S.O.A.D.

Photo

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:32:32 -0400

Happy Birthday, Biggie!

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:50:02 -0400

Happy Birthday, Biggie!

Is the black church guilty of spiritual hypocrisy in same-sex marriage debate?

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:54:30 -0400

Is the black church guilty of spiritual hypocrisy in same-sex marriage debate?:

This article makes a very relevant and necessary point, but the term the “black church” is in the same vein as the term the “black community.” We’re not all cloistered together in one location with one ideology and one opinion—the African Diaspora is comprised of individuals. Not all black Christians dislike Obama for his statements on gay marriage. But, those that do definitely need to check themselves.

"It’s ironic how the White girl mimicking Black culture has been viewed as quirky, cute, and..."

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:04:22 -0400

“It’s ironic how the White girl mimicking Black culture has been viewed as quirky, cute, and interesting in the past. But sisters who fashionably rock bamboo earrings, gold nameplate necklaces, and blonde streaked weaves, will inevitably be considered “ghetto” by society.”

- Clutch Magazin

2Pac on stage with Naughty By Nature & Queen Latifah

Mon, 14 May 2012 02:27:53 -0400

2Pac on stage with Naughty By Nature & Queen Latifah

"Unfortunately, it is often easier to ignore, dismiss, reject, and even hurt one another rather than..."

Sat, 12 May 2012 11:33:06 -0400

“Unfortunately, it is often easier to ignore, dismiss, reject, and even hurt one another rather than engage in constructive confrontation.”

- bell hooks

Njenna Redd Foxx photograph: Todd Diederich

Thu, 10 May 2012 04:12:19 -0400

Njenna Redd Foxx

photograph: Todd Diederich

"Being white permits you to talk about paranoia as a mental disorder and to not have to deal with the..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 19:24:17 -0400

“Being white permits you to talk about paranoia as a mental disorder and to not have to deal with the possibility that paranoia is an accurate assessment of reality.”

- Dr. Naim Akbar, Black Collaboration With White Priviege: Part 3

"If you speak in an angry way about what has happened to our people and what is happening to our..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 19:23:48 -0400

““If you speak in an angry way about what has happened to our people and what is happening to our people, what does he call it? Emotionalism. Pick up on that. Here the man has got a rope around his neck and because he screams, you know, the cracker that’s putting the rope around his neck accuses him of being emotional. [Laughter] You’re supposed to have the rope around your neck and holler politely, you know. You’re supposed to watch your diction, not shout and wake other people up— this is how you’re supposed to holler. You’re supposed to be respectable and responsible when you holler against what they’re doing to you.””

- Malcolm X

cartermagazine: Today In History We Honor Canada Lee ‘Canada...

Wed, 09 May 2012 09:41:23 -0400

cartermagazine:

Today In History We Honor Canada Lee

‘Canada Lee, boxer, radio host, and actor is famous for his appearance as “Bigger” in the play, Native Son. Lee also made appearances in Alfred Hitchcock films.’

(photo: Canada Lee)

- CARTER Magazine

Online Magazine Bloginity’s photo shoot with Zebra Katz...

Mon, 07 May 2012 21:24:14 -0400

Online Magazine Bloginity’s photo shoot with Zebra Katz and Njena Reddd Foxxx

Photos by Alison Brady

Full Hip-Hop Documentaries Online

Sun, 06 May 2012 23:00:25 -0400

Full Hip-Hop Documentaries Online:

thechanelmuse:

STYLE WARS (1983) - The most essential of the early hip-hop docs, up there with Wildstyle, it exposes the world of graffiti, a culture burgeoning in New York with fresh art and an underground dialogue centered on notions of originality versus biting. An iconic slice of budget b-boy cinema.

Beat This!: A Hip-Hop History(1984) - This takes us through roots of hip-hop culture starting in the late ’70s in the South Bronx and features Kool Herc, Planet Rock, Kurtis Blow, Jazzy Jay, Afrika Bambaataa, Malcolm McClaren and many more. Great vintage footage of Manhattan, the Bronx, beatboxing, graffiti and breakdancing.

Biggie and Tupac (2002) - Beef has long been a staple of the hip-hop diet, but no rap rivalry has got so dark and surrounded by conspiracy theory as that of Tupac and Biggie. nick Broomfield goes straight to the heart of the matter: visiting LA’s roughest hoods, interviewing Biggie’s mum, and even tracking down the infamous Suge Knight in prison.

Fade to Black (2004) - A master at the game on the top of his game. From incredible studio scenes shopping for beats at hip-hops top table with Kanye, Pharrell and Timerberland to running the stage of a capacity Madison Square Garden with The Roots, Mary J, Ghostface & Foxy, Jay-Z is flawless and always the brightest star on screen.

New York 77: The Coolest Year In Hell (2004)- NYC had fallen into decay and chaos. Yet from the chaos sprang one of the most creative times any city ever encountered. Hip-hop was emerging from the South Bronx, punk music was emerging from the Lower East Side, and disco was emerging from Queens and midtown Manhattan.

80 Blocks from Tiffany’s (1979) - A solid documentary covering some of the most notorious street gangs in the South Bronx before they faded away and Hip Hop took over. After peering into this looking glass you will be glad that Hip Hop is here to stay.

Scratch (2002) - In the language of hip-hop, the MC raps on top of the beats. The DJ—supplies the beats. Doug Pray’s doc is a tribute to these unsung heroes of the “scratch. It opens with Grand Wizard Theodore (New York) telling the story of how he first introduced scratching.

KeepInTime: A Live Recoding (2004) - What happens when you put a bunch of classic funk drummers and super skilled break juggling DJs in the same room? This doc shows us that music is a universal language and that ultimately the generation gap closes quickly when funky jam session is on the go. A must for the footage of Axelrod’s drum beater Earl Palmer, who has since passed away.

The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy (2002) - The narrative traces their evolution from the South Bronx 1970s to media-crazed 1980s to today, as the phenomenon has returned to the underground while remaining as popular as ever. The old and new school are on hand to explain and to praise the b-boy; everyone from rappers like KRS-One and Mos Def to breakers like Crazy Legs and Ken Swift.

Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (2005) - Like preachers and jazz solos, freestyles exist only in the moment, a modern-day incarnation of the African-American storytelling tradition. Shot over a period of more than seven years, the film systematically debunks the false image put out by record companies that hip-hop culture is violent or money-obsessed. Instead, it lets real hip-hop artists, known and unknown, weave their own story.

Rhyme and Reason (1997) - This doc explores the history of hip-hop culture, how rap evolved to become a major cultural voice (and a multi-billion dollar industry), and what the artists have to say about the music’s often controversial images and reputation. Interview subjects range from veteran old-school rappers, such as Kurtis Blow and KRS-One to Ice-T and Dr. Dre to several current rap hitmakers, including Wu-Tang Clan, The Fugees, and Sean “Puffy” Combs.

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (2006)- The documentary explores the issues of masculinity, violence, homophobia and sexism in hip hop music and culture, through interviews with artists, academics and fans.

Zebra Katz and Njena Reddd Foxx Interview WIth Sian-Pierre of...

Sun, 06 May 2012 02:07:08 -0400

Zebra Katz and Njena Reddd Foxx Interview WIth Sian-Pierre of Swagger New York

Eve ArnoldSchool for black civil rights activists; young girl...

Sun, 06 May 2012 01:59:32 -0400

Eve Arnold
School for black civil rights activists; young girl being trained to not react to smoke blown in her face
Virginia, 1960

"The main reason for disfranchising Gullah is that its speakers are generally blacks, and it’s very..."

Sun, 06 May 2012 01:59:21 -0400

“The main reason for disfranchising Gullah is that its speakers are generally blacks, and it’s very easy to invoke lack of intelligibility to claim that they speak a separate language, whereas, because speakers of Appalachian English are whites, the same “judges” don’t want to disfranchise them that easily.

Here’s another example: If you take the variety of Jamaican English that is called Creole, people say it’s a separate language. But if you take a similar variety that has developed in Australia or New Zealand, nobody says that’s a separate language, although for the average American it’s very difficult to understand an average Australian or New Zealander vernacular speaker.”

- Salikoko S. Mufwene, professor and chair of the department of linguistics at the University of Chicago, talking about the way in which English dialects that are perceived as ‘black’ are constantly disenfranchised by the majority who at the same time is reluctant to do the same to dialects that are perceived as ‘white’ even though these often are as different from Standard English as e.g. Gullah or Jamaican English. (via selchieproductions)

"“There was one girl in our school whose mother made her wear a clothespin on her nose to make it..."

Sun, 06 May 2012 01:58:47 -0400

“

“There was one girl in our school whose mother made her wear a clothespin on her nose to make it thin. There were quite a few girls who tried to bleach their skin white with bleaching cream and who got pimples instead. And, of course, we went to the beauty parlor and got our hair straightened. I couldn’t wait to go to the beauty parlor and get my hair all fried up. I wanted Shirley Temple curls just like Shirley Temple. I hated the smell of fried hair and having my ears burned, but we were taught that women had to make great sacrifices to be beautiful. And everybody knew you had to be crazy to walk the streets with nappy hair sticking out. And of course long hair was better than short hair. We all knew that.

We had been completely brainwashed and we didn’t even know it. We accepted white value systems and white standards of beauty and, at times, we accepted the white man’s view of ourselves. We had never been exposed to any other point of view or any other standard of beauty. From when I was a tot, I can remember black people saying, “Niggas aint shit.” “You know how lazy niggas are.” “Give a nigga an inch and he’ll take a mile.” Everybody knew what “niggas” like to do after they eat: sleep. Everybody knew that “niggas” couldn’t be on time; that’s why there was c.p.t. (colored people’s time). “Niggas don’t take care of nothing.” “Niggas don’t stick together.” The list could go on.

To varying degrees we accepted these statements as true. And, to varying degrees, we each made them true within ourselves because we believed them.”

”

- Assata Shakur

"Black heterosexual love and self-love frightens the shit out of white supremacist heteropatriarchy...."

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:56:56 -0400

“Black heterosexual love and self-love frightens the shit out of white supremacist heteropatriarchy. Black queer love and self-love frightens the shit out of black heteropatriarchy.”

- Son of Baldwin (via sonofbaldwin)

Photo

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:56:23 -0400

vintageanchor: “I recently spoke at a university where a...

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:55:57 -0400

vintageanchor:

“I recently spoke at a university where a student told me it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had recently read a novel called American Psycho, and that it was a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.”

― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

SOAD was recognized by the Office of Student Development and Activities at The New School as the...

Tue, 01 May 2012 21:53:19 -0400

SOAD was recognized by the Office of Student Development and Activities at The New School as the Outstanding Student Organization of the 2011-2012 school year. It is all of you who make SOAD what it is today and we thank you.