Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliot perform at Rock Hall of Fame

Sheryl Crow and Olivia Rodrigo kicked off the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and Missy Elliott closed the show more than four hours later with a roof-shaking set, as the hall celebrated a strong representation of women and black artists.

Chaka Khan, Kate Bush, Soul Train creator Don Cornelius, The Spinners and DJ Kool Herc were also inducted in a celebration of funk, art-rock, R&B and hip-hop, with the Hall of Fame celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Country music was represented by Willie Nelson, punk had Rage Against the Machine, the late George Michael repped pure pop and Link Wray defined guitar heroes.

The ceremony’s strong representation of black and women artists this year came not long after the hall removed Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner from its board of directors.

Wenner, who also co-founded the hall, had said that black and female musicians “didn’t articulate at the level” of the white musicians featured in his new book of interviews. He later apologised.

Elton John’s songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, drew cheers at Friday night’s event when he slyly said he was honoured to join the 2023 class with such “profoundly articulate women” and “articulate black artists”.

Queen Latifah introduced Missy Elliott, who became the first female hip-hop artist in the rock hall, smashing the boundaries of fashion and style along the way.

“Nothing sounded the same after Missy came onto the scene,” Latifah said. “She is avant-garde without even trying.”

Elliott then appeared onstage as if beamed from a spaceship and with smoke machines pumping, a kinetic light show and a massive digital screen working overtime, performed Get Ur Freak On, The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly), Work It, Pass That Dutch and Lose Control.

“To be standing here, it means so much to me,” she said. Of her fellow inductees, she said: “I’m honoured just to be in a room with you all.”

The show kicked off when Crow joined by Rodrigo — both in black — traded verses as they both played guitars. Stevie Nicks later joined Crow for a performance of Strong Enough and Peter Frampton came out to help sing Everyday Is a Winding Road.

Elton John came out of retirement to perform and toast Taupin while Big Boi inducted Kate Bush, telling the crowd he never knew what to expect from her music and comparing her insistence on producing her own work to being very hip-hop.

LL Cool J presented inductee DJ Kool Herc, called the father of hip-hop. Also entering the hall as the class of 2023 were Rage Against the Machine and the late guitarist Link Wray.

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin honoured Wray with a virtuoso performance of the late guitar god’s seminal Rumble with a double-necked guitar.

The stage was later filled with singers including John, Crow and Brittany Howard belting out the Band’s song The Weight, in honour of Robbie Robertson’s passing.

Ice-T presented activist punk-rockers Rage Against the Machine — “rock rocks the boat”, he said — and guitarist Tom Morello urged the crowd to fight for a world “without compromise or apologies”.

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Elton John Holds Bernie Taupin Closer With Hall of Fame Speech

When Elton John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 1994, he called Bernie Taupin onstage and handed him the award. “Without him, the journey would not have been possible,” John said at the time. “I kind of feel like cheating standing here accepting this. Without Bernie Taupin, there wouldn’t have been any Elton John at all. And I would like him to come up and give this to him.”

Three decades later, John took the stage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to welcome Taupin into the institution in a more formal way. “Our success story is what it is, you all know,” John said during Taupin’s induction speech, tracing their nearly 60-year collaboration. “Through the years we grew and we grew and we grew. We climbed mountains that we never thought were possible to climb, and we scaled heights that we never thought were possible to scale.

“And throughout that time, we never ever really had an argument. He was disgusted with my behavior, yes, that’s a given. But to this day, we are still growing as a partnership.” John then confirmed that the duo just completed a new album in Los Angeles (which Taupin hinted at in his recent Rolling Stone interview).

Arriving onstage to accept his award, Taupin chuckled and said, “I have to follow Jimmy Page,” referring to the Led Zeppelin guitarist’s searing tribute to Link Wray. He thanked John and discussed his lifelong love of songwriting, listing all his inspirations that varied from Howlin’ Wolf to Merle Haggard.

Taupin then made a not-so-subtle reference to Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner’s widely criticized comments in an interview with The New York Times (Wenner was subsequently removed from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors.)

“Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, are you listening?” Taupin asked. “I acknowledge all these people because they and so many others are why I write. I guess you could say I’m being inducted as a paradox, perhaps, but either way I’m honored to be in the class of 2023, alongside such a group of profoundly articulate women and outstanding articulate black artists.”

Following Taupin’s speech, John sat at the piano for a heartfelt rendition of “Tiny Dancer.” The lyrics to the song were written by Taupin in 1971 as a tribute to his first wife, Maxine Feibelman, and other women he met on John’s first American tour.

“We came to California in the fall of 1970 and it seemed like sunshine just radiated from the populace,” Taupin said. “I guess I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met, especially at the clothes stores and restaurants and bars all up and down the Sunset Strip. They were these free spirits, sexy, all hip-huggers and lacy blouses, very ethereal the way they moved.”

Trending

The single didn’t crack the U.S. Top 40 when it initially came out, but it quickly became a fan favorite and a staple of John’s concerts. An entirely new generation discovered the song when Cameron Crowe used it during a pivotal scene in Almost Famous.

“Tiny Dancer” was performed at all 330 concerts that John performed on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour between 2018 and 2023. He’s kept a low profile since the tour wrapped in July, but earlier this month he played a special show at the opening of a new amphitheaters in the Dominican Republic.

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The Harvey B. Gantt Center’s past and present as it turns 50

The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art and Culture, which sits in the heart of uptown Charlotte on South Tryon Street, turns 50 next year. A long list of events celebrating African American culture is planned to celebrate the golden anniversary through dance, art, music, food and community forums.

The center, named for Charlotte’s first Black mayor was originally called the Afro-American Cultural and Service Center. It was cofounded by professors Bertha Maxwell-Roddey and Mary Harper of UNC Charlotte where Maxwell-Roddey was founder and director of the school’s then Black studies program, now the Department of Africana Studies. Maxwell-Roddey was working on her thesis when she came up with the idea for an African American cultural center. The two saw a need for a center on Black culture because of the devastation caused by urban renewal in the 1960s.

“If you translate urban renewal, that meant Black removal,” said center cofounder Harper in a Gantt video. “And if you look at historical preservation, you begin to ask, whose history is being preserved when so much is being torn down, and thus arose the idea of an Afro-American Cultural Center, something that would capture, preserve, promote African American history.”

Harvey B. Gantt

The Harvey B Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture

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The Harvey B Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture

Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture cofounders (r) Dr. Mary Harper and (l) Dr. Bertha Maxwell-Roddey. The Gantt Center turns 50 next year and will celebrate its golden anniversary with a year of events.

The Gantt Center grew from its humble beginnings in one-room locations in a strip mall, then at Spirit Square. It later moved to a space in the Little Rock AME Zion Church on McDowell Street before moving to its current location in 2009 in the more than 46,000-square-foot, four-story building on South Tryon Street. The center’s mission to preserve African American culture has remained constant, but in an interview with WFAE’s “All Things Considered” host Gwendolyn Glenn, Gantt COO Bonita Buford says the center has changed in many other ways.

Gantt Center COO Bonita Buford says the museum has grown tremendously over the past 50 years but says its mission of preserving African American culture and using the arts to create social change remains the same.

TYRUS ORTEGA GAINES

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TYRUS ORTEGA GAINES

“The staff for the most part was typically the executive director and a programs director, someone designing programs who would direct programs at schools and community spaces,” Buford said. “So going from two to three people to now a staff of 20 and a budget of $2 million in an award-winning building is a huge leap from an idea to an institution well regarded in Charlotte but also around the country and around the world.

Gantt Center president and CEO David Taylor announces list of dance, music, art, food and community forum events scheduled next year for the center's 50th anniversary.

Gantt Center

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Gantt Center

Gantt Center president and CEO David Taylor announces list of dance, music, art, food and community forum events scheduled next year for the center’s 50th anniversary.

The list of events for the Gantt’s 50th anniversary includes a February performance of the renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem in partnership with the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center; Stephen Satterfield, African American food writer and host of the Netflix series, High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America, will design menus for three dinners around African American cuisine, farmers and chefs with entertainment; a talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones on the “1619 Project” she spearheaded for the New York Times; exhibits by Patrick Alston — “Post Traumatism: In Search of Freedom” — and Kehinde Wiley, founder of the Black Rock Senegal residency program who was commissioned to paint a portrait of former President Barack Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

For a full list of the year-long events to celebrate the Gantt Center’s 50th anniversary, go to https://www.ganttcenter.org/about-the-center/news/2023/274/

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New Harriet Tubman Statue Design Chosen For Philadelphia City Hall After Controversy

New Harriet Tubman Statue Design Chosen For Philadelphia City Hall After Controversy
Twitter.com

The city of Philadelphia has chosen a new design for a Harriet Tubman statue outside City Hall after facing criticism over its initial selection of a white artist for the project without holding a competition, NBC News reports.

Alvin Pettit, a Baltimore-bred artist based in Jersey City, New Jersey, emerged as the winner among four other semifinalists. Pettit’s winning design, “A Higher Power: The Call of a Freedom Fighter,” features a nearly 14-foot bronze statue of Harriet Tubman, the first of a Black woman who is a historical figure in the city’s public art collection. 

“She is shown in majestic prayer. Perhaps she is calling upon her faith or contemplating a battle,” said Pettit at a news conference Monday where a model of the forthcoming sculpture was unveiled.

“This woman was a soldier, a scout, a union spy, a military strategist, and a war hero,” he said. “Therefore, I captured a moment in time that shows her as a conqueror,” he said. 

Last year, city officials offered the commission to another artist, Wesley Wofford, a white sculptor from North Carolina, without holding an open competition. That sparked controversy and led to protests from artists and activists who advocated for an open competition, especially to offer Black artists an opportunity to create a piece of public art. 

“As an artist, it’s hurtful, and it is traumatizing,” Dee Jones, a textile artist, told city officials and Wofford during a community meeting in June 2022, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. “If it was an open call, and Wesley was chosen, it would be fine. But because the process wasn’t open, that’s the big issue.”

Consequently, Wofford withdrew from the project, leading the city to issue an open call that attracted numerous submissions. The public had an opportunity to weigh in on the finalists, and the final selection was made by city officials, including members of Tubman’s family on the African American Statue Advisory Committee.

Pettit, known for creating monumental sculptures celebrating historical Black figures like Mary McLeod Bethune and Marian Anderson, designed the statue portraying Tubman with folded hands in prayer, a rifle on her back, standing on broken shackles with a pistol tucked in her waistband, and the Confederate flag visible under her foot. The detailed depiction was appreciated by Tubman’s descendant, Danetta Green Johnson, for its portrayal of bravery, strength, and resilience.

The $500,000 project is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

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‘Fellow Travelers’ Is Tackling the Real-Life Injustices Inflicted by Red Scare McCarthyism

Brian Dunstan plays Black poet Langston Hughes in 'Fellow Travelers.'

Showtime’s Fellow Travelers is giving audiences an interesting lesson in history. They even touched on the legendary Black writer, Langston Hughes.

Most of Fellow Travelers is about the spicy romance between the two main characters, Hawk (Matt Bomer) and Tim (Jonathan Bailey). Since the show partially takes place in the 1950s, there are a lot of important historical events occurring in Washington D.C. at that time. Tim works for the notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy, who uses all of his power to combat the vastly imagined threat of communism in America. McCarthy orchestrated the Red Scare, going after almost anyone who questioned the status quo.

In episode 2 of Fellow Travelers, journalist Marcus Gaines (Jelani Alladin) attends the McCarthy trials daily to report on them. One day he finds one of his favorite poets, Langston Hughes (Brian Dunstan), being questioned for his political poetry and connection to the communist party.

The power of Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural revolution for Black creators and intellectuals. Harlem in New York City became the creative center for Black artists of all kinds. In the 1920s and 1930s, music, art, and poetry from Black artists flowed out of Harlem. Hughes’ writing took many forms but he is most well-known for his poetry.

Much of Hughes’s work, especially his earlier work, may be considered political simply because it focuses on the struggles of certain Americans. As a Black man, his work often described the plight of African Americans. He also talked about low-income people and others left behind by rich, white Americans. Many of his poems, or at least lines from them, were featured in communist newsletters and papers. Hughes’s words spoke to people looking to change the system.

In Fellow Travelers, like in real life, Hughes says he is not affiliated with the communist party even though he had attended some communist-friendly events. McCarthy and his team go after Hughes for his criticism of locking people up who have leftist views. During the episode, Marcus recites portions of Hughes’s poem “Kids Who Die.” At the end of the episode, Marcus says the final stanza of the poem:

Listen, kids who die—
Maybe, now, there will be no monument for you
Except in our hearts
Maybe your bodies’ll be lost in a swamp
Or a prison grave, or the potter’s field,
Or the rivers where you’re drowned like Liebknecht
But the day will come—
You are sure yourselves that it is coming—
When the marching feet of the masses
Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky—
The song of the life triumphant
Through the kids who die.

Much of the poem rings as true today as it did when Hughes wrote it, making it feel like not much has changed in America. Although Hughes was cleared of any communist-related charges, he no longer wrote poetry the same way. Hughes no longer weighed in on social issues, which is a shame for us all.

(featured image: Showtime)

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Learn about a remarkable artist at Figge

A groundbreaking documentary chronicling the life of a renowned artist and activist with an Iowa connection will premiere in the Quad Cities at the Figge Art Museum (225 W. 2nd St., Davenport) on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023.

“Standing Strong: Elizabeth Catlett,” produced by Marie Wilkes and directed by Kevin Kelley of Iowa City-based New Mile Media Arts, tells the remarkable story of Elizabeth Catlett’s journey to earning an advanced graduate degree from the University of Iowa during a time when African-Americans were denied the right to live on campus.

The new documentary will be shown for free at the Figge Art Museum Thursday, Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m.

Catlett’s life and legacy have long been a source of inspiration for Black artists, art enthusiasts, activists, and history buffs alike, according to the Figge screening host, Davenport-based Azubuike Arts. “This documentary promises to provide an in-depth exploration of her struggles, triumphs, and the indomitable spirit that made her a trailblazer in the art world and the fight for civil rights,” says an event release.

The event is free and open to the public, and the schedule is as follows:

  • Doors open at 6 p.m.
  • Film screening: 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
  • Q&A with the filmmakers (Marie Wilkes and Kevin Kelley): Immediately following the screening.

The Q&A session with the filmmakers offers attendees a unique opportunity to delve into the behind-the-scenes creation of this powerful documentary, the release said. The event also is made possible through the generous support of the Figge Art Museum, Doris and Victor Day Foundation, and the Rauch Family Foundation.

The film website quotes Catlett (1915-2012) as saying in 2013:

“No other field is closed to those who are not white and male as is the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.”

This 57-minute documentary on the inspiring life this sculptor, printmaker, educator and social activist, was created with film footage and audio recordings of Catlett, interviews with experts in the arts, humanities and friends who knew her personally.

Artist Elizabeth Catlett attends Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball at the Bacara Resort and Spa on May 14, 2005 in Santa Barbara, Calif. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Catlett’s story covers her upbringing and education in Washington D.C., her college years at the University of Iowa (where she was the first African-American female there to earn an MFA in visual arts), and her dawning activism to her life as an artist/educator in Mexico.

Catlett’s socially and politically charged prints and sculptures and her activism put her at odds with the U.S. government, which led her to citizenship in Mexico, where she joined the Taller de Graphica Populara in Mexico City.

A granddaughter of enslaved people, she also was mentored by Grant Wood at the University of Iowa. Her master’s thesis, a limestone sculpture entitled “Negro Mother and Child” (1940), won first place in sculpture at the 1940 Chicago American Negro Exposition. Her work often centered on Black women.

“Standing Strong” filmmakers Marie Wilkes and Kevin Kelley flank the winner, Joseph Puleo, of their 2023 Mid-America Emmy category, Cultural Documentary, at the awards Sept. 30, 2023 in Branson, Mo.

The new documentary earned a nomination for a 2023 MidAmerica Emmy award.

You can see some of Catlett’s artwork HERE.

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Exploring The Solidarity Between Black Americans And Palestinians

As the Israel-Hamas conflict has intensified and grown more deadly in recent weeks, the pressure has been on for governments, businesses, organizations and individuals around the world to “pick a side.” Many Black Americans have been spreading awareness and participating in protests, advocating for Palestinian rights and calling for a ceasefire. 

Given our history and experiences with oppression in the US, African Americans can relate and empathize with the Palestinians‘ plight. Themselves long persecuted and tyrannized, they too, sympathize with our community. Through protests, the arts, and speaking out in various arenas, Palestinians have supported the Black Lives Matter movement, condemning the racism, discrimination and inequality our people face.

However, the solidarity between African Americans and Palestinians is far from new. For decades, our communities have shown support for one another, united by parallel struggles for freedom and justice, as well as our unwavering conviction and resilience.

Historical Connections

Malcolm X was one of the earliest Black human rights activists to call attention to the Palestinian cause. He visited Palestine several times, meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization and witnessing the reality of the apartheid system firsthand. He believed the struggles of Blacks and Palestinians were interlinked and integral to the global revolution against racism and imperialism.

The Civil Rights Movement was a major inspiration and influence for the Palestinian resistance movement. The principles of nonviolent resistance, grassroots efforts and peaceful protest were mirrored in the Palestinian struggle, particularly during the First Intifada in the late 1980s.

Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton and other key figures in the Black Power movement voiced their support and solidarity with Palestine. The latter also met and talked with Palestine Liberation Organization leaders and freedom fighters. Likewise, the Palestine Liberation Organization spoke out against the oppression of Blacks and how the causes of both groups aligned.

Cultural Exchange

The solidarity between Palestinians and Black Americans can also be seen in cultural exchanges between both communities. While many Black activists have donned Palestinian scarves, or keffiyehs, as symbols of resistance, Palestinian activists have adopted the use of the iconic raised fist synonymous with Black Power. This shared symbolism represents the interconnectedness of our struggles and the recognition of the need to uplift marginalized voices.

Often serving as a creative means of voicing resistance and condemning social inequity, hip-hop music has also been an outlet in which Black artists like Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Vic Mensa use rap lyrics to discuss the Palestinian plight. Having adopted the musical style for themselves, Palestinian rappers MC Abdul and the group DAM detail injustice in the region. 

Contemporary revolutionary poet Samih al-Qassim expressed his solidarity with the Black community through his poetry. After the murder of George Floyd, Palestinian artists painted murals in his honor in Gaza and the West Bank. People took to the streets in protest of the killing, holding “Black Lives Matter” signs. 

Intersecting Narratives of Resistance

The solidarity between Black Americans and Palestinians signifies the power of shared struggle against oppression. Similar experiences of discrimination and resilience have created strong bonds of support and collaboration. Through shared narratives, our communities continue to amplify each other’s voices and advocate for the dismantling of oppressive systems.

As the fight for justice continues, the solidarity between African Americans and Palestinians is a reminder of the importance of collective action and the potential for global alliances to combat systemic oppression. By recognizing each other’s plights as connected, our communities foster a sense of unity that transcends borders and race, inspiring hope for a more just and equitable world.

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An Opera About Malcolm X Breaks Boundaries

A man is standing on the vast stage of New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center. For a brief moment, he’s alone—singing in strident tones about the future of Black people, not just in America but across the rest of the world as well, a new world to come. But even as he sings with messianic fervor, the voices break around him: members of the chorus who represent white reporters, while others carry the stark, recognizable signs of the Civil Rights Movement, breaking in to support him. And still another woman and and man, his wife and his advisor, breaking in to warn him. The man sings, “I have learned so much in Africa / We are a part of something so big / A movement spanning the globe / We are freedom fighters, all!” and from the wings of the Met theater stage, joining the skeptical chorus of white reporters and the harmonizing of supporters, is a mass of people dressed in fantastical clothing that references the 19th century and the Afrofuturist fantasies of the 20th, streaked with white and black and gray and gold.

The man at the center of this remarkable piece of stagecraft is Malcolm X, as sung by the powerful baritone Will Liverman, and this is a scene in the middle of the Met’s new production X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. First staged in 1986, the opera is the work of composer Anthony Davis and poet and critic Thulani Davis. Since its premiere, the opera’s subject, Malcolm X, has shape-shifted through the nation’s imagination, from ideological outlaw to Civil Rights leader hazily remembered and welcomed into the political establishment. As Manning Marable reported in his groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize–winning biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, in the 1990s even Republican vice president and original culture warrior Dan Quayle felt comfortable claiming The Autobiography of Malcolm X was one of his favorite books. Malcolm X is part of the story America tells itself about itself, but he fits in only if one doesn’t pay too much attention to his actual words. When Thulani Davis began writing the libretto to the opera in the early ’80s, “the recordings of his speeches were (only) on vinyl,” she tells me. “They weren’t all that easy to find. There were bootleg versions. And there were rappers starting to use his stuff. I was reading in the paper about [Malcolm’s widow] Betty Shabazz taking them to court.”

thulani davis

Thulani Davis at a performance at the offices of The Paris Review

Richard Termine / Met Opera

When I interview Davis, it is three weeks before the opening of the Met’s production. We are sitting in a room with red velvet walls, in the Lincoln Center press office for the opera. X is a huge departure for the Metropolitan Opera as an organization. Until 2021—that is, for the first 138 years of its existence—the Met had never staged an opera by a Black composer. Caught up in the so-called “racial reckoning” of 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the accompanying unrest, the Met, like many cultural institutions, committed to including Black artists and voices in their productions. The first result of this commitment was the adaptation of Charles Blow’s 2014 memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which premiered in 2021. X is the next such endeavor, though it has been performed at opera companies around the country since its premiere in the mid-’80s.

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Working on the libretto without access to many of his speeches, and before texts were readily available on the internet, meant that “[m]ost of it needed to be me,” Davis explains. “There are some places where I quote [Malcom], but it was too hard to [re]construct. I have to inhabit all the characters somehow and give them [a] personal voice. I didn’t know if I could keep it lifted to a place of, not just clarity, but having some beauty to it.”

She goes on: “I didn’t quite understand the theatrical impact of the liberties I took till I saw it [again] last spring.” The child version of Malcolm comes out and sings an aria after his father has died under mysterious, violent circumstances and his mother has descended into madness and been institutionalized. Both parents, of course, have spent the previous years as acolytes of Marcus Garvey, organizing for Black liberation in Michigan.

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Leah Hawkins as Louise Little, Malcolm X’s mother

ANGELA WEISS//Getty Images

“I had a deep emotional reaction to hearing it that I hadn’t had 36 years ago,” Davis says. “I cried all the way through it and for some time afterwards. I remembered losing my mother when I was six. I had sat through all those rehearsals all those years ago, and you couldn’t punch that armor I had on, then. But the experience of [losing] a parent, for me, taps into all the unspoken trauma that we all have in this country as African-Americans. It affects the audience, that it’s a child singing these very simple words: Mama helped me. There’s a place in all of us that responds to that. I said to myself, This is what an opera can do—which is allow you to feel something you’ve been through, that you’re not trying to feel during your busy days when you have to do this and then do that.”

Thulani Davis is an influential figure in the history of Black literature in her own right—a poet who collaborated with Ntozake Shange, introduced critic Greg Tate to The Village Voice, and was one of the few Black women to cover the 1984 presidential campaign. When she began writing the opera and when it was first performed at the Kitchen, many people who’d known Malcolm and organized with him were still alive. For the 1986 production, Davis says, “There was one aria I wrote, for [the character of] Betty. When we got close to starting a rehearsal at City Opera, I had met with [the actual Betty Shabazz] by then, and then somewhere in the process, I heard from at least one of the daughters. That aria is really rough [emotionally]. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the whole Shabazz family to sit through that. The aria was about the fact that [Betty] could tell the henchman would be coming for [Malcolm]. I feel as though someone living in the same house with him, who had been through a fire bombing … would have the thought that somebody might kill him. It just seemed like human nature that, at some point as a wife and mother, you have an idea of what the worst would be or could be. So I wrote it like that.” Davis ultimately removed the aria for that production and came up with another to replace it, but for this run, nearly 60 years after the assassination in question, it returns. “It’s a much better aria than the other one I wrote [to replace it],” she says. It’s another instance of the passage of time shifting how stories of resistance and political violence are received.

On the day I sit in on rehearsals, the words Malcolm and Betty and the protesters sing onstage take on a new sharpness, in light of the last few years’ discussions around racial reckonings and inclusion in America. “Ballots or bullets / Ballots or bullets / The settlers came and took the ground from Black, yellow folks, and brown,” the chorus sings, and the words take on a political urgency usually glossed over in opera.

entertainment us music opera met malcolmx

Leah Hawkins in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

ANGELA WEISS//Getty Images

“Detroit Opera—their [2021] production of X was their first sold-out show in 10 years,” Leah Hawkins tells me. “That alone told you the impact that this had.” Hawkins, who sings the roles of Betty Shabazz and Malcolm’s mother, Louise Little, didn’t perform in the Detroit production, but she attended performances in preparation for this role. “The audience was incredibly Black. [Ushers] were letting people go in and out, because many of them had never experienced sitting in a theater hearing this kind of music for long periods. They weren’t leaving—they just needed a break and then to come back. At first I was like, Why are they going in and out? I’m looking around. But if you want people to come back, you don’t have an usher telling them, ‘Oh no, you, you can’t do that.’ But also, it’s the nature of the music. It’s 20th-century opera music. It can be hard to listen to. You might need a breather to sit through it. The material is heavy. [Malcolm’s] life was not, you know, flowers and rainbows and butterflies.

“But the thing is,” she continues, “I kept noticing that people who got up were coming right back and they were responding less to the music, I think, and more to the message, which was striking. Because often in opera, especially our longtime operagoers, they’re always worried about beauty of tone—if it was ‘just like the recording I heard in 1958 [when] this famous singer did it this way.’ This was not about that. It was about hearing that message on a stage and being portrayed by very fully fleshed-out characterizations.”

raehann bryce davis as queen mother in anthony davis x the life and times of malcolm x

Raehann Bryce-Davis as Queen Mother

Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera

Raehann Bryce-Davis, who sings the parts of Malcolm’s sister and mentor Ella and the Queen Mother, says, “Everybody will react differently, because everybody comes from a completely different place. Some people are coming because they’re open and they want to know more about a historical figure and they want to have this really new experience. Some are coming because they’re Met subscribers and they always come—like, Oh God, one of these. I don’t think there’s gonna be one global reaction and, honestly, that’s one of the great things about art, is that it hits everyone differently.”

X has the challenge of presenting a truly revolutionary life to a larger culture that now uses the descriptor disruptor to identify someone who excels at marketing, rather than anyone who actually threatens the status quo. How do you capture the truly revelatory spirit of a figure like Malcolm X, a man, as Bryce-Davis reminds me, his sister described as her “Jesus”? In addition to Davis’s score and the soaring music, it’s the costuming by Dede Ayite that imagines an Afrofuturist chorus alongside the zoot suits and overcoats of Malcolm X’s epic life.

x the life and times of malcolm x opera

The chorus of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

Marty Sohl / Met Opera

Ayite, who also created the vibrant costumes of this Broadway season’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, says, “Malcolm’s words and his life and his story and the things that he stood by still hold true today, and have held true for so many years, and are still part of the conversation and struggle that Black and brown bodies are going through each day. It felt important to honor the journey of getting where we are here today—so, honoring his life story and holding space for the period elements of his journey through the ’20s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, and just ordering his life. But at the same time, the beautiful thing and the impactful thing about Malcolm is that the words just, like, still live on, right?” she says. “That’s where the Afrofuturism came in, and that wanting to just hold space for Blackness and all its capacities in the past, present, and future, and acknowledging, just as Black people, how storytelling lifts us and holds us close.”

x the life and times of malcolm x

The Afrofuturist chorus in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

Marty Sohl / Met Opera

And so, on the stage of the Met Opera, Malcolm X sings of the future and the past and the need to keep fighting, and the Black writers, artists, and performers who came after him and work to keep him alive.

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A-Listers Are Flocking to Cringe Interviewer Bobbi Althoff’s Podcast. Can the Viral Shtick Last? 

If you’ve stumbled across a clip of an interview from Bobbi Althoff’s The Really Good Podcast on the internet and visited her YouTube channel, you might be surprised by the description which labels her “a social media star with over 80 followers,” considering she’s amassed a total of 936,000 subscribers on the platform and an additional 2.8 million followers and counting on Instagram. The next sentence, however, which describes Althoff, 26, as “a master interviewer with weeks of experience interviewing celebrities,” is an accurate summation of both her career and the controversy that has surrounded her deadpan internet persona since her viral interview with Offset. In their conversation a little over a month ago, the rapper turned the tables on the host whose brand has been built on nonchalance, telling her, “You need a little bit of seasoning,” when she reluctantly shook his hand during the episode. “You’re like a plain piece of chicken.” 

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“I would call her the queen of the fringe of cringe,” says Vinnie Potestivo, an Emmy Award–winning TV executive who has developed talent for series such as MTV’s Punk’dThe Osbournes and Boiling Points. “This idea of the media being on the fringe of cringe is not a new trend. This is true, tried and tested. The difference is most people see podcasting as bad social media content,” Potestivo adds. “And this is where Bobbi actually got it right. Bobbi’s like, you wanna see bad social media content? You wanna see a train wreck?”

Therein lies the irony of the title The Really Good Podcast, which gained notoriety when Althoff, who declined to speak with The Hollywood Reporter for this article, interviewed Drake in July of 2023. The details of how the former TikTok mommy influencer managed to land the superstar Toronto rapper as a guest are shrouded in mystery, much like the unexplained decision to remove the interview from her platform one month later, though Althoff told Cosmopolitan in August she simply DM’d Drake after he liked a previous interview of hers and started following her. Since then, her interviews with Mark Cuban, Shaq, Tyga and, most recently, Colombian rapper and singer Maluma have gained millions of views, with audiences seemingly finding themselves intrigued by her indifference to these public figures, turned off by her dismissive disposition or wondering whether it’s all an act. 

When asked why she started doing interviews as an alter ego versus herself on the May 10 episode of Tammin Sursok and Roxy Manning’s podcast Woman on Top earlier this year, Althoff replied, “Myself doesn’t get views, I had to [go] where the money was.”

“My issue is the quote-unquote humor in these interviews that Bobbi conducts,” says music journalist Naima Cochrane. “The optics of it with Black men, especially, are rooted in the fact that she is a pretty white woman who is clueless about Black culture and hip-hop culture and doesn’t care to be informed about Black culture and hip-hop culture. The entire humor of it is like, oh, this white girl doesn’t care to be here. Why is that funny to us?”

What underlies Cochrane’s frustration is the same concern that led sports journalist Jemele Hill to express her displeasure with Althoff’s rise to fame on X, formerly known as Twitter, when she wrote on Sept. 25, “I don’t find these types of interviews particularly enjoyable or interesting. Instead, it just sadly points out how real Hip-Hop journalism has been practically erased.”

“Having known from the inside what Black writers and Black journalists and Black media figures generally have to go through to land these types of high-profile interviews, the other part of it is that, largely speaking, Black media is frozen out of this access,” Hill tells THR. “A lot of these Black celebrities and entertainers have mostly white PR teams and those PR teams often willingly ignore Black media and Black journalists, or they just don’t see any value in speaking to Black people who represent a culture that made that Black artists famous and that they still remain very connected to. I’m not hating on Bobbi Althoff and the incredible success she’s had in such a short period of time in this format, but it does bring a lot of awareness to what is a bigger issue and that is how often Black culture being covered by Black people is minimized and erased.”

Althoff has been accused of copying the interview style of other popular Black hosts such as Ziwe and Funny Marco, who’s appeared on her show. Her podcast has also drawn comparisons to Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns and Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Chicken Shop Date, which similarly put guests in awkward positions. 

“Those satirical sit-downs would be a little gotcha-y, but there was some research, there were some notecards, an actual interview was conducted. With Althoff, it very much seems like there’s no prep,” says Cochrane. “As somebody who conducts interviews for a living, I find it highly disrespectful and a waste of time.”

Althoff confirmed as much when she told told Cosmo, “There’s no prep, and that’s the fun of it. I think that’s why celebrities are down to do it. They know it’s a character, and we just wing it. It’s not a real interview. I’m not trying to get hard-hitting information about you — I’m not trying to uncover anything. It’s just a conversation. It’s really a parody of a good interview.”

During Offset’s interview with Althoff, he asks why she wanted to get to know him, to which she responds, “I didn’t … Your team reached out to mine.” The Atlanta artists shouts out “Cap,” a slang term that means “lie,” suggesting it was Althoff’s team in fact that requested the sit-down. Either way, the question of what the payoff is for these A-listers who flock to her platform still begs answers.

Podcasters are seen as strong word-of-mouth authorities,” says Potestivo, who’s also the host of I Have a Podcast. “She’s getting guests because podcasters are the most impactful media personalities when it comes to creating word of mouth. If you can get other people to share your content, and if visibility times shareability equals discoverability, then what Bobbi’s doing is kind of brilliant.”

As a former music label marketing executive, Cochrane disagrees with the value proposition for artists. “What’s interesting to me is that her stuff doesn’t live. She pulls episodes down,” she says, referring to Althoff’s removal of her interviews with Drake and Lil Yachty. “If my team brought this to me, my question would have been, ‘How is that going to drive our album sales?’ She doesn’t even know what her guests are there to promote.” 

In the wake of Althoff’s controversial chat with Offset, her subsequent interview with Scarlett Johansson raised eyebrows even higher for what some viewers perceived to be a different conversation style altogether — one in which Althoff actually appears interested in and knowledgeable about her subject. Johansson is also, notably, the first white woman Althoff appears to have spoken with for her podcast.

“Maybe it’s just the optics of it, and obviously as a Black woman in America, I’m much more sensitive to optics and to the type of message it is sending to people who are outside of the bubble of the community. But here you have this very young — or young-looking, because she’s not as young as people think she is, and I think that’s also very intentional — woman and her entire demeanor and attitude in these interviews when she’s with Black celebrities versus when she’s with white ones, is kind of obvious,” says Hill. 

“I’m not calling Bobbi Althoff some kind of racist,” adds Hill. “I don’t know this woman and I would never say that about her, but I do think that there is some level of understanding that how she interacts with Black celebrities plays and looks differently than it does when she’s with other people.”

Black audiences’ poor reception of Althoff may lead to hesitation from Black artists to appear on her show in the future, which is something Hill would like to see.

“I know Black entertainers who are very intentional about who they sit down with, who they allow to have access to them, and who they allow to tell their stories. I would like to see more Black entertainers be more intentional about that,” she says, noting “there’s enough responsibility to go around” when it comes to Althoff’s newfound fame and its potential to continue to rise.

At the end of the day, it will be viewers who have the final say about whether Althoff’s antics are worth consuming, says Potestivo.

“To be really blunt, it’s an indie podcast, meaning a network can’t be held responsible for canceling this,” he adds. “The old-school version of what we would do as an audience if we didn’t like something is make sure the platform that was supporting her wasn’t supporting her, right? In this case, it’s for us to figure out what happens next.”

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Museum of Glass celebrates Black artists in thoughtful new exhibition

In a form dominated by white men, curator Jabari Owens-Bailey says he was looking for glass art that reflected himself. #k5evening

TACOMA, Wash. — At the Museum of Glass, nine glass vessels hang by the neck in an installation called Strange Fruit.

Children’s shoes are scattered on a playful surface, the aftershock of some kind of trauma.

A blue-black heart drips ink down a wall.

Just some of the pieces you’ll find in “A Two Way Mirror”, an exhibition of contemporary Black artists curated by Jabari Owens-Bailey.

“I wanted to find something that reflected myself,” Owens-Bailey said. “This idea of exploring Black identity through glass hadn’t really been done before.”

Inspired by a 2020 essay, “The Whiteness of Glass”, that revealed fewer than one percent of glass artists are people of color, Owens-Bailey made it his mission to exhibit works from the best Black artists in one place. Most of the well-known glass artists are white men so Owens-Bailey had a challenge.

“I started my search, like any other 21st Century researcher, by googling ‘Black Art’ and ‘Glass’,” Owens-Bailey said.

Some of the names he already knew from their stints as artists in residence at the museum.

Brooklyn’s Leo Tecosky uses graffiti iconography in his art while Chris Day, who claims to be the only Black glass artist in England, hopes to inspire conversations about Civil Rights and slavery without ever showing bodies in chains.

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“I want people to walk away with the knowledge that there are Black people at work right now with this wonderful material,” Owens-Bailey said. “I also want to open the door for young people that might want to work in glass. I think that representation matters and once you’ve seen someone do something it normalizes it for you.”

A Two-Way Mirror: Double Consciousness in Contemporary Glass by Black Artists will be on exhibit through October 2024 at the Museum of Glass.

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