Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Bad Black Man Image




If you listened to the previous post, the KRS-One lecture.  You might find the following  article
adds some more depth (not that K isn't deep) to his lecture.



the modern athlete, hip-hop
and
POPULAR PERCEPTIONS
of BLACK MASCULINITY
by
Thabiti Lewis

(excerpt)





Everyone knows about rapping, but what is known about hip-hop’s ideology of perpetual creativity, innovation, inspired art that is nurtured via being lived and performed daily, or the attitude of doing what feels natural? How much attention is paid to core concepts and aesthetics like layering, ruptures in lyrical, musical, visual art and dance that is predicated upon circularity and rhythmic motion, space and social dislocation? (cf. Tricia Rose in Black Noise). Thanks to the gangsta bad niggzas motif, hip-hop has emerged as the top choice among teen music consumers. It is estimated that rap music generated roughly $3 billion in sales. But at whose or what expense has it raised to such heights of popularity? While it is quite clear who controls the music and image making, it’s impossible to avoid critiquing the complicity among artists and athletes that allow these images to breathe.




The hard guise associated with bad men and expressed in hip-hop culture is appropriated by popular culture, what is often lost is that hip-hop is an expression of young peoples’ despair and resistance. The hyper-masculine representations in hip-hop narratives and athletes’ playing performances and personas are also a direct response to a repressive culture; a response to, or attempted compensation for a perceived loss of power, potency, or manhood in the wake of the real perceived power that controls their worlds. But this is rarely articulated.








Sunday, May 9, 2010

KRS-One Lecture - Black Media Archive

I just listened to a great lecture given by Hip Hop Ambassador  KRS-One
at Temple University in April 2004. I reccommend it to all you youngsters and OGs.
It's titled "Hip-Hop Beyond Entertainment"

Part 1
Part 2
Click the above links to view this informative lecture.

 The lecture is just a small part of a collection of African and African-American history, including speeches, archival video, movies, music, and more, to be found on the Black Media Archive Podcast.

It's come to my attention that as of lately the Black Media Archive content may be found on iTunes. I'm so glad it's still available. I recommend you go and listen and download what interests you because there is a lot of very interesting vintage material as far as the African American Community is concerned.



KRS-One
KRS-One Pictures

Descendants of freed slaves fight to keep historic black church



Descendants of freed slaves fight to keep historic black church
Originally published February 28, 2010


By Ron Cassie
News-Post Staff




In 1878, near Jefferson , Md., in one of the state's first communities founded by freed slaves, African-American citizens bought the land where they soon built their own "colored" school, church and cemetery.
The first church services were held in the schoolhouse in the mid-1880s. In 1899, members erected the simple, wooded-framed, steepled Sunnyside Methodist Episcopal Church that still stands. The school remained in use until desegregation.

Today, descendants of those freed slaves, the 30 remaining members of the congregation, are fighting the United Methodist Church in court to keep possession of the historic church, the former school, a community hall now and the cemetery where more than 100 of their ancestors are buried.

 In late 2008, in a dispute over the church's future and its increasing apportionment payments, the Sunnyside flock renounced its affiliation with the United Methodist Church. Hoping to reorganize as an independent, Bible-centered community church, congregation board members are now defendants in a court action brought by the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church for failing to vacate the church grounds.

The one-acre property is valued at $150,000, according to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation.

  (read complete article)