Cosmic Ghost at the Museum: The Shadows Took Shape Highlights

To the right is the exhibition book from Naima J. Keith and Zoe Whitley curated exhibition, The Shadows Took Shape. It is a nice-looking book with purple pages and reversed alphabetical order of artists, and it’s royally expensive, too ($50), but it looks worth it. Anyway, here are some of the artists and work that […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Summerstage – Femi Kuti + Sinkane

Every time I go to a park concert, I am reminded of why I dislike going to park concerts: 1) the scorching heat (I almost passed out from it) 2) the standing up for several hours 3) the rude people who either step in front of you while you are recording a performance or the […]

Modern Griots Reviews: The Burning Bush by Kenya Wright

“Motherpounder!” That left me speechless! And by speechless, I am talking about Kenya Wright’s sequel to Fire Baptized, The Burning Bush. In this novel, Wright takes readers deeper into the fantasy world of the Santeria Habitat and main character, Lanore Vesta, expanding on the history and relationships of the beings who live there. Opening with […]

Modern Griots Review: Arin Maya and The Imagination

“Drifting on a memory/Don”t give a care whoever sees me” is how Arin Maya and The Imagination begin Her Imaginings and that is how the album sounds — like a soulful drifting on a jagged, dislocating yet transformative electronic sonic journey. For example, the space traveling track “Get Outta Here,” Arin Maya sings in a […]

Modern Griots Review: Kenya Wright’s “Fire Baptized”

Towns named after on Santeria gods and goddesses in Miami. Supernaturals forced to live in caged cities and branded with symbols. A city of fairies, vampires, trolls, shapeshifters, witches, mermaids, and pixies as pets. A love triangle and a romance between college revolutionaries who are fighting against social system hierarchy. A serial killer detective story. […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Séan L. Young’s The Mystical Gathering Series

Popular culture is filled with worlds of wizards, witches and mystic superhero characters likes that of Harry Potter. But while audiences are excited by the fantasy of those worlds, real life communities of witches either go unnoticed or are demonized as satanic. And even in the fiction, rarely do we get a super-witch character who […]

Modern Griots Review: Tunde Olaniran’s “The Second Transgression”

“Kill or Be Killed” Singer Tunde Olaniran continues his disorientation from the norm through his hybridizing of sounds, styles (ex. electronic, rock, afro-beat, house, hip-hop, pop), identities and thoughts in his The Second Transgression. The five-track EP presents a dark, dramatic soundscape that lends well to fantasy visual, as in his video above for “Kill […]

Modern Griots Reviews: Middle of Nowhere

The United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world, yet it is easy to forget about prisoners and their lives before and outside of prison. We usually do not think about these lives that our made invisible to us, hidden away in cells, and how prison steals possible futures of them and their […]

Modern Griots Review: The Noisettes’ Have a Weaker Transmission With ‘Contact’

After two albums like What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf and Wild Young Hearts, I am saddened to have to admit this. Another band has let go some of the essence that gravitated me towards them in the first place. I know, bands are allowed to explore and change their sound, and that includes The Noisettes. […]