John Jackson, Jr. On Chip Saltsman

from The Annals of Anthroman

Saltsman's "We Hate the USA" CD

by John L. Jackson, Jr.



As one of the many Americans considering a descent on the inauguration ceremonies next month, even without any actual tickets in hand (and nary a perfunctory response to my queries about possibly obtaining some from my local Congressman), I have been following the "transition" fairly closely. And I'm not just talking about the president elect's cabinet picks. I also mean his decisions for the ceremony itself. The brilliant choice of poet Elizabeth Alexander; the more controversial decision to ask Rick Warren to offer up the day's prayer.



Obama is certainly trying to demonstrate his commitment to an inclusive political conversation that allows for many different ideological positions. Frank Rich persuasively challenges the limits and contours of that move vis-a-vis the Warren choice in today's New York Times. But it is clear why Obama feels he has to make such massive gestures in the direction of political inclusion. To his opponents, he represents the unassimilable anti-American. He is the butt of jokes. The threat from within.



Just think about Chip Saltsman's version of holiday gift-giving this year. Saltsman was national campaign adviser for Mike Huckabee during his failed presidential run, and Saltsman is now one of the people vying for head of the RNC. This weekend, we also found out that he sent a CD out to RNC members (as a Christmas gift) that included the song youtubed above, "Barack, The Magic Negro."



But the CD didn't just showcase that gem. According to Rebecca Sinderbrand's CNN report, the CD itself was titled "We Hate the USA," and boasted tunes that poked fun at many other political figures.



According to Sinderbrand and The Hill, the CD included the following song titles: "John Edwards's Poverty Tour," "Wright place, wrong pastor," "Ivory and Ebony" and "The Star Spanglish Banner."



The Star Spanglish Banner?



Saltsman has dismissed the controversy out of hand, describing the CD as a harmelss spoof. "I think most people recognize political satire when they see it," he said. "I think RNC members understand that."



But it is clear that Saltsman comes close to trafficking in the very forms of small-minded xenophobia, race-baiting, partisan hypocrisy, and fear-mongering that helped cost John McCain the 2008 election. To many critics, such a CD looks like political pandering (and scapegoating) at its worst -- and doesn't nearly imply the kind of forward-thinking sensibility needed to take the Republican party where it needs to go. If anything, it appears to be a surefire recipe for many more electoral defeats at the hands of a browning electorate.



Read the Full Essay @



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John L. Jackson, Jr. is an Anthropologist, academic and filmmaker born in Brooklyn, New York.

Barack the First Hip-Hop President?

from The Green Institute

"For me its not only about holding Obama, the House of Representatives, or the United States Senate accountable. Holding public officials accountable is important, but building a multi-racial social justice movement is a necessity for our very existence."

Why President Elect Barack Obama is not the first Hip Hop President
by Rosa A. Clemente

"Each generation out of relative obscurity, must discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it."-- Frantz Fanon

It has been 45 days since the Hip Hop generation helped usher in the first Black male President of the United States of America. Since that historic night, many within Hip Hop culture, like writer Greg Kot of the Boston Globe, entrepreneur Russell Simmons, artists Common, Jay-Z and P. Diddy, have declared President-Elect Obama the first Hip Hop president. In my humble opinion they are wrong, dead wrong. It does not matter how many Hip Hop pundits, non-profit organizations, and recognizable figures within the culture declare it. Much like an MC or B-Girl battle, I'm ready to challenge that declaration.

As a long time community organizer and Hip Hop activist and journalist, I have always followed a rule: never allow someone to become your priority while you become his or her option. For President Elect Barack Obama and the entire Democrat Party leadership in this country, the

Hip Hop generation has never been a priority, we have always been an option and that option is used mostly to get out the vote during elections. Efforts like Vote or Die, Generation Vote, Rock the Vote, Respect my Vote, do not empower a generation - they are catchy slogans emblazoned on pretty white tees that offer empty rhetoric. At the end of the day, those G.O.T.V. efforts become guaranteed votes for the Democratic Party and often fail to educate their followers about candidates that run outside of the two-party system.

I believe that like many before him, President-Elect Barack Obama's campaign used Hip Hop to create excitement amongst young people in this country, but we must clearly see through the $750 million bling-bling marketing haze of his campaign. The few times he was pressed on his association to Hip Hop, he spoke about offensive rap lyrics and Black men having respect for themselves by pulling up their pants. I do not recall one specific mention of the political victories and social consciousness brought out by millions in the culture. Just because you brush off your shoulders, fist bump the future First Lady, or play a mean game of street ball, that does not make you Hip Hop. What we have now is an Obama administration that came into power with the promise of change, but is remixing that promise by sampling from the Bill Clinton Presidency, including Hillary herself, and this new remix will do nothing to change the mass conditions of our people.

In Van Jones new book, The Green Collar Economy, Van says, "It is time to change from fighting against something to fighting for something." For me that statement encapsulates why I chose to accept Cynthia's McKinney's invitation to be her running mate and why the Green Party made history by choosing us as the first women-of-color ticket in American Presidential politics. I accepted the call because I was no longer interested in fighting against the Democratic or Republican Party.

Read the Full Essay @

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Rosa Clemente, former Green Party Vice-Presidential Candidate, and her daughter Alicia-Maria, live in North Carolina. This the first in a series of four articles commissioned for the Green Institute by Rosa Clemente.

Eartha Kitt in Boomerang 1992

Remembering Eartha Kitt...

Filtering Kanye

from The Root

In 808s and Heartbreak,Kanye West filters his grief with the help of Auto-Tune.

Kanye's Pity Party
By Mark Anthony Neal | TheRoot.com

Dec. 16, 2008--For those who like to draw a line in the sand to distinguish between "real" hip-hop and that which is not-so-real, Kanye West has shown a consistent ability to blur the line. Since his 2004 breakthrough album, The College Dropout, there have been many rap artists as prolific and visible. But where so many of his peers simply have collections of songs, West has amassed a body of work—and there are few who could claim that since "Rapper's Delight." It is this body of work and the devoted fan base that comes with it that allows West to take risks; and this partially explains the oddity that 808s and Heartbreak represents.

808s and Heartbreak is the artistic culmination of a year of tumult in West's life, beginning with the tragic death of his mother, Dr. Donda West, after botched plastic surgery, and his breakup with longtime girlfriend and fiancé Alexis Phifer. What is quite clear, even after a quick listen, is that West would like to publicly mourn the death of his mother, but his bitterness toward Phifer becomes the default emotion. If there were an artist within hip-hop who would have license to mourn, especially for his mother, it would be West, but he chooses not to take us there—or so it seems.

One of the marked differences between 808s and Heartbreak and West's previous efforts is his reliance on Auto-Tune, the audio processor, which corrects the pitch in singing performances. As described by the New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, "Auto-Tunes locates the pitch of a recorded vocal and moves that recorded information to the nearest 'correct' note in a scale, which is selected by the user." Though Auto-Tune has been used by many mainstream performers, the technology found a new purpose among a young generation of hip-hop and R&B performers, notably T-Pain, who has translated his marginal skills as a vocalist and creation of memorable hooks, into a career of some distinction. And Kanye West is just the latest of several high-profile rap and R&B acts to experiment with the new technology.

Read the Full Essay @

Tricia Rose on Afro-Futurism

Brother from Another Planet

Sun Ra was from Alabama - or from Saturn - depending on who you ask. He’s not the only musician to ride on the Mothership Connection. As professor Tricia Rose points out, the Afro-futurist urge to escape Earth continues to this day. Produced by Studio 360's Derek John.

hat-tip to Professor Kim

"Cadillac Records" and Black Manhood

from Vibe.com

Critical Noir
Never See a Man Cry
by Mark Anthony Neal

Cadillac Records, the new film about the rise of the Chess record label, its co-founder Leonard Chess and the label's signature act Muddy Waters, takes a great many historical liberties. Written out of this fictional account of the birth of Chicago Blues are Leonard Chess's brother Phil and a rich musical history that also included John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson II, groundbreaking Doo-Wop acts like The Flamingoes and The Moonglows, Bo Diddley, Billy Stewart and The Dells, among others. One of film's strengths--and the reason why Cadillac Records is such a compelling story--is its documentation of the relationship between the music produced by a generation of black male artists, many of them recent transplants from the deep South, and their sense of manhood.

Read Full Essay @

NBM Booknotes: December 2008

The Hip Hop Wars
What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why it Matters
by Tricia Rose
Published by Basic Civitas Books

Hip-hop is in crisis. For the past dozen years, the most commercially successful hip-hop has become increasingly saturated with caricatures of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and ’hos. The controversy surrounding hip-hop is worth attending to and examining with a critical eye because, as scholar and cultural critic Tricia Rose argues, hip-hop has become a primary means by which we talk about race in the United States. In The Hip-Hop Wars, Rose explores the most crucial issues underlying the polarized claims on each side of the debate: Does hip-hop cause violence, or merely reflect a violent ghetto culture? Is hip-hop sexist, or are its detractors simply anti-sex? Does the portrayal of black culture in hip-hop undermine black advancement? A potent exploration of a divisive and important subject, The Hip-Hop Wars concludes with a call for the regalvanization of the progressive and creative heart of hip-hop. What Rose calls for is not a sanitized vision of the form, but one that more accurately reflects a much richer space of culture, politics, anger, and yes, sex, than the current ubiquitous images in sound and video currently provide.

Tricia Rose was born and raised in New York City. She has taught at NYU, University of California at Santa Cruz and is now a Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.



Ain't I a Feminist?
African American Men Speak Out on Fatherhood, Friendship, Forgiveness, and Freedom
by Aaronette M. White
Published by SUNY Press

Interview-based study of contemporary African American feminist men.

Ain’t I a Feminist? presents the life stories of twenty African American men who identify themselves as feminists, centering on the turning points in their lives that shaped and strengthened their commitment to feminism, as well as the ways they practice feminism with women, children, and other men. In her analysis, Aaronette M. White highlights feminist fathering practices; how men establish egalitarian relationships with women; the variety of Black masculinities; and the interplay of race, gender, class, and sexuality politics in American society. Coming from a wide range of family backgrounds, ages, geographical locations, sexualities, and occupations, each man also shares what he experiences as the personal benefits of feminism, and how feminism contributes to his efforts towards social change. Focusing on the creative agency of Black men to redefine the assumptions and practices of manhood, the author also offers recommendations regarding the socialization of African American boys and the reeducation of African American men in the interest of strengthening their communities.

“This powerful book makes a unique and substantive contribution to the fields of women’s studies, gender studies, ethnic studies, psychology, and sociology. It will surely garner a great deal of attention in the academy.” — Aída Hurtado, author of Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on Sexuality and Identity

Aaronette M. White is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz.


Out of the House of Bondage
The Transformation of the Plantation Household
by Thavolia Glymph
Published by Cambridge University Press

The plantation household was, first and foremost, a site of production. This fundamental fact has generally been overshadowed by popular and scholarly images of the plantation household as the source of slavery's redeeming qualities, where ‘gentle’ mistresses ministered to ‘loyal’ slaves. This book recounts a very different story. The very notion of a private sphere, as divorced from the immoral excesses of chattel slavery as from the amoral logic of market laws, functioned to conceal from public scrutiny the day-to-day struggles between enslaved women and their mistresses, subsumed within a logic of patriarchy. One of emancipation's unsung consequences was precisely the exposure to public view of the unbridgeable social distance between the women on whose labor the plantation household relied and the women who employed them. This is a story of race and gender, nation and citizenship, freedom and bondage in the nineteenth century South; a big abstract story that is composed of equally big personal stories.

Focuses on the plantation household as a site of production and thus class relations and violence • Unique analysis of the precise forms of struggle and negotiations that led to the transformation of the plantation home in the Civil War era • Places black and white women at the center of an analysis of the plantation household

Thavolia Glymph is Associate Professor of History and African & African-American Studies at Duke University.

TV-One's "Unsung" Tributes Forgotten Stars

from Vibe.com

CRITICAL NOIR
TV-One's "Unsung" Strikes the Right Chord
by Mark Anthony Neal

Like its predecessor Black Entertainment Television's, TV-One, the cable television networked owned by the Radio-One family, attempted to strike the right balance in terms of syndicated reruns and original series. TV-One, perhaps benefiting from BET's longtime decision to abandon middle-age audiences, has proved successful in at least locating a niche market of over-30 something African-Americans. Though the network has tried to put a fresh coat of paint on 15-year-old favorites like Martin and Living Single (the recent cast reunion of the later show being an example), it has proved far more capable than its competition to produce original programming. Though Baisden at Night is a mixed-bagged (it simply lacks the energy and cohesiveness of the drive-time radio program)shows like G. Garvin's Turn Up the Heat and Gospel of Music with Jeff Major are high points of the network's programming, though neither will have audiences forgetting the wealth of programming on the Food Network or the old BET stalwart, Bobby Jones Gospel. Fresh off of their live coverage of the Democratic National Convention, late last month TV-One unveiled what is perhaps its first legitimate original hit, the music documentary series Unsung.

The formula of Unsung is not original--it draws liberally on many of the conventions that made VH-1's series Behind the Music so compelling. Where Unsung succeeds in its ability to locate compelling human stories behind musical figures that are quite beloved among black music fans, though largely obscure to mainstream audiences. The Debarge Family, the Clark Sisters, Donny Hathaway and Phyllis Hyman are simply not figures that would register to traditional mainstream audiences and as such TV-One should be commended for the willingness to tell the stories of those who would not necessarily generate the kind of cross-over appeal that documentaries on the lives of well-known tragic figures like Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye or Otis Redding might have. And while the stories of the aforementioned artists deserved to be told and deserved to be told from a distinct African-American perspective, as TV-One's publicity for the series rightfully suggest, Unsung allows tribute to artists who simply aren't going to get the recognition that they deserve.

Read the Full Essay @

Is Michelle Obama's "Ass" Off Limits?

from Vibe.com

CRITICAL NOIR
Is Michelle Obama's "Ass" Off-Limits?
by Mark Anthony Neal

At the crux of Erin Aubrey Kaplan's humorous and cute Salon.com essay, "First Lady Got Back," is the simple admission that Michelle Obama--and by extension the First Family Obama--represent a "realness" that hasn't existed in Washington political circles in some time. Indeed in a society in which the notion of "fitness" has become not only a market unto itself but a mode of regulation that defines what bodies are "fit" to represent the American body politic, Michelle Obama's body invokes a realness that is both refreshing and affirming--in the way that that Propel Water commercial from a year ago (the one with the healthy sista strolling the streets getting her walk on to the gaze of male celebrities). But that doesn't mean that Kaplan's piece doesn't conjure a more troubling view.

Never before has a First Lady's body been subject to the amount of scrutiny and surveillance as is the case with Michelle Obama; she has been rhetorically poked, prodded and groped. Many would have found such a line of coverage unfathomable and even offensive if applied to women like Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, or Roselyn Carter...

Read the Full Essay @

Blowback, Prop 8 style

from NewsOne.com


LEFT OF BLACK
Black Voters, White Progressives and Prop 8
By Mark Anthony Neal

In all of the euphoria over Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American President, black voters have been cast as a vital part of the electorate that made his victory possible. There has been another story developing in the state of California, as black voters in the state, according to exit polls, voted 2-1 in favor of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment which bans same-sex marriage reversing ruling made only months ago by the California Supreme Court in favor of same-sex marriage.

Black support for Proposition 8 highlights one of the many fault-lines in the alliance that swept Barack Obama into the White House. The rhetoric is being amped up as some are essentially blaming black voters-often thought as critical to a liberal or progressive voting bloc-for the revoking of same-sex marriage privileges. The rift between traditional black voters and white progressives comes at a critical juncture, as President-Elect Obama seeks the political footing for his agenda. Without a viable and visible progressive political bloc, Obama will have little choice but to govern from the political center.

Though black voters have historically been some of the most consistent members of a liberal voting bloc, they tend to be more conservative on social issues such as same-sex marriage. This was something that strategist Karl Rove understood as the Bush campaign used the shiny-ball that was same-sex marriage in the 2004 presidential to garner just enough support among black voters in a state like Ohio to turn the tide in favor of the incumbent. It was a lesson that those who sought to defeat Proposition 8 should have studied.

It is clear though that organizers did little outreach into black communities assuming that with a black presidential candidate that was supportive of same-sex marriage, (though more tepidly supportive of Proposition 8 during the campaign cycle), that black voters would fall in line. But black views on same sex-marriage are more complicated; simply reading black voters as inherently homophobic misses the complexity of an issue that, in black communities, is often tied to the absence of black men as husbands and fathers. Understood in that context, same-sex marriage goes against the belief of many within black communities that black survival is hopelessly tied to traditional marriage patterns. That said, the Black Clergy needs to be accountable for hateful rhetoric directed towards gays, lesbians and transgendered citizens (including a good many in their congregations) and for willful fear-mongering.

Read the Full Essay @

Hughley vs Chappelle?

from the Chronicle.com

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Waiting for Chappelle
by John L. Jackson Jr.

DL Hughley is trying to step into that televisual void opened up by Chappelle's hasty departure from his hit cable show in 2005. Chappelle walked away from the show (and tons of money) because he started to fear that some of his provocative racial humor was possibly reinforcing American racism, not challenging it through parodic excess. Hughley's new CNN show is operating on that same racial terrain, and he hasn't quite found the right balance between biting satirical commentary and the threat of a more vapid reinforcement of our worst racial stereotypes.

Read the Full Essay @

Bakari Kitwana Chats It Up with Common

"Mama Africa" Goes Home

Obama and Hip-Hop? Jeezy and MAN on NPR

from NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday

Obama Hip-Hop: From Mixtapes To Mainstream

Weekend Edition Sunday, November 9, 2008 - This election season, hip-hop performers and producers flocked to their mixing boards in unprecedented fashion.

Rapper Young Jeezy and professor Mark Anthony Neal discuss the impact of Barack Obama on hip-hop.

Listen @

Byron Hurt Chats Up "Barack & Curtis"

from NPR's All Things Considered

November 8, 2008 · Byron Hurt, the producer of the Web documentary Barack and Curtis, talks about the changing face of black masculinity in the U.S. since Barack Obama's rise to power.

Listen @

Happy Birthday, Hal Jackson!

Hal Jackson's Sunday Morning Classics was one of my original learning labs in the 1980s--it was the place where I was introduced to the depth and breadth of black music. I owe a tremendous debut to radio personalities like Mr. Jackson, Vaughn Harper, the Gerry Bledsoe, and the late Frankie Crocker for the kind of work I do today as a scholar and critic. I still have a treasured cassette of a night in 1985 when Bledsoe and Harper just held school for about three hours.

Listen as NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday helps celebrate Hal Jackson's 93rd Birthday and 69th year in radio.

Return of the SuperSheroes

from Vibe.com

CRITICAL NOIR
Labelle's Back to Now:
Soundtrack for an Historic Presidential Ticket
by Mark Anthony Neal

LaBelle, the groundbreaking 1970s trio comprised of Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx, and Patti Labelle, literally had to be imagined. In earlier iterations as the Bluebelles and Patty Labelle & the Bluebells, the group had a solid following on the chitlin' circuit in the late 1960s. In an era that was dominated by Motown girls groups such as Martha and the Vandellas and of course The Supremes, there was little chance that the Bluebelles would ever emerge from under the long shadows cast by the Motown machine. In steps Vicki Wickham, erstwhile television producer-turned-music promoter and manager, who had initially come in contact with Dash, Hendryx and Labelle when the trio toured the UK. Wickham agreed to serve as the group's new manager after they were dropped by their label, with the caveat that the group shorten their name to simply LaBelle.

As Patti Labelle recalls in her autobiography Don't Block the Blessings, Wickham imagined a future for the group that was "bold, brash, brazen. It was going to be revolutionary" adding that the group's music was going to be "political, progressive, passionate...three black women singing about racism, sexism, and eroticism." What Wickham imagined was a future that was well before its time; the pop music world and the arguably the even more insular universe of Soul and R&B were not yet quite prepared for black women speaking directly to worldly and even more personal concerns, such as the pursuit of sexual pleasure--this in the years before the emergence black women writers such as Ntozake Shange, Gayl Jones, Alice Walker, and Michele Wallace as major figures. To their credit, and quite unlike the example set by kindred spirit Betty Davis, Dash, Hendryx and most famously Labelle continued to chart their own musical courses, even when they couldn't hold the group together in the aftermath of their greatest success, the million-seller "Lady Marmalade." Back to Now (Verve) represents the group's first studio recording since 1976.

Read Full Essay @

Barack's Cool Pose

from NewsOne.com

Cool Like Obama
by Stephane Dunn

The emails, surprisingly, began to flow in shortly after midnight and President-elect Barack Obama’s speech at Grant Park. I had told my students at Morehouse College that we would have an electronic class in lieu of our Wednesday classes. They would have to email me their reactions to our historic election by midnight Wednesday (within twenty-four hours after Tuesdays election night) come what may.

I gave them one mandate: Keep it real.

In that first wave of emails, one steady refrain stood out-I’m proud to be a black man.

The sentiment brought to mind Michelle Obama’s statement, “For the first time, I am proud to be a black American.” Her comment was much maligned in mainstream media. But among the African-American community, however, her statement was anything but unpatriotic and incomprehensible.

Michelle was signifying the historic definition, treatment, and representation of black folk as something less than first class, genuine American citizens. She was echoing W.E.B DuBois’s much referenced articulation of double-consciousness, that curious condition of being American and, yet, via the demonization of one’s own blackness not American too.

My eighteen through twenty-something black male students at Morehouse may not grasp all the historical representations of black masculinity and various names for them that have dogged black male identity in America-Zip Coon and the brute-for example. But they have come of age when the culture and music that in part defines their speech, fashion, and masculinity has been marked dangerous and dysfunctional.

Read the Full Essay @

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Stephane Dunn is the author of Baad Bitches and Sassy Supermamas. She teaches popular culture and African American Studies at Morehouse College.

Whither the Black Political Brokers?

from NewsOne.com

LEFT OF BLACK
Black President Era May Challenge Black Brokers
by Mark Anthony Neal

There will no doubt be a few common threads of analysis that will emerge in the aftermath Senator Barack Obama’s defeat of John McCain in the 2008 Presidential contest. Many will debate the merits of the dominance of the Democrats in the Executive and Legislative wings of government. Others will remark on the near flawless execution of the Obama campaign. Much of the commentary though will center on how Obama’s election will impact the historical role of race in our national discourse.

Many pundits were quick to say that Obama’s victory will not erode centuries of anti-black racism in this country. But conventional wisdom suggests that traditional analyses of anti-black racism as a top-down phenomenon have to be rethought when an African-American sits as the so-called leader of the free world.

Obama’s election then raises critical questions about the role and continued relevance of advocacy organizations such as the NAACP, The National Urban League, and the Congressional Black Caucus.

Read the Full Essay @

John Jackson, Jr. Weighs in on Celebrity, Beyonce Style

from The Chronicle Review

Knowles Knows
by John L. Jackson, Jr.

I had a long conversation with Essence magazine's Jeannine Amber last month. She was working on a cover story about Beyonce Knowles, and she wanted to chat a bit about how celebrities negotiate fandom, its commonsensical expectations and its worst excesses.

Part of the point of that Essence article, which has just hit newsstands, was to discuss Beyonce's attempt to maintain a modicum of privacy in an age of Reality TV'd hyper-access. She is known for being pretty cagey about the most basic facts of her personal life, including her marriage to hip-hop mega-star Jay-Z.

Read More @

Hudson Family Tragedy Puts Focus on Urban Violence

from NewsOne.com

Jennifer Hudson's Tragic Spotlight
by Stephany Rose

As a native of Chicago, my prayers and heart go out to Jennifer Hudson and her family. However, my sympathy and concerns are not reserved for the Hudson family alone. They stretch long and wide, covering the hundreds of victims and victims' families whose murders go unsolved and remain out of the national spotlight.

Amidst the details of America's DreamGirl Jennifer Hudson's tragedy, will the heinous incident turn a national eye upon a pandemic quite often ignored in urban centers across America?

When shots rang out in the vicinity of the 7000 S. block of Yale Ave, early Friday morning, residents nearby thought nothing of it; or if they did, chose to ignore them.

Such a response surprises few who live in or are aware of the temperament of Chicago's Englewood community. For many residents, violence in Englewood is to be expected. This sense of normalcy is one reason Hudson tried to persuade her mother to move. Her mother refused, wanting to remain close to family, friends and sense of being.

The Englewood community, once a thriving residential and business district only minutes from the Chicago Loop, today can provide a bastion of fodder for Hollywood financed gangster movies. Boarded and abandoned buildings line the avenues from 7000 to 5500 South, between the Dan Ryan Expressway and Western Avenue.

Drug transactions are as common, if not more, as grocery shopping. Additionally, the widespread collapsing of public schools and the demolition of public housing facilities have left redistributed gangs fighting for new and old territory.

Coined, "America's Midwest Bagdad," Englewood is a constant site of warfare. At one time it was racial aggression and systematic redlining inflicted upon African Americans who attempted to move into the predominately Irish Catholic community during the height of the Great Migration and then after World War II. Today, it is the site of black genetic annihilation couched within the phenomenon of the prison industrial complex, a breeding ground for behavior that leads to incarceration.

Read more @

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Stephany "Stiletto" Rose is a poet, performer, community organizer and author of Stilettoed Roses Bleed (Interstices, Inc. 2004). She is an Assistant Professor of English at Claflin University.

Born in the Bronx: The Cornell University Hip-Hop Conference

Cornell University Hosts Hip Hop Conference and Celebration

Celebrating Hip Hop History
October 31 - November 1, 2008

Afrika Bambaataa and other pioneers of hip hop will travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to speak at a two-day conference celebrating Cornell University Library’s acquisition of “Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop,” a collection that documents the early days of hip hop with recordings, photographs, posters and more.

Events on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 will include music, performances and lectures by several of hip hop’s founders, and roundtable discussions led by prominent speakers from the hip hop and academic communities. Cornell University Library will host the event, which will highlight the one-of-a-kind historical materials.

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Conference Schedule

Thursday, October 30, 2008
Cornell Cinema, 7:00 p.m.

Wild Style with filmmaker Charlie Ahearn.
1983. USA. Directed by Charlie Ahearn. 1 hr 25 min. With Grand Master Caz, Cold Crush Brothers, Fantastic 5, Grand Master Flash

"Joyous, raucous, and explosive, Wild Style is the movie that made Hollywood wake up to hip-hop..." (Cinefamily). Many of the participants in the film will be on campus for Cornell's hip hop conference. Ahearn will also present Bongo Barbershop (2005, 8 mins), a return to the place where hip hop began. More information on hip hop film screenings at Cornell Cinema Oct. 24-30.

Friday, October 31, 2008
Bailey Hall, Cornell University

3:00 p.m. Welcoming Remarks

Johan Kugelberg, author and curator, editor of Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop. Sean Eversley Bradwell, Assistant Professor, Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, Ithaca College.

Hip Hop Histories

Jeff Chang, hip hop historian and award-winning author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: a History of the Hip-Hop Generation and editor of the anthology Total Chaos: The Art & Aesthetics of Hip-Hop.

4:30 - 6:30 p.m. In the Beginning: A Conversation with Hip Hop's Pioneers

Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Caz, Grandwizzard Theodore, Roxanne Shante, Popmaster Fabel, Tony Tone, Pebblee Poo, Disco Wiz. Also: Images of the Bronx: Hip Hop Photographs by Joe Conzo. Please see participant biographies for more information. Registered participants at the conference have the opportunity to submit questions to the pioneers in advance. We encourage you to do so here. The moderator will take as many questions as time allows.

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Dinner option for conference attendees

Robert Purcell Community Center (RPCC) Marketplace Eatery
Three amateur DJs from Cornell University and the region showcase their styles!
$10 Admission includes dinner at award-winning buffet including The Mongolian Grille, Ancho's Latino Cuisine, and more.

8:30 - 11:00 p.m. Music by Hip hop pioneers and others

Pioneers of hip hop culture will demonstrate old school D.J., M.C., b-boy/b-girl styles, with special appearance by DJ.J.Rocc.

Saturday, November 1
Alice Statler Auditorium, Cornell University

9:15 - 11:00 a.m. New Hip Hop Scholarship

Scholars, faculty and students present recent research on hip hop.

11:00 - 12:30 p.m. Teaching Hip Hop: A Lecture and Discussion

Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture at Duke University, "Teach the Bourgeois and Rock the Boulevard: Hip-Hop and the Academy."

12:30 - 2:00 p.m. Break

2:00 - 3:30 p.m. Hip Hop Futures: A Lecture and Discussion

Tricia Rose, Professor of Africana Studies, Brown University. Author of the influential and groundbreaking book, "Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America" will speak about the future of hip hop and share ideas from her forthcoming book: The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (Basic Books, December 2008).

Defending Palin? Challenging Media Sexism

from NewsOne.com


LEFT OF BLACK
Sexism, Misogyny and Sarah Palin
by Mark Anthony Neal

Much of the election news cycle these past few days has been devoted to wardrobe issues, specifically, the amount of money that the Republican National Committee has spent on clothes and makeup for the Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. In addition, questions have arisen regarding Palin’s use of Alaska state funds for travel with her family, travel that may not be related to her official duties as Governor.

That many cable news networks felt compelled to devote air time to speculation about the cost of Palin’s wardrobe and her family’s travel itinerary is the by-product 24-hour news programming. This incessant need to fill every hour with content, no matter how trivial, contributes to the dumbing-down of an American electorate salivating for information. But there’s something more troubling at play here, an issue that has everything to do with the brave new world that Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have ushered in.

Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Sarah Palin share very little ideologically or politically, but during the 2008 election cycle, they will be forever linked by the palpable sexism that has accompanied mainstream media coverage of their campaigns. Frenzy over the cost of Palin’s RNC sponsored wardrobe is not unlike the mocking of Clinton’s pantsuits. In a society largely concerned with the physical attractiveness of women, it’s not surprising that women politicians with national constituencies would also be subject to beauty contest standards, even by so-called respectable journalists. Indeed, the lack of mainstream commentary about the not-so-hushed descriptions of Palin as a “MILF” and Clinton’s lack of so-called MILF appeal speaks to how insulated many of us are to how these dynamics function in media coverage.

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Change! (Makes U Wanna Reminisce)

Its been eight long years since the boys said wassup to each other. Even with the effects of a down economy and imminent change in the White House, the boys are still able to come together and stay true to what really matters.

Remembering Levi Stubbs

from Vibe.com


CRITICAL NOIR
Man Enough: Remembering Levi Stubbs
by Mark Anthony Neal

There are two recordings, both from the early-1970s, that perfectly capture the significance of Levi Stubbs, the long-time lead singer of The Four Tops who died on October 17th. "Keeper of the Castle" was the first single and title track of the Four Tops' debut recording on the ABC label in 1972, after a decade long stint at Motown. A year later the group recorded "Are You Man Enough?," which was featured on the soundtrack of the film Shaft in Africa. Both tracks, written by the team of Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, presented a compelling view of masculinity in the early 1970s at a time when fictional and iconic figures such as Dirty Harry and Shaft were offering more animated and often unrealistic views of masculinity.

"Are You Man Enough?" easily tapped into the musical formula that fueled the success of Blaxploitation anthems such as Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man," Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" and Isaac Hayes's "Shaft," with Stubbs's vocals serving as the perfect conduit for the hypermasculine rhythms that the aforementioned Blaxploitation icons largely embodied. With box-office appeal--Berry Gordy initially approached Stubbs to play the role of Louis McKay in the film Lady Sings the Blues--and a rumbling baritone rivaled only by Barry White and Hayes, Stubbs easily fit alongside the sex symbols of the Soul era.

"Keeper of the Castle" told another story though, urging men "red, yellow, black, white, and brown," to be fathers to their children and a providers for their families. Despite this rather antiquated notion of manhood, at its core "Keeper of the Castle" celebrated loyalty and responsibility. These attributes best described the private Levi Stubbs, who despite the opportunity to seek solo success like so many of his peers--Smokey Robinson, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendrick and most famously Diana Ross--remained loyal to The Four Tops, fronting the group for nearly 50 years.

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Hip hop, black masculinity, black femininity, race, class, R. Kelly, Obama . . .

The Morehouse College English Department presents

Dr. Mark Anthony Neal
Duke University

&

Dr. Stephane Dunn
Morehouse College


In Dialogue

Hip hop, black masculinity, black femininity, race, class, R. Kelly, Obama . . .

Thursday, October 23 2008, 2:30 pm
Morehouse College, Wheeler Hall

There is a market for everything man
There is a market for pet psychologists nigga. There is a market for twisted
shitfetish video's. For nipplerings, for riverdancing, for chocolate cupboard roaches..
But you can't find one for cultured hardcore reality and hiphop?

- Immortal Technique

Elisha Cuthbert Photo Shoot Pics

Jessica Simpson Photo Shoot Pics

Jessica Simpson Profile

Name: Jessica Simpson

Birth Name: Jessica Ann Simpson

Height: 5' 3"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: July 10, 1980

Birth Place: Dallas, Texas, USA

Profession: actress, musician

Education: J.J. Pearce High School Richardson in Texas (graduated in 1998)

Husband/Wife: Nick Lachey (member of 98 Degrees; born on November 9, 1973; married
on October 26, 2002 in Austin, Texas; separated on November 23, 2005; filed for divorced in December 2005; divorced on June 30, 2006)

Father: Joe Simpson

Mother: Tina Simpson

Sister: Ashlee Simpson (actress; born on October 3, 1984)

Claim to fame: Album: Sweet Kisses

Jessica Simpson Biography

Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American pop singer and actress who rose to fame in the late 1990s. She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits, and has three gold and two multi-platinum RIAA-certified albums. Simpson starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. She has also begun working as an actress, and is the older sister of Ashlee Simpson, an internationally successful pop rock singer and actress.

She was born Jessica Ann Simpson in Abilene, Texas, the daughter of Tina and Joe Truett Simpson, who was a minister and psychologist. As a child, she began singing at her local Baptist church. At age twelve, Simpson unsuccessfully auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club. While attending J.J. Pearce High School, she recorded a gospel music album with Proclaim Records. The record company went bankrupt and the album was never released. Simpson left high school at age sixteen (she later earned her GED), and toured the Christian music circuit. After Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola heard one of Simpsons' independent releases, she was signed to the label.

Emma Watson : Wallpapers

Emma Watson Profile

Name: Emma Watson

Birth Name: Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson

Height: 5' 6"

Sex: F

Nationality: British

Birth Date: April 15, 1990

Birth Place: Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Profession: actress

Father: Chris Watson (lawyer; divorced)

Mother: Jacqueline Watson (lawyer)

Brother: Alex (born in 1993)

Grand Mother: Freda Watson

Claim to fame: as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films.

Emma Watson Biography

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is a French-born British actress who rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger, one of three starring roles in the Harry Potter film series. Watson was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having acted only in school plays. From 2001 to 2007, she starred in five Harry Potter film instalments alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. She will return for the final two instalments: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due to be released in 2009, and the two parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Watson's work in the Harry Potter series has earned her several awards and more than £10 million.

In 2007, Watson announced her involvement in two non-Harry Potter productions: the made-for-television adaptation of the novel Ballet Shoes and an animated film, The Tale of Despereaux. Ballet Shoes was broadcast on Boxing Day 2007 to an audience of 5.2 million and The Tale of Despereaux, based on the book by Kate DiCamillo, will be released in 2008.

Emma Watson was born in Paris, France, daughter of Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, English lawyers. Watson has one French grandmother, and lived in Paris until the age of five, before she moved with her mother and younger brother, Alex, to Oxford, England, following her parents' divorce.

From the age of six, Watson expressed a desire to become an actress. By 10, she had starred in school plays, including Arthur: The Young Years and The Happy Prince. She had never acted professionally before the Harry Potter series. "I had no idea of the scale of the film [series]", she said in a 2007 interview with Parade magazine; "[if I had] I would have been completely overwhelmed".

Sonal Chauhan Hot Looks In Green

Sonal Chauhan Profile

Name: Sonal Chauhan

Date of Birth: 16 May 1985

Place of Birth: Uttar Pradesh, India

Height: 5'8"

Age: 23

Debut Movie: Jannat

Sonal Chauhan Biography

Sonal Singh Chauhan (born May 16, 1985) is an Indian fashion model and actress. She has won several beauty contests and made her acting debut in the movie Jannat directed by Mukesh Bhatt.

She was born in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India , originally hailing from the state of Uttar Pradesh/UP. Her father is a police inspector, and she has one elder brother and two younger sisters. She studied at DPS, Noida and then Philosophy honors at Gargi College in New Delhi. Sonal stands 5 feet and 8 inches (173 cm).

She was crowned as the Miss World Tourism 2005 at Miri, Sarawak state of Malaysia. She was a noteworthy former Miss India contestant. She is the first Indian to have claimed Miss World Tourism title. She has been a popular model of Delhi, and has appeared in a number of advertisement campaigns in print and electronic media. She appeared in the ads of brands like Ponds and Nokia. She also appeared on the cover page of FHM magazine.

She made her debut in Mukesh Bhatt's Jannat paired opposite Emraan Hashmi. She played the character of girl called Zoya who works in a call center. She is the love interest of Emraan Hashmi, a bookie. Sonal has also been signed by Mukesh Bhatt for Raaz 2, a sequel to the 2002 movie Raaz.She has signed a three film deal with Vishesh Films.

Being a model for two years, having an experience of various ramp shows and print campaigns for big brands like LG, Reliance CDMA, Hero Honda Passion, Nokia, Hindustan Times, Delhi Times, and many more.

She has also signed a Telugu movie called Rainbow casting Rahul and Sindhu Menon. The movie is being directed by V. N. Adithyas.