Jazz’s Historical Agenda as Protest Music in the Stellar ‘Brassroots Democracy’
The excellent Brassroots Democracy details the beautiful and bleak ways that jazz music created the soundtrack of an emancipatory movement that lasts to this day.
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James Baldwin Digs Into the Roots of American Music
James Baldwin’s writing about music illuminates the significance of racial slavery for all American music. Black American music can help America to move forward if used properly.
Why Disney’s Splash Mountain Has Finally Gone South
The Disney Theme Parks are dismantling the decades-long ride Splash Mountain. It will be resurrected as Tiana’s Bijour Adventure. Why has the Song of the South-inspired ride finally gone South?
Sundance 2022: ‘Descendant’ and the Americans Who Refuse to Be Forgotten
Descendant films the stories from the progeny of the slaves of the Clotilda. The result is a testament to the spirit of a community that refuses to disappear.
The Women-Led Slave Revolts Every American Needs to Learn About
In the graphic novel ‘Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts’, Rebecca Hall puts flesh on the bones of American history.
Amanda Gorman’s History Lesson: An Inaugural Poem in the Shadow of White Supremacy
From the onset, Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb", dissolves the ideology that a presidential inauguration announces the new and deracinates the present from the past.
Padma Lakshmi’s ‘Taste the Nation’ Questions What, Exactly, Is American Food
Can food alone undo centuries of anti-immigrant policies that are ingrained in the fabric of the American nation? Padma Lakshmi's Taste the Nation certainly tries.
‘Conjure Women’ Brings Forth Racism and Reproductive Rights
It is Afia Atakora's reiteration of the current calls for racial justice that positions Conjure Women as an unadulterated masterpiece.
Cynthia Erivo’s Performance Carries Kasi Lemmons’ ‘Harriet’
Cynthia Erivo's transcendent turn as Union spy, escaped slave, and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman shines through Kasi Lemmons' heroic but oversimplified biopic, Harriet.
Graphic Fiction ‘Angola Janga’ Brings Forth the History of a Kingdom of Fugitives
Poignant motifs travel through Marcelo D'Salete's graphic novel of Brazil's Angola Janga, a kingdom of runaway slaves.
Esi Edugyan’s ‘Washington Black’ Fails to Problematize Critical Race Issues
In her latest revisionist history, Washington Black, Esi Edugyan points toward colonial theory without critically addressing affirmations of white power.
‘Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom’ Is as Monumental as the Man It Chronicles
Noted historian David W. Blight offers readers the fullest portrait of Frederick Douglass yet in this "biography of a voice".