For “Good Times,” I wanted to use a quick dip into my personal life, as a framework to examine to complexities of Black Existence. I’d wager one of the biggest commonalities we have in the Black Experience is reconciling what the world sees/expects of us, and who we really are. We’re haunted by the racialized toxic positivity alluded to in the lyrics “Shut Me Up for the Good Times,” the anti-Black intentions behind mass incarceration in “Lock Me Up for the Good Times,” and cognitive dissonance from a litany of Double Consciousness byproducts. 

Today marks three years since the U.S. first celebrated Juneteenth National Independence Day as a federal holiday. President Biden signed it into law, on June 17th, 2021, nearly 200 years after the first push to gain national recognition.

#AIRS Documentary Screening & Panel: Empowering Change
Crown Heights Brooklyn Public Library
560 New York Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11225.
Tuesday, May 28th | 5:30-7 PM

Congrats to the Kandake Dance Theater for their showing of their rock opera "1,001 Nights on Death Row" at the Fresh Fruit Festival! We got the opportunity to film their performance on closing night.

#theater #music #rockopera #freshfruit #thenoticeblog #acting

Under the needle at a Brooklyn tattoo parlor, French-Cuban duo Ibeyi tells the story behind each song on their new album "Ash.

Following his release from prison in February 1990, South Africa's 1st President Nelson Mandela famously embraced Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman, Yasser Arafat in Lusaka, Zambia. He and his political party, the African National Congress (ANC), had long supported Palestinian statehood; comparing the Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank to South Africa's Apartheid, which barred Black South Africans from voting, owning land, and living outside of ethnically segregated areas called "Homelands."

We’re proud of the opportunity to produce, film, and witness Just Leadership USA’s Close Rikers Campaign in action in 2016. They rallied outside the Borough Halls of Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx to pressure Mayor Bill DeBlasio and other key elected officials, to keep the commitment to close down Rikers.

“We don't think you fight fire with fire best; we think you fight fire with water best. We're going to fight racism not with racism, but we're going to fight with solidarity. We say we're not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we're going to fight it with socialism.” - Fred Hampton

In 2017, Why Accountability and other New York activist groups joined together to provide free swipes to commuters in the Bronx, East New York, East Harlem, and other places targeted for fare-beating arrests. Demonstrators repeated to commuters and observing police officers that “Poverty is not a crime”, and that it is entirely legal to offer free swipes to fellow commuters.