Milestone Media

A short take on comic book company Milestone Media 

Written by Stephyn Phillips 

Read by Avery Brooks

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

Futures of Black Digital Humanities Conference

Futures of Black Digital Humanities Conference

November 18-19, 2024
African American Museum, Washington, DC
The Futures of Black Digital Humanities Conference celebrates the launch of the Black Literature Network, a Mellon-funded initiative aimed at advancing African American literary studies through digital tools and data-driven research. This two-day event features keynote speakers and presentations that explore the possibilities of Black Digital Humanities through projects from the Black Literature Network.

The Black Literature Network includes four key components: a podcast series, a book recommendation resource, a data visualization gallery, and a keyword guide. These portals provide new ways to engage with Black literary history, authors, and texts. By using metadata and visualizations, the project deepens the understanding of Black literature’s cultural significance and opens new avenues for scholarly research.

Day 1: Monday, November 18 Events 

Dana Williams on Toni Morrison’s Editorial Legacy 

Time: 6:30 – 8:00 PM

Dana Williams (Howard University) will give a keynote on Toni Morrison’s pivotal role as an editor at Random House, highlighting her influence in shaping the careers of Black writers. Williams will use data visualizations, which will later be published in the Literary Data Gallery, to showcase Morrison’s lasting impact. A talk-back with Howard Rambsy II will follow, discussing how Morrison shaped Black literary culture through her editorial work.

Day 2: Tuesday, November 19 Events

Time: 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Allie Martin on Intersectional Listening (Time: 9:30 – 10:20 AM): Allie Martin (Dartmouth College) will present her work on intersectional listening, focusing on the auditory landscape of Washington, DC’s Shaw neighborhood. Her talk will emphasize how sound data is curated and analyzed to map the intersections of race, gentrification, and Black community spaces, highlighting the power of digital tools in studying cultural shifts.

Lightning Panel: Black Literature Network Projects (Time: 10:30 – 11:20 AM): This session will feature the Data Rangers, a group of undergraduate and graduate research assistants who contribute to the Black Literature Network. They will present their work on curating datasets, transforming them into interactive data stories, and contributing to the Literary Data Gallery.

Marissa Parham on Data Storytelling (Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM): Marisa Parham (University of Maryland) will close the conference with a keynote on her project break.dance, which uses Beyoncé’s Lemonade to explore themes of time, code, and digital culture. Her talk will emphasize data storytelling, showcasing how digital tools can reshape how we experience and interpret Black narratives.

The Toni Morrison Society in Martinique

A short take on the Toni Morrison Society's June 2024, symposium in Fort-de-France, Martinique. Episode written by Howard Rambsy II 

Read by Kassandra Timm

Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

• The Bench by the Road Project

Spike Lee vs. Amiri Baraka

Baraka and Lee, November 1992 (source)

In the opening of the preface of Spike Lee and Ralph Wiley's book By Any Means Necessary: Trials And Tribulations of the Making of Malcolm X (1992), Lee points out that "resistance" to his work on the movie came from everywhere: "From Warner Brothers, the Completion Bond Co., the Teamsters, High Minister of Black Culture and Ethics Amiri Baraka and his gang, the media. Everyone got in some swings."

It stood out to me that Baraka is the only one that gets called out by name. Lee and Baraka traded barbs through the press in the lead up to the release of Lee's film Malcolm (1992). I gave some thought to their back and forth, and maybe I should return to it. For years, I thought the Malcolm movie was their main point of contention. 

However, this past summer, I came across a 1991 article revealed that previous negative tension emerged between Lee and Baraka based on book on Lee's work, titled Five for Five: The Films of Spike Lee (1991). "He wrote a piece that was 100 percent negative," Lee was quoted as saying concerning Baraka's contribution. "Not everybody [in the book] is saying Spike Lee is great, great. But this was so negative I said, I ain't running this." 

The tension between the two men became more pronounced and public leading to the release of Lee's Malcolm film. 

In a rally in Harlem in August 1991, Baraka told the crowd, "We will not let Malcolm X's life be trashed to make middle-class Negroes sleep easier." He told a Newsweek reporter that "Based on the movies I've seen, I'm horrified of seeing Spike Lee make Malcolm X."

When told of Baraka's comments, Lee responded, ""Where's [Baraka's] book on Malcolm? When Malcolm was of this earth Amiri Baraka was LeRoi Jones running around the Village being a beatnik. He didn't move to Harlem until after Malcolm X was assassinated. So a lot of these guys-not all-weren't even down with Malcolm when he was around ... I was 7 years old so I had an excuse. I had to be home by dark."

In an article in The Washington Post, Baraka was quoted as saying, "I was distressed he was taking up Malcolm and feared Malcolm would get the same treatment he had given the rest of black nationalism. Malcolm X's life is not a commercial property. It can't be claimed by a petit bourgeois Negro who has $40 million."

Lee responded, "I'm gonna make the kind of film I want to make. ... And who appointed Baraka chairman of the African American arts committee? Nobody tells him what poems and plays to write, so why is he trying to tell me what kind of film to make? He can write whatever he wants and I want the freedom to make my films."

The Washington Post presented a portion of a statement made by Baraka and the United Front to Preserve the Legacy of Malcolm X and the Cultural Revolution: ""Our distress about Spike's making a film on Malcolm X is based on our analysis of the films he has already made. Their caricature of Black people's lives, their dismissal of our struggle and the implication of their description of the Black nation as a few besieged buppies surrounded by an irresponsible lumpen is disturbing to the group."

Then, a portion of Lee's response was presented: "Baraka was LeRoi Jones, then living with a white woman in Greenwich Village, and only went running to Harlem after Malcolm was dead. I was 8; what's Baraka's excuse?"

Given their tension I took note of an article in 2014 after Baraka died. An article in the Amsterdam News described a wake for Baraka at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. "Despite Baraka’s scathing critique of Spike Lee’s portrayal of Malcolm X in his biographical flick, the Brooklynite director paid his respects on Friday," the article reported. 

Some Books on Malcolm X

On Tuesday, I had a lively, whew, really lively, conversation about Malcolm X with the guys in my class. We had planned to just cover an excerpt of one speech, where Malcolm is discussing house Negroes vs. field Negroes. But guys had a lot to say so, we ended up covering quite bit. 

I recently finished an article on Malcolm recently, so I'll share some of the Malcolm books I drew on with the guys in an upcoming class.  

Here are some of the books I covered this summer and will share:

1965. Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. 

1965. Malcolm X, edited by George Breitman. Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements

1969. James Baldwin One Day When I Was Lost.

1973. Peter Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X. First edition. 

1979. Peter Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X. Second edition. 

1986. Sue Coe. X. 

1991. Clayborne Carson. Malcolm X: The FBI File. Introduction by Spike Lee.

1992. Spike Lee and Ralph Wiley, By Any Means Necessary: Trials And Tribulations of the Making of Malcolm X

1992. Karl Evanzz, The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X

1993. Thulani Davis, Malcolm X: The Great Photographs. 

2006. Andy Helfer. Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography

2011. Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. 

2013. Peter Goldman,  The Death and Life of Malcolm X. New preface.

2020. Les Payne and Tamara Payne. The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

Related:

• A Notebook on Malcolm X

A Defining Book on the Black Arts Movement

A short take on a widely cited scholarly book on 1960s and 1970s African American artistic production, James Smethurst's The Black Arts Movement (2004).

Episode written by Howard Rambsy II

Read by Kassandra Timm

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

When does Contemporary African American Literature Begin?

As a grad student, I began my first serious studies in literature by examining this development known as “the new Black poetry” of the 1960s. It felt like a challenge, if not curse: I found myself repeatedly asking, "what’s so new about the new [insert just about anything]?”

 

I kinda feel bad for the students who enrolled in my classes in 2003, when I first started teaching at SIUE, because nearly every writing prompt was some version of, “what’s so new about the new [insert just about anything].”

 
In 2014, when the third edition of the Norton Anthology of African American literature was released, the editors referred to the last section as “the contemporary period,” and I was already primed to ask various questions about how they defined contemporary. 

Adding fuel to the fire, my new colleague Elizabeth Cali started at SIUE in 2014, and now I had an interlocutor who'd go back and forth with me on the question. 

 

Now, 10 years after the publication of the Norton, and about 25 years after I first started raising questions about what's new about the new this and that, I'm still wondering “when does contemporary African American literature begin?” or "What's new about the newest Black literature?" 

Related:

• Toward a Contemporary History of Black Persona Poems (2012)

• When did contemporary black poetry begin? (2014)

• Contemporary Black Poets vs. Contemporary Black Poetry (2014)

• The Norton and the challenge of covering the contemporary period of African American literature (2014)

• Toward Histories of Contemporary Black Women's Poetry (2016)

• When does contemporary African American literature begin? (2020)

• 1987 as a starting point for Contemporary African American Lit? (2020)

Blogging about Poetry in August 2024

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