(Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Juan Atkins in Detroit / Photo credit: Unknown)
Techno has come to be associated with European club culture, but it was born from the Black community in Detroit. It was originally revolutionary protest music. Techno was born of African-American struggle.
Detroit DJs Robert Hood, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May are known as the originators of techno. They fused funk, disco, and gospel beyond recognition in the ‘80s.
To quote Robert Hood: “Techno is the struggle of black artists that came from nothing, had nothing—[I was] blessed to share this music.”
This collection celebrates the originators as well as current Black women and nonbinary DJs and producers, like Tati au Miel and Nonku Phiri, that have had to carve out space in the scene too.
According to thehill.com, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) will take over as chair of the House Homeland Security Committee‘s subcommittee on cybersecurity, infrastructure protection and innovation.
Underwood, who serves as vice chair of the full Homeland Security panel, will take over the subcommittee chair position from Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.). Richmond in turn is taking a position on the House Ways and Means Committee, to fill the seat previously held by the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
Each time my white privilege piece circulates, I get a rush of emails, posts, messages, comments, tweets and DMs from new readers. Most are positive, some negative, some hilarious (between “laugh or cry,” I choose “laugh”) and inevitably, some questioning. I try my best to respond individually, but sometimes it’s way too overwhelming a task. Like during the last rush right after Christian Cooper, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and the nationwide protests.
I did find the energy in late May to write “A Letter to Friends Who Really Want to End Racism” on my personal Facebook page in an attempt to share my thoughts on how to move forward pro-actively. My sister (and GBN co-editor) Lesa encouraged me to publish it on GBN as well. I did, and that piece had its own extra flutter of internet life, too.
I texted Lesa to say her instincts were right again (in 2016 she predicted “What I Said…” would go viral before I posted it) and she responded in spotty text talk: You speak super Black pride and really wanna be woke white — needs to be shared!
Her words gave me a much-needed chuckle during a fraught pandemic shopping trip in a bare-shelved Whole Foods. They also helped crystallize my thoughts on what I might be able to uniquely contribute to the movement for equity and justice.
Author and award-winning journalist Farai Chideya has created and will host Our Body Politic, a weekly podcast debuting this weekend that is “unapologetically centered on reporting not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they’re impacting those issues.”
Farai Chideya (photo: Twitter)
Our Body Politic will focus on women of color as a super-demographic in American politics and ask how we can save and improve our own lives and that of our nation. Episodes will feature in-depth conversations about the economy, healthcare, politics, the environment and education every Friday. To listen to the trailer below:
The podcast will be available through a host of sponsor stations including KCRW, KPCC, KQED and WITF among others. You can also subscribe by clicking here.
For anyone who want to call in with questions or to tell the show what’s on your mind, you can leave a message at the number Chideya is posting on Twitter: 929-353-7006.
(The Emotions, September 1977 Pamela Hutchinson, center: Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Pamela Hutchinson, singer from the famed R&B group The Emotions, has died at the age of 61, according to a post on the band’s official Facebook page Sunday.
The Emotions were comprised of Hutchinson and her sisters, Wanda Hutchinson-Vaughn, Jeanette Hutchinson-Hawes and Sheila Hutchinson-Witt. The family act got its start in Chicago, IL as the gospel group the Hutchinson Sunbeams before transitioning to disco/R&B.
“Pam succumbed to health challenges that she’d been battling for several years,” the post said. “Now our beautiful sister will sing amongst the angels in heaven in perfect peace.”
The Emotions’ two biggest hits were the R&B/disco classics “Best of My Love” and “Boogie Wonderland,” the latter of which they collaborated with Earth, Wind & Fire. Other hit singles include “Don’t Ask My Neighbors,” “I Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love,” “You’re the Best” and “Turn it Out.”
On Monday, Netflix will debut A Love Song For Latasha, a short film by first-time filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison that explores what life could have been like for 15 year-old Latasha Harlins had she not been fatally shot by a Korean convenience store owner in Los Angeles in 1991.
Harlins was shot in the back of the head by Soon Ja Du, then a 51-year-old Korean woman who suspected Latasha was trying to steal a $1.79 bottle of orange juice. Security footage later confirmed that Latasha had money in her hand and intended to pay for the beverage and Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
Though the jury recommended a 16-year prison stint, Du was sentenced to time served, five years probation, community service, funeral expenses and $500 restitution. Harlins’ killing and the trial outcome were factors that served as a catalyst for the unrest that erupted in Los Angeles in 1992 after the police who brutalized Rodney King were acquitted.
A Love Song For Latasha explores the teenager’s life and dreams through accounts from her family and friends. Watch the trailer below:
“As an LA native, I’m really interested in what it means to interrogate and conjure and excavate stories of the community and stories of Black women and Black girls,” Allison told theGrio exclusively.
“Being a young girl during the riots, Latasha wasn’t a name I often heard. It was always Rodney King. It’s still a story people don’t talk about and her name is often forgotten. She played such an important and devastating role in that shift that happened in South Central and I wanted to see her story live in its fullness.”
Tupac Shakur immortalized Latasha’s story in several of his hits, including “Keep Ya Head Up,” which he dedicated to the slain teen. He referenced her in other tracks like “Something 2 Die 4,” “Thugz Mansion,” and “I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto” and Ice Cube included a song about her on his album, Death Certificate, entitled ”Black Korea.”
“Latasha could have been a family member, or one of my friends. Latasha could have been me,” said Allison. “I wanted to make sure this archive, this story, and this memory existed for Latasha and that there was this evidence of her outside of just the trauma. Her story needed to exist beyond what we have seen.”
Director and Academy Award-winning writer John Ridley (12 Years A Slave) also devoted a section of his 2017 documentary Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 to Harlins, her tragic killing and the relative lack of justice her killer faced. Let It Fall can also be found on Netflix.
San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed, in partnership with Expecting Justice, announced this week the launch of the Abundant Birth Project, a pilot program that provides targeted basic income to women during pregnancy and after giving birth.
The pilot will provide an unconditional monthly income supplement of $1,000 to approximately 150 Black and Pacific Islander women in San Francisco for the duration of their pregnancy and for the first six months of their baby’s life, with a goal of eventually providing a supplement for up to two years post-pregnancy.
Expecting Justice, a collective impact initiative led by Dr. Zea Malawa at the San Francisco Department of Public Health and supported by the Hellman Foundation and the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative, will study the resulting health impacts of the pilot program, which is the first of its kind in the United States.
The Abundant Birth Project is a simple, yet novel, approach to achieving better maternal health and birthing outcomes: provide pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women a monthly income supplement for the duration of their pregnancy and during the postpartum period as an economic and reproductive health intervention.
Prematurity is a leading cause of infant mortality and has been linked to lifelong conditions, such as behavioral development issues, learning difficulties, and chronic disease. In San Francisco, Black infants are almost twice as likely to be born prematurely compared with White infants (13.8% versus 7.3%, from 2012-2016) and Pacific Islander infants have the second-highest preterm birth rate (10.4%).
Furthermore, Black families account for half of the maternal deaths and over 15% of infant deaths, despite representing only 4% of all births. Pacific Islander families face similar disparities.
Mara Brock Akil, the creator and writer/producer behind such hit series as Being Mary Jane, Black Lightning, Girlfriends and The Game and has signed a multi-year overall deal with Netflix to create new original content, according to Deadline.com.
The deal was announced the same week that Akil’s beloved comedy Girlfriends debuted on Netflix, marking the series’ 20th anniversary. All eight seasons of the sitcom starring Tracee Ellis Ross, Golden Brooks, Persia White and Jill Marie Jones join The Game on the platform.
“We are thrilled to welcome Mara Brock Akil to Netflix,” said Channing Dungey, VP Original Series, Netflix. “Her signature storytelling, authentic perspective and captivating characters have long entertained audiences and proven to be relevant, timely and endlessly engaging. We look forward to bringing her distinct voice, vision and passion to our global members.”
Akil becomes the latest showrunner to sign with Netflix and joins a roster of powerhouse content creators that includes Shonda Rhimes, Kenya Barris and Ryan Murphy, among several others.
Yesterday, city workers in Charlottesville, VA brought down a Confederate statue near the site of a violent white nationalist rally three years ago, where dozens were injured and one woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when a self-avowed white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the rally.
The removal of the bronze figure of a Confederate soldier known as “At Ready,” is what is being seen in Charlottesville as a milestone in eliminating oppressive symbols of the Civil War from public properties shared by all taxpayers.
According to the Washington Post, Albemarle County supervisors voted earlier this summer to take down “At Ready,” even though the statue was not the focal point of the 2017 rally, but a block away from the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups said they were defending in the clash.
Naomi Osaka came through in all ways during her journey to today’s victory in the women’s singles title match of the 2020 U.S. Open.
Not only did now two-time U.S. Open winner Osaka rally to beat challenger Victoria Azarenka (who bested six-time U.S. Open champion Serena Williams in the semi-final in three sets with the mirrored score of 1-6, 6-3, 6-3), she did so while making powerful protest statements before every match.
Osaka wore seven different masks with seven different names of Black individuals who have died violently, unnecessarily, and mostly at the hands of police officers: Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McLain, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Philando Castile and today, before her final match, Tamir Rice.
