A tar-painted female figure shines forks for a halo. Her arms have eyes. She’s holding a pair of old brown work boots as an offering. A second figure holds a banjo. She’s skating on top of an alligator that’s lying flat on a skateboard. A third wears electrical outlets for a dress. She’s about to explode. Her chicken legs and tiny feet are seemingly too fragile to support her swollen body. The lips of their cowrie shell mouths curl inward, …
Tag: african american
Weeks ago I got an email from Sarah Vinnett. After reading my article, she wrote to me about her family and some of the trials that they overcame. It definitely gave me a heads-up. Thank you Sarah for being so open. Appreciate you allowing me to publicly share your story. My name is Sarah, or in Japanese 聖良. I’m half Creole (my Father is from New Orleans) and half Japanese (my Mother is from Japan, specifically the Kansai area). …
Loser Laowai in China is a youtube channel produced by Randall Flagg. He’s been living in China for almost ten years. His youtube profile describes it as a story about a foreigner living in Shanghai and “information on the culture, living, working, coping and the social issues that come with the second largest economy in the world,” but Dude. Is. A. Character. “He’s alive. He’s alive!” A lot of the videos are of him talking to the camera, but don’t …
I stumbled upon some clips of a CMT documentary Waiting in the Wings about African Americans in country music from 2004. Contrary to popular image and narrative of country music being mainly a white Euro-American rural based music, this CMT documentary sought to explore the contributions of African American country musicians over the years and the African influences on the early development of country music. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a full stream of this documentary. If anyone has any leads leave …
Filmmaker Byron Hurt’s documentary Soul Food Junkies looks at the history of African American culinary traditions and its influence on the greater U.S. culinary traditions. Byron also delves into the socio-economic-politics of food in the United States, the health concerns over soul food cooking, the unhealthy effects of processed fast food in the inner cities and various “food deserts” located in the United States. Soul Food Junkies also tries to highlight the growing movement of organic urban farming and the healthier …
Socials