All posts in category Artists
Recognize
Happy Labor Day Weekend!
Between screening Black and Cuba and working on my new multi-platform project 9 GRAMS, I’ve spent some time this summer thinking about the Black woman’s image. Of course in one way or another I’ve been thinking about it my entire life by looking in the mirror and beholding the relentless glamour of my mother and grandmother while I was growing up. In creating films that center Black women’s perspectives and – frankly- a lifetime of struggling to valorize my own, I’ve come to realize the most empowering and aesthetically beautiful representations of Black women are the ones we create ourselves.
Posted by Progressive Pupil on September 1, 2016
https://progressivepupil.wordpress.com/2016/09/01/recognize/
Long Live Prince
See a 1982 concert by the legend
Our hearts go out to the entire Paisley Park family. May he rest in power.
Posted by Progressive Pupil on April 21, 2016
https://progressivepupil.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/long-live-prince/
Podcast: What’s Art Got to Do With IT?
Can art help to erase racism? In this episode of BREAKING DOWN RACISM, dancer, choreographer and activist Paloma Mcgregor discusses how artists can be effective activists?
Produced/Written/Directed by: Crista Carter, Johanna Galomb and Benjamin Jackson
Host/Executive Producer/Series Creator Robin J. Hayes, PhD
Recorded at The New School in New York City
PICTURED Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, “Revelations” 2012 courtesy Alvin Ailey Theater
Posted by Progressive Pupil on January 25, 2016
https://progressivepupil.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/podcast-whats-art-got-to-do-with-it/
The Greatest
“Like Muhammad Ali puts it, we are all—black and brown and poor—victims of the same system of oppression.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Happy Birthday Muhammad Ali! Mainstream media continues to revere him for his extraordinary achievements as an athlete and his influential oratory style (How many of us have alleged to “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”?). However, Ali is beloved to the progressive community and the African diaspora for his candid criticism of racial discrimination and poverty as well as his refusal to be inducted in the US Army during the Vietnam War due to his religious beliefs. Ali could have exercised his class privilege, entered the army and fought entertaining exhibition bouts without ever being in any physical danger. Instead, he chose to take a principled stand which in the short run cost him millions of dollars and some of his peak years as a boxing champion. In the long run, Ali’s example made him a legend.
To learn more about Muhammad Ali, see the Academy Award-winning film When we Were Kings, or read this Dave Zirin article in The Nation.
Posted by Progressive Pupil on January 17, 2016
https://progressivepupil.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/like-muhammad-ali-puts-it/
Dance Theater of Harlem
Today Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook co-founded the Dance Theater of Harlem in 1969 to bring ballet and its allied arts to Mitchell’s beloved community. The Dance Theater of Harlem continues to educate young people and diversify the art form of dance.
Posted by Progressive Pupil on January 7, 2016
https://progressivepupil.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/dance-theater-of-harlem/