ordinary thoughts: show up for yourself
Yerrr. It’s us, again. We’re one week into Black History Month and we’ve already seen Black excellence sweep up entire categories at recent award shows. We know you saw Jigga Man’s iconic acceptance speech at the Grammys. What’d he say? “You gotta keep showing up… until they call you Chairman, until they call you a Genius, until they call you the Greatest of All Time.” We might be biased (New York, stand up!) but nothing motivates quite like a Jay-Z gloat.
So, how will you keep showing up for yourself? Seriously, let us know. Hit reply to share an affirmation, a goal, or anything else that is keeping you going this week.
In the meantime, grab your coffee or tea and let's dive into stories that'll make you smile, think, and maybe even make you want to forward this to a friend.
- Isaiah & Cybele
the fabrics of tomorrow
The negligent framework of avoiding, falsifying and in some cases, erasing our country’s complex history, is impeding our growth toward progression.
stories that have our attention
How “Latin Music” Erases The Black Origins of Many Genres
When it comes to music defined as "Latin," the contributions of Black artists often go overlooked in favor of a more marketable pan-ethnic identity that flattens Latines and Latin Americans into one people… It is a matter beyond mere representation. Here, Bauzá creates a firm delineation and boundary, in which he explicitly states that his music is Black and Cuban. In doing so, we can find a framework to locate and assert Black art in the Americas beyond what erases Black identity for profit and nationalism. What does this mean?
Like the United States, Latin America uses Black imagery and culture as a marker of marketable street culture or “cool,” all while diminishing the originators and often shutting them out of the movements they create. It is then used to create a “unifying” concept of national culture exported globally. On the surface, Latinidad offers shared national cultures of harmonious blending, where there is an equal exchange of food, clothes, music, identity, and ultimately the unifying promises of belonging to “nations.” However, when Black Latines and Latin Americans are not the faces of the genres they created — and therefore, not financial beneficiaries or models of authenticity when these styles of music take off — we begin to unravel who actually has access to industry, economy, livelihood, and presentation of the self.
The Famous Baldwin-Buckley Debate Still Matters Today
“The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro,” James Baldwin declared on February 18, 1965, in his epochal debate with William F. Buckley Jr. at the University of Cambridge. Baldwin was echoing the motion of the debate—that the American dream was at the expense of black Americans, with Baldwin for, Buckley against—but his emphasis on the word is made his point clear. “I picked the cotton, and I carried it to the market, and I built the railroads under someone else’s whip for nothing,” he said, his voice rising with the cadences of the pulpit. “For nothing.”
The packed auditorium was hushed. Here was a clash of diametrically opposed titans: In one corner was Baldwin, short, slender, almost androgynous with his still-youthful face, voice carrying the faintly cosmopolitan inflections he’d had for years. He was the debate’s radical, an esteemed writer unafraid to volcanically condemn white supremacy and the antiblack racism of conservative and liberal Americans alike. In the other corner was Buckley, tall, light-skinned, hair tightly combed and jaw stiff, his words chiseled with his signature transatlantic accent. If Baldwin—the verbal virtuoso who wrote moving portraits of black America and about life as a queer expatriate in Europe—stood for America’s need to change, Buckley positioned himself as the reasonable moderate who resisted the social transformations that civil-rights leaders called for, desegregation most of all. Some of the students in the audience knew him as nothing less than the father of modern American conservatism.
In Photos: Black History 50 Years Ago
The year 1974 gave the world monumental moments in Black history, from Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's all-time home run record to the Boston busing riots to historic protests in London. Through the lens: For Black History Month this year, Axios is looking back at 1974 to highlight moments that changed civil rights and the sports world.
in other news...
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Tech
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Sports
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pa' la cultura
cultural trivia
Question: Who is credited as the first African American Jazz musician to “cross over” to White radio stations?
Duke Ellington
Miles Davis
Louis Armstrong
Nat King Cole
song of the week
Song of the Week is chosen from subscriber submissions, as we pay close attention to the latest exceptional output of music from artists who remain slightly under the radar.
Song of the Week:
Someday – Elmiene, British neo-soul singer-songwriter.
words of wisdom
Melissa Kimble is a Chicago-born, Memphis-bred, Brooklyn-based content marketer and writer, and founder of @blkcreatives.
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Cultural Trivia Answer
The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is… *Drum roll please*
3. Louis Armstrong
Coming to prominence in the 1920s, American trumpeter, vocalist and legendary soloist, Louis Armstrong is said to be the first Black entertainer to gain mainstream popularity and "cross over" to White and international audiences. His success didn’t come without criticism, however. Many questioned his delayed public stance on the rampant racism and inequality during the height of his career.