Happy Summer!! As we prepare to enter into sweltering heats, take vacations on the beach, spend time with loved ones and friends, let me make sure I get you ready for some summer reading! Summer is always an exciting time for me, and a time to take advantage of some leisure reading!
On this past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to be a featured contributor for a Juneteenth Reading List on VCU News!! I am always excited when I get to share a some resources and good reads/finds!!
The recommended reading list consists of various faculty on the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) campus. The list is meant to inform and celebrate the Juneteenth holiday. As noted by Elinor Frisa,
VCU News asked faculty, as well as staff from VCU Libraries, to suggest books that help readers understand and celebrate Juneteenth and all that it represents.
For my featured selection, I chose ‘We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy’ by Natalie Baszile.
Readers also get the opportunity to see the ways in which Black farmers use the land to discuss race relations, create identities, showcase the harvest as a healing tool and explain how it passed down through generations. I recommend this book as it is filled with rich history (past and present), it speaks to the importance of land ownership for Black Americans and it does not rely on one type of farming story. “We Are Each Other’s Harvest”is an inspiring book that informs, encourages and serves as a guide to the future legacy of Black American farmers.
As we prepare to celebrate the now federal holiday, Juneteenth, it is important that is not simply a day-off but a day of remembrance and liberation. And to get you in the spirit, I have compiled a few things to get you started!
Check it out below:
Film & Television/Podcasts
A Dream Delivered: The Lost Letters of Hawkins Wilson (Streaming on Paramount+ and PlutoTV)
‘Sound of Freedom: A Juneteenth Celebration’ (ABC/Hulu) Friday-June 17th at 8 pm/ET
‘Something in the Water Festival’ (Amazon Prime Video and Twitch) Friday-Sunday 3 pm/ET
‘After Jackie’ (History Channel) Saturday-June 18 at 8 pm/ET
‘Juneteenth: A Global Celebration’ (CNN) Sunday-June 19th at 8 pm/ET
‘Omitted : The Black Cowboy’ (ESPN 2) Sunday-June 19th at 2 pm/ET
Emergency (2022) [Amazon Prime Video]
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America- Episode #4-“Freedom” (2021) [Netflix]
Miss Juneteenth (2020)
Juneteenth Jamboree: A Place For Families (2016) [PBS]
President Joe Biden talks with Opal Lee after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Bill, Thursday, June 17, 2021, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Chandler West)
Summer is on the horizon and I am just getting you ready for the heat!! Got a nice mix of returning series, new films, and series premieres. Buckle up and get your remotes charged up and your popcorn ready!
Check out the new trailers below:
Season 3-The Boys (Streaming on Prime Video June 3rd)
Surviving Summer (Streaming on Netflix June 3rd)
Andor (Streaming on Disney+ June 3rd)
Beast (In theaters August 19th)
Three Thousand Years of Longing (In theaters August 31st)
Getting you ready for some summer film and television viewing!! It’s definitely going to be a HOT one! Check out the trailer below and see for yourself:
Spiderhead (Streaming on Netflix June 17th)
The Lake (Streaming on Prime Video June 17th)
Season 3-The Umbrella Academy (Streaming on Netflix June 22)
Season 2-Only Murders in the Building (Streaming on Hulu June 28th)
The Terminal List (Streaming on Prime Video July 1st)
So we are almost half way through 2022, but the reading doesn’t stop. Before I get you ready for your summer reading, just want to finish out the spring with some breezy balcony and patio reading. This month’s list is all over the globe…literally, I figured I would share a few treats by giving you some historical references, a little bit of self-preservation and cultural identity, mixed with a dash of U.S. midwest and Caribbean roots, and topping you off with some sassy satire.
Jameela Green Ruins Everything ~Zarqa Nawaz
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations ~Mira Jacob
Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel ~Xochitl Gonzalez
The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family ~Bettye Kearse
American Street ~Ibi Zoboi
And remember you can always go back and check out the previous month’s list and past recommendations in the “Resource” section of the website!!
We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained. ~Nikki Giovanni
The African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS)’s Eighth Annual Conference*
Conference Theme: “We Can’t Breathe”: Crisis, Catastrophe and Sustaining Community in (Un)livable Spaces
Hosted by University of North Carolina, Charlotte– March 9-11, 2023
Black people can’t breathe. This is because these are crisis ridden times. Crisis and catastrophe wrought by mass incarceration, inadequate housing, climate change, environmental degradation, police brutality, war and the stress upon our everyday lives. Historically, Black communities globally have been made subject to horrific circumstances from involuntary migration, to enforced servitude, Jim Crow segregation, mass incarceration, police brutality and now coupled with a pandemic and climate change. This is as juxtaposed with a multiplicity of environmental conditions including inadequate access to healthy food, toxic waste, unclean water and pollution. Black communities have disproportionately experienced the impact of environmental waste, pollution, climate change and lack of access to healthy food resources and equitable healthcare services. This has also more recently meant involuntary migration illustrated with the rise of Black climate refugees worldwide. Statistics indicate that Black people in the U.S. are 75 percent more likely to live close to oil and gas refineries, have disproportionately high rates of asthma, due to environmental factors, and are more frequently made subject to pollution and toxic waste. Our conference this year specifically focuses on the theme of crisis, catastrophe and sustaining community. We are particularly interested here in the ways that the Black community has responded to these circumstances over time in thought and action.
This conference seeks to bring together scholars, activists, public intellectuals and community stakeholders interested in presenting on the theme of crisis, catastrophe and sustaining community in relation to the history and culture of African Diaspora communities.
Papers related to (but not limited to) these topics might be ideal:
Abolitionism (then and now)
Enslavement and Everyday Resistance
Mass Incarceration
Education Pedagogies and Resistance
Housing and Homelessness
Rent Exploitation and the Housing Crisis
Health disparities over time and space
Healthy Food Cooperatives and Programs
Food deserts and Black Mobilization
Clean Water Actions
Police Brutality and Black Resistance
Black Women and the Global Green Movement
Black Children and Environmentalism
Black Women and Eco-feminist Praxis
For more information and submission guidelines, please click here !!
Deadline for submissions is August 1st, 2022
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Conference Committee:
Co-Chairs: LaShawn Harris, Michigan State University and Oscar de la Torre, UNC-Charlotte
Tyler Parry, University of Nevada, Los Vegas Adam McNeil, Rutgers University Grace D. Gipson, Virginia Commonwealth University Crystal Eddins, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Note:The goal is to have an in-person conference but this is subject to change given the current pandemic. Hybrid options may be available as we are an organization that does take seriously inclusivity of all interested in participating in this timely event. Masks will be required and proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test (24 hours before attending) must be provided to the organization before attending.
Another week, another dollar, another trailer! Who doesn’t love getting something new to watch and put on your calendar every week! Check out this week’s new trailers below:
The Orville: New Horizons (Streaming on Hulu June 2nd)
Season 2-P-Valley (Streaming on STARZ June 3rd)
Hustle (Streaming on Netflix June 8th)
First Kill (Streaming on Netflix June 10th)
Season 4-Westworld (Streaming on HBO Max June 26th)
Avatar: The Way of Water (In theaters December 16th)
Have you ever just looked at an image or a still shot of something and became overwhelmingly excited and stunned at the same time?? Well those are my exact emotions when I saw the image below:
For even more of the above emotions check out the Empire Exclusive picture, see here!!
The image above is from the upcoming film, “The Woman King.” It is inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey (now known as present-day Benin), which was one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its story follows Nanisca (Viola Davis), General of the all-female military unit (for additional context the women who inspired Black Panther’s Dora Milaje), and Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), an ambitious recruit, who as a team “fought enemies who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.”
Davis debuted the trailer for the film at this year’s CinemaCon in April.
Hook … Line … and Sinker … I’m sold!! To see Viola Davis in a “kick-ass” role (literally and figuratively), as well as see the history of a group of Black women warriors unfold on the Hollywood screen is music to my ears! Now that is “Representation Matters” in action!!
“The Woman King” was co-written by Dana Stevens and Gina Prince Bythewood who also serves as the director. The film is also produced under Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon’s company, JuVee Productions (along with . Not only is the film on point behind the camera but it also includes a dynamic cast, which includes Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and John Boyega. According to Prince-Bythewood, “we were intentional of creating an ensemble of the dopest actors of this moment from all over the diaspora.” AND the musical score will be coming from the legendary Terence Blanchard. I’m already on the edge of my seat waiting for this one to hit theaters!!
“The Woman King” is set to be exclusively in theaters on September 16, 2022.
Black Future Feminist 