CURMUDGUCATION: Michelle Rhee Has Been Robbed

CURMUDGUCATION: Michelle Rhee Has Been Robbed

Michelle Rhee Has Been Robbed

As the various lists of faces, names, moments that defined the education policy debates of the last decade have been tallied up, one name has been, I think, unfairly overlooked-- Michelle Rhee. No, really, bear with me.

The very fact that I don't really need to review her story makes part of my point. Rhee was the previous decade's best-known public face of education reform, culminating in that infamous Time cover of her holding a broom. Rhee was the quintessential reformster, a Teach for America product who had put in her time (including the apparently-hilarious incident in which she duct-taped student mouths shut). After her TFA stint, she started The New Teacher Project, a group that brought the TFA philosophy to older folks who had already had a job or two; TNTP morphed into another reformy thinky tank kibbitzing on topics from teacher evaluation to professional development. They made up something called the opportunity myth, but their big hit has been a position argument called "The Widget Effect" which argued that teachers should be paid, promoted, and fired based on student test scores.

This, somehow, led to a job in 2007 as the Chancellor of DC Public Schools, Rhee's big breakout role win which she beat the crap out of teachers and administrators alike. Her triumphs were celebrated, her improvements touted as proof of concept for hard-hitting accountability and firing your way to excellence. Except that it turned out that most of her DC miracle was not so much miracle as good old-fashioned fudging and cheating.

And it came with big costs. George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers Union, said no CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Michelle Rhee Has Been Robbed

Educators’ 2020 wish list - Education Votes

Educators’ 2020 wish list - Education Votes

Educators’ 2020 wish list - Education Votes 

By Amanda Menas

As we start a new decade, educators are hopeful and energized, ready to work hard for the future of their students, schools, and communities. Last year, educators made dreams a reality by rallying for investment in public schools and showing up on election day. They advocated for higher salaries and better funding for their school programs. 

NEA loves to hear from our members. When we asked on Facebook what they want in 2020, educators across the country expressed many common goals, such as electing a new president or getting rid of Betsy DeVos. But they also shared hopes specific to their local communities and the kids they see in their classrooms every day.  

All educators want for 2020 is…

“Educators, students, and their families can only reach their full potential if they have the necessary medical care. This includes parity for mental health services. The only way to achieve this is by implementing Medicare for All. For almost all educators this will actually save money.” — Jim B., California

“100% BLACK TEACHERS IN BLACK SCHOOLS.” — Marshata C., Illinois

“In 2020 I want to see IDEA funded by the federal government by 40% instead of the current 14%” — Colleen B.

“Librarians in every school.” — Sara R., Massachusetts.

“I’d like to see school districts be able to fund the ASCA recommended ratio of 250 CONTINUE READING: Educators’ 2020 wish list - Education Votes

The New Orleans public school busing crisis should be treated as the civil rights issue that it is. | The Lens

The New Orleans public school busing crisis should be treated as the civil rights issue that it is. | The Lens

The New Orleans public school busing crisis should be treated as the civil rights issue that it is.

Public schools in New Orleans have long struggled with providing quality public transportation for its students, a problem that has been particularly exacerbated by the advent of a decentralized public school system—a system in which charter management organizations (CMOs) primarily exist as their own school districts that are solely responsible for providing resources to serve their students.

“The privatization of New Orleans public schools has created barriers to accessing free and safe yellow school bus transportation, and therefore, access to education altogether.”

New Orleans is the first major U.S. city to have an all-charter school district system. And as we’ve seen, the fundamental rub with the complete decentralizing of urban public school systems – including public school services such as school busing systems – is that decentralization inevitably leads to privatization. The privatization of public services, in a trying to “place a square peg into a round hole” affect, makes such services more prone to not being accessible to, or of less quality for, its recipients. For children attending public schools in New Orleans who rely upon public transportation to go to school, the privatization of New Orleans public schools has created barriers to accessing free and safe yellow school bus transportation, and therefore, access to education altogether.

Here’s how:

In a centralized public school system, like that of a traditional public school system, there is a school district, and the district itself, or what many of us may remember from our K-12 days as the “central office,” is ultimately responsible for ensuring that schools within it comply with all laws. Federal and state per pupil funding is received by the central school district, and with these funds, the district directly provides resources to students attending its schools, such as a school bus fleet, bus chaperones to ensure the safety of students during transit to and from school, and bus drivers.

In New Orleans, on the other hand, most CMOs are their own individual school districts, or local education agencies (LEAs). As such, each CMO provides resources to its schools to support day to day operations, and each CMO is ultimately responsible for ensuring that schools within it comply with local, state, and federal laws. What once was a “central office” under a traditional public school model, the newly re-branded NOLA Public Schools – CONTINUE READING: The New Orleans public school busing crisis should be treated as the civil rights issue that it is. | The Lens

Behind The Lens episode 62: 'My wish is that we start to view this for what it is, which is a civil rights issue.' | The Lens - https://thelensnola.org/?p=551091

John Thompson: Why Is Tulsa in Crisis? | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Why Is Tulsa in Crisis? | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: Why Is Tulsa in Crisis?

John Thompson is a historian and a retired teacher, who blogs often, here and on other blogs. He has keen insight into what’s happening in Oklahoma.

He writes:

Since 2015, the Tulsa Public Schools have cut $22 million from its budget, even dipping into its reserve fund to balance the books. Now it must cut another $20 million.

Given the huge support for the TPS by local and national edu-philanthropists, patrons should ask why it faces such a crisis, even after the state has started to restore funding. Despite the assistance of the outcome-driven Billionaires Boys Club, the TPS has lost 5,000 students, especially to the suburbs and online charters. But that raises the question of why Chief for Change Superintendent Deborah Gist and her staff of Broad Academy administrators have produced such awful outcomes.

https://www.gkff.org/what-we-do/parent-engagement-early-education/prek-12-education/

After a series of community meeting, Gist recommended school closures designed to save $2 to 3 million. Gist also seeks $3 million in saving by increasing class sizes. Then, Gist proposed $13 to 14 million in cuts to district office administrators.

It’s great that most of the burden will be carried by the CONTINUE READING: John Thompson: Why Is Tulsa in Crisis? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Economists Ate My School – Why Defining Teaching as a Transaction is Destroying Our Society | gadflyonthewallblog

Economists Ate My School – Why Defining Teaching as a Transaction is Destroying Our Society | gadflyonthewallblog

Economists Ate My School – Why Defining Teaching as a Transaction is Destroying Our Society

Teaching is one of the most misunderstood interactions in the world.

Some people see it as a mere transaction, a job: you do this, I’ll pay you that.

The input is your salary. The output is learning.

These are distinctly measurable phenomena. One is calculated in dollars and cents. The other in academic outcomes, usually standardized test scores. The higher the salary, the more valued the teacher. The higher the test scores, the better the job she has done.

But that’s not all.

If the whole is defined in terms of buying and selling, each individual interaction can be, too.

It makes society nothing but a boss and the teacher nothing but an employee. The student is a mere thing that is passively acted on – molded like clay into whatever shape the bosses deem appropriate.

In this framework, the teacher has no autonomy, no right to think for herself. Her only responsibility is to bring about the outcomes demanded by her employer. The wants and needs of her students are completely irrelevant. We determine what they CONTINUE READING: Economists Ate My School – Why Defining Teaching as a Transaction is Destroying Our Society | gadflyonthewallblog

NYC Educator: Albany to High Schools: Buena Suerte, Vaya Con Dios, and Drop Dead

NYC Educator: Albany to High Schools: Buena Suerte, Vaya Con Dios, and Drop Dead

Albany to High Schools: Buena Suerte, Vaya Con Dios, and Drop Dead

My Christmas break, sad to say, was not all glamor and world travel. Alas, there were various things that kept me here. That in itself was not so bad, and I suppose most of my students were around too. One thing I had that they did not was homework.

Someone at UFT gave me two books about a month ago, One was Cultivating Knowledge, Building Learners, which I understand is behind a lot of the atrocious notions the geniuses in Albany have perpetrated against English Language Learners (ELLs or ELs). As I've been serving these kids the last few decades, I take that personally. I commented on that book, directly and indirectly, here and here.

This book, I understand, is the basis behind the state's push to look at ELLs differently, including the half-assed redo of CR Part 154 that resulted in a huge drop in direct English instruction for ELLs, ranging 33-100% in the high schools.

My other reading assignment was Teaching Academic Literacy Skills, which I went deep on just a few days ago. This book, I'm told, is behind the state's big push for curriculum and the city's insistence on Instructional Leadership Teams. Mulgrew has publicly criticized them for being a small part of what the state is calling for. I'd go even further, and say the entire notion is flawed.

One thing these books had in common was writer Nonie K. Lesaux, who must be rolling in dough from their sales. Another commonality is that, while both books acknowledged ELLs and paid them valuable lip service, neither bothered examining students at high school level. Cultivating Knowledge dealt strictly with elementary students, while, Academic Literacy Skills dealt with K-8 students. To me, at least, this not only explained but also exacerbated quite a few shortcomings.

Here, for example, is something Teaching Academic Literacy Skills puts forth as an "outdated guiding assumption and principle."

The strengths and needs of ELs and their classmates are distinct and necessarily demand different approaches.

Instead, they say this: CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Albany to High Schools: Buena Suerte, Vaya Con Dios, and Drop Dead

Yong Zhao: PISA Peculiarities (1): Why doesn’t growth mindset work for Chinese students? Education in the Age of Globalization

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » PISA Peculiarities (1): Why doesn’t growth mindset work for Chinese students?

PISA Peculiarities (1): Why doesn’t growth mindset work for Chinese students?

Having a growth mindset is negatively associated with academic performance for participating students from China (Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang or B-S-J-Z China), according to the 2018 PISA results. That is, Chinese students who had a fixed mindset scored higher in PISA reading than those who had a growth mindset. Considering that Chinese students’ stunning scores that put them way above all other students in the world, this finding should be disconcerting to proponents of growth mindset, including the PISA team.

Does this invalidate the belief that growth mindset result in improved academic performance? Not according to PISA:

PISA findings support the idea that instilling a growth mindset in students could result in better academic performance (Blackwell, Trzesniewski and Dweck, 2007[9]; McCutchen et al., 2016[10]). On average across OECD countries, students who disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much” scored 41 points higher in reading than students who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. The former group of students scored 32 points higher than the latter group after accounting for the socio-economic profile of students and schools. (OECD, 2019, p. 203).

The China case can be treated as noise in the data, an anomaly, and outlier. After all, China is one of the only two education systems in which the relationship between growth mindset and PISA reading scores is negative. In fact, only in four education systems (B-S-J-Z, Hong Kong, Lebanon and North Macedonia) out of the over 70 participants in 2018 was there no positive relationship between the two. CONTINUE READING: Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » PISA Peculiarities (1): Why doesn’t growth mindset work for Chinese students?

Can Historians Help Reformers Improve Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Can Historians Help Reformers Improve Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Can Historians Help Reformers Improve Schools?

I wrote this piece a decade ago. I believe it continues to be relevantfor both historians, policymakers, practitioners, and parents who unrelentingly seek to improve schools in their district, state, or nation.

Historians are divided over what can be learned from history. When policymakers (and public school students) ask about the usefulness of history they want guidance from the past to avoid making mistakes now; some even want predictions.

Historians who believe that the past can inform policy argue that even if “lessons” cannot be extracted from the past, policymakers can surely profit from looking backward. They say scholars can aid contemporary policymakers by pointing out similarities and differences between previous and current situations. Or, of even more help to policymakers, historians can redefine existing problems and solutions by observing how similar situations were viewed by a previous generation. Finally, without stooping to offer “lessons,” historians can alert policymakers to what did not work, what might be preferable and what to avoid under certain conditions.

Other historians reject the notion that history can, or even should, serve the present. These historians point to their obligations as professionals to be disinterested in contemporary policies. Scholars must bring to bear their knowledge of the past and their craft in handling documents without paying attention to the present moment. Not to do so can corrupt their professional CONTINUE READING: Can Historians Help Reformers Improve Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools

CLICK HERE TO Pre-order NOW

Ohio’s Aggressive School Vouchers Set to Cripple Even High-Scoring Public Schools | deutsch29

Ohio’s Aggressive School Vouchers Set to Cripple Even High-Scoring Public Schools | deutsch29

Ohio’s Aggressive School Vouchers Set to Cripple Even High-Scoring Public Schools

In the December 30, 2019, Troy Daily News (Ohio), retired superintendent Tom Dunn published a scathing review of the ills of education reform mandates, concluding with Ohio’s private school voucher program, EdChoice, which has twisted “underperforming” to include the highest-graded public schools in the state. Ohio’s school voucher program is on the path to seriously damage public school funding if not accorded a separate funding stream.

From Tom Dunn (links added):

Lies, Lies, and More Lies

As a former school superintendent, one of my most important, difficult, and frustrating responsibilities was trying to stay abreast of state and federal laws governing education. It was during this time that I had my eyes opened to how politics at the state and federal level really works. Suffice it to say that what I learned was disturbing.

First of all, to this day, the sheer number of proposed and/or passed bills makes the task of staying current nearly impossible. I imagine this is a political strategy meant to keep people as confused and overwhelmed as possible. The number of laws that made no sense and were sold to the public with misinformation and lies was staggering.

I felt perpetually conflicted about being forced to implement mandates that were, frankly, bad for kids. The irony is how often the very politicians who denounce bullying use their power to beat adults into submission with their ill-conceived laws. In education, they do this through threats of financial penalty against districts that dare disobey them, by threatening the professional licensure of educators who don’t do as they are told, and/or through character assassination of those who dare question them.

For at least three decades, politicians have claimed their goal has been to close the achievement gap between children who are successful in school CONTINUE READING: 

Ohio’s Aggressive School Vouchers Set to Cripple Even High-Scoring Public Schools | deutsch29

NPE Stands Up to the Charter Lobby, Diane Ravitch's New Book, and More... - Network For Public Education

NPE Stands Up to the Charter Lobby, Diane Ravitch's New Book, and More... - Network For Public Education

NPE Stands Up to the Charter Lobby, Diane Ravitch’s New Book, and More…

Since the publication of our latest report, the charter lobby has resorted to ad hominem attacks on Diane Ravitch and the Network for Public Education.

Take a moment to read my reply published today in The Washington Post Answer Sheet. In that reply, I share a letter to Congress from Betsy DeVos that confirms our findings regarding the enormous waste of federal dollars on charter schools that never opened or opened and closed.

Please share that response on social media using the following link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/01/03/surprising-source-key-data-report-critical-us-charter-school-program/

Last month alone there were 25 stories from around the country of charter school embezzlement, waste, scandal and/or closures–including stories about how the IDEA charter chain, which has received over $200 million dollars from the Charter Schools Program, planned to lease its own private jet and now flies its employees and their spouses first-class.

Meanwhile, public school teachers are reaching in their pockets to buy school supplies.

Later this month, we will begin a grassroots lobbying campaign demanding CSP reform. Next on our investigative agenda will be the enormous grants to the charter chains. We delivered our first FOIA request to Betsy DeVos’s department today.

Don’t Miss NPE President Diane Ravitch’s Book Tour

Never underestimate our grassroots efforts to save our public schools! That phrase sums up Diane’s exciting new book, Slaying Goliath, which is released this month on January 21.

Come and meet Diane as she talks about her book. There are exciting opportunities across the United States.

Below are five events in the first weeks of her book launch.

January 21: 7:30 p.m. Brooklyn, NY.Community Bookstore Event 274 Garfield Place & Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (Congregation Beth Elohim).

Please secure your ticket for this event and share the link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/diane-ravitch-in-conversation-with-carol-burris-tickets-82852511091

(Teachers, notice the discounted ticket at the end.) 

January 27: 6:30 p.m. Coral Gables, FL. Books & Books Event265 Aragon Ave. Carol Gables, FL.

January 29: 7:00 p.m. Washington, D.C. Politics and Prose Bookstore5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Washington, D.C.

February 4: 7:30 p.m. Seattle, WA. The Great Hall, Seattle Town Hall 1119 8th Ave. Seattle, Washington.

February 6:  7:30 p.m. Menlo Park, CA.Kepler’s Books1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA

Finally a big thank you to all of you. Because of your generosity, the Network for Public Education had its best end-of-year fundraising event ever. Whether you gave your financial support, shared our newsletters and reports, re-tweeted our tweets or engaged in our advocacy campaigns, we truly appreciate your efforts and thank you for all that you do for public schools and the wonderful children who attend them.

Let’s ring in 2020–The Year of the Public School. 

NPE Stands Up to the Charter Lobby, Diane Ravitch's New Book, and More... - Network For Public Education

CURMUDGUCATION: The Ed Reform Glossary You Need

CURMUDGUCATION: The Ed Reform Glossary You Need

The Ed Reform Glossary You Need

If that Amazon gift certificate is burning a hole in your pocket, I have a few suggestions. Let's start with this one.

In 2006, education historian Diane Ravitch published EdSpeak, a glossary of education policy jargon to help those folks who found it all, well, jargonny. But the education world has shifted around just a tad since 2006, and it is time for a brand new version of the critical guide to education policy jargon. To help manage the large project, Ravitch brought in a collaborator, Nancy Bailey, which is good news for all of us, because Bailey is a writer with serious chops (to see how well she fits this project, check out "Vocabulary Used To Sell Technology To Teachers and Parents"). 

This resulting book, Edspeak and Doubletalk: A Glossary to Decipher Hypocrisy and Save Public Schooling, is exceptionally useful as a quick-reference resource. If you are a regular reader of this or other education blogs, you know that there is a forest of acronyms, a Grand Canyon's worth of program names and purposes, and enough different edu-focused organizations to pave a road to the moon and back. This book makes for a quick and easy reference for it all, and more. Chapters are organized by general topic, such as Charter Schools and Choice, English Language Learners, Technology, and Separation of Church and State. There are guides to the various players, both in the chapter on Groups Fighting Corporate "Reform" and School Reform Groups and Terms, or "Money Talks." 

The book comes with an on-line supplement--an e-book-- and the promise of online updates to come. It's enlightening to browse the book-- I've already encountered many terms and programs and policies that I had never heard of before (Paideia Program, anyone?)-- but I've also already used it as a substitute for my usual research CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The Ed Reform Glossary You Need

CATCH UP WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE)

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

CATCH UP WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE)

Single Mothers and the Boys and Men Raised by Them

by Mark Anthony Neal / 3h

'Filmmaker Daphne McWilliams joins All Of It to discuss her documentary , In a Perfect World , about the experience of boys raised by single mothers.'

An Alternative to Our Broken Prison System

by Mark Anthony Neal / 3h

' On the Media co-host Bob Garfield speaks with Danielle Sered , author of Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair . As executive director of Common Justice, an organization based in New York City, Sered pioneered the practice of restorative justice with violent offenders at a local level. She discusses the profoundly transformative power of making amends.'

Gregory Porter: Personal Stories For Universal Songs

by Mark Anthony Neal / 3h

'The smooth, booming voice of Gregory Porter brought a galvanizing force to jazz when he broke onto the scene about a decade ago. It's a voice of exhortation, flowing out of the gospel church. A voice of dignity, in the mode of his hero, Nat King Cole. A voice of reassurance, whether aiming for the heavens or toward a single soul across the room. It's also, crucially, the voice of experience — Po

JAN 02

Stephanie Mills Is Honored at the Black Music Honors

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

' Regina Belle , Angela Winbush and Paris Bennett honor the legendary Stephanie Mills at the 3rd Annual Black Music Honors.' -- Black Music Honors

Sonic Futures: The Music of Afrofuturism with George Clinton, Nona Hendryx, Vernon Reid and Alondra Nelson

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'Three musical giants who have made monumental contributions to Afrofuturism as we know it today, George Clinton , Nona Hendryx , and Vernon Reid , in conversation with world-renowned scholar and critic Alondra Nelson . The panelists discuss Afrofuturism – where it came from, where it is going, and what it has to offer us. Featuring opening remarks by Gus Casely-Hayford , Director of the Smithson

JAN 01

The South African Songbook: Jazz Musicians Who Stayed During Apartheid

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'Twenty-five years have passed since South Africa ended the cruel social experiment of apartheid , which divided its citizens, locked up its people of color and brought decades of havoc and pain. South Africa's jazz musicians were at the center of the conflict. Jazz Night in America has already told the story of pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and trumpeter Hugh Masekela , prominent South African artist

'Your Body Being Used': Where Prisoners Who Can't Vote Fill Voting Districts

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'The U.S. census counts incarcerated people as residents of where they are imprisoned. In many prison towns, that has led to voting districts made up primarily of prisoners who can't vote.' -- Morning Edition

North Carolinians Fight the $7.5 Billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'Eastern North Carolina is home to the environmental justice movement – and also to some of the state’s biggest threats to human and environmental health. The latest is the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.' -- Grist

DEC 30 2019

Black Icons of Art: Antwaun Sargent

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

' Black Icons of Art continues with an intimate and unfiltered conversation, featuring the prolific writer, curator and critic Antwaun Sargent ( The New York Times , W , Vogue , et al). Host Rebecca Carroll discusses his trajectory; his traveling exhibition, Young, Gifted and Black ; and what lies ahead for Art in this tumultuous political climate and fast-paced digital world.' -- The Greene Spac

It Could Be Another 257 Years Before Women Are Paid the Same as Men

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

' This year, t he World Economic Forum's annual Global Gender Gap Index report shows that it's going to take another 257 years for women and men to get paid equally. This pay gap has increased since the report’s publication last year, where the estimate was at 202 years. The index has examined 153 countries since 2006. Iceland continues to top the list as the most gender-equal country. The U.S. i

Kiley Reid Discusses New Novel 'Such A Fun Age'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

'In her debut novel, Such a Fun Age , Kiley Reid explores the complicated relationship between a privileged white woman and the black babysitter she hires to care for her children. Alix is a blogger and public speaker who moves to Philadelphia for her husband's TV anchor job. She hires Emira as her sitter. She's a few years out of college and still figuring out her path in life. Alix becomes obse

Story+ | Harriet Tubman’s Life in Pictures

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

' The Story+ Photographic Life of Harriet: Tubman’s Life in Pictures team explored the visual life of Harriet Tubman in diverse illustrations of the abolitionist. Students working on this project organized the visual archive of Tubman’s representation from photographs she took during her lifetime, and included her enduring images in public memory, including statues, memorials, museums, murals and

Jeffrey Colvin Discusses Debut Novel, 'Africaville'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

'In the new novel Africaville , author Jeffrey Colvin tells the story of a dynamic Black community in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that spans generations. It's mostly comprised of people from the Caribbean and African Americans from the southern United States. And we learn that people come to Africaville for a number of reasons - to find freedom or to flee oppression. Colvin drew inspiration from his ow

DEC 29 2019

The DC Symphony and the Motown Sound

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

' The DC Legendary Musicians perform The Motown Sound with The DC Symphony, featuring the music of Marvin Gaye , Diana Ross & the Supremes , David Ruffin , Mary Wells , Martha Reeves & the Vandellas , and Smokey Robinson .' -- The Kennedy Center

The Last Dragon: a Black Culture Tribute to Kung Fu

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

' The Last Dragon is arguably the film that best exemplifies the connection between black culture and kung fu. Which is why Josh Toussaint-Strauss copped a lot of stick for leaving it out of his previous video, about that very subject. It was left out because there are so many examples of this cultural crossover, it would require a video all of it's own. So this is a tribute to The Last Dragon ,

Oddisee—The Survivalist: In Residence at Duke University

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

' Amir Mohamed el Khalifa — the acclaimed rapper and producer better known as Oddisee — came to Durham in October 2018 for a weeklong residency as part of Duke Performances ’ Hip-Hop Initiative. Oddisee’s visit coincided with Duke Performances’ ongoing 'Building Bridges: Muslims in America' series, a three-year project that seeks to foster understanding, respect, and dialogue around Muslim art an

Taraji P. Henson on Living with Depression and Anxiety

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

'Actress and activist Taraji P. Henson sits down with us to talk about her struggles with depression and anxiety while dealing with the pay gap in Hollywood, racial injustice, and generational trauma. She further explains the stigmas around openly talking about mental health in the Black American community and how her foundation intends to break the cycle.' -- SELF

DEC 27 2019

New Film, 'Clemency', Looks at Death Row From a Warden's Eyes

by Mark Anthony Neal / 7d

' A new death row drama called Clemency premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January this year where it won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, making director and writer Chinonye Chukwu the first Black woman to win the festival’s biggest prize. The film stars Oscar-nominee Alfre Woodard as a prison warden faced with the psychological challenges of being tasked with the job of executing prisone

Michael Kiwanuka On Embracing His Name And How 'Big Little Lies' Changed His Life

by Mark Anthony Neal / 7d

'You might know that song, called "Cold Little Heart" as the opening credits to the HBO show Big Little Lies , starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. It was a pretty big deal, but the person who wrote that song, Michael Kiwanuka , didn't even remember signing off on it at the time the show premiered. Michael Kiwanuka talks about embracing that name, finding his voice and how that TV show c

Smartphone Surveillance in the Digital Age

by Mark Anthony Neal / 7d

'Smartphones are tracking our every move, whether you’re a high school student in California or a Secret Service agent in the nation’s capital. Across the globe, dozens of companies can now log the precise locations of millions of 

NewBlackMan (in Exile)