QUESTION BRIDGE: BLACK MALES

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The Question Bridge: Black Males Art Installation is Currently on Display at Three Excellent Spaces. Check Out the Installation Today and Use #QuestionBridge When You Post to Social Media. We’ll Share the Best Posts!

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture: http://s.si.edu/2eK085I

Cleveland Public Library: http://bit.ly/2f3jjpo

Norton Museum of Art: http://bit.ly/2eK807t

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ICYMI: Question Bridge: Black Males will be Part of the First Year Exhibit at the New Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. Congratulations to the Entire Question Bridge Team! Take Part in Question Bridge by Visiting Our Website at QuestionBridge.com or Download the Question Bridge Mobile App in the iTunes Store or Android Store. To Learn More About Question Bridge, Check Out the Articles Below:

“Question Bridge seeks to create a dialogue about identity and shatter stereotypes in the process. We wanted know what would happen when a single demographic group is empowered to define themselves—identity making from the inside-out” QB Artist Hank Willis Thomas on Question Bridge: Black Males: http://bit.ly/2d9iYjX

“I want them to walk out with a different understanding of the black male conscience, to change perceptions of black men” QB Artist Chris Johnson on what he hopes audiences take away from Question Bridge: Black Males: http://bit.ly/2ciZnRk

“Through the power of questions and answers, myriads of stories and characters will be set free to break the stereotypes of black-maleness and explore remedies for long ingrained issues caused by this estrangement” QB Artist Hank Willis Thomas on Question Bridge: Black Males: http://bit.ly/2d9iYjX

“Ultimately it works to redefine our perceptions of people from all demographics by using Black males as a lens through which to examine very human issues most of us face on a daily basis” QB Artist Bayeté Ross Smith on Question Bridge: Black Males: http://bit.ly/2cISuHF

“Question Bridge: Black Males is a way to talk about there being as much diversity within any demographic as there is outside of it. Asking African American men—or people who identify as African American men—to ask and answer each other’s questions, we realized that they’re actually very different people, and that each person is an individual, and that starts to call into question the necessity of defining people based on narrow group identity, or demographic identities” QB Artist Hank Willis Thomas on Question Bridge: Black Males: http://bit.ly/2d4UPix

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EXCITING: We're Honored to Announce that Question Bridge: Black Males will be Part of the First Year Exhibit at the New Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. Congratulations to the Entire Question Bridge Team. Check Out Coverage Below from NMAAHC’s Grand Opening this Past Weekend:

“This national museum helps to tell a richer and fuller story of who we are. And by knowing this other story, we better understand ourselves and each other. It binds us together. It reaffirms that all of us are American, that African-American history is not somehow separate from our larger American story, it’s not the underside of the American story” President Barack Obama During His Opening Remarks: http://ti.me/2dqhZfs

The Daughter Of A Man Born A Slave Just Opened The First National Black History Museum: http://huff.to/2czA9ZV via The Huffington Post

An Inside Look at the National Museum of African American History and Culture: http://nyti.ms/2ckgD8E via NYT

National Museum of African American History and Culture Opens Its Doors: http://n.pr/2cMeazV via NPR

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"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder." Colin Kaepernick on why he didn’t stand for the National Anthem: http://es.pn/2chgS11

Standing With Kaepernick: America Has An Ugly History Of Rejecting Black Athletes: http://bit.ly/2bGeUvb via Essence

The Hypocrisy Around White People’s Outrage Over Colin Kaepernick: http://huff.to/2c8zYXJ via The Huffington Post: Black Voices

“Sport is played on a field of symbols. But it’s not just the flag or our national anthem, the trophies or the team logos, which have widespread symbolic power. People are symbols, too. Jackie Robinson was, and remains, a symbol. Same with Billie Jean King and so many others” Rashad Robinson on Kaepernick: http://nyti.ms/2chfewr

“To mute the slave has always been to the best interest of the slave owner” Harry Belafonte on Kaepernick: http://huff.to/2bGe1D3

“Kaepernick isn't just a part of the long line of black athletes who have used their platforms to speak out about political issues; he (unintentionally) inserted himself into the rich tradition of black artists who have invoked the American flag in political protest” MTV: http://on.mtv.com/2bGcCuJ

“Kaepernick saga raises questions about the media. Locker rooms are full of black athletes, while black journalists are scarce” The Undefeated: http://bit.ly/2cdgGiP

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Today Marks the 2-Year Anniversary of the Death of Mike Brown at the Hands of Ferguson Police. May he Rest in Power. Take a Moment to Read the Articles Below on Mike Brown and the Impact of His Injustice:

“August 9, 2016 marks the two-year death anniversary of Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown. Brown’s lifeless body laid in the middle of a street after former Officer Darren Wilson shot him 12 times. Onlookers captured the gruesome scene, to be shared millions of times. He would be the first of many to suffer the same fate” Blavity: http://bit.ly/2bbxnvQ

“Today marks two years since Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown and his body was left in the middle of Canfield Drive for 4.5 hours, making his community question if the justice system cared at all for their lives” Colorlines: http://bit.ly/2bcdZ3P  

“The rate of police killings of black Americans is nearly the same as the rate of lynchings in the early decades of the 20th century” The Guardian: http://bit.ly/2aSfEYH

All the 2,075 fatal encounters with police after Mike Brown, visualized: http://bit.ly/2aWUlqE

“Two years after Ferguson, St. Louis has undergone a political and organizational awakening, as activists seek to turn their vision for the city into a reality” The Root: http://bit.ly/2aCZv8J

“After the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed man in Ferguson, Mo., sparked a national movement, life there seems to have returned to normal. But personal stories show how much has changed” NPR: http://n.pr/2b5IoBO

“Two years after the death of Mike Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo., a movement continues on, changing and expanding to fit our time” The Root: http://bit.ly/2axFPHH

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Congratulations Again to Jesse Williams on Receiving the Humanitarian Award at the BET Awards Last Night. Watch His Powerful Speech Here: http://uproxx.it/28Z3Rt2 and Read the Full Transcript Below:

“Peace peace. Thank you, Debra. Thank you, BET. Thank you Nate Parker, Harry and Debbie Allen for participating in that .

Before we get into it, I just want to say I brought my parents out tonight. I just want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, and that they make sure I learn what the schools were afraid to teach us. And also thank my amazing wife for changing my life.

Now, this award – this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country – the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.

It’s kind of basic mathematics – the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize.

Now, this is also in particular for the black women in particular who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and will do better for you.

Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.

Now… I got more y’all – yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that toEric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.

Now the thing is, though, all of us in here getting money – that alone isn’t gonna stop this. Alright, now dedicating our lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.

There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free.

Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.

And let’s get a couple things straight, just a little sidenote – the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.

We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though… the thing is that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.

Thank you.”

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Congratulations to Our Very Own Jesse Williams on Receiving the Humanitarian Award at the 2016 BET Awards. Check Out Some of Our Favorite Articles Featuring Jesse Below:

Jesse Williams Shuts Down Racially Biased Policing in an Epic Tweet Storm: http://bit.ly/28X5RyZ

“The reaction to oppression has always been spun & marketed as validation for the status quo” Jesse Williams: http://huff.to/28XhsjC

Outspoken about Ferguson, Jesse Williams May Be this Generation’s Harry Belafonte: http://wapo.st/29dBlSP

““I think we have to talk about the narrative and make sure we’re starting at the beginning. You will find that people doing the oppressing often want to start the narrative at a convenient point. This started with a kid getting shot and killed and left in the street for four hours. I’ve never seen a white body left in the heat for four hours in the sweltering heat” Jesse Williams: http://bit.ly/28UM0QI

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If you love cinema and believe in the power of collective action, then help us change the face of cinema. Join a community of film artists + film advocates who want more varied voices + images in cinema. Rebel with us! Join the movement with ARRAY at www.ArrayNow.com

“‘We exist and we make art. We make these projects within a sphere, within a system that is not built to support varied voices. It’s not built to support them, nourish them or amplify them. So when something does break through, it has to start all over again. That’s why it’s incumbent upon us, women film-makers, film-makers of color, to track our own legacy. This patriarchy is often shocked when a black film does well, or shocked when a film directed by a woman does well. That strips away the legacy from where that film-maker comes from. It assumes that because I’m the first black woman to do this and that, that I was the first one that had the capacity to do so – which is incredibly insulting to all the artists who have been doing the work for this moment.’” Ava DuVernay at LA Film Festival - http://bit.ly/28TkJR8

“DuVernay founded her company ARRAY in 2010 with a vision to cultivate an audience for a diverse range of films. ARRAY is now planning to expand from two to six releases per year. It’s a strategy that Cooper says helps them reach a broader audience, since DuVernay noted that some films aren't available everywhere she'd like them to be, providing the example that there was no theater to see Selma in Selma and no theater in Compton for Straight Outta Compton” The Hollywood Reporter - http://bit.ly/28SfXWb

“Aiming to diversify storytelling, Ava DuVernay expands scope of film distribution collective” LA Times - http://lat.ms/28QJjBG

“I invite us to think of this room as a village, one that fights for change on the outside, but one that recognizes that an equal part of that fight is keeping ourselves strong and joyous and sane in a really insane industry. Because our conversation shouldn't be consumed with what he's not doing or what they don't value. We value us. We build our village. We grow stronger. We testify in commissions, and we write our own op-eds, and we push at every turn that's necessary. We also blossom because we nourish one another. We focus on her—the woman sitting right next to you. We focus on us. It's equally as important. If we don't do both, I think we lose. Toni Morrison, a prophet that I really admire, said the function of racism is distraction to keep you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining your reason for being. I think sexism is the same. Patriarchy is the same thing—constantly having to justify our very presence.” Ava DuVernay at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards - http://bit.ly/292p70x

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#NeverForget: Today Marks the One Year Anniversary of the Charleston Massacre that Left Nine People Dead. Please Take a Moment and Read the Insightful Articles Below:

“History tells us a very different story. One cannot think of the 2015 Charleston massacre without reflecting on the many other acts of white supremacist violence in U.S. history—often targeting black churches” The Huffington Post - http://huff.to/23gn50D

“It seems we barely have time to grieve and process one tragedy before we are struck by another. It has felt that way especially since 2014, when the high-profile cases of Eric Garner, John Crawford and Michael Brown occurred in rapid succession and brought police brutality to the forefront of the national consciousness. Each day brought a new headline, a new hashtag, a new violence, a new trauma” Fusion - http://fus.in/1PyodF6

“A Year After The Charleston Massacre, The Only Thing Gone From South Carolina’s Racism Is A Flag” The Huffington Post: Black Voices - http://huff.to/1sJD7DF

“The white gunman who killed nine people Wednesday night at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. reportedly told the victims “you rape our women and you’re taking over our country,” a relative of one of the dead told NBC News” Read on Here: http://bit.ly/1IRtcir

“I took a moment of silence last night. A long moment… as I struggled to sort through my emotions while I painfully watched breaking news broadcast reports that gunshots seared through Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina around 9 p.m Wednesday. Nine people, who congregated for a prayer meeting, were killed” Read on Here: http://huff.to/1L3cKhz

“Reverend Clementa Pinckney, 41, pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina was among the nine people gunned down in the historic sanctuary Wednesday night allegedly by a young white man who witnesses say spent more than an hour with the congregation in the church before he began shooting. Pinckney, who had led the church since 2010, has also served in the state legislature since 1997. At 23 years old, he was one of the youngest individuals and the youngest African American to be elected to serve in South Carolina” Read on Here: http://bit.ly/1fkcVZA

These Are The Victims Of The Charleston Church Shooting: http://bzfd.it/1erc9d3

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The Entire Question Bridge Team Mourns the Loss of Muhammad Ali on Friday. He May Be Gone But He Will Never Be Forgotten. Take a Moment and Explore the Insightful Articles Below on the Life and Legacy of Ali:

What Made Muhammad Ali ‘Unforgivably' Black - http://reut.rs/1PevuK9 via Reuters

“Muhammad Ali represented the epitome of black excellence. Ali, who died Friday, used his skill, strength and charisma to climb his way to the top and earn recognition as a world class boxing and civil rights champion. But part of what made Ali’s unprecedented success so meaningful is that he proved that a black man could be held by no boundaries; that if he was committed, he could break them all” Continue Reading on The Huffington Post: Black Voices - http://huff.to/1r9WIvo

‘I Just Wanted to Be Free’: The Radical Reverberations of Muhammad Ali - http://bit.ly/22Jtdy8 via The Nation

“When he left boxing after his last fight in 1981, he took the majesty of the sport with him. He took the symbolism and grim spectatorial history, too. Boxing is a two-man contest. But if Ali was in the ring, so was the rest of the country. After him, blackness as a point of public pride had also drifted away from American popular culture — or rather it had been absorbed by the gradual mainstreaming of hip-hop and the proliferation of a black middle class. It found shelter in such apolitical spaces as the Huxtables’ Brooklyn home and Will Smith’s adopted Bel Air mansion. But in the last few years, something has changed. There’s been increased political awareness of the inequality of black life and outrage over unjust black death. Technology has given megaphones to previously voiceless people. At the same time, major black artists and stars have reconnected blackness, history and politics — from Kanye West and Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar to LeBron James, who in 2012 put the Miami Heat in hoodies for an iconic photo after Trayvon Martin’s death. Even our black president has come further unfettered, not simply addressing race but almost luxuriating in his blackness. He told Howard University’s most recent graduating class to embrace its black identity — more or less, as he publicly has.” Continue Reading on The New York Times - http://nyti.ms/1Xsu872

Muhammad Ali Streaming Guide: Where to Watch Highlights From His Life - http://bit.ly/24tx2H7

The 15 Quotes That Prove Muhammad Ali’s Words Hit Harder Than Any Punch He Ever Threw - http://bit.ly/1t1SKWX

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#scenesfromlastnight #InfinityAward @hankwillisthomas and @bayetekenan talking about @questionbridge in a @mediastorm original.

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Sneak preview of what we are working on for the @povhackathon. A new way to view #questionbridge content as it relates to world around you.

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Quote of the day: Maya Angelou #mayaangelou #quoteoftheday #qotd #questionbridge

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#repost @jackshainman "@questionbridge will be a recipient of the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for New Media! Congrats @hankwillisthomas and @ijessewilliams! #questionbridge #hankwillisthomas #infinityawards2015 @icp"

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Did you know that our app has the same search functions as our website? You can search for any topic or keyword to find the conversation you're looking for! #questionbridge #blackmales #mobileapp #app

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The Official Question Bridge Book!

We are excited to announce that this fall, we are publishing a new book with Aperture and the Campaign for Black Male Achievement. The Question Bridge book assembles a series of questions posed by black men, to and for other black men, along with their corresponding responses and portraits.

There are a wide range of questions featured, such as "Am I the only one who has problems eating chicken, watermelon, and bananas in front of white people?" and "Why is it so difficult for black American men in this culture to be themselves, their essential selves, and remain who they truly are?" The answers tackle the issues that continue to surround black male identity today in a uniquely honest, no-holds barred manner. While the ostensible subject is black men, the conversation that evolves in these pages is ultimately about the nature of living in a post-Obama, post-Ferguson, post-Civil Rights Voting Act America. The Question Bridge book is about who we are, what we mean to one another, and most critically, it asks how we can start to dismantle the myths and misconceptions that have evolved around race and gender in America- how can we reset the narrative about ourselves? 

The founding artists, along with contributions from Ambassador Andrew Young, Delroy Lindo, Jesse Williams, and Rashid Shabazz will introduce and contextualize the body of the work and private closing remarks on our current and future social climate. Stay tuned for details on how to pre-order a copy. 

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"An injury to one, is an injury to ALL." #protest #policeviolence #blacklivesmatter #blackmales #questionbridge #nyc