Initiating and cultivating a cultural revolution.
A woman who can build with me.
See "Heroes" section, or:THE REMARKABLE JENI FUJITA:VIDEO GALLERY: THE LEGENDARY ROOTS CREWLAURYN HILL & ?UESTLOVE ON THE STATE OF HIP-HOP & BLACK MUSIC IN GENERAL:To listen to the full interview with Gilles Peterson & ?uestlove, go to: http://www.giantstep.net/releases/1571FOR ALL YOU ASPIRING BEATMAKERS--LEARN FROM SOME LEGENDS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws2aCAhbsc0.. width="425" height="350".. .. ....
The best film I've seen recently:Other favorites: Killer of Sheep (dir. Charles Burnett)Daughters of the Dust (dir. Julie Dash)Xala and Black Girl (both directed by Ousmane Sembene),Rushmore (dir. Wes Anderson)The Shawshank Redemption (dir. Frank Darabont)and Fight Club (dir. David Fincher)
DEMOCRACY NOW (http://www.democracynow.org) See their breaking story on the Jena Six from 7/10/07:http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2007/7/10I don't watch much TV other than PBS (Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley, P.O.V.), but my favorite shows are no longer on the air (The Wire, The Sopranos). I don't watch music videos nearly as often as I used to. They're all just too gratuitous and predictable for me, but check the page to see some examples of the music video as art.
I'm dissertating right now, too many to mention. A few good reads, though: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (as told to by Alex Haley); Can't Stop, Won't Stop: The History of the Hip-Hop Generation (Jeff Chang--mandatory reading for anyone who is true to hip-hop, or interested even a little bit); The Black Aesthetic (Addison Gayle, editor); The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (Harold Cruse); The Essential Harold Cruse (ed. William Jelani Cobb); Step Into A World (Kevin Powell, Ras Baraka, eds.); Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism (Michelle Goldberg); The Politics of Jesus (Obery Hendricks--A MUST READ); the book of Mishlei (Proverbs); Shadow and Act (Ralph Ellison); Stand and Deliver (Yvonne Bynoe); Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous? (Haki Madhubuti); Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally (Marcus Borg)
I choose me...but below are some cool people who have been quite influential to me (in no particular order): Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Haile Gerima, Spike Lee, Ousmane Sembene, Nelson George, Greg Tate, Michael Eric Dyson, Mark Anthony Neal, William Jelani Cobb, Joan Morgan, Bakari Kitwana, Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Larry Neal, Haki R. Madhubuti, Addison Gayle, Hoyt W. Fuller, Darwin Turner, Thomas Cripps, Mark Reid, Gladstone Yearwood, Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, Frances Gateward, Zeinabu irene Davis, Clyde Taylor, Toni Cade Bambara, Cornel West, Ntongela Masilela, A Tribe Called Quest, Common, The Roots, The Randy Watson Experience (?uestlove and James Poyser), Nasir Olu Ben Dara Jones, Jneiro Jarel, Wajeed and Bling 47, J Dilla (the late, great James Yancey), Pete Rock, DJ Premier, DJ Ogee, Black Elephant, Growing Nation, Gilles Peterson, Benji B, DJ Bemi, DJ Statik, DJ Center, Glauber Rocha, Fernando Solanas, Octavio Gettino, Teshome Gabriel, Tomas Guitierres Alea, Manthia Diawara, Ed Guerrero, S. Craig Watkins, Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Leopold Senghor, Geraud Blanks, Derrick Harriell, Quraysh Ali Lansana, W.E.B. DuBois, Cornel West, Harold Cruse, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, Melvin Van Peebles, Marlon Riggs, St. Clair Bourne, William Greaves, Herman Gray, Tricia Rose, Zadie Smith, Paul Beatty, Kevin Powell, Farai Chideya, Trey Ellis, A.O. Scott, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Tara Betts, Jessica Care Moore, Jacqueline Bobo, Valerie Smith, Wahneema Lubiano, Michele Wallace, Stuart Hall, Kobena Mercer, Paul Gilroy, bell hooks, Arthur Jafa, Malik Hassan Sayeed, Hype Williams, Coco Fusco, Dasha Kelly, Reuben Harpole, Portia Cobb, Iverson White, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Dave Chappelle, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, James Brown, Fela Kuti, Citizen Cope, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Kariem Riggins...