Otherworldly Videos: Danger Word+HowDoYouSayYamInAfrican+Old Money+Tiombe

Film: Here is the Web premiere of the short film Danger Word, directed by Luchina Fisher and starring Frankie Faison and Saoirse Scott. The film, which is based on Devil’s Wake from Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, follows a 13-year-old girl and her grandfather in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. If you enjoy zombie […]

Rewind: “Cry of Jazz” and Restrictions on Black Excellence

Watching Ed Bland‘s short film, Cry of Jazz, this morning reinforced how times have not changed much. The 1958 controversial documentary-styled film sets on a discussion after a jazz club meeting and the discussions and arguments literally feel like deja vu – white dismissals of black cultural contributions, black suffering, black knowledge and black excellence while […]

Modern Griots Reviews: “Finding the Funk…

…and getting the respect!” Author, music historian and filmmaker, Nelson George, said at a rough cut screening of his latest film, Finding the Funk, that funk music was a music for outsiders. Reaching its peak in the 70s and early 80s, the short time between the eras of soul and post-bop/funky jazz and the rise […]

Moving on the Wires: 2 Years+Break, RebelMatic, Deluge Trailer, Meridian, Tawiah, Tar Baby Jane

*Today is my the anniversary of the day I started this blog, which was two years ago, and I am going to take a small break (maybe a week or two) to celebrate. Running this blog by myself can be tiring sometimes and so I should do this so i don’t tire myself out. I […]

Black Girls/Black Women Are from the Future: Q.U.E.E.N., Black Girls Code and MBIB

Janelle Monae’s “Q.U.E.E.N.” featuring Erykah Badu. This song is a much better anthem than, dare I say, “Run the World (Girls).” It is funky and fierce with thoughtful commentary about those who judge and put others down. Check out Monae interview yesterday on 106 and Park. Black Girls Code Trailer — the short film about […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Films at the Crossroads – Revolutionaries and Outsiders

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, Toussaint, Boneshaker and Alaskaland may seem like distinct films on the surface, but underneath they all have similar themes of people who feel as if they don’t fully fit as if in a state of in-betweenness, and trying to find a place to belong, whether it’s a community, a […]

Black Girls/Black Women Are from the Future: Free Angela

Angela Davis is more than an afro and if you think wearing an afro is radical and revolutionary enough, then you do not know much about Angela Davis’ life. Having grown up in Birmingham and knowing the girls who were murdered in the Birmingham church bombing, Davis seemed destined to want to make a change […]

Modern Griots Review: The United States of Hoodoo

Darius James and Oliver Hardt’s film The United States of Hoodoo has a deceptive quietness with a hidden power underneath it. But then again, it is just another variation of the film’s themes of the trickster and the crossroads. Returning home to Connecticut, the film follows James’ coping with his father’s recent death and his […]

Moving on the Wires: The Liberator Magazine, El Anatsui, Anti-Robot Radio, Mother Tongue Monologues

*The Liberator Magazine released their latest issue, “The Last Generation of Black People.” My essay, “The Percussive Approach,” is one of the writings featured. Buy a copy here. *Accra dot Alt announced El Anatsui’s exhibition “Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui” will be at Brooklyn Museum Also, go to Accra dot Alt for […]

Otherworldy Videos: Tanya Evanson

Tanya Evanson‘s video poem, “Almost Forgot My Bones.” Evanson is an Antiguan-Quebecoise poet, vocalist, whirling dervish dancer, arts educator and director of Mother Tongue Media and The Banff Centre Spoken Word Program. Her work is featured in such works as her six chapbooks, three studio albums, anthologies and documentaries, Generation Exile and In Search of […]