I learned a lot at my first Blogging While Brown conference, so I wanted to share some of what I learned and have done already: The opening keynote from Markus Robinson of Interactive One opened my eyes to several new ways to gather traffic and reach out to a large audience. Some of his advice […]
Read More Blogging While Brown RecapWhere was Black Girls Code when I was younger?! Event today, black women make up less than 3% of the STEM industries and other women of color is lower, less than 1%. Last Thursday, I attended the showing of the Black Girls Code short documentary and fundraising event. Already having taught over 1500 girls across […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Black Girls CodeIf you title your album, All The Things You Know to Be True? (hmm, why the question mark?), and start with a song titled, “Sin and Shame,” featuring spoken word artist Leanne Stoddart and her risque joke, you will have turning heads. But it’s singer-songwriter and musician Rob Carvalho‘s smooth 90’s R&B tenor voice and […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: CarvalhoTake some mysticism and some social realities mixed with some humor and Brooklyn-by way of the Caribbean-flava and you have Old Money‘s debut mixtape, Fire in the Dark. Their album released on Dutty Artz records, the group consists of Afro-Caribbean-American (Jamaica and Guyana) duo, Ahmad Julian and Andre Oswald. The mixtape uses references familiar afrofuturist themes, like […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Old MoneySekou Sundiata – “Space” Last weekend, I attended the Tongues of Fire tribute to Sekou Sundiata at the Apollo and I must say it was a beautiful, stirring and electrifying tribute. Curated by musical director Craig Harris, the show included his band Nation of Imagination as the musical background as for a few moving musical […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Tongues of Fire and Erykah BaduWhen I first heard that the Black Radical Imagination were showing their Futurist Film Showcase at The Meat Market in Brooklyn, at first I was a little suspicious. Turns out, it’s a clothing boutique with a strange name and nice items. But anyway, I did enjoy the showcase, which for me was a selection of […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Futurist Film Showcase(warning for epilepsy!) Remember E.T. with Elliot riding the bike into the sky; that was the first thought I had reading UK rapper Juice Aleem‘s title “MoorKaba Light Bikes” on his EP featuring three versions of this song and “Anumal.” That sense of theatrics and spectacle as well as a theme of elevating oneself are […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Juice Aleem“What these women become is what we will be,” Captain Larnyce Gaines gives the purpose of not only the three travelers from the future, but the underlying message of Futurology the Musical. The women finding power in themselves theme throughout this musical is its driving force and compelling feature. The Paper to Pen production, which […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Futurology the MusicalFree 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 […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Films at the Crossroads – Revolutionaries and OutsidersAs Ebony celebrated Katherine Dunham, Nick Cave was featuring dozens of Alvin Ailey dancers wearing 30 colorful horse “soundsuits” in his public performance piece at Grand Central station, HEARD•NY. Presented by Creative Time and MTA Arts, the 30 minute performances included a grazing pastoral music and dance sequence followed by a rhythmic choreographed dance, “crossings” […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Nick Cave’s Magical Horses in Heard.NY
Sherese Francis 