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Kendrick Lamar's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show

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This 38-minute award-winning documentary uses primary sources, such as firsthand accounts and original photographs and video, to tell the stories of sacrifice and courage that fueled the civil rights movement.

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Kehinde Wiley’s Contemporary Counterpoint to Old Confederate Monuments Unveiled in Times Square

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New York-based visual artist Kehinde Wiley (previously) recently unveiled a bronze sculpture of an African American man riding a horse in the center of Times Square at Broadway Plaza between 46th and 47th streets. Titled “Rumors of War,” the statue references controversial Confederate War monuments that still stand in Richmond, Virginia over a century afterContinue reading “Kehinde Wiley’s Contemporary Counterpoint to Old Confederate Monuments Unveiled in Times Square”

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While debating demanding topics such as race, religion, or war, it is simple enough to become polarized, and see situations in either black or white, right or wrong. These tactics may satisfy individuals whose position depends on employing policies or implementing strategies that promote specific agendas for a specific constituency. As an artist, it is more important to create a platform that moves us past alliances, and begins a dialogue that informs, questions, and in some cases even satires our divisive issues. Without this type of introspection, we are in danger of having apathy rule our senses. We can easily succumb to a national mob mentality, and ignore individual accounts and memories. With my work I am creating an intersection where body and place, memory and fact, are merged to reexamine human interactions and cultural conditions to create a narrative that requires us to be present and profound.

While independently working on separate public art pieces several years ago, Rodney Ewing and Tahiti Pehrson bonded over the Isley Brothers' song For the Love of You, and have wanted to collaborate ever since. Initially, The Space Program had planned to host them in person, but shelter-in-place due to COVID-19 offered a new challenge. Instead, Rodney and Tahiti collaborated at a distance, with Pehrson mailing his intricate paper cut-outs to Ewing, upon which he printed his imagery and text.

The mural at 3150 Jackson street was a response by the homeowner of the lack of visibility of BLM in her Pacific Heights neighborhood. I chose to combine the images of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and the text from Saul Williams's poem "Release" to highlight the existence and complexity of how these individuals lived and died. While the poem makes no direct reference to any of three, the content and beauty of the language serve as a type of eulogy for these individuals.

"These works are being created during the mandatory shelter-in-place. It first started out as a way to keep myself busy, but it eventually evolved into a project that allowed me to reuse my large archive of silkscreens in a manner that I continue conversations about Diaspora, place, and identity." All works are one-of-a-kind images printed on vintage assembled ledger paper.

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Rodney Ewing, Artist: Works on Paper, Art, African American California

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Rodney Ewing is an African American artist living in San Francisco, whose works on paper, mixed media and installations have been shown in major galleries and institutions nationwide. Artist in Resident at Headlands Center for Art, Bemis, Recology, Djerassi, and the de Young Museum, among others.

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When enslaved women from the rural, isolated community of Boykin, Alabama-better known as Gee's Bend-began quilting in the 19th century, it arose from a physical need for warmth rather than a quest to reinvent an art form. Yet by piecing together scraps of fabric and clothing, they were creating abstract designs that had never before been expressed on quilts.

These patterns and piecing styles were passed down over generations, surviving slavery, the antebellum South, and Jim Crow. During the Civil Rights movement in 1966, the Freedom Quilting Bee was established as a way for African-American women from Gee's Bend and nearby Rehoboth to gain economic independence. The Bee cooperative began to sell quilts throughout the U.S., gaining recognition for the free-form, seemingly improvisational designs that had long been the hallmark of local quilt design. As awareness grew, so did acclaim, and the quilts entered the lexicon of homegrown American art.

Since then, quilts from Gee's Bend have been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and others. In 2006, the U.S. Postal Service even issued ten commemorative stamps featuring images of Gee's Bend quilts.

Now, this distinctly American tradition is receiving yet another honor. This year, three of the most respected Gee's Bend quilters have been awarded 2015 NEA National Heritage Fellowships: Mary Lee Bendolph, Loretta Pettway, and Lucy Mingo, all of whom claim a long quilting lineage. Artists, educators, and memory keepers, these women ensure their art form will continue to be celebrated by future generations. You can read more about them here, and make sure to tune in on Friday evening for our NEA National Heritage Fellowships Concert. As a special concert sneak peek, whet your appetite with these gorgeous images of quilts crafted by Bendolph, Pettway, and Mingo.

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When enslaved women from the rural, isolated community of Boykin, Alabama-better known as Gee's Bend-began quilting in the 19th century, it arose from a physical need for warmth rather than a quest to reinvent an art form. Yet by piecing together scraps of fabric and clothing, they were creating abstract designs that had never before been expressed on quilts.

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The largest presentation of Amy Sherald’s work to date, bringing together more than 45 paintings from her poetic early portraits to the incisive, moving figure paintings for which she is best known.

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Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Faith Ringgold: American People at the de Young museum, and directed by LeRon Lee, this film tells the story of Black artist and activist Faith Ringgold, who has dedicated her life and artistic practice to amplifying the struggle for justice and equity of Black people in the United States and particularly of Black women. Filmed in New York, New Jersey, and San Francisco, this documentary features first-person accounts by Faith Ringgold herself, friend and scholar Lisa Farrington, PhD, and friend and gallery owner Dorian Bergen.

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This film tells the story of artist and activist Faith Ringgold.

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Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series (short version)

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Poetry Foundation: Celebating Black History Month

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Poetry Foundation: Celebating Black History Month

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Celebrating Black History Month | Poetry Foundation

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Poems, articles, and podcasts that explore African American history and culture.

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The Civil Rights Movement: 10 Key Concepts

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These 10 key concepts and main points encourage us to think critically about the complexities of history as we learn about and from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s.

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American slavery began 400 years ago this month. This is referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the country’s true origin.

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watch great performances from the Kennedy Center on YouTube without losing your place in line. Thank you for your patience.

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What makes a poem … a poem? - Melissa Kovacs

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What is the Black Lives Matter movement?

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What is the Black Lives Matter movement?

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Serena Williams' Crip Walk: Some Background

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Serena Williams' Crip Walk: Some Background

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Tennis star Serena Williams made a surprise cameo during rapper Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance at the Super Bowl on Sunday, showcasing her crip walk - a dance move that originated in Los Angeles.

The moves were a reference to Williams and Lamar's shared roots in the city.

But the performance also recalled a Wimbledon controversy, when Williams faced criticism for a similar dance in celebration of her gold medal after defeating Maria Sharapova at the London Olympics in 2012.

Critics at the time argued the dance was inappropriate and a glorification of gang violence.

Williams addressed the controversy in a video she posted on X of her backstage at the Super Bowl.

"Man I did not crip walk like that at Wimbledon," she said laughing. "Oh, I would've been fined."

"It was all love," she added of the Super Bowl performance.

The crip walk was a move created by members of Los Angeles-area street gang the Crips in the 1970s. It was later adopted in the hip-hop community, especially among those with ties to the city.

Williams has defended herself from criticism of her 2012 Wimbledon celebration. Some of her supporters have said the backlash was excessive and even racist.

"It was just a dance," Williams said of her celebration at the time.

Williams' cameo at the Super Bowl also captured the audience's attention for another reason. The 43-year-old reportedly once dated rapper Drake, Lamar's rival and the focus of his Grammy-award winning diss track, which he performed on Sunday.

Lamar seemingly references Williams in the track, called Not Like Us, saying Drake "better not speak on Serena".

Williams, who grew up in Compton, California, has been married to Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian since 2017.

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Serena Williams crip walks at surprise Super Bowl appearance

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The move referenced Williams' Los Angeles roots and recalled a Wimbledon controversy.

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NEW YORK (AP) - In the early days of hip-hop, plugging turntables into a light post and converting an outdoor basketball court into a discotheque may have seemed like a simple invitation to party.

A closer look scene revealed the truth: Hip-hop was a response to social and economic injustice in disregarded neighborhoods, a showcase of joy, ingenuity and innovation despite a lack of wealth and resources.

The music emanating from the DJ's equipment might tell partiers to "move your feet," and in the very next set, tell them to "fight the power."

Hip-hop has been an integral part of social and racial justice movements. It's also been scrutinized by law enforcement and political groups because of their belief that hip-hop and its artists' encourage violent criminality.

Whether a warning, a demand or an affirmation, hip-hop culture and, especially, rap music have been mediums for holding the powerful accountable, for delivering lyrical indictments against systemic injustice. Hip-hop can champion the underserved and reclaim space, like tagged walls or impromptu breakdancing battles on a transit platform.

Because it can threaten the concentration of power, certain forces have demonized the culture, said Willie "Prophet" Stiggers, co-founder and chair of the Black Music Action Coalition, a group of artists, lawyers, managers and producers unified against systemic racism in the music industry and in society.

"Of course they want to weaponize it," Stiggers said. "The narrative can't be that this genius cultural expression, that is the greatest cultural force that we have globally, grew out of a disenfranchised people."

Many trace hip-hop's birth to a back-to-school party at a Bronx apartment building 50 years ago this month. And since its birth, emceeing, beatboxing, deejaying, and graffiti have done much more than entertain legions of fans around the world and generate billions of dollars in commerce - hip-hop's four elements carry the spirit of resistance and free expression as a comfort to the afflicted and affliction to those who are too comfortable.

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"Got to give us what we want/Gotta give us what we need/Our freedom of speech is freedom or death/We got to fight the powers that be!" - Public Enemy, "Fight the Power," 1990

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Social and religious conservatives of all stripes have long seen hip-hop as a threat to so-called traditional values, peace and order - but their attempts at stifling the culture have only propelled it to worldwide acclaim and grown its influence over public debates and democracy.

However, racial justice activists and free speech advocates see the ongoing persecution of rappers as a proxy war primarily waged against Black and Latino men who are the early pioneers of the culture. And for hip-hop artists who live under repressive regimes throughout the world, "dropping bars" to air one's grievances against the government can mean time behind bars or worse.

"Black history is under attack, Black culture is under attack, rap music is under attack," said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democratic sponsor of federal legislation that would protect artists from having their lyrics and creative expression used against them in court.

The Georgia congressman spoke in support of the legislation to the thousands who attended a Rolling Loud hip-hop music festival in Miami late last month. Johnson and fellow Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York sponsored the Restoring Artistic Protection Act, or RAP Act, to ensure that lyrics aren't the only evidence supporting a criminal case. Similar legislation in a handful of states would require prosecutors to prove a defendant's lyrics aren't figurative, exaggeration or out-right fictional.

A study by University of Georgia law professor Andrea Dennis, who co-authored the 2019 book "Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics and Guilt in America," found roughly 500 criminal trial cases dating to the late 1980s in which rap lyrics were successfully used as evidence. Dennis and other advocates believe the cases, brought against mostly Black defendants, have led to unjust incarceration.

Some have pointed to the criminal street gang conspiracy case, brought under Georgia's criminal racketeering law, against Atlanta rapper Young Thug and over two dozen purported affiliates of the rapper's Young Stoner Life record label. In 2022, Fulton County prosecutors included lyrics from the rapper, referencing drugs and violence, as evidence of an "overt act in furtherance of a (gang) conspiracy."

Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Williams, co-wrote the Childish Gambino hit "This is America," which is a commentary on violence and systemic racism in the U.S. The song made history in 2019 as the first hip-hop track to win the song of the year Grammy - and it was parodied by global artists to speak to corruption and injustice in Nigeria, Malaysia and Australia.

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"Cops give a damn about a negro/Pull the trigger, kill a n---, he's a hero." - Tupac, "Changes," 1992

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As hip-hop and rap music grew into a force in American culture, its pioneers used it as a medium to speak to their personal realities. In 1982, in the song "The Message," Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five decried stark poverty and disinvestment that seemed especially concentrated in Black communities. A decade later, Tupac Shakur railed against police brutality in the song "Changes."

In 2016, following the fatal police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, rap music and protest were almost inextricably linked. It was rare then to attend a demonstration and not hear Kendrick Lamar's 2015 song "Alright," a celebration of triumph over adversity in the face of systemic oppression and injustice.

"All Black creative expression is political because Black life is political," said Timothy Welbeck, the director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Welbeck, who is also an independent rap artist and teaches courses on hip-hop in Temple's Africology and African American Studies Department, said rap music's accessibility is what makes the genre so popular and so impactful.

"It makes sense that social movements would gravitate towards hip-hop, as a culture and rap music as a medium of expression," he said. "And it also makes sense that rappers would position themselves in these movements, in part, because rappers are coming out of the communities that are experiencing the need to protest."

In an Associated Press interview earlier this year, Chuck D of Public Enemy said he sees hip-hop as a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement.

"(BLM is) a collective where people felt the same way," he said. "It spoke politically to the injustice regarding George Floyd and was a spark that connected around the world. Hip-hop has done the same thing. Hip-hop ties human beings for their similarities and knocks the differences to the side. It's a movement."

Following worldwide protests over Floyd's 2020 murder by police in Minneapolis, his brother Terrence Floyd joined an effort to fuse rap, gospel and spirituals on an album of protest songs. A former church drummer, Floyd said he wanted to use the music to affect change in his brother's name.

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"I'm at the preacher's door/My knees gettin' weak and my gun might blow/But we gon' be alright." - Kendrick Lamar, "Alright," 2015

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And then there's hip-hop's global influence on protest, resistance and political dissent. From the Arab Spring and the Palestinian freedom fight to feminism and class struggles, rap music is a popular medium for calls to action, as well as call-outs of despots and colonizers.

Rap music videos produced by artists in African, Europe, Asia and South America often include beatboxers, breakdancers, graffiti and other elements of hip-hop.

In 2016, on a visit to Vietnam during a historic tour of Asia, former President Barack Obama answered questions about human rights and free expression across the continent. One question came from Suboi, a female rapper known as Vietnam's "Queen of Hip-Hop" who said she struggled against the Vietnamese stereotype that rap music isn't a proper expression for Asian women.

"Let's be honest, sometimes art is dangerous and that's why governments sometimes get nervous about art," Obama said. "But one of the things that I truly believe is that if you try to suppress the arts, then I think you're suppressing the deepest dreams and aspirations of a people."

Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton, who turned 18 as hip-hop really took off out of his native New York, said rap music fueled the movement that has shaped much of his public life. At age 68, he believes hip-hop culture tilled the ground for the election of the first Black American president in 2008.

"I didn't come out of the 'We Shall Overcome' generation," Sharpton said. "I came out of Fight the Power, Public Enemy."

He added: "Hip-hop took the chains off us and said, 'No, we're gonna say it our way, anyway.' ... It was that freedom. It was that raw, non-watered down kind of expression. We understood that rage and anger, even though we expressed it in different ways."

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AP writer Jonathan Landrum in Los Angeles contributed.

__ Aaron Morrison is a New York-based member of the AP's Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on social media: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

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Hip-hop and justice: Culture carries the spirit of protest, 50 years and counting

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Hip-hop has been an integral part of social and racial justice movements. It's also been scrutinized by law enforcement and political groups because of their belief that hip-hop and its artists encourage violent criminality.

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Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time