DIAMOND KESAWN COOPER | CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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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.
Imagine a product that people consume more of as the price rises - and vice versa. Imagine something that violates the basic law of demand in microeconomics. That’s a Giffen good. […] We became starkly aware that both Orlando and I were once - and in some respects still - considered a Giffen good. The performance transformed into a defiant act in the face of statues of YT men long dead, who once sold us on the steps of Wall Street.
Join us behind the scenes with a six-part series from Writer/Director, Paul Notice (@pinotgrig). We were recently asked onto Making Movies is Hard for a five-minute segment - check out the podcast episode in our #linkinbio - but we had more to say. So we’re sharing our full answers with you here.
Here’s a film that I’m REALLY proud of: “Release.” I co-directed, edited and DP’d (director of photography) on it. And I was smart enough to ask for help from Katrina Reid (1st AD/ Production Manager), Dominik Czaczyk (Gaffer/2nd Camera) & Sultan Ali (Grip/2nd AC). After nearly two months of pre-production, we managed to turn two days of shooting into a masterpiece.
Here's a sneak peek of "No Homo No Hetero," an upcoming documentary shot & edited by our Paul Notice and produced by Glenn Quentin , along Heru Kut & David J. Cork.
When you think of rubble, you normally don’t equate it to your personal life. It’s no secret that life comes at you fast and the only way to survive it is to stay strong in who you are, and steadfast in your beliefs.
Living with HIV is no longer a dark secret kept amongst the family. As a society, we have become more aware of the fact that HIV is running rampant within the urban community, and it is no longer a death sentence. The need for preventative and supportive measures are a necessity, and we are the generation of change.
Many people of color, women, LGBT folks, differently-abled people, and others don't the privilege to just ignore harmful beliefs, as their often times the target of those ideas being practiced in policy, or personal behavior. Here's how to engage with ideas outside of your own, even if they're fundamentally harmful to your livelihood. Presenting: Empathy Lens.
Sen. Feinstein to Gorsuch: "How do we have confidence in you that you won't just be for the big corporations?"
Introducing a dark comedy that buys Shea Butter on the corner, watches "Get Out" at the Magic Johnson theater's 125th st.., and isn't scared to show #BlackBoyJoy when it sees #BlackGirlMagic This is Insecure & Atlanta for the Millennials of NYC. This is #LostBoys
They claim they’re keeping ‘men out of the women’s’ bathroom. I am being told that I am a predator. That I am likely a rapist. That I am likely a pedophile. Of course, none of these things are true, and if anything these bills put men in the women’s bathroom by forcing trans-men to use the women’s room. Once again, my basic humanity is a subject of debate by mostly heterosexual cisgender men who know nothing of trans identity other than their own prejudice and don’t care to learn about it or to humanize it"
We’re BACK!! Thanks to your continued support, since we began crowdfunding since 2020. Back then, you supported our journey of turning a 2013 stage play, “Willow,” into a short film, “Willow: State of Emergency.” After our premiere screening at the Nuoyican Poets Cafe, winning Best Short Film of the Chicago Black FIlm Fest, and winning the WAVE Farm MAAF grant - we premiered the FIRST FOUR EPISODES of “Willow: House of Griots" in front of a live audience at Here Performing Arts Center.