Negritude 2.0

Retelling the History of Black Music: Part I: Adventures in Retro-ism

[7.Mar.08] :. Rightly or wrongly, black audiences have always tended to chase musical innovation, not musical reverence.

Ask an African

[11.Jan.08] :. Africa will play an increasingly pivotal role in world affairs this year, and not just because a guy whose dad was Kenyan is running for President of the United States.

Deconstructing the False Good Rapper/ Bad Rapper Dichotomy

[29.Oct.07] :. In this corner: Common, in that: 50 Cent. In this corner: Dr. Martin Luther King, in that: Malcolm X. In this corner: W.E.B. DuBois, in that: Booker T. Washington. Standing outside of the ring: Dilated Peoples.

The NAACP’s Mock Burial of Its Relevance

[30.Jul.07] :. Our enemy is not the "N-word" itself; it’s whatever propels people to use it. We need healers, not language nannies.

Is Obama the Last in a Long Line of Firsts?

[12.Apr.07] :. It doesn’t even matter if your achievement isn’t something a lot of people might want to emulate; you’ll go to your grave eulogized as the “first black (fill-in-the-blank)”, and every Black History Month someone will remember your name.

Vibe: Hard to Let it Go

[5.Mar.07] :. Vibe once nailed down the sweet spot between hip-hop swagger and Madison Avenue polish. But no longer needing to prove hip-hop’s worth to the broader audience, it morphed into a gooey valentine to hip-hop’s ghetto fabulousness.

Standing in the Shadows of Dreamgirls

[29.Jan.07] :. Entrepreneurs of color owe an enormous debt to Berry Gordy, whose path from hit-chasing songwriter to world-renown business mogul is, as much as if not more than those beautiful ladies on the movie screen, the stuff of dreams.

Re-Seizing the Time

[15.Jan.07] :. For all the gains we’ve made in electoral politics and community leadership, there has yet to be a successor to the Black Panther Party as a nationally organized, politically oriented body speaking out and working on the vanguard in the name of black progress, directly confronting and challenging the powers-that-be.

Gerald Levert and the Black Pop Nobody Knows, but Should

[4.Dec.06] :. To paraphrase the dead prez: Black pop is way, way bigger than Oprah, or Cosby, or LeBron James. Why, black pop is even bigger than hip-hop.

Looking for the Perfect Off-Beat

[22.Nov.06] :. This one is for the Afro-punks and black rockers and everyone else who doesn't see their hearts and minds reflected in what passes for mainstream black music nowadays.

Walking Away From It All: The New Great American Fantasy

[11.Oct.06] :. Walking away from it all to pursue a quieter, less complicated life is an oft-recurring theme in American culture, from Henry David Thoreau's 1854 Walden to the 1932 Scarface and countless other sagas of the underworld – right up to the present day's Dave Chappelle and Aaron McGruder.

If You Love Tupac, Help Find His Killer

[14.Sep.06] :. Because Tupac and Biggie were -- and are -- so famous, a massive cry for breaks in the cases would signal to the world that the Hip-Hop Nation, that amorphous band of young people blamed for all the ills of urban life from drugs in the streets to questionable taste in fashion, does in fact care about something bigger than bling.

Coming Out of the Hazy Past

[5.Jun.06] :. Even as black America continues to battle crime, violence, and death from within and hostile political and economic policy from beyond, it can be useful to occasionally look back through the haze and marvel at the richness of our individual stories. Two such stories: Floyd Patterson and Fats Domino.

Modern Day Hottietots

[10.Mar.06] :. There is much to be made of / on / about a black woman's backside.

Martin and Coretta are Both Gone Now.  It Is Not Their Battle No More

[16.Feb.06] :. With the passing of another leader from the civil rights era, it's up to us, whose songs of freedom come with a hip-hop beat, whose advocates preach online instead of on street corners, who live in a world multicolored beyond just black and white, to assume our awesome legacy and move the mountain some more.

In the Time of B.K. (Before Kobe)

[9.Jan.06] :. They didn't command big bucks and they'd never know the level of celebrity of today's counterparts, but the early black players transcended the sport and were vital to creating this legendary black cultural institution; otherwise known as basketball.

Good Night, Annie Lee Moss, and Good Luck

[8.Dec.05] :. She knew the community and she knew the dynamics of life and activism in those perilous, McCarthy-era, pre-Rosa Parks days. What else did Annie Lee Moss know?

The Holy Grails of Jazz

[17.Nov.05] :. With reissues of music past, so much of history lives on to be rediscovered, over and over again. Yet one can't help but wonder how much has been forever lost.

Today the Hill District, Tomorrow the World: August Wilson

[17.Oct.05] :. August Wilson now takes his place in the pantheon of black arts and letters for the dignity he gave the blues singers, mill workers, rooming house owners, ex-cons, neighborhood eccentrics, and 300-year-old matriarchs among us.

Ebony Then, Now and Later

[1.Sep.05] :. With its founder, John H. Johnson passed, can Ebony adapt to the new era of black publications -- and live on?

Cleaning Up After the Train Wreck

[14.Jul.05] :. When (witting and unwitting) celebrities make train wrecks of their lives, the crowd will be sure to be there to cheer them on. But in the aftermath, they're alone with nothing but a broom and one helluva mess.

I’m Not a Social Policy Expert, But I Play One on TV

[6.Jun.05] :. When all the righteous Cosby-induced bluster has blown, all that's left the poor is caught up in tree branches and clogging the gutters, same as before.

One Diaspora Under a Groove

[12.May.05] :. At an African concert set in Philadelphia, Reynolds experienced the rare feeling of being a distinct minority in a virtually all-black setting in America. He considers the divide between Africans in America, and African-Americans.

Diary of a Mad White Film Critic

[13.Apr.05] :. In defense of Roger Ebert, Reynolds notes that it's not at all necessarily racist to say that a black film isn't very good. Earnestness, sensitivity to a community's culture, and good intentions don't automatically make a solid work of art.

Ossie Davis, A Celebrity of the People

[9.Mar.05] :. Davis' true art was in his representation of all that was noble and heroic about being a black man. He gave dignity to our workaday struggles, and ceremony to our highest joys.

10 Good Reasons to Celebrate Black History Month

[2.Feb.05] :. Black History Month is subject to a lot of commercial hype, trotted out once a year, as it is. February alone cannot contain such history. But 2005's Black History Month is a good opportunity to look at the history lessons brought to us in just the past year.

Let the Good Times Roll… Again

[22.Dec.04] :. Up in the Pop Culture Attic, where all those wonderful things that get trampled by the new and exciting eventually end up, radio DJs worthy of their stuff pull out and dust off some '50s R&B for the holiday season and for the joie de vivre this music brings.

Barack Obama, the Great Fill-in-the-Blank Hope

[8.Dec.04] :. Everywhere Barack Obama went, people flocked to get a glimpse of the politician who stole their hearts with just one speech.

Will the Real Harlem Please Stand Up?

[3.Nov.04] :. Harlem's current renaissance has less to do with the art and culture that flowed freely during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, and more to do with good old-fashioned commerce. The new gentry went looking for a new ground floor, and found it right in their own mythic backyard.

The High and Low of Black Literature

[20.Oct.04] :. What's happening now in black literature is similar to the smooth jazz/serious jazz dichotomy; urban fiction is getting more 'play' to the public, and fine literature is experienced only by the cognoscenti.

Role Model at Bat?

[29.Sep.04] :. It's not that a black child can't appreciate the talents of a white baseball star; it's just that a black athlete's accomplishments mean more to that child because the athlete looks like him/her, and therefore, that black athlete is a role model.

Back Down the Chisholm Trail

[12.Aug.04] :. Before Michael Moore, there was Shirley Chisholm.

Fighting the Power For Real

[7.Jul.04] :. At the first US hip-hop political convention, generations of black activists struggle with translating good ideas into real activism.

Whatever Happened to Mumia Abu-Jamal?

[2.Jun.04] :. One could argue that, until the current Bush administration and the Iraq war, Mumia Abu-Jamal was the only thing that came remotely close to galvanizing the far left and its myriad individual causes, from Puerto Rican independence to anti-imperialism. Such is the state of the left in America that for years, Abu-Jamal's case was the only thing that aroused unanimous passion.

TV, Validation, and the Three Sistas

[21.Apr.04] :. Somewhere in the country, a Black woman who has no use whatsoever for the Bush administration's approach to global politics watched Rice on the witness stand and chanted, 'You go, girl.' Political and economic progress be damned, we still live vicariously through our celebrities.

Modern Day Hottietots

[] :. There is much to be made of / on / about a black woman's backside.