Experience more African art

I just finished reading Creating Black Americans by Nell Irvin Painter. Although it is a history book it is filled with African American art. So by reading the book I fulfilled my goals of learning more about Black history and about African art at the same time! There are over 100 images of paintings, drawings, sculptures, quilts, and even poetry. It is an all around excellent book to have for anyone who wants to know about African American history! It is a MUST HAVE BOOK!!!

For months now I have been only watching MuchVibe for music and listening to R&B and hip hop radio stations. So now I don’t even know what songs have been made by pop or rock artists anymore. I needed to expose myself to Black music for a while so that I could develop a preference for it. I still like the old pop songs I used to listen to, but I’m not paying attention to the new pop music. Some of the music is good but of course some of it is not. Some of the songs have positive messages and images but a lot of then do not. But atleast I’m giving it a chance.

I subscribed to Much Vibe so that I could watch more hip hop, R&B and other forms of Black music. I think it will be better than subscribing to BET because the videos on Vibe are censored more and they don’t play the raunchy videos BET shows. I’m glad that curse words, b**, the h-word, and the n-word are all censored out so I don’t have to hear them. Its much better than just having only Much Music because most of the time on Much Music there are shows I don’t like and music I don’t like.

I signed up for a YouTube account so that I could collect video clips about African art. There are lots of clips of people reciting poetry, music videos, and ancient art. There are also many films about cultural issues. Last night I stayed up late watching my favorite old school videos :)

We have the power to promote rappers who do not have sexist language or negative messages about Black people. We have websites and blogs and so we can decide to advertise and publicize those artists who we think represent us in a positive way. There is no one stopping us from creating our own advertisements for the artists we choose and when their CDs will be released, or posting links to where their CDs can be purchased. If we want this to happen we have to think about the greater good instead of the money we won’t make from the advertisments. Why are giving advertisers and rich fat cats the power to decide who has good music? Harness the power of the internet to advertise who YOU like. Below is a link to a slide show advertisment of the musicians you choose and you can put it on your blog, just like I did, to advertise those who deserve our support! You can put up the same slideshow or make your own! Please Spread the Word!!!!!

Slideshow Link

I think that I am going to get into more alternative hip hop. I think that the mainstream hip hop today is sending the wrong message about materialism, thug life, and sexism. I’m going to start listening to more Mos Def, Digable Planets, Common, and a Tribe Called Quest.

I think that I will try to find more spoken word and performance poetry by African and African American artists. According to Wikipedia, “Spoken word is a form of literary art or artistic performance in which lyrics, poetry, or stories are spoken rather than sung. Spoken-word is often done with a musical background, but emphasis is kept on the speaker.”
I am disappointed with music today because I think that it promotes poor values. By listening to spoken word, I can hear inspirational poetry, along with music. I think that it is a great art form and that it will broaden my mind instead of narrowing it. One notable spoken word artist is Gil Scott-Heron who wrote ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’. I remember hearing the poem read on tv once and I was so amazed!