As I prep for “Music and Race in the UK,” a course I am scheduled to teach next summer in our Alabama at Oxford program, I have gone back and forth on whether to use Muscle Shoals in the course. After showing the documentary on the incredible music coming out of Alabama in the late… Continue reading muscle shoals
I am so glad I got up to the Birmingham Art Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, to see “Black Out,” an exhibit hailing the wonders and contradictions in silhouettes. Featuring the work of Kara Walker, Auguste Edouart and Kumi Yamashita, the viewer is invited to think about how what began as a claim to hierarchy can… Continue reading inclusive heaven?
Me to a Grad Student: I’m so geeked. Even tho’ I can see some of the stuff online, I can’t wait to touch some archival papers at the University of Florida’s Smathers Libraries again. GS in so many words: I hear you, Dr. Green. I have held in my hand the thinnest folder containing a… Continue reading joy of the archive
I can’t watch anymore football after seeing Tua, Alabama’s starting quarterback, hurt like that. I know there are more serious issues in this world right now. Still, it bothers me. What a young man. He just keeps on giving and giving. As I wait for papers to grade, I turn to the box of found… Continue reading pause
I had been telling the students enrolled in my “Antebellum America” course all semester about what it is like to stand in the dome at the top of Bryce Hospital. Here, Landon Garland, a University of Alabama President, and his wife, Louisa, stood in April 1865 as Union soldiers approached Tuscaloosa, intending to burn down… Continue reading Bryce Hospital tour went well
Continued addressing the Vietnam War during my “American Civilization Since 1865” class. This song by Gil Scott Heron gets me in my feels about our vets. Shout-out to them for their service.
Still basking in the light of the Association for the Worldwide Study of the African Diaspora (ASWAD) meeting, which was held this past week in Williamsburg, VA. There are few words to capture how uplifted one feels at this event. While at the airport, preparing to return home, I spoke to Siima Itabaaza, an independent… Continue reading renewed in an aswad-kinda way
I enjoyed seeing Harriet, the 2019 motion picture directed by Kasi Lemmons last night. While I hear the chatter over how much was fictionalized, it was still very entertaining and moreover, I left the theatre feeling very empowered. I saw the film courtesy of tickets purchased by my UA colleague Lesley Gordon, Director of our… Continue reading harriet
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