'Left of Black': Episode #13 featuring Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Ben Carrington

Left of Black #13—December 13, 2010
w/Mark Anthony Neal

Left of Black Host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined by Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad, the next director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem and Sociologist Ben Carrington, author of the just published Race, Sports and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora.

→Khalil Gibran Muhammad is Assistant Professor of History at Indiana University. He is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (Harvard University Press) and will become the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in July of 2011.

→Ben Carrington is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin where he teaches courses on the Sociology of Race, Sport and Popular Culture. He is the author of Race, Sports and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora (Sage Publishers).

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Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

The Schomburg's Khalil Gibran Muhammad

The new director of the premier research center for African-American culture talks about his famous great-grandfather, coming of age during the Rodney King beating and his plans for the Harlem library.

The Root Interview: The Schomburg's Khalil Gibran Muhammad
by Arlene McKanic

The torch of leadership has been passed at one of the world's leading research libraries for information on people of African descent, and the new torchbearer is a young scholar with a pedigree steeped in black history. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, 38, has been chosen as the next director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a Harlem-based branch of the New York Public Library system, effective July 2011.

Muhammad's appointment was made by NYPL President Dr. Paul LeClerc, after the unanimous recommendation of a nine-member search committee co-chaired by library trustees Gordon J. Davis and Henry Louis Gates Jr. (who is also editor-in-chief of The Root). Muhammad succeeds Howard Dodson Jr., who will retire from the post after more than 25 years of leadership. Under Dodson's stewardship, the number of artifacts held by the library doubled to 10 million, and annual visitors tripled to 120,000.

A history professor at Indiana University specializing in the study of race relations and the impact of views held about black criminality, Muhammad received his Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University in 2004, after a stint at Deloitte & Touche LLP. He spent two years as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization for criminal-justice reform in New York, before joining the faculty of Indiana University.

A Chicago native, he is the great-grandson of Elijah Muhammad, who led the Nation of Islam during the mid-20th century.

The Root caught up with Dr. Muhammad this week to learn about his plans for the Schomburg.

Read the Full Interview @ The Root

Save The Schomburg!

Save The Schomburg

by Marc W. Polite

A mainstay of Harlem history is in danger of being dismantled. The collection of materials at the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture may be partitioned and sent to various branches of the New York Public Library. This in addition to the possibility of the Center’s collections being sent off to another research library should be an issue of great concern for the Harlem community in particular, and those in the African Diaspora in general. There is even talk of renaming the facility.

The Schomburg is a world reknown research library, and to treat its collection like its of little consequence is a mistake. Originally created in 1926, the Center has been a beacon for scholars, activists, and historians studying and gathering information. With director Howard Dodson slated to leave in February of 2011, the future of the research library is very much in jeopardy.

It should also be widely known that Henry Louis Gates, who has some highly questionable notions about African history, will be co-chairing the search committee for the new curator of The Schomburg. Given his tendency to downplay the facts of history in regards to the African Slave Trade, there is little confidence in Gates willingness to preserve the cultural heritage that the Center has represented for over 80 years. As America’s foremost post-racial scholar, Henry Louis Gates does not share the concerns of the residents of Harlem for the retention of its Black culture and history.

Read the Full Essay @ PoliteSociety

Arthur Jafa on The Impact of Michael Jackson's Isolation From the Black Community

After the Dance: Conversations on Michael Jackson's Black America
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
June 5, 2010

Panel: To Be White, Gifted and Black: Managing Acceptable Representations of Blackness as the "King of Pop"
DJ Qool Marv, Arthur Jafa, dj lynnee denise, Esther Armah

Arthur Jafa on Michael Jackson as Self-Loather, Shape Shifter & Classically Black

After the Dance: Conversations on Michael Jackson's Black America
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
June 5, 2010

Panel: To Be White, Gifted and Black: Managing Acceptable Representations of Blackness as the "King of Pop"

DJ Qool Marv, Arthur Jafa, dj lynnee denise, Esther Armah

Michael Jackson: Queer or Gay?

After the Dance: Conversations on Michael Jackson's Black America
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
June 5, 2010

Panel: Keep it in the Closet: The Historic Speculation Around Michael Jackson's Gender Bending Persona

Moderator: Steven Fullwood
Panelists: Mark Anthony Neal, Asadullah Muhammad, DJ Reborn, DJ Selly

After the Dance: Conversations on Michael Jackson's Black America

After the Dance:

Conversations on Michael Jackson's Black America

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Langston Hughes Auditorium
Friday June 4, 2010 at 6pm
Saturday June 5, 2010 at 11am

Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009. After a year of media-sanctioned mourning through concert tributes, film specials, video marathons and an extravagance of merchandising, who will bear the questions of music industry exploitation, self-hate, sexuality, addiction and apparent madness that Michael’s life and death urge us to ask? Who will discuss the value of Michael’s Philanthropy an environmental consciousness? Michael’s story echoes the ongoing crises of experience and identity faced not only by Black America, but the Black Diaspora. These conversations demand space beyond a video tribute.

Day 1:

Friday, June 4

6 p.m. Opening Reception

7 p.m. Opening Plenary with featured guests Nelson George, Author, Filmmaker, Television producer, and Critic & Touré, Music journalist, Cultural critic

9 p.m. Closing Reception: Jackson Rhythms provided by WildSeed Music NY

** Sugested $10 donation at the door.

Day 2:
Saturday, June 5

11 a.m. Can You Feel It? A Multi-Media Collage of the Decades-Long Jackson Family Musical Career

Panel Discussions

12 p.m. To be White, Gifted and Black: Managing Acceptable Representations of Blackness as the "King of Pop"

Moderator: Esther Armah, International journalist, Published author, Public speaker, Radio host, and Playwright.

Panelists:Arthur Jafa, Filmmaker, Cinematographer, Writer; Dream Hampton, Hip Hop journalist; dj lynnee denise, WildSeed Music NYC; and DJ Qool Marv

2 p.m. Keep it in the Closet: The Historic Speculation Around Michael Jackson’s Gender Bending Persona

Moderator: Steven Fullwood, Schomburg Center

Panelists: Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture at Duke University, and Author; Asadullah Muhammad, Educator, Father, Poet, Writer; and DJ Reborn, Music Consultant and Teaching Artist; and DJ Selly

4 p.m. Black Ain’t Green: Honoring Michael’s Environmental Consciousness and Philanthropic Endeavors

Moderator: Walker Sands, Majora Carter Group

Panelists: Andres Carter, Sustainable South Bronx; William Thomas, Green Jobs Leader, Trainer, Business Man; and Anisa Keith, Sustainanble Business Committee, Co-founder

5 p.m. Closing: Jackson Rhythms