#African American Legacy Series

[onenakedfarmer]

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Don Flemons DON FLEMONS PRESENTS BLACK COWBOYS

[crooked-wasteland]

The rapresentation of abusers in helluva boss is something that particularly frustrates me, Stella in particular, it seems to be done just to victimaze certain characters not to show the complex dynamics of those relationships. It seems to me the writers aren't mature enough to handle these topics properly.

Abuse and Vivienne Medrano

Christmas 1962, a man renowned the western world over for his revolutionary approach to animation sat in a withering melancholy as he watched what could only be called a cinematic masterpiece based on a novel classic. Walt Disney, now in the twilight years of his life, saw the walls closing in and his legacy coming to a close. This man, who pioneered the animated feature film, saw his greatest accomplishment as his greatest obstacle. The man responsible for the tales brought to life of Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, and Dumbo felt trapped in his achievement. “I wish,” Walt lamented, “I could make a picture like that.”

To Kill a Mockingbird was a piece that challenged its audience. The discussion of a white man defending a black man in southern America, years before the civil rights movement. The movement that, at the time the movie hit cinemas, was in its infancy. Released during the height of the historically revisionist counter movement taking place to combat the rising push of African Americans towards their human rights. The last film Walt Disney ever saw the production of before his death in 1966 was The Jungle Book, a movie that was the epitome of “Safe” and a message that upheld the status quo of segregation.

It wasn’t until 1972 that the media of animation became raucously adult with those political and challenging concepts Disney felt were unattainable. Fritz the Cat was an X-rated animated film composed of vignettes that were unapologetically perverse, violent, and aggressively political. Critical of politicians and the police with a sympathetic if exploitative lens towards the LGBT and racial minority communities Brooklyn-based director Ralph Bakshi grew up around. Bakshi proved that animation was not strictly a child-friendly media and that adult animation could be financially and critically successful.

(For more on Ralph Bakshi's career and animation history)

If one has ever had the opportunity to listen to a Brad Bird (director of Ratatouille and The Incredibles) interview, it is clear to see that the success of Bakshi was generally quite limited. That animation is considered a genre and not a medium of art has resulted in animated films being knee-capped in the box office. There is far more potential to animation, highlighted by Howard Ashton in his collaboration with Disney studios during the Renaissance. Responsible for resurrecting the feature-length animated movie through The Little Mermaid and credited for the monumental success of Best Picture Award winner Beauty and the Beast, Ashton once said that the potential animation was ideal for musical theatre. The limitless possibilities given the medium gave the possibility of introducing Broadway to the common folk who didn’t live in New York and otherwise couldn’t afford the theater. He was quoted saying that live action musical films were “an exercise in stupidity,” highlighting the freedom that comes with a blank page.

However, the success of animation, and media in general, comes down to the message the media wishes to send. The reason the Disney Renaissance films have enjoyed their position as cornerstones of pop culture and creativity was because it did introduce the artform of musical theater into homes and made them readily accessible to everyone with an even heightened sense of fantasy that revitalized Walt’s ethos of making films for the child in everyone.

With Bakshi, it was the loud and violently political message of a revolution taking place. This continues in adult animation with the Simpsons, a series critical of hyper-capitalist America and the fallout of Reagan’s economic disaster that the effects of which are still being felt today and a satire of toxic masculinity and abusive family dynamics.

So, ultimately, the value of a piece of media is a cross between its social artistic influence and the message the creators are intending to make. While Medrano’s influence on the field of indie animation is often mischaracterized as a “pioneer”, the fact is that indie animation and pilots have existed and been funded before Spindlehorse existed. It is simply that Medrano has had the spotlight handed to her for the myth surrounding the production and subsequent success of his indie projects. Artistically, her influence can be summarized as a double-edged sword. For some, she is the motivation for inspiring artists to connect with the community to one day, hopefully, create their own work. On the other hand, she is the cautionary tale of why investing in an indie project is a financial risk for an audience member and a risk to the community as a whole that poses a real danger of making the indie sphere financially cannibalistic, as her public persona is off-putting to “normies” and her show is simply not good.

Much like Disney, the man in 1962, and Disney the company circa 2023, the revolution of animating "because you can" loses its luster very quickly. Without something profound to say, an entire company, regardless of its social influence, can fade into irrelevance despite still being "successful". The story of Disney is a cautionary tale for Indie animation as a whole and Spindlehorse in specific.

And that is the other axis on this chart. Her narrative lacks a message worth telling, and that’s very much due to her not having anything worthwhile to say.

“I really liked when things and shows and stories allow the characters to be flawed, and allow them to grow and to change. And I think that’s something that’s, you know, the world is not black and white. And I like things that explore the gray and that and the complexity, of life and mistakes and of things like that.” - Vivienne Medrano

It is not for want of mockery that I carefully transcribe Medrano’s words in her interview. To read the words aloud tells the story just as clearly as I have set out to do here. This is someone who is highly inspired by better media, who has ideas and a belief that she has something to say. But that is where the belief ends. There is no conclusion to that thought any more than there is one in the unfocused and run-on sentences she rambles along throughout the interview. She talks of “Things” without clarity, because she herself is a fundamentally incurious individual who has never once spent the time critically analyzing herself, let alone the work of others to better grasp what about it resonated with her. She merely consumes art insatiably and without any substance. Like a diet of fruit, it has a superficial veneer of positive value. Fruit would be considered healthy as it is “natural”. However, it is the nutritional equivalent of candy, lacking vital components that are necessary to sustain basic life, it is pure sugar. Her work, similarly, lacks any value of depth that would qualify as meaning.

Which comes back to what the message is in her work.

When it comes to others in the field of indie animation, Medrano does not have many friends. In response to the Lackadaisy situation, creator Tracy explained why she returned Medrano’s donation. For one, the donation was not Medrano’s money, but money she crowd sourced from her employees. While the $5k for the producer spot of the fundraiser would have not been a dent in her personal wallet, Medrano is so uninterested in supporting fellow creators while presenting an impression of camaraderie that she instead took money from the people she is in charge of the paychecks for to get her name in the credits of another creator’s work. In regards to why Medrano was declined her support, it was due to numerous individuals who had such an awful experience working for Medrano that they did not want her involvement associated with the project to any extent. When the money was returned, she made the situation extremely public and encouraged harassment by liking tweets attacking Tracy and the Iron Circus team.

A well-known member of Medrano’s crew, Hunter B, was leaked speaking crassly of other animation projects that were still in the process of production, met with support from other members in the discord. One of these creators being Ashley Nicoles from Far-Fetched. A former friend and creative partner on the Hazbin Pilot whose podcast streams featuring Edward Bosco and Michael Kovach single-handedly maintained interest in the show until the winter of 2021, free of charge. Ashley once spoke of how Medrano would speak disparagingly of an employee to her, saying that this individual was “Too unstable to work with”. Which, regardless of whether or not that is Medrano’s honest opinion, counts as defamation by an employer. It is the exact reason why most previous employers will not give a negative, detailed review of a former employee, maintaining instead to verify facts of the employment. If Erin Frost was more experienced and less involved in social media exposed culture, they could have easily sued Medrano and Spindlehorse for damaging their reputation in their field of employment.

Which circles back to Medrano’s self-assigned message of her show:

“Abusers rely on your silence. They rely on knowing you can’t retaliate without consequence. That they can tell any lies and vague around without getting called out. But we see you, and you don’t have the power you think you do anymore. A message I put into my work. “Fuck you!” - Vivienne Medrano

Medrano, who has vague and sub tweeted individuals like Lackadaisy Tracy, The Diregentlemen, Michael Kovach, and Ashley Nicoles. Medrano who has instigated and incited harassment campaigns knowing that no one can call her out without severe and relentless backlash from her cultish fanbase that she personally encourages through positive reinforcement of liking the tweets of fans. Medrano who relies on the silence of other creators in the field due to the fear of her ire collapsing their projects before they even have a chance to begin.

Vivienne Medrano with an extensive abusive history that continues to this day, has something to say about abuse.

What Medrano has to say about abuse comes from someone who has the position of superiority in all of her relationships, but feels like she’s the outcast and bullied loser. Her self insert that is repeatedly expressed in every character at one point or another is how easily they abuse those around them just because they can, but that the narrative justifies their “acting out” because they are sad. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “An abuser externalizes the causes of their behavior. They blame their violence on circumstances.”

Indeed, the lists of abusive characteristics and traits, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, overwhelmingly encompasses the characteristics shown by characters like Loona, Blitz and Stolas that Medrano repeatedly has attempted to rationalize, justify and minimize. Which, “An abuser often denies the existence or minimizes the seriousness of the violence [including emotional and mental abuse] and its effect on the victim and other family members.”

It is not surprising, then, that the conversation of abuse in Helluva Boss is often infuriating. The narrative underplays the harm done by characters we are supposed to see as “good”. Not allowing for them to grow or change, but ignoring and minimizing the behavior, justifying it through circumstances and perpetuating the false belief that victims are not, themselves, abusers.

One of the first blog post rants I ever made about mental health and abuse was the affirmation that not all victims of abuse are survivors. I wholly stand by that. Victims of abuse perpetuate abuse. A victim and an abuser are one in the same, whereas a survivor is someone who has actually done the difficult work of being self-critical. And the one thing we all are very aware of is how much Vivienne Medrano rejects criticism.

[ausetkmt]

Lynching victim Rubin Stacy’s story being told by his family in film screening at NSU

Anne Naves knew something bad had happened to her uncle when her male relatives came home from fishing, each wearing a pall of silence. Dad wasn’t cracking jokes like usual. Grandfather looked grave. And her uncle, Rubin Stacy, hadn’t come back. The next day, someone from the funeral home said a body had been dropped off.

Naves, 8 years old at the time, only discovered the full gruesome truth about her uncle years later. On July 19, 1935, acting on an unproven accusation from a white woman, a masked lynch mob strung up Stacy under a Fort Lauderdale tree, hanged him and shot him 17 times as spectators gawked and children laughed.

The brutality and silence of Stacy’s lynching is revisited in the new documentary, “Rubin,” which will screen on Tuesday, Oct. 3, at Nova Southeastern University. In the hourlong film, the farmhand’s death is recounted through the eyes of his surviving descendants, but mainly through Naves, who was the last living eyewitness to the trauma — and to the secrecy — that followed.

The film, the first to be made by relatives of Stacy’s family, also chronicles the history of lynchings in America, used as a tool of punishment and to foster silence.

“I think (my family) knew that, without telling us (kids) what really happened, they would save us a lot of trauma,” Naves says in the documentary. “The neighbors and our church members respected our silence, too, because they knew that if it could happen to our family, it could happen to theirs.”

For “Rubin” director Tenille Brown, who is a cousin of Rubin Stacy, the film has in recent weeks also morphed into something else: a posthumous tribute to Naves. After filming her interviews for the documentary, she died on Sept. 18 at age 96, leaving behind a strong legacy: She was a Broward County educator for 25 years, teaching at Pines Middle and other schools.

“The biggest piece of the film was Anne,” Brown says in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Without her, there’s no story. She’s the driving force. She was ready to talk. She told me to record her. She really pushed me when I didn’t feel confident and said, ‘Record me anyway. Just go.’ ”

The rest of America witnessed the cruelty of Stacy’s lynching long before Naves did. A series of photos immortalize the moment when a white crowd gathered around Stacy’s body hanging from a tree. These images ran in newspapers nationwide, were published by the NAACP, Life magazine and National Geographic, and are now archived in the Library of Congress.

It was a tale of Jim Crow-era racism that Fort Lauderdale would’ve rather forgotten — the brother of a corrupt Broward County sheriff participated in the lynching — but city officials have made strides in recent years to acknowledge the tragedy by placing memorial markers around Fort Lauderdale. One is on Davie Boulevard and Southwest 31st Avenue, also known as Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, near where Stacy took his last breath. There’s another on the 800 block of Northwest Second Street, where he lived, and a third at Woodlawn Cemetery, his final resting place. In February 2022, a section of Davie Boulevard was renamed Rubin Stacy Memorial Boulevard.

“I’m glad they acknowledged it,” says Brown, of Pompano Beach. “These stories make some people in the state uncomfortable, but if they are based on fact, we need to tell the truth. You can’t turn your head. These are things you can’t ignore.”

For Brown, it was these memorials — and Naves’ willingness to break her silence — that motivated her to reconstruct Stacy’s story. To do so, she also interviewed Ken Cutler, Parkland commissioner and historian, and Tameka Bradley Hobbs, library regional manager of Fort Lauderdale’s African American Research Library and Cultural Center.

“My family didn’t want to talk about it out of fear for years,” Brown says. “There was shame. There’s an element of hurt, and you can hear that emotion in Anne’s voice. Now it feels freeing. This is a story that was suppressed for years and by sharing it, this is how we overcome.”

Michael Anderson, a producer for “Rubin,” says the film also tackles what too many school textbooks don’t stress enough: the history of Black lynchings.

“For Black youth to know their stories, they have to know the history of lynchings,” Anderson says. “They still don’t know how lynchings were used as a weapon to keep a community quiet. That’s exactly what it did to Rubin Stacy’s family.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Rubin”

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3

WHERE: NSU’s Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd., Davie

COST: Free, but tickets must be presented for entry

INFORMATION: 954-462-0222; MiniaciPAC.com

[archaeocommunologist]

I'm sorry, are we really hyping up the American Colonization Society as a "utopian nationalist movement" based on a "rejection of assimilation" in order to defend Israel? We're really going to defend Americo-Liberians, who set up a segregated ethnostate that was ultimately overthrown in a series of bloody civil wars?

The reason people don't bring up Liberia is because it's a case study of colonial failure and brutality. I almost can't believe Zionists are stupid enough to invoke the legacy of the ACS here. The entire project of deporting Black Africans to create colonial states in Africa was an abject failure, rejected by the majority of Black people and white abolitionists alike, and abandoned after the end of the Civil War.

I agree Liberia is the best comparison for Israel, and that fact condemns Israel.

[kemetic-dreams]

A manbo (also written as mambo) is a priestess (as opposed to a oungan, a male priest) in the Haitian Vodou religion. Haitian Vodou's conceptions of priesthood stem from the religious traditions of enslaved people from Dahomey, in what is today Benin. For instance, the term manbo derives from the Fon word nanbo ("mother of magic"). Like their West African counterparts, Haitian manbos are female leaders in Vodou temples who perform healing work and guide others during complex rituals.

This form of female leadership is prevalent in urban centers such as Port-au-Prince (the capital of Haiti). Typically, there is no hierarchy among manbos and oungans. These priestesses and priests serve as the heads of autonomous religious groups and exert their authority over the devotees or spiritual servants in their hounfo (temples).

Manbos and oungans are called into power via spirit possession or the revelations in a dream. They become qualified after completing several initiation rituals and technical training exercises where they learn the Vodou spirits by their names, attributes, and symbols. 

The first step in initiation is lave tèt (head washing), which is aimed at the spirits housed in an individual's head. The second step is known as kouche (to lie down), which is when the initiate enters a period of seclusion. Typically, the final step is the possession of the ason (sacred rattle), which enables the manbos or oungans to begin their work. One of the main goals of Vodou initiation ceremonies is to strengthen the manbo's konesans (knowledge), which determines priestly power.

The specific skills and knowledge gained by manbos enable them to mediate between the physical and spiritual realms. They use this information to call upon the spirits through song, dance, prayer, offerings, and/or the drawing of vèvès (spiritual symbols). During these rituals, manbos may either be possessed by a loa (also spelled lwa, Vodou spirits) themselves, or may oversee the possession of other devotees. Spirit possession plays an important role in Vodou because it establishes a connection between human beings and the Vodou deities or spirits. Although loas can "mount" whomever they choose, those outside the Vodou priesthood do not have the skills to communicate directly with the spirits or gods. This is because the human body is merely flesh, which the spirits can borrow to reveal themselves via possession. manbos, however, can speak to and hear from the Vodou spirits. As a result, they can interpret the advice or warnings sent by a spirit to specific individuals or communities.

Cécile Fatiman is a Haitian manbo famously known for sacrificing a black pig in the August 1791 Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman—an act that is said to have ignited the Haitian Revolution. There are also notable manbos within the United States. Marie Laveau (1801-1888), for example, gained fame in New Orleans, Louisiana, for her personal charm and Louisiana Voodoo practices.

Renowned as Louisiana's "voodoo queen", Laveau's legacy is kept alive in American popular culture (e.g., the television series America Horror Story: Coven).ne Mama Lola is another prominent manbo and Vodou spiritual leader in the United States. She rose to fame after the publication of Karen McCarthy Brown's ethnographic account Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Mama Lola's success provided her with a platform to challenge Western misconceptions of Haitian Vodou and make television appearances

[mademoisellefantasy]

" There has never been another Steve Rogers,has there? " | Captain Ameri...

Actually, this is soooo trueee!!!!!

As much as I like Sam Wilson as a character, it just wasn't the right decision for Marvel to replace Captain America. Maybe it makes sense in the comics where, because the storylines literally continue over decades, passing on the mantle of certain characters to others is narratively helpful and refreshing.

But in the MCU, it feels totally wrong. The whole point of Captain America being Steve and vice versa is that NO ONE ELSE had the moral integrity and strength of Steve Rogers. That's the reason he was chosen and no one else, no matter how great of a character they might be on their own right, could ever feel in his role.

Kinda how no one else is as brilliant, eccentric, and self-sacrificial as Tony Stark, thus no one but him can be Iron Man. I think that Steve and Tony were kinda supposed to be mirrors of each other, the one the heart and the other the brain of the Avengers. And so both should be irreplaceable.

I also think that it would have been much more honorable for Sam to accept that his old friend left a legacy behind that shouldn't be changed or affected by anyone (including himself), and go make his own arc focus on the future of America, symbolized by him AS THE FALCON.

In previous movies, because Steve (and Bucky, tbh) was always the main focus, we never got to see the full potential, backstory, motivations, etc. of the Falcon, just vague mentions. He was just a loyal friend and sidekick to Steve.

Imagine if the Falcon FINALLY had an arc that didn't center Steve Rogers, imagine if he was allowed to keep his core hero identity but also evolve in it. It would have been SO MUCH BETTER.

Additionally, I think that most of that passing on the mantle stuff, is just pandering to minorities, which in of itself isn't bad AT ALL, but they were SO LAZY about it in TFATWS.... Seriously, the script was mostly trash (apart from the more intimate Bucky and Sam interactions and Zemo's storyline), and it didn't allow Sam, the AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN THE WHOLE SERIES IS ABOUT!!!! to actually evolve in his own right and be a truly good protagonist.

Anyways, after TFATWS it became apparent to me that Marvel is no longer interested in good storytelling, character development, and representation. So, at least for me, Captain America in the MCU will forever only be Steve Rogers.

[uzumaki-rebellion]

The World-building of Wakanda: Black Panther and Afrofuturism

I've been revisiting the Wakanda Syllabus that an educator associate of mine Dr. Walter Greason put together when the first Black Panther movie came out, and also reviewing old discussions about the significance of that era as a cultural moment and movement at the same time.

The fact that I still write Black Panther fanfics is a testement to the love I have for that fandom and its importance to Afrofuturism and Black Diaspora Futurism. I'm always happy when I see other Black writers out here still churning out plots and series fics because it is a digital archive for how we perceive a fictional future where as Killmonger once annouced "We're on top."

These works are important and specifically center the Black experience. And we don't have to fit our characters inside of white story spaces where we are usually the sidekick or fetish characters. I had an interesting talk with a friend of a friend and she wanted to argue that Black characters in the MCU who were not in the Black Panther/Wakanda Forever films should be included in the discussions of Afrofuturism, and I said they didn't belong in it fully because those characters are not centering Black people's futures. They center the non-Black white leads and their American/American adjacent interests (I'm talking about War Machine, Nick Fury, Sam Wilson, Valkyrie etc). It was a good back and forth because I am always questioning how Black people can build Black solidarity/communities by always working in white spaces in the service of white global agendas.

Writing Killmonger's journey (and his parents) for over six years (Lawd six years!!!!) with numerous books has taught me a lot about my role in preserving our fandom legacy as Black fanfiction writers and as readers. Afrofuturism has allowed me to explore not only Black Liberation, but Black Queerness, ATR's (African Traditional Religions), Black Matriarchy and Black Patriarchy. I've written about things I love and participate in, and also got to play pretend like I'm a kid again playing with my Barbie dolls and action figures. Black sex. Black music. Black art. Black philosophy. Blackety Black and unapologetic.

All this to say that I hope others out there like me keep writing and reading and reblogging these free little digital seeds we are planting that will truly blossom in the future when others discover our work. I know many Black writers lament that we don't get the same traction or BNF notoriety that white writers do. However, there is joy and divine calling when one simply sits and writes a Black Panther tale to give to other Black people for free all over the world. It still boggles my mind that there are people who have read my stories for years and they live on the other side of the world. People I will probably never meet, but they read and sometimes leave sweet comments that feed me to keep going.

Keep writing y'all. Keep reading and sharing and creating. You are making Afrofuturism fanfiction that is a time capsule for Black folks who aren't even here yet. Academics are secretly reading your stuff and using it to formulate academic studies on a fictional world ! Your Black Panther creations are beautiful no matter where you live on the planet!

Pat yourself on the back and keep worldbuilding and reading.

Here is a link if you want to check out some Wakanda Syllabus stuff that has been collected for the public to use.

[zoot-marimba]

I want to take the time to remember the late Isaac Hayes, soul music singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, score composer, actor, and of course the voice of Chef, who would have turned 82 yesterday.

Where do I even begin with this man? One of the principal songwriters, musicians, and producers for so much of Stax Records' heyday, co-writing several hits for the likes of Sam & Dave with Dave Porter as well as contributing organ, piano, saxophone, and horn arrangements to several records and becoming a critical figure in Southern soul in the process.

He would then went on to cut solo records of his own like Hot Buttered Soul, Black Moses, and the soundtracks for films like Shaft and Tough Guys, on top of headlining the iconic Wattstax Festival. In a time when soul music was largely driven by the three to four minute singles to crossover to the pop charts, Isaac crafted soul epics that demanded the listener's attention. Rather it be through originals or reinterpretations of others' songs, any song Isaac sang was instantly his. Besides pioneering progressive soul, Isaac would also foreshadow the rise of hip hop with his series of monologues known as "Ike's Rap".

Having grown up in poverty and having been friends with people such as Dr. King, Isaac always sought to not only deliver words of empowerment for black people but also make the world a better place. As the co-founder of the Black Knights, Isaac helped fight police brutality and discrimination, and would also establish food banks within Memphis and help black voters get registered. He would also establish the Isaac Hayes Foundation in 1999 to assist vulnerable populations in realizing their fullest potential in areas such as health care, economics, and environmental and human development. As an Ambassador for the World Literacy Crusade, Isaac would be crowned an honorary king of Ghana's Ada district for his work in supporting literacy. It was also in Ghana that Isaac opened a school designed to link African children with those in American inner cities through the internet.

So when two guys in Colorado were creating a show and came up with the idea of a soul singing school cafeteria chef, Isaac ended up being just what the doctor ordered. Beyond the credibility of having an actual soul singer voice the character, Isaac gave Chef so much more beyond that. Rather it be the wacky, surreal Kid's-Show-Gone-Amok or the greater emphasis on social commentary, Chef provided a strong anchor to the madness that surrounded him. He was the rock that the boys could always fall back on, the confidant when things go awry. Through Isaac, Chef had humor, joy, warmth, conviction, and ultimately, love. And that is both of their greatest legacies above all else.

[heavenboy09]

Happy Birthday To The Hottest And Most Bodacious Geeky Nerdy Bad@$$ Actress of Many Favoritable Movies and Shows of the 21st Century. The Awesome Latina Wonder Woman👩🏾🇵🇷🇨🇺🤎🧡 herself.

She is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama Kids. Her subsequent film roles include He Got Game (1998), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), Men in Black II (2002), The Rundown (2003), Rent (2005), Sin City (2005), Clerks II (2006), Death Proof (2007), Seven Pounds (2008), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Unstoppable (2010), Zookeeper (2011), Trance (2013), Top Five (2014), Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), and Clerks 3 (2022). Dawson has provided voice-over work for Disney/Marvel, Warner Bros./DC Comics, and ViacomCBS's Nickelodeon unit.

Rosario Dawson was born on May 9, 1979, in New York City. Her mother, Isabel Celeste, is of Puerto Rican, Taíno, Cuban and African ancestry. Isabel was 17 years old when Rosario was born; she never married Rosario's biological father, Patrick C. Harris. When Dawson was a year old, Isabel married Greg Dawson, a construction worker. Isabel and Greg moved into a reclaimed building on East 13th Street after being approved as members of an affordable housing plan. The family later moved to Garland, Texas.

As a child, Dawson made a brief appearance on Sesame Street. At the age of 15, she was discovered on her front-porch step by photographer Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, with Korine deciding that she was perfect for a part he had written in his screenplay for the controversial 1995 film Kids. 

Dawson had several roles in film and television adaptations of comic books. These include Gail in Sin City (2005) and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), Claire Temple in five of the Marvel Netflix series (2015–2018), and providing the voices of Diana Prince / Wonder Woman in the DC Animated Movie Universe and Space Jam: A New Legacy and Barbara Gordon / Batgirl in The Lego Batman Movie. In 2020, she portrayed Ahsoka Tano in the second season of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and stars in Disney+ original series Ahsoka. In 2021, she had a recurring role in the Dwayne Johnson autobiographical comedy series Young Rock and a main role in the Hulu miniseries Dopesick.

I always thought she was Afro Latina. Oh well

PLEASE WISH THIS MOST AWESOME & BAD@$$ LATINA AMERICAN ACTRESS OF MANY FORMS OF ENTERTAINMENT & HOT NERD 🤓 🔥

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊

YOU KNOW HER

YOU SEEN HER MOVIES 🎥 , TV APPEARANCES 📺 & GEEK OUT ON SUPERHERO FILMS 🎥

& SHE IS STILL RADIANT TO THIS VERY DAY

THE 1 & THE ONLY

MS ROSARIO ISABEL DAWSON👩🏾 🇵🇷🇨🇺🤎🧡

HAPPY 45TH BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 TO YOU MS. DAWNSON👩🏾🇵🇷🇨🇺🤎🧡 & HERE'S TO MANY MORE YEARS TO COME

#RosarioDawson

[thats-so-erik]

Essay Title: Electrifying Legacy: Why Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning Deserves an Extended Superhero Family

Page 1: Introduction

Jefferson Pierce, aka Black Lightning, has been a beacon of hope for his community and a symbol of empowerment for the African American community. As a metahuman with electrical powers, he has fought tirelessly against corruption and injustice. However, his legacy deserves to extend beyond his solo heroics. It's time for Black Lightning to have his own extended superhero family, just like the iconic Superman, Wonder Woman, Bat, and Green Arrow families.

Page 2: The Power of Family

Family is a cornerstone of superhero narratives. It provides a support system, a sense of belonging, and a legacy to pass on. Black Lightning's story is deeply rooted in family, with his wife Lynn and daughters Anissa and Jennifer being central to his journey. Expanding his family to include more superheroes would enrich his narrative and create new possibilities for character development and team-up adventures.

Page 3: Representation Matters

Black Lightning's solo series was a groundbreaking moment for representation in comics and television. An extended Black Lightning family would further amplify diverse voices and perspectives, providing role models for underrepresented communities. This would be a significant step forward in the superhero genre, promoting inclusivity and reflecting the complexity of the real world.

Page 4: Anissa and Jennifer - The Next Generation

Anissa (Thunder) and Jennifer (Lightning) have already demonstrated their potential as superheroes in their own right. They embody the spirit of their father's legacy while forging their own paths. Expanding their roles and introducing new family members would create a dynamic, intergenerational team, showcasing the passing of the torch from one generation to the next.

Page 5: The Pierce Family's Unique Dynamic

The Pierces are a family of strong-willed individuals with a deep sense of justice. Their interactions are filled with warmth, humor, and a deep understanding of one another. This familial chemistry would translate perfectly to an extended superhero family, allowing for heartwarming moments, humorous banter, and a sense of unity in the face of adversity.

Page 6: New Characters, New Possibilities

Introducing new characters to the Black Lightning family would bring fresh perspectives and abilities to the table. This could include allies, mentees, or even unexpected relatives, expanding the narrative possibilities and allowing for exciting team-up combinations and conflicts.

Page 7: The Black Lightning Family's Mission

The Black Lightning family's mission would be to protect Freeland and its people from threats both magical and mundane. They would stand as a beacon of hope, inspiring others to take action against injustice. This mission would be a natural extension of Jefferson's original crusade, now amplified by the collective strength of his family.

Page 8: The Electrifying Legacy of Black Lightning

Black Lightning's legacy deserves to be cemented in the superhero pantheon, alongside the likes of Superman and Batman. An extended family would ensure his impact is felt for generations to come, inspiring new heroes and continuing the fight for justice and equality.

Page 9: The Potential for Crossovers and Team-Ups

An extended Black Lightning family would open doors to exciting crossovers and team-ups with other DC heroes. Imagine the dynamic interactions between Black Lightning and Superman, or the strategic teamwork between Thunder and Wonder Woman. These possibilities would enrich the DC Universe and create unforgettable moments for fans.

Page 10: Conclusion

Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning has earned his place among the iconic superheroes of the DC Universe. It's time for his legacy to expand and for his family to take their rightful place alongside him. An extended Black Lightning superhero family would be a triumph for representation, storytelling, and the superhero genre as a whole.

Page 11: The Future of the Black Lightning Family

The possibilities are endless for the Black Lightning family. New characters, new storylines, and new adventures await. It's time to electrify the DC Universe with the power of family and legacy.

Page 12: Join the Movement

Let us rally behind Black Lightning and his family, demanding more stories, more characters, and more adventures. Together, we can create a brighter future for the DC Universe and cement the Black Lightning family's place in superhero history.

[storkmuffin]

VOGUE US March 2024

On His Terms

by Sarah Crompton

With his red cap pulled down over horn-rimmed glasses, Tobias Menzies walks into a London hotel with the wariness of a man who might just be recognized. It's his face that would catch him out, those deep lines running from eyes to chin. "He had those even as a young man," says his friend the theater director Rupert Goold. "It's like someone has taken a knife and carved them. And I feel those lines run deep inside him as well. He's grown into his face like a lot of actors do."

Menzies's smile is warm and his handshake firm, and though he lives not far from here in north London's Crouch End, he is dressed more as a country dweller than a man-about-town, in jeans and blue gilet zipped over a soft mustard-and-red-checked shirt. Only his Grenson trainers, white and red and with flashes of the same yellow, suggest he might belong to an artier milieu.

"I don't get recognized on any intrusive level, but it's not a part of [the job] that I love," he admits as we settle down to talk. "I like to watch people—I don't like them to watch me." I've asked him about the experience he's having at 49—that of a talent stepping into his prime. Blame it on The Crown, in which he played the second incarnation of Prince Philip across two seasons (a role that won him an Emmy), and last year's wry, acclaimed comedy You Hurt My Feelings, in which he starred opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("He's one of the most warm and present actors I've worked with," says its director, Nicole Holofcener). And now, he's appearing in two leading-man roles, as Edwin Stanton, Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war, in Apple TV+'s series Manhunt in March, and he's currently onstage in The Hunt, an adaptation of the 2012 Thomas Vinterberg film directed by Goold, playing at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn five years after its London premiere.

"I've got to be honest, I really liked it," Menzies says of the status he enjoyed in Manhunt. "Being in the engine room of it and part of the storytelling decisions." The series is part thriller and part history lesson, set over the 12 days following Lincoln's assassination in 1865 as Stanton attempts to track down the president's killer, John Wilkes Booth (it's based on historian James L. Swanson's 2006 bestseller). Episodes skip forward and backward, tracing the story of a tumultuous time and the ideological schisms that caused the Civil War and continued long after it. Stanton, a brilliant lawyer and strategist, is at the center of everything, clashing with Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson, as he attempts to preserve the late president's legacy.

As gripping as any detective story, Manhunt addresses painful facts of America's past: "The implications of losing Lincoln and what that meant for African American people," says showrunner Monica Beletsky, who spent four years developing the project and who has followed Menzies's career since they overlapped as students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London (she on a stint studying there from the US). "You could argue in a way that the Confederates won the peace," Menzies points out. "What is important about Monica making the show is that she is a person of color, and arguably the big fallout from Lincoln's assassination was that Reconstruction was lost until 100 years later and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Voting rights, land rights—they didn't happen. A lot of the things that African Americans have been fighting so hard for, for so long, were on Stanton's agenda."

Menzies studied carefully for the role ("He prepares months in advance," says Beletsky), working to find Stanton's voice and make his accent seem effortless, but also reading widely about the Civil War and its aftermath. Doris Kearns Goodwin's classic history Team of Rivals was a particularly rich source: "It takes you into this very disparate group Lincoln collected around him," Menzies says. "There was such a diversity of opinion and a lot of antagonism, but that was part of the power of it." Menzies also studied Gregory Peck's towering performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. "I was thinking of those archetypes that American literature and film are full of," he says. "Because it's such a whirlwind story with so many different characters floating through it—so you need a moral compass."

The key to the character became a combination of "stoicism and radicalism," Menzies says—and as an actor, he's exceptionally good at playing men who are fighting such opposing impulses, with strong currents of feeling running beneath an impassive surface. "He is one of those rare actors who does a lot with silence," Beletsky says. "He makes you believe you can feel what he is thinking, and he can do those things without saying a word."

Goold, who has directed Menzies many times onstage—including as Hamlet, as Valentine in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, and as Edgar in King Lear—thinks this quality has become stronger as Menzies has grown older. "He's got this wonderful physical expressiveness, but there's a slightly remote quality to him, I suppose," Goold says. "The quality I find really compelling in him is his committed curiosity. It's quite rare, especially for British actors, to keep their craft developing, to become more rigorous and investigative, and I think Tobias is an outlier on that."

Menzies is attracted to roles that conceal depths. "There is a certain magic about that. Part of the maths is that there is more on the inside than on the outside"

Their most recent collaboration is The Hunt, a haunting story in which a small-town teacher becomes ostracized when a six-year-old child accuses him of abuse. Menzies will be reprising his devastatingly observed performance from the play's 2019 London premiere. "When we put it on, we felt it to be about false accusations and the way that cancel culture was creating pariahs," says Goold. "But it is as much about someone who is shut out from their community because they choose to live apart. There is part of Tobias that is like that."

Menzies acknowledges that he is attracted to roles that conceal depths. "It's partly a taste thing," he says. "I like the kind of acting where I can't see the performance, I can't see how it is happening. There is a certain magic about that. Part of the maths is that there is more on the inside than on the outside, there's a kind of mystery there."

Menzies was born in London, his father a radio producer for the BBC, but after his parents separated when he was six, he lived with his mother, a drama teacher, and his brother in Kent. On their regular cultural outings, he was inspired by contemporary dance and the experimental theater companies he saw: Pina Bausch, Complicité, Shared Experience, Cheek by Jowl. "I was interested in companies that were making their own work," he says, "and I tried to go to train with [the radical movement coach] Jacques Lecoq in Paris; but I didn't have the money for that, so I went to RADA."

He never dreamed of being a famous actor. "My obsession as a kid was tennis," he says, with a grin. He was good enough to be on the fringes of the team for the county of Kent but gave it up when he realized he would never be truly first-class. He stopped playing for a long time. "Periodically I would pick up a racket and try to play a bit, and my game had completely fallen apart and it made me so angry. It was so frustrating. A few years ago I thought, Let's start again, do my 10,000 hours, and let's fix it." He approached the task with "monomaniacal" intent, working for a year on his forehand, and a year on his backhand, then adding his serve. Now he plays three times a week at a local tennis club, either with a coach or taking on other members in clay court matches. "I'm pretty obsessive about it," he says. "I just find it fascinating. It is such a mental game—a very interesting microcosm of one's brain."

His hero is Novak Djokovic. "He has less natural flair than Nadal or Federer but there is an epic quality to his tennis. He is able to endure and suffer, and so he can do it all in some way. There is a sort of purity to what he is doing. I think only if you have struggled with tennis do you realize that even though it looks plain, what's going on, the footwork, the ability to get to that ball and then hit it—it's just rather remarkable."

Menzies admits that his attitude to life mirrors his tennis. "I am probably on the methodical end of things, yeah," he says, with another low laugh. I ask about his film roles, which have been getting bigger and richer of late. He loved filming in New York with Holofcener on You Hurt My Feelings—"It was definitely bucket list"—and is currently appearing alongside Brad Pitt in the as-yet-untitled Formula 1 drama directed by Joseph Kosinski, which is filming scenes at Grand Prix around the world.

Before the actors' strike interrupted production, they had shot two scenes at Silverstone in the UK. "It was bonkers because we are in amongst everything else. So we did this scene on the grid before the race and the grid is live: real drivers, real cars, celebrities wandering around." He pauses, then adds: "It was like theater on steroids—really, really fun." He has nothing but praise for Pitt—"a lovely, lovely person, very collaborative, very nice to act with, and supersmart"—but working with him brought Menzies face-to-face with a level of fame that he doesn't aspire to. "How does he go out? It is very constraining to have that level of visibility."

Partly from a desire to preserve his anonymity as much as he can, Menzies took an early decision never to talk about his private life. "Is that old-fashioned of me?" he asks. "I'm going to stick to my guns. It's partly natural shyness on my part. But to be a bit more grandiose about it, the idea of celebrity moving into the arts and acting does have an effect on how we watch."

Through it all Menzies is genial and engaged, asking a lot of questions, yet there is something formal about him too. This is someone who is deeply serious about acting, pursuing projects that interest him and then immersing himself in them. I ask if being able to choose work of quality and interest is part of this new level of success, and Menzies says that it has come at a good time. "The question for me would have been whether as a younger person I would have handled it very well," he tells me. "I just think at some base level, it has taken me time to get really good." He laughs gently. "If I'd had a lot of exposure early on, I don't think I'd have been ready. I know I am a lot better now than I was 10 years ago. Acting keeps you very humble because you never quite know day-to-day. You can do all the work in the world and try the best you can, and sometimes it just lifts off and sometimes it doesn't."

[mogai-sunflowers]

MOGAI BHM- Day 10!

happy BHM! today i’m going to be talking about the harlem renaissance and its significance! the harlem renaissance itself is a huge topic to cover, so this post will be more of an overview, with discussions of art and theater during the movement, and in future posts i will go through literature and music during the harlem renaissance!

Background and Context-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of a group of Black people organized into two lines in a field. At the front of the two lines, there is a table and a few white people administering medical tests/attention to the Black people in the lines. End ID.]

Part of what sparked the Harlem Renaissance was a series of factors that compounded each other in the early part of the 1900s in America. Urbanization was one of these factors, and it describes the process of populations shifting from rural to city/urban environments. Early 1900s America saw a huge increase in the production of metal, the drilling for oil, and other industrial factors, which led to a large amount of skyscrapers being built and cities being developed.

Urbanization is not just the building of cities, though. It’s the population, economic, and cultural shifts that come with the building of cities. The environments people live in influence their financial situation, their culture, their education, and their access to certain resources and opportunities.

When mass urbanization happens, it’s usually accompanied by mass migrations, which is exactly what happened with what is now called the Great Migration, which lasted about 6 decades starting in 1910. The earlier part of the Great Migration was characterized by a huge amount of Black southerners migrating to the rapidly urbanizing North.

The Great Migration of Black people out of the South also coincided with a growth of new, revolutionary ideas about race and culture. The horrible legacy of white supremacy in America had completely severed Black Americans from their individual cultures in Africa. It caused, and continues to cause to this day, a difficulty for Black people to connect to cultural and racial pride- but in the early 1900s, that began to change. 

A lot of Black people began striving to create racial pride out of the racial oppression they were experiencing- since many Black people didn’t know which culture they descended from, a movement to create the ‘New Negro’, as it was then called, out of a pan-African identity, began to grow. New, revolutionary ideas of what it meant to be Black in America- ideas rooted in pride and celebration rather than shame, took root as huge populations of Black people moved northward to growing cities.

In 1919, a series of deadly race riots, later known as ‘Red Summer’, combined with the renewed outrage many Black people had towards their inhumane treatment after experiencing much better treatment overseas at war, led to increased awareness of a racial reckoning in America, and the Harlem Renaissance was afoot.

The Harlem Renaissance-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of a large crowd of Black people all standing in front of a theater. The theater has a glitzy, light-up sign that says “LAFAYETTE” and is strewn with a few signs that say “HALLELUJAH!”. End ID.]

Centered in the city of Harlem in New York, the Harlem Renaissance was a Black cultural revolution. It was a national rebirth of Black pride and it involved the birth and growth of Black literature, art, music, culture, and pride. 

Black music thrived through the international boom of jazz music. Black art and literature grew through publications like The Crisis and Opportunity. Black sociology thrived and defined the movement. 

The Harlem Renaissance influenced the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power movement, and all areas of Black culture, and it had and continues to have international influences.

Harlem buzzed with the opening of many new, ritzy clubs where people enjoyed vibrant performances, and Black night life became a staple of the Renaissance.

Visual Art During the Harlem Renaissance-

[Image ID: A colorful painting by Aaron Douglas. The background is vibrant streaks of golden, yellow, and orange, and the subject of the painting is a Black man in a brown suit, wearing a hat. End ID.]

Visual arts flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. Formal art education institutions were very hostile to Black people, so they very rarely could attend them, meaning that mainstream art movements ignored and excluded Black people, Black artists, and Black art. The Harlem Renaissance challenged that.

Often called the “Father of African-American Art”, the most famous visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance is Aaron Douglas. Influenced by movements like Cubism, Douglas had four of his works, a series which he called the “Aspects of N*gro Life”, commissioned. They became very popular for combining modern art styles with indigenous African styles mainly from West African countries, and they depicted Black people in different areas of life, especially music and other movements which flourished during the Harlem Renaissance.

Considered to be the first Pan-African-American artwork, a sculpture called ‘Ethiopia’ was created inspired by Egyptian culture by artist Meta Warrick Fuller, who made the art dedicated to the contributions of Black Americans to the world of art. Printmaking also flourished as an art form during the Harlem Renaissance with artists like James Lesesne Wells, whose style combined both European and African influences.

Photography helped sustain the Harlem Renaissance- historically, documentation of Black experiences had only been about pain and suffering- and while remembering those experiences is important, they are not the whole story. Famous photographer James Van Der Zee captured never-before-seen Black joy, Black pride, in his thousands of beautiful photographs of the Harlem Renaissance.

Theater During the Harlem Renaissance-

[Image ID: A small, blurry, black-and-white photograph of a large crowd of Black people standing and cheering outside of a theater called the Savoy Ballroom, which has a big, lit sign advertising its name and shows names of shows playing there beneath that sign. End ID.]

In media like plays and stage performances, Black identity had always been extremely limited- racist legacies of minstrel shows and racist stereotypes in performances meant that Black people were only ever portrayed in horribly demeaning roles, usually not even by Black actors, and when they WERE portrayed by Black actors, those actors were treated terribly and were forced to demean themselves in their performances.

The Harlem Renaissance began to challenge that by giving Black Americans the opportunity to represent themselves in their own stage performances- instead of the minstrel stereotypes they’d been reduced to for a long time, many began writing their own roles, allowing themselves to give depth and humanity to Black characters, allowing Black characters to be the good guys, allowing them the ability to have complex stories and lives outside of stereotypes.

Black Americans established such famous theaters as the Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo Theater, eventually becoming just south-adjacent of the white-dominated Broadway. Famous writers like Langston Hughes began writing plays like ‘Mulatto’ and ‘The Sun Do Move’, and famous Black actors like Billy King and Theophilus Lewis became stars.

One of the most influential stage works to come out of the Harlem Renaissance was a play called Shuffle Along, and it challenged the racist exclusion that many Black actors faced on Broadway by becoming the first Black play in over a decade to reach Broadway. It portrayed Black people living their lives and gave them the ability to express the humanity that white Americans were trying to ignore.

Sources-

https://magazine.artland.com/art-movement-harlem-renaissance/#:~:text=The%20Visual%20Arts%20of%20the%20Harlem%20Renaissance&text=Douglas%20was%20influenced%20by%20modernist,from%20Benin%2C%20Congo%20and%20Senegal. 

https://www.britannica.com/event/Harlem-Renaissance-American-literature-and-art/Visual-art

https://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/henken08/articles/r/e/n/Renaissance_and_Theatre_d0e4.html#:~:text=These%20performances%20were%20often%20shown,and%20The%20Sun%20Do%20Move.

https://historyoftheharlemrenaissance.weebly.com/the-apollo-theatre.html https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance

tagging @metalheadsforblacklivesmatter​ @neopronouns​ @genderkoolaid​ 

[star-trek-pop-quiz]

Star Trek POP-QUIZ #15

( 13 / 01 / 2024 )

Question 1. Which actor was personally asked by Martin Luther King ( a self-proclaimed Trekkie ) to stay on Star Trek? a. Nichelle Nichols. b. Walter Koenig c.Michael Dorn. d. Whoopi Goldberg.

Bonus Question: What is their character, series and rank in Star Trek?

Question 2. TRUE OR FALSE The first African-American woman ( Dr Mae Jemison ) to travel into space appeared on Star Trek.

Bonus Question: If so, in which series did she appear?

Question 3. In the Star Trek episode "Far Beyond the Stars" we follow Avery Brooks ( Benjamin Sisko's actor ) playing a sci-fi writer in the 1950s. What was the name of Benjamin Sisko's "alter-ego"? a. Benji Nichols b. Benny Russell c. Ben Nova d. None of the above, his name was still Benjamin Sisko.

Question 4. What does Uhura's first name mean? a. Freedom b. Star c. Revolution d. Universe

Bonus Question: What is Uhura's first name? Spelling Counts!

Question 5. Fill-in Question! Excluding voice-acting, which actor has appeared in the most Star Trek episodes/movies?

Score: __/ 5 + 3 bonus ( Answers under cut )

Question 1. a. Nichelle Nichols.

+ Nichelle Nichols appears in The Original Star Trek Series, as Lieutenant Commander Nyota Uhura, the Communications Officer. For Additional Information, consider searching up the interview: https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942461/Star-Treks-Uhura-Reflects-On-MLK-Encounter

Question 2. TRUE

+ She appears on The Next Generation, S6 - E24 ( "Second Chances" ).

Question 3. b. Benny Russel.

Question 4. b. Star.

+ Nyota is her given name. It means star in the African languages Swahili and Lingala.

Question 5. According to most sources, Michael Dorn ( who plays Worf in TNG, DS9, PIC and several Star Trek movies ).

On the 15th of January, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy is honored through Martin Luther King day. ✊🏿

Consider reading up on current issues, reading the stories of many black individuals ( including the ones listed here: casting stories, their history, how has Nichelle Nichols influenced black women and actors, etc. ), and helping where you can.

[rockislandadultreads]

Black History Month: Science Fiction 

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin 

This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze - the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years - collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

This is the first volume of “The Broken Earth” series. 

Africa Risen edited by Sheree Renée Thomas

From an award-winning team of editors comes an anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora.

A group of cabinet ministers query a supercomputer containing the minds of the country’s ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendent of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother’s ability to change her appearance - and perhaps the world.

Created in the legacy of the seminal, award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and Afro-Diasporic SFF and reaffirms that Africa is not rising - it’s already here.

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi 

Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor's son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven't happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands.

Ella and Kev are both shockingly human and immeasurably powerful. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by racism. Their futures might alter the world.

Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient African tongue.

Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny - to end the genocide of her people. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture - and eventually death itself.

This is the first volume in the “Who Fears Death” series. 

[kemetic-dreams]

                          𝗜𝗥𝗔 𝗔𝗟𝗗𝗥𝗜𝗗𝗚𝗘 (1807-1867) 𝗜𝗿𝗮 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗔𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲. 𝗛𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 19𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝘆.

Ira Frederick Aldridge was born in New York City, New York on July 24, 1807 to free African Reverend Daniel and Lurona Aldridge. Although his parents encouraged him to become a pastor, he studied classical education at the African Free School in New York where he was first exposed to the performance arts. While there he became impressed with acting and by age 15 was associating with professional black actors in the city. They encouraged Aldridge to join the prestigious African Grove Theatre, an all-African theatre troupe founded by William Henry Brown and James Hewlett in 1821. He apprenticed under Hewlett, the first African American Shakespearean actor. Though Aldridge was gainfully employed as an actor in the 1820s, he felt that the United States was not a hospitable place for theatrical performers. Many whites resented the claim to cultural equality that they saw in African performances of Shakespeare and other European-authored texts. Realizing this, Aldridge emigrated to Europe in 1824 as the valet for British-American actor James William Wallack.

Aldridge eventually moved to Glasgow, Scotland and began studies at the University of Glasgow, where he enhanced his voice and dramatic skills in theatre. He moved to England and made his debut in London in 1825 as Othello at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, a role he would remain associated with until his death. The critic reviews gave Aldridge the name Roscius (the celebrated Roman actor of tragedy and comedy). Aldridge embraced it and began using the stage name “The African Roscius.” He even created the myth that he was the descendant of a Senegalese Prince whose family was forced to escape to the United States to save their lives. This deception erased Aldridge’s American upbringing and cast him as an exotic and almost magical being.

Throughout the mid-1820s to 1860 Ira Aldridge slowly forged a remarkable career. He performed in London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Bath, and Bristol in King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, and The Merchant of Venice. He also freely adapted classical plays, changing characters, eliminating scenes and installing new ones, even from other plays. In 1852 he embarked on a series of continental tours that intermittently would last until the end of his life. He performed his full repertoire in Prussia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, and Poland. Some of the honors he received include the Prussian Gold Medal for Arts and Sciences from King Frederick, the Golden Cross of Leopold from the Czar of Russia, and the Maltese Cross from Berne, Switzerland.

Aldridge died on August 7, 1867 while on tour in Lodz, Poland. He was 60 at the time of his death. Aldridge had been married twice and left behind several children including a daughter named Luranah who would, in her own right, go on to become a well-known actress and opera singer. There is a memorial plaque at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stafford-upon-Avon, in honor of his contributions to the performing arts. In 2014 a second plaque was unveiled in Lodz, Poland to honor his memory and legacy

[canmom]

Animationo Night 177 - Kizazi Moto + Fatenah

Hey everyone. It's Animation Night again. We aten'nt dead!!

Huge apologies to European viewers that I couldn't stream this one earlier. Still, I'd like to get back into the swing of things, so we're back. (Bros. We're so back.)

So. tonight we're gonna be checking out Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire. This is a collection of scifi films created by studios from five different countries across the length of Africa.

The impetus came from the South African studio Triggerfish - originally a stop motion studio, but they switched over to CG a few decades ago. We saw some of their work back on Animation Night 166 in Star Wars: Visions, which came close enough to the stop motion feel as to leave me in doubt. There's no question they have a ton of talent.

Like Visions, this short film collection has the financial backing of the Mouse; it also has another American, Spiderverse director Peter Ramsey, serving as executive producer. But there's no monolithic franchise involved this time - the individual directors and studios were given considerable creative freedom. Styles range from anime-esque to Hanna-barbera; stories span aliens in high speed races through near future dystopias to apocalyptic stories about gods.

The creators are a little hands off towards the term 'afrofuturism'; in an interview with Skwigly magazine, producer Tendayi Nyeke asks us to interpret it just as scifi more broadly:

We don’t use the word Afro-futurist! Part of that is we are seeing science fiction, but through the context of Africa, and trying to demystify Afrofuturism. It’s not a genre for us. Because, you start to raise questions like can a French person do an afro futurist movie? And what does that even mean? So it’s an African filmmaker using science fiction as a medium to communicate. Science fiction allows them to imagine big futures. I love when a lot of Western science fiction is looking at  a dystopian context, we’re looking at hope. It really comes from trauma in some ways, though we have a rich heritage prior to the trauma. And then we’re like, hey, technology is evolving. We’re evolving as human beings. If there was hope, what could that look like? Science fiction as a medium allows you to explore that just by its design.

Among the filmmakers, there is considerable ambition to change the general layout of the animation industry. Raymond Malinga, director of Herderboy, remarks:

But somehow, because of all these things like colonialism and everything, it’s almost like our creativity was stifled by that and we just keep on accepting the fact that we are supposed to tell mundane things, you know? Mundane. Normal. So with “Herderboy”, I just took one of the oldest professions of the whole continent. And I said if I can update that and Ugandans watch that, they can start saying, you know, if cattle herders can look cool, then what else can look cool?

It's a cool interview, he's very charmingly down to earth when he talks about how after working on the film for a year he has no idea what's funny or not. Isn't that a mood...

Of course, until fairly recently there were a lot more animated films about Africa, such as the French Kirikou series, than animated films created in Africa. Which is nuts when we're talking about an entire continent, right? Thanks, "legacy of colonial extractivism". But things are really moving now! African animation was the subject of Annecy 2021, and in the online version of the festival I got to see the impressively varied Mshini TV collection of the edgier end of the spectrum, which carried all sorts from Newgrounds-esque flashes to South Park-like comedy skits. And this year at Annecy 2023, I got to see the first feature-length animated film from Cameroon, The Sacred Cave. A bug is spreading!

With this field, Kizazi Moto stands out for its startlingly high level of technical polish. And of course, I just like scifi. From the Mouse's perspective, they have their eye on the long game - trying to capture an 'emerging market' and all that. But, I would far rather they spend their money this way than having animators add yet more weight to the sinking Star Wars boat, you know?

So let's go take a look at what they've put together! In total, Kizazi Moto comprises 10 films, typically about 10 minutes long each. You can get summaries here or just watch along tonight, and I'll be posting my thoughts on each one later~

And. For a dose of the heavy along with this fun stuff - the ongoing genocide has put Palestine and specifically the Gaza strip in the front of everyone's minds. While there have been a few animated films touching on the occupation from the Israeli side, like Waltz With Bashir, a celebrated psychological drama in a realist style in which a former Israeli soldier reflects on whether he did a warcrimes, and Seder-Masochism, in which Nina Paley attempts to lay out a story about how the patriarchical Abrahamic religions suppressed an ancient matriarchal religion (she is a terf, how did you guess!), which includes the undeniably conceptually effective but highly equivocating This Land Is Mine segment... there is less available from the Palestinian side for the obvious and sad economic reasons.

But, a couple of weeks ago, Animation Obsessive wrote an article to celebrate Fatenah (2009), a short film animated in the West Bank about a woman in Gaza struggling to get breast cancer treatment. It's available free on Vimeo:

It's directed by Ahmad Habash, a native of the West Bank who came to study animation here in the UK, and secured WHO funding after they saw his student film. But the film is not a one-note activist project, it's a careful character study trying to give a convincing portrait of the different facets of its title character's life. This film was completely new to me and I'm grateful to AniObsessive for highlighting some Palestinian art in my favourite medium. So I'd like to slot this into my little Twitch show as well!

I have a bunch of other short films I'm excited to show, between recent Gobelins works and another AniObsessive piece highlighting their favourite short films from the festival circuit which have become available online. But given the ludicrously late start, I don't want to pack too much in to this one. We'll save that for another week!

I know Animation Night has been very spotty recently. I've been going through it with the old brain a bit ('a bit' she says). I'm trying to get things back on track with sleep and stuff, thank you for all the kind things people have said, and for bearing with me.

So! Let's go! Animation Night 177 will be going live in just a moment in its usual home, https://twitch.tv/canmom!