When federal immigration agents swept through Los Angeles’ Fashion District, Boyle Heights, and Pico-Union neighborhoods last week, arresting dozens of migrants in coordinated raids, Bryant Odega was transported back into his childhood memories. In elementary school, Odega’s first airport visit was to watch his father, an immigrant from Nigeria, get deported back to his birth […]
Culture
Posted inCulture, Economic Development, History
‘Sinners’ Shows Clarksdale’s Past. What’s Next for the Birthplace of the Blues?
CLARKSDALE, MISS. – Tyler Yarbrough makes it clear. Sinners and the cultural fest that followed may have thrust Clarksdale into the national spotlight, but this moment represents the culmination of years of hard-fought progress. In as little as three weeks, community members, more than a dozen sponsors, and partners planned and executed Clarksdale Culture Capital’s […]
Posted inHistory
Stolen Black Remains Return Home After 150 Years in European Vault
Underneath oak trees and Spanish moss from Texas to the Carolina coasts, the remains of Black Americans lay in unmarked graves across roadside cemeteries and backyards. While some graves now remain hidden beneath highways and shopping malls, others have been stripped of their dignity in an even more insidious way. Nowhere is this more painfully […]
Posted inCulture, History
Clarksdale Pushed for a Screening of ‘Sinners’. They’re Getting One This Week.
When Jaleesa Collins discovered that Sinners was set in her hometown, she saw it as a great opportunity to organize a public screening. The military veteran, philanthropist and entrepreneur — along with Dave “Dooney” Houston, owner of Dooney’s Barbershop and Carnival Treats — originally pitched the idea as a fundraiser for the first-ever Clarksdale Day, […]
Posted inCulture, Economic Development
‘Sinners’ Is Set in Clarksdale, Where There’s No Theater. Locals Are Asking for a Screening.
Tyler Yarbrough didn’t see Sinners once, but twice. The film, which has made more than $200 million at the box office, is authentically Mississippi Delta through and through, he said. From the Chinese Delta history to the Black businesses, residents say director and filmmaker Ryan Coogler, who has Mississippi roots, did his homework. On both […]
Posted inCulture
Fashion as Resistance: The Black Dandy at the Met Gala
The theme for this year’s Met Gala was an homage to The Black Dandy. Titled “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City examined the African American tradition of being impeccably dressed and using fashion as a means to communicate autonomy, agency, political statements, […]
Posted inCulture, History
What to Read, Watch, and Visit Next If ‘Sinners’ Left You Wanting More
Most may recall hearing their grandparents playing the blues at fish fries, family gatherings, or during weekend cleaning days. Clarksdale, Mississippi, native Yasmine Malone, 26, encountered the art form as an elementary student visiting the Delta Blues Museum. The museum is Mississippi’s oldest, and the world’s first, space dedicated to the blues, according to its […]
Posted inBlack Businesses, Culture, History, Money
‘Sinners’ Honored Juke Joints. Today, They’re Fighting to Stay Open.
The blues runs deep through Orlando Paden’s veins. As a child, he danced for nickels and quarters by the jukebox. He cleaned, crushed cans, and bagged them. He’d greet Mr. Bill, the bouncer, at the front door of his father’s juke joint, and watch patrons play pool and arcade games. Folks broke beer bottles, fought, […]
Posted inCulture, Politics & Policy, Public Safety, Rural Issues
Meet the Black Women Who Say Survivalism Is a Necessity, Not a Trend
Kelli McGuffey Pilkington hunts deer and squirrels, fishes whenever she can, stores jars of preserved food she cans herself — and keeps a holstered Smith and Wesson .38-caliber handgun under her T-shirt, just in case. Pilkington, 48, is a sturdily built 6-foot-tall Black biracial woman who lives in a 644-square-foot cabin on 18 acres of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, LGBTQ
Sam Nordquist’s Death Highlights Violence Against Black Trans Men
Sam Nordquist craved romance. So, last September, he traveled to New York from his home in Oakdale, Minnesota, to meet his online girlfriend. A few months later, he was dead. On Feb. 13, human remains believed to be those of the 24-year-old Black transgender man (some outlets say that Nordquist identified as biracial) were found […]