Tag: Black Wall Street

Posted in Black Joy, Celebration, Holiday Celebration!!

Habari Gani?!! It’s Kwanzaa Time!!-Day 4: Ujamaa!

Posted on by drblackfuturefeminist

Habari Gani!! What’s the news today?! Ujamaa!!

On this day we light the fourth candle and celebrate Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics),“to build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.“

As noted on the official Kwanzaa website, Ujamaa embodies shared work and wealth, economic self-reliance, and obligation of generosity. Dr. Karenga notes, “To share wealth and work, then, is to share concern, care, and responsibility for a new, more human and fulfilling future”.

Growing up in Champaign, I would learn about Kwanzaa from my aunt Vernessa. I looked forward to this time of the year because I got to spend time with my cousins, eat some good food, and get a few gifts! Over time Kwanzaa has become an integral part of who I am and what I do. Considering all of the Black-led nonprofits, foundations, and advocacy organizations, I continue to further understand Kwanzaa’s importance as a way to recognize the strength of Black communities despite systemic pressures that are meant to break us.

For many, the principle Ujamaa emphasizes the importance of folks supporting Black-owned businesses, helping each other thrive economically, sharing helpful financial information, amassing generational wealth, and giving back. All in all, when we think about what we know from Black Wall Street to Black-owned cooperations to the Black collectives, Black folks have been resisting in the spirit of Ujamaa for centuries!

To get you in the spirit check out this trailer below for the OWN limited series, “Rebuilding Black Wall Street”!

Harambee!!  Let’s all work together!!

And remember this year’s Kwanzaa theme is… “Kwanzaa, Freedom, Justice and Peace:
Principles and Practices For A New World”

Posted in Celebration, Holiday Celebration!!, On The Radar

What to Watch on Turkey Day?-TV and Film Watchlist

Posted on by drblackfuturefeminist

Whether you have a Thanksgiving routine with your family or want to start some new traditions check out this Turkey Day watch list…

Network Television

  • Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade [8:30 AM- 12:00 PM/ET, on NBC]
  • The 2023 National Dog Show [12:00 PM/ET on NBC]
  • Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions [12:30 PM/ET on FOX]
  • Washington Commanders vs. Dallas Cowboys [4:30 PM/ET on CBS]
  • San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks [8:20 PM/ET on NBC]

—

Streaming Networks

**Netflix

  • Rustin: Activist Bayard Rustin faces racism and homophobia as he helps change the course of Civil Rights history by orchestrating the 1963 March on Washington.
  • Best. Christmas. Ever!: After a twist of fate brings their families together for Christmas, Charlotte sets out to prove her old friend Jackie’s life is too good to be true.
  • The Killer: After a fateful near miss, an assassin battles his employers — and himself — on an international hunt for retribution he insists isn’t personal.
  • Leo: A coming-of-age musical comedy about the last year of elementary school as seen through the eyes of a class pet.

**Hulu

  • The League: The dynamic journey of Negro League baseball’s triumphs and challenges is told through previously unearthed archival footage and interviews with legendary players.
  • Quiz Lady: A hilarious and heartfelt comedy starring Awkwafina and Sandra Oh as estranged sisters forced to cover their mother’s gambling debts, set out to get the cash the only way they know how – by turning Anne (Awkwafina) into a bona-fide gameshow champion.
  • Season 5-Fargo: In this anthology series inspired by the 1996 film, each season follows a mostly new cast of characters who get involved with murder investigations in different Midwestern towns, with seemingly unrelated crimes sometimes being connected in some way.

**Disney+

  • Dashing Through the Snow: After a traumatic experience, Eddie Garrick, a social worker, no longer believes in the magic of Christmas. At the request of his estranged wife, he brings his daughter Charlotte to work where a magical adventure begins for them.
  • The Naughty Nine: Mischievous fifth grader Andy finds himself without a visit or presents from Santa on Christmas morning. Realizing he must have landed on the “naughty list” and feeling unfairly maligned, Andy pulls together a team of eight other “naughty listers” to help him execute an elaborate heist at the North Pole to get the presents they feel they deserve. Along the way, the group comes to realize that the very best way off the naughty list is to redirect their unique talents for good — instead of mischief.
  • Season 2-Loki: The second season of the American television series Loki, based on Marvel Comics featuring the character of the same name, sees Loki working with Mobius M. Mobius, Hunter B-15, and other members of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) to navigate the multiverse in order to find Sylvie, Ravonna Renslayer, and Miss Minutes. 

**Max

  • Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes suddenly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology called the Scarab. When the Scarab chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he’s bestowed with an incredible suit of armor that’s capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero Blue Beetle.
  • The Gilded Age: The Gilded Age follows a young woman who moves in with her old-money aunts and quickly gets entangled in the social war between them and their new-money neighbors. In a world on the brink of the modern age, will she follow the rules of society or forge her own path?
  • Rebuilding Black Wall Street: A six-part docu-series focusing on the ongoing reconstruction of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, which was destroyed in the 1921 massacre.

**Paramount +

  • Good Burger 2: Dexter Reed and cashier Ed reunite at fast-food restaurant Good Burger with a hilarious new group of employees.
  • Lawmen: Bass Reeves: American Western television series based on the life of the first African American Deputy U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi River, Bass Reeves
  • Milli Vanilli: The story of Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, featuring interviews with the real singers, record executives, the producer mastermind behind the deception and exclusive interviews with Rob and Fab.

Apple TV+

  • A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving: Peppermint Patty invites everyone to Charlie Brown’s for Thanksgiving, even though he’s going to see his grandmother; Snoopy decides to cook his own version of a Thanksgiving meal with help from his friends.
  • Lessons in Chemistry: In the 1950s, Elizabeth Zott’s dream of being a scientist is challenged by a society that says women belong in the domestic sphere; she accepts a job on a TV cooking show and sets out to teach a nation of housewives way more than recipes.

—

**In Theaters

  • Wish
  • Thanksgiving
  • The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
  • Napoleon
  • The Marvels
Posted in A Professor's Thoughts..., Holiday Celebration!!

Habari Gani?! Ujamaa-Kwanzaa Day 4

Posted on by drblackfuturefeminist

Habari Gani?! What’s the good news today?

On this day we celebrate Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics),“to build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.“ As noted on the official Kwanzaa website, Ujamaa embodies shared work and wealth, economic self-reliance, and obligation of generosity. Karenga notes, “To share wealth and work, then, is to share concern, care and responsibility for a new, more human and fulfilling future”.

Historically, Ujamaa was introduced as a socialist philosophy in Tanzania by its first president Julius Nyerere. Nyerere used “Ujamaa” as a revolutionary concept in the development of a national infrastructure centered on communal values. Everything from Black Wall Street to McKissack & McKissack to The Philadelphia Tribune to The National Business League proves that African-Americans have been resisting in the spirit of Ujamaa for centuries.

It’s about working together, making a change, and creating legacies!!

In that spirit, here are a few ways in which you can practice Ujamaa:

  • Organize a buying club in your neighborhood, housing co-op or apartment building.  Items such as laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, socks, sanitizing wipes, water, and a variety of non-perishable goods can be purchased in bulk and the cost shared so that everyone gets these items cheaper than what they would pay buying them retail.
  • Support black and local and independent small businesses or businesspersons, cooperatives, artists, practitioners and others who are community- and environmentally-minded. 
  • Join a city and/or community garden in your local neighborhood
  • Shop at your local farmers’ markets (National Farmers Market Directory)
Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

As each of our families celebrates Kwanzaa and the richness of African-American culture this year and every year, let us all find inspiration in the principle of Ujamaa in the development of a new global economy built through communal values and cooperatives.

Harambee!!  Let’s all work together!!