An Endorsement: Tim Fielder’s ‘Infinitum’

February 26, 2021August 18, 2021 Shawn Taylor

Afrofuturism is having a moment. First posited by journalist Mark Dery in the early 1990s, Afrofuturism is now a full-blown social, cultural, psychological, technological, and aesthetic movement. And never has this movement, this moment, been more fully realized than in Tim Fielder’s magnum opus, Infinitum. To call it a graphic novel would be to undercut it’s value. It is an enterprise of speculative cultural cartography.

Podcasts

Southern Fried Asian: Dr. David Surratt

February 24, 2021 Southern Fried Asian

On a new episode of Southern Fried Asian, Keith is joined by Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students at the University of Oklahoma Dr. David Surratt to talk about growing up Black and Korean in Tulsa.

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Movies, Reviews, Streaming1 Comment

Give Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield Their Roses for ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’

February 1, 2021May 15, 2021 Jamal Michel

With regard to director Shaka King’s masterpiece, the aforementioned sentiment goes double for Kaluuya’s fellow cast members Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne, and Jesse Plemons. Judas and the Black Messiah follows the life and times, and tragic end, of Fred Hampton (played by Kaluuya), the Black Panther Party Chairman of the Illinois chapter in the late 1960s. Most importantly, the film lays bare the attempts of the FBI to infiltrate and destabilize Hampton’s civil rights campaigns through the aid of petty criminal William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) after applying enough pressure on O’Neal to force him into working as their informant.

Literature, Movies, Television

Ava DuVernay’s Collection of Work is Necessary Viewing for Students and Educators Alike

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021 Jamal Michel

Six years ago, I was student teaching in Durham under the graduate MAT program at Duke University and was well on my way to perhaps the most fulfilling, demanding, and emotionally draining career path in my life. I like to think I accidentally ended up at the front of the classroom — senior year of high school saw my required community service hours stack up until I could go nowhere else last minute, aside from my neighborhood mosque. As presumptuous as it was, the imam still agreed to have me on board teaching elementary Arabic.

Animation, Interview, Movies, Streaming1 Comment

No More Mrs. Frozone: Black Women Characters in Pixar’s ‘Soul’

December 14, 2020May 15, 2021 Constance Gibbs

Black adult women aren’t often depicted in animation. Most of the Black female characters are kids or teens or little-seen moms. Some notable central characters include: Storm. Trudy Proud and Big Mama. Donna Tubbs. Uhm, the Muses? There aren’t very many. It’s the Mrs. Frozone problem, off-screen and never developed. (Pixar could stand to improve upon that problem in particular.)

Interview, Television

NOC Interview: Chris Redd of ‘Saturday Night Live’

October 6, 2020October 7, 2020 Jamal Michel

Chris Redd is humbled by the company he shares, being only one of 20 other Black players in SNL’s storied history. What he hopes to leave behind at the end of his career, though, is beyond comedy. The Chicago native has been deeply involved in giving back to the Chicago community, helping raise millions for charities like the The Anthony Rizzo Laugh Off For Cancer, The Chris Redd & Friends Charity Concert, and also through the Covid-19 Protestor’s relief fund that he founded. Chris also serves on the board of directors of Poverty Alleviation Chicago.

Comics, Interview, Streaming, Television

Cartoonist Keith Knight on ‘Woke,’ Politics, and the Power of Comics

September 18, 2020May 15, 2021 Jamal Michel

Keith Knight is the creator of three popular comic strips: the Knight Life, (th)ink, and the K Chronicles. He has appeared in various publications worldwide, including the Washington Post, Daily KOS, San Francisco Chronicle, Medium.com, Ebony, ESPN the Magazine, L.A. Weekly, MAD Magazine, and the Funny Times. I sat down with Keith to talk his new show, Woke, now on Hulu, as well as politics, the craziness of 2020 and also the impact of animation and cartoon drawing by artists of color.

Conventions, DC Comics, Streaming, Television

DC FanDome: How ‘Watchmen’ Explores the Issues of Corrupt Power and Systemic Racism

September 12, 2020May 15, 2021 Mike Manalo

“When the police masked [in the events of the show], it raised the question of accountability, because at some point, [it becomes a question of] who’s the good guy/who’s the bad guy” — Christal Henry, Supervising Producer of Watchmen (2019)

This quote, which kicked off the most fascinating panel/segment in the DC FanDome for Watchmen: Unmasked, embodies more than just what was going on in the narrative of the show. It’s a quote that fully embodies what we’re seeing in our society today. When you replace the metaphor of a mask with a badge, we understand that Watchmen is, as the graphic novel was too, an absolute reflection of the sins of society told through the lenses of both the empowered and the powerless. And therein is why Watchmen is perhaps one of the best television events in the past decade.

Gone Too Soon, Marvel2 Comments

Chadwick Boseman Was a Source of Light in My Understanding of a Black Hero

August 29, 2020September 4, 2020 Jamal Michel

In the Bantu language Xhosa, Ulwimi olunye alwanelanga tu means “One language is never enough.” In the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s passing, there is an inconceivable grief rippling across language barriers and cascading through communities and countries. The letters on my keyboard look like a jumbled mess — trying to use language to communicate this loss is an act I am unfamiliar with.

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Art, Literature, Scholarship

Black Freedom Beyond Borders: Memories of Abolition Day

August 28, 2020August 28, 2020 Shawn Taylor

It’s Black August. In commemoration of this day, Wakanda Dream Lab + Policy Link have released the free augmented reality anthology: Black Freedom Beyond Borders: Memories of Abolition Day.

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Horror, Television

Shawn Went to ‘Lovecraft Country’ and Came Back with this Endorsement

August 20, 2020August 21, 2020 Shawn Taylor

[This review is based on the first five episodes of Lovecraft Country. The ADR nor the VFX were complete, so I won’t comment on those.]

If you’ve been reading The Nerds of Color for any length of time, you know that I routinely eschew the traditional review format. I don’t find it terribly interesting to read and I’m not a really big fan of writing that way. As I only cover the things I enjoy, I write endorsements instead of reviews and I am endorsing Lovecraft Country, with a few caveats.

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Gone Too Soon, Movies, News1 Comment

They Are Still Killing Radio Raheem

June 19, 2020June 22, 2020 Shawn Taylor

In just over a month, Spike Lee’s masterful Do the Right Thing will be 31 years old. Me and a group of friends skipped out of our summer work program to see the film. We were budding Black and Brown cineastes who marveled at Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It and begged our caretakers and school counselors to help us apply to HBCUs after viewing School Daze (and A Different World) — well, those of us who could activate our dream machinery enough to believe we could escape the projects and could make it in university. It was the summer before our senior year and we all knew that in a year’s time, things would be different. Some of us would be off to the military. Some of us would go to either a four-year college or a junior college. Some of us would go directly into the workforce. And there was me. I had no idea what was waiting for me after high school. All I knew was that as soon as I graduated (if I graduated) I was running as far away and as fast as I could from my abusive mother. I didn’t care where. I just needed to get the hell out of that house. All this was bouncing around in my head as the lights dimmed. Continue reading “They Are Still Killing Radio Raheem”

Fandom, Star Trek, Streaming

All Good Things…

February 10, 2020May 15, 2021 Shawn Taylor

As soon as I was exposed to it, I was a rabid fan of Star Trek. We share a birthday, September 8, and a value system that holds art and science as equals. Trek was more to me than a fandom. It was a vision of our shared future world that was achievable. Maybe not warp drive and phasers, but philosophically and materially achievable. While I loved the Original Series, it was The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine that seemed to realize R. Buckminster Fuller’s (one of my favorite thinkers) dream of universal equity.

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Fandom, Fantasy

February 2020: Black Wizard History Month

January 28, 2020March 5, 2020 Robyn

Our mission at Black Girls Create has always been highlighting Black female creators and being a place for discussions of critical fandom, and one way we’ve decided to converge the two themes is with the Critical Companion series.

Inspired by Doctor Who’s plucky sidekicks (most notably, season 10’s Bill Potts), formal literary Critical Companions discussing an author’s breadth of work, as well as our mission to provide a platform for marginalized creators, the Critical Companion series will feature blog posts written by Black writers. We hope those writers are some of you!

In 2018 we had a monthly topic where we accepted two pitches (paid) that represent two aspects of the idea. Now, we are opening up submissions to be a bit less restrictive, but we are still largely looking for pieces that delve into the idea of critical fandom — how do we as fans analyze our favorite things with care and consider the wider world that the fandom either represents or ignores? We always love personal essays about growing up nerdy, early fandom experiences, and pivotal moments in your own nerdy lives.

Pitches are taken on a rolling basis. Posting will typically occur on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month.

Word Count: approx. 700 words

Price: $50 per post

Email: pitches@blackgirlscreate.org

Continue reading “February 2020: Black Wizard History Month”

Gone Too Soon, Music, Sports

Mega Ran on The Soul Man

January 21, 2020January 22, 2020 MegaRan

My relationship with professional wrestling is very complicated at best. I watched my first wrestling match sometime around 1983, and the larger than life characters were literal comic books that had exploded in front of me. Like most other kids in the ’80s, I wanted more. I begged my mom to buy me wrestling magazines, toys, and watched every Saturday morning.

I loved guys like Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage, but I remember my eyes widening every time there was a Black or Brown face on my screen. So naturally I had an affinity for characters like The Junkyard Dog, Koko B Ware. But what really turned me on to wrestling was a tag team called The Soul Patrol.

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DC Comics, Hard N.O.C. Life, Star Wars

Hard NOC Life: Watching the ‘Watchmen’

October 28, 2019January 30, 2020 Hard NOC Media

On a new episode of Hard NOC Life, Shawn returns and joins Dominic and Keith to break down HBO’s Watchmen adaptation.

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DC Comics, Movies1 Comment

Will Deadshot Dead Idris Elba’s Career?

March 7, 2019March 7, 2019 Shawn Taylor

Idris Elba will replace Will Smith in the James Gunn-helmed Suicide Squad, dropping in 2021. For some reason, to me, this feels like the death knell for Elba to be the monstrous movie star we all know he deserves to be. Don’t @ me, but Elba isn’t where he should and could be. He’s made some career missteps (way more in film and music than on television), but I don’t think this is why he’s bubbled for so long, instead of popping.

Continue reading “Will Deadshot Dead Idris Elba’s Career?”

Animation, Marvel, Movies, Reviews2 Comments

Spider-Man Enters the ‘Spider-Verse’

December 16, 2018September 9, 2019 Shawn Taylor

I can’t believe I live in a world where I was able to see both Black Panther and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in the same year. Just as the warmth of the Wakandan sun was beginning to fade, I’m swinging through Brooklyn (my birthplace) with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore is Miles; an amazing performance) the Spider-Man of Earth-1610. And I couldn’t be more elated.

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Interview, Literature, Movies1 Comment

Interviewing Kiki Layne of ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’

September 26, 2018April 3, 2019 Valerie Complex

There is no question the work of writer and activist James Baldwin is timeless and timely because no matter how long ago he wrote his books, essays, and social commentary, his words are always right on time. Barry Jenkins’ new film If Beale Street Could Talk is an adaptation of the novel of the same name that works to capture the essence of Baldwin’s message of love, poverty and a broken justice system.

The film stars Kiki Layne and Stephan James as Tish and Fonny, young lovers from Harlem in the 1960s. When Fonny is accused on a crime he didn’t commit, and Tish discovers she is pregnant, her family rallies together to prove Fonny’s innocence.

With the film releasing in select theaters in New York and LA, The Nerds of Color are just in time with interviews. I enjoyed talking with the charming young actress Kiki Layne about love, family, and working with legendary actress Regina King.

Continue reading “Interviewing Kiki Layne of ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’”

Interview, Literature, Movies1 Comment

Stephan James Talks ‘Beale Street’ and Black Love

September 25, 2018April 3, 2019 Valerie Complex

Barry Jenkins’ new film If Beale Street Could Talk is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by James Baldwin. When writing the book, I’m sure Baldwin never thought his works would be translated on screen. A conversation can also be had on whether or not James Baldwin ever thought his work would be as poignant today as it was 44 years ago. The justice system is still screwed, Black folks are still in poverty in America, but hopefully the public’s view of ‘Black love’ will change upon viewing this film.

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Literature, Movies, Reviews

‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ is an Impressive Achievement

September 25, 2018September 8, 2019 Valerie Complex

New York City isn’t the diverse utopia many think it is. If there is any system that shows just how broken things are, it is the city’s police force where “protect and serve” is on a circumstantial based on the color of your skin. This is among the many themes in James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, which is in good hands with director Barry Jenkins.

Continue reading “‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ is an Impressive Achievement”

Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies, Sports1 Comment

Hard NOC Life: Olivia Munn vs. Super Predator

September 14, 2018May 8, 2020 Hard NOC Media

This week on Hard NOC Life, Keith is joined by his DC TV Classics co-host Britney Monae to fill in for Shawn as they break down the week in Nerd Pop.

Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: Olivia Munn vs. Super Predator”

Hard N.O.C. Life, Marvel, Music

Hard NOC Life: Feels Like the End of Summer

September 7, 2018May 8, 2020 Hard NOC Media

This week on Hard NOC Life, Shawn and Keith discuss the news from the waning days of summer, including Childish Gambino’s latest, the new Jack Ryan series on Amazon, and the reveal of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel.