NANCY BAILEY: Betsy DeVos’s Education Freedom Plan for Covid-19: My Way or the Highway!

Betsy DeVos’s Education Freedom Plan for Covid-19: My Way or the Highway!

Betsy DeVos’s Education Freedom Plan for Covid-19: My Way or the Highway!

Take the highway! For four years, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has worked to destroy democratic public schools and the teaching profession while touting her Education Freedom plan, vouchers.

But Americans should be asking what she really means by educational freedom after this past week. The freedom to determine what safe schooling means in your community doesn’t seem to be a part of the DeVos, Trumpian ideology. There’s no freedom when you’re told what you must do, or else.

As states and local school districts struggle to deal with a world catastrophe, made difficult by poor leadership from D.C., DeVos and her boss are saying schools must reopen. Neither gives suggestions as to how this should be done safely. Nor do they promise adequate funds for it to happen. It’s a reelection gamble for Trump, who sees the coronavirus as belonging to the Democrats.

Even Fox News host Neil Cavuto seemed astonished at DeVos’s cavalier disregard for the coronavirus. He said, In the communities that have seen spiking cases, wouldn’t it be reckless of a governor or even a mayor in those locales to go ahead and reopen CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos’s Education Freedom Plan for Covid-19: My Way or the Highway!

Teachers on re-opening schools: “Not without protecting kids” – People's World

Teachers on re-opening schools: “Not without protecting kids” – People's World

Teachers on re-opening schools: “Not without protecting kids”

WASHINGTON—When the issue comes down to reopening the nation’s schools as the coronavirus plague continues, GOP President Donald Trump says “yes,” but leaders of teachers unions say “no”—or at any rate, not until you can truly protect the kids.

The uproar started with a Trump dog-and-pony show with his Education Secretary, Elizabeth “Betsy” DeVos, and other officials on July 7. They declared schools should reopen this fall. But they didn’t recommend safety measures or say how cash-starved states and school districts should pay for doing so.

It escalated with Trump’s belligerent tweeted demand on July 8 that public schools reopen regardless of how prepared or unprepared states and school districts are for handling crowded classrooms and the resulting chance of coronavirus community spread among the teachers and 60 million kids.

If the schools stay shut, Trump threatened, he would order DeVos’s Education Department to cut off federal funds to school districts. Though that cash is only about 10% of overall school revenue, according to National Education Association figures, it’s a much higher share for schools which serve poor kids, most of them children of color, through Title I dollars.

Trump’s threat is empty, too, public education law experts said. Congress, not Trump, sets the rules for CONTINUE READING: Teachers on re-opening schools: “Not without protecting kids” – People's World

GAO: shootings at K-12 schools most commonly resulted from disputes or grievances | 2020-07-10 | Security Magazine

GAO: shootings at K-12 schools most commonly resulted from disputes or grievances | 2020-07-10 | Security Magazine

GAO: shootings at K-12 schools most commonly resulted from disputes or grievances

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that shootings at K-12 schools most commonly resulted from disputes or grievances, for example, between students or staff, or between gangs, although the specific characteristics of school shootings over the past 10 years varied widely, according to GAO's analysis of the Naval Postgraduate School's K-12 School Shooting Database. (See figure.)

After disputes and grievances, accidental shootings were most common, followed closely by school-targeted shootings, such as those in Parkland, Florida and Santa Fe, Texas. 

K-12 School Shootings by Kind, School Years 2009-10 through 2018-19

The shooter in about half of school shootings was a student or former student; in the other half, the shooter had no relationship to the school, was a parent, teacher, or staff, or his or her relationship to the school was unknown, according to the data. When the shooting was accidental, a suicide, or school-targeted, the shooter was more often a student or former student. However, when the shooting was the result of a dispute or grievance, the shooter was someone other than a student in the majority of cases. For about one-fifth of cases, the shooter's relationship to the school was not known. (See figure.)

The characteristics of schools where shootings occurred over the past 10 years also varied by poverty level and racial composition. Urban, poorer, and high minority schools had more shootings overall, with more characterized as a dispute or grievance. Suburban and rural, CONTINUE READING: GAO: shootings at K-12 schools most commonly resulted from disputes or grievances | 2020-07-10 | Security Magazine

Johns Hopkins Launches New Tracker For School Reopening Plans | HuffPost

Johns Hopkins Launches New Tracker For School Reopening Plans | HuffPost

Johns Hopkins Launches New Tracker For School Reopening Plans
The university’s site tracks where each state currently stands on safety, health and academic help.

The go-to site for the latest national and world COVID-19 data has launched a special tracker for U.S. school reopenings.

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is monitoring which states have addressed 12 criteria, including safety and academic measures, in their school reopening plans. So far, 43 states and the District of Columbia have released reopening plans, though they don’t necessarily involve in-person instruction until some level of safety is assured.

The criteria include safety protocols, such as mask and social distance requirements, as well as “ethics and equity” plans, including special help for disadvantaged children. Schools will not only have to address the health and safety of students and staff but also how to “make up for the losses in learning, health and support systems” caused by school shutdowns, according to a JHU statement. 

The tracker was unveiled as President Donald Trump presses his controversial demand that all schools open for in-person instruction this fall, threatening to cut federal funds to those that don’t.

His top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, insisted Friday to reporters that going back to school is “not that hard.” But the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that it might not be safe, particularly while coronavirus cases are at hitting record levels, until health experts approve. CONTINUE READING: Johns Hopkins Launches New Tracker For School Reopening Plans | HuffPost

The President Has Weaponized the Opening of Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The President Has Weaponized the Opening of Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The President Has Weaponized the Opening of Schools

On Tuesday, July 7th, President Donald Trump said:

We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open,” Mr. Trump said at a forum at the White House. “It’s very important. It’s very important for our country. It’s very important for the well-being of the student and the parents. So we’re going to be putting a lot of pressure on: Open your schools in the fall.

For all those single Moms and working parents who have been home schooling their children, managing summer activities, and wanting their sons and daughters to attend school in person in August, Donald J. Trump is behind them 100 percent. In pressing governors and local school boards, President Trump has weaponized tax-supported public schooling like no other President before him.

The President demanding schools across the country to re-open with children attending five days a week to get parents back to work and re-starting the economy, has, I apologize dear readers for the next word, trumped children’s and parents’ safety during a time when there is no treatment, no vaccine for the continuously and mysteriously mutating virus causing the disease of Covid-19.

Donald Trump’s call for schools to re-open again brings into clear view how his predecessors going back to Ronald Reagan and A Nation at Risk report in 1983 CONTINUE READING: The President Has Weaponized the Opening of Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

NYC Educator: King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio

NYC Educator: King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio

King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio

You may have heard the biblical story about King Solomon. Two women claim a baby is theirs. King Solomon the wise says cut the baby in half and let them share it. One woman says sure, go ahead. The other says no, give it to the other woman. King Solomon then gives the baby to the second woman, since she is the only one concerned with the baby's welfare.

Of course, the notion of cutting a human in pieces is barbaric and unthinkable. Perhaps in those days it wasn't such a big thing. Who knows?

Here's one thing I know--Were Bill de Blasio sitting in that chair he'd have cut the baby into 2, 3, 4 or even 5 pieces. That way it could multitask, and the mayor seems to highly value that ability.

Otherwise, why would he be pushing a program that has teachers breaking their classes into multiple cohorts but teaching only one at a time? Let's not get extreme here, and point to outliers. Let's be conservative and point only to schools the mayor acknowledged, with up to three cohorts.

Let's say I have a class of 34. Let's say my classroom is 680 square feet. At 65 square feet per human, I can fit ten in that room, with 30 feet left over to frolic and romp in between periods. That would mean, actually, that I would need to break my class into four groups. Of course, there is always the possibility that some of those students would choose to utilize remote learning. If 20/% of my students choose to do that, I've got 26 or 27 left, and I can see them once every three days.

Let's say I teach 5 classes of 45 minutes every day. That means I will see about 9 students per class, leaving one spot for a paraprofessional. What are the other 18 students CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: King Solomon Meets Bill de Blasio

Mask-to-Mask Instruction May Be More Problematic Than Distance Learning | gadflyonthewallblog

Mask-to-Mask Instruction May Be More Problematic Than Distance Learning | gadflyonthewallblog

Mask-to-Mask Instruction May Be More Problematic Than Distance Learning

People talk about the upcoming school year as if we have a choice between in-person classes or distance learning.

We don’t.

The fact is there will be NO face-to-face learning this year.

Neither in our school buildings or on-line.

No matter which path we choose, we will be teaching behind a mask or behind a computer screen.

There is no middle ground here – nor should there be.

Even if schools try to execute some hybrid model where kids only attend classes in-person two or three days a week and go on-line for the remainder of the time, when they are in the school building everyone will be wearing masks.

And that’s as it should be.

When in a public place during a global pandemic like that of COVID-19, we need to wear face masks to reduce the spread of the disease.

But let’s not pretend this has no side effects.

Social distancing, limited mobility, plexiglass barriers, cleanliness protocols – all CONTINUE READING: Mask-to-Mask Instruction May Be More Problematic Than Distance Learning | gadflyonthewallblog

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Chris Guerrieri makes the USA Today

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Chris Guerrieri makes the USA Today

Chris Guerrieri makes the USA Today

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Why can't schools go to distance learning and provide some limited child care as well? - https://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2020/07/why-cant-schools-go-to-distance.html

Okay yeah talking in the third person is annoying but I think it is important people know they should talk to whoever will listen.

From USA Today,

 Across the country, parents, students, teachers and anyone else seeking a little direction on schools’ reopening plans for the fall were left spinning like a weathervane in a tempest. With most of the country’s schools slated to reopen over six weeks beginning in August, it’s likely to get stormier before it gets calm. 

“I kind of feel like a pawn in a political game,” said Chris Guerrieri, 51, a teacher at Palm Avenue Exceptional Student Center in Jacksonville, Florida. “It’s surreal and it’s scary. It’s surreal because we all know what the right thing is. We all know that when a pandemic is raging we should not be in school — we should not be having in-person learning. It’s surreal that they want us to go to school, and that makes it scary.”

You want surreal and scary? Guerrieri points out Jacksonville reported more than 700 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday; when the state first shut down schools mid-March, fewer than 50 cases had been reported statewide. 

"I think the starting point for every teacher is that we want to be back in school,” he said. “I think being back in school is what’s best for the kids, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask to be back in school safely — safe for us and safe for the kids."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/07/10/covid-19-chaotic-school-reopening-plans-scary-teachers-parents/5412066002/

Florida had over 11 thousand cases yesterday and nearly a hundred deaths. Things are not fine.

If we go back to school it is not a matter of if but when and how many people get sick and schools will close which will just make things worse. 

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Chris Guerrieri makes the USA Today

Oakland: Teachers Will Not Go Back to Work Unless the Schools Are Safe for Students and Staff | Diane Ravitch's blog

Oakland: Teachers Will Not Go Back to Work Unless the Schools Are Safe for Students and Staff | Diane Ravitch's blog

Oakland: Teachers Will Not Go Back to Work Unless the Schools Are Safe for Students and Staff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2020
Contact: Bethany Meyer
OEA Secretary and Communications Chair
(510) 575-7060
bethanynmeyer@gmail.com

This week, educators from the Oakland Education Association began talks with the Oakland Unified School District to determine what learning will look like for students in the upcoming school year. We, the educators of Oakland, want more than anything to return to our classrooms so we can be with our students on the first day of school. However, we do not believe it is safe yet to do so.

“I would love more than anything to be back with my students,” said Chela Delgado, Humanities teacher at Coliseum College Prep Academy, “but we know that COVID is disproportionately impacting black and brown communities, and the rates in East Oakland are higher than anywhere else in the country. I believe it would be irresponsible to open in the Fall.”

We believe that the planned date for a return to in-person instruction must be based on community safety and grounded in objective public health metrics.

Our plan puts safety first. Over the course of yesterday and today, we presented our plan to OUSD, and explained that unless the following criteria are met, we cannot return to in-person instruction:

Criteria One: We must determine Risk is Low enough to return, with low community transmission in Oakland. OUSD must have a detailed, science-based testing and contact tracing program for all students, families, and school staff, paid for and supervised by county public health departments. There must be a downward trajectory, and near zero incidence of documented cases, hospitalization, and positivity rates for at least 14 days in Oakland in order to consider in-person instruction.

Criteria Two: Once Criteria One is met, OUSD must then ensure that Safety Standards and Precautions can be established and maintained. This includes providing PPE (i.e. masks, face shields, gowns, etc.) for all students and staff, class sizes small enough to accommodate six feet of physical distancing, increased cleaning and staffing inside buildings, and facilities upgrades for proper ventilation.

We are disappointed that OUSD’s initial offer does not contain a serious plan to address the safety of students, staff or the community.

“Cases are much higher now then they were when schools were closed in March.” said Keith Brown, president of OEA. “It is difficult to understand how it would be safe to open schools in a matter of weeks when the community transmission is so much higher than it was in March. We want to return to the schools, but we can only do so once we contain the spread of the virus, implement widespread testing and tracing, and ensure proper safety for students, families, and school staff.”

Oakland: Teachers Will Not Go Back to Work Unless the Schools Are Safe for Students and Staff | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rating the NYC Dept of Ed’s Reopening Plan (safety) | JD2718

Rating the NYC Dept of Ed’s Reopening Plan (safety) | JD2718

Rating the NYC Dept of Ed’s Reopening Plan (safety)

Thursday Carranza released the plan. I did a quick survey of the school scheduling part (not good), but need to return to that in depth. But today I want to take a first look at safety.

There are now three documents to look at. There’s the June 9 doe-planning-overview-for-principal-meetings Powerpoint-is-not-a-Plan powerpoint, the July 2 school-buildings-reopening_principal-meeting_07022020 27-pages-of-very-little presentation to principals and the July 8 School-Buildings-Reopening_Principal-Meeting_07082020 school reopening powerpoint.

And, we might also consider Mulgrew’s last letter part of the DoE’s official position. I hate writing that, but let’s include at least this part of what he wrote about safety to be official DoE policy:

Strong safety protocols must be in place in all schools. Today, the city released more details about its safety plans:

Schools will require physical distancing and face coverings for all staff and students and will increase access to hand washing and sanitizer. Every classroom will have hand sanitizer and disinfectant. Physical spaces will be configured to ensure appropriate distances. Lunch will be held in classrooms or require assigned seating. Each school or campus will have an identified isolation room in the event someone becomes ill. Each building will be deep cleaned on a nightly basis with electrostatic sprayers that dispense disinfectant so that it adheres to surfaces without the need to physically touch them. School HVACs for ventilation are being improved.

So, what to make of the safety aspects? CONTINUE READING: Rating the NYC Dept of Ed’s Reopening Plan (safety) | JD2718

Nation's Pediatricians Walk Back Support For In-Person School | 89.3 KPCC

Nation's Pediatricians Walk Back Support For In-Person School | 89.3 KPCC

Nation's Pediatricians Walk Back Support For In-Person School

The American Academy of Pediatrics once again plunged into the growing debate over school reopening with a strong new statement Friday, making clear that while in-person school provides crucial benefits to children, "Public health agencies must make recommendations based on evidence, not politics." The statement also said that "science and community circumstances must guide decision-making."

The AAP is changing tone from the guidance it issued just over two weeks ago. Then, the organization made a national splash by recommending that education leaders and policymakers "should start with a goal of having students physically present in school."

The Trump administration this week repeatedly cited the AAP in pressuring school leaders to reopen. Dr. Sally Goza, the association's president, appeared at a White House roundtable with President Trump. She later told Morning Edition's David Greene that local coronavirus infection rates and hot spots have to be taken into consideration to safely reopen schools.

The previous guidance was criticized for saying little about the safety of educators and other school personnel. Friday's statement, cosigned by the two national teacher unions and AASA, the School Superintendents Association, calls for putting educators as well as other stakeholders at the center of decision-making. It emphasized that reopening safely will take more money: "We call on Congress and the administration to provide the federal resources needed to ensure that inadequate funding does not stand in the way of safely educating and caring for children in our schools."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Nation's Pediatricians Walk Back Support For In-Person School | 89.3 KPCC

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Teacher talk has shifted from cops to corona

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Teacher talk has shifted from cops to corona

Teacher talk has shifted from cops to corona

Two weeks ago, the battle was raging over cops in the schools. Who should decide whether Chicago schools get to keep or lose their SRO -- the school board or the city council? Or should it be left up to each local school council to opt-in or out, as the mayor had argued?

Should the $33M contract between CPS and the CPD be broken or renewed? And if it were broken, could that money be better spent on vital school needs like nurses, social workers, and peer mediation counselors?

Things got hot and at times personal, which is the Chicago way, it seems. As the late, great Harold Washington used to say in response to his own council wars, "Politics ain't beanbag."

While I was hoping that the school board would vote to ditch the contract, I've been more inclined to leave decisions like this one to the individual school community. Having said that, I thought the board members had a pretty good, spirited debate, with open hearings and protests taking place outside, before voting narrowly (4-3) to keep the contract and leave the decision up CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: Teacher talk has shifted from cops to corona

My thoughts on the Kentucky Commissioner of Education Decision | Cloaking Inequity

My thoughts on the Kentucky Commissioner of Education Decision | Cloaking Inequity

MY THOUGHTS ON THE KENTUCKY COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION DECISION

For many reasons I am very relieved that the Kentucky commissioner search has completed. Working with the Bluegrass community as Dean of @UKCollegeofEd, the @USNews top ranked College of Education in Kentucky (top 30 among publics in nation), is an incredible honor. I was glad for the opportunity to discuss with the entire Board a vision for a community-based, community-engaged vision for education in Kentucky— i.e. Community-Based Accountability, Community Schools, locally-based assessment etc. I hope the Board and the new Commissioner seriously considers the empirically-based input focused on democratically-controlled choices that would chart a new direction for education in the Commonwealth.

It’s been 30 years since KERA, and looking at the data, our Commonwealth is near the bottom of national rankings in far too many areas. For example, during the last two years, Kentucky has experienced a precipitous drop in @NAEP_NCES scores. Also, there are districts in the state that are 2000% more likely to suspend African American children. We also lack teacher diversity in our state even though nearly a quarter of our students are of color. We must do better.

I hope that the state continues to treasure our educators as first responders to the Kentucky’s social challenges. A decade of political attacks on educators have impacted our ability to recruit teachers, thus a new course that values and engages their input at the state level is paramount.

I hope that the new Commissioner will make an immediate impact so that communities don’t have to wait. We look forward to working in collaboration with KDE in every way possible and expect to deliver results immediately. Communities, especially those of color, can’t wait for educational opportunity that may come tomorrow— it must be today— as public education is the compass our democracy.

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

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My thoughts on the Kentucky Commissioner of Education Decision | Cloaking Inequity

NASHVILLE, WE HAVE A PLAN – Dad Gone Wild

NASHVILLE, WE HAVE A PLAN – Dad Gone Wild

NASHVILLE, WE HAVE A PLAN

“Things happen. The only thing that matters is how we deal with the now. Either we face the difficult moral decisions with ever-stronger responses, or we do not. This is what separates the mensch from the asshole. Full stop.”
― Olen Steinhauer, All the Old Knives: A Novel

“It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.”
― Henry Kissinger

Today I turn 55 years old. I’m not sure what that means, other than in the words of Bob Seager, “I’m a little bit older and a lot less bolder than I used to be.”

My kids awake and begin their daily routines. Watching them – they are now 10 and 11- I can’t help but try to remember what I thought 55 would look like at their age, and for the life of me, I can’t pull up any real memories. 55 is old enough to have lived some shit, but not too old to have run out of possibilities. At 55, Pablo Picasso completed his masterpiece, “Guernica.”. Mao Zedong was 56 when he founded the People’s Republic of China.

At 55, Richard Daniel Bass reached the summit of Mount Everest, and Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic cell. Ella T. Grasso became the first woman to become an American governor on her own, not as the wife of a previous incumbent. At 56, Doug Hughes self-published the world’s longest Christmas newsletter (a 160-page, perfect-bound, full-color paperback book), so maybe if I start next week…

I guess the point is, I never pictured being this age – my wife says that’s a stupid thing to say – but now that I’m here, it ain’t bad. I’m about as financially secure as I was at 18, but I’m also a little healthier due to having left my vices behind decades ago. So I guess it’s a fair trade-off. I’ve got a wife and two kids that serve as blessings greater than I deserve. The biggest gift of being this age is the ability to know that things will always work out and get better. I don’t have to rely solely on faith anymore because…well I’ve repeatedly witnessed the cycle of life and have lived to attest that good times always follow the bad.

While I’ve witnessed the incredible cruelty that people are capable of, I’ve also experienced the CONTINUE READING: 

NASHVILLE, WE HAVE A PLAN – Dad Gone Wild

Covid and school ventilation | Opine I will

Covid and school ventilation | Opine I will

COVID AND SCHOOL VENTILATION

Ventilation systems in most schools are outdated and barely work as designed. Even before Covid teachers often felt the effect of poor ventilation in their rooms. Research shows that when room air is not adequately vented out and replace with fresh air CO2 levels rise sharply in s short period of time and as those levels increase cognitive abilities decline by 50% or more.

Now add Covid to this toxic environment. If school ventilation system fail to provide fresh air before Covid, what do you think will happen with Covid? So my question is really this, why haven’t school districts, and states remediated while school buildings were closed?

This is not rocket science! Clean those univents and filters in classrooms, install new ones where needed, and add exhaust fans.

Spacing desks 6′ apart is not enough, cleaning surfaces is not enough! If the air quality is poor all of that will not matter.

The Feds and states must pour money into our school infrastructure if they want to open the economy. Forget the corporate bailouts, for once in my lifetime I would love our nation to put schools at the top of a national priority and support them with the funding needed.

Covid and school ventilation | Opine I will

THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE)

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

THIS WEEK WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE)

How Pholk Beauty Grew Its Brand By Embracing Authenticity

by Mark Anthony Neal / 11h

' For Niambi Cacchioli , Black people have always been green folk. Growing up in Kentucky she was used to being around gardens, but after traveling around the world, she realized there weren’t many skincare companies catering to skin’s needs. She switched careers as an academic and started making skincare products to meet the needs of women like her. Along that journey, she’s discovered how to le

Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism—Readings by Tsitsi Jaji and Mecca Sullivan

by Mark Anthony Neal / 11h

'The Meridians two-day symposium at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute held book readings by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan and Tsitsi Jaji as they each read from their works of fiction and poetry.'

Falling Apart: How NYC Public Housing Failed its Tenants |

by Mark Anthony Neal / 12h

'The New York City Housing Authority is huge. It was the childhood home of Jay Z , Mos Def , Nas , Fat Joe , Dave East and countless other rappers. There are 334 developments holding 178,895 apartments in 2,602 buildings situated on an area three times the size of Central Park. One in 15, or over half a million, New Yorkers are served by public housing and Section 8 programs. If NYCHA were a city

"simple dude from Austin, Texas who picked up a guitar": Gary Clark, Jr.

by Mark Anthony Neal / 12h

' Gary Clark Jr. is still clearly uncomfortable being heralded as one of the best guitarists in a generation. He's played the White House, and toured with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. This year his blues/rock album, This Land , won three Grammy Awards. Kristine Johnson talks with the musician who describes himself as a "simple dude from Austin, Texas who picked up a guitar"."-- CBS Sunday

Khadijah Tribble Discusses Her Role as Vice President Of A $3B Cannabis Company

by Mark Anthony Neal / 12h

' Khadijah Tribble VP, Corporate Social Responsibility at Curaleaf discusses her role as Vice President Of A $3B cannabis company.'

"Actual Proof": Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter & Terence Blanchard on COVID, #BLM, and Wayne Shorter's Legacy

by Mark Anthony Neal / 22h

'This incredible video is a true gathering of jazz titans, bringing together the legendary Herbie Hancock , trumpet giant and master composer Terence Blanchard , and SFJAZZ Fridays at Five tribute artist Wayne Shorter for a Zoom hangout. They discuss Shorter’s iconic music, the Black Lives Matter movement during this turbulent time, our new shared reality under the coronavirus pandemic, and how H

‘Honeypot’: Blending Creative Storytelling And Oral History To Spotlight Queer Southern Black Women

by Mark Anthony Neal / 22h

'Writer E. Patrick Johnson was hesitant to collect the stories of queer black Southern women. He is a cisgender gay black man, and the divide between the male and female experience was something he felt he could not portray on the page. But after being encouraged by women who wanted their experiences known and shared, he found a way to spotlight their voices. In his latest book, Honeypot: Black S

JUL 08

Jazz Night In America: Jazzmeia Horn – Love and Liberation

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'For Jazzmeia Horn , this concert defined a moment. This was The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, after all, one of the most prestigious stages in the America jazz circuit. "Not a lot of people get that opportunity," she reflected, not only to show up for herself and her art, but to act as a good steward of jazz music, an African American art form and legacy by which the idioms of today's in

'Unholy' Examines The Alliance Between White Evangelicals And Trump

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'The president isn't known for his faith. Instead, author Sarah Posner says he connects with Evangelicals by voicing the legal, social, religious and cultural grievances of the Christian right.' -- Fresh Air

Helga: A Conversation with Abstract Painter Stanley Whitney

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'Visual artist and colorist, Stanley Whitney talks with Helga about his life as an artist and as a person. He uncovers what it means to be a black abstract painter, firmly rooted in the United States.'

The Power of Fiction By and About Black People

by Mark Anthony Neal / 2d

'For weeks, books about race and antiracism have been topping bestseller lists in the U.S. and abroad, as protests against police brutality and racial injustice continue through the summer. Books like Dr. Ibram X. Kendi ’s How to Be an Anti-Racist , Ijeoma Oluo ’s So You Want to Talk About Race , and Robin DiAngelo ’s White Fragility are all in short supply as more and more people turn to their l

JUL 06

Left of Black S10:E19 | Candice M. Jenkins on the Black Middle Class

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

Candice M. Jenkins , Professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the author of the recently released and critically-acclaimed Black Bourgeois: Class and Sex in the Flesh (University of Minnesota Press, 2019), joined Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal to consider the precocious existence of Black bodies in our society, even if educated and middle-cla

Rewriting Country Music's Racist History

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

'Elamin Abdelmahmoud , editor of news curation at Buzzfeed News, joins All Of It to discuss his article for Rolling Stone , "Rewriting Country Music’s Racist History".'

Artist Shaun Leonardo Wants to Expand the Conversation on Police Brutality Through His Work

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

'In March, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland canceled a show by artist Shaun Leonardo featuring charcoal drawings depicting several high profile incidents of police brutality. At the time, the museum released a statement saying that, “we encountered troubling community response that suggested at this time we were not prepared to engage with the lived experiences of pain and trauma that the

Kenan Thompson, “S.N.L.” ’s Longest-Running Cast Member

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

' Kenan Thompson found his calling as a performer at the advanced age of twelve. “I was cutting grass for twenty dollars a lawn—not dependent on the size of the lawn,” he told Vinson Cunningham at the 2019 New Yorker Festival. “People were getting over on ten-year-old Kenan, it wasn’t cool.” Once he began acting, he says, “I got professional at a young age and I took that very seriously.” Having

JUL 05

Uncle Bobbie's Presents: Bakari Sellers 'My Vanishing Country'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

' Uncle Bobbies own Dr. Marc Lamont Hill stayed home with author and state representative Bakari Sellers to discuss his newest work My Vanishing Country: A Memoir .'

People's Party: Talib Kweli & Reginald Hudlin Talk Black Excellence, Afrofuturism and Happy Rap

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

'In this full episode of People's Party , Talib Kweli and co-host Jasmin Leigh sit down with acclaimed screenwriter, director, and producer Reginald Hudlin ( House Party , Bernie Mac Show , Django Unchained , Boondocks ) about entertainment, music, and culture, all tying back to a central theme: Black Excellence.' -- UPROXX Video

Actors on Actors: Anthony Mackie & Daveed Diggs

34by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

' Anthony Mackie ("Altered Carbon") and Daveed Diggs ("Snowpiercer") join Variety Studios Actors on Actors #At Home for a discussion about race, politics, and Marvel.' -- Variety

A Brief History of Police Impunity in Black Deaths

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

'Until recent years, there was no reliable data on how many people in the US were killed by police every year, or on the legal outcomes of those killings. But data collected by the Mapping Police Violence project provides some answers, including one that has held steady every year for which we have data: Police are almost never charged with killing someone, and are even less often convicted. The

This Is America: Black Lives, Structural Violence, Protest and Change

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

'Presented by Brown University 's Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Panelists include Dr. Joy James (Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities at Williams College), Felicia Denaud (PhD candidate in Africana Studies at Brown), Dr. Brian Meeks (Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Brown), moderated by Dr. Anthony Bogues (CSSJ Director).'

JUL 04

How Black-Owned Businesses Are Surviving Without Stimulus

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

' Black small-business owners have faced hurdles accessing the Paycheck Protection Program. Here’s how the African-American owners of MahoganyBooks in Washington, D.C., have kept their small business afloat.' -- Wall Street Journal

Rodney Evans: "I Was Inspired by a Void in Representattion"

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

'Filmmaker Rodney Evans talks WORLD Channel through his experience as an LGBTQ+ African American man with a disability. This journey includes his documentary, Vision Portraits, and how a lack of representation deeply informs his work.'

JUL 03

NewBlackMan (in Exile)