#black history month

[dominiqueramseyart]

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!

[saydesole]

Nuthin’ But a “Black” Thang Baby ✊🏿

[thelolarahaii]

Give us the vote!

SELMA (2015) dir. Ava DuVernay

[dreadheadmadi]

I’m not sure if anyone else has brought this up but I would also like to add that the OG line up for the superbowl was NOT this. There were so many songs that were cut out for being too graphic/violent (too loud and too ghetto).

And yet even still, Kendrick found a way around that.

Yk the girls who dances with him? Those are the same girls from King Kunta who sing in the background.

Same voices, same melody, just different words. And the fact he had them by his side a good part of the performance, or at least never breaking them up and having them dance apart just means something to me.

Even though he wasn’t allowed to rap what he wanted, he still held them close, found other ways to have that song included - even if it was to give them a new set of words, their flow never switched up.

I could be overthinking but it’s just so symbolic to me. “I can’t show y’all who I really am, but trust that doesn’t mean I ain’t still me. I just gotta find another way to express myself.”

Like the dancers were symbolic alone, and I’m not just talking about their clothes. I’m talking about their moves, their reactions, hell even down to the specific grouping!

I could write books on Kdot’s performances all day!

A Crash Course to Kendrick's Super Bowl Performance, from a Black Woman

Note: this does NOT go in depth into all of the song's lyrics. I don't have time to recount two decades of his discography. This is just a summary of the performance itself.

Let's start with the first visual we get:

UNCLE SAM - most notably recognized from WWII American wartime propaganda, Uncle Sam is the personification of American patriotism and freedom. The term "uncle" is also evocative of Uncle Tom from Uncle Tom's Cabin, an abolitionist book that aided in inciting the Civil War. Uncle is also a very common term (both endearment and derogatory) towards Black men (eg. "unc"). Samuel L Jackson was fantastic. (Edit: and please look up his history of civil rights activism, he was on the FBI watchlist and even a pallbearer at MLKJr’s funeral.)

Uncle Sam also resembles a circus ringleader, notable for my next point:

THE GREAT AMERICAN GAME - no, not Super Bowl. The GAG is us the people being pitted against each other: through late-stage capitalism, through the culture war, through class warfare, through being built of the backs of slaves. We are all players in the GAG because none of us on this site were the oligarchs seated at the inauguration.

This is also seen as Kendrick's stage was a Play Station controller. Not only did it remind of circus rings visually, but it was a game battle stage. The Great American Game is a battle royale of the commoners for the amusement of the rich whites.

Remember the foods / Them color was tin and brown / But now they 100 and blue - For this I'll just say, look what the last election said about lowering the price of eggs... and look at the prices now.

The revolution about to be televised / You picked the right time / But the wrong guy - Election 2024 once more. *Edit to add, the first part of this lyric is in reference to the Black Liberation Song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron. Thanks to everyone who mentioned that.

THE FLAG DANCERS - yes, the dancers formed the US flag... off of the backs of Black people. Not a single white person in sight, and that's true of the cotton pickers in the fields. Plantations are part of how the US came to economic prominence after being a "backwater" colony. Remember tobacco? Cotton? Our bloodlines do. *Edit to add: they also all piled out of a clown car. The US flag in a clown car? Brilliant.

The red and blue dancers are also notable for representing the Crips and Bloods, two infamous street gangs. The dance in Not Like Us is the Crip Walk. I recommend researching more on your own time about them, but just know they are a large part of the stereotype of Black people being "ghetto."

TOO LOUD, TOO RECKLESS, TOO GHETTO. Do you really know how to play the game? - This is exactly what Black people, especially Black men, get told all the time. It's why we change our names on resumes if they sound "too Black." It's why we codeswitch in non-Black company. This is especially rich considering how non-Black people love our culture and love to make money off of us, as the latter part of the quote points to. And it's even more profound during the Super Bowl-- the NFL is majority Black players.

STREET LIGHT A CAPELLA -- "thug" stereotype dancers to counteract the a capella connotations, with Uncle Sam then saying that Kendrick figured out "bringing other street guys around being a culture cheat code." Yes, this is a direct hit at Drake (listen to "Not Like Us") but also politically. Look up "model minority". Notably I would point to Candace Owens, or the Miami Venezuelan political group that's been in the news recently, especially as this directly led to Kendrick being surrounded by...

DANCERS IN WHITE -- it's white America. That's... that's the allegory.

NOT LIKE US TEASER -- Kendrick says "Not Like Us" is "their favorite song." -> he means white people specifically here. It comes after he's surrounded by all white dancers, the women around him who are his call and response are also in white (my opinion, they represent the industry). He's saying "Not Like Us" is the favorite of yts because it is about BLACK MEN FIGHTING. This again is reflected in the video game stage and ringleader Uncle Sam.

SZA -- instead of giving what they want, we see SZA. She's one of Drake's exes and Kendrick has always supported her.

ALL THE STARS -- This was in the first Black Panther movie, which I recommend you watch. Rest in Power Chadwick. Notably, this movie was incredibly mainstream as a major Marvel movie, and then we have Uncle Sam say...

"THAT'S WHAT AMERICA WANTS: NICE AND CALM. DON'T MESS THIS UP" -- translation: Marvel (the industry, America, etc.) wanted a safe, semi-pop song because white American likes safe pop songs, not Kendrick's usual heavy rap style about his life as a Black man! Don't mess up what you've got going mainstream for having this "Black rap feud" with Drake, who is an R&B model minority to white people because he's safe.

So what does Kendrick say?

IT'S A CULTURAL DIVIDE / IMMA GET IT ON THE FLOOR -- He was warned not to be political or apologetically Black for this Super Bowl performance, but he is using this big stage opportunity to speak out.

40 ACRES AND A MULE / THIS IS BIGGER THAN THE MUSIC -- 40 acres and a mule are what the freed slaves were promised. Instead, this land went to white sharecroppers. Research Jim Crow laws.

THEY TRIED TO RIG THE GAME / BUT YOU CAN'T FAKE INFLUENCE -- rig the election, rig the industry like with model minority Drake, rig the Great American Game with culture war to distract from active class warfare.

NOT LIKE US -- the only thing I'll mention because it made me holler is Serena Williams crip walking on Drake's metaphorical grave. She's another one of his exes (read: Drake harassed the hell out of her). *Edit: she was also fined at the 2012 Olympics for crip walking in celebration at Wimbledon.

TURN THE TV OFF -- exactly like he said! The TV is a distraction, the Super Bowl is a distraction, the mainstream news is often a distraction. Turn it off and get with your people!

GAME OVER — could not see this on my stream but at the end of the performance, the lights in the stadium spelled this out. The world is watching, America…

In conclusion, Kendrick Lamar is a visionary and thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[fyblackwomenart]

Barbara Jordan by Ekua Holmes

American lawyer, educator, and politician. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first Southern African-American.

[bwafficial]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!!!

this is so late oh my god... ANYWAY HAPPY BHM MY FELLOW BLACK REGRESSORS ILYSM!!!!

reminder that you dont have to look a certain way to be valid as a regressor!!! dont buy the pale skin straight hair pinterest bullshit!

here is a little stimboard for yall :3 non blks can enjoy n reblog of course ━🐣

x x x x x x

☆

🎀BWA SERVER !!

୧ ‧₊˚ our server is for all littles.

🐥 do you curse while regressed ? cool! 🍰 are you a 420 little ? that's fine! 🌸 you wanna talk about horror ? we have a channel 4 that!

୧ ‧₊˚ we have channels for sensitive littles too! ★ we even have a tumblr !! 🎀 join us today ･ω･

[destinyc1020]

✊🏾

Cecil J Williams

Ever Defiant✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

[uwmspeccoll]

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Celebrating Artist Nick Cave!

This week we feature a selection of Soundsuits by multi-disciplinary artist Nick Cave (1959-), and highlighted in the book 30 Americans published in 2013 in association with a traveling exhibition of the same name drawn from the Rubell Family Collection and presented nationally between 2008 and 2014. Born in Missouri, Cave studied Fiber Arts at the Kansas City Art Institute, dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York City, and completed his MFA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. He now lives and works in Chicago. In a recent interview with Art Basel, Cave describes the liberating experience of creating art from a “foundation of purpose.” He is a “messenger, artist, educator,” he says. “In that order,” he emphasizes.

Cave built his first Soundsuit in response to the Rodney King beatings in 1992, wanting to capture the feeling of being “discarded, dismissed, profiled.” He gathered twigs - also discarded, he thought - and built them into a suit of protective armor. While Cave works from a place of purpose and urgency, objects themselves often instigate the creation of a new suit: ceramic birds, buttons, toys, hair, crocheted granny squares. The immersive quality of the suit is meant to invite the audience into a “place of dreaming,” whether through their larger-than-life static presence in museums, or their celebratory, otherworldly dance in live performances. Cave embraces the playful, inviting, and joyful experience of the suits. “What,” he wonders, “do I need to sort of put in place to allow you to dream?”

If you’re in D.C. this April (and if creepy billionaires haven’t ruined everything by then), go see Nick Cave and his work at the Smithsonian Craft Show. He is the 2025 Smithsonian Visionary Award Winner.

View other Black History month posts.

--Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[southpauz]

Black History Month Art Challenge

Day 11: Sydney Adamu - The Bear

[tallnquirky]

My process?

A quick sneak park at my process!

🎉 ONLINE SHOP OPENING SOON!! 🎉

Finally I can shift away from Inprnt and have my own store tallnquirky.bigcartel.com on FEBRUARY 20th

[guavagyal]

Happy Black History Month

[fated-mates]

"There were over 10k-20k [Black people] that lived in London during the time of Jane Austen. The number has been estimated to be as high as 30k across England, Scotland, & Ireland. With less than 28 dukes during that time period, who were you more likely to run into, a duke, or a person of color?"

- Vanessa Riley

[cinamun]

What a time to be alive.

Happy Black History Month to all and to all a good night ❤️🖤💚

[fyblackwomenart]

Kara Walker by Allison Adams

American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, and film-maker. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes, mostly focusing on the Antebellum-era slave experience.