The Temptations

Movie of the Week:

The Temptations



















Video of the Week:

I Love the 80s!!!

Billie Holiday

Quote of the Week:

"If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling"
- Billie Holiday


Video of the Week:



Book of the Week:

If You Can't Be Free, Be A Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday
by: Farah Jasmine Griffin

B-GIRL BE: A Celebration of Women in Hip Hop

Building on the last two years’ wildly successful festival, Intermedia Arts is proud to present the third annual B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop, a multimedia festival encompassing the four elements of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti at Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis.

The mission of B-Girl Be is to influence and inspire leadership to change the perceptions and roles of women in hip-hop for current and future generations. This annual event is a place to make connections, build confidence, sharpen skills and gain access to the tools to create music, film, poetry, rap, aerosol art and dance.
(more info)

Art and Craft: The Northwestern Summer Writers' Conference

August 9-11, 2007

Summer Session is pleased to announce the third annual Northwestern Summer Writers' Conference, a noncredit summer institute in writing and revising novels, poetry, short stories, and nonfiction for adult and young audiences. This four-day conference is tailored to new writers, established writers, and anyone seeking a fuller understanding of the craft - and business - of writing. Participants have the opportunity to select from a host of seminars, panels, workshops, and optional manuscript consultations, all designed to give participants new perspectives on their work in the supportive company of other writers. "Creative jumpstart" sessions focus on brainstorming, free writing, and experimentation and thus are useful to writers at all levels. Other workshops run concurrently and address a variety of genres so that participants may work in smaller groups with other writers who share their interests.(more info)

Black Music Month!!!

For those of you who didn't know, June is Black Music Month. I just wanted to share a few lines from Kanye West:

There's somethin' bout the way the Nina Simone piano flow,
It's like a Micelangelo painted a portrait of Maya Angelou
And gave it to a sick poet, for the antecdote
If music get you choked up
this is the tree and the rope
Get By Remix

Peace

Summer Reading

Hello Everybody,
I must apologize about last week's entry (or lack there of). Summer has officially began and I challenge everyone to read at least 5 books. It doesn't matter what genre you prefer; share it with friends and family and keep this cycle of knowledge going.

This week's focus is Melvin Van Peebles.

Book of the Week: The True American by Melvin Van Peebles

Film of the Week: How to Eat Your Watermelon In White Company (And Enjoy It)


Web articles about Melvin Van Peebles internet article


Soul Flicks

Hip Hop, Japan, & the War on Terror: Locating Politics in Japanese Language Rap Music

Lecture by Ian Condry, Associate Professor of Foreign Languages & Literatures, M.I.T.
------------------------------------------------


Cultural anthropologist Ian Condry will discuss his new book Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization (2006, Duke Univ. Press) to explore the relationship between language, performance, and politics. Examples will include Japanese rap songs that critique America's "war on terror." How and why do Japanese rappers creatively deform and reinvent their own language? How do the cultural and linguistic flows of hip-hop influence America's image, and the image of African-Americans, on the world stage? What can Japanese rappers teach Americans about transnational perspectives on media and culture?

The event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Discourse Lab and free and open to the public.

Date: Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

UCLA
352 Haines Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Book of the Week:
White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty

Film of the Week:
Watermelon Man


Quote of the Week:
"I am because we are"

Black Athletes Forum @ Morehouse

By Gene Wojciechowski

You know how sometimes you see a movie like, say, "Syriana," and you walk out of the 40-plex two hours later not knowing what the hell you just watched? I mean, no clue. So you try to fake it with your wife and mumble something about "geopolitical fissures," whatever that is, and hope she buys it.

But here's the thing: Sometimes, even if you don't get it ... you get it. Something clicks.

Anyway, that's exactly how I felt about the Black Athlete Forum held earlier this week at Morehouse College. The forum, moderated by Morehouse Man Spike Lee (Class of '79), was supposed to focus on, among other things, the glaring disparity between the number of African-American athletes (a lot) and the number of African-American sportswriters (not so much). And it did -- for a little while. (read more)

Quote of the Week:

Be thankful for what you got


Album of the Week:



The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Gil Scott-Heron


Book of the Week:



Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women
By: T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting



Thoughts on Rebirth:

This is not the first time I came to the planet
But everytime I come, only a few could understand it
I came as Isis, my words they tried to ban it
I came as Moses, they couldn't follow my commandments
I came as Solomon, to a people that was lost
I came as Jesus, but they nailed me to a cross
I came as Harriet Tubman, I put the truth to Sojourner
Other times, I had to come as Nat Turner
They tried to burn me, lynch me and starve me
So I had to come back as Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley
They tried to harm me, I used to be Malcolm X
Now I'm on the planet as the one called KRS

KRS-One "Ah Yeah"

Islam Awareness Week

Tonight!

Imam Mahdi Bray presents

Why I Became A Muslim
7:30 @ the Centennial Room of the Kansas Union

Movie of the Week:

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Book of the Week:

Caucasia by Danzy Senna

Quote of the Week:

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth.
Kahlil Gibran

Event of the Week:

George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic
May 9th
The Crossroads KC, 417 E 18th Street, Kansas City, MO

Event of the Week:
Flores A. Forbes, author of “Will You Die With Me?: My Life and the Black Panther Party,” will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union. The Hall Center for the Humanities and the KU Department of Theatre and Film are sponsoring his talk. (read more)

Quote of the Week:
“learning is for liberation, and knowledge must be turned to social benefit if we are to justify the faith placed in us by our forbrears”
Michael Eric Dyson

Book of the Week:

The Vulture
&
The Nigger Factory

by Gil Scott-Heron

Rahzel speaks about sexism in hip hop music

Brought to you by Professor Kim...

Grammy winning beatboxer Rahzel spoke with me today about the latest controversy over sexism in hip-hop. In this 18-minute interview, he rejected Don Imus' comparison of his scurrilous remarks about the Rutgers Women's basketball team to rap lyrics, but added that rappers who use terms such as "ho," have a responsibility "to clarify what they're talking about."
He also talks about how he has held true to his artistic vision despite the pressure to "come hard."
(Click here for the rest of Prof. Kim's piece)

Black Panther Party leader turned urban developer to speak April 24 at KU

LAWRENCE — An author and urban developer who was a leader in the Black Panther Party of the 1960s and ’70s will speak about his new book and the turbulence of those years at the University of Kansas.

Flores A. Forbes, author of “Will You Die With Me?: My Life and the Black Panther Party,” will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union. The Hall Center for the Humanities and the KU Department of Theatre and Film are sponsoring his talk. (read more)

Moment of Silence

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Thirty-three people, including the gunman, were killed on a Virginia university campus Monday in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. At least 26 other people were injured, some of them as they leapt to safety from the windows of a classroom building. (read more)


Song of the Week:
Someday We'll All Be Free - Donny Hathaway

The Color of Comfort?

Check out this article by Jim Wilkes of the Toronto Star

When the new chocolate-coloured sofa set was delivered to her Brampton home, Doris Moore was stunned to see packing labels describing the shade as "Nigger-brown."

She and husband Douglas purchased a sofa, loveseat and chair in dark brown leather last week from Vanaik Furniture and Mattress store on Dundas St. E.

Moore, 30, who describes herself as an African-American born and raised in New York, said it was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out the label just after delivery men from the Mississauga furniture store left.
(Read More)

Book of the Week: Shadowboxing by Joy James

News: Hip Hop Figure Skating? (read more)

Event: Relay for Life @ the University of Kansas

Album of the Week: Birth of the Cool by Miles Davis

KU Pride Week 2007!!!

University of Kansas student group, Queers and Allies, is hosting the 2007 Pride Week. (more info)

Book of the Week: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Quote of the Week: "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house"

Event of the Week: Talib Kweli @ The Grenada (Lawrence, KS) tomorrow night!

Need skills? Need money? Check out these internships (get it)