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

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

Fragments of a Feedback Loop

Greg Tate & Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson

Critical Noir: Generous Brilliance
By Mark Anthony Neal

***

What was apparent as Greg Tate and Arthur Jafa exchanged fragments of "feedback loops" long cultivated in the midnight hours of their friendship, is that they love and respect each other enough to challenge each other's thinking, but are secure enough in their own intellects to not feel threatened when one of them might get the cerebral upper hand--because even in those cases it raises the bar. Tate and Jafa's relationship highlights that genius for genius's sake matters little if not enveloped in a committed generosity. Understandably such generosity is difficult in an era where there is a marketplace for smart negroes--and certainly for those whose prose (if not ideas) play to certain mainstream notions of accessibility (i.e. Can an oblivious so-called white literate NPR listening public understand it?). Far too many of us I think, are unwilling to publically acknowledge when one of our peers produces something that really forces us to go back to the lab. All too often our measure of what matters is connected to cover story bylines and $2.00 a word gigs and our desire to protect our individual proximities to that kind of marketplace prestige. And this is not to suggest that Ellison, Murray, Painter, McKay, Tate, Jafa, and so many others did not have to create to live--but that ultimately it was the quality of the exchange of ideas that mattered more than a "mess of pottage."

Read the Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com