Champaign-Urbana Black Arts Review

Creating a space for critical interaction with black art and local black art of all sorts - music, movies, dance, food, spoken word. Go see yourself!

[cublackarts]

An Addendum: Five cuisines we need in C-U

Firstly, thanks to the editors at Smile Politely writing this article Five cuisines we need in C-U. I've lived in Champaign since 2011 and I appreciate a range of cuisines and palates. However, when I think of all of the food I've eaten (and it's a lot) and which of those cuisines take me to the upper room, it is not the five cuisines you mentioned. And that's no shade, because I love Mediterranean/Middle Eastern/North African food. But if someone asked me that question (and I know you didn't), I'd add the following necessary cuisines that are missing from Chambana (in the following order).

"Injera" by Pen Waggener is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

1. Ethiopian - because lentils, greens, and tibs is manna from heaven. Shout out to Tesfaye who has been sharing little hints of Ethiopian food at Common Ground Co-op during the cooking classes. And that sour but delightful injera that soaks up all the juicy flavor of what you're eating! Ethiopian is one cuisine that everyone is required to try before you die.

"Kale and Smoked Salmon Jollof" by Pearlsa is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

2. West African (Nigerian/Ghanain) - because jollof (regardless of who made it first) is amazingly delicious. Eat some ofada stew and spinach stew - dishes that are based in meat and stockfish - and tell me your life didn't change for the better!

"File:Mofongo en Kaplash Cuchifritos Coney Island.jpg" by Jason Lam is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

3. Puerto Rican - because it's everything you want that you wish you could have on a regular basis. Boricuas have been making it do what it do for ages and the food is drenched in flavor. So much so that you might not ever want to eat rice the way you normally make it again. Arroz con damn near anything is bomb! And the grilled pork, the empanadas, and the sweet bread. Let me count the ways that the people of Puerto Rico prepare plantains! I won't actually count because it's that many.

"Haili's Hawaiian Foods" by hawaii is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

4. Hawaiian - I've eaten at a Hawaiian restaurant (not in Hawaii) but in California and my mouth squirted. Fantastic pork that's sweet, savory, and saucy. The layering of seafood and vegetables could easily make you forget that you live in the cornfields. Just good!

"Collard Greens 09" by Key West Wedding Photography is licensed under CC BY 2.0

5. Black Soul Food. Last but not least is the food I grew up on. It's the ingenuity of people who were abused, torn, and tattered away from their home lands to help make American the great economic power that it currently is. (Yes, I'm talking about slavery!) It's the endurance of hope. It's the scraps and leftovers. It's the celebration food. It's family reunions. It's at the root of every Thanksgiving dinner I ever attended. Salted meats. Cornbread (or cornbread patties). Mac n cheese. Pie. And more pie. All the greens - kale, collard, turnip, mustard, cabbage. Or as my grandma likes to call 'em "integrated greens." This food needs no elevation. It's historical and always contemporary. It has no other name than its essence... soul...food.

--CIXgod

[cublackarts]

Now Playing: Queen and Slim... Fantastic Fugitivity

My least favorite part of the film is rehashing Luther Vandross’s body size and weight while his song was playing. Luther Vandross died in 2005. Stop talking about his body and let him rest in peace.

Woosah...

Lena Waithe and Melina Masoukas work their magic to make a brave and truly romantic film. Yes, the main characters die. Yes, they were on the run, but tender, love, and care can happen even in the most stressful of times. Ask your parents!

This movie features Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya - titular Queen and Slim - a pair that has a not-so-random encounter thanks to Tinder. The two embody what it means to be dangerously in love as they escape the unjust consequences of their actions. Queen and Slim feels like an epic but is only 132 minutes and fills up each minute gracefully and without a single wasted frame. Lena Waithe wasted no space in writing this screenplay and story, filling it with as much black subject matter as possible. The film deals with the police state, fugitivity, and accidental heroes in a way that brings academic discourse to cinema.

The film also dabbles in fantasy. No, there are no lightsabers or extraterrestrial beings falling from the sky to takeover Earth for the '99, but the film does depict the titular characters' journey as if they were on the path of a contemporary Underground Railroad. Can you imagine the 2019 Underground Railroad? I can't! I have very little faith that it could properly function in the age of the Internet. The original required secrecy, hiding places, several unnamed people aka conductors, and a willingness to sacrifice your freedom so that others can know what that's like. In the Internet of 2019, Instagram is poppin', Black Twitter is a sentient being with its own Wikipedia page, and everyone has cameras inside and outside of their domiciles. And the old but still continuous oppression faves - gentrification, redlining, and capitalism - have rendered many black people nomadic or worse homeless. The reality of the Queen and Slim’s actions are big and loud. Yet, at every stopping point in their route they seem shocked and surprised that people know exactly who they were. That wreaks of fantasy and naivety that black adults are not allowed to have, especially in 2019. Slim seems very new to being a fugitive, while Queen tends to have most of the answers and knows who to contact all along the way. Which makes me question if she was a fugitive before or after their dinner date? Surely to be black in this country means to live in the unseen and in constant escape from all things colonialism/imperialism. Yet the pair are constantly noticed and watched along their journey. So it is doubly fanciful that they could make it from Ohio to Florida without being stopped much earlier in their tracks. Even Assata was caught and imprisoned...

The pair’s unwillingness to become state property speaks volumes to the conditions of the prison system in America and the ways in which the formerly incarcerated are able to survive on the outside. Queen and Slim would rather live-and-run and love-and-die than see their day in court. Queen is a criminal lawyer and the most adamant against their own perceived due process. Queen embodies a total resistance to the carceral state. Her refusal to acknowledge fault or wrongdoing when the star-crossed lovers met police violence with fatal self-defense is illustrative of a huge FUCK YOU to this nation's fascist police brotherhood. Furthermore, on her body, we can read an inherent Black feminist critique. That is, that Black femmes are faced with disproportionate levels of violence than their masculine counterparts. This is evidenced by the fact that Queen herself, until the very end, was on the receiving end of much more physical harm than Slim. She was grazed by the officer's bullet in the most critical seen of the film, she pulled her shoulder after jumping out the window to evade the police in Savannah, and she was shot and killed first when the pair met their tragic end. I don't know why people hated on this movie so hard! It was a whole vibe the first time we saw it -- like "fuck the police and fuck ME!”

Oooohhh! That soundtrack jamming too! The film features songs from Bilal, Raphael Saadiq, 6lack, Earthgang, Tiana Major9, and Ms. Lauryn Hill. It also features a reworking of Pharcyde’s ‘Runnin’ which is haunting and moving. Credit goes to the entire music department for the film including Sean Barrett, Jordan Cox, Joseph S. DeBeasi, Benjamin Hoff, Kier Lehman, and Peter Rotter. You all did that!

Go see the movie for yourself and enjoy being a witness to black art.

-- CIXgod & indigo

[cublackarts]

Ya Heard? Mother Nature’s Saturn Return

This photo belongs to Mother Nature at mothernaturebarz.com

I’ve seen these two around town over the years. I’ve heard their music at various venues, while shopping, at shows at the Independent Media Center, and everywhere in between. To say they’re local is kinda true but they might disagree. Klevah and TRUTH are from Chicago, but they sharpened their skills and talent in Urbana-Champaign. 

Fact: Klevah and T.R.U.T.H. became Mother Nature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In my recollection, I first saw Klevah rap on a stage at High Dive. I didn’t go to High Dive to see her perform. I actually went to dance at the Latin Dance Night when it just moved from Radio Maria to High Dive. Klevah was wearing a lot of gold and I think she was with a crew called Gr8Thinkaz or something like that. I remember her voice was very different. It was a sound I haven’t heard in a long time - somewhere between Da Brat and Little Simz.

I cannot recall when I first saw TRUTH, but I do vividly remember her handing out a pamphlet about local activism in Chambana with the Movement for Black Lives. I remember her being humble but also vibrant. It was like she knew of who she was without question, but she wasn’t loud about it. She had a swagger and confidence that was very admirable. She reminds me of Lady of Rage and Rah Digga - super confident and dope rappers.

When listening to “Horus”, turn the volume up to the max!

Rapping and singing women in group form have a long, but mostly overlooked history in hip-hop. Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, SIN, Figures of Speech, K.P. and Envyi, Floetry, and City Girls - to name a few. Regardless, Mother Nature sounds like themselves - afrofuturistic, sincere, black feminist, loving, and healing. The potent duo released their new EP called Saturn Return on December 1, 2019. The EP is quite strong for the pair. I knew they were talented and serious about rapping and their artistry. But this EP sounds like they are firmly planted in hip-hop’s underground with all of the confidence and production quality of contemporaries who are above ground. The 7-track, 24 minute collection is solid and shows their versatility as well as their strength.

My favorites are: “4 Got” is on repeat for me. It’s so laid back and lifted; “Eyez Low” for the homage to DJ Screw’s famous screwed and chopped technique and the entire Third Coast; and “Ritualz” because they’re singing and they seem really blissful.

“Prescriptions” production reminds me of the energy of SIN - “Power of the P.” Listen here https://youtu.be/C0JzjJsFXtA.

The only thing I hope the two consider at some point is hiring a musical director (think Peter Cottontale). Someone that listens to all of their songs and adds musical elements such as vocal harmonies, live instrumentation, and other smart melodies to take the music to an even higher level.

Mother Nature is dope and this EP is great! Can it be doper? Stream and purchase their Saturn Return EP at http://smarturl.it/SaturnReturn!

-- CIXgod

[cublackarts]

An Obituary: The Art Theater Closes

I moved to Champaign Urbana in summer 2011 from a small town with only one movie theater - a Carmike Cinemas. The only independent films I knew about were the ones I saw at home thanks to my parent's expansive (and expensive) cable bill. And to be honest, I didn't really know what I was watching at times were considered indies. But when I went to a late night screening for $5 at the Art, I knew Quentin Dupieux's Rubber was a different kind of film. And the Art Theater was a different kind of place and movie watching experience. I've been caring about the Art ever since. 

The Art Theater is where I saw a film that made me cry (Spike Lee's Malcolm X). I saw a film that made me cry twice (Barry Jenkins's Moonlight). I went on a first date (Andre Lambertson and Richard Barber's The Whole Gritty City). I saw the blackest movie ever (Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust). I witnessed the Art packed to the brim twice: once for an exclusive early free screening of Jordan Peele's Get Out as well as a free screening of Howard Alk's The Murder of Fred Hampton. I saw gorgeous films in languages that I didn't understand (Chang-dong Lee's Burning, Isidora Marras's No Soy Lorena, Wanuri Kahiu's Rafiki, Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali). At the Art, I've seen films that I didn't understand even in English (again Rubber). I've introduced a film at the Art (Gordon Park's The Learning Tree) and was a member in its final year of operation. I continued to patron the Art even after my wife and I were treated disrespectfully by the staff. The Art is where I grew up and it's greatly contributed to my love for film and cinematography. 

Nostalgia aside, the Art Theater was also an incredibly volatile and aesthetically disgusting place to watch films. The Art Theater changed business models, from a traditional model to a co-op to a nonprofit all in efforts to survive. The theater switched from reels to digital almost forcibly by the film industry. Let's not forget that the Art was a single screen theater which made licensing quite challenging and expensive. The only way the theater could have "profited" is if all the seats were filled because of tickets purchased and concessions bought - the latter more than the former. Without that daily combination, the Art Theater had little to no chance of surviving in the digital streaming era. The AFF executive director and theater staff were likely underpaid. 

About that building... The heat didn't always work, and when it did, it was louder than the movie we came to watch. The sound system wasn't great. The seats weren't always functioning. And the bathrooms were not nice and lacked an air of cleanliness. Have you looked at the inside of that building with the lights on? Yuck! Who knows when that building was last painted (inside or out), professionally cleaned, remodeled, or fixed? Those are some things an owner who actually cares about the building should probably address. No amount of donations could fix all of these competing and persistent issues. 

The Art Theater, last located at 126 W Church St, Champaign, IL 61820, was taken off of life support on October 31, 2019. It was survived by citizens of East and Central Illinois. It was one of the last remnants of indie theater in the Midwest. There's no need to blame any one about its failure. Also, there's no need to pretend we (but especially you) were devoutly invested in its success.

The spirit of the Art Theater will always be here in this atmosphere.

-- CIXgod

[cublackarts]

Supporting Shorts: A Black Twitter Date... On Yearly Repeat

It’s practically winter and love is in the air. We know there’s going to be a lot of streaming and chilling going on. Some of you may have someone special to curl up with. Others may enjoy curling up solo-dolo. We wanted to try something a bit different by sharing a short film and discussing its importance and impact.

A Black Twitter Date is one of those oldies but goodies in the age of the Internet. Written and directed by Xavier Burgin in 2016, it features actors Khadi Don and Richie Loco. The two are on what appears to be a first date and the gag is that Black Twitter is also on the date, chiming in with jokes, joys, and everything in between.

What I really enjoy about this short is that it seems so simple and yet the technology usage and very real capturing of how Black Twitter operates is seamless and smart. I think it’s one of those short films that I’ll always enjoy watching because of its brevity and crystal clear execution.

-- CIXgod

[cublackarts]

Sightseeing: Chocolate Milk the Documentary Series

We traveled to Mattoon, IL just to see this film.

Chocolate Milk is a documentary detailing the lived experiences of 3 black women who either gave birth and breastfed, or who work with mothers that breastfeed. The film is currently in an incomplete phase of production - the filming is done, but the final editing is not. The creators have been showing the film as is to various willing audiences across the country to spark conversations about black breastfeeding and to get feedback on the film so that better editing can be done.

I think the film is great. When have we had a real narrative about black women and their breastfeeding and birthing experience? When have we seen black breasts on film not for the purpose of arousal and sex? When have black women been at the helm controlling what we see, how we see it, who we see and hear from centering on black women’s experiences in a way that’s not reality-tv exploitation?

My favorite people in the film are Lydia and Racha. Lydia is an older black woman working for a federally-funded organization, WIC. With WIC she helps women by educating them about breastfeeding, giving them resources that assist with breastfeeding, and sincerely connects with women. She’s the most inspirational person in the film. She struggles and is real about it, but also strives to be a better person and to improve her situation. Imagine your auntie taking a bus for 45 minutes to work, then to school another 45 minutes, then back home for 90 minutes. She’s wonderful.

Another surprising addition to the film is a Black certified professional midwife named Racha. Racha supports one of the mothers in the film as her homebirth midwife. The documentary explores Racha’s journey over time, including what led her to midwifery and why she advocates for families to birth at home. Discovering midwife ancestors in her family, Racha felt the pull of homebirth midwifery. Racha discusses how she initially wanted to serve Black families in her community but was challenged by an apparent lack of appreciation of midwifery as a field and her expertise which was evidenced by some of her clients’ reluctance to pay her. Serving Black families in southern California meant some of her clients simply could not afford to pay her. Meanwhile, less experienced white midwives with the same credentials were making double what she was making. Racha went on to open her own birth center and midwifery practice called Crimson Fig Midwifery. The mama that Racha supports in the film successfully breastfeeds her new baby and attributes her abundant milk supply to her peaceful, family-centered homebirth.

The documentary is not that long and really burns nicely after the first 30 minutes. You see the light shining through and the dots connecting around that time. It’s a treat of a film and I encourage all to see it.

-- CIXgod & indigo

[cublackarts]

Buy/Stream It: Fast Color... Black Women Been Superheroes

This is probably one of the most unique films created featuring black women leads since Daughters of the Dust (1991). The pacing, camera-work, storytelling, and special effects are interwoven in a way that works really well. Fast Color (2018) is one film that doesn’t let you forget what you experienced. Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s performance is elevated and precise as Ruth. She is the daughter of Lorraine Toussaint’s character, Bo, who returns home. Saniyya Sidney is quite convincing as rebel child/daughter/granddaughter, Lila, who is curious about the world in which she finds herself. These women share an ancestral line of supernaturally gifted black women who have found solace by isolating their family from those that may misconstrue their power. The fact that the family exists while being rarely encroached upon speaks to a kind of utopia for which many contemporary Black Americans desire. The reality of Ruth searching for and returning to this utopia speaks to the fugitivity often felt by Blacks in the US. Where do we go if we never had a home? How can we go back to a place where there is no acquaintance, no familial connection? This was a subtlety I enjoyed about the film, but I dug for that.

You might even say there’s a black feminist perspective here. Right? One of the tropes of mainstream Black cinema is the inevitable suffering of Black people--particularly women. What is interesting and special about this film is that, while Ruth is being hunted by a scientist hoping to exploit her powers for the entirety of the movie, she is never brutally harmed by him. There is no obvious Black suffering at the hands of white people, particularly men, in this film. Is this enough to make it Black feminist? Perhaps not. However, the focus on truth, reconciliation, joy, and healing, rather than trauma and pain allows for the viewer to see things that might otherwise go unnoticed. Specifically, that Black women have the power to manifest healing in a broken world and have been doing so for generations. Or at least that was my takeaway.

Surprisingly but maybe not so surprisingly, the film is written by a white couple, Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz (La La Land - producer), with Hart directing this film. This might explain why I felt the movie was closeted in its Blackness. The movie could have featured white women and nothing in the film’s dialogue would have changed. Maybe that’s harsh? Overall I enjoyed this film a ton. And to be honest, if I saw 3 generations of white women on screen, I would not have written this review.

We bought it.

--CIXgod & indigo

[cublackarts]

We Eatin’: Carribean Grill

See the menu and more at http://www.caribbeangrill.net/restaurant!

What can I say about this little restaurant putting out big flavor? Caribbean Grill is Black-owned and operated, and the food is delicious. Mike Harden is the executive chef and began Caribbean Grill not as a restaurant, but as a one-off event for the Taste of CU in 2010. He and his team have grown this food service from catering to food truck to full-service restaurant (all still in operation). This Black man’s growth has been nothing short of astounding, especially to do as much as he has in Champaign, IL. 

About the food. Jerk chicken, ox tails, brown stew chicken, curry goat - these are all some of the daily specials that you can find on the menu. I’ve eaten all of them and they are all tasty. My personal favorite entree is the ox tails (only on Fridays). My favorite drink is the Island Punch. My favorite side..this is a tough one. The mac and cheese, plantains, and green beans are damn good! Leave some room for a slice of rum cake. All of this will put you on your ass and take you to the upper room.

To be honest, the jerk sauce is not spicy enough. At least not as hot as I’ve had from Jamaicans cooking chicken on their grills. But that’s probably a smart move to widen the palates of those uninitiated. Lots of different folks eat at CG and that’s good for his business. But you can always find folks that look like you ordering something from the simple menu.

One of the best things Caribbean Grill has done in the last year is Jerk Wingzdays!!! Each wing is only $0.66, which is quite the deal. The other great thing they’ve done is create a menu item for the more frugal (like me). They have a $5 Flavor Box which you basically get 1 side, rice n peas, and a half-order of either jerk meatballs or jerk chicken. Again, a great deal if you don’t want to eat a full order of food (or you ain’t got a lot of money). Toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh. You can also place an order on GrubHub.

Go eat!

-- CIXgod

[cublackarts]

Library Gem: Dayveon... the Realest Casting Ever

I love this movie. It’s country (aka “rural”), black, beautiful, and arguably southern (set in Arkansas). Shout out to Pine Bluff! 

 Dayveon (2017) is artful from the music and visuals, directed and composed by Amman Abbasi, to the characters and their story. And the casting is possibly the best cast independent film ever - a bunch of black folks with no big names and not a single white person on screen! I believed every single character was a person playing themselves in real life. The authenticity these actors displayed is powerful and tangible. I just have to see them in more films.

 The film features Dayveon, played by Devin Blackmon, a young black teenager dealing with the loss of his big brother. How he handles his loss drives the film forward. This movie gives us, the audience, so much to cherish. There is violence. There is gang culture. There is poverty. But the film goes miles beyond an exploration of gang life. At the crux of this story is a tension between boyhood and manhood - an amalgamation of masculinity. This tension is so damn cute, but also provocative and nuanced. The only thing I’ve seen that comes close to this display of black boyhood/manhood is Moonlight (2016), but the kind of tension Chiron struggled with could be considered more contrast than comparison to Dayveon’s. I will say that there is similarity in the two films use of silence/quiet. Barry Jenkins made sure we focused on what we saw and heard, giving us only the most important pieces for our senses. I think Amman Abbasi uses this technique well. Coming in at only 70 minutes, Dayveon is a slow burn that leaves you wanting more time with these characters and this setting. 

Are there black women? There’s only 1 black woman in the film. She is Dayveon’s older sister and guardian/caretaker, Kim, played by Chasity Moore, who also felt so real. Thus, I would argue that this film was not about women, but it didn’t completely ignore black women either. This is a film about men and their efforts to be men - whatever that means.

As the heading suggests, this is a local library gem. You can find it at the Urbana Free Library. If you don’t have an account, create one and start watching these DVDs for free. The library also has films available for streaming with Kanopy. Dayveon is one of them!!! What are you waiting for? Go see yourself!

--CIXgod

[cublackarts]

Now Playing: MA... Octavia Spencer’s Masterful Acting

Ma is a silly film at its base level. A woman is angry about a prank, which transforms into obsession, and she gets revenge on the kids of her pranksters.

But when you watch the film as a black person, with a black lived experience, from a small town in the South, and you see what happened to this black girl who grows into a woman, Ma is much more than a silly film. We see how racialized trauma gone unhealed morphs into violence of misanthropic proportions.

Is it a scary film? Absolutely. Octavia is Ma and Ma is she. No question. Her eyes, facial expressions and lack of human emotion at times, is terrifyingly terrific. She's a master at her craft and she's been showing us her skills for years - The Help, The Shape of Water, and Hidden Figures to name a few of her more prominent roles. Ma is so good, it's almost funny how maniacal she can be. It's the kind of scary film that isn't cheesy with more scary sounds than scary action. It's horror on film with a tragic story and believable character.

Is it black feminist? Ma isn't the typical 'woman-scorned' revenge thriller. The trauma that motivated her killing and torture spree is rooted in her Black and woman identities. The particular trauma she experienced involved sexual humiliation but it was her identify as a Black teenage girl that made her a target. Her Black girlhood in a predominantly white space also provide context for her inability to cope with said trauma. Somewhere underneath the psychotic and homicidal behavior, lies a Black feminist critique of predatory white male sexuality and white women's complicity in violence against Black female bodies.

But white people are the victims?

White people do exactly what white people do best… save themselves. I've said too much!

Go see the movie for yourself.

-- CIXgod & indigo