Ancestry Offers a Missing Link for Black Families with the Release of Freedmen's Bureau Recordsby Mark Anthony Neal / 13h
' Nicka Sewell-Smith spent 20 years searching for her family’s origin. After beginning research on her roots, she discovered that the first generation of college graduates in her family were grandchildren of former slaves. Because enslaved people didn't have legal rights prior to 1865, it can be difficult to track them through censuses or birth, marriage and death records. Much of what Sewell-Smi
New Roots: Black Musicians and Advocates are Forging Coalitions Outside the Systemby Mark Anthony Neal / 14h
'The mostly white country and folk music industries remain frustratingly difficult for Black musicians to enter. During one of Nashville's biggest events, one group envisioned a new pathway in.' -- Morning Edition
How the Attica Prison Uprising Started — and Why it Still Resonates Todayby Mark Anthony Neal / 1d
'In 1971, Attica maximum security prison in upstate New York was infamous for its harsh conditions. Prisoners were issued one roll of toilet paper each month. Asking for more meant risking a beatdown. Arthur Harrison , who was sentenced to five years in Attica in 1971, says Black prisoners were treated especially severely. "It reminded me of the things I used to hear about on plantations in slave
University of Pittsburgh Faculty Ally with Steelworkers to Unionize After Years-Long Campaignby Mark Anthony Neal / 1d
'The faculty at the University of Pittsburgh have voted overwhelmingly to form a union affiliated with the United Steelworkers following years of bottlenecks. 1,511 voted in favor and 612 opposed, making the 3,355 person bargaining unit the biggest new faculty union formed in a decade. It will include full- and regular part-time tenured, tenure-track and non-tenure-track professors and librarians
Supreme Actresses: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Hollywoodby Mark Anthony Neal / 1d
' Marcellas Reynolds , author, producer, and entertainment reporter, joins us to discuss his new book, , which features photographs, biographies, and interviews of black actresses, from past stars like Dorothy Dandridge , who was the first actress of color to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in 1954, to current stars like Viola Davis and Regina King .'
A Holy Grail Experience: Listening to John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme: Live in Seattleby Mark Anthony Neal / 1d
'The arrival of John Coltrane ’s A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle is unquestionably the most surprising archival release of 2021. Recorded at the end of a prolific stand at Seattle’s Penthouse club in the fall of 1965, these tapes sat unissued and unheard for more than 50 years — outside of a few close associates of saxophonist Joe Brazil , who taped the performance of the suite.'
Times Square's First Fountain is Covered in Acrylic Fingernailsby Mark Anthony Neal / 1d
'Times Square got its very first public fountain. Fashioned by Pamela Council , "A Fountain for Survivors" is 18 feet tall and encased with some 400,000 colorful acrylic fingernails.' -- Weekend Edition Sunday
What It's Like Growing Up Black in Detroitby Mark Anthony Neal / 1d
' In this episode of Growing Up Black , VH1 heads to Detroit, Michigan to speak with locals of “The D” about what it’s like growing up in black in Detroit, while also describing Detroit’s culture, history, fashion, music scene, and more.'
Why Fannie Lou Hamer’s Definition of “Freedom” Still Matters: Vox Conversations with Keisha Blainby Mark Anthony Neal / 1d
'A historian at the University of Pittsburgh, Keisha Blain , the author of Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America , joins Jamil Smith , host of Vox Conversations . In the book — which is partly a contemporary social commentary — Blain describes how Hamer was accustomed to seeing rights and freedoms technically guaranteed to her as an American discarded because she was a B
Decolonizing the Conversation with with Tukufu Zuberi: DESIGNby Mark Anthony Neal / 2d
'This series of interstitials on "Decolonizing the Conversation" focuses on Tukufu Zuberi 's redesign of the Penn Museum Africa Galleries -- "From the Maker to Museum". Museums need a better representation of Global Black Culture. We begin this process in conversation with African Museum Directors, curators, and contemporary artist in the Diaspora and Africa. In this series we trace, the historie
Nnenna Freelon - Time Traveler (Mini Doc)by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d
Nnenna Freelon : " Join me on a journey through space and time, through this short documentary about my album Time Traveler, which has been submitted for GRAMMY® consideration for Best Jazz Vocal album. When my beloved husband Phil passed away in 2019, it was art that saved me — singing, writing, reflecting. I had to trust that making music now, would become the bridge between me and my beloved.
Jonathan Majors Drew on His Rural Roots to Play a Cowboy in 'The Harder They Fall'by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d
' Jonathan Majors was nominated for an Emmy for his role in the HBO series Lovecraft Country . Now he stars as an outlaw seeking revenge in The Harder They Fall, a western featuring an all-Black cast. He joins Fresh Air to talk about his gunslinger role.'
Drummer and Local Legend Mel Brown Endures as the Humble Godfather of Portland Jazzby Mark Anthony Neal / 2d
' Mel Brown 's family moved to Portland, Ore. from Arkansas in the early 1940s. He was born in 1944 — the last of six siblings and the only native Oregonian. By high school, Brown's skill for drumming was plain, and by the time he was 19 he had already secured a gig playing with soul-jazz breakout Billy Larkin and Delegates. That band's hit record, "Pigmy," would end up giving Brown an early tast
#PlayboyAfterDark: Lou Rawls—"You ’ve Made Me So Very Happy”/“All God’s Children Got Soul” (1970)by Mark Anthony Neal / 3d
Lou Rawls performs "You ’ve Made Me So Very Happy”/“All God’s Children Got Soul” in this episode of #PlayboyAfterDark from 1970.
Canadian Rapper Shad on Spirituality, Profanity and the Right for Black people to be Averageby Mark Anthony Neal / 3d
' Here & Now 's Tonya Mosley talks with Canadian rapper Shad about his single "Black Averageness" and his new album Tao .'
50 years ago, 'The Electric Company' Used Comedy to Boost Kids' Reading Skillsby Mark Anthony Neal / 4d
'When The Electric Company debuted in October 1971, television hadn't seen anything quite like it. Psychedelic graphics, wildly creative animation, mod outfits, over-the-top characters and sketch comedy all functioned to serve the same goal: teaching kids to read. Brought to you by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) — the same producers behind Sesame Street , which debuted in 1969 — The Ele
LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruzeby Mark Anthony Neal / 4d
'In The Last Cruze , on view at California African American Museum , artist LaToya Ruby Frazier chronicles the lives of workers at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio. Due to a confluence of circumstances, including the global outsourcing of labor, rapid automation, and the growing demand for electric cars, GM’s Lordstown facility stopped production in 2019 after more than fifty years of
The Far-Right Political Playbook Is a Threat to Our Health, Our Schools, and Our Democracy by Ben Jealousby Mark Anthony Neal / 4d
| @BenJealous | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile) The New York Times recently reported that the public health system in the United States may be less prepared for the next pandemic than it was for the current one. Given everything we have been through, and everything we have learned, how can that be? The answer is disturbing. Our public health system is being put at risk by the same right-wing d
Op-Docs | Takeover: How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health Careby Mark Anthony Neal / 5d
'On July 14, 1970, members of the Young Lords occupied Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx — known locally as “the Butcher Shop.” A group of activists, many of them in their late teens and early 20s, barricaded themselves inside the facility, demanding safer and more accessible health care for the community. Originally a Chicago-based street gang, the Young Lords turned to community activism, ins
The New Yorker Festival | Jamaica Kincaid and Charlayne Hunter-Gault on Hope in the Black Communityby Mark Anthony Neal / 5d
' Jelani Cobb speaks to Jamaica Kincaid and Charlayne Hunter-Gault , contributors to The Matter of Black Lives , an anthology of New Yorker pieces about race in America and beyond.'
