I’ll be brief. There are, possibly, two larger ways in which to understand and make sense of entertainer, part-time genius and iconoclast, Kanye West. The first and most popular way to see him is as a troubled individual who suffered a mental breakdown following the death of his mother. This resulted in him being a […]
Read more "“Wake Up Mr. West!” – The Culture of Kanye"After watching the episode “The Woods” on the critically acclaimed FX network show Atlanta, I figured it was worth exploring some of the science fiction aspects that the show has consistently presented. This is the first of a three part series about the show and Afro-futurism. From what I can tell, the series Atlanta belongs […]
Read more "The Afro-Futurism of Atlanta – Pt. 1"Netflix recently released “Come Sunday,” a movie that told the story of Carlton Pearson. The story dramatized Pearson’s move from classic Pentecostalism to Christian universalism, approximately collapsing the years 1998 to 2006 into a movie format. The movie stars Chiwetel Ojiofor as Pearson and Martin Sheen as Oral Roberts, along with roles played by Danny […]
Read more "“Come Sunday”: An Explainer Essay"It was announced on April 16, 2018 that rapper Kendrick Lamar was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In a society where awards seemingly get distributed like water bottles after a natural disaster, sometimes the gravity of these awarding bodies gets lost in the shuffle. This was not a Grammy nor a BET or MTV […]
Read more "When Black Culture Goes Mainstream"In 2009, Chicago was the United States’ bid to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. There was a collective sigh of relief on the South Side of Chicago when it was announced that Rio De Janeiro would be the host. Many South Side residents who would have been directly impacted by […]
Read more "Waiting For Obama"Some of my earliest memories, ever in life, weren’t just moments with grandmother before she died when I was six, nor me carrying a monkey at my dad’s company picnic, but they were knowing that along with Martin Luther King there were men named Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey. I attended the New Concept Development […]
Read more "What if Black America Were Its Own Country? Wakanda, a Nation on a Hill"I tuned in at work on a livestream for about 15 minutes right before Barack Obama’s portrait was to be revealed. I missed the unveiling of Michelle Obama’s, well, to be nice, portrait. I remember cheering that Kehinde Wiley had been commissioned to do Obama’s portrait and like most, I went to see his work […]
Read more "Unpopular Opinion: Why the Obama’s Official Portrait Should Be Him in the Tan Suit"Last week, an 84-year-old Negro from a world many of us wouldn’t even recognize decided to “spill the tea” in a way that rivals podcasts like “The Read” or “Real Housewives After Show” with Andy Cohen. Quincy Jones, the music mogul, in an interview with David Marchese and published by New York Magazine, divulged the […]
Read more "Why We Need More Quincy Jones’ in the World"Anyone who was paying attention to Black Twitter during Justin Timberlake’s Superbowl LII halftime performance would be under the belief that the totality of black Americans were singularly against him because of his treatment of Janet Jackson in Superbowl XXXVIII. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. It appears as though many who participate in […]
Read more "On Justin Timberlake: How Black Twitter Gets It Wrong"In a crowded television market with networks not just competing with traditional line-in cable programming but with the ever-increasingly might of streaming services that are offering original programming that network television shows will never air, a network-based TV show that gets renewed past one season is becoming the new high bar jump. One such show is […]
Read more "Where ‘The Good Place’ Goes Bad"