For the Lost Souls

zuluguru: Jesse Boykins III x MeLo-X before the gig in Munich,...

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:47:13 -0400

zuluguru:

Jesse Boykins III x MeLo-X before the gig in Munich, Germany. photo by Onigbanjo Fotografie #ZULUGURU #schwaza

LOVE.

blackfilm: An Oversimplification of Her Beauty dir. Terence...

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:34:03 -0400

blackfilm:

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty dir. Terence Nance

annaelsaa: work by Laura Slater

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:27:00 -0400

annaelsaa:

work by Laura Slater

"It is an interesting law of romance that a truly strong woman will choose a strong man who disagrees..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:38:20 -0400

“It is an interesting law of romance that a truly strong woman will choose a strong man who disagrees with her over a weak one who goes along. Strength demands intelligence, intelligence demands stimulation, and weakness is boring. It is better to find a partner you can contend with for a lifetime than one who accommodates you because he doesn’t really care. … Sixty seconds of wondering if someone is about to kiss you is more entertaining than 60 minutes of kissing. … Spill the beans, and the conversation is history. Speak in code, with wit and challenge, and the process of decryption is like foreplay.”

- Roger Ebert (via satinsunset)

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Tue, 21 May 2013 15:02:35 -0400

Without Our Time - Marie Dahlstrom

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:39:17 -0400

Without Our Time - Marie Dahlstrom

“Humility is the fruit of inner security and wise maturity.” Cornel West

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:31:00 -0400

“Humility is the fruit of inner security and wise maturity.” Cornel West

joekenneth: “Thread” // entry 010 Buttons fall off from...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:49:43 -0400

joekenneth:

“Thread” // entry 010
Buttons fall off from repeated use and hems become undone through wear. But these are trivial affairs when mothers seem to possess the innate ability for mending. My mom would sew on buttons in seconds. Teeth, needle, thread. Hand and eye coordinating to keep the cloth covering my skin befit for a queen’s progeny. She probably learned to do so from my grandmother. I say this because after grandma passed seven years back, my mother was the family’s thread. Sharing the title for the youngest out of, now, seven, I saw her mending emotions. Repairing the seams of unraveled sentiments. And crocheting a spot on her shoulder soft enough to subdue the sorrow of relatives young and old. I pray for my heart to be as homespun, tender and threadlike. That people may see the seamstress as they get to know her son.
#MayFlowersbyJK

By far my favorite from JK’s tribute.

abstractelements: summer nights - rog walker

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:47:50 -0400

abstractelements:

summer nights - rog walker

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Wed, 15 May 2013 19:47:02 -0400

sinuousmag: Angela Davis is 69 today!

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:45:26 -0400

sinuousmag:

Angela Davis is 69 today!

What does it mean to be American?

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:25:54 -0400

Since the beginning of the nation, white Americans have suffered from a deep inner uncertainty as to who they really are. One of the ways that has been used to simplify the answer has been to seize upon the presence of black Americans and use them as a marker, a symbol of limits, a metaphor for the ‘outsider.’ Many whites could look at the social position of blacks and feel that color formed an easy and reliable gauge for determining to what extent one was or was not American.

-Ralph Ellison, What America Would Be Like without Blacks

As the descendents of immigrants themselves, how can they determine who is an American… or better yet, how can they define who isn’t an American?

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Mon, 13 May 2013 18:46:19 -0400

"But this soundtrack asks: What kind of effects did the music Fitzgerald features create? For the..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:44:52 -0400

“But this soundtrack asks: What kind of effects did the music Fitzgerald features create? For the twenty-first century, if you want to conjure that odd tug in your gut – that longing to dance too late and drink too much, to kiss a stranger and pretend the rest of your life doesn’t exist – you’re going to need something with a little more bass, a little more electronic flair, a little more snarly rapping in the lyrics. Like it or not, the Great Anti-American Dream Novel is as conflicted as a Jay-Z rap song, both celebrating a culture of excess and deploring the emptiness such a culture creates. Which is why I remain firmly convinced that having Jay-Z produce the soundtrack was an inspired move. Jay-Z is a present day artist who, like Jay Gatsby or F. Scott Fitzgerald himself, has to comment on the benefits or pitfalls of the good life while he’s living knee deep in it. He too is a celebrity that the nation watches, envying his excess, greedy for more details about what he does with the life so many of us secretly long to have. And like Fitzgerald, though unlike Gatsby, Jay-Z both revels in and questions the good life. What was Watch the Throne other than a dizzying oscillation between political critique and celebratory decadence?”

- Melissa Sexton - on Jay-Z and the Gatsby soundtrack

Seriously, what is Watch the Throne if not a modern day homage to The Great Gatsby? I am sure that all [okay, most - I think I can safely hypothesize that it’s 99.9%] of the criticisms of this soundtrack reveal a scant, embarrassing knowledge of hip-hop and completely deny its cultural influence, but I’d also argue that they reveal a thin, superficial reading of The Great Gatsby. The novel, as this article astutely points out, is more than an earnest rejection of the American Dream. To assume that critique is only relevant when absorbed as a period piece is to completely dismantle it, to strip it of its importance. All art, including Luhrmann’s (best) films, and hip-hop, and classic literature, all provide a cultural critique that remains timeless - when you put it against any backdrop, it still resonates.

The Great Gatsby describes a timeless struggle against the American Dream and the pain that comes from aspiring to the unattainable, while glorifying the spoils of the resulting lifestyle and the strength it takes for men to live within the confines of an unforgiving society. That’s, like, exactly what hip-hop does. Haters.
(via carry-onbaggage)

From a 1965 Interview

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:51:56 -0400

Question: What contribution can youth, especially students, who are disgusted with racism in this society, make to the black struggle for freedom?
Malcolm X: Whites who are sincere don't accomplish anything by joining Negro organizations and making them integrated. Whites who are sincere should organize among themselves and figure out some strategy to break down prejudice that exists in white communities. This is where they can function more intelligently and more effectively, in the white community itself, and this has never been done.

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Mon, 13 May 2013 01:30:54 -0400

Warm Rain - Ahmed Sirour

Sun, 12 May 2013 21:03:25 -0400

Warm Rain - Ahmed Sirour