9 Search results for "folklore"

Between Black artists and Black love
By Donnie Moreland It must’ve been 2015 when I first viewed Debbie Tucker Green’s Second Coming (2014). It’s a film which asks the question, what if the nativity story took place between two working class Black folks already raising a little boy in South London. It’s a mesmerizing dreamscape of rage and longing, orbited by […]
American “heroism” in times of crisis highlights just how disposable we are to the state
by Donnie Moreland As a boy, I remember learning about firefighters. I found their work as spectacular as the graphic novels, and Saturday morning superheroes, which crowded my daydreams. There was no difference between the cape and their fire helmet. And there were enough Black men, dawning the garb and colors of the local fire […]
Black conspiracy and skepticism persist because we believe the evidence of our experience
by Donnie Moreland There is a whispered binding between Black folks and the truth. Less truth, in that meta-ethical way we discern the spiritually evidential as Black folks, but truth telling. The expressions, negotiations and altercations with, and of, “facts.” How we tell the truth, digest it and confirm that truth as just that; gospel. […]
From John Henry to James Evans: Black men married to hard labor in the white American imagination
by Donnie MoreIand I find myself humming the theme of Good Times, quite a bit. It’s calming, in the way only Black Baptist Church Choirs can be calming. In fact, I find all of it pretty calming—Good Times, that is—because it’s so unequivocally Black, that it feels a part of my cultural genome. Now, I […]
We deserve to see more Black vampires on the screen
by Andrew Keahey The image on the screen is alway the same: a young woman, unsuspecting of any danger, twirls her hair and chats with a stranger. He’s always tall, he’s well-dressed and clearly of “good breeding”, and he’s always white. Pale white. The young woman’s thoughts ring clear, “Is this charming man a little […]
Let’s give Jordan Peele’s ‘Candyman’ remake a chance to intrigue and horrify us
by Andrew Keahey Though there were many films that came before it, there are few Black horror films more revered than the 1992 classic Candyman, starring the frighteningly well-cast Tony Todd. Based on the short story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker, Candyman is the dark tale of a graduate student doing research on urban legends, […]
“Prison was good for me”: How the state manipulates barely surviving its brutality into sanctuary
By Eli Day “Maybe it’ll be good for him. He’s gonna get himself killed out here.” Long before he was ever first incarcerated, some version of this softly cruel nonsense clung to my homeboy, and clings to him still. This time, it came as we both stood at the doorstep of fourteen years old, the […]
It Will Always Be a White Christmas
In Chicago, the snow has finally come! Families have decorated their homes and stores have chimed in to the holiday spirit. This is the time where holidays really feel like holidays. I always had a soft spot for Christmas. It’s a time where you can give, receive and eat well. I recently stumbled upon a blog written by Slate […]
Not Giving Django Too Much Credit
Django is a film that’s been pivoted as an answer, when it raises more questions than anything. Should it be viewed within its historical significance, and the extent to which it can portray the horrors of slavery while reinvigorating a moment in history that many find irrelevant and antiquated? Or rather, should it be divorced […]