Freedom Writers: Two Views

The Right Thing to Do
by Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters Film and TV Editor

A prim young woman with a pearl necklace sits near the edge of her chair, so excited by her new employment that she scarcely hears her supervisor’s admonitions. She needs to focus on her students’ vocabulary lessons, sniffs Miss Campbell (Imelda Staunton), adding that The Odyssey would be “too difficult” for them. Many of them ride the bus for 90 minutes to get to school, so they’re too tired and distracted to get homework done. And maybe she shouldn’t wear the pearls to class.

Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) smiles. She recalls her father, a civil rights activist during the 1960s, meaning that she believes, like he used to, that “at-risk” students only need a chance. “I think the real fighting should happen in the classroom,” she beams. And don’t even doubt her sincerity: “I’m a really good student,” Erin insists, touching the pearls her mother gave her. Margaret leans her head back, eyebrows arched in disbelief. The girl won’t last a day.

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“Freedom” of Voice
by Esther Iverem, SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic

I know what you’re thinking.

You saw those trailers for “Freedom Writers” and sucked your teeth, dismissing the film as another White-savior-in-the-hood rehash that you could do without.

But I am happy—and surprised—to report that this is a very good movie, an extremely poignant tale about something very real in our lives—educating teenagers who are growing up in an urban gang culture that mangles or snuffs out their lives.

Based on a true story, the film recounts the experiences of a rookie English teacher, Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank), at a high school in Long Beach, Ca. during the 1990’s. Forced to integrate to achieve racial integration, the school is fractured into racial camps—Blacks, Latinos, Asians and a few remaining Whites who have not abandoned the public school system. The school also employs a number of Whites who resent what they consider the downfall of a once high-performing school because of the influx of poor people of color.

Most importantly, “Freedom Writers” also chronicles the lives of the students who come from these various school camps, referred to by one student as “little Cambodia, the ghetto, Wonder Bread-land and South of the Border.” Because their stories are presented in a quality way, without broad clichés, in their own voices and punctuated with the hip hop music of the era, this film honors the humanity and history of the students in a way that many so-called “urban” dramas do not.

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Red-Carpet Premiere of Let the World Listen Right:
Freestyle Hip-Hop in the Mississippi Delta

What: Red-carpet world premiere of Let the World Listen Right: a film about the life of Jerome "TopNotch the Villain" Williams, a hip-hop artist in the Mississippi Delta

When: Sunday, January 7th. Half-hour documentary begins at 7 p.m., with an artist meet and greet at 6:30 p.m.

Where: The historic Clarksdale Cinema, 11 3rd Street (at Sunflower),
Clarksdale, Mississippi 38614

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Please join University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate student filmmakers Brian Graves and Ali Colleen Neff, Mississippi Delta hip-hop artist Jerome "Top Notch the Villain," and a group of Mississippi Delta singers, guitarists and rappers to celebrate the release of Let the World Listen Right, a half-hour documentary celebrating the work of young inheritors of the Delta blues legacy. Let the World Listen Right traces the daily life of Mississippi Delta rapper Jerome "Top Notch the Villain" Williams and his group Da FAM (For All Mississippi) as they struggle with hardship, solidify friendship and express community values through improvised rhyme, song and celebration.

Drawing from the deep well of documentary film on the Delta blues by ethnographers Bill Ferris, Alan Lomax and others, University of North Carolina student filmmakers Ali Colleen Neff and Brian Graves sought to document contemporary practitioners of Delta musical traditions. Neff, a UNC Folklore M.A. student who has been working with hip-hop, blues and gospel artists in the Delta since 2004, invited Jerome Williams (A.K.A. Top Notch the Villian), a Mississippi hip-hop artist, to collaborate on the half-hour piece, which follows Top Notch through the Delta's cultural landscape. Filmed over the course of a summer in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Let the World Listen Right provides insight into the rich musical interactions of the Mississippi Delta while documenting the dreams and struggles of young people in the region today. The piece is tied together with hip-hop performances by Top Notch and Da Fam as well as performances by blues artist Terry "Big T" Williams and gospel singer Martha Raybon.

The red-carpet film premiere, a first for Clarksdale, will take place at the historic Delta Cinema at 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 7th. A meet-and-greet with the artists will take place in the cinema at 6:30 p.m. Semi-formal attire is encouraged, and donations for the hip-hop artists featured in the film will be accepted.

For more information, contact Ali Colleen Neff at (919) 259-1591 or alineff@email.unc.edu

Let the World Listen Right is an excellent film reflecting a contemporary freestyle hip-hop artist drawing from the traditional Delta blues. In the lives of TopNotch the Villain, Da FAM, and the blues and gospel singers in the film, we see a compelling portrait of contemporary music in the Mississippi Delta.
--William R. Ferris; Folklorist, filmmaker, author and Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also the advisor to the film

The Last Soul Brother

The Last Soul Brother: James Brown (1933-2006)
by Mark Anthony Neal

James Brown was of a generation of black men—mythological in many ways—who helped define the contours of freedom and possibility for black folk in the 20th century. They were the generation of “Soul Brothers”. Born shortly before and during the decade of the Great Depression, these men came to adulthood after World War II and had little choice than to be swept up in the whirlwinds of anticommunism and the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. There was little question that these men were patriots—and in the best sense of the word—as they held American Democracy to the same standard at home and that it championed abroad. If Sam Cooke, shot dead before his prime, was the metaphor of possibility for this generation of black men, and Martin Luther King, Jr. and El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), shot dead in their prime, were the very emblem of those possibilities fully realized, than James Brown was the bittersweet reminder that the men behind the mythologies rarely age with the grace that their iconography affords them.

As Soul Brother #1, the secular power of James Brown was palpable in every way to that of the King who was assassinated in Memphis and emboldened even more so after the King’s demise. It was Brown, remember, who was called to duty, as rioters were poised to tear the city of Boston to shreds in the days after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s murder. “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud”—equally ripe for the discourses of Black Power and marketplace integration—resonated more powerfully than “We Shall Overcame” ever would for the watchful eyes of that soon to be post-Civil Rights Generation. But the humanity of the man—with its funky and messy flaws and frailties—could never sustain the myth, so much so that the image of the man who gave Black Power its soundtrack became a harsh reminder of its fractured legacy. And perhaps that’s the way it should be.

Read the full essay at Popmatters.com

*thanks to Guy Ramsey for the on-the-ground photo

BrotherKool

The Hard Core Of Cool
Confidence, Grace And Underneath It All, the Need to Be Recognized
by Donna Britt, Washington Post Staff Writer

Confidence is cool's most essential element. Perhaps that's why black men -- for whom the appearance of assurance can be a matter of life or death -- so often radiate it. Perhaps that's why in the United States, where men as different as Frank Sinatra, Joe Namath, Bruce Lee, Sean Connery, Benicio Del Toro and Johnny Depp have been deemed cool, black men remain cool's most imitated, consistent arbiters. I mean, there's cool -- and then there's brothercool.

Think of Barack Obama's instantaneous ascension to "coolest man in Congress." Observe Denzel Washington's loping stride. Ponder Dwyane Wade's sweet-as-a-caress ball-handling, Terrence Howard's slumberous gaze and Mos Def's straight-ahead poetry and crooked grin.

Read the Full Essay

JB Home on the Night Train

Listen to JB with Terry Gross in 2005

Beyond Beats & Rhymes in the New York Times

CHICAGO — Byron Hurt takes pains to say that he is a fan of hip-hop, but over time, says Mr. Hurt, a 36-year-old filmmaker, dreadlocks hanging below his shoulders, “I began to become very conflicted about the music I love.”

A new documentary by Mr. Hurt, “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” questions the violence, degradation of women and homophobia in much of rap music.

Scheduled to go on the air in February as part of the PBS series Independent Lens, the documentary is being shown now at high schools, colleges and Boy’s Clubs, and in other forums, as part of an unusual public campaign sponsored by the Independent Television Service, which is based in San Francisco and helped finance the film.

The intended audiences include young fans, hip-hop artists and music industry executives — black and white — who profit from music and videos that glorify swagger and luxury, portray women as sex objects, and imply, critics say, that education and hard work are for suckers and sissies.

What concerns Mr. Hurt and many black scholars is the domination of the hip-hop market by more violent and sexually demeaning songs and videos — an ascendancy, the critics say, that has coincided with the growth of the white audience for rap and the growing role of large corporations in marketing the music.

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MAN on NPR's Rough Cuts with Michel Martin

Grooving to a Different Beat

So we were thinking about the holidays and we started thinking about the whole "white Christmas" thing -- as both a song and a metaphor. That got us to thinking about how and why African-Americans started putting their stamp on the holiday. Which led naturally to thinking about the great holiday songs we all love, from the Jackson 5 to the mighty Temptations.

We started looking around and soon found Mark Anthony Neal, a professor at Duke University who actually studies African-American history and pop culture (that's what's so great about America -- and Google). We got his take on the subject and listened to some great tunes. We were grooving all week long!

Listen to the Segment