Modern Griots: Onyx Ashanti

Onyx Ashanti created a new style called Beat Jazz,” which is all produced on two handheld controllers, iphone and a mouthpiece. This is how he describes his work and himself: I am what can only be described as a cyborg musician. in other words, the music I create live, can not be replicated without technology. […]

Art of This World: Robert Pruitt

Artist Robert Pruitt will be releasing a comic, “Towards A Walk In the Sun,” at the Studio Museum of Harlem in July. As an artist, he is greatly influenced by Romare Bearden and recently premiered his work “Conjuring Woman” in “The Bearden Project.” “Conjuring Woman” and his other work are interesting in how he shows […]

The My-Stery: The Web

During the past several years, quite a number of books and essays have come out about connections between African diasporic cultures, and computer and digital technology. For example, Ron Eglash wrote “African Fractals,” a book on the similarities between African fractal designs in such things as textiles and braids, and modern computer designs. Since he […]

The My-Stery: Wiccan and Voodoo?

While looking for the System of a Down’s “Chop Suey” video, I saw the video for Godsmack’s “Voodoo.” The song was supposedly influenced by Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow, a movie that is problematic in of itself, portraying Vodou and indigenous religion in a kind of simplistic view, using them once again as […]

Art of This World: Wandering…

I came across the other day a Liberator Magazine interview of photographer Sedrick Miles about his work, “Wanderlust.” I thought it was interesting, since wanderlust was on my mind. Also, he mentions Afrofuturism: “Liberatormag: When I was a young, I was fascinated with time travel and flying. In particular, Virginia Hamilton’s “The People Could Fly” […]

Otherworldly Videos: United States of Hoodoo

German director Oliver Hardt, who produced Black Deutschland, and writer Darius James, author of That´s Blaxploitation!!!! and Negrophobia: An Urban Parable, have come together to produce the “spiritual road movie,” United States of Voodoo. The documentary explores how voodoo and hoodoo are still present in contemporary society through music, art and culture. The filmmakers describes […]