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In the beginning of Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down, Ishmael Reed’s hilarious parody of the dime store Western, Loop Garoo Kid offers his view of the novel as an art form: “No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, …
‘At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing’ edited by George Kimball and John Schulian Library of America, 517 pp., $35 Blame it on Hemingway. George Kimball, in the introduction to this collection of essays and excerpts, argues “the birth” of American boxing writing was the fight between Jack Johnson, the first African American to hold …
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by Katelyn Hackett Wilmington– The North Carolina Black Film Festival kicked off on Thursday night. People filed into the Cameron Art Museum for the free reception. In its tenth year the festival showcases dozens of short and feature-length narratives, documentaries and animation. Folks travel from all over the nation to attend. “The North Carolina Black …
by Gary Norris Gray CALIFORNIA–Inland African countries like Northern Benin, Niger, Western Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Western Chad, treated their disabled children like kings and queens. It was a sign from the Gods that these individuals were special and that they should be given respect. African communities thought the heavens, the Gods, blessed them with …
Continue reading “AMERICAN HISTORY OF THE BLACK DISABLED IN SPORTS”
Sometimes a career survey doubles as a scan of social history. This is true of Glenn Ligon’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a tight but ample show that refers back to America’s slave-holding past and forward to the Obama present but focuses on the late 1980s and 1990s, a too-seldom-revisited stretch of …
by: Gary Younge When Reverend Andre Reynolds, minister of music at the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, looks out to the congregation for inspiration, he occasionally lifts his eyes over the pews, beyond the balcony and sets his gaze on the Wales window. “I think it’s wonderful that people halfway around the world …
Continue reading “American civil rights: the Welsh connection”
By Courtney Devores When Johnathan Lee Iverson joined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey shortly after graduating from college in 1998, he was the first African-American to take on the role of ringmaster, as well as the circus’s youngest emcee ever. A singer first, the New York City native was a member of the famous …
by Lingxi ChenyangAudiences won’t know whether to laugh or cringe during experimental playwright Young Jean Lee’s “The Shipment,” a hilarious and irreverent play that will challenge audience members’ stereotypes of race this weekend in two performances at the Moore Theater in the Hopkins Center. Lee’s critically acclaimed play confronts racial identities by focusing on common …
BY Georgette Gilmore If you celebrate Kwanzaa or just want to experience the African-American holiday that celebrates family, community and culture, there are some great events in Baristaville and beyond: Step Afrika!Who: Ages 10 and up.What: Step Afrika is the first professional dance company to celebrate the tradition of stepping as an art form originated …
I am a photographer, film-maker, photo illustrator and a playwright. As a photographer, I have photographed over 11,000 images. A number of my images have been exhibited at the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) and Community College in Philadelphia.. I have taken a number of photography and film classes at various schools and workshops …
I am a photographer, film-maker, photo illustrator and a playwright. As a photographer, I have photographed over 11,000 images. A number of my images have been exhibited at the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) and Community College in Philadelphia.. I have taken a number of photography and film classes at various schools and workshops …
Cruising down Oak Avenue into the historic borough of Lawnside, it didn’t take long to spot the sign. 141st Still Family Reunion: An American First Family. Can’t argue with the first-family part. The Still family tree may have had its roots in slavery, but has managed to produce quintessential American achievers – abolitionists, preachers, doctors, …
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(CNN) — Legs covered in skin-toned stockings, her skirt crisp to the knee, Patty Davis slips on the black heels she has shined for the day. “Got to look good in the Lord’s house,” she says as she spritzes her neck with White Diamonds perfume and exits her black Lincoln Town Car. Davis, 46, of …
Continue reading “Does the black church keep black women single?”
Join us on Thursday, August 19, 2010 7:00–8:30 PM EST New York, NY (BlackNews.com) — For too long, stories of the lives and journeys of African Americans have been told by others. With the publication of America I AM Journal, edited by Clarence Reynolds (SmileyBooks, Trade Paperback Original; $11.95) African Americans can now take pride …
As his solo show opens at the Wexner Center in Columbus, the Los Angeles artist talks to us about the dynamics of community, working with children and making art in post-Katrina New Orleans….. Standing 6ft 8in tall, the elegant and engaging Los Angeles-based artist Mark Bradford cuts a striking figure. His mural-sized abstract collages and …
Continue reading “Mark Bradford on class and identity in South Central LA”