Our Picks
Recommended books, films, podcasts , articles, TedTalks, websites ... anything that deepens our individual contemplation and may enlarge our subsequent group discussions.
Spend a few minutes with the award-winning filmmakers.
Best Live Action Short Film at the 93rd annual Academy Awards
Two Distant Strangers
Official Trailer below. Watch the 30-minute film on Netflix
A supplement to our March 26, 2021 conversation - Accessing Black Voices Through Literature: James Baldwin (here)
NYT Critic's Pick Documentary Directed by Raoul Peck 2016
“I Am Not Your Negro” is a thrilling introduction to his work, a remedial course in American history, and an advanced seminar in racial politics — a concise, roughly 90-minute movie with the scope and impact of a 10-hour mini-series or a literary doorstop. It is not an easy or a consoling movie, but it is the opposite of bitter or despairing. “I can’t be a pessimist because I’m alive,” Baldwin said. “I’m forced to be an optimist.” ... A. O. Scott NYTimes February 2, 2017
Find A.O. Scott's film review, a Terry Gross Fresh Air interview with Raoul Peck, and the film's trailer below.
(Note that the full length film is available on many streaming services including Kanopy, the free service via your public library.)
Scene on Radio Podcasts
If you recall, in our Whiteness session (here) we talked about Duke University-sponsored Scene on Radio and their podcast series Seeing White. Their most recent series is titled The Land That Never Has Been Yet. (The title is taken from the Langston Hughes poem, Let America Be America Again.) The series retells the story of the country, or pivotal parts of that history, while exploring critical questions like, How democratic was the U.S. ever meant to be? American democracy is clearly in crisis today, but, when was it not? More than twelve episodes are available including one added about the 2020 Election. To get a taste, and decide if you'd be interested, click on the graphic to take a look at the trailer.
This series is a particularly important one to listen to when reflecting on the Assault on Democracy and on the amazing poem written by Amanda Gorman.
DEMOCRACY ?
On January 13, after the insurrection in Washington, Scene on Radio rebroadcast one episode from Series 4 that they felt was particularly pertinent: Episode 8, The Second Redemption. Well worth a listen.
You can listen to all the episodes from the Season 4 Series by clicking HERE
Unexampled Courage is a searing work of history that must be read in today's America: an account of the fight for civil rights that reminds us just how much we depend on the bravery of the few to right the wrongs of many. Reading it is an emotional journey. There are tears of rage, but also admiration for the extraordinary courage of a brutalized and blinded black soldier; of a southern judge whose conscience drove him to oppose his racist heritage; and of an American president who risked everything to do what he believed to be right at a time when the United States hoped its moral leadership would resonate around the world.
-- Christopher Dickey, author of Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South
Richard Gergel, the Federal Court Judge who presided over the 2015 Dylann Roof Charleston Church Murder Trial, joins Jim Braude on WGBH (February 28, 2019) to discuss the little-known story of an African American WWII vet, who was assaulted and blinded by a brutal cop and how it impacted the Civil Rights Movement. (9:09)
Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring
Read a New York Times review of the book (David Blight, November 7, 2019) by clicking here or view the PDF below:
The Black Sergeant and the White Judge Who Changed Civil Rights History - The New York Times.pdf
Two excellent books that, along with many other amazing attributes, also highlight public memorialization, our topic for July 21.
Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil by Susan Neiman (2019)
"...amid the ongoing debate over reparations and the controversies surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Neiman's Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoing."
In the video (54:09) Neiman talks about her book. From 8:17 - 19:12, she shows examples of Germany's public memorialization of the Holocaust, and shares her thoughts about why they provide a lesson and model for the U.S.
This New Yorker essay (June 19, 2020) was drawn from the third chapter of Begin Again. At about the essay's midpoint, Glaude (and Baldwin) take on public memorialization.
"As both Baldwin and King insisted, each in their own way, America is an identity that white people will protect at any cost, and the country’s history—its founding documents, its national heroes, its claim to be a moral force in the world—is the supporting argument that underpins that identity. This history is inseparable from the nation’s built environment; both monuments and the ways in which communities are spatially organized reinforce it."
Eddie Glaude talks about his 2020 book Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and its Urgent Lessons For Our Own (7:59).
More Picks
An informative, interesting, page-turner of a book. Click on the image above to see the recent (2/16/20) PBS review! (8:59)
Hair Love (6:48 minutes)
Winner of the Best Animated Short Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, Hair Love was conceived and directed by Matthew A. Cherry. In an interview with the Washington Post, Cherry said his goal was twofold: He wanted the film to encourage kids to embrace their natural hair. He also wanted the film to portray black fathers who were deeply present in their children's lives.
Cherry is a former NFL wide receiver turned filmmaker. He grew up on Chicago's North Side, graduated from Loyola Academy in Wilmette, and attended the University of Akron where he played football and earned a degree in media from UA's School of Communications. He currently is on the staff of Jason Peele's Monkeypaw Productions Studio and was an executive producer for Spike Lee's BlackKklansman.
Watch Matthew Cherry and the illustrator, Vashti Harrison, discuss their book, Hair Love (2:18) and take a look at some Dads and their Daughters (8:20) at the beginning of the film's Kickstarter campaign in 2017.
Matthew A. Cherry