Yo Flo, I Have Some Words About Your Video…

For the past couple of years, I have gained an interest in studying Vodun and all the other religious systems that stemmed from it. So, I have become sensitive to portrayals of those religions (they are not cults), especially when they are put in binary to Christianity. I watched Florence and the Machine‘s video for […]

Negro (and say it with a Spanish accent!)

Negro: A Docu-Series about Latino Identity Created by Dash Harris, this docu-series explores Latino identity throughout the world and issues of racism, colorism and social consequences of a color complex throughout the community. This is the first part of the series and it focuses on the stereotypes of Latinos. If you have seen Henry Louis Gates’ […]

Modern Griots: Cauleen Smith

Several months ago, I saw a few of Cauleen Smith‘s short films, including “The Changing Same” and “Green Dress,” at the Studio Museum of Harlem. Smith is an experimental film director with an Afrofuturistic focus, dealing with issues about identity and black women. Her alter ego’s name is Kelly Gabron, a character that allows her to […]

Starlite,Star bright, Support This with All Your Might…

“The Starlite Project is a feature-length documentary film titled Starlite and an interactive website based on the making and the taking of the historic Starlite Lounge- the oldest black-owned gay bar in Brooklyn. The goals of the Project are to preserve the historic memory of the Starlite and to counteract the forces which contributed to its closing. See […]

Spirituality in Africa…

“Ancestral Voices: Esoteric African Knowledge A educational documentary, spanning two continents, opening up a much-needed debate about traditional African spiritual systems; their cosmologies, ideologies and underlying ethical principles. Modern science no longer refutes the origins of mankind being in Africa and similarities in the cosmological ideologies of African esoteric systems with those found many established world […]

Memory…

Last week, I saw Eve’s Bayou again, a film I have not seen in years. As much as I love the entire movie, the monologue at the end always stands out most to me because she speaks on how perspective can influence memory, the past and truth. “Like others before me I have the gift of sight. […]

“Mambo Nights in Hollywood” Mini-Review

So, I did attend Bobby Sanabria directing the Manhattan School’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and I must say it was so worth my $5. I would’ve payed more if it cost more. Once again, I must applaud how Sanabria is not only a drummer, but a genuine historian and performer who loves what he does and […]

Sisters of the Revolution…

I remember randomly coming across this video while looking up information on Lisa Nicole Carson and what happened to her because she seemed to have disappeared from film. This is an Apollo History Moment, which was part of Apollo Comedy Hour, in the ’90s. It stars Lisa Nicole Carson and Paula Jai Parker in the form […]

History of Racism

Yesterday I watched this BBC documentary on racism. It included information on the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Imperialism, Colonialism, Scientific racism, Social Dawinism, Eugenics, genocides (as one of the speakers called it, “bureaucratization of killing”), racist experiments (ex. mass sterilization), fear of immigration, different ethnicities and lower classes, and economic, cultural and political disenfranchisement, and how […]

Slavery in Canada?!

When many people think of slavery, they tend to focus mostly on the United States, which is a given since the United States has been a huge power over the rest of the world. However, we tend to forget that the entire world was affected by the Transatlantic Slave Trade. One of the places where […]