Otherworldly Videos: Ulysses

Melissa Laveaux– Ulysses

Moving on the Wires: Janelle Monae and the Black Camera

*At the Toronto Jazz Festival last week, Janelle Monae performed two new songs that might be on her upcoming album: “Dorothy Dandridge Eyes’ “Electric Lady” * Indiana University’s Black Camera, a film journal, is requesting papers for their fall 2013 special Afrosurrealism in film/video. This is the description of the issue: In the conceptual space […]

Art of This World: Radcliffe Bailey

Artist Radcliffe Baily speaks at the TEDx Atlanta about the mystery of art, the influence of family, music, spirituality and history in his creative process, and his use of art to bring kinfolk together.

Moving On the Wires: SHAOLIN JAZZ L!ve in DC

For those in the Washington, DC area today, Shaolin Jazz is doing their first musical performance tonight at the legendary Blues Alley. It is the first DJ-led performance at Blues Alley including DJ 2-Tone Jones, the co-creator of SHAOLIN JAZZ, his fellow band members of Sound of the City and special guest artists.. Their repertoire […]

Moving on the Wires: Afrofuturism and Beyond

Cherie Ann Turpin, assistant professor of English at the University of the District of Columbia and blogger of Afrofuturism Scholar, recently premiered her radio show, At the Edge: An Afrofuturism Salon on Blog Talk Radio. The first episode was with Afroerotik owner, Scottie Lowe (be careful, not safe for work and kids). BBC recently did […]

Behind the Mask: Adidas, Monsters and Slaves

The internet was buzzing with Adidas’ now debunked concept for a new pair of sneakers that had an interesting design – orange ankle shackles. Now my concern over the sneakers was not only that Jeremy Scott’s design looked awfully similar to slavery shackles or imprisonment, and that Adidas sells shoes to a mostly urban audience […]

Otherworldy Videos: Revolution

Saidah Baba Talibah premiered her new video today for “Revolution.”

Behind the Mask: D. Denenge Akpem

Here is another segment. Its focus will be fashion – hair, clothes, carnival costumes, etc. First, D. Denenge Akpem’s performance-lecture on Afrofuturism and fashion, “Constructing Future Forms.” Update: Read her two articles from Chicago Arts Magazine Constructing Future Forms: Afro-Futurism and Fashion in Chicago, Part I Constructing Future Forms: Afro-Futurism and Fashion in Chicago, Part […]

Art of This World: Janel Jefferson

Artist Janel Jefferson talks about her use of photographs from the 19th and 20th century to create colorful and haunting painted portraits that give life to the past and show that records are like gifts from the past to the present and future. The video is from the Juneteenth Jamboree site on Kiru. Listen to […]

The My-Stery: The Gaze in 2012

Rockwell- Somebody’s Watching Me With the recent death of Rodney King, I wanted to reflect on the gaze or surveillance in our society and how it has manifested itself during this year so far. The gaze has implied that the bodies of others, like Black bodies, should always be under scrupulous examination because we are […]