“Mutant and Proud:” X-Men First Class Movie

Yesterday, I went with a few of my friends to see “X-Men: First Class.” The reason I was interested in going to see it was that I had read and heard from a number of sources that Professor X and Magneto represented Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, respectively. I thought that was an […]

Africa and the World Kickstarter Project

Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, who is the Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, chair of the Department of Sociology, and the director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, is best known as the host of the PBS series The History Detectives. But Zuberi will focusing his energy on his upcoming documentary, “Africa and the […]

In the Future, We Kill Our Attackers: Rihanna’s “Man Down” as Afrofuturist Text (via Nuñez Daughter)

This is an interesting post from Kismet Nuñez placing Rihanna’s “Man Down” video in an Afrofuturist context. Kismet Nuñez is one of the Skillsharers of the of the 3rd Annual INCITE! Shawty Got Skillz workshop at the 2011 Allied Media Conference! Go to her blog to find out how you can help them get to […]

A Mirror’s Reflection

I was watching the video for “Tightrope” by Janelle Monae and recognized characters from her video in a 1974 film I started watching with the Jazz composer, Sun Ra, called “Space Is the Place.” The grim reaper characters with mirrors on their faces also appear in a 1943 short film called “Meshes of the Afternoon,” […]

Buried Treasure

It’s funny how when you are young and watching your favorite TV shows, you tend to miss some of the subtle messages in them until you are old enough to understand. For example, at the beginning of this episode of Recess, Ms. Grotke gives us a small, insightful lesson on how history is told while giving […]

Ain’t I A Woman…And Beautiful!

Despite my confidence is knowing that I am a beautiful Black women, the recent media scrutiny of Black women — the latest from Psychology Today and Satoshi Kanazawa’s post in which he stated that Black women were “objectively” less attractive than other women– is trying to chip that away and it has me fuming! A […]

Revenge Killing In Music Is Nothing New!

Rihanna’s new video for her single “Man Down” is developing a lot of controversy because of her portrayal of killing a man after he sexually assaults her. While on Tumblr, I read some conversations that I find interesting and agree with, so I decided to post them here instead of posting my argument, which can […]

Freakin’ It: A Betty Davis Retrospective

Speaking of Miles Davis, let’s talk about his former wife Betty Davis. I know I should have posted this in March, but school distracted me until now. But better late than never, right? Betty Davis is one of my favorite artists and when I heard about the concert on March 7th at the Schomburg Center, […]

Destroying Jazz?

Today, I was on my daily blog scroll and came across this article that Mark Anthony Neal put on his blog, New Black Man. The article is from the music magazine, Wax Poetics and reflects on the genre of Jazz Fusion from Miles Davis to Esperanza Spalding: “Yet, from fusion’s early days as a noisy […]

Show Your Papers!

A little over a month ago, President Obama decided to publicly show his birth certificate to diminish the attention placed on the ignorant “Birthers,” who included the hair-challenged Donald Trump. Well, a few days ago, Trump declared that Obama’s birth certificate is “forged.” Of course, it is Trump! (*sarcasm*). For people like Trump, it has […]