Moving on the Wires: This Week’s News and Posts

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Barbados Cultural Fact of the Day: Besides the Landship masquerade, there are several traditional Barbados costumed characters who are seen during Crop Over festival, including Mother Sally (“Muddah Sally”), The Donkey Man, The Shaggy Bear and The Stilt Man. Traditionally performed by a male who wore a mask to hide his identity, Mother Sally was a figure meant to represent fertility with her exaggerated breasts and bottom. The masquerade character has similarities to Gelede Masquerade of Yoruba in South Western Nigeria and in Ghana among the Ga ethnic peoples. Today, the character is played by women too and their performances are filled with comedy and rhythmic pelvic dances. The costume sometimes comes across as problematic with the stereotypical look and especially with men dressing as the character in the past, but reflects Barbados particular cultural history. I will discuss the other costume characters in following posts.

*Narratively’s The Imaginarium of Black Cinema: “… the Museum of African American Cinema (MoAAC) is actually a modest four-room office space on the ninth floor of Harlem’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building.

MoAAC, formed in 2001 as a nonprofit organization, is the brainchild of Gregory Javan Mills, Ernest N. Steele and twenty other founding members. Mills, its current C.E.O. & president, remembers seeing an episode of “Tony Brown’s Journal” on PBS in the mid-1980s devoted to early black cinema. He and the others spent the next decade and a half researching the history of black cinema in the United States. The idea to create a museum didn’t materialize until the late ’90s. Mills is on a mission to secure funds to display the vast collection, evidence of the largely untold history of black cinema, at a permanent establishment.”

*Colorlines’ “The Overwhelming Whiteness of Black Art:” Jamilah King writes about Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety” work and the reception of the piece in a majority white museum/gallery world. How does the audience that the work is presented to influence the impact of the work.

*Freedom Reeves’ “Michael Jackson, Holograms and Capitalism:” “The performance reminded me of why I balk at the idea of expecting accountability from corporations for making ethical decisions when it comes to almost anything, especially art and media.”

*Okay Player’s “Georgia Anne Muldrow Teases New ‘Ms. One’ EP With Album Cover Timelapse Visual:” “Georgia Anne Muldrow lets loose some new visuals to give us a taste of her debut rapping EP Ms. One with a timelapse video of the cover art for the album being created by supreme Danish tagger Juse One. The teaser offers a glimpse into “Personal,” the lead-off track from the EP that finds Ja Ja flipping from stapled croon to fiery wordplay in a seamless transition over a slow-rocking Hargrove-horn-loaded production from the album’s architect Kriswontwo. Georgia Anne Muldrow’s fitting debut as an MC comes to us June 24th via her own imprint SomeOthaShip Connect and it will feature both the vocal tracks and instrumentals from the project.”

*Shadow and Act’s “Quvenzhané Wallis Will Play A 12-Year-Old Genius In Adaptation Of Bestseller ‘Counting by 7s:” “…Counting by 7s tells the story of Willow Chance, a 12 year old genius, coping with the loss of her adoptive parents, and the community of people that rise to become her surrogate family. Here’s an official synopsis, including some explanation for the title: