‘God Save the Queens’ Addresses the Gender Imbalance in the Story of Rap
Kathy Iandoli's personable history, God Save the Queens, shows how women in rap face up to the battles.
Mark Reynolds
Mark Reynolds, a PopMatters contributor since 2004, writes cultural criticism, reviews and essays from the intersection of history, race and culture. Mark began his journalism career in 1986 in his native Cleveland as a talk show host and news reporter for NPR affiliate WCPN-FM. From 1992 to 1998, he covered politics, education, local history, music, literature and film for the alternative newspaper Cleveland Free Times. He also freelanced for several Cleveland publications, including the daily Plain Dealer and alt-weekly Scene. His March 2003 Urban Dialect essay about his experiences in the alternative newspaper industry received statewide first-place honors for best media criticism from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. Other credits include periods as a regular contributor to the trade magazine Black Meetings and Tourism, the weekly newspaper Philadelphia Tribune, and the entertainment magazine Hear/Say. Concurrent with his journalism work, Mark spent 31 years with the U.S. Postal Service, mostly in corporate communications. From 1997 to 2003, he was the public relations representative for the Postal Service in Cleveland. He relocated to Philadelphia in 2004 to launch a monthly video newsletter for Postal Service employees in the Philadelphia region. In 2006, he moved to Chicago to serve as the district's corporate communications representative. Mark retired from the Postal Service in 2016 to accept a position at Antioch College (his alma mater) as Director of Marketing & Communications. Mark's essays are included in two Belt Publishing anthologies: "Red State Blues: Stories from Midwestern Life on the Left" (2018); and "Black In the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest" (2020). Mark lives and works in Chicago, which is a pretty good place to pursue his particular beat. Wherever he roams in the world, Mark carries love for his wife and daughter, books he plans to read someday, and endless hope for Cleveland's confounding sports teams.
‘Dead Precedents’ Explores How Hip-Hop Created the Future
Roy Christopher's dense book-length essay, Dead Precedents, takes much of what is now axiomatic about hip-hop and reminds us how revolutionary its innovations and practices really were.
‘The Gospel According to Malaco’ Is a Major Addition to the Canon of Black Expression
The major eight-CD collection, The Gospel According to Malaco, captures the evolution of gospel from the mid-'40s to the 21st century with many electrifying performances throughout.
Timuel Black Tells His Remarkable South Side Chicago Story in ‘Sacred Ground’
The esteemed oral historian, Timuel Black, turns the microphone around to capture his amazing journey through 20th Century black America in Sacred Ground.
‘I’m in Love with a Dreadlocks’ Reclaims Brown Sugar As Lovers Rock Pioneers
A new compilation shows how three teenaged girls helped pioneer the musical articulation of black consciousness in England in the 1970s.
‘Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher’ Continues the Connection Between Black Power-era Art and Progressive Jazz and Funk
Soul Jazz Record's second tie-in to the Soul of a Nation art exhibit brings the funk, alongside a wide range of progressive populist jazz from the early '70s.
On Black Girl Magic and Georgia Anne Muldrow’s Latest, ‘Overload’
It's tempting to proclaim this moment in black pop as something akin to 2018's political Year of the Woman -- Year of the Sista, if you will. But today's unapologetically progressive female black pop artists stand on the shoulders of a most impressive cohort from the '90s and early '00s.
Robert Christgau’s ‘Is It Still Good to Ya?’
Robert Christgau is the rare critic who can write insightfully and passionately about a sweaty performance by a popular Congolese soukous band and a magisterial show by Senegal's Youssou N'Dour. That magic is captured in his latest anthology, Is It Still Good to Ya?
‘A&R Pioneers’ Highlights Unsung Pivotal Figures at the Birth of Recorded Pop Music
Well before artists were their own entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs became rock stars, A&R pros improvised a blueprint for the workings of the modern music industry.
‘May We Forever Stand’ Explains Why “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Is an Immortal Song
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" has been embedded in black America's DNA for more than 100 years. We've sung it every February ever since Black History Month was a thing, and every December since Kwanzaa was a thing.
‘Spiritual Eternal’ Fills in the Gaps of Alice Coltrane’s Evolution
This reissue of Alice Coltrane's mid-'70s studio albums shows a logical progression of her twinned musical and spiritual journeys.
Linda Clifford Was a Disco Diva Who Deserved Better
Linda Clifford's four late 1970s albums showcase her range, even if they don't stand out from the life-after-disco scene.