running down. Nor would it surprise me to see their counterparts today, some of whom might be their own children , run into flooded buildings to save a stranded families or risk being crushed when clearing fallen trees. This is the ethic of loyalty and sacrifice they grew up among, a New York working class tradition passed on from generation to generation among members of the uniformed services and among more than a few teachers, transit workers and other civil servants.
For quite a while, most of the attention by elected officials and the media have been bestowed upon financial and artistic elites who gravitate to our city. But it is the working people of New York who insure the city’s daily functioning, and in moments of crisis, sacrifice themselves for others so that the city can continue to survive, and when things improve, begin to grow and thrive.
We have always lived among quiet heroes, some of them immigrants working three jobs to support families her and in their home countries, some of them teachers and social workers serving people in the face of deep skepticism and contempt from the power that be; some of them members of our uniformed services who are asked to risk their lives for the rest of us.
I just wanted to take this moment to show some love for these people and hope you will do so as well.
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Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depression and White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

Tell Me More: Shirley Sherrod Stands Up To The Politics Of Fear

Left of Black S3:E7 | Hip-Hop, Religion & The Black Church

Left of Black S3:E7 |  Hip-Hop, Religion & The Black Church
October 29, 2012
Left of Black host and Duke Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined via Skype by Monica R. Miller, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Lewis & Clark College and author of   Religion and Hip-Hop (Routledge, 2012);  Ebony Utley, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at California State University, Long Beach and  author Rap and Religion: Understanding The Gangsta’s God (Praeger 2012); and Emmett G. Price III, Associate Professor of Music and African-American Studies at Northeastern University and editor   The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture: Toward Bridging the Generational Divide (Scarecrow Press, 2012).
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Left of Blackis 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 [image error]

Remembering Terry Callier: "What Color is Love?"

from Rolling Stone
Terry Callier, a soul and jazz singer and guitarist who collaborated with Massive Attack and Beth Orton, died yesterday at his home in Chicago, Stereogum reports. He was 67.
Callier, a veteran musician who released a handful of critically acclaimed jazz-folk albums in the Seventies and toured with George Benson and Gil Scott-Heron, had scant commercial success at the time, and had given up his musical career in the Eighties to raise his daughter. He was working at the University of Chicago as a computer programmer in the early Nineties when his music was rediscovered in England, sparking a career revival.
Callier was born in Chicago and was friends with Curtis Mayfield and the singer Jerry Butler as a child. He began singing in doo-wop groups as a teenager and auditioned for Chess Records in 1962 when he was 17, recording his debut single "Look at Me Now." Callier told The Guardian in 2004 that although Chess invited Callier to tour with Muddy Waters and Etta James, his mother wouldn't let him, and he went to college instead, where he discovered folk music and John Coltrane. Callier picked up guitar from a friend in his college dorm, and began playing coffeehouses before signing with Prestige Records in 1964 to record his first LP, The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier. He released five more albums, including 1972's Occasional Rain and 1974's I Just Can't Help Myself. His 1978 album, Turn You to Love, was his last for 20 years.
Callier gave up music in 1983 when his 12-year-old daughter came to live with him, and he worked for the University of Chicago by day and studied for a degree in sociology at night. In 1991, the London label Acid Jazz asked to re-release Callier's 1983 single "I Don't Want to See Myself (Without You)." The renewed interest in Callier brought him performing gigs in England, and he contributed to Beth Orton's 1997 Best Bit EP. The following year, he released a new album of his own, Timepeace, and kept busy recording and touring for the rest of his live. Callier's most recent album, 2009's Hidden Conversations, was produced by Massive Attack.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/new...[image error]

Up with Chris Hayes: What if Ohio were The Bronx?

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

This a great critique of how the Electoral College impacts policy.[image error]

Beverly Guy-Sheftall on Young Black Man & Feminism

Makers: Women Who Make America: Guy-Sheftall considers how African-American feminism purposefully brought many young men into the movement.

"Roomieloverfriends" | Episode 6 of 9

actingrl112:
Episode 6: "Three's Company" - Tamiko + Jay + Cherisse = T-r-o-u-b-l-e

On OCT. 31 WATCH Jay and Tamiko at the Halloween party on the Double Episode of THE NUMBER + ROOMIELOVERFRIENDS @Blackandsexytv -
http://www.youtube.com/blackandsexytv


"Roomieloverfriends" is a BLACK&SEXY.TV production

Hip-Hop, Religion and the Black Church on the October 29th Left of Black

Hip-Hop, Religion and the Black Church on the October 29th Left of Black
In the Spring of 1991, Black Sacred Music: a Journal of Theomusicology (Duke University Press), published a special issue of the journal, “The Emergency of Black and the Emergence of Rap,” edited by Jon Michael Spencer (Yahya Jongintaba) and featuring essays from William Eric Perkins, Angela Spence Nelson, legendary religious scholar C. Eric Lincoln and a young Michael Eric Dyson. Though the Nation of Gods and Earths were part of the fabric of Hip-Hop culture from its earliest years, the special issue of Black Sacred Music was one of the first examples by scholars making connections between Hip-Hop culture and religious and spiritual practices—at a time when there were still few examples of mainstream scholarship on Hip-hop Culture.
Two decades later, scholars Monica R. Miller, Ebony A. Utley and Emmett G. Price IIIpublished ground breaking books on Hip-Hop, religion and the Black Church within months of each other.  Professors Miller, Utley and Price, join host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal on Left of Black via Skype to talk about their books Religion and Hip-Hop (Routledge, 2012), Rap and Religion: Understanding The Gangsta’s God (Praeger 2012) and The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture: Toward Bridging the Generational Divide (Scarecrow Press, 2012).
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Left of Black airs at 1:30 p.m. (EST) on Mondays on the Ustream channel: http://tinyurl.com/LeftofBlack
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: @LeftofBlackFollow Mark Anthony Neal on Twitter: @NewBlackManFollow Monica R. Miller on Twitter: @religionhiphopFollow Ebony A. Utley on Twitter: @u_experienceFollow Emmett G. Price III on Twitter: @EmmettGPriceIII