Interview with Sofia Quintero aka Black Artemis

LatiNegr@s Project: Sofia Quintero

by Bianca I Laureano

For the last week of Black History Month and for the LatiNegr@s Project, I've decided to send out some questions to LatiNegr@s in my life who I've learned from, been mentored by, and have built community with and share them with you all. I thank each of them for agreeing to share their lives with us and to share them publicly. Today's interviewee is someone who I was a huge fan of and now I'm so honored and it gives me great pride to call her my homegirl: Sofia.

Q. How do you want to be identified?

A. Sofia Quintero aka Black Artemis, Co-Founder of Chica Luna Productions and President of Sister Outsider Entertainment

Q. What identities do you embrace/have/claim?

A. Among countless other things, I am: Afro-Latina, Puerto Rican and Dominican, a Black woman, an Ivy League homegirl, CISgender female, straight ally for LGBTQ liberation, daughter of working-class immigrant and migrant parents, hija de la Pura y el Negro, a feminist, a radical, a cultural activist, a Bronxite, a hip-hop head, a social entrepreneur.

Q. Do you have a preference regarding the terms LatiNegr@, Afr@-Latin@, etc? If so, which one and why?

A. I tend to use Afro-Latina, but I like Latinegr@, too. I also have no problem just being called Black since my Latinadad is a given. To be Latin@ yet claim one’s Blackness in a world that is constantly devaluing “negritude” is, I believe, an act of healing and resistance.

Read the Full Interview @ Latino Sexuality

A History of Hip-Hop Before Hip-Hop

Is Hip-Hop History?
City College of New York
Center for Worker Education
February 19-20, 2010

"A History of Hip-Hop Before Hip-Hop"
Keynote Address

Mark Anthony Neal
Professor, African & African-American Studies
Duke University
Recorded Saturday February 20, 2010

Watch the Keynote Address Here

Don't Call It a Comeback: Van Jones

On the eve of accepting top honors at the NAACP Image Awards, the former “green jobs czar” defends his record and talks comeback.

Van Jones Sets the Record Straight
by Sheryl Huggins Salomon

Tonight’s NAACP Image Awards telecast isn’t just about recognizing black Hollywood. The group is giving its President’s Award to Van Jones, the erstwhile national “green jobs czar” who was forced out of the Obama administration last year after he became a lightning rod for right-wing ire.

Jones, 41, may be “the most misunderstood man in America,” said NAACP president Benjamin Jealous in an op-ed released to media outlets earlier this week. In it, Jealous cited Jones’ instrumental role in passing the 2007 Green Jobs Act, and his help initiating the Oakland Green Jobs Corp. targeting low-income Californians.

“The real Van Jones story is about how a young leader became the father of the green jobs movement …. Far from the divisive caricature painted by some cable news outlets, Van has been one of America's most effective and inspiring bridge-builders.” Jealous also said.

For Jones, getting the award is the latest step that he has taken to kick off the next phase of his career. “I am looking forward to reintroducing myself to the American people and that’s exciting to have that opportunity,” he told The Root in an exclusive interview. Another step will be leading the Green Opportunity Initiative for the Center for American Progress. He’ll also be a distinguished visiting fellow at Princeton University's Center for African American Studies at its Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The world will find that although Van Jones is looking for a second chance at public service, he’ll vehemently defend his record to date against all comers. Here’s what he told The Root on the eve of accepting the NAACP President’s Award:

Read the Full Interview @ The Root

Race, Media and Masculinity

Race, Media, and Masculinity at Claflin University

March 2, 2010

6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

W.V.M Fine Arts Building

400 Magnolia Street

Orangeburg, SC, 29115

Guest panelists Dr. Dawn-Elissa Fischer (San Francisco State University), Dr. Mark Anthony Neal (Duke University), Adam Mansbach (author of Angry Black White Boy), and Dr. Stephany Spaulding (Claflin University) will discuss constructions of Black masculinity within the media and literature.

Sponsored by Campus Progress, The Big Read Program, and the Claflin University Lyceum Committee.

This event is free and open to the public.

For more information, please email speakers@campusprogress.org

Sade: A Skeletal 'Soldier Of Love'

Sade: A Skeletal 'Soldier Of Love'
by OLIVER WANG

Ever since Sade Adu first appeared in the mid-1980s, the singer and her band have perfected their own brand of sensual slow jam — equal parts luscious and languorous. With the gentlest of arrangements and Adu's silken voice, Sade's best songs glimmer with the warmth of the afterglow, like the last moments between sex and sleep.

It's safe to say that Sade doesn't constantly seek to radically reinvent herself, despite extraordinary breaks of eight to ten years between recent albums. That kind of consistency is both a boon and a curse. On the one hand, there's something to be said for staying faithful to a particular aesthetic, and few pop acts have been better at that than Sade. Adu's voice does much of the work here — she has a distinct coolness to her timbre, a penchant for elongating her vowels and an accented inflection that have become her signatures over the years, whether in the new "The Moon and the Sky" or in 1984's "Smooth Operator."

Read the Full Essay @ NPR

Haiti, Now and Next

special to NewBlackMan

Haiti, Now and Next:

Haiti’s Pact with the Devil? (some Haitians believe this too)

by Bertin M. Louis, Jr.

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince, Leogane, and other parts of Haiti. The day after this catastrophe, Reverend Pat Robertson, the host of the 700 Club and an influential voice in the American fundamentalist movement, remarked that centuries ago Haitians swore a pact to the Devil in order to gain their freedom from slavery under the French. The moment to which Robertson referred in his comments was the Bwa Kayiman Vodou ceremony that launched the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). Despite the humanitarian efforts of his charitable organization currently assisting Haitians with earthquake relief, Robertson’s remarks strike many as callous and racist. But missing in some of the responses to those remarks in the midst of this unimaginable tragedy, which include condemnations and historical essays, is an important reality of the contemporary Haitian religious landscape which has been neglected thus far and bears analysis: some Haitians (Haitian Protestants, in particular) also believe that Haiti is cursed.

Evangelical Protestantism is a growing religious movement in Haiti which currently represents a third of the country’s population of over 9 million. Increasing numbers of Haitians, both at home and abroad, practice various forms of Protestant Christianity, such as Pentecostalism and the Baptist, Nazarene, and Methodist faiths. For example, the majority of Haitians in the Bahamas practice Protestant forms of Christianity. In interviews conducted with Haitian Protestants in Nassau, Bahamas in 2005, some of my informants claimed that Haiti “got its freedom the wrong way”—that is, because of the Bwa Kayiman Vodou ceremony that launched the Haitian revolution in 1791, the same Vodou ceremony that Pat Robertson referred to as a “pact with the Devil” in his untimely commentary. Vodou, formed between 1750 and 1790 on the plantations of colonial Haiti, is a creolized African religion that many Haitians currently practice. Vodou was important in the struggle for liberation among enslaved Africans because, as Leslie Desmanglesrightly observes, the rituals of Vodou provided the spirit of kinship that fueled the slaves’ revolt against their colonial masters.

Part of the Haitian national narrative well known among Haitians and scholars of Haiti is the Bwa Kayiman Vodou Congress led by Boukman. Boukman was a maroon who escaped from a plantation near Morne Rouge and led a Vodou ceremony that was pivotal to the beginning of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). At this ceremony Boukman encouraged enslaved Africans to dismantle the plantation system of Saint Domingue (Colonial Haiti) through the same type of violence that had been wrought upon them. As slaves who produced indigo, tobacco, and, at one point in history, two-fifths of the world’s sugar and half of the world’s coffee, it was not uncommon for slave masters, as Alex Dupuy writes, to “hang a slave by the ears, mutilate a leg, pull teeth out, gash open one’s side and pour melted lard into the incision, or mutilate genital organs. Still others used the torture of live burial, whereby the slave, in the presence of the rest of the slaves who were forced to bear witness, was made to dig his own grave [...]. Women had their sexual parts burned by a smoldering log; others had hot wax splattered over hands, arms, and backs, or boiling cane syrup poured over their heads.” All of these heinous acts were committed to force slaves to perform their duties on plantations.

Within this violent environment, many enslaved Africans resisted and fought against their captors. Therefore, it makes sense that enslaved Africans would reject the religious system (Christianity) forced upon them by slave owners. On August 14, 1791, Boukman uttered these prophetic words at Bwa Kayiman in defiance of the slave owners, which C.L.R. James quotes inThe Black Jacobins: “The god who created the sun which gives us light, who rouses the waves and rules the storm, though hidden in the clouds, he watches us. He sees all that the white man does. The god of the white man inspires us with crime, but our god calls upon us to do good works. Our god who is good to us orders us to revenge our wrongs. He will direct our arms and aid us. Throw away the symbol of the god of the whites who has caused us to weep, and listen to the voices of liberty, which speaks in the hearts of us all.” Boukman, along with others, tore the Christian cross from their necks. Six days later, slaves of the Turpin plantation, led by Boukman, indiscriminately massacred every white man, woman, and child they could find. This act of revolt began a general insurrection that would lead to the Haitian Revolution, the first successful slave revolt in the Western Hemisphere that extended the “rights of Man” (liberty, equality, and brotherhood) beyond Europeans and articulated a common humanity and equality embracing all Haitian citizens.

Although the story of Bwa Kayiman inspires many Haitians and other peoples of African descent who share a similar history of bondage (African-Americans, for example), many Haitian Protestants today find the history of the Bwa Kayiman ceremony offensive and believe that this was the exact historical moment when Haiti was “consecrated to the Devil.” Thus, Bwa Kayiman,by extension, ensured a legacy of misery in Haiti that is evidenced by the underdevelopment that grips it today.

This alternative view of Bwa Kayiman is clearly articulated, for example, by Chavannes Jeune, a pastor and evangelist from Les Cayes, Haiti, and a former candidate for the Haitian presidency in 2005. He is also the catalyst for “Haiti for the Third Century,” an interdenominational evangelical organization whose main purpose is to “take Haiti back from the devil and dedicate her to Jesus Christ.” Pastor Chavannes believes that the nation of Haiti is enmeshed in spiritual bondage because “the country was dedicated by a Vodou priest at its liberation” and “has been in bondage to the devil for four generations.” In this interpretation of Bwa Kayiman, Haitian Protestants like Pastor Chavannes view Vodou as a satanic religion, responsible for Haiti’s underdevelopment, continuing governmental corruption, endemic poverty, and probably the recent earthquake as well.

This radical, revisionist view of Haitian history reveals more about Haitian Protestant views with regard to Vodou than it does about why Haiti is so poor, or why Haiti was devastated by an earthquake. The enduring practice of Vodou, in the view of some Haitian Protestants, is the reason why Haiti is so poor, why its economy is in shambles, and why God chose to “punish” the island and its people with an earthquake. In other words, Vodou is the same as worshiping dyab(the Devil). Some Haitian Protestants who hold this view choose to scapegoat Vodou instead of looking at other parts of Haitian history to explain Haiti’s current misery, such as the multimillion franc indemnity Haiti paid to France, beginning in the nineteenth century, so that France wouldn’t invade Haiti after the Haitian Revolution. We can also look at the period when the Duvalier dictatorship (1957-1986) ruled Haiti through fear and violence, while siphoning millions of dollars of taxes and international aid for itself. While Jean-Claude Duvalier, the second “President for Life” during the Duvalier regime, who ruled from 1971-1986, and members of his circle grew fabulously rich, the majority of Haitians slipped deeper into poverty. The percentage of the Haitian population living in extreme poverty rose from 48 percent in 1976 to 81 percent in 1985. Under the Duvaliers, Haiti became the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

There are numerous problems with the view that Haiti consecrated itself to the Devil more than 200 years ago. First, those Haitian Protestants who believe that Haiti is in bondage to the Devil recast the entire nation of Haiti as a sinful entity that can only be ameliorated through the conversion of the entire nation to Protestant and Pentecostal forms of Christianity. In other words, Haiti can only get itself back on track if every Haitian becomes some type of Protestant Christian. Conversely, this would require that Haitians reject Catholicism and Vodou, the majority religions of Haiti. Second, the view held by many Haitian Protestants that Haiti is cursed, condemns the slaves responsible for Haiti’s liberation, and by extension their descendants, rather than the slave owners who enthralled them and the institution of slavery itself. Thus, this problematic view of Haitian history suggests that slavery in Saint Domingue was a benign institution, or at least that it did not in fact merit the slaves’ revolt. Third, the revisionist history of Haiti as complicit in its own oppression through a “pact with the Devil” downplays the role black people played in making the Haitian revolution the first and only successful slave revolution in history. As Arthur and Dash write, “over the course of an epic 12 year struggle, the slaves defeated the local whites, the forces of the French Crown, a Spanish and a British invasion, and the massive expeditionary force sent by Napoleon Bonaparte,” with immense credit for these victories being due to Toussaint Louverture, the man who quickly emerged as the leader of the black armies.

Finally, the most important aspect of the Haitian revolution that gets lost in the belief that Haiti is “cursed” is that it demonstrated that black people (people of African descent) are human beings with the right to live dignified lives. This is a struggle that Haitians and other people of African descent are clearly still engaged in throughout the globe. The middle passage (where millions of Africans died in transport to the New World), centuries of chattel slavery, and the subsequent psychological and physical violence occurring on plantations tried to disprove the fundamental humanity of the black people who fought for the right to live free and dignified lives.

Haiti was the first country to articulate a general principle of common, unqualified equality for all of its citizens. The fundamental concept of a common humanity also ran deeply through the early Haitian constitutions. This belief is what connects Haitians with other people around the world, as was highlighted by President Barack Obama in a speech he delivered in the aftermath of the earthquake, which has claimed at least 230,000 lives at present. In the coming months, Haitians will continue to struggle to live dignified lives in the midst of destroyed homes, deceased family and friends, infrastructural challenges, and possible waves of infectious diseases that could claim additional lives. The belief that Haiti is cursed will not help Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake, but combating this growing view by placing it in its proper historical context reveals larger issues of structural inequality—forces which prevent Haitians, and the world’s poor, from living dignified lives in the twenty-first century.

***

Bertin M. Louis, Jr. is a cultural anthropologist who received his PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology in 2008 from the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in Saint Louis, where he was a Chancellor’s Fellow and a Lynne Cooper Harvey Fellow. He is currently a Lecturer in the Africana Studies Program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His published work appears in several peer-reviewed journals (The Journal of African American Studies, Transforming Anthropology), the Greenwood Press publication The Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (Forthcoming 2010) and the Journal of Haitian Studies (Forthcoming 2010).

In a Circle of Men...

Neal Contrasts 60s' Leaders to Today

by Gary James '10

How do Malcolm X, Facebook, and Muhammad Ali relate to each other?

Before the 21st century, the question would have been difficult to answer. But with the rise of social networking, Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture at Duke University, has been able to revisit the history of black social and political figures like Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Muhammad Ali, and Jim Brown within the context of modern-day possibilities for communication.

Neal has been on campus since Wednesday as the College’s Owen Duston Visiting Minority Scholar. He has visited nearly half a dozen classes, and faculty, staff, and students have been holding weekly round table discussions of Neal’s book New Black Man in preparation for his visit. He delivered the annual Malcolm X Institute Lecture Thursday on the friendships among different civil rights leaders in the mid-20th century and how those friendships could form and mean today.

Neal told the story of how four men were brought together by their mutual relationships with Muhammad Ali and divided by the vicissitudes of life and politics in the 1960s.

Malcolm X was a social theorist political activist representing a fringe element of the civil rights movement.

Sam Cooke was an R&B singer and entrepreneur.

Jim Brown was a professional football player and actor, perhaps best known for the records he set as running back for the Cleveland Browns back in the 1950s and 1960s.

And Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, was a famous – or imfamous – boxer known for saying whatever came to his mind.

Neal panned the unique bond of this “quartet,” how it developed and what possibilities could have arisen out of their continued friendship.

“One reason we’ll never know how this friendship developed is because three weeks [after they all spent time together in Miami] Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam,” Neal said. “A day [later] Muhammad Ali announces to the world that he’s no longer Cassius Clay…and is instructed to sever all ties with Malcolm X. I often wonder what might have happened to that relationship if, in the face of all this public stuff, Ali and Malcolm X could have texted each other, if they had had Twitter or Myspace or Facebook or a way to communicate outside of the public.”

Read the Full Article @ Wabash College

Hip-Hop's Shifting Masculinity?

President Drake: Hip-Hop's Shifting Masculinity

by Regina Barnett

Jimmy raps?!

Aubrey “Drake” Graham’s been around for a minute. He’s not some cat who just magically appeared and became a celebrity overnight. I remember my cousin harassing me on MySpace to check him out. I liked what I heard. But I really didn’t take him seriously. He was Jimmy. From Degrassi.

He’s being taken seriously now. One of the headliners of Weezy’s Young Money Clique, Drake is changing and has changed the game. His flow is nice. Aside from lyrical performance, is it possible that he is changing the branding of manhood in the rap game?

The folks over at Makin’ It Magazine struck up an intriguing conversation of Drake as rap’s Barack Obama. It’s not the first time President Obama has entered the Hip Hop realm. Byron Hurt created a fabulous dichotomy of President Obama and 50 Cent titled Barack and Curtis. I don’t know if the president has rhymes, but it is a fascinating topic to present the Barack/Drake masculinity dichotomy. In other words, can Drake be the Barack Obama of Hip Hop?

Read the Full Essay @ Red Clay Scholar

'Sampling Motown' @ The Nasher Museum

'Sampling Motown' Lecture Open to the Public

Harry Weinger, vice president of A&R for Universal Music Enterprises, is the guest speaker.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Harry Weinger, vice president of A&R for Universal Music Enterprises and a 30-year veteran of the entertainment industry, is the guest speaker at next week’s “Sampling Motown” class at Duke University.

Weinger’s lecture, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23, in the lecture hall at Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art, will focus on the music of Motown. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; the lecture is free and open to the public.A recording of the event will be available at Duke on Demand.

The spring semester course, “Sampling Soul,” is co-taught by African and African American Studies professor Mark Anthony Neal and Grammy Award-winning music producer 9th Wonder. Each weekly class emphasizes a different aspect of sampling, from its history to legal considerations. The “Sampling Motown” class will highlight the music of the civil rights era.

“Harry is one of the most important shepherds of the soul music tradition and we all have a greater understanding of the impact that soul music has on American culture because of Harry's thoughtful explorations of Motown's musical archive," Neal said.

Weinger has produced, mixed, written and edited liner notes for hundreds of reissues, compilations and music DVDs, notably the Motown family of classic recordings, the James Brown catalog, the Verve Music catalog, and prominent funk, soul and jazz artists.

Among several projects, Weinger has documented every Motown single released during the company’s heyday in a multi-disc box set series. He also helped organize the many events and releases surrounding Motown Records’ 50th anniversary.

The “Sampling Soul” class explores how the songs that made up the soundtrack of social movements, such as the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s and 1970s, remain relevant in contemporary culture. Students learn how soul music is continuously referenced in popular culture via movies, commercials and television sitcoms, forming a lucrative cultural archive.

Weinger’s appearance complements an upcoming Nasher exhibition, “The Record: Contemporary Art & Vinyl,” which will explore the culture of vinyl records within the history of contemporary art. The exhibition, set to open in September, is comprised of sound, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, video and performance.

Mark Anthony Neal is the author of four books, including “New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity” and the forthcoming “Looking for Leroy.” His essays have been anthologized in a dozen books, such as the recently released “Born To Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic,” edited by Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai.

9th Wonder, born Patrick Douthit, is a former member of the hip-hop trio Little Brother which released the critically acclaimed albums “The Listening” and “The Minstrel Show.” He has produced music for Jay-Z, Destiny’s Child, Mary J. Blige, and Erykah Badu among others. He also scored the music for “The Boondocks” animated television series. He was recently selected as the NAACP’s national ambassador for hip-hop relations and culture.

MOVIE REVIEW

Blood Done Sign My Name

A Town Torn Asunder by Racial Killing in ’70

By A. O. SCOTT

Jeb Stuart’s “Blood Done Sign My Name” scrupulously examines a page from the recent history of the South — a racially charged murder that took place in Oxford, N.C., in 1970. The details of the case resemble those of many similar events that took place across the region at the height of the civil rights movement. A black man, Henry Marrow, was brutally killed and his accused murderers, members of a family of white business owners, were acquitted by an all-white jury as the town seethed and its leaders panicked. There were peaceful marches to the state capital, and also acts of looting, vandalism and arson.

The film, based on a book of the same title by Timothy B. Tyson, a scholar of African-American history (and, as a boy, a character in the story), reminds us that such episodes did not end with the passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. Early scenes emphasize that to many of its black residents, Oxford, a tobacco-growing hamlet not far from Durham, seemed at the end of that decade to be frozen in a Jim Crow past. Whites might have agreed but found more cause for complacency than frustration.

Ben Chavis (Nate Parker), a son of a well-to-do local African-American family who has come home to teach school and later reopen his father’s restaurant, is startled at how little appetite for change there seems to be. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, an idealistic minister takes up a post at the Methodist church and startles its all-white congregation with his rather moderate invocations of racial equality and his insistence on inviting a prominent black educator to speak at Sunday services.

In a more conventional telling of the story, the preacher, Vernon Tyson (who is the father of Timothy, and who is played with amiable understatement by Ricky Schroder), would have been the hero of the story, the white man whose awakened conscience drives history forward. But neither he nor Mr. Chavis — who after the events depicted in the film would go on to become the executive director of the N.A.A.C.P. many years later — quite fills that role. They are both portrayed as thoughtful, morally serious men, but “Blood Done Sign My Name” is not really concerned with their inner struggles or psychological motivations.

Read the Full Review @ The New York Times

9th Edition of 'From Slavery to Freedom' Released

Ninth Edition of Franklin’s ‘From Slavery to Freedom’ Released

by Camille Jackson

DURHAM, NC -- At the memorial service for Duke historian John Hope Franklin last year, one of the common themes was how his work would continue to educate scholars and students. Now, a new edition of his seminal work, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, is evidence of his lasting influence.

The ninth edition of the classic is a collaboration between Franklin and his longtime mentee, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, chair of the Harvard University Department of African American Studies.

Franklin first wrote the book in 1947. Since then it has sold more than 3 million copies and been translated into numerous languages.

In late January, McGraw-Hill released a more contemporary version of the text, bringing African American history into the 21st century. On Thursday, Feb. 18, the National Archives in Washington, D.C., will host an evening honoring the legacy of Franklin and the newly published edition. The event, which starts at 7 p.m., is free and open to the public. The program will include a panel discussion with archivist David S. Ferriero and Higginbotham.

The new edition is updated to reflect the latest views on African-American history and includes current events from the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to the globalization of hip-hop and the historic election of President Obama. (Obama is featured prominently on the cover.) The new edition also includes digital features such as an online primary source investigator as a resource for teachers and students.

Other significant additions are:

* More attention to the slave life in the Spanish, Dutch and French colonies

* Increased coverage of women and women’s history

* Coverage of the emergence of grassroots social movements in local communities across the United States in the mid-20th century

*Highlighting the important role of art and culture as a reflection of the time period, including discussions of writers, musicians and artists

“Because of John Hope Franklin, the story of blacks’ contribution to America – a record once denied, disregarded and disrespected – no longer stands at the back door of scholarship,” said Higginbotham.

Cullen Jones Speaks

2008 Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones swam on the now-legendary 400m freestyle relay in Beijing and is the first African-American to hold a world record. Usaswimming.org brings you a video interview with Jones, in which he talks about Make a Splash, what hes been up to since last summers World Championships and his training for 2010.

Is Hip-Hop History? Conference in NYC, Feb 19-20

CCNY’S CENTER FOR WORKER EDUCATION HOSTS TWO-DAY CONFERENCE ON HIP-HOP

“Is Hip-Hop History?,” a two-day conference to examine the current state of the music genre and subculture and its future outlook, will be held February 19 – 20 at The City College of New York (CCNY) Center for Worker Education (CWE). Approximately 200 persons, including hip-hop scholars, performers, entrepreneurs, journalists and activists, are expected to participate in the event, which will address such issues as the over-commercialization of hip-hop, hip-hop media going digital and hip-hop activism.

The conference, part of the CWE’s celebration of Black History Month, is being held in conjunction with a course being offered at the center for students in CCNY’s Division of Interdisciplinary Studies. Titled, “History, Culture and Politics of Hip-Hop,” the class, which has approximately 20 enrolled students, is spending the spring 2010 semester studying the impact of hip-hop on popular culture in the United States.

“For over 25 years, the Center for Worker Education has provided a dignified environment and a high-quality education for working adults seeking bachelor’s degrees,” said Warren Orange, who teaches the course and is co-organizer of the conference. “CWE students are predominantly Black and Hispanic, female, 25-54 years of age, and hail from the communities that not only gave birth to hip-hop but, continue to be its most consistent muse.”

“The conference will be the initiation of an ambitious project to create a platform for the ongoing research and study of hip-hop and popular culture for CWE students,” added Elena Romero, CWE academic advisor, adjunct lecturer and co-organizer of the conference. “To assist in this endeavor, the conference will help fund a scholarship for outstanding students, doing research on hip-hop and popular culture.”

Legendary veejay Ralph McDaniels, a hip-hop culture pioneer, entrepreneur and visionary, will serve as keynote speaker for the conference’s opening reception, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Friday, February 19. Mr. McDaniels, “who created “Video Music Box,” the first music video show focused exclusively to an urban market on public television, is currently president of Uncle Ralph Productions, an on-air personality at New York’s WQHT (Hot 97) and an executive producer and host of “The Bridge” television program.

Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University, will deliver the keynote address the second day of the conference at 10 a.m. Professor Neal has authored

four books: “What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture” (Routledge, 1998), “Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic” (Routledge, 2002), “Songs in the Keys of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation” (Routledge, 2003) and “New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity” (Routledge, 2005).

He is also the co-editor (with Murray Forman) of “That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader” (Routledge, 2004, second ed. August 2010). A frequent commentator for National Public Radio, Professor Neal also contributes to several on-line media outlets, including SeeingBlack.com, The Root.com and theGrio.com.

The conference will be held in the CWE auditorium, located at 25 Broadway, 7th floor, in Lower Manhattan. Admission fees are $5 per day for students with a valid college I.D., $15 for one day or $25 for two days for the general public. The conference is sponsored in part by Brooklyn College, Pelle Pelle, Belton Tax & Financial Service and the Student Government of CWE (SGCWE). For additional information about the conference, including biographies of the speakers, visit http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/ishiphophistory orhttp://www.ccny.cuny.edu/cwe.

Conference Schedule

Friday, February 19

Conference Registration 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Opening Reception 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Music by Luis “DJ Disco Wiz” Cedeno, special performance by Lifted and keynote address by legendary veejay Ralph McDaniels (Hot 97)

Saturday, February 20

Conference Registration 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.

Keynote Address 10 a.m. – 12 noon

Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University

Panels: 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Hip-Hop Media: From Paper to Blogs (1:00 – 3:00 pm)

Michaela Angela Davis, creative consultant, speaker, writer (moderator); Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, AllHipHop.com; Datwon Thomas, COO/EIC, GlobalGrind.com, and Sonya Magett, blogger, tyra.com.

Is Hip-Hop History? (1:00 – 3:00 pm)

Carlito Rodriguez, writer and TV producer (moderator); DJ Red Alert “Bio” Feliciano, co-founder, Tats cru; Rokafella, co-founder, Full Circle Productions, and Lando Felix, founder of The Blind Spot and co-founder/former vice president, production and design, for Enyce and Mecca USA.

From My Life to the Paper: Writing the Hip-Hop Experience (3:00 – 5:00 p.m.)

Jay Smooth, host of WBAI’s “The Underground Railroad,” New York City’s longest-running hip-hop radio show, and proprietor of hiphopmusic.com and illdoctrine.com (moderator); Adam Mansbach, author and 2009-2010 New Voices Professor of Fiction at Rutgers University; Raquel Cepeda, award-winning editor, multimedia journalist and documentary filmmaker; Dr. James Braxton Peterson, Assistant Professor of English at Bucknell University, and Dr. Joseph G. Schloss, author and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College.

United We Stand (3:00 – 5:00 p.m.)

Hon. George Martinez, founder/chairman of the Global Block Association, board member emeritus, Hip-Hop Association and political science adjunct at Pace University (moderator); Jeffrey Kazembe-Batts and Luis “Plot” Sosa, co-chairpersons in the Universal Hip-Hop Parade for Social Justice Organization; Rosa Clemente, community organizer, activist, radio journalist (WBAI) and 2008 Green Party candidate for Vice President; Mariaelena Jorge, CCNY alumna and entrepreneur; Andre T. Mitchell, founder and chief executive officer of several organizations and initiatives including Man Up! Inc, Hip-Hop SUV (Stand Up & Vote) and F.I.P.A. (Formerly Incarcerated People Association), and Mike “Hollywood” Christie, founder and president of Talent Driven Network

CWE Contact:

Elena Romero, 212-925-6625, ext. 258, eromero@ccny.cuny.edu

Contact: Ellis Simon, 212/650-6460, esimon@ccny.cuny.edu

Motown: 'High Negro Style'

High Negro Style: The Motown Effect
by Mark Anthony Neal

When Berry Gordy founded Motown records in January of 1959, his efforts were little more than a hunch and a hustle. At the time Gordy could not have imagined that his little Detroit-based record company would go on to produce some of the most timeless music of the 20th century. For all of the two-and-a-half minute classics that came off the label’s automobile-like assembly line, there is perhaps no more endearing tribute to Motown than the image of upscale sophistication that so many of the label’s artists embodied during the 1960s. Motown’s “High Negro Style” as one of its later heads would term it, is on full display on new the release Motown the DVD: Definitive Performances.

Andre Harrell took over the helm of Motown Records in 1995, when the label was well removed from its heyday as one of the premier record companies in the country. Harrell was faced with the daunting, and ultimately unsuccessful, task of making the label relevant to an industry that had long passed it by. Though the label boasted the talents of the platinum-selling group Boyz II Men on its roster—Harrell’s tenure with the label coincides with the beginning of the group’s descent from the top of the pop charts—the label’s most notable commodity was its tradition and back catalogue.

To his credit, Harrell understood the value of that tradition and began to place his own stamp on the aging brand as an example of what he called “High Negro Style”—upscale, urban, urbane, and just street enough to remind you that the Detroit housing projects supplied Motown with much of its talent in the early 1960s. “Ghetto glamour,” as Harrell described “High Negro Style” in a 1995 cover story for New York magazine, would have been incomprehensible for those audiences who flocked to Motown performances in the 1960s. There’s no denying though, that just below the sheen of respectability and mainstream acceptance that Gordy craved, were the gritty realities of the social world that made his hustle palpable.

Read the Full Essay @ Soul Summer