The art and activism of Gabriel Teodros
This past weekend I had the immense pleasure to sit alongside Gabriel Teodros, Bocafloja, and Linda
Culture
The Black Rhythms of Perú
The influence of people of African descent in the history of Peruvian music are overlooked. This documentary begins to set the record straight.
On Set: Abderrahmane Sissako’s ‘Timbuktu’
Cast members: "We want that film to enlighten our people’s situation, we, the real hostages of that crisis."
The music of Santiago, Chile
Chilean musicians argue that their feeling of isolation, combined with a higher than average internet penetration helped create and foster a local “scene" of musicians able to make a living from music.
A Social History of the Gambia
An archive - stretching from 1820 to 1960 - of civil, police, and criminal records in colonial Banjul.
The BLK Brother: uniting Johannesburg’s finest BLK JKS and The Brother Moves On
In 2013 South African alterna-rockers, BLK JKS and The Brother Moves On, met in Paris to represent
Why is this the story being told now?
The selective memory of 'Plot for Peace,' documentary film about South Africa's transition.
Ivorian designer Loza Maléombho’s #AlienEdits selfie series
The #AlienEdits series seems to come as a form of resistance to negative social projections regarding race, gender, sexuality and culture.
On The Way to School
A new documentary film offers a dignified and moving counterweight to how we in the West think - in static, sometimes pathologizing images - of kids elsewhere.
The Western Imagination of Morocco
Why at this late hour would The New York Times want to recycle Paul Bowles’ racist fantasies of Morocco?
The Wizard of Zimbabwe
What do you when your 70 year old South African father wants to meet Robert Mugabe for his birthday. Make a film about it.
Romance and the average Yoruba girl
Are quirky white people with thriving, trendy careers in New York City, the only ones to find love?
I hate Spur!
Nothing about the popular SPUR restaurant chain in South Africa is Native North American.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Hawa Essuman
Essuman believes that confining any storyteller to labels like "African stories" is a disservice to the story and the one telling it.
The West are not those most affected by terrorism
Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako’s film "Timbuktu" complicates the Jihadist narrative in Africa.
The Grammys are irrelevant
Why are the Grammys so clueless about what is contemporary Latin pop music? They keep handing out awards to veterans like Ruben Blades or Vicente Fernández.
The African Rock Art Digital Archive
Last summer, I got the chance to visit the Origins Museum on the University of the
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Jim Chuchu
The Nairobi-based filmmaker and musician aims to bring stories, pictures and sound together to create something immutable on the screen.
Maputo’s masked Mapiko dancers
A new film about how Mozambican youth express and negotiate the country's post-socialist modernity through dance.
The Black Messiah
John Coltrane was a prophet of global black power who musically and metaphorically broke down barriers constraining the lives and imaginations of black people worldwide.