Modern Griots Interview: Jane Odartey

Jane Odartey is one of my friends from college. She is also a photographer, poet, and funny, too. Here is my interview I did with her: 1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. Thanks so much for featuring me on your wonderful blog, Reese! Home used to be Ghana, but then I moved to […]

Behind the Mask: Uncensored

Fashion Q & A did a beautiful, fantastical photo-shoot called Uncensored. Qianna Smith styled the models and they were photographed by Fernando Colon. I love the purple hair, probably because one of my favorite colors is purple.

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 […]

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 […]

Moving on the Wires: Beasts of the Southern Wild

The southern United States is known for many natural and man-made disasters. From the Mississippi Flood of 1927, which inspired the song “When the Levee Breaks,” to Hurricane Katrina to the BP oil spill, the South has experienced several apocalyptic events. Not only that, our entire world is dealing with rapidly changing climates, melting icecaps […]