Marvin Gaye | 1972
It saddens me that this song, created before my birth, is still as relevant as ever, today.
“Write the tale that scares you, that makes you feel uncertain, that isn’t comfortable. I dare you. In a world that entices us to browse the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves, and to, in turn, feel the need to be constantly visible — for visibility, these days, seems to somehow equate to success — do not be afraid to disappear. From it, from us, for a while. And see what comes to you in the silence.”
‘I Was There When House Took Over The World’
Doc I found on the history of Chicago House music. Essential bruh.
“One of the strange things about the pandemic was that I went into this period of solitude and concentration like I have never known. In nine months, I wrote a 480-page novel. It was unheard-of.”
2021. What I’m reading.
Now Reading: ‘Picasso: “Creator and Destroyer,” by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington
“Other Peoples Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night,” by Morgan Parker
“The Trees,” by Percival Everett
“Slipping,” by Mohamed Kheir
“The Perfect Nine,” by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
“Among the Hedges,” Sara Mesa
“Navigate Your Stars,” by Jesmyn Ward
“Red At The Bone,” by Jacqueline Woodson
“Who Owns the Ice House?” by Clifton Taulbert and Gary Scheniger
“Eileen,” by Ottessa Moshfegh
“Coming Through Slaughter,” by Michael Ondaatje
“Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin,” by James Campbell
“The Key,” by Whitley Strieber
“The Secret Lives of Church Ladies,” by Deesha Philyaw
“The Freedom Artist,” by Ben Okri
“Picasso,” by Gertrude Stein
“How To Slowly Kill Yourself And Others In America,” by Kiese Laymon
“Three-Ring Circus,” by Jeff Pearlman
“Art Forum” by Cesar Aira
“I Came As A Shadow: An Autobiography,” by John Thompson
“No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux,” by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Baldwin ‘87 | Recently released
James Baldwin’s vinyl collection in St. Paulde-Vence in the south of France via 1987
today i learned about Montenegrin architect Svetlana Kana Radević
10 Questions with Darrell Wade, founder of Black Men’s Wellness
I sat down with Darrell Wade, founder of Black Men’s Wellness, and discussed his community-based initiative to help Black men’s wellness and health, the debt that America owes to the Black world, how to lower stress levels and, lastly, the future of beauty.
Kassa Overall: Backpack Jazz Producing In Portland
In February 2020, backpack jazz producer Kassa Overall brought his mobile studio to Portland for the PDX Jazz Festival and the release of his second, and most personal, album through Brownswood Recordings.
Along the way, he dished out real talk on his nomadic creative process and why music is his secret for a balanced life.
Books read in 2020 …
“Black Ink,” by Stephanie Stokes Oliver
“That Time of Year,” by Marie Ndiaye
“How To Travel Without Seeing,” by Andres Neuman
“James Baldwin: The Last Interview”
“Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty,” by Jeff Pearlman
“Set The World On Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom,” by Keisha N. Blain
“American Spy,” by Lauren Wilkinson
“My Life With Earth Wind & Fire,” by Maurice White
Black and White: The Way I See It,” by Richard Williams
“Dark Constellations,” by Pola Oloixarac
“The Females,” by Wolfgang Hilbig
“Heavy: An American Memoir,” by Kiese Laymon
“Dark Days,” by James Baldwin
“Malcolm X Speaks”
“The Changeling,” by Victor LaValle
“You Can Almost Hold It In Your Hands,” by Sundiata Acoli
“The Universal Tone,” by Carlos Santana
“Springtime in a Broken Mirror,” by Mario Benedetti
“Mexico,” by Michael D. Coe
“Outliers: The Story of Success,” by Malcolm Gladwell
“Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali,” by D.T. Niane
“Winter Journal,” by Paul Auster
“My People Are Rising,” by Aaron Dixon
“The Dry Heart,” by Natalia Ginzburg
“Looking For Lorraine,” by Imani Perry
“Paris by the Book,” by Liam Callanan
“The Factory,” by Hiroko Oyamada
“Black Fatherhood,” by Khalid Akil White
“Telephone,” by Percival Everett
MUST WATCH: Jane Elliott on race
Jane Elliott, an educator and activist, joins the Arena to discuss her “Blue eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise and the effects of racism in America.
MUST READ
Chris Rock Tried to Warn Us
In a candid interview, the comic discusses America’s summer of strife, Trump, blackface and his dramatic turn in the new season of “Fargo.”
by Dave Itzkoff via The New York Times
"No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."
— Plato
Simone Biles | | | | VOGUE
MUST READS
The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them.
Wendi C. Thomas is a black journalist who has covered police in Memphis. One officer admitted to spying on her. She’s on a long list of prominent black journalists and activists who have been subjected to police surveillance over decades.
By Wendi C. Thomas | ProPublica
Inside the New Push to Expose America’s White Supremacist Cops
Fourteen years ago, the FBI documented racist infiltration of law enforcement in America. Now members of Congress want the full story.
By Kelly Weill | The Daily Beast
Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws or oaths remained on the bench
In the past dozen years, state and local judges have repeatedly escaped public accountability for misdeeds that have victimized thousands. Nine of 10 kept their jobs, a Reuters investigation found – including an Alabama judge who unlawfully jailed hundreds of poor people, many of them Black, over traffic fines.
By Michael Berens and John Shiffman | Reuters
In Conversation: Thandie Newton
After decades onscreen, nothing surprises the Westworld actress, though what she’s ready to share will surprise you.
By E. Alex Jung | New York Magazine
Must Watch
‘How to Eat Watermelon in White Company’
…this documentary on Melvin Van Peebles, whew! Legendary.
“Reality has converted itself into image and it’s influence on the viewer is limited to it being an image and not being the reality that it is representing. Our behavior concerning television is precisely this one. It’s precisely the one designed by Plato in the myth of the cave with the men tied up looking at the shadows, believing it was reality.”
Black Is King
a film by Beyonce. Coming soon.
“This album I dedicate to my children — and all children— for it’s through their eyes, and the eyes of all those precious few, that maybe we, the grownups, can still make the world a better place for everyone to live. If I were only a child again, I’d speak for little people on their date of birth, and ask the grownups—'when will there be peace on earth?’”
— Curtis Mayfield, in the liner notes from ‘Back to the World,” 1973
Must Reads
Destroying Confederate monuments isn’t ‘erasing’ history. It’s learning from it.
Defenders of the memorials are the ones trying to forget the past.
By Keisha N. Blain | The Washington Post
Russia secretly offered Afghan militants to kill U.S. troops, intelligence says
The Trump administration has been deliberating for months about what to do about a stunning intelligence assessment.
By Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt & Michael Schwirtz |
The New York Times
Trump’s Mount Rushmore fireworks draws criticism from Native Americans
‘Washington and Jefferson both held slaves. Lincoln, though he led the abolition of slavery, also approved the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Minnesota after a violent conflict with white settlers there. Roosevelt is reported to have said: “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are.”’
By Guardian Staff | The Guardian
Toni Morrison on writing about race in literature
“…as if our lives have no meaning, no depth, without the white gaze.”
dominos in the dominican | by david stuckey | Santo Domingo, 2020
“Black Parade,” by Beyonce
Queen shit.
“Lockdown,” by Anderson .Paak
“An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” — Nina Simone
Coming Soon: Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula,
If you’ve never seen Train to Busan. A zombie film classic.
“Sometimes, when a person’s house is on fire and someone comes in yelling fire, instead of the person who is awakened by the yell being thankful, he makes the mistake of charging the one who awakened him with having set the fire. I hope that this little conversation tonight about the black revolution won’t cause many of you to accuse us of igniting it when you find it at your doorstep…”
— Malcolm X
hey, love | by david stuckey | 2019 Portland
“The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children.”
— Harry Belafonte
Must Watch: 3%
Via Netflix
“What did you expect to happen? America put a white supremacist into the White House and then tried its best to ignore the fact that he was a white supremacist.”
The Eddy (feat. St. Vincent)
This joint is on constant repeat at the crib. Serendipity, comrades.
“"I want to make it clear. We are left to fend for ourselves as individuals. And those of us who have more will be able to fend better. Those of us that have less will have a harder time. This is happening because of massive, historic betrayal by the state!"
— Ta-Nehisi Coates
Solitude, Old Schools and the Color Pink | by david stuckey | 2020, Portland
Must Read
Why are Africa’s coronavirus successes being overlooked? Examples of innovation aren’t getting the fanfare they would if they emerged from Europe or the U.S.
Via The Guardian
Coming soon: Tenet
Christopher Nolan & John David Washington. The new director/actor duo?
On what would have been his 95th birthday, it’s important to remember our own black shining prince, Malcolm X.
Coming Soon: Da 5 Bloods
A Spike Lee Joint.
“When journalism is gagged, literature must speak.”
— Seno Gumira Ajidarma
Untitled | by david stuckey | 2018, New Orleans
Salute.
To the ancestor, the King of Rock & Roll, Richard Wayne Penniman aka Little Richard.
Shout-out!
to…Coimbatore
Now Playing (from the collection): What You Hear Is What You Get - Live At Carnegie Hall, by Ike & Tina Turner
SZA | | | | Wonderland
Must Reads
The New Saturday Night
With an introduction from Amanda Hess, 33 photographers show us the world on the weekend amid the COVID-19 pandemic — via The New York Times.
Percival Everett Has a Book or Three Coming Out
“Telephone,” a novel whose multiple versions were originally intended as a secret before the coronavirus pandemic, is the latest from a rule-breaking writer — via The New York Times.
Coming Soon: Lovecraft Country
via HBO
RIHANNA | | | | VOGUE
“Why Worry,” by Isaiah Rashad
This is Cutlass music. Chatt shit.
Must Watch: Giri/Haji
Via Netflix.
Must Reads
The Afghanistan Papers
U.S officials said they were making progress. They were not, and they new it, an exclusive Post investigation found.
By Craig Whitlock | The Washington Post
The Circus Singer and the Godfather of Soul
She says James Brown raped her. She also says someone murdered him. And others share Jacque Hollander’s suspicions. Twelve years after Brown’s death, nearly a dozen people who knew him are calling for an autopsy or a criminal investigation.
By Thomas Lake | CNN
The Great Buenos Aires Band Heist
They were an all-star crew. They cooked up the perfect plan. And when they pulled off the caper of the century, it made them more than a fortune—it made them folk heroes.
by Josh Dean | GQ
“I am a writer. I think that the highest gift that man has is art, and I am audacious enough to think of myself as an artist - that there is both joy and beauty and illumination and communion between people to be achieved through the dissection of personality.”
— Lorraine Hansberry
Little Dragon | “Another Lover”
Currently, watching.
The Shakur is an art space aimed at highlighting artistic expressions of all disciplines. Curated by David Stuckey.