Soul Cinema Film of the Day: 'Cotton Comes to Harlem'

"In its novelistic form, Cotton Comes to Harlem both anticipated and helped to create several important trends in the articulation of African American popular culture during the Black Power Era, especially as it was translated through the idioms of visual culture."--Amy Abugo Ongiri, Spectacular Blackness: The Cultural Politics of the Black Power Movement and the Search for a Black Aesthetic.

Trailer of the 1970 movie starring Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Redd Foxx & Calvin Lockhart, directed by Ossie Davis and based on a novel by Chester Himes.

Come Back, Chester Himes

Come Back, Chester Himes
by Mark Anthony Neal

Unavailable for nearly three decades, the original motion picture soundtrack for Come Back Charleston Blue was recently released. The re-issued recording not only serves as a reminder of the era of Blaxpolitation--the moment in the late 1960s that marks the beginning of mainstream America's fascination with under/other-worldly blackness--but highlights the work of an often overlooked genius of black expressive culture, Chester Himes.

Read the full essay CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com