Escape and Other Isms

It was such an honor to be involved with giving back, spending time playing music and speaking with those very bright students at Anwatin, and to do it in honor of and on behalf of Prince on the day of his birth makes it that much more special because this is in fact how we began our musical journey.

I really have to thank my wife Katherine Copeland Anderson, Manuela Testolini and the In A Perfect World Foundation and last but certainly not least Principal Ellen Shulman for putting this whole thing together.

It’s true one of the last phone conversation Prince and I had was specifically about doing something just like this for the community, it’s one of the few things I know for a fact that he wanted to do and would have loved for us to do together.

Hopefully we can continue to do these types of things in the future and maybe even expand them and make it a nation wide program that can help more kids growing up in inner city communities have the opportunity to realize their musical or artistic dreams just like Prince, myself and others had when we were growing up.

I know Prince will never be forgotten as a musical icon but I and others want to do all we can to ensure that he will be remembered for the positive opportunities he gave and in his name will continue to give to others far into the future.

Photo by: Steve Cohen

Crowdfunding: Yohance: The Movie

by Paul Louise-Julie

“Yohance is an African Space Opera that I created back in 2016 as a comic series. Later that year, it went on to successfully fund a Kickstarter for $16,000 in the hopes of printing physical issues. After it’s success, I decided that it was finally time for us to move forward with phase 2 and cross over into film.  Our goal is to produce a fully animated feature film that will stay true to the impressionistic detail of the book’s art.

  Our original goal was $60k but since then, we’ve had several investors express interest in the film. They’ve proposed that, if we can raise just $10k on our own -they’ll cover the difference. Simple as that! So all we need to do is cross that minimum threshold and this film becomes reality!…”

Check out the project at indiegogo and spread the word

X-men 

Black Panther Vol 7 #1 (2018)  //  Marvel Comics

For years, T’Challa has fought off invaders from his homeland, protecting Wakanda from everything from meddling governments to long-lost gods. Now, he will discover that Wakanda is much bigger than he ever dreamed…

Across the vast Multiverse lies an empire founded in T’Challa’s name. Readers caught a glimpse of it in MARVEL LEGACY #1. Now find out the truth behind the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda!

Story: Ta-Nehisi Coates, art: Daniel Acuña

Get the comics here

There were a lot of Americans - such as the 800,000 paying members of the America First Committee - who looked at fascists massacring their way through Europe and declared “that’s not our problem.”

Captain America was created by two poor Jewish Americans, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, with the specific intent of trying to convince Americans that entering the war was the right thing to do.  It wasn’t easy - Kirby went far beyond what was expected of artists at the time, penciling the entire issue with a deadline that would have been difficult for a two-man crew to pull off.  

Captain America punched Hitler right on the cover, at a time when a majority of Americans just didn’t feel like doing anything decisive against the Nazis.

Kirby and Simon faced considerable resistance for their creation, including steady hate mail and outright death threats.  

Once, while Jack was in the Timely office, a call came from someone in the lobby. When Kirby answered, the caller threatened Jack with bodily harm if he showed his face. Kirby told the caller he would be right down, but by the time Jack reached street level, there was no one to be found.

Both creators enlisted after America entered the war.  Kirby, as an artist, was called upon to do the extremely dangerous work of scouting ahead to draw maps.  He also went on to co-create Black Panther in 1966.

They didn’t create Captain America to be an accurate depiction of America-As-It-Is.  The character was meant to inspire and embolden, to show America-As-It-Should-Be.

The subject of where the Vibranium for the shield came from actually never came up for decades of comics, until it was finally addressed by Black Panther’s writer, Christopher Priest, in 2001.  Priest never shied away from acknowledging America’s racism, but he also understood that Captain America represented an ideal, intended to inspire Americans to be better. 

The story mixed together a “present day” discussion between Cap and T’Challa with flashbacks to when Cap met the Black Panther ruling Wakanda during World War II.

FLASHBACK:

PRESENT:

PRESENT -> FLASHBACK

PRESENT:

The Vibranium was given, freely, by one good man to another good man.

It is right to rage against the injustices done by our governments.  We must call them out, and we must fight for what’s right.

Ranky Tanky Leans On The Music And Culture Of Slave Descendants

Three members of Ranky Tanky perform songs from their self-titled debut. The band’s name loosely translates to “get funky.” Their music derives from the tradition of the Gullah, slave descendants from the Georgia and South Carolina coast.