Podcasts about black studies

What happens when “being professional” quietly turns into “being unseen”?In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Black Studies scholar, writer, and professor at Duke University, joins Ashanti for an honest, wide-ranging conversation about masks we wear in education, what students have lost (and gained) in the post-pandemic classroom, and why freedom with language can be a pathway to belonging.In this episode, they cover:Growing up working class in the South Bronx: a father who wasn't verbal, but spoke through Sunday breakfast, gospel, and the Mets“Stoicism as a mask”: how Black men learn to control emotion by pretending they don't have anyWhy aging (and experience) shifted Dr. Neal's teaching: from gravitas and control → toward visible humanity and frailtyThe hidden cost of the attacks on Black Studies: not always bans—sometimes student fear and “natural attrition”Building the classroom as a vernacular space: language as freedom, not a barrier to participationImposter syndrome and “talking right”: how fear of sounding smart silences students before they ever start“Students are like iPhone updates”: why educators have to recalibrate pedagogy every few yearsPost-pandemic social gaps: why mentoring feels harder for students who didn't practice relationships outside their homesSave a Seat for Me: a love letter to Black fathers—and a new language for how Black men show up emotionally(0:01) Welcome + Dr. Mark Anthony Neal introduces himself (South Bronx roots, working-class parents, path from high school teaching to the academy)(1:45) Music as love language: Sunday breakfast, gospel, jazz/blues, and baseball as father-son connection(4:03) Upcoming book: Save a Seat for Me and why Black fatherhood is inseparable from American fatherhood(5:46) The “mask” framework: what we show vs. what we protect as educators(9:05) “Stoicism as control”: why many Black men learn to hide interiority (especially anger)(18:22) Teaching style shift: from “professorial gravitas” → toward conversational, accessible learning(20:24) Language & belonging: making the classroom a vernacular space (and why code-switching isn't the classroom goal)(27:57) Representation reality: brilliant Black women teachers early on—but no Black male teacher until Dr. Neal became one(32:16) “Higher expectations”: why lowering the bar is one of the most common ways schools fail Black students(54:31) Closing invitation: share your mask anonymously at Million Mask MovementConnect with Dr. Mark Anthony NealBook: Save a Seat for Me (Simon & Schuster) — publishing August 4, 2026Pre-order: Amazon, Simon & Schuster, and (hopefully) independent Black bookstoresInstagram: @BookerBBBrownTwitter: @NewBlackManResources & Ways to EngageThe Million Mask Movement – Create a mask anonymously: https://millionmask.orgEducator Portal – Bring mask-making and emotional data into your schoolGlobal Young Men's Conference – Youth voice, belonging, and healing spacesEver Forward Club – Brotherhood, connection, and mentorshipConnect with Ashanti BranchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/branchspeaks/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BranchSpeaksTwitter/X: https://twitter.com/BranchSpeaksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashantibranch/Website: https://www.branchspeaks.com/Connect with Ever Forward ClubInstagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/everforwardclub⁠Facebook:⁠ https://www.facebook.com/everforwardclub⁠Twitter:⁠ https://twitter.com/everforwardclub⁠LinkedIn:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ever-forward-club/⁠Support the Podcast & Ever Forward Clubhttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/branch-speaks/support#unmaskingwithmaleeducators #millionmaskmovement #takingoffthemask #BlackStudies #BlackMaleEducators #BlackFatherhood #Masculinity #EmotionalSafety #HigherEd #TeacherLife #StudentBelonging #Mentorship #CodeSwitching #AIInEducation #ShowYourWork

This month marks 60 years since the start of the Chicago Freedom Movement, when Martin Luther King Jr. moved to North Lawndale on the West Side to protest discriminatory housing practices and high rents. Today on In the Loop, a panel of experts examines what's changed for Black Chicagoans six decades later. Guest Pamela Stalling, VP of Housing and Financial Empowerment, Chicago Urban League Alden Loury, WBEZ data projects senior editor David Stovall, Professor of Black Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago

Our next episode drops on January 27th! In our off weeks, we air episodes of The Gaily Show. It's the only daily LGBTQ radio news and talk show in the US. John conducts a lot of author interviews on there!In this episode, the authors of the upcoming book A Black Queer History of the United States join John to unpack their landmark book tracing the lives of LGBTQ+ Black Americans. It comes out on January 20th! Pre-order your copy here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780807008553Dr. C. Riley Snorton is a professor of English language and comparative literature and is core faculty at the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender at Columbia University. He is the author of the award-winning book Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity.Dr. Darius Bost is associate professor of Black Studies and of gender and women's studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. Bost is the author of the award-winning book Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence.Watch on YouTubeWe're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshowCreditsHost/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change)Executive Producer: Jim PoundsProduction and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy EricksonSupport the show

I saw the power of storytelling and the responsibility we have to share stories to educate and change lives.Dr. Terésa Dowell-Vest is an Associate Professor of Communication at Prairie View A&M University and President of the University Film and Video Association (UFVA), an organization that supports film, television, and media studies in higher education.In this conversation Terésa and I discuss:* The music of Janet Jackson, Prince, and Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis* Teaching media in a post-truth world* What UFVA is, why it matters, and how professional associations can sharpen teaching and creative practice* What filmmaking trends she sees with her students at Prairie View A&M* The short documentary her students did in collaboration with students from USC (link here)* “The Death of Cliff Huxtable” and the process of separating art from a problematic artistThanks for reading The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Here is an AI generated transcript. Don't come for me.BEN: Hi everyone—Ben Guest here. Welcome to The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Podcast. Today my guest is Professor Terésa Dowell-Vest, an associate professor of Communication and Media at Prairie View A&M University and the President of the University Film and Video Association (UFVA).In this conversation we talk Janet Jackson, the media landscape for young people interested in production, what UFVA does, and more. Enjoy.Professor, thanks so much for joining me today.TERÉSA: Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure to be here.BEN: I always like to start with a fun question. Senior year of high school—what music were you listening to?TERÉSA: Senior year of high school—1989. 1990 was a great year to be a Janet Jackson fan. *Rhythm Nation* was probably worn out in my car's tape deck. I was a huge fan.BEN: Did you do the choreography?TERÉSA: Oh yes. I can do the hands and all that—the “A‑5‑4.” I would do it, for real.And Janet Jackson was the big one, even though Prince's *Purple Rain* came out a few years earlier. That album was still in regular rotation for me in high school.And then in 1988 New Edition put out *Heart Break*—produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. That was such a good time. So yeah: Janet, Prince, New Edition—Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were the soundtrack.BEN: '88 was when Bobby Brown's *Don't Be Cruel* came out, right?TERÉSA: Listen, lemme tell you, the eighties to be a teenager in the eighties, to be in your twenties in the nineties. What a time to be alive.BEN: Yeah. I love it. Okay, second fun question. What's your pick for best picture this year?TERÉSA: I'd say *Sinners*. There are a few this year, but funny enough I actually focused more on television—I was obsessed with *Stranger Things* and *Severance* (and one other show I'm blanking on), so I didn't get to the movies as much. But I did see *Sinners* and it really stuck with me. I should preface that by saying I'm not as familiar with the entire pool, but I'm almost confident it'll be a strong contender.BEN: So good. I saw that your MFA thesis was titled *The African American Producer Is the American Griot*. Can you talk about that—maybe even in relation to *Sinners*?TERÉSA: I've always been fascinated by the power of storytelling. My bachelor's degree and my MFA are both in theater because I love live engagement. That also shaped me as a professor—I love being in front of students and engaging in a transactional, interactive way, not just a linear one. Theater and education give me that kind of exchange with an audience.For my graduate thesis I came to know Dr. Maulana Karenga—best known for creating Kwanzaa. He was chair of the Black Studies program at California State University, Long Beach. During my years there (1994–1997), I was the only Black student in the program, and in 1997 I became the first Black person to graduate with my particular degree from that program. Even in the '90s I was thinking: why are we still talking about “firsts” and “onlys”?I wanted to bridge storytelling with the legacy of slavery and survival—my own ancestors were from Virginia, where I was born and raised. Dr. Karenga taught me the concept of the *griot*—the storyteller—and the responsibility that comes with that. In the U.S., storytelling often gets treated as frivolous—an extracurricular, “nice to have.” A lot of Black parents, especially, don't want their kids studying film, theater, or the liberal arts because it doesn't seem like a stable livelihood. I started undergrad as an accounting major and didn't tell my dad I'd switched to theater until graduation day—he found out when they called my name under the College of Arts instead of the College of Business. That's the mindset I came from: my family wanted us to succeed, and the arts read as struggle, not a viable career.But there's honor in being a storyteller. That idea changed how I saw theater.And it was the '90s—*Rent* was happening, and I was in Los Angeles, flying back and forth to the East Coast to see Broadway shows that weren't just entertaining; they were educating and changing lives. I remember *The Life*—not a massive hit, but it told the story of Black and Brown women working as call girls in New York City. You'd think, “Is that a Broadway story?” But the music was outstanding.And there were so many others—*Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk* with Savion Glover, looking at African American history through tap and music. During that period I really saw the power of storytelling—and the responsibility we have to tell stories that educate and change lives.BEN: That's so powerful. The responsibility of storytelling to educate and change lives.TERÉSA: Yeah.BEN: It's one of the things I've often thought as a teacher: I'm a storyteller. How do you construct a lesson so students are receptive? It's like you're telling a story over a unit, a curriculum, or even a single lesson.TERÉSA: When you engage with students and give them permission to share their stories, you're not really “teaching” in the traditional sense anymore. It becomes more like peer engagement than “I'm the teacher, I know the things, and I'm telling you the things.”Students receive it differently when they feel you're invested in who they are—not just their grade.BEN: There's a great quote, I think it's Roger Ebert films, but really stories are empathy machines.TERÉSA: Yeah.BEN: It allows us to walk in someone else's shoes for a moment. There was a reconciliation group in Mississippi whose motto was: “Enemies are people whose stories we haven't heard.”TERÉSA: Incredibly profound. When we think about fear, it's often a lack of understanding—no connection to the thing you're afraid of. Hearing stories can build that connection.BEN: Can you talk about the importance of media education? I'm a documentary filmmaker, documentary filmmaking in today's world where so much of where we are in a post-truth society.TERÉSA: There are mechanics to telling the truth, and mechanics to telling a lie. In fiction you see this a lot—shows like *The Mentalist* or *Law & Order* where someone reads body language, eye movement, and so on to figure out whether someone is lying.What matters for media education is helping students understand the “tells” in information—how to challenge and debunk claims instead of assuming, “Someone told me a thing, so it must be true.”I didn't fully appreciate how urgent that was until the pandemic, when early reporting was all over the place and a lot of it conflicted. Being able to sort honest, vetted information from dishonest or speculative claims mattered in a very concrete way—like realizing you probably shouldn't drink bleach.Coming out of that period, teaching media studies has meant teaching reporting with integrity. You can't just assume something is true—not because people are “bad,” but because people absorb information differently based on what they've experienced.I do a lecture with my senior capstone students on the difference between **knowledge** and **information**. Knowledge is shaped by culture, character, race, gender, where you grew up, what language you speak, what faith you practice—so it can carry bias. Information, on the other hand, is verifiable and can be vetted. 2 + 2 = 4 no matter who you are.Good storytelling—and good journalism—knows how to bridge knowledge and information with integrity. When I have journalism students who lean into opinion-driven news—whether it's Fox, MSNBC, whatever—I tell them: that's playing to an audience's sensibilities. It can be entertaining, but it isn't the same as straight reporting. Then there's reporting that aims to be more information-based—“Here's what happened today.” That also needs to be taught. We're in a moment where students need tools to tell the truth, recognize lies, pick them apart, and trust their internal compass about what's important to share.And Ben—my answers get long. You might have to cut me off.BEN: I'm going to cut you off when what you're saying stops being interesting—so I doubt I'm going to cut you off.You're the President of the University Film and Video Association. For listeners: what is UFVA?TERÉSA: UFVA is a nationally recognized organization of university and college educators and institutions focused on film, television, and media studies—both practice and theory. We're a collective of makers and scholars. Our members hold a range of degrees—MAs, MFAs, MS degrees, PhDs, EdDs.As an organization, we examine how film and television are used—and we keep digging into how the field is evolving through innovation and emerging technology. Each year we host a conference (typically in July) where we share classroom best practices and research, and we analyze how film sparks conversation.You asked me earlier about a front-runner for Best Picture. I think about *Sinners* as a kind of textbook in a lot of ways. One of my students gave an informative speech last semester on the history of hoodoo, and she referenced *Sinners* heavily because it's central to the film. In that moment she used a movie as a learning text.That's what UFVA does: we create space to share those opportunities through research and scholarship, and we bring it back to our students and institutions.BEN: You said “best practices,” and I want to come back to that because it's a rabbit hole I love.But first: in an interview you did with the *Journal of Film and Video*, you said you were about to start your UFVA presidency and weren't sure what to expect. Now that you've lived it—how was it?TERÉSA: One of the biggest things I've learned—maybe I've only really realized it in the last couple of months—is that joining an association as an educator keeps the fire hot. It keeps you learning.As UFVA President, I've met so many people who've inspired me. It's not that I want the presidency to end; it's more like, “I need more time to implement everything I'm learning from colleagues.” It also pushed me to partner with other organizations and communities I knew about but hadn't been deeply involved with.I joined UFVA because of the pandemic. Before that I'd never even heard of the University Film and Video Association. I was the kind of person who kept my head down and did my work in my silo, and I was fine with that. But when the pandemic hit, no one knew what to do with film production courses in quarantine.I reached out to colleagues—thinking maybe eight or ten of us would hop on Zoom and talk through hybrid and online teaching. That snowballed. People said, “Can I invite a colleague?” I said yes. I posted on Facebook: if you teach film production or media studies and want to talk about what we're doing this fall, let's meet.Jennifer Proctor replied and asked, “Have you heard of UFVA?” I hadn't. She suggested sharing the call with UFVA, and we kept casting the net. By the time we met, there were 126 professors from around the world—about 100 universities represented, including USC, Ivy League schools, and institutions in Germany and Australia.I ran the meeting as breakout rooms—nine of them—named after Black women in film and television: Shonda Rhimes, Julie Dash, and others. So even in the mechanics of the meeting, people were saying these names and being reminded of who matters in media.Two things came out of that experience. First, UFVA invited me to join the board. I said, “Let me be a member first,” but within a few months I knew: yes, this is where I want to be.Second, I saw the gaps. There was very little representation from HBCUs, and very few Black people involved. Not because UFVA was “bad,” but because people simply didn't know. So I understood my call: help bring people in, build bridges, and create collaboration without turning it into a slogan. I love that we get to do the work without making it a “thing.” That's been the value of the presidency for me.BEN: Love it. Can you talk about with your students at Prairie View, what are some trends you're seeing with what the young people are doing?TERÉSA: Oh, child. They want to be influencers.This is the social media age, and a lot of students see it as the primary industry of their generation—and I get it. If you have enough followers and a couple brands offer deals, it can be real money. I have students with tens of thousands of followers. I'm like, I can barely get my family to like a post. And they're like, “Oh, I do nails,” or “I do lashes,” or “I show my sneaker collection,” and they'll get 10,000 likes every time they post.My reaction is: we need to be teaching this. We need to teach students how to parlay that into careers. Even if I don't personally understand every part of it, that doesn't make it non-viable.It reminds me of when we were in school. The internet wasn't even a thing when I was in college (1990–1994), and then suddenly we were on the edge of being connected to the world. Professors were saying, “This will create cheaters—you'll never look things up in books again.” Sound familiar?Now students are figuring out VR, AR, AI. They're building brands, protecting brands, learning to be CEOs of themselves. That's exciting.BEN: Yeah. I think about that all the time. It's like when people first started writing letters—somebody must have said, “No one's going to talk to each other anymore. They're just going to send letters.”TERÉSA: Exactly. Every generation has a thing—“Who's using this calculator? You need to learn long division.”BEN: I graduated high school in '93, so when you're talking about Janet, my “Janet album” is literally *janet.*—“Again,” “That's the Way Love Goes,” all of that. It's funny how, year by year, the soundtrack shifts just a bit.BEN: Okay—teaching and best practices. What's something you've done in your classroom that really leveled up your teaching?TERÉSA: Oh, wow. Gosh, I think it's less something I've done and more the intention of showing the students that their success is not coming from looking up. It's from looking over. It's the concept that. When you graduate from college, it isn't some executive that's going to give you an opportunity. It's the people you're in the trenches with right now that you're gonna build with right now. So I think the thing that's leveled up my teaching is less a thing that I can show them as much as relationships that I can help them forge and the power of networking. So our program has has a pipeline relationship with the Annenberg School of Communication at the university. The University of Southern California professor Mickey Turner, who's a professor there at USC teaches the senior storytelling for Media course similar to the communication capstone course that I teach here. And so every semester, professor Turner and I collaborate. Those two classes together and we introduced those students to each other through pitches, research topic pitches for their final capstone project. And what they see is. Students at an HBCU or students at this PWI are not different at all. They just, they, live in different states. Perhaps they come from different backgrounds, but by and large, they have similar goals. And we teach them that this is who you need to forge a relationship with because when you are at the stage of making deals or going out and work, this is the person you're gonna want to call. So I think the thing that's leveled up my teaching is my understanding. And my teaching of that understanding of how the industry works and how it can best work for them. Since you no longer have to live in LA or New York to, to make movies people are making movies on their devices. You have to now find your tribe to tell your stories and it can be much more localized. And so I teach them to build their team where they are and not. Go after this aspirational. The only way I can make it if is if I put it in the hands of someone so far away from me. No, put it in the hands of the guy sitting next to you or the young lady that's sitting on this other side and shoot your film, make your short tell the story. Do your podcast. I feel like that's leveled up. The final piece to that USC story is that during the pandemic, five of our students from Prairie View and five students from USC collaborated on a short documentary about the pandemic and how it impacted students at HBCUs, at this HBCU versus how it impacted students at a private, pWI Prairie View is 45 minutes outside of the city of Houston. We're a rural community. We're in the middle of nowhere essentially, whereas USC is in the heart of Los Angeles and those students taught, told an amazing story. I'll send you the link to the film. It's on YouTube. Told an amazing story from two different vantage points. That is a great indication of how education can be collaborative. Just as film is.BEN: Yeah. Before we started recording, we were talking about travel—and it just reminds me: travel is one of the best educations people can get. The more you interact with people from around the country and the world, the more you realize how similar we are and what we want: better lives for our kids and a better world to live in.That feels like a good place to end. For people interested in your work, where can they find you?TERÉSA: A good starting point is **thedeathofcliffhuxtable.com**. That's where you'll find my fan-fiction series—and later scholarly series—about separating the art from the artist when the artist is problematic.Bill Cosby's work touched every stage of my life: as a child I watched *Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids* on Saturday mornings; as a teenager in the '80s I watched the Huxtables and wanted to be part of that world; and in college in the '90s—at James Madison University, a PWI—every Thursday night at 8:30 we gathered to watch *A Different World*, and it made us feel connected in a way.When I think about the more than 60 women who came forward, my first thought is: that many people aren't lying. Even if one person tells the truth, it changes everything.In 2015—around the time the New Yorker reporting was circulating and more women were speaking—I started writing fan fiction centered on the Huxtable family at the moment Cliff Huxtable dies. I “killed” Cliff Huxtable to push back on the idea that Bill Cosby was “America's dad.” That moniker belonged to Cliff Huxtable—a fictional character written by an artist who created something meaningful and also did something horrific.We can't see Cliff the same way because he wears Bill Cosby's face, but they are not the same person—one of them isn't even real. Writing the series helped me illustrate that tension, and it eventually became a scholarly project.During the pandemic we hosted a virtual series with 51 artists, scholars, and actors who read chapters and then joined post-show discussions on the themes. You can find all of that through the website, and it's also the easiest way to contact me.BEN: Wow. Professor, thank you for all the, for your time today, but also for all the good work you're doing in so many different spaces.TERÉSA: Thank you. Thank you. And I look forward to listening to the podcast even more. I'm sorry that I'm just now getting hip to your great work, but I tell you what, I am going to tune in and probably hit you up with some questions and excited remarks shortly thereafter.BEN: I love it.That was my conversation with Professor Dowell-Vest. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend. Have a great day. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benbo.substack.com

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, but not of the individual self. In Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025), anthropologist Karma F. Frierson follows Veracruzanos as they reckon with the Afro-Caribbean roots of their distinctive history, traditions, and culture. As residents learn to be more jarocho, or more local to Veracruz, Frierson examines how people both internalize and externalize the centrality of Blackness in their regional identity. Frierson provocatively asks readers to consider a manifestation of Mexican Blackness unconcerned with self-identification as Black in favor of the active pursuit and cultivation of a collective and regionalized Blackness. Karma F. Frierson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, but not of the individual self. In Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025), anthropologist Karma F. Frierson follows Veracruzanos as they reckon with the Afro-Caribbean roots of their distinctive history, traditions, and culture. As residents learn to be more jarocho, or more local to Veracruz, Frierson examines how people both internalize and externalize the centrality of Blackness in their regional identity. Frierson provocatively asks readers to consider a manifestation of Mexican Blackness unconcerned with self-identification as Black in favor of the active pursuit and cultivation of a collective and regionalized Blackness. Karma F. Frierson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, but not of the individual self. In Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025), anthropologist Karma F. Frierson follows Veracruzanos as they reckon with the Afro-Caribbean roots of their distinctive history, traditions, and culture. As residents learn to be more jarocho, or more local to Veracruz, Frierson examines how people both internalize and externalize the centrality of Blackness in their regional identity. Frierson provocatively asks readers to consider a manifestation of Mexican Blackness unconcerned with self-identification as Black in favor of the active pursuit and cultivation of a collective and regionalized Blackness. Karma F. Frierson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/latin-american-studies

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, but not of the individual self. In Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025), anthropologist Karma F. Frierson follows Veracruzanos as they reckon with the Afro-Caribbean roots of their distinctive history, traditions, and culture. As residents learn to be more jarocho, or more local to Veracruz, Frierson examines how people both internalize and externalize the centrality of Blackness in their regional identity. Frierson provocatively asks readers to consider a manifestation of Mexican Blackness unconcerned with self-identification as Black in favor of the active pursuit and cultivation of a collective and regionalized Blackness. Karma F. Frierson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, but not of the individual self. In Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025), anthropologist Karma F. Frierson follows Veracruzanos as they reckon with the Afro-Caribbean roots of their distinctive history, traditions, and culture. As residents learn to be more jarocho, or more local to Veracruz, Frierson examines how people both internalize and externalize the centrality of Blackness in their regional identity. Frierson provocatively asks readers to consider a manifestation of Mexican Blackness unconcerned with self-identification as Black in favor of the active pursuit and cultivation of a collective and regionalized Blackness. Karma F. Frierson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, but not of the individual self. In Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025), anthropologist Karma F. Frierson follows Veracruzanos as they reckon with the Afro-Caribbean roots of their distinctive history, traditions, and culture. As residents learn to be more jarocho, or more local to Veracruz, Frierson examines how people both internalize and externalize the centrality of Blackness in their regional identity. Frierson provocatively asks readers to consider a manifestation of Mexican Blackness unconcerned with self-identification as Black in favor of the active pursuit and cultivation of a collective and regionalized Blackness. Karma F. Frierson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, but not of the individual self. In Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025), anthropologist Karma F. Frierson follows Veracruzanos as they reckon with the Afro-Caribbean roots of their distinctive history, traditions, and culture. As residents learn to be more jarocho, or more local to Veracruz, Frierson examines how people both internalize and externalize the centrality of Blackness in their regional identity. Frierson provocatively asks readers to consider a manifestation of Mexican Blackness unconcerned with self-identification as Black in favor of the active pursuit and cultivation of a collective and regionalized Blackness. Karma F. Frierson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Caribbean port city of Veracruz is many things. It is where the Spanish first settled and last left the colony that would go on to become Mexico. It is a destination boasting the “happiest Carnival in the world,” nightly live music, and public dancing. It is also where Blackness is an integral and celebrated part of local culture and history, but not of the individual self. In Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025), anthropologist Karma F. Frierson follows Veracruzanos as they reckon with the Afro-Caribbean roots of their distinctive history, traditions, and culture. As residents learn to be more jarocho, or more local to Veracruz, Frierson examines how people both internalize and externalize the centrality of Blackness in their regional identity. Frierson provocatively asks readers to consider a manifestation of Mexican Blackness unconcerned with self-identification as Black in favor of the active pursuit and cultivation of a collective and regionalized Blackness. Karma F. Frierson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2025 Theme: “Community Engagement & the Grassroots of Change.” Throughout the year we have explored stories, strategies, and successes of community-driven movements making a difference. In our last show for 2025 we recap the year with our most inspiring episodes and introduce the theme for 2026. Throughout 2025 we have stimulating discussions between Anita, Mavis, and Gail. We have also had an awe-inspiring group of guests, handpicked to reflect the theme of community engagement and the grassroots of change. We honor our guests and the works they have done and continue to do in the name of transformation, empowerment, engagement across the multiple sectors of our society.Is It Possible to Build Trust in Community-Police Relations? Conversation with Shadae McDaniel Senior Vice President/Programs and Strategic Initiatives/Director, All Stars Project (ASP) of New Jersey.  Beginning in February we hosted an in-depth exploration of the All Stars-Project and its signature program "Operation Conversation Cops and Kids." Among many accolades, Shadae was ranked among the ROI-NJ “2023 Influencers: People of Color." NJUrbanNews.com Article: “Shadae McDaniel Builds Bridges, Provides Opportunities for Youth Through the Power of Performance.” Founded in 1981, All Stars Project (ASP) is a 501(c)3 national nonprofit that uses a performance-based approach to help tens of thousands of inner-city youths and their families create success in their lives. Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids (OCCK) is an innovative police–community relations model program run by ASP in partnership with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the Newark Police Division (NPD). This award-winning program uses performance, improvisation, and conversation to help inner-city teenagers and police officers build trust and improve their relationship.Until We Are All Free Movement, a human rights organization led by formerly incarcerated criminal justice experts. In March our case study focused on the Until We Are All Free Movement with guest Kevin Reese, Co-Founder/Co-Executive Director of UWAAF and Co-Founder/CEO of Until We Are All Free Consulting Group.Question: God, what is it that you're working on in my life? What do you do when the answer is build a bridge of people and be a bridge through and with people? Kevin is the answer. Kevin grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He spent 14 years incarcerated inside of the criminal justice system. During that time, he founded the BRIDGE, a grassroots group of directly impacted criminal justice experts whose mission is to abolish mass incarceration and to find a path to true transformative criminal justice. Kevin says,“My idea was to create a program that builds a bridge between people like me, mostly men in prison but women, too, and the community. That bridge and this work is actually revolutionary. Because I'm not supposed to be able to make a connection to people on the outside. Prison is all about preventing that. But the BRIDGE partnership we've been working on gives light to an entire caste of people who are incarcerated.”Youth Empowerment Services, of Pittsburgh PA: “Ahead of its time and punching above its weight, Youth Enrichment Services (YES) formed in 1994...The heart of YES is a spirit of mentorship...By leveraging their unique skills and abilities and centering their voices, YES has created a formula for success that influences community growth, economic prosperity, and student-driven leadership." In our case study of the YES organization we invited Denise Jones, Educational Consultant at Youth Enrichment Services into the studio. Denise Jones is the daughter of two passion-driven educators. She attended Allegheny College, majored in Economics and minored in Black Studies. Later Denise applied for Teach for America and came to understand the joys and limitations of teaching, particularly in bureaucratic systems. Eventually she agreed to work at her father's community-based non-profit organization, Youth Enrichment Services (YES), to help young people become their own best resource. She is now pursuing a PhD in education and psychology from the University of Michigan.Ujamaa Collective, Pittsburgh PA: A Unique Cultural Enriching Experience! Ujamaa Collective is a 501(c)3 non-profit artisan boutique. We (Anita is a member!) serve Africana women providing cultural, artistic, and entrepreneurial exchange in the historic Hill District of Pittsburgh. Our passion for cooperatives is rooted in our values of Fair Trade, meaningful work, creativity, community, and wellness. Two  Sisters from the Ujamaa Collective shared their wisdom, community engagement practice, and the cooperation with our audiences — Lakeisha Wolf, Executive Director, and Alana Griffin, Ambassador. LaKeisha is a cultural worker, creative entrepreneur, and teaching artist with an emphasis on identity, racial justice, community connection, and whole-body wellness. She is a founding member of the Ujamaa Collective and has served as Executive Director since 2013. Alana lives out the organization's mission to empower Africana women through cooperative economics, cultural expression, and community healing. Economic Sovereignty in Burkina Faso: From Thomas Sankara to Ibrahim Traoré | Guest: Leontine Osuagwu. In this episode we dig into the role of sovereign psyche in leadership, particularly in the African nation of Burkina Faso under the past leadership of Thomas Sankara (1949-1987) and current leader, President Ibrahim Traoré.  The home country of our guest, Leontine Osuagwu, is Burkina Faso. With over 20 years of leadership experience across corporate, nonprofit, for-profit sectors, she helps leaders cultivate the mindset, strategy, and emotional intelligence to lead with excellence in creating sustainable impact. She's brings honor and soulful insight into the events unfolding in her home country.Mental Health, NAEP and Coach Bradley: A Unique Blend of Mentorship, Empathy, and Strategic Insight In His Work as a Transitional Life Coach. Coach Bradley specializes in guiding adolescents through the transition from high school to adulthood while also supporting adults navigating career changes and life pivots. Ed integrates emotional intelligence, active listening, and values-based goal setting to create a safe, supportive coaching environment. Whether preparing students for life's next step or helping adults embrace new opportunities, Ed equips people to create lasting, meaningful change. In a second episode featuring Coach Bradley he provided an understanding of NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), explaining its purpose and how it differs from state tests, and the role it plays in systemic racism, accountability, and test-based reforms in education.Case Study ShiftWorks Community+Public Works | Guest: Sallyanne Kluz, Executive Director. Sallyann Kluz is a Pittsburgh-based arts administrator, architect, and urban designer whose practice is situated at the intersection of art and community development. Her practice includes public art programs and strategies, community engagement, design education, public space design, and neighborhood development strategies. In her leadership role, Sallyann is focused on providing technical assistance to artists and clients, and expanding the role of artists in community development, civic design, and community engagement.Why Community and Public Arts? Sally led us into a meaningful discussion pondering this question. The short answer is this: "Shiftworks Community+Public Arts envisions a region in which the creative practices of artists are fully engaged to collaboratively shape the public realm and catalyze community-led change." The work is designed to expand the range of possibilities for artists to engage communities. We applaud our guests who have made this year meaningful, insightful, and engaging!

Forward Radio was proud to be at the 19th Annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture, entitled “Abolition Feminism and Anti-Racist Praxis” featuring Dr. Beth Richie of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Richie's extensive research examines how race and gender impact experiences of criminalization and justice, and she has long collaborated closely with communities, impacted individuals, and movements, including as a founding member of INCITE!: Women of Color Against Violence. She is Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law, and Justice and of Black Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, author of “Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation”; co-editor with teachers from Stateville Prison of “The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Toward Freedom”; and co-author with Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, and Erica Meiners of “Abolition. Feminism. Now.” This event was held on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025 at the University of Louisville's Strickler Hall, Middleton Auditorium. Read more about Dr. Richie's work and the lecture in her interview with the UofL College of Arts and Sciences at https://artsandsciences.louisville.edu/news/scholar-activist-dr-beth-e-richie-share-reflections-freedom-feminism-and-justice-annual-anne On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else! Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

Recorded October 2nd, 2025. Thinking Aloud, Thinking Together is a new series of live and recorded conversations amplifying voices that have been silenced in Irish cultural life. It gives space to artists, writers and thinkers who offer radical new perspectives on existing narratives. Our first conversation takes the form of a podcast series. Entitled 'In the Half Light: Voices from Black Ireland', this podcast is delivered in partnership with the Museum of Literature Ireland and curated by Dr Phil Mullen (Assistant Professor of Black Studies at Trinity College Dublin and a leading researcher on the historical experiences of 'mixed-race' people growing up in Ireland). Using the audio format, Phil has created an anonymised, open space for 'mixed-race' people who grew up in Irish care institutions to explore the impact of their erasure from institutional abuse history and discourse in Ireland. Through this conversation, she aims to undo that erasure, one voice at a time. Phil will be in conversation with journalist and researcher Caelainn Hogan. The conversation will be chaired by writer Eoin McNamee. This event is organised in partnership with the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute and Trinity Research in Social Sciences. Speakers Dr Phil Mullen is Assistant Professor of Black Studies and located in the Department of Sociology. She teaches on the Trinity elective which introduces students to the epistemology of Black Studies as an intellectual pursuit. This is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field of knowledge that interrogates historical events that have impacted on those who are racialised as Black, while centring the perspectives of Black people in constructing and deconstructing these events. Sheleads a research project to recover the lived experiences and sociological impact of African students who came to Trinity in the early 20th century, which amplifies our understanding of Blackness in pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland. Caelainn Hogan is a writer and journalist from Dublin. Her first book Republic of Shame investigates the ongoing legacy of Ireland's religious-run, state-funded institutions and the shame-industrial complex that incarcerated women and children. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, National Geographic, The Guardian, VICE, Harper's, The Washington Post, The Dublin Review and more. Eoin McNamee is a novelist and screenwriter. His nineteen novels include Resurrection Man and the Blue Trilogy. He has written six Young Adult novels including the New York Times bestselling The Navigator, and three thrillers under the John Creed pseudonym. He wrote the screenplay for the film Resurrection Man directed by Marc Evans and I Want You directed by Michael Winterbottom. His television credits include Hinterland (BBC Wales/Netflix) and An Brontanas (TG4). He has written seven radio plays for BBC R4. He is the Director of the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre and Co-Director of the M.Phil in Creative Writing Course at Trinity College Dublin. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

10/13/25: Laurie Loisel, N'ton Ward 3 City Council candidate. Megan Zinn w/ Paula Saunders, author of “Starting from Here.” Megan Wolf, write-in candidate for N'ton Ward 4 School Committee. Amilcar Shabazz w/ Amherst Coll Black Studies & History Prof Stefan Bradley, author of “If We Don't Get It: A Peoples' History of Ferguson.”

This episode features an interview with Dr. Derek G. Handley, author of the book Struggle for the City: Citizenship and Resistance in the Black Freedom Movement. Dr. Handley is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is also affiliated faculty in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department and in the Urban Studies program. Before that, he was a Chamberlain Project Fellow in English and Black Studies at Amherst College and a Predoctoral Mellon Fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University. He has taught at Lehigh University, the United States Naval Academy, and the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Currently, he is co-director of the digital humanities project “Mapping Racism and Resistance,” which maps racial covenants in Milwaukee County and uncovers Black resistance to such discrimination. In this interview, we discuss his concept of Black rhetorical citizenship, the role of Black women in the civil rights movement in the urban North, the plays of August Wilson, and housing covenants that prevented Black people from purchasing or renting particular properties throughout much of the twentieth century. This episode features a clip from the song "The City" by The Kyoto Connection. Episode Transcript

Dr Ebun Joseph, Special Rapporteur for racial equality and racism Ireland, and CEO & founder of the Institute of Anti-racism and Black Studies, weighs in on the Eoin Hayes 'blackface' controversy.

9/8/25: Farmer's Almanac editor Carol Connare on winter weather predictions. Megan Zinn w/ local sci-fi & fantasy author Elizabeth Bear on "The Folded Sky" & "Angel Maker." Holyoke Mayor Josh Garcia: storm damage, opioid settlement funds, & the 9/16 Preliminary. Prof Amilcar Shabazz & Tom Weiner: the threat to Black Studies in US, & Dr. Johnnetta Cole's talk on what to do about it.

9/8/25: Farmer's Almanac editor Carol Connare on winter weather predictions. Megan Zinn w/ local sci-fi & fantasy author Elizabeth Bear on "The Folded Sky" & "Angel Maker." Holyoke Mayor Josh Garcia: storm damage, opioid settlement funds, & the 9/16 Preliminary. Prof Amilcar Shabazz & Tom Weiner: the threat to Black Studies in US, & Dr. Johnnetta Cole's talk on what to do about it.

9/8/25: Farmer's Almanac editor Carol Connare on winter weather predictions. Megan Zinn w/ local sci-fi & fantasy author Elizabeth Bear on "The Folded Sky" & "Angel Maker." Holyoke Mayor Josh Garcia: storm damage, opioid settlement funds, & the 9/16 Preliminary. Prof Amilcar Shabazz & Tom Weiner: the threat to Black Studies in US, & Dr. Johnnetta Cole's talk on what to do about it.

9/8/25: Farmer's Almanac editor Carol Connare on winter weather predictions. Megan Zinn w/ local sci-fi & fantasy author Elizabeth Bear on "The Folded Sky" & "Angel Maker." Holyoke Mayor Josh Garcia: storm damage, opioid settlement funds, & the 9/16 Preliminary. Prof Amilcar Shabazz & Tom Weiner: the threat to Black Studies in US, & Dr. Johnnetta Cole's talk on what to do about it.

Racist attacks by young people in Ireland is becoming 'a national crisis'. That's according to the Special rapporteur for the National Plan Against Racism and CEO of the Institute of Anti-Racism and Black Studies, Dr Ebun Joseph.

Adolph Reed, Jr., Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, and Kenneth W. Warren, University of Chicago English professor, share their new book which drops this month, “Black Studies, Cultural Politics, and the Evasion of Inequality: The Farce this Time.”Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

This week on Linking Arms, Nadine sits down with the incredible Marya Sherron — author, speaker, former professor, and founder of KI Productions — for a raw and deeply moving conversation about transformation, identity, and purpose. Marya shares the origin of her mantra “It's time to dance,” born in the wake of losing her brother, Kious Kelly, the first nurse in the U.S. to pass away from COVID-19. What started as unimaginable grief became a spark for Marya to rediscover her voice, her creativity, and the dreams she buried long ago. Together, Nadine and Marya explore what it means to live free from people-pleasing, how grief reshapes us, and the practical power of saying yes to the dreams planted deep in your spirit. From hair choices to publishing 40+ books, Marya reveals what “pre-dancing” Marya looked like and how she found the courage to finally dance. About Marya Sherron: Marya Patrice Sherron, MFA is a writer, advocate, and community leader devoted to amplifying marginalized voices and building inclusive communities. A former professor of Creative Writing and Black Studies, she is the founder of KI Productions, an independent publishing and production company with the belief that every story matters. Marya is the author of four children's books and numerous journals and Bible studies. She is a vocal advocate for families navigating disability, serving in leadership roles across Indiana. Her latest work includes the Neurodivergent Collection and a forthcoming documentary about her late brother, Kious Kelly. Special Guest: Marya Sherron.

In this conversation we're exited to welcome Alana Lentin back to the show to talk about her new book The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy, which works with the concept of the racial regime put forth by Cedric Robinson in his book Forgeries of Memory and Meaning. The book features a foreword by Elizabeth Robinson, long time interlocutor, partner in critical media work, and life partner of Cedric Robinson.  We talk about this project which starts with an analysis of the war on so-called Critical Race Theory, and the attendant fascistic agenda, the “whitelash” against Black Studies, and gets deep into zionist counterinsurgency efforts throughout academia, as well as the so-called “war on antisemitism,” and how we make sense of “the processes through which racial colonial rule is ideologically resecured.” It's a really interesting read and I definitely recommend people pick it up. Alana Lentin is a teacher and writer, and identifies as a Jewish European woman who is a settler on Gadigal-Wangal land (Sydney, Australia). Her work focuses on a critical theorization of race, racism and antiracism.  She is a Professor of Cultural and Social Analysis at Western Sydney University. She is the author and editor of multiple books, including Why Race Still Matters and Racism and Anti-Racism in Europe.  More about Dr. Lentin and her work can be found at her website. This also is the first episode that Josh and Jared have recorded together since October of 2023, and it was great to collaborate again on an episode! We hosted with the Sameer Project last week. With the forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, it is absolutely critical that we ways to continue getting support their way. We we'll put a link to donate to the Sameer Project and to that conversation in the show description. And of course if you appreciate the work that we do on audio podcasts like this, and through our video feed on Youtube, the best way to support our work is to become a patron show for as little as $1 a month, or support us through our BuyMeACoffee page. Our music as always is courtesy of Televangel Correction: in the interview Jared said it was the "National Federation of Teachers" which is not accurate (or a thing). It was the National Educators Association, however that vote from the a majority of the 7,000 delegates of the largest US teacher's union was rejected by the union's board. Read more here. Now here is our conversation with Alana Lentin on The New Racial Regime The title of the episode is a reference to this tweet. Source of the image in the thumbnail. Some References: Dylan Rodríguez on Lexical Warfare & Counterinsurgency "Stop Asian Hate" as Zionist Policing with Dylan Rodríguez "Rosa Luxemburg and the Primitive Accumulation of Whiteness" by Siddhant Issar, Rachel H. Brown, and John McMahon The War on Anti-Semitism with Anna-Esther Younes Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, Decolonization & Islamophobia with Alana Lentin (MAKC episode) Prior audio episodes with Alana Lentin

Today marks the anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment, which established citizenship for freed slaves and women. The anniversary comes at a time when birthright citizenship is under threat by the Trump administration. Reset digs into what a weakened 14th Amendment could mean for Americans with Evan Bernick, associate professor of law at Northern Illinois University, and David Stovall, professor of Black Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

In the last two weeks of the Oregon legislative session, which ended late Friday night,  housing advocates including the Community Alliance of Tenants, the Oregon Housing Alliance and the Urban League of Portland sounded the alarm and protested in Salem over funding cuts. They said the programs for emergency rent assistance and programs to prevent eviction must remain funded to prevent thousands of individuals and families with children from being evicted and becoming homeless. Lisa Bates is a professor of Black Studies at Portland State University and helps run a research program studying evictions across Oregon.   We talk with Bates about the lack of legislative funding for homelessness and housing programs and what’s needed in her view to address the ongoing homeless and housing crisis.  

This week on The Book Drop, we commemorate Juneteenth with special guest Dr. Cynthia Robinson, Chair of the Department of Black Studies at UNO, and we explore stories, songs, and art that celebrate African American history and resilience. All the books and resources we talk about in this episode can be found here or by visiting omahalibrary.org/podcast. Happening at the Library: Volunteer Garden Cleanup |  Saturday, June 14, 9 to 11 a.m. at Charles B. Washington Branch Messages in Motion: Making and Circulating Public Art | Saturday, June 14, 1 to 3 p.m. at Genealogy & Local History Room Turtle Talk with Papio NRD | Wednesday, June 18, 2 to 3 p.m. at Charles B. Washington BranchExplore all upcoming events at omahalibrary.org/events.

First episode in a special series of the Make it Plain podcast, ‘What Would Malcolm Say?' where Kehinde Andrews explains what Malcolm's body of work tells us about what is going on in the present. Each episode will also feature a full interview with some featured in the documentary Nobody Can Give You Freedom, which was independently made by Make it Plain. You can watch the entire documentary for free at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZBZyaruoGo&t=136s  Film was made by Michael Ellis Films https://www.youtube.com/michaelellisfilms   This week Kehinde introduces the series and starts off getting a few things off his chest since it has been a while since he did a podcast. He covers Trump 2.0, the con of academics using complicated language to justify their salaries, and the what Malcolm would have said about the how we organise following the fifth anniversary of the death of George Floyd. Get your copy of Kehinde's book Nobody Can Give You Freedom. Out now in the UK at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460078/nobody-can-give-you-freedom-by-andrews-kehinde/9780241681176 Out in the US on 9th September https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kehinde-andrews/nobody-can-give-you-freedom/9781645030706/?lens=bold-type-books  Support Make it Plain: https://make-it-plain.org/support-us/  Join Harambee OBU https://www.blackunity.org.uk/  Find out about the Convention for Afrikan People: https://make-it-plain.org/convention-of-afrikan-people/ 

Send us a textThe anxiety we are collectively feeling in this post-election climate is real! That's why it's so important to ground yourself and be kind to yourself. And, in this episode of Dem Bois Podcast, my guest, Dr. Van Bailey and I discuss grounding practices, mental health, and the impact of kindness. The discussion also covers the challenges and triumphs of modeling as a trans person, advocating for greater representation in the fashion industry. And, we explore themes of queerness, self-expression, and the importance of community support for trans youth.We talk:09:56 - Dr. Van's journey of identity and transition20:07 - Modeling as a trans person30:03 - Understanding non-binary identity and gender dynamics40:05 - Navigating barbershop conversations51:06 - The importance of self-care and grooming01:05:12 - Navigating political challenges for trans rightsEpisode References:Dapper QThe AggressivesCampaign for Southern Equality - IGPLFAGRead more about Dr. Van in their bio below:Dr. Van Bailey (they/them/theirs) is an award-winning educator and consultant. Their speeches, content, and workshops relate to LGBTQ+ equity, mental health, and belonging in the workplace. They have experience overseeing offices that address implicit bias, LGBTQ+ equity, and diversity and inclusion. As a past director for diversity and inclusion, they have spoken on the importance of gender equity, authenticity, and belonging in the workplace. Dr. Bailey was listed in the Out 100 and Business Equality Magazine's 40 under 40. Dr. Bailey holds a BA from Denison University in English and Black Studies, an MA from Ohio State University in Higher Education and Student Affairs, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from California State University - Northridge. IG: @drvanbaileyTikTok: dr__handsomeLinkedIn: Dr. Van BaileyDonate today to support Transmasc Gender Affirming Grants and Community Wellness Packages for Trans Men of Color! The Visibility = Possibility™️ Merch is here! Introducing a groundbreaking collaboration crafted by Emilio Perdomo (featured on episode 37). This isn't just merch--it's a movement! We're empowering trans men of color with creative freedom to design their interpretation of Visibility = Possibility™. Think of it like major brands collaborating with athletes, but this time, our community takes center stage. Every purchase supports our vital programs! Craving more Connection? Dem Bois Community Voices Facebook Group is a safe, moderated sanctuary where trans men of color can connect authentically, discuss podcast episodes, share powerful experiences, and build support networks. Dem Bois YouTube Channel! - @demboisinc Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else: Behind-the-scenes magic, engaging YouTube shorts, and insider perspectives.

It's prom season, and for high schoolers across the region, prom isn't just a rite of passage anymore. It's a stage. We're talking crystallized corsets, embroidered tuxedos, motorcades, professional photographers, and send-off parties that look more like weddings. In many Black communities, prom has become a dazzling display of creativity, self-expression, and joy. Think of it as a teen Met Gala—shaped by tradition and TikTok. But there's more to prom than just the glamor; it also raises deeper questions—about identity, performance, social media, and how a new generation is redefining what celebration looks like. This hour, guest host Racquel Stephen dives into prom as fashion statement, cultural ritual, and social phenomenon. Our guests: Tania Casini, local designer specializing in custom prom fashion Kasey Casini, fashion designer at Tania Casini Nathaniel Johnson, local designer specializing in custom prom fashion Jeffrey McCune, Jr., Ph.D., founding chair of the Department of Black Studies and the University of Rochester

MDJ Script/ Top Stories for May 16th Publish Date:  May 16th    Commercial: From the BG AD Group Studio, Welcome to the Marietta Daily Journal Podcast.    Today is Friday, May 16th and Happy Birthday to Pierce Brosnan I’m Keith Ippolito and here are the stories Cobb is talking about, presented by Times Journal Kennesaw State students protest losing Black Studies program Cobb Commuter Routes Consolidated, Free Cumberland Loop Cut Second Annual Paws Fest is May 17-18 Plus, Leah McGrath from Ingles Markets on grass-fed beef All of this and more is coming up on the Marietta Daily Journal Podcast, and if you are looking for community news, we encourage you to listen and subscribe!  BREAK: TOP TECH MECHANICAL STORY 1: Kennesaw State students protest losing Black Studies program Dozens of Kennesaw State University students protested outside the University System of Georgia offices against the termination of KSU's Black Studies degree program, citing it as a setback for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The university attributed the decision to declining enrollment, but critics argue the process lacked transparency and undercounted students. Demonstrators carried signs and chanted slogans emphasizing the importance of diversity. The Board of Regents, which oversees such decisions, has not addressed the issue in its upcoming meeting. DEI programs face increasing opposition at state and federal levels, including legislative efforts in Georgia to defund them. STORY 2: Cobb Commuter Routes Consolidated, Free Cumberland Loop Cut Cobb County will eliminate the free Green Circulator bus loop near The Battery and consolidate three commuter routes (100, 101, 102) into the regional 484 Xpress route due to reduced ridership and the failure of a proposed transit tax. Ridership on commuter routes has dropped 81% since 2019, prompting cost-saving measures. The changes will save over $1.1 million annually, with funds redirected to other transit needs, including the 2025 All-Star Game. The county’s deal with ATL adds seven trips to the 484 route, covering most of the same stops, though the Marietta Transfer Center will no longer be included. STORY 3: Second Annual Paws Fest is May 17-18 The Avenue of West Cobb will host its second annual Paws Fest on May 17-18, featuring exciting DockDogs canine competitions like Big Air Wave, Extreme Vertical, and Speed Retrieve. Events begin at 10 a.m. each day, with finals on May 18 at 4:30 p.m. The festival also includes pet-friendly vendors, interactive booths, grooming services, and giveaways, such as doggy ice cream treats from Bark Street Petopia. For details, visit avenuewestcobb.com. We have opportunities for sponsors to get great engagement on these shows. Call 770.799.6810 for more info.  Break: Ingles Markets 6 STORY 4: ‘A True Blessing’: New Pantry at Dunleith Fights Child Hunger Dunleith Elementary School in Marietta has opened a new food pantry, thanks to MUST Ministries and Kroger, to combat child hunger. Serving 50 families monthly, the pantry provides nonperishable food, produce, meat, diapers, and hygiene products. As a Title I school, 90% of Dunleith students receive free or reduced lunches, highlighting the need. This pantry is the fourth opened through a $207,000 Kroger-MUST partnership, which has established 18 pantries across Cobb and Cherokee counties. The initiative aims to reduce food insecurity, allowing students to focus on learning while addressing Kroger’s mission of “zero hunger, zero waste.” STORY 5: Marietta School Board Applauds Staff Support in Tentative Budget Approval The Marietta Board of Education tentatively approved a $167 million fiscal 2026 budget, a 5% increase from last year, focusing on staff raises and maintaining a flat 17.97 millage rate. The budget includes an average 3.3% raise for employees, with some reaching 6.4%, and allocates over 90% of the increase to salaries and benefits. Key allocations include $3.65 million for raises, $770,000 for new staff, and $2.6 million for insurance premium hikes. Public hearings are set for June 10 and 17, with a final vote on June 17. Additional approvals include funding for math programs, HR software, and school security. Break: And now here is Leah McGrath from Ingles Markets on grass-fed beef We’ll have closing comments after this. Break: TIDWELL TREES Signoff-   Thanks again for hanging out with us on today’s Marietta Daily Journal Podcast. If you enjoy these shows, we encourage you to check out our other offerings, like the Cherokee Tribune Ledger Podcast, the Marietta Daily Journal, or the Community Podcast for Rockdale Newton and Morgan Counties. Read more about all our stories and get other great content at mdjonline.com Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Giving you important news about our community and telling great stories are what we do. Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Produced by the BG Podcast Network Show Sponsors: www.ingles-markets.com tidwelltrees.com toptechmech.com #NewsPodcast #CurrentEvents #TopHeadlines #BreakingNews #PodcastDiscussion #PodcastNews #InDepthAnalysis #NewsAnalysis #PodcastTrending #WorldNews #LocalNews #GlobalNews #PodcastInsights #NewsBrief #PodcastUpdate #NewsRoundup #WeeklyNews #DailyNews #PodcastInterviews #HotTopics #PodcastOpinions #InvestigativeJournalism #BehindTheHeadlines #PodcastMedia #NewsStories #PodcastReports #JournalismMatters #PodcastPerspectives #NewsCommentary #PodcastListeners #NewsPodcastCommunity #NewsSource #PodcastCuration #WorldAffairs #PodcastUpdates #AudioNews #PodcastJournalism #EmergingStories #NewsFlash #PodcastConversations See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Money on the Left shares audio from "The Black University & Community Currencies,” a public workshop convened by Professor Andrew J. Douglas at Morehouse College on April 25, 2025. This episode presents Part 1 of the workshop. It features an introduction by Professor Douglas and two panels. The first panel is titled “What is Public Money?” (Delman Coates, Scott Ferguson & Benjamin Wilson. The second asks: “What is the Uni Currency Proposal?” (Scott Ferguson & Benjamin Wilson). Money on the Left will release audio from Part 2 of the workshop within a few weeks' time.Description:In the late 1960s, in the context of the Black Power movement and amid calls to develop Black Studies programs at many US colleges and universities, Black student activists and radical intellectuals sought to imagine a more revolutionary "Black University," an institution or network of institutions dedicated entirely to Pan-African study and research. This workshop revisits the theory and vision of the Black University. It foregrounds questions of political economy—ranging from the theoretical critiques of capitalism and empire that inspired the Black University concept to more practical questions about financial viability and the "business model" of a revolutionary Black institution. And it considers how an emerging school of heterodox economic thinking—what has come to be known as Modern Money Theory—might inform a renewal of the Black University and its commitment to Black community building.This comes at a time of great crisis in US higher education, especially at HBCUs. Students are unsustainably indebted, encouraged to think of their education as little more than a private economic transaction or "return on investment." Schools, increasingly desperate for funding, are made to compete for private capital, often in ways that compromise their ability to serve even the nominally progressive aspects of their missions. Surrounding neighborhoods have become little more than sites of extraction, sources of low-wage labor and opportunities for land speculation, otherwise walled off from the very institutions they are made to sustain. More broadly, democratic questions about what kind of society the university is meant to serve or what kind of society we want an education for are rarely if ever addressed. Meanwhile, fascism's dramatic resurgence is renewing questions about whether Black institutions can rely on even minimal support from white society. In many ways, we appear to face some of the very same conditions that inspired the vision of the Black University more than a half century ago.What would it mean to renew the theory of the Black University? What are the challenges involved in building the Black University from within today's HBCUs? How might we reimagine the financial architecture of the university and its commitment to surrounding communities? How might new thinking about public money and banking-heterodox ideas about credit creation, public investment, jobs programs and the mobilization of community resources inform such a reimagining? How might HBCUs experiment with the creation of complementary currencies? And does this new thinking go far enough, or does it reflect simply a recommitment to the structures of domination and exploitation imperial state projects, the logic of capital, the instruments of antiblack violence that the Black University concept was always meant to expose and challenge?Visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructureMusic by Nahneen Kula: www.nahneenkula.com

Secretary of State Shirley Weber had been a lifelong educator. For 40 years she had been a professor at San Diego State University, having been named a professor emerita of Africana studies and served as the president of the National Council for Black Studies. And then, in the fall of 2011, Weber decided to run for office. Secretary Weber served first in the California State Assembly for nearly a decade, before Governor Gavin Newsom appointed her to the position of secretary of state of California. So, why did a career educator decide to run for office? Secretary Weber, in conversation with Creating Citizens' Griffith Swidler, talks to an audience of Sacramento high school students about her path into politics. Weber details her upbringing, the people who influenced her, and how young people can lead us toward a less polarized America. This program is part of  Commonwealth Club World Affairs' civics education initiative, Creating Citizens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode features our rich conversation with Dr. Corinne Mitsuye Sugino, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Center for Ethnic Studies at The Ohio State University, about her compelling new book, Making the Human: Race, Allegory, and Asian Americans. On the show, Alex and Calvin are joined by guest co-host Dr. Sarah Hae-In Idzik to talk with Corinne about her multifaceted analyses of the role of Asian American racialization in the construction of the concept of the human. We delve into Corinne's concept of "racial allegory," which illuminates how media and institutional narratives mobilize categories of difference, including Asian Americans, to stabilize the idea of "Western man".Our discussion touches upon the significance of the title Making the Human, unpacking how Asian American racialization and gendering contribute to the social formulation of the human. We explore key concepts such as the understanding of "Western man" drawn from Black Studies scholarship, while also examining the crucial relationship that Corinne charts between anti-Asian racism and anti-Blackness within communication and rhetoric studies. Corinne also explains how she applies the notion of racial allegory to a case study on Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, revealing how anti-racist discourse can be used to uphold racial hierarchies, and the strategic role of the victimized Asian student trope in this context. Furthermore, we analyze Corinne's intercontextual reading of the film Crazy Rich Asians alongside Daniel Patrick Moynihan's “The Negro Family” report, exploring allegories of family and mothering and the underlying racial narratives at play. Our discussion also considers the significance of animacy and the inhuman in relation to the boundaries of the human, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the racialization of Asian Americans as potential disease carriers. Finally, we reflect upon Corinne's nuanced perspective on the term "Asian American" itself, considering its complexities and its potential as a resource for undoing categories and fostering coalition.Corinne Mitsuye Sugino's Making the Human: Race, Allegory, and Asian Americans is available now from Rutgers University Press.Works and Concepts Referenced in this Episode:Chen, M. Y. (2012). Animacies: Biopolitics, racial mattering, and queer affect. Duke University Press.Jackson, Z. I. (2020). Becoming human: Matter and meaning in an antiblack world. New York University Press.Johnson, J. (2016). “A man's mouth is his castle”: The midcentury fluoridation controversy and the visceral public. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 102(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2015.1135506Maraj, L. M. (2020). Anti-racist campus rhetorics. Utah State Press.Molina, N. (2014). How race is made in America: Immigration, citizenship, and the historical power of racial scripts. Univ of California Press.Moynihan, D. P. (1965). The Negro family, a case for national action. United States Department of Labor, Office of Policy Planning and Research.Spillers, H. J. (1987). Mama's baby, papa's maybe: An American grammar book. diacritics, 17(2), 65-81.Wynter, S. (1994). “ ‘No humans involved': An open letter to my colleagues.” Forum N.H.I.: Knowledge for the 21st Century, 1(1), 1–17.Wynter, S. (2003). “Unsettling the coloniality of being/power/truth/freedom: Towards the human, after man, its overrepresentation—An argument.” CR: The New Centennial Review, 3(3), 257–337.Wynter, S., & McKittrick, K. (2015). “Unparalleled catastrophe for our species? Or, to give humanness a different future: Conversations.” In K. McKittrick (Ed.), Sylvia Wynter: On being human as praxis (pp. 9–89). Duke University Press.da Silva, D. F. (2007). Toward a global idea of race. University of Minnesota Press.An accessible transcript for this episode can be found here (via Descript)

Jordan from The Dugout continues teaching Margaret about the long history of Black antifascism that brought people to fight in the Spanish Civil War. James Yates, Mississippi to MadridSalaria Kea, “Doing Christ’s Duty”Canute Frankson’s letter from Spain (1937)“The Good Fight” (Documentary)Peter N. Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln BrigadeALBA-Valb.org archivesTrussel.com, “The Peekskill Riots”National Archives & Harlem Oral History ProjectKuykendall, Ronald A. "African Blood Brotherhood: Independent Marxism During the Harlem Renaissance." Western Journal of Black Studies 26 (Spring 2002): African Blood Brotherhood. The Principles of the African Blood Brotherhood. New York: African Blood Brotherhood, David Motadel, Islam and the European Empires (2014)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jordan from The Dugout teaches Margaret about the long history of Black antifascism that brought people to fight in the Spanish Civil War. James Yates, Mississippi to MadridSalaria Kea, “Doing Christ’s Duty”Canute Frankson’s letter from Spain (1937)“The Good Fight” (Documentary)Peter N. Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln BrigadeALBA-Valb.org archivesTrussel.com, “The Peekskill Riots”National Archives & Harlem Oral History ProjectKuykendall, Ronald A. "African Blood Brotherhood: Independent Marxism During the Harlem Renaissance." Western Journal of Black Studies 26 (Spring 2002): African Blood Brotherhood. The Principles of the African Blood Brotherhood. New York: African Blood Brotherhood, David Motadel, Islam and the European Empires (2014)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Martha S. Jones grew up feeling her Black identity was obvious to all who saw her. But weeks into college, a Black Studies classmate challenged Jones's right to speak. Suspicious of the color of her skin and the texture of her hair, he confronted her with a question that inspired a lifetime of introspection: “Who do you think you are?” Now a prizewinning scholar of Black history, Jones delves into her family's past for answers. In every generation since her great-great-great-grandmother survived enslavement to raise a free family, color determined her ancestors' lives. But the color line was shifting and jagged, not fixed and straight. Some backed away from it, others skipped along it, and others still were cut deep by its sharp teeth. Journeying across centuries, from rural Kentucky and small-town North Carolina to New York City and its suburbs, The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir (Basic Books, 2025) is a lyrical, deeply felt meditation on the most fundamental matters of identity, belonging, and family. Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, professor of history, and a professor at the SNF Agora Institute at the Johns Hopkins University. A prizewinning author and editor of four books, most recently Vanguard, she is past copresident of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and has contributed to the New York Times, Atlantic, and many other publications. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Atiya Husain's No God but Man: On Race, Knowledge and Terrorism (Duke University Press, 2025) uses the FBI Most Wanted lists to rethink theoretical relationships between race and Islam in the United States. Husain traces the genealogy of wanted posters and how theories of the “average man” informs the use of photographs and its accompanying descriptions on most wanted posters. To probe this pattern further, she closely considers the activism and Islam of Black revolutionary Assata Shakur and her addition to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List in 2013. Shakur was the first woman added to this list and joins Muslims, who are oddly not racialized in the descriptions on the poster. This peculiar pattern forces us to contend with how race as a category oscillates between racelessness and race, and therefore reveals the categorical limitations of the discourses of racialization of Muslims. It is here that the work of Black Studies scholars, such as Sylvia Wynter, offers us necessary conceptual pathways forward. This book will be of interest to anyone thinking about race, Islam, and terrorism, surveillance or security studies, and Black Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Atiya Husain's No God but Man: On Race, Knowledge and Terrorism (Duke University Press, 2025) uses the FBI Most Wanted lists to rethink theoretical relationships between race and Islam in the United States. Husain traces the genealogy of wanted posters and how theories of the “average man” informs the use of photographs and its accompanying descriptions on most wanted posters. To probe this pattern further, she closely considers the activism and Islam of Black revolutionary Assata Shakur and her addition to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List in 2013. Shakur was the first woman added to this list and joins Muslims, who are oddly not racialized in the descriptions on the poster. This peculiar pattern forces us to contend with how race as a category oscillates between racelessness and race, and therefore reveals the categorical limitations of the discourses of racialization of Muslims. It is here that the work of Black Studies scholars, such as Sylvia Wynter, offers us necessary conceptual pathways forward. This book will be of interest to anyone thinking about race, Islam, and terrorism, surveillance or security studies, and Black Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Martha S. Jones grew up feeling her Black identity was obvious to all who saw her. But weeks into college, a Black Studies classmate challenged Jones's right to speak. Suspicious of the color of her skin and the texture of her hair, he confronted her with a question that inspired a lifetime of introspection: “Who do you think you are?” Now a prizewinning scholar of Black history, Jones delves into her family's past for answers. In every generation since her great-great-great-grandmother survived enslavement to raise a free family, color determined her ancestors' lives. But the color line was shifting and jagged, not fixed and straight. Some backed away from it, others skipped along it, and others still were cut deep by its sharp teeth. Journeying across centuries, from rural Kentucky and small-town North Carolina to New York City and its suburbs, The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir (Basic Books, 2025) is a lyrical, deeply felt meditation on the most fundamental matters of identity, belonging, and family. Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, professor of history, and a professor at the SNF Agora Institute at the Johns Hopkins University. A prizewinning author and editor of four books, most recently Vanguard, she is past copresident of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and has contributed to the New York Times, Atlantic, and many other publications. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Atiya Husain's No God but Man: On Race, Knowledge and Terrorism (Duke University Press, 2025) uses the FBI Most Wanted lists to rethink theoretical relationships between race and Islam in the United States. Husain traces the genealogy of wanted posters and how theories of the “average man” informs the use of photographs and its accompanying descriptions on most wanted posters. To probe this pattern further, she closely considers the activism and Islam of Black revolutionary Assata Shakur and her addition to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List in 2013. Shakur was the first woman added to this list and joins Muslims, who are oddly not racialized in the descriptions on the poster. This peculiar pattern forces us to contend with how race as a category oscillates between racelessness and race, and therefore reveals the categorical limitations of the discourses of racialization of Muslims. It is here that the work of Black Studies scholars, such as Sylvia Wynter, offers us necessary conceptual pathways forward. This book will be of interest to anyone thinking about race, Islam, and terrorism, surveillance or security studies, and Black Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/islamic-studies

Founder Resource Series   Episode Description: “I think consumers and company leaders are becoming more curious as to what the alternatives are and not just following simple workflows and playbooks. The transparency and the ability to educate around the possibilities— the alternative possibilities of manufacturing and ingredients that are available.” —Riana Lynn    The possibilities for AI-powered innovation in the culinary world are truly exciting. Consumers are now more intrigued than ever about the transformative potential of AI-powered solutions in innovation and nutrition.  This week, we are joined by Riana Lynn, the Founder of Journey Foods, a cutting-edge platform that leverages AI to transform the way companies approach food innovation. With a diverse background spanning VC, chemistry, and entrepreneurship, Riana is at the forefront of driving positive change in the food industry. Tune in as Justine and Riana discuss the role of AI in revolutionizing food formulation and sourcing, the impact of Journey Foods on companies of all sizes, the importance of transparency and education in the food industry, and more.    Meet Riana:  Riana Lynn, MPH is an entrepreneur, storyteller, and AI consultant dedicated to transforming the global food system through innovative, data-driven solutions as the founder and CEO of Journey Foods. Recognized as a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer and Google Entrepreneur-in-Residence, she has delivered over 230 speaking engagements at prestigious forums worldwide. As the inventor of the first AI patent for generative recipes and one of the first women with an AI software patent, Riana leads Journey Foods and Journey Labs in setting new industry standards. She combines her focus on creative community building with her commitment to business challenges. Riana holds degrees and formal training in Biology, Chemistry, Anthropology, Black Studies, Public Health, and Artificial Intelligence from multiple prestigious institutions. Based in Atlanta, she enjoys collecting art, growing fruit trees, and exploring culinary and architectural heritage sites globally.   Website LinkedIn Instagram X Dribble   Connect with NextGen Purpose: Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn YouTube   Episode Highlights: 01:24 Bridging the Nutrition Gap with AI 04:57 Food and Chronic Diseases 09:24 AI in Food Innovation 16:19 Journey Foods' Services and Impact 21:56 Connect with Journey Foods

After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University, and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round the clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak, and responsibility. Balancing the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies, and ceaseless shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his friends and colleagues. GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day black life—of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of Sink, a memoir, longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and shortlisted for the Patrick Saroyan International Writing Prize; the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Literary Excellence, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; and the forthcoming story collection Leviathan Beach. His prose and poetry has been published or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Harper's, Virginia Quarterly Review, Vanity Fair, The Yale Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Dilettante Army. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame's MFA program in prose, he earned his PhD in English from The University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, and teaches courses in Black Studies, Poetics, Video Games, Queer Theory and more at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Recommended Books: Nell Irving Painter, Old in Art School Yoko Towada, Scattered All Over the Earth Alison Mills Newman, Francisco  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode on the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liutalks with Tao Leigh Goffe about her new, magisterial Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis. Spanning many fields and disciplines in the natural sciences, social sciences, the humanities, and the arts, Professor Goffe weaves together a historically rich and geographically complex picture of how capitalism and racism undergird the climate crisis in ways made invisible or benign via the work of the west's “dark laboratory.” Writing back through accounts of indigenous bird watching and Black provisional grounds, we talk about things as seemingly different as the massive guano industry built on Chinese and Indian labor in the 19th century to Malcolm X's boyhood vegetable garden in Michigan. We talk in particular about one of the key passages of Dark Laboratory, where Tao writes:“Still, we manage to create a poetics out of that which wishes to destroy us and the planet. How else will we be able to live in ‘the after'? We must reassess what a problem is. Living is not a problem, as Audrey Lorde reminds us. I would add that dying is not a problem either. Decomposing is essential to the natural order and cycle of life. Living at the expense of others is a problem.”Tao Leigh Goffe is a writer, theorist, and interdisciplinary artist who grew up between the UK and New York City. For the past fifteen years she has specialized in colonial histories of race, geology, climate, and media technologies. Dr. Goffe lives and works in Manhattan where she is an Associate Professor at CUNY in Black Studies. She teaches classes on literary theory and cultural history. Dr. Goffe's book on how the climate crisis is a racial crisis is called DARK LABORATORY (Doubleday and Hamish Hamilton (Penguin UK, 2025). Her second book BLACK CAPITAL, CHINESE DEBT, under contract with Duke University Press, presents a long history of racialization, modern finance, and indebtedness. It brings together subjects of the Atlantic and Pacific markets from 1806 to the present under European colonialism. Dr. Goffe is a fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School in racial justice. Her research explores Black diasporic intellectual histories, political, and ecological life. She studied English literature at Princeton University before earning her PhD at Yale University. Dr. Goffe's research and curatorial work is rooted in literatures and theories of labor that center Black feminist engagements with Indigeneity and Asian diasporic racial formations. Committed to building intellectual communities beyond institutions, she is the founder of the Dark Laboratory, an engine for the study of race, technology, and ecology through digital storytelling. Dr. Goffe is also the Executive Director of the Afro-Asia Group, an organization that centers the intersections of African and Asian diasporas, futurity, and radical coalition towards sovereignty. www.palumbo-liu.comhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place

In this episode on the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liutalks with Tao Leigh Goffe about her new, magisterial Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis. Spanning many fields and disciplines in the natural sciences, social sciences, the humanities, and the arts, Professor Goffe weaves together a historically rich and geographically complex picture of how capitalism and racism undergird the climate crisis in ways made invisible or benign via the work of the west's “dark laboratory.” Writing back through accounts of indigenous bird watching and Black provisional grounds, we talk about things as seemingly different as the massive guano industry built on Chinese and Indian labor in the 19th century to Malcolm X's boyhood vegetable garden in Michigan. We talk in particular about one of the key passages of Dark Laboratory, where Tao writes:“Still, we manage to create a poetics out of that which wishes to destroy us and the planet. How else will we be able to live in ‘the after'? We must reassess what a problem is. Living is not a problem, as Audrey Lorde reminds us. I would add that dying is not a problem either. Decomposing is essential to the natural order and cycle of life. Living at the expense of others is a problem.”Tao Leigh Goffe is a writer, theorist, and interdisciplinary artist who grew up between the UK and New York City. For the past fifteen years she has specialized in colonial histories of race, geology, climate, and media technologies. Dr. Goffe lives and works in Manhattan where she is an Associate Professor at CUNY in Black Studies. She teaches classes on literary theory and cultural history. Dr. Goffe's book on how the climate crisis is a racial crisis is called DARK LABORATORY (Doubleday and Hamish Hamilton (Penguin UK, 2025). Her second book BLACK CAPITAL, CHINESE DEBT, under contract with Duke University Press, presents a long history of racialization, modern finance, and indebtedness. It brings together subjects of the Atlantic and Pacific markets from 1806 to the present under European colonialism. Dr. Goffe is a fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School in racial justice. Her research explores Black diasporic intellectual histories, political, and ecological life. She studied English literature at Princeton University before earning her PhD at Yale University. Dr. Goffe's research and curatorial work is rooted in literatures and theories of labor that center Black feminist engagements with Indigeneity and Asian diasporic racial formations. Committed to building intellectual communities beyond institutions, she is the founder of the Dark Laboratory, an engine for the study of race, technology, and ecology through digital storytelling. Dr. Goffe is also the Executive Director of the Afro-Asia Group, an organization that centers the intersections of African and Asian diasporas, futurity, and radical coalition towards sovereignty. www.palumbo-liu.comhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place

Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator, activist, and civil servant who dedicated her entire life to the pursuit of racial and gender equality. Her impressive legacy includes schools, legislation, and the formation of the Women's Army Corps. Research: Architect of the Capitol. “Mary McLeod Bethune.” https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/mary-mcleod-bethune-statue Bethune, Mary McLeod. “Dr. Bethune's Last Will & Testament.” Bethune-Cookman University. https://www.cookman.edu/history/last-will-testament.html Bethune, Mary McLeod. “Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World: Essays and Selected Documents.” Indiana University Press. 1999. Brewer, William M. “Mary McLeod Bethune.” Negro History Bulletin , November, 1955, Vol. 19, No. 2 (November, 1955), p. 48, 36. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44212916 "Bethune, Mary Mcleod." Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, edited by John Hartwell Moore, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2008, pp. 166-167. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2831200056/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=8b031f93. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024. Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project. “Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955).” https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/mary-mcleod-bethune-1875-1955 Flemming, Shelia Y. and Elaine M. Smith. “Mary McLeod Bethune: Born for Greatness: Introduction to Special Volume.” Phylon (1960-), Vol. 59, No. 2 (WINTER 2022), pp. 21-54. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27180573 Foreman, Adam. “The Extraordinary Life of Mary McLeod Bethune.” The National World War II Museum. July 30, 2020. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/mary-mcleod-bethune Johnson-Miller, Beverly C. "Mary McLeod Bethune: black educational ministry leader of the early 20th century." Christian Education Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, fall 2006, pp. 330+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A154513137/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=175ad2e0. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024. Jones, Martha S. “Mary McLeod Bethune Was at the Vanguard of More Than 50 Years of Black Progress.” Smithsonian. 7/2020. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mary-mcleod-bethune-vanguard-more-than-50-years-black-progress-180975202/ Long, Kim Cliett. "Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune: a life devoted to service." Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, fall 2011. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A317588290/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=af61ca7a. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024. "Mary McLeod Bethune." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, edited by Thomas Carson and Mary Bonk, Gale, 1999. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1667000015/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=96df5412. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024. McCLUSKEY, AUDREY T. "Representing the Race: Mary McLeod Bethune and the Press in the Jim Crow Era." The Western Journal of Black Studies, vol. 23, no. 4, winter 1999, p. 236. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A62354228/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=d189f Michals, Debra. "Mary McLeod Bethune." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune Moorer, Vanessa. “Mary McLeod Bethune.” National Museum of African American History and Culture. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/mary-mcleod-bethune National Parks Service. “Mary McLeod Bethune. Mary McLeod Bethune Council House. https://www.nps.gov/mamc/learn/historyculture/mary-mcleod-bethune.htm PBS American Experience. “Eleanor and Mary McLeod Bethune.” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eleanor-bethune/ Popp, Veronica. “Black roses: The womanist partnership of Frances Reynolds Keyser and Mary McLeod Bethune.” Journal of Lesbian Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2024.2385714 Roosevelt, Eleanor. “My Day: May 20, 1955.” https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1955&_f=md003174 Smith, Elaine M. “Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune-Cookman College Collection, 1922–1955.” Alabama State University. /https://pq-static-content.proquest.com/collateral/media2/documents/1397_MaryMcLBethuneCollege.pdf Smith, Elaine M. “Mary McLeod Bethune: In the Leadership Orbit of Men.” Phylon (1960-), WINTER 2022, Vol. 59, No. 2 (WINTER 2022). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/27180575 Smith, Elaine M. “Mary McLeod Bethune’s ‘Last Will and Testament’: A Legacy for Race Vindication.” The Journal of Negro History, vol. 81, no. 1/4, 1996, pp. 105–22. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2717611. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024. State Library and Archives of Florida. “Mary McLeod Bethune.” Florida Memory. https://www.floridamemory.com/learn/classroom/learning-units/mary-mcleod-bethune/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The public debate over policing has made more of us more familiar with ideas like defunding or abolishing the police, but these ideas are still often dismissed as infeasible. In this episode, host Kai Wright is joined by three experts who have seen communities sustain and improve public safety absent of law enforcement.First, we meet Dennis Flores, a Nuyorican multimedia artist, activist and educator born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He is the co-founder of El Grito de Sunset Park, a grassroots community-based organization that advocates around issues of discriminatory policing and housing rights. Flores is also the lead organizer of the Sunset Park Puerto Rican Day Parade, which, entering its third year, has created a celebration of Puerto Rican culture safe from police harassment. Flores shares how own experience with our justice system led him to find alternatives to police presence to keep his community safe.Next, Kai is joined by Philip V. McHarris, an assistant professor in the Department of Black Studies and Frederick Douglas Institute at the University of Rochester, and author of the book, “Beyond Policing.” McHarris breaks down the history of our police system and how learning about the white supremacist origins of law enforcement can help us discover better alternatives.Then Danielle Sered, executive director of the award-winning organization Common Justice, talks about developing and advancing solutions to violence that meet the needs of those harmed and foster racial equity without relying on incarceration. Sered is the author of “Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair” and her organization is at the forefront of alternatives to prison. She shares her takeaways from working on the frontlines — both with victims and perpetrators.Companion Listening: “People Feel Unsafe–and It's More Than Crime” (March 14, 2022)The social fabric is torn. People nationwide are scared, some going so far as to arm themselves. What can we learn from our history as we react to this fear? Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.