Monday, April 30, 2007

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

Monday, April 23, 2007

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)

Friday, April 20, 2007

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)

Monday, April 16, 2007

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

Thursday, April 12, 2007

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)

Monday, April 09, 2007

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

Monday, April 02, 2007

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)

Friday, March 23, 2007

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes




Once again, filmmaker Byron Hurt will be at the University of Kansas on Monday March 26th. Hurt will be showing his film Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. For those of you who haven't seen this documentary, you should get access to it immediately (suggestion: do an inter-library loan asap). There will be a discussion panel immediately after the film. The event is free and open to the public.


For more info on the film click here

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Ten Years After Biggie's Death

Great article from Village Voice writer Tom Breihan about the late/great Notorious B.I.G. (read more)

Monday, March 12, 2007

Book of the Week:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Movie of the Week: The Jerk starring Steve Martin

Scholarships - No GPA Requirements:

Alvin Cox Memorial Scholarship


BlackNews.com

Daylon E. Kinney

Byron Hurt at KU

University of Kansas Press Release

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas graduate students will join award-winning film director Byron Hurt for a panel discussion following a free and public screening of his documentary “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 26, in the Kansas Union ballroom.

After the screening, Hurt, who recently appeared on a CNN special titled “Hip-Hop: Art or Poison?,” will moderate a discussion with the audience.

Shown at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Hurt’s documentary provides an in-depth look at machismo in rap music and hip-hop culture. His candid interviews present divergent voices of fans and social critics speaking about the struggle to negotiate the exciting creativity, seductive rhythms, blatant violence and homophobia in what is now an international music form. (read more)

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Al Sharpton's Family Ties

I found an interesting article in Slate (online publication)on Al Sharpton's family history.

read more...

Monday, March 05, 2007

The World Outside...

Book of the Week: Angry Black White Boy

Artist of the Week: Jill Scott

Album of the Week: Jill Scott Collaborations

Challenge of the Week: Get a Passport!
To undergraduates:
I encourage you to look up study abroad programs at your school. It's important that we all venture out into the world and understand that education occurs outside the classroom. Many of us take college for granted, so we fail to look for other opportunities outside of job fairs and "multicultural" events. They are $97 at your local post office. Don't let life pass you by.

Just a thought

Monday, February 26, 2007

Quote of the Week:
"Everybody is somebody. But nobody wants to be themselves"
Gnarls Barkley

Book of the Week:
Yo' Mams's Disfunktional! by Robin D.G. Kelley

Song of the Week:
Tennessee by Arrested Development

Documentary of the Week: Bastards of the Party
This is a great film on the history of L.A. Gangs.


Event of the Week:
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company presents Color-ography at the University of Kansas Lied Center on Wed. 28th.


A personal note:
I would like to advocate the spread of cultural histories throughout the year. Many people act as though Black History can only be openly advocated through these 28 days in Feb. To me, that's like saying that Black people are only influential for a month and no more. It is up to us to further they ways in which Black history can be learned, taught, and promoted. This is something I encourage via Black Tuesday. We are key players in the construction of future interpretations of Black culture. If we don't take it seriously; who will?

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Ankh Presentations

Here's some info on my next presentation. It well be at Emporia State University on Feb. 21st. It's free and open to everyone. If you can't make it, tell somebody who may be interested.

Keepin' It Real: Authenticity and Hip Hop

"Keepin' It Real" has become a popular metaphor for truth. This dialogue hopes to probe the very construct of "real-ness" by exposing some of the falsehoods associated with it. We will also discuss the role authenticity plays in arguments about the gap between the Civil Rights Generation and the Hip Hop Generation.

Attention all Dangerous Negroes!!!

BlackNews.com recently sent me a press release about a Black Empowerment Apparel Company called Dangerous Negro. I checked it out and I'm really feelin' the content. Not only do you get clothing which reflects black empowerment, but you also get reading lists. There's also a section for young black entrepreneurs. So folks, when you get some free time (NOW!) be sure to check out the site and spread the word.

Dangerous Negro Website

Peace

Monday, February 12, 2007

Quote of the Week:

I was born underwater,
With 3 dollars and six dimes.
Yeah, you may laugh,
but you did not do your math.

Erykah Badu

Give your interpretations of the quote in the comment section please. Thanks

Book of the Week:

From Black Power to Hip Hop
by Patricia Hill Collins (I'm reading it right now and I'm really feelin' it)

Event of the Week:

Def Poetry Jam (it's back!)

Liberate the mind people and be yourself




Also, for those of you who missed the State of the Black Union last weekend; hit up cspan.com and search it. I'll comment more on it later.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Psychadelic Blackness

Quote of the Week:

"Diversify your bonds" - Wu Tang Financial

Artist of the Week: Jimi Hendrix

For those of you who haven't heard Jimi or act like he's only for rock n roll fans; check out the books. He played with James Brown, Bobby Womack, and a the Isleys; and that's just the beginning.

Books of the Week: Room Full of Mirrors
by: Charles R. Cross

Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience
by: Greg Tate



Monday, January 29, 2007

Book of the Week: Flyboy in the Buttermilk
by Greg Tate

From Publishers Weekly
This collection of 40 essays on music, literature, art and politics confirms Tate's role as a chief progenitor of a New Black Aesthetic, what Gates calls "a body of creativity unfettered by the constraints of a nationalist party line." Consistently interesting, often brilliant, Tate--a staff writer for the Village Voice --modulates funkadelic street argot with a fierce intellect, taking on subjects as diverse as Miles Davis, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and Lee Atwater's embrace of black music. Reviewing the rap group Public Enemy, he observes, "To know PE is to love the agitprop (and artful noise) and to worry over the whack OK w-out comma?/no comma/pk retarded philosophy they espouse." Some music essays and a foray into hermeneutics may be heavy going for the uninitiated, but Tate skillfully enlivens writers like black SF fabulist Samuel Delany, and deftly criticizes essentialist curators who deny the "ambiguity and complexity" of black visual art. The political pieces cut to the bone, sparing neither a white power structure that devalues black life nor blacks who cry racism to excuse sexism; too many blacks, he says, "get more upset over being disrespected than they do over being disempowered."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Song of the Week: Summer Soft (Songs in the Key of Life)
by Stevie Wonder


Event of the Week: A Civil Rights Reader
by Daniel Bernard Roumain
featuring DBR & THE MISSION SQ UNIT
and DJ Scientific
Friday, Feb. 2, 7:30 p.m., Lied Center