Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 982

Book Trailer: Religion & Hip-Hop by Monica Miller

Book trailer for forthcoming (August 1, 2012) Religion and Hip Hop , Monica R. Miller.  Produced by Oil House Productions.

from Routledge:
Religion and Hip Hop brings together the category of religion, Hip Hop cultural modalities and the demographic of youth. Bringing postmodern theory and critical approaches in the study of religion to bear on Hip Hop cultural practices, this book examines how scholars in religious and theological studies have deployed and approached religion when analyzing Hip Hop data. Using existing empirical studies on youth and religion to the cultural criticism of the Humanities, Religion and Hip Hop argues that common among existing scholarship is a thin interrogation of the category of religion. As such, Miller calls for a redescription of religion in popular cultural analysis - a challenge she further explores and advances through various materialist engagements.
Going beyond the traditional and more common approach of analyzing rap lyrics, from film, dance, to virtual reality, Religion and Hip Hop takes a fresh approach to exploring the paranoid posture of the religious in popular cultural forms, by going beyond what "is" religious about Hip Hop culture. Rather, Miller explores what rhetorical uses of religion in Hip Hop culture accomplish for various and often competing social and cultural interests.
Monica R. Miller is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanistic Approaches to the Social Sciences at Lewis & Clark College, Department of Religious Studies. She is co-chair of a new American Academy of Religion (AAR) group entitled 'Critical Approaches to the Study of Hip Hop and Religion' and Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Humanist Studies (IHS), Washington, DC.

Trailer—“Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People”

from filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris: Please consider supporting Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, a PBS documentary that explores how African Americans have used photography as a tool for social change. Since the birth of photography in 1840s, African Americans rejected what they saw about themselves in the dominant culture and took ownership of their own cultural image. Empowered through photography, Black people began to record and embrace their own truths and forge their own identities.
Through A Lens Darkly illuminates the hidden, little known and underappreciated stories of African Americans transforming themselves and the nation through the power of the camera lens. The film also explores how contemporary photographers and artists like Deborah Willis, Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Anthony Barboza, Lyle Ashton Harris, Hank Willis Thomas, Glenn Ligon, Coco Fusco and Clarissa Sligh, have built upon the legacy of early Black photographers while trying to reconcile a past that our forebears would rather forget.
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Young, Broke & Beautiful: Invincible in Detroit

IFC:

Stuart meets Detroit rapper Invincible, from Young, Broke & Beautiful episode 6.

Dark Room Collective: Thomas Sayers Ellis

DRC : Thomas Sayers Ellis from Rachel Eliza Griffiths on Vimeo.


Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour
April 12, 2012
Poetry Foundation, ChicagoRecording by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.

WUNC: Meet Cathy Davidson

The State of Things with Frank StasioWUNC (90.7)
Meet Cathy Davidson
As a child, Cathy Davidson pulled on a nun's veil, blew up her friend's basement, and got herself kicked out of elementary school twice and high school four times.  This is an unusual start to a successful career as an academic, whose work has ranged from the closing of an American factory to cognitive neuroscience and technology.  Davidson is a professor of English at Duke University, and her latest book is called "Now You See It" (Viking Press/ 2011).  She joins host Frank Stasio to speak about her omnivorous intellectual appetite.
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Mark Anthony Neal: "Naming Evil in the World: Hip-Hop's Blues Footprint"

BluesandtheSpirit:
 
Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of African and African American Studies, Duke University
 Discussant: George Bailey, Professor of English, Columbia College Chicago

Voice of Art—Iraq Veterans Against the War

iamOTHER: 
Meet the artists: members Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) Chicago chapter. Hear their stories of service and struggle. Learn why they now protest the wars they once participated in.

The Revolution Will Be Digitized: Black Youth & Digital Social Capital

Mark Anthony Neal looks at how technology and social media are empowering and creating young activists
THE REVOLUTON WILL BE DIGITIZED:  Black Youth and Digital Social Capital by Mark Anthony Neal | Ebony.com

Whether because of their consumption of hip-hop, sagging or their so-called addiction to television programs like Basketball Wives, contemporary Black youth are often chastised for squandering the political and social gains bequeathed them by the Civil Rights generation.  A new study suggest though, that contrary to popular belief, Black youth are on the cutting edge of new forms of participatory politics that may have the capacity to broaden their impact on traditional political practices.
Black political scientist Cathy Cohen (University of Chicago) and Joseph Kahne of Mills College are the lead researchers in the new report, “Participatory Politics: New Media and Youth Political Action” in which a team of researchers surveyed nearly 3,000 youth between the ages of 15-25 about their use of social media and their engagement in participatory politics. The report is part of Youth and Participatory Politics project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
The authors describe participatory politics as “acts that are interactive, peer-based, not guided by deference to elites or formal institutions, and meant to address issues of public concern.” Though participatory politics are not solely defined by forms of social media and digital technology, the authors note that social media allows youth to access and mobilize large networks, to “amplify” issues of concern to them, particularly with regards to news coverage, and to remix political content to fit the taste and consumption habits of younger audiences.
In the most traditional sense, social media is premised on the animating of social and political networks. The Greensboro Sit-In of February 1, 1960 and the subsequent “viral” explosion of sit-ins as a political strategy throughout the 1960s is a great example of how such networks can work.  However, contemporary social media is unmatched in the speed in which those networks can be energized and in its ability to counter “official” narratives.
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New Episode: 'Black Folk Don't' Camp

BlackFolkDont:  If black folk can live in the hood why can't we go to the woods? The great outdoors seems to be the last frontier when it comes to Black People. What's keeping us from engaging with Mother Nature? What's so tough about roughing it for Black Folk? Or are we just doing it in secret, or in camouflage hats? Tune in and find out.

TEDx Talks: Mazi Mutafa on "The Cipher"

TEDxTalks:  Mazi Mutafa, an alumnus of the University of Maryland, is the founder and executive director of Words Beats & Life, Inc. (WBL), a hip-hop non-profit committed to transforming individual lives and whole communities through the elements of hip-hop culture. As an undergraduate, Mr. Mutafa was the co-founder of four student organizations and served as the president of the Black Student Union. During his tenure as president of the Black Student Union, Mr. Mutafa created the Words Beats & Life Hip-Hop Conference, a six-day hip-hop conference that endeavored to expand the potential impact of hip-hop as a culture and community. Mr. Mutafa is also a brother of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

Mr. Mutafa's entire professional career has been dedicated to serving youth and community development. Post-graduation, he worked for the Maya Angelou Public Charter School as a resident male counselor. Following this, he began working at the Institute for Cultural Affairs as the Mid-Atlantic Coordinator for "Youth as Facilitative Leaders" and conducted intergenerational facilitation trainings. Mr. Mutafa's final position before becoming the full-time Executive Director of Words Beats & Life was as the Street Outreach Coordinator for Motivational Educational Entertainment's (MEE) "Be on the Safe Side," a campaign to prevent teen pregnancy.