An African American blog of politics, culture, and social activism.
Source: LA Times
Thinking back on the 1992 L.A. riots, specific images come to mind: the grainy video of the Rodney King beating, burning buildings, and police and military on the streets. More fuzzy in the collective memory for many is the emotional and physical toll the mayhem took on the Korean American community [...]
Call and Response
Ta-coumba Aiken
As you know by now I am from the East coast, where the attitudes toward art and artists are markedly different form the Midwest, especially African American culture. The affirmative view of established Black artists from New York, DC, Philly, and Baltimore has help to steer the Black Arts Movement as far [...]
By: Rapid Growth Media
Joseph Charles McIntosh | Thursday, April 05, 2012
There has been a continuous, if broken, poetry scene in Grand Rapids for nearly 20 years. It started notably with the beatnik/Bohemian Rainbow Collective in the late 80s and early 90s. It was revived by host Greg Bliss at the eclectic, anarchic poetry slam scene [...]
BY:NPR The Story Dick Gordon
The Evolution of Malcolm ShabazzMalcom X’s grandson has seen some of the same turns his grandfather did. He was sent to prison. He made a transformative pilgrimage to Mecca. Now, Malcolm Shabazz is finding inspiration in his faith and his family.
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We wonder had Chicago won the 2016 Olympic bid its Southside would have been transformed like what is occurring in Rio de Janeiro. Under Mayor Richard M. Daley the city of Chicago had previously removed substantial numbers of poor people from the city housing projects–Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor Homes– and tore them down. So [...]
Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®.
Steve Jobs and Amy Winehouse were among the stars who died in 2011, but what about the first African-American milk delivery man in Gary, Ind., or the first black meter reader for Baltimore Gas and Electric? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson says these stories show how far the U.S. has [...]
The Sundance Film Festival is often a platform for movies that make the world wake up and watch.
This year, Detroit will be in the spotlight at the prestigious event in Park City, Utah. “Detropia,” which has its world premiere Saturday, portrays the Motor City as a canary in the coal mine of America’s economic future.
The [...]
On the tbb we have published a number of post that cover the topic of gentrification in urban communities. We have also posted a trailer for a documentary titled Rezoning Urban America. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a writer for Atlantic Monthly magazine disputes the negative assessments of gentrification. Coates offers a different point of view on the [...]
Once You Learn How to Read, You Will Be Forever Free!~ Frederick Douglass
Source: Urbania
Incarceration of a Black Youth and Urban Fiction
by Niccole Simmons
Here are some startling statistics. Black men have an incarceration rate of 4,618 in 10,000. In the United States, an estimated 1,559,200 children have parent in prison. Unfortunately, 92% of those [...]
Source: The Guardian
At a time when documentaries often come adorned with all manner of stylistic frills, there’s a traditional, even old-fashioned, feel to Steve James’s The Interrupters – a meticulous, interview-heavy account of life and death in inner-city Chicago. It also, and this may not be coincidence, has a staggering heft and authenticity – one [...]