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Posts published in “Videos”

Black People Let’s Stop Just Surviving – It’s Time To Thrive! 8-Minute Power Shot with Dena (WATCH)

Over the past few months, TEDx speaker, performance coach and GBN’s “This Way Forward” contributor Dena Crowder has offered “Power Shot” guides on Mental Health and Well-Being, Transforming Trauma, Tapping into our Own Power to Affect Meaningful Change, Divining our Worth and Transforming the Internalized Face of Power.

This week, Dena offers an eight-minute Power Shot to help Black people move beyond the survival skills we’ve necessarily developed and employed to stay alive over the centuries into ones that allow us to live fully and thrive — on our own terms. Watch:

Unedited “Eyes on the Prize” Interviews with John Lewis and C.T. Vivian Available to Stream at American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WATCH)

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) has made John Lewis’ unedited interview for Eyes on the Prize (1987) and for Eyes on the Prize: They Loved You Madly (1979), available to stream on its website, along with Rev. C.T. Vivian’s unedited interview for Eyes on the Prize

Lewis’ discussions center on the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, his friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the relationship between Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), his view on the philosophy of nonviolence and his involvement in the March on Washington.

Vivian and his interviewer discuss in detail over the course of an hour the Nashville sit-in campaign, the Freedom Rides, the Selma campaign and more.

Eyes on the Prize is the groundbreaking 1987 PBS documentary series that tells the definitive story of the civil rights movement.

These interviews are part of a collection of 127 raw interviews from Eyes on the Prize available to stream via AAPB due to a collaboration between Boston public media producer WGBH and the Library of Congress to preserve and make accessible culturally significant public media from across the country.

The AAPB also contains a two-part raw interview conducted with Vivian in 2011 from American Experience’s Freedom Riders. Part 1, Part 2.

TEDx Speaker Dena Crowder Offers 5-Minute Guide on Transforming the Internalized Face of Power (WATCH)

When you envision a “boss,” who does that boss look like to you? Yourself? Your actual boss? Beyoncé? Deep down, who do you consider to be a successful “authority figure,” and why?

Is it possible who you say that figure is may not jibe with who you subconsciously have been conditioned to see in that role? If so, how does that effect how you navigate your life?

TEDx speaker, performance coach and GBN’s “This Way Forward” contributor Dena Crowder offers a five-minute “Power Shot” to aid and guide us on discovering the hidden views we may hold regardless of age, race or gender about who a “successful authority” looks like, and how to transform those views into ones that feed, not fetter, our inner power. Watch:

Beyoncé Film “Black Is King” to Debut on Disney+ on July 31 (WATCH TRAILER)

Queen Bey’s “Black Parade” continues. And heading into July, she brings us the King.

Black Is King, written, directed and executive produced by 24-time Grammy® Award-winner Beyoncé, will premiere globally on Disney+ on July 31, 2020 and will arrive on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the release of Disney’s global phenomenon The Lion King.

This visual album from Beyoncé reimagines the lessons of  The Lion King for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns. The film was in production for one year with a cast and crew that represent diversity and connectivity.

The film is based on the music of “The Lion King: The Gift,” released last year in conjunction with the Disney pic, and stars the album’s featured artists and some special guest appearances.

The  album features Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, 070 Shake, Tierra Whack, Jay-Z, Blue Ivy Carter and Jessie Reyez, as well as African artists including Wizkid, Shatta Wale, Burna Boy, Mr Eazi, Tiwa Savage, Tekno, Yemi Alade, Busiswa and Salatiel.

(Photo credit: Travis Matthews)

TEDx Speaker Dena Crowder Offers 5-Minute Guide on Divining Your Own Worth (WATCH)

For centuries, enslaved Africans were brought to America and had their worth literally determined in dollars and cents on an auction block.

This legacy of being bartered, traded, valued and devalued systemically and arbitrarily has been intrinsic to the African-American experience – a legacy that persists in many ways and is in serious need of transformation.

TEDx speaker, performance coach and GBN’s “This Way Forward” contributor Dena Crowder  today offers a five-minute“Power Shot” to aid and guide us on divining and defining our own worth. Watch:

Toni Morrison “The Pieces I Am” American Masters Documentary Airs on PBS Tonight, June 23 (WATCH TRAILER)

Pulitzer Prize winner, prolific author and professor Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers and critics on an exploration of the powerful themes she confronted throughout her literary career in The Pieces I Am, an artful and intimate meditation that examines the life and work of the legendary storyteller.

This “American Masters” documentary airs today, Tuesday, June 23 at 8/7c as part of PBS’s summer-long celebration of women trailblazers.

Official website: https://to.pbs.org/2XUCcSc | #ToniMorrisonPBS

HBO Documentary “True Justice” on Bryan Stevenson and Equal Justice Initiative Free to Watch Online (VIDEO)

Last week, Warner Bros. made Just Mercy, the 2019 feature film about attorney Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx free to view online all June.

HBO has done the same: True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, which recently won a 2020 Peabody Award, is available for free online.

True Justice profiles Stevenson and his work at EJI seeking justice for the incarcerated poor and death row inmates in Alabama and the South, offers a searing indictment of the court system, and helps viewers see how the U.S. Supreme Court is historically and directly accountable for sustaining racial violence, white supremacy, and the exploitation of black people through the trajectory of decisions that leads from enslavement to lynching to the death penalty.

The documentary follows 30 years of EJI’s work on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. Told primarily in his own words, True Justice shares Bryan Stevenson’s experience with a criminal justice system that “treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.”

You can watch it on eji.org, YouTube or below:

(paid link)

Tedx Speaker Dena Crowder Offers 5-Minute Guide on Tapping into Your Own Power to Affect Meaningful Change (WATCH)

In 1971, Wadsworth A. Jarrell painted “Revolutionary (Angela Davis),” tapping into his own power and skills as an artist to amplify the message and mission of the Black Power and Civil Rights movements by dynamically depicting political activist and leader Angela Davis.

Also in 1971, Gil Scott-Heron famously recorded “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” using his power and skills as a musician to passionately address, fortify and amplify the very same movements.

The last line in the song presciently lays out a deeper truth – “The Revolution Will Be Live” – because for any moment to turn into a lasting movement that culminates in systemic change, we all have to “be live.” To harness, hone and offer on our own unique power and skills to the greater mission.

Last week Tedx speaker, performance coach and GBN’s “This Way Forward”contributor Dena Crowder offered a six-minute “Power Shot” with guiding words and an exercise to help release and transform trauma into energy to fuel us forward.

Today, Dena (pictured above with Jarell’s painting) offers a five-minute “Power Shot” to help focus on tapping into and staying connected to our own inner power and skills and using them to guide our actions as we navigate the political and societal sea change ahead of us. Watch:

Like that? You can also check out Dena’s three-minute video designed to help maintain our mental health and wellness.

Activist Zyda Culpepper Mellon Brilliantly Explains How White Colleagues, Friends and Family Can Be True Allies (WATCH)

Good Black News is grateful to brilliant young woman Zyda Culpepper Mellon for taking the time to put her thoughts and feelings on current events sparked by the brutal killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd into words and sharing her spot-on, heartfelt and timely message.

Mellon’s video appeared first on Facebook three days ago and has started going viral. Now, with her permission, Good Black News is sharing it directly on our site.

Mellon’s labor not only educates and challenges those who need it, it offers a tool to those who are struggling to find the words to say to white colleagues, friends and family while dealing with so much anger and trauma:

(Facebook: Zyda Culpepper; Instagram: @zydacsoprano; Twitter: @ZydaMellon)

Tedx Speaker Dena Crowder Offers 6-Minute Guide on Transforming Trauma (WATCH)

Ahmaud Arbery.

Breonna Taylor.

George Floyd.

Three people we have recently witnessed dying violently, people who died solely because as African Americans, their lives are not valued in this country.

Tragically, this horror is not new. Arbery, Taylor and Floyd are now part of a sickeningly long chain of Black people in the United States to lose their lives to systemic racism, brutality and hate.

A recent article in USA Today titled “George Floyd Video Adds to Trauma: ‘When Is The Last Time You Saw a White Person Killed Online?'” addresses what those who have been experiencing it already know: African Americans are suffering greatly from constantly watching these acts of racial violence play out month after month year after year.

To quote:

“African Americans face harmful mental health effects every time high-profile incidents of racism and police brutality go viral, especially when little changes in the aftermath.”

Combined with a global pandemic, healthcare disparities and a financial crisis, African Americans are currently coping with exponential levels of trauma that will likely not dissipate any time soon.

So what can we do to protect ourselves as we bear these trying times, especially when community and family gatherings are so severely limited?

Last week, in honor of Mental Health Awareness MonthTedx speaker, performance coach and GBN’s “This Way Forward” contributor Dena Crowder offered a three-minute video as an aide for mental health and wellness.

Today, Dena offers a six-minute “Power Shot” with guiding words and an exercise to help release and transform trauma into energy to fuel us forward. Watch:

(Dena Crowder: DenaCrowder.com; IG: dena.crowder)

Dena Crowder (photo courtesy Dena Crowder)