God's Trombone

Blackness. Jazz. Rap. Politics. History. Religion. When I'm stressed I turn to Coltrane and when I'm angry it's Mingus. James Baldwin is my favorite writer and Yasiin Bey my favorite rapper.  “I am black; I am in total fusion with the world, in sympathetic affinity with the earth, losing my id in the heart of the cosmos -- and the white man, however intelligent he may be, is incapable of understanding Louis Armstrong or songs from the Congo. I am black, not because of a curse, but because my skin has been able to capture all the cosmic effluvia. I am truly a drop of sun under the earth.” - Frantz Fanon

[thechanelmuse]

I was today years old. That is disgusting.

No Child Left Behind is one of the worst things to ever be incentivized in schools. It was signed into law when I was 14. Reading Rainbow was my show as a kid. LeVar Burton played a big part in why I became an avid reader to date. The joy of it. It's an adventure around the globe and through different time periods without stepping on a plane or time machine.

Children parrot behavior. In grade school, I always wanted to read the same amount of books as my teachers (50 books) and managed to double that each year. Before No Child Left Behind, book fairs and Scholastic catalogs were a serious matter like your grandma's Fingerhut catalogs. Libraries were (and still are) a wonderland.

Reading comprehension and proficiency in schools has been declining for decades. A crisis. The joy of books isn't pushed anymore and I'm always saddened by it. It's one of the reasons why I post my book reviews and recommendations on here, as well as posts from others to encourage reading and (novel) writing. Kids will parrot your behavior while the education system sadly fails to return as that example.

[black-culture]

Black and Palestinian solidarity. #palestine #blacklivesmatter 

[blackmanonthemoon]

I miss this app, shared so much and free on here. Hit me up if you still active one here

[vague-humanoid]

from the thread

[krill-joy]

here is a link to the full article!

Retailers say thefts are at crisis level. The numbers say otherwise

Industry groups and politicians are sounding alarms over the thefts. But in some cases, the statistics they cite are inflated or flat-out wr

[blackmanonthemoon]

Is this thing on?

[blackmanonthemoon]

This thing still on?

[blackmanonthemoon]

“Can’t you see the things that man has done won’t set you free”

[mydearalgeria]

Algerian boys attending class during French Colonisation in a classroom where the walls are only covered with maps of France, 1912/1914.

Lucien Tignol.

[oldhollywood]

Nina Simone performing at the Pan-African Festival in Algiers (1969). Photo by Guy Le Querrec.

“Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It’s like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can’t be found on any instrument. That’s like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world. I am Nina Simone, the star, and I am not here. I’m a woman. My secret self is between these worlds." 

(via)

[caribbeanwriters]

“They undertook vast hunger strikes; undid their chains and hurled themselves on the crew in futile attempts at insurrection. What could these island tribesmen do on the open sea, in a complicated sailing vessel? To brighten their spirits it became the custom to have them up on the deck once a day and force them to dance. Some took the opportunity to jump overboard, uttering cries of triumph as they cleared the vessel and disappeared below the surface.”

— - C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins

[okayysophia]

[universitybookstore]

New from Liveright, Afropessimism, by Frank B. Wilderson III.  Combining trenchant philosophy with lyrical memoir, Afropessimism is an unparalleled account of Blackness. Why does race seem to color almost every feature of our moral and political universe? (Listen to a podcast with the author at Seattle’s Town Hall here.)

[nativenews]

Afro-pessimism can also be used to critique prevalent liberal discourses around community, accountability, innocence, and justice. Such notions sit upon anti-Black foundations and only go so far as to reconfigure, rather than abolish, the institutions that produce, control, and murder Black subjects. Take for example the appeal to innocence and demand for accountability, too frequently launched when someone Black is killed by police. The discourse of innocence operates within a binary of innocent/guilty, which is founded on the belief that there is an ultimate fairness to the system and presumes the state to be the protector of all.

Wilderson III, F. B., Hartman, S., Martinot, S., Sexton, J., & Spillers, H. J. (2017). Afro-pessimism, p. 11. 

[athousandgateaux]

“One never really knows which is more severe, the blithe disregard one suffers at the hands of White people or the pious remorse with which they purify themselves.”

— Frank B. Wilderson, Afropessimism, pg. 188

[bluelightvine-deactivated201405]

[lagonegirl]

#BLM #Fergueson 

[vympr]

Josh Williams is actually up for parole this month, June 2020! You can write him a letter that he can use to attest to his character to the parole board. More info here: https://www.freejoshwilliams.com/freejosh

Help Free Josh — Free Josh Williams

[twixnmix]

Malcolm X photographed by Morris Warman during an interview on June 26, 1963.