<p>Doin’ It In The Park: The Creative Journey - Episode 1 from Doin' It In The Park on Vimeo.</p>

New York City’s Global Love

For Pick-Up Basketball

Comes Home

by Jamilah King 

August 31 2012 

When you think about the Harlem Renaissance, it’s easy to conjure up the poets and the rent parties, the intellectuals and the politicians. But Bobbito Garcia and Kevin Couiliau, co-producers of the documentary “Doin’ It in the Park”, want you to think of something else: basketball. 

The Harlem Rens, to be precise. The team was one of the first and perhaps most famous black professional ball clubs in history. And they offer a starting point for the two filmmakers as they dig into the history of street ball in New York City. Garcia is already a celebrated DJ (who’ll be spinning at this year’s Facing Race conference in Baltimore), ball player, and author in his own right. Couliau, who grew up in France, was always drawn to the artistry of the U.S. game and has gained a reputation as a prolific photographer. Together, the two have been screening their film at basketball courts across the city to pay homage to the game and the people who play it.

As summer winds down, I spoke to both to get a sense of what the film’s meant so far.

Kevin, you’ve done “Heart & Soul.” And Bobbito, you’re known for your love of the game throughout New York City. Why was it important for you both to make this film now?

Kevin: We both felt there was something missing from documentaries about basketball culture. You see documentaries about players who didn’t make the NBA for whatever reason. But you never have documentaries that explain the roots of the street ball culture and why New York is a mecca.

From what I’ve seen, the film is as much an homage to basketball as it is to New York City. What is there in this film for audiences outside of New York City?

Bobbito: We had the vision to cover New York because it is indeed the mecca for the outdoor sport worldwide. However, the beauty of Kevin being from France and me having been raised here but also having traveled to 35 countries throughout the world is that we have a very global perspective. So the way we interpreted and sorta did this honest portrait of pick up basketball in New York was so that it could be digestable and enjoyed by anybody, no matter what the continent that plays pick up basketball — or that doesn’t. So far from the feedback that we’re getting is that even people that couldn’t care less about the sport are really, really intrigued and fascinated by the film. That was a goal of ours. Of course we want our niche audience to be happy, and so far we’ve been getting crazy reviews from all around.

What’s some of the most surprising feedback you’ve gotten so far?

Kevin: That’s a good question. I would say when we ran into Henry Chalfant from [the movie] “Style Wars” and he came to one of our screenings. He really enjoyed the movie and after the screening he said it was like —

Bobbito: “the perfect portrait of urban culture.” And if you’ve watched Style Wars and know what it means to the hip-hop world. That coming from him is pretty heavy, I think. Another real moment of clarity for us was when we screened it at Rucker Park. Free and outdoors on a hot summer night, 600 people showed up. It’s only a mile away from the Apollo Theater, right, so the mindset in Harlem is basically if things suck, they will boo you off the stage in two seconds. But not only did not one person leave the park, we recieved a standing ovation. That was as good of a meter as we could get, ever. It doesn’t matter what the film industry writes about it now. The most important people in the world, in terms of being educated and really understanding what this film is all about, not loved it but were blown away by it. That for us was powerful.

You all went to hundreds of courts throughout New York City. What were some of the similarities and what were some of the differences?

Kevin: We traveled to 180 courts by bicycle and, to be honest, they were all unique. Whether they were in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island, wherever they are, the beauty of New York street ball is the landscape. For me, for example, growing up in Europe, the playgrounds and the basketball courts are not that well integrated into the landscape. I would say that’s one of my main interests when I come to New York, is documenting that world of playground basketball for the beauty of the landscape as well as for the people on the playgrounds.

Bobbito: And that’s where our film starts getting really diverse. We interviewed 60 people and we went to five boroughts, 180 courts, I would say there’s easily 30-40 nationalities portrayed on camera and we have 3-year-old’s to 80-year-old’s shooting jumpshots on camera. It’s as diverse a community as one would imagine. It’s the melting pot of the world. That shines in the narrative of the film.

Kevin, you mentioned something and I kinda wanna go back to it. You mentioned the differences in terms of the landscape between the U.S. and France. How did you become interested in street ball in New York, being from France?

I grew up playing basksetball a lot and skateboarding at the same time. Basketball and skateboarding, when you’re a part of those cultures, they all go to one point, which is New York City. So I grew up being influenced by how skakeboarding was being represented in magazines and videos…So I grew up being influenced by the artistic world. When I was growing up I saw documentaries like “Hoop Dreams” that really influenced me and I was influenced by basketball culture in New York City and I transfered that to my vision of basketball in France. The way we build the playgrounds, the way we play basketball. I was always looking to New York City as the mecca of sports and I always wanted to document it. So I met Bobbito in 2004 and we went from there.

Bobbito, you’ve been part of the scene for years and so your perspective in terms of looking at this as a cultural phenomenon has always incorporated music, basketball, art. How do you think it’s changed over the years — or has it?

Bobbito: It’s been decades, almost half a century. I don’t think it has changed probably since the 50s or 60s. Actually, I think there’s always been a marriage in New York between music and basketball that dates to the Harlem Reniassance Ballroom in the 1930s when they had their own professional team, which was the first African-American team ever to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And at halftime they would have the greatest, big band jazz players of the era playing. And they would have a dance, then they would go back to the game. The floor would be slippery because of the people who had came on. Then you move forward tot he 70s where — we discuss this in our film — there’s a burgeoning hip-hop culture on the very same playgrounds where there are courts and everybody’s playing. Those two movements influenced each other until today. We don’t know yet what the new music culture’s gonna be that’s gonna pop out of New York, but in some way, shape or form basketball is gonna influence that or help form it.

<p>NY KNICKS - Basketball In The Boroughs from Doin' It In The Park on Vimeo.</p>

"How Modern Jazz

Figured in the Formation

of a Modern African Identity" 

 

Robin D.G Kelly in Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (Nathan I Huggins Lectures) (published February 2012), gives us a meditation on Africa, jazz and modernity: we see innovation not as an imposition from the West but rather as indigenous, multilingual, and messy, the result of innumerable exchanges across a breadth of cultures. From the prelude:

By exploring the work, conversations, collaborations, and tensions between both African and African American musicians during the era of decolonization, I examine how modern Africa figured in reshaping jazz during the 1950s and early 1960s, how modern jazz figured in the formation of a modern African identity, and how various musical convergences and crossings shaped and the political and cultural landscape on both continents. This book is not about the African roots of jazz, nor does it ask how American jazz musicians supported African liberation or "imagined" Africa. Rather, it is about the transnational encounters between musicians.

 

Bernard and Shirley Kinsey

We strive to live our life guided by two principals: to whom much is given much is required, and a life of no regrets. We are compelled to give back, so we set about to document the African American experience through original documents, manuscripts, photographs, paintings and sculptures.

Our intention is that this work allows people to develop a deeper relationship to the pieces in our collection that bring African American history to life. Having that connection with the past creates this sense of strength, identity and lineage that is so powerful in each of us.

Exploring Minstrelsy:

14 Stars and Critics

The Darkest America authors discuss the history of the genre from Stepin Fetchit to hip-hop.

Captions by: Brett Johnson

 

Stepin Fetchit; Zora Neale Hurston; Image from Bamboozled (Getty Images/IMDB.com)

 

As co-authors Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen explore in their exhaustively researched book, Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy From Slavery to Hip-Hop, the once hugely popular form of entertainment has a complicated history. By today's standards, donning blackface makeup and performing an exaggerated song-and-dance number would be considered in extremely poor taste. But in the 19th century, black performers became more in demand than their white counterparts in the stagecraft. "There were a lot of blacks who criticized the minstrel shows for being racist," Taylor told The Root. "But there were a lot of blacks who believed that minstrelsy as an art form was of black origin."

Through the years, the definition of minstrelsy has taken on broader meanings, and it's often invoked to disparage any activity that seems degrading to the dignity of black people. Some have cited TV shows like Sanford and Son and hip-hop acts like Lil Wayne and Tupac Shakur as the more recent examples of the tradition. The Root caught up with Taylor and Austen, two Chicago writers, who gave us additional insight into some of the genre's major players and most vocal critics.

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

William Henry Lane

Yuval Taylor: "The first black performer in this tradition is William Henry Lane, who's also called Master Juba. [P.T.] Barnum felt that apparently, a black person on a New York stage would not be accepted, that there would be riots. So he pretended Lane was white and put blackface makeup on him. Lane became a black person impersonating a white person impersonating a black person. He was a wild success, and pretty soon he dropped the whole blackface pretense. He competed on stage alongside white dancers, impressed white judges and, eventually, beat many white dancers at the time. He was proclaimed the greatest dancer of all time [in the 1840s]."

Hans Nathan/Wikipedia

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Bert Williams

YT: "Bert Williams is one of the last of the great blackface comedians, but his impact on the tradition is minimal. He made minstrelsy dignified. He brought a respectability that it never had before and never would have again. He was extremely famous during his lifetime, but as soon as he died [in 1922], people started to say what a sad case he was -- that he was forced to wear blackface against his will, which is untrue. He occupies a really unique place in African-American entertainment history. He's an artist who's definitely equal to Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Mardi Gras' Zulu Krewe

YT: "The Zulu Krewe is the only place [today] where you can see blacks wearing blackface, and they've been doing it for over 100 years now. As a parody of the white Mardi Gras tradition, it drew on the caricature of cannibals, which was always present in American culture in cartoons and skits, as well as minstrel traditions."

Jake Austen: "There were times during civil rights and the black power era when the Zulu Krewe almost ceased to exist, when they stopped wearing blackface and started incorporating black power characters. It's one of the most visually stunning aspects of Mardi Gras, but it's an image that's not disseminated the way the Mardi Gras Indians, floats, balls or beads are."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Amos 'n' Andy

JA: "Amos 'n' Andy would take an hour to totally unpack. It was the creation of two white ex-minstrels who became radio stars. The show, [which began in 1928], became the most popular radio show of all time but was also popular with African Americans. Black intellectuals were defensive about it. In the first 15 years of the show, they [generally] didn't use minstrel comedy. It was this soap opera about these migrants who move up north. One of them is a blustery fool; the other is incredibly moral, a simple guy, and he's courting this black middle-class princess of sorts. The TV show [1951-1953] picks up after the radio show and becomes a sitcom with black actors. If you've seen The Honeymooners or I Love Lucy -- think of the most ridiculous episodes of those shows -- it's similar, with performers who are just incredibly good. One actor, Tim Moore, had been in black minstrel shows in the 1890s as a child."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Stepin Fetchit

JA: "Lincoln Perry, who played Stepin Fetchit, blazed a way for being a black Hollywood star ... living the high life and dressing fancy. His image on the screen was a very lazy, very stupid guy. His skill in making that character so vivid, so funny to so many people and so memorable, [led to] blacks staying servants and comic relief in movies for decades. Writers and observers have noted that there's a subversive element to the idea of the sloth: You're pretending to be stupid or slow to get an advantage. He was a figure that was damaging but also had some important parts to him."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Zora Neale Hurston

YT: "Zora Neale Hurston participated in the minstrel tradition in some of her theatrical works. There are a few chapters in Their Eyes Were Watching God. But Richard Wright went on an attack against her when he reviewed it [in 1937] and said she was writing a minstrel show and making the white folks laugh. She enjoyed doing that. It's one of the reasons for her initial success. But the African-American reaction to her work was rather negative after the 1920s. Most of her work is set in an all-black space; minstrel shows are an all-black space. She relied not only on the minstrel tradition but the black folk tradition as well. They're somewhat intertwined, which is important to recognize in her work."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Sammy Davis Jr.

JA: "He did revive the "Here Comes the Judge" bit [from Amos 'n' Andy]. The black funny judge is definitely part of black minstrelsy, from the days when it became big on Broadway. He's not worried about presenting himself as undignified blackness to whites. [During his heyday in the '60s and '70s], he always presented himself as a dignified man who wasn't afraid to do low comedy or to lower himself to the whites in the Rat Pack, so that's why people would compare that [to minstrelsy]. To me, that's not a great definition."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Flip Wilson

JA: "We worked him into the book because there are scholars and critics who accuse him of minstrelsy. [In his '70s-era variety show], he had a preacher character. One of the aspects of the minstrel show is an absurd orator. That was in every minstrel show. That's not a perfect analogy for what Wilson was doing, but his stage was a semicircle, which was very unusual on TV. It was the exact shape of the first part of a minstrel show, where people would stand in a semicircle. I wouldn't call it a minstrel throwback in the way that people accused Jimmie Walker of doing years later."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Jimmie Walker

JA: "Jimmie Walker is absolutely imitating comedy from the Stepin Fetchit era, black vaudeville era and minstrel-show era. People react more viscerally [to Walker] than they do to Flip Wilson. The two main leads on the [1974] show [Good Times] -- Esther Rolle and John Amos -- quit the show because he was acting like a minstrel. That's unheard of."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Redd Foxx

JA: "We don't emphasize enough that not all black comedy comes from minstrelsy. There are toasts -- rhymes that have this broad, raw comedy -- folktales, so many different things. Redd Foxx came from the black vaudeville stage ... He is a genius who took things from everywhere. His delivery is so brilliant, his timing, his voice. He'd do limericks, knock-knock jokes, puns. Some critics wanted to brand [the '70s sitcom] Sanford and Son as minstrelsy ... because it was a black sitcom about a pair of black independent businessmen. There are comparisons [between] Amos 'n' Andy, who had a junk taxicab, [and Sanford's] junk business ... It's easy to make the comparison, but [it's] not a good comparison."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Spike Lee and Bamboozled

JA: "[He brings up so many] different things in 2000's Bamboozled, [like] the audiences of reality shows; he's incredibly critical of white racism in that film and of African Americans who are undignified. The most heart-wrenching part of that film is watching Manray put on the blackface. Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover are so painful to watch doing that. A number of things in that film that are not 100 percent historically accurate ... like [the claim that] Bert Williams was tortured to wear blackface. Some people felt that way, [that blackface was degrading,] but a lot of people were happy to be part of the top entertainment in the world, just the same way a mime or clown would put on makeup."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Tupac Shakur

JA on culture critic Stanley Crouch once calling the late Tupac Shakur a "thug minstrel": "Crouch is a guy in love with Duke Ellington; he loves jazz. He's so concerned with the dignity of black people, even though I don't agree with this definition. He feels it's important to find a way to insult and correct this behavior. It's hard to find any language that's an insult to rappers because there's no profanity they don't use. This [use of "thug minstrel"] is one profanity that they don't use. They don't call each other coons or Sambos or minstrels. It's a way to shock and insult, wake up artists."

Stanley Crouch (left); Tupac Shakur (Getty Images)

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Flavor Flav

JA: "When Public Enemy was at its most potent [in the early 1990s], it seemed like he was doing the gestures, flamboyancy ... The way he was talking, maybe he was doing it as necessary comic relief [from] this incredibly dire music and political message. There was one scholar who called him the 'crown prince of irony,' as if what he was doing was not straightforward, like he was signifying somehow. But when he's on the TV shows years later, he was doing it in a way where you could not criticize his critics for saying he was providing the coon figure or the buffoon figure. But I don't believe he's stupid ... he knows exactly what he's doing."

Getty Images

++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Dave Chappelle

JA: "[In this 'Racial Pixie' skit from 2006], Chappelle's blackface minstrel character has every punch line. Look at Chappelle's face in that skit. Chappelle feels himself being plagued by the pixie -- and he is generally miserable; there's no comedy in his misery. In that way, he's kind of embarrassed that there is something funny about being a shameless, stereotype-embracing character. The whole point of the skit is signifying on the idea that black minstrelsy is a good thing, because this black minstrel character is ruining his life. Chappelle's comedy was one of the most palpable ways that he could fight the legacy of black minstrelsy."

YouTube.com

 

D’angelo – Live:

Made in America

(Video)

By

DJRahdu

– September 3, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“D’Angelo sounds like he spent the last 10 years drenched in Wild Turkey, hard drugs and Parliament records. He’s gone deep down into the 7 circles of the dark side of the funk and emerged better then ever. James River!” – lil’dave

This is my favorite quote from his Made in America performance and I can not wait to hear what his album will sound like… when it’s released

 

Jasiri X Flips Biggie’s

‘10 Crack Commandments’

to the

‘10 Frisk Commandments’

by Jorge Rivas, Wednesday, July 18 2012

The creator of “This Week in Blackness” Elon James White and rapper Jasiri X have teamed up to flip Biggie Smalls’ “10 Crack Commandments” to the “10 Frisk Commandments.” Jasiri X says the song goes out to people of color in places like New York, Pittsburgh and the Bay Area “who get harassed just walking down the street.”

“Make no sudden moves, don’t you know these bad boys use violence to silence,” Jasiri Z says in the video directed by White.

White told Colorlines.com that he often jokes about how his knowledge of what to do when he’s stopped by police officers all stems from Jay Z’s “99 Problems.” He explains how the partnership with Jasiri X came about:

A few weeks ago at Netroots Nation I was hanging out with Jasiri X and it hit me. I run up to Jasiri and say “Dude! You should flip Biggie Smalls “10 Crack Commandments!” Make the #10FriskCommandments! What to do when you’re stopped and frisked!” Jasiri thought for a moment and said “That could work.” I was so excited about the idea of it and how great Jasiri is as an artist I offered to direct and shoot the video in Brooklyn on the spot. He brings this issue to light with such passion and clarity that I was glad to be apart of the project. And lets be honest. his verses are FIRE.”

Out of 685,724 NYPD stop-and-frisk stops reported in 2011, 87% percent of those stopped were black or Latino, and nine out of ten persons stopped were not arrested, nor did they receive summonses.

Call for Submissions:

The Ofi Press

West African Edition

In a unique and exciting collaboration between The Ofi Press (Mexico) and Bakwa Magazine (Cameroon) we are currently looking for submissions of poetry, essays, articles, stories, art work, photos etc. from West Africa to feature in our special December 2012 edition. The best works that are chosen for publication will be translated into Spanish giving a wide audience in Latin America for your work. In the same month, Bakwa will produce a special Mexican edition which will go live to a large audience in Cameroon and beyond.

You don’t have to have been published previously to participate; you just need a special creative spark. So far we have accepted work from Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria but we are looking for more! If you would like more information on submissions and our projects, please contact The Ofi Press’ editor, Jack Little at: theofipress@mail.com or Dzekashu MacViban of Bakwa Magazine at: bakwaeditor@gmail.com

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: theofipress@mail.com or bakwaeditor@gmail.com

Website: http://theofipress.webs.com

 

 

 

Call for Contributions:

The Review on

Sexuality and Equality

in Africa

(honorarium: $150

for accepted submissions)

Deadline: 15 September 2012

The African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR), was established in 2009 by fifteen organizations working to a. address the disproportionate effect of the HIV epidemic on MSM and LGBTI persons in Africa; b. to address the human rights violations these populations face on the continent; c. and to increase the visibility of LGBTI persons and issues in national, regional and international forums.

AMSHeR was formed in an attempt to foster regional learning and devise ‘home-grown’ strategies to address local issues, rather than relying on global, mostly western strategies. Through advocacy and capacity building, AMSHeR works towards achieving a healthy and empowered life for LGBTI and MSM communities in Africa, and human rights for all. AMSHeR takes guidance from its member organizations, its board and steering committee, as well as partners with a similar mission.

LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAMME

The Law and Human Rights Programme fulfils AMSHeR’s advocacy and capacity objectives by

a. Facilitating the development of the capacity of member organisations to monitor, document and report human rights violations; understand their socio-political, legal and judicial systems, and design context-specific responses to LGBTI/MSM issues; undertake evidence-based advocacy on MSM/LGBTI issues within their national and sub-regional contexts; respond to emergency and security situations in a pro-active manner;

b. Strengthening the capacity of human rights organisations, national human rights institutions, civil society and the academia to understand issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, engage with LGBTI communities in-country, mainstream the rights of LGBTI persons in broader national human rights discourse, and respond to human rights violations against LGBTI persons;

c. Engaging regional and international human rights mechanisms on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity as well as the protection of the rights of LGBTI persons in Africa.

THE SEXUALITY AND EQUALITY IN AFRICA PROJECT

The Sexuality and Equality in Africa Project aims to encourage the voices of young African students, scholars, researchers, professionals and activists to the discourse on sexualities, sexual rights, sexual orientation and gender identity in Africa and to develop a body of resources written by young Africans with a focus on how these issues relate to Africa and Africans. The Review on Sexuality and Equality in Africa will be produced under the Project as well as an online blog in which contributions received under the Project will be published and discussed. The Review on Sexuality and Equality in Africa will address human rights, equality, sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual minorities including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex [LGBTI] in Africa in five sections –Sciences, Law and Policy, Culture and Religion, Education, and Movement Building and in a variety of formats including academic/scholarly papers and more practice-oriented articles.

SUGGESTED THEMES/ TOPICS:

Contributions should be between 3,000 and 5,000 word count and may be submitted in English or French. Contributions are encouraged from graduate students, activists and civil society actors, young researchers, practitioners [medical, legal, media, psychosocial, etc], members of faith-based organisations, cultural institutions, migrant communities, sex workers, LGBTI persons, persons in detention.

All contributions must have an African focus, speak to respect for, non-discrimination and inclusion of varying sexualities and sexual orientations and be socially relevant. Although essay-type papers are preferred, contributions may also be submitted in other format including practice-oriented articles, testimonials and interviews.

Contributions are particularly encouraged for papers and articles discussing –

1. Sexualities and human rights particularly equality rights

2. Impact of discriminatory laws and policies on sexual minorities
 

3. Access to healthcare, public health policies, HIV and sexual minorities
 

4. Media, social networking platforms and sexual minorities
 

5. Education curriculum and sexualities
 

6. Access to justice, public institutions and employment
 

7. Sexual minorities, history and cultural institutions
 

8. Religion, faith and sexual orientation
 

9. Sexual orientation and forced migration
 

10. Resilience and community building

All contributions received which comply with the conditions of the call will be published as part of an online blog on the AMSHeR website. Papers of the highest quality will be published in The Review on Sexuality and Equality in Africa in the last quarter of 2012.

To ensure that high quality contributions are published, authors are urged to take special care in preparing their papers and submit a text ready for publication with regard to citation style, language and format. Papers submitted in unsuitable form may not be published. For format of essay papers, click here.

Papers must be sent in electronic form to contact@amsher.net on or before 15 September 2012. Any papers received after this date will unfortunately not be considered for publication. A reviewed final version of the contributions must be submitted by 30 October 2012.

Honorarium and awards:

a. An honorarium of one hundred and fifty dollars [US$150] will be given for every contribution which is published in The Review on Sexuality and Equality in Africa.

b. A prize of one thousand dollars [US$1000] each will be awarded to the English and French contribution adjudged the best by the editorial team.

c. Two writing fellowships will be awarded in the first quarter of 2013 for two papers addressing legal and policy barriers to the rights of LGBTI persons in Africa to enable the authors turn the papers into undergraduate dissertation papers. This award is only open to undergraduate students of universities in Africa. Note that the writing fellowships are NOT limited to students in any particular field of study.

Download: contributor's guidelines

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: contact Kene C. Esom on kene@amsher.net or +2711 482 9201

For submissions: contact@amsher.net

Website: http://www.amsher.net

 

Welcome!  Select your life stage below to view and enter our free, monthly essay competitions.  What's your story?

 

Stage of Life Writing Contests

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