idiosyncratic

reclaimingthelatinatag: Emmy Award-nominated Liza Garza...

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:30:57 -0400

Emmy Award-nominated Liza Garza is a poet, vocalist and songwriter. Infusing the cultural soul of Mexican folk tunes in modern ballads with the intricacy of Hip Hop rhyme schemes, she bridges the ancestral with the modern. With perfomances that include The Lincoln Center, The Apollo, the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, HBO Def Poetry Jam and numerous stages world wide, diverse people are finding a home in her voice. [x]

Liza is amazing. This Mexican-American Muslim Latina sings about social inequities and structural violence. She has performed with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Amir Sulaiman, Mos Def, and Jill Scott. Garza graduated from the University of Michigan, where she formulated her own degree in Performance Activism. Watch to her perform “My Everything” on HBO Def Poetry. You can also learn more about her here and follow her on tumblr here.

Oh! And she also makes and sells some seriously cool earrings.

The Jamaican Surf Team for Insight Dopamine | Dustin Humphrey

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:19:26 -0400

The Jamaican Surf Team for Insight Dopamine | Dustin Humphrey

mambubadu: chasingcharlie: S is for Soul Sister. In the 1970’s...

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:13:59 -0400

mambubadu:

chasingcharlie:

S is for Soul Sister. In the 1970’s a set of 26 alphabet cards were distributed to Chicago public schools. One of the original cards is on the (left). Card on the right is a remake shot by me TaKiyah Wallace of my daughter Charlie Reese in 2013. www.charliereese.com

—-

!!! That lighting is really well done.

afrovisionary: musician/film : shabazz palaces/the black...

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:13:08 -0400

afrovisionary:

musician/film : shabazz palaces/the black constellation
work : ode to octavia part 12

A beautiful short filled with the new path finding Shabazz and a black consciousness on film very vivid. The fashion chosen should get a great amount of attention due to it`s sheer ability to amplify the skin so well. bold colors fit black people incredibly!!! though an ode to octavia butler, the short conceptually falls very short of creating a more concrete theme outside of the music. in fact the film is very reliant on the music. I wish it wasn`t so much. that doesn`t make the work less fascinating though.

Uzoamaka Maduka, 25. Founder and editor in chief, The American...

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:52:55 -0400

Uzoamaka Maduka, 25. Founder and editor in chief, The American Reader
Starting a literary magazine that encapsulates the spirit of the age is the sort of thing precocious young Ivy League types love to do, but The American Reader has caught the attention of a notable number of heavy hitters in the world of letters. Maduka, a Nigerian-American Princeton grad, it its editor in chief.

from Forbes 30 under 30

studioafrica: Aláàló (Someone has a Story) by David...

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:37:20 -0400

studioafrica:

Aláàló (Someone has a Story) by David Adeogun

David Adeogun’s experimental short explores the difficulties of making art and the Nigerian identity in the diaspora. His protagonist is a young film student recently returned home having failed in his ambition to create a piece of art that ‘really means something’. He visits his cousins and is troubled by news that they’re bullied for being African, as well as his girl cousins aspirations to beauty standards that don’t include their brown skin and coily hair. He attempts to awaken their interest in the stories that are buried in African wax print fabrics but leaves when they show passing interest. It seems that he has given up, but the children hijack the story and decide to persist in telling the tale that their older, jaded cousin - who has resigned himself to a desk job - has abandoned. The non-linear structure allows us to loop back into the narrative, with animation, dream-like sequences, narration deepening the film’s resonance. This is an richly imaginative exploration of identity and art by a promising young filmmaker.

Learn more about David Adeogun here

blackcontemporaryart: Osaretin IghileDeities, 2011 more from...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:27:26 -0400

blackcontemporaryart:

Osaretin Ighile
Deities, 2011

more from MoMA PS1’s Studio Visit with the artist here.

Susan Meiselas, NICARAGUA. Masaya. July 2004. Re-Framing...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:14:12 -0400

Susan Meiselas, NICARAGUA. Masaya. July 2004. Re-Framing History, Nicaragua mural project installation based of original photographs taken in 1978 of the popular insurrection against Somoza. Copyright © Susan Meiselas / Magnum Photos

artcomesfirst: darksilenceinsuburbia: Daisuke...

Sun, 19 May 2013 19:37:42 -0400

artcomesfirst:

darksilenceinsuburbia:

Daisuke Ito.

http://saudade-foto.com/

feed the seeds

mambubadu: Mambu Badu’s own Danielle Scruggs will be showing...

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:48:56 -0400

mambubadu:

Mambu Badu’s own Danielle Scruggs will be showing work in “Hair Apparent”, a group show at the Athenaeum next month. If you live in the DC metropolitan area, you should go!

More info:

Hair Apparent at the Athenaeum, May 30-July 14, 2013

Opening reception: June 2, 2013, 4pm-6pm

201 Prince St., Alexandria, Va.

Hair Apparent, a multimedia exhibit including sculpture, photography, assemblage, and performance. The show explores artists’ relationships with hair referencing cultural perception, myth, ritual, and memory.

Featured Artists: Holly Bass - Performance; Shelly Bell - Spoken Word Poetry; Emily Biondo - Sculpture Installation; Stephanie Booth - Photography, Video & Hair Embroidery; Caryl Burtner - Assemblage; Kate Kretz - Human Hair Embroidery; Emilia Olson - Photography & Works on Paper; Betsy Packard - Sculpture & Assemblage; Amber Robles Gordon - Sculpture Installation; Danielle Scruggs - Photography; Dagmara Weinberg - Photography & Image Manipulation; and Sara Winston - Photography

thedorseyshawexperience: The Cola Road (2013)

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:47:58 -0400

thedorseyshawexperience:

The Cola Road (2013)

pauloctavious: Alphabet Soup (at Elkhorn Flea Market)

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:46:20 -0400

pauloctavious:

Alphabet Soup (at Elkhorn Flea Market)

ragingsatorialist: WIWT Rainy day wear.

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:45:41 -0400

ragingsatorialist:

WIWT
Rainy day wear.

b-sama: Ubuhle by Loyiso Mkungela “Ubuhle” is a word found in...

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:44:24 -0400

b-sama:

Ubuhle by Loyiso Mkungela

“Ubuhle” is a word found in both of South Africa’s most prominent Nguni languages , isiXhosa and isiZulu. The word means ‘beauty’ in both languages. It is pronounced kind of like so “Oo-boo-tle” (with a rattling sound at the beginning of the last syllable). The concept of (feminine) African beauty, varies from country to country around the post-colonial African continent and from person to person, with the concept sometimes also being influenced heavily by Western standards of beauty due to colonisation.The article in picture is titled: “Dynamic Beauty: Cultural Influences and Changing Perceptions - Becoming Prettier or Erasing One’s Own Culture” by Christopher Frazier. It was somewhat of an inspiration behind me asking thousands of people what African beauty is.

thesmithian: For a so-called fifty-fifty state, you’d think...

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:43:21 -0400

thesmithian:

For a so-called fifty-fifty state, you’d think Democrats would have more luck running for statewide office in Ohio…State Democrats’ electoral troubles are truly biblical…many are called but few chosen…Cleveland State Senator Nina Turner represents one of the Democrats’ best shots at reversing this tradition of futility, as she weighs a presumed run for Secretary of State. She’s already beat the odds once.

more.

thesmithian: +++++ art: photo, ‘Harlem,’ by Saul Leiter. 1960.

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:42:25 -0400

thesmithian:

+++++

art: photo, ‘Harlem,’ by Saul Leiter. 1960.

newmodelminority: iluvsouthernafrica: Namibians wearing...

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:25:49 -0400

newmodelminority:

iluvsouthernafrica:

Namibians wearing Vellies (Shoes)

“Velskoen, pronounced “fell-skoon” and known colloquially as “vellies,” are the ancestor of the modern-day desert boot. Vellies were first made in the 1600s, inspired by the footwear of the Khoikhoi tribe and crafted using raw materials. Later, our vellies were adapted by British travellers, packaged and renamed to be what we now know as desert boots.

(Brother Vellies) are made in the coastal town of Swakopmund, Namibia. There, a small group of eight Damara gentlemen assemble every shoe by hand, turning out just 20 pairs an afternoon.

…Vellies are made of vegetable-dyed Kudu leather. The Namibian government mandates the culling of these large native antelope to control their population. Kudu skin yields amazingly durable leather and suede that ages exceptionally well. Because these hides are taken from wild animals they often show scars or other “imperfections” that domesticated hides do not.”

#W6rd.

dynamicafrica: southafricantvads: Trevor Noah on David...

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:13:33 -0400

dynamicafrica:

southafricantvads:

Trevor Noah on David Letterman

“Africa is not a colour, it’s a place” - good one!

But omg, the over-confident German part :|

Director William Miles, right, next to Nina Rosenblum, during...

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:50:59 -0400

Director William Miles, right, next to Nina Rosenblum, during the filming of “Liberators.” | By BRUCE WEBER

“William Miles, a self-taught filmmaker whose documentaries revealed untold stories of black America, including those of its heroic black soldiers and of life in its signature neighborhood, Harlem, where he himself grew up, died on May 12 in Queens. He was 82.

The cause was uncertain, but Mr. Miles had myriad health problems, including Parkinson’s disease and dementia, said his wife of 61 years, Gloria.

Mr. Miles was part historical sleuth, part preservationist, part bard. His films, which combined archival footage, still photographs and fresh interviews, were triumphs of curiosity and persistence in unearthing lost material about forgotten subjects.

His first important film, “Men of Bronze” (1977), was about the 369th Infantry Regiment, an all-black combat unit that the Army shipped overseas during World War I but, because of segregationist policies, fought under the flag of France. Serving with great distinction, the unit spent more time in the front-line trenches than any other American unit. Collectively, it was awarded the Croix de Guerre and came to be known as the Harlem Hellfighters and also the Black Rattlers.

The 369th began as the 15th New York National Guard Infantry Regiment, and decades later, after Mr. Miles had himself joined a National Guard unit in Harlem, he stumbled on a dusty storage room containing flags, helmets photographs and other relics from the 369th.

He subsequently found well-preserved film footage of the regiment at the National Archives, and he tracked down living members of the unit using a technique he often employed to generate information about the past: He walked the streets of Harlem, stopping where groups of elderly residents gathered to talk and started asking questions.

The film, which was shown on public television, depicted the black soldiers as fiercely patriotic and courageous while offering an oddly good-natured — and moving — critique of American racism.

Mr. Miles’s best-known work was “I Remember Harlem,” a four-hour historical portrait of the neighborhood that had its premiere on public television over four consecutive nights in 1981.

“I was walking around Harlem, where I grew up, and noticed how many of the old theaters and familiar buildings were missing,” Mr. Miles said in an interview in The New York Times, talking about his inspiration for the film. “I went back to my old elementary school, and on the next corner there was another man standing and looking at the building, too.”

The man, he realized, was an old classmate.

“He said to me, ‘I remember Harlem,’ and I thought: I remember Harlem, you remember Harlem, a lot of people remember Harlem.”

Born in Harlem on April 18, 1931, Mr. Miles grew up on West 126th Street, behind the Apollo Theater, where, as a teenager, he occasionally ran the film projector. He graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School and for a while attended City College.

As a young man, he worked downtown as a shipping clerk for a distributor of educational films and then at Killiam Shows, a company that restored silent films; there, Mr. Miles learned mechanical skills like repairing film and clipping segments for use in commercials. During this time he met Richard Adams, who also worked at Killiam, and who became a cameraman and film editor for several of Mr. Miles’s films, including “Men of Bronze.”

“Bill had collaborators of all kinds,” Mr. Adams wrote in an e-mail on Thursday, “but only he had the vision and the persistence, and a genius for spotting archival images.”

One of Mr. Miles’s films, “Liberators” (1992), about black army units that helped to free Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II, was partly inspired by a letter he spotted in The Times from Benjamin Bender, a Jewish survivor of Buchenwald. “The recollections are still vivid — ” Mr. Bender wrote of the day of liberation, April 11, 1945, “black soldiers of the Third Army, tall and strong, crying like babies, carrying the emaciated bodies of the liberated prisoners.”

The film, produced and directed by Mr. Miles and Nina Rosenblum, was nominated for an Academy Award, but its accuracy was subsequently questioned. Its overall point of the film — that blacks who fought racism at home to be allowed to serve their country, then witnessed the discriminatory horrors of the Holocaust — was not in dispute, but critics said that the film went awry in giving credit to a particular unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, part of Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, for the liberation of Dachau and Buchenwald. (The 761st was present at the liberation of the Gunskirchen camp in Austria.) Public television stations ceased showing the film.

In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Rosenblum said they had discovered, too late, that one of the interviewees in the film had lied about being a liberator, but she defended the film as essentially accurate, saying that Army records were inconclusive and that Mr. Miles was a scrupulous documentarian who was shattered by the controversy. “It was the only film he ever made that had its veracity questioned,” Ms. Rosenblum said. “And I can tell you he tried everything to make the research complete. He was putting black history on the map in a way it hadn’t been, and this was such a terrible blow. We still feel like the film, except for one guy, is valid. If the Army records are so good, tell me: Who liberated Benjamin Bender at Buchenwald?”

Mr. Miles married the former Gloria Darlington in 1952, after having known her since they were classmates in elementary school. His other survivors include two daughters, Brenda Moore and Deborah Jones, and three grandchildren.

Last fall, the veteran Democratic Congressman Charles B. Rangel, whose district includes Harlem, entered a testimonial to Mr. Miles in the Congressional Record. Speaking on the House floor, Mr. Rangel gave a summary of Mr. Miles’s work, which includes films about black athletes, black astronauts, black cowboys, and the writer James Baldwin.

“Join me in a very special congressional salute to Harlem’s historian and black filmmaker, William ‘Bill’ Miles,” Mr. Rangel said, “a titan of a man who has documented the history and contributions of African-Americans and the black American experience with film, camera and a lens.””

Mr. Meggett showing where his aunt and uncle’s...

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:16:28 -0400

Mr. Meggett showing where his aunt and uncle’s wood-burning stove vented outside. | Stephen Morton for The New York Times