Raindrops on Lilies

talented10th: Nina Simone performs her tribute to Martin Luther...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:05:32 -0400

talented10th:

Nina Simone performs her tribute to Martin Luther King, Why?

evolutionstopshere: Happy bday Toni Morrison!

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:38:51 -0500

evolutionstopshere:

Happy bday Toni Morrison!

thesmithian: vintageblackglamour: Happy 82nd Birthday Toni...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:33:17 -0500

thesmithian:

vintageblackglamour:

Happy 82nd Birthday Toni Morrison!!! Chester Higgins, Jr. captured her here sometime in the 1970s. Photo: Getty.

[meaningful glance]

Photo

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:12:42 -0500

Photo

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:45:55 -0500

valentine’s day is around the corner. And this is me every...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 04:48:22 -0500

valentine’s day is around the corner.

And this is me every year lol

Photo

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:12:50 -0500

when an artist wants to show you their art or a writer wants you to read what they’ve written it’s...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:36:39 -0500

when an artist wants to show you their art

or a writer wants you to read what they’ve written

it’s quite often an expression of trust

because a poem or a story or a painting are often things that come from the heart

little pieces of the artists themselves

and if they’re willing to share it with you

you should appreciate it

ladymargo: This legend is Katherine Duhnam and aside from...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 04:48:39 -0500

ladymargo:

This legend is Katherine Duhnam and aside from forming the first self-supported African-American owned dance company, forming her first dance school for black youth while still in high school, she taught your faves how to dance:

Her alumni included many future celebrities, such as Eartha Kitt, who, as a teenager, won a scholarship to her school and later became one of her dancers before moving on to a successful singing career. Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine, Doris Duke, Toni Cade Bambara and Warren Beatty.

Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers.

This photo of Eartha Kitt dancing with James Dean was likely taken at her studio.

She lived a remarkable life, having studied, articulated, and recorded the basis for the African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latino movement in modern dance. During her studies in Haiti, she fell in the love with the country, living there for many years and eventually becoming a mambo (priestess) in Vodun religion.

She refused to perform for non-racially integrated audiences and turned down a lucrative studio contract when producers asked her to replace her darker-skinned company members.

Brazil created a law that made racial discrimination in public places illegal, because she publicized the racism she faced there, in 1950.

She went on a 47 day hunger strike in the 1992 at the age of 83 to protest the forced repatriation of Haitian refugees.

In 2006, she died peacefully in her sleep at 96 years old.

She can watch her story here.

Hers is a life I would love to see depicted on the big screen.

soulbrotherv2: Billie Holliday. Check out the earrings.

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:12:34 -0500

soulbrotherv2:

Billie Holliday. Check out the earrings.

cartermagazine: Today In History ‘Zora Neale Hurston, writer,...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 04:48:47 -0500

cartermagazine:

Today In History

‘Zora Neale Hurston, writer, was born in Eatonville, FL, on this date January 7, 1901. Hurston, who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, is widely known for her contribution to the “Harlem Renaissance” and a publication called “FIRE” written by Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas and Wallace Thurman.

(photo: Zora Neale Hurston)

- CARTER Magazine

talented10th: Selma, Alabama. 1963. James FORMAN, executive...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:24:25 -0500

talented10th:

Selma, Alabama. 1963. James FORMAN, executive secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and writer James BALDWIN.

Alvin Ailey

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 15:39:09 -0500

Alvin Ailey

okiesmai: Teedra Moses - Be Your Girl

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:30:19 -0500

okiesmai:

Teedra Moses - Be Your Girl

black-culture: howtobeterrell: My Favorite Toni Morrison books...

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 04:48:37 -0500

The Bluest Eye

Sula

Song of Solomon

Tar Baby

Beloved

Jazz

What Moves At the Margin

Conversations with Toni Morrison

black-culture:

howtobeterrell:

My Favorite Toni Morrison books about her and written by her.

chucklew: They start rough..

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 14:24:52 -0500

chucklew:

They start rough..

hommenoir: James Baldwin is one of my heros!

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 00:37:02 -0500

hommenoir:

James Baldwin is one of my heros!

Photo

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:47:38 -0500

theballetblog: Dance Theatre of Harlem

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:33:31 -0500

theballetblog:

Dance Theatre of Harlem

"In classroom settings, I have often listened to groups of students tell me that racism really no..."

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 10:45:25 -0500

“In classroom settings, I have often listened to groups of students tell me that racism really no longer shapes the contours of our lives, that there is just no such thing as racial difference, that ‘we are all just people.’ Then a few minutes later I give them an exercise. I ask if they were about to die and could choose to come back as a white male, a white female, a black female, or a black male, which identity would they choose. Each time I do this exercise, most individuals, irrespective of gender or race invariably choose whiteness, and most often white maleness. Black females are the least chosen. When I ask students to explain their choice they proceed to do a sophisticated analysis of privilege based on race (with perspectives that take gender and class into consideration). This disconnect between their conscious repudiation of race as a marker of privilege and their unconscious understanding is a gap we have to bridge, an illusion that must be shattered before a meaningful discussion of race and racism can take place. This exercise helps them move past their denial of the existence of racism.”

- bell hooks

Be sure to refer to this the next time someone tries that lazy, anti-critical thinking response of “we are all people” as if someone questioned our genus and species/binomial nomenclature as homo sapiens (though the consistent dehumanization efforts against people of colour leaves the argument open of whether or not we are actually considered human in the first goddamn place), versus questioning the fact that despite race being a social construct, racism is very much a real issue (as if social constructs are not also “real” things, despite being constructed. Real and true do not always mean the same thing.)

Related Posts: Conversations With White People About Race, 8 Predictable and Annoying Responses In Conversations About Race

(via gradientlair)