I’m so honored to be a regular contributor to The Spin, an all women’s media panel hosted by the brilliant Esther Armah on New York’s WBAI 99.5FM. This entry is your one-stop-shop for all of the programs that I have participated in thus far…
On December 20, 2011 I offered commentary along with Dr. Salamishah Tillet and April Silver of Akila Worksongs. We talked about Dr. Maya Angelou and Common’s collaboration that sparked a community conversation about the creation of controversial art and the use of the “N word.” We also weighed in on a new survey released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about the horrific number of rapes and the culture of violence we find ourselves in. Missed it? Catch up now.
December 27, 2011: Doubling down! For our 2011 Year in review listeners were treated to an hour long special of The Spin. This one featured writer Joan Morgan, PR guru April Silver & me. More details about this piece may be found in my blog entry below.
On January 10, 2012 I was invited back to the The Spin along with writer and filmmaker dream hampton; Joan Morgan, author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost and professor Bhakti Shringarpure. As always, we got into a thoughtful and provocative discussion about the week’s headlines. To start, in the first change since 1927, the legal definition of rape has been expanded to include assaults on men. Next, a Georgia school’s faulty attempt at “cross curricular education” results in math questions like: “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?” Finally, with the birth of baby Blue Ivy Carter and the release of the new track Glory by her father Jay Z we got into a fascinating conversation about the perspectives emerging from the blogosphere… Is Beyonce the new face of feminism? Listen in by following this link.
During the January 24, 2012 edition of The Spin we discussed the move to eradicate slavery from the school books, courtesy of the Tennessee Tea Party. We also covered the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade and the current state of reproductive rights. The convo concludes with a discussion of Black images in film. As host Esther Armah phrased it, “Red Tails, Pariah, Spike Lee, Sundance, the state of black film. When it comes to mainstream money & black folks on film: is George Lucas right about Red Tail’s failure equaling black films’ future at risk? Or are we accepting mediocrity & calling it revolutionary? & are we ignoring the revolution being cinematized via film-makers like Ava DuVernay & the work of ImageNation?” If you missed the show when it aired on New York’s WBAI 99.5FM with commentators Dream Hampton, Aletha Maybank & me clickety click right here to hear it all go down.
With the exception of the hour long special, each of the all women’s media panels begin about 25 minutes in! Enjoy…