Welcome back! First off, happy February and I hope this post finds you well and comfortable. For this month’s recommendations it felt important to hold space for Black musicians, podcasters, and authors in honor of Black History Month. I know this month may be complicated in itself, with questions of why only one month, and why the shortest month of the year? Keeping all of that in mind, I still felt it would be worthwhile to focus this month’s First Friday Recommendations on resources created by POC. Please comment below if you have more recommendations of your own to add to this short list.
Music: “Speak Now” by Leslie Odom Jr.
This song came from the movie soundtrack for “One Night in Miami,” an imagined historical account of the meeting of four successful Black men: Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X. The movie shows one possibility of how this real life meeting might have gone between the four men, and their discussions of equality and their own responsibilities in the march for Civil Rights.
The song itself is a beautiful invitation to listen, and reminds me of how powerful it can be to witness the struggles and successes of others. I highly recommend listening to it if you haven’t yet. Or listening again if you have.
Podcast: “1619” from The New York Times
This podcast, hosted by New York Times correspondent Nikole Hannah-Jones, revisits the year 1619, the year the first ship carrying enslaved people arrived in Virginia. It goes on to examine how the next 250 years of slavery shaped the foundation of our nation and how the effects of those years continue to impact us today. This podcast is probably one of the most profoundly eye-opening things I have ever heard, and forever changed the way I view economics, music, and farming. It is a short series of 6 episodes that came out in 2019, on the 400 year anniversary of that fateful year 1619.
Literature: “The Emancipation of Slaves Through Music” by Dr. Mathew Knowles
In summary taken straight from Dr. Knowles website, and bringing the focus back to the music:
“In The Emancipation of Slaves Through Music, music mogul Dr. Mathew Knowles presents a keen examination of the liberating effects of music on an oppressed people. By taking readers on the journey of its secret use during slavery up through its eventual commercialization in the industry, he exposes the art form’s true power. Between its informative pages, the book explores the uprooting of Africans via the transatlantic slave trade and the evolving effect on the people and their music. We follow the boats where communication went from a loud moan to chants that stirred rebellion, on into acts of escape where a song might just signal a time to flee. The music of those stolen people became a tool and a medicinal balm that usually carried a message of hope through struggle. Chapters delve into songs behind rebellions and ‘sorrow songs,’ that lead us to deeper understandings about modern rap and even dancehall ‘chanting.’ Here, the reader takes a ride on the melodic voices and rhythms seeking freedom for more than physical bodies from chains. The survival of an enslaved people’s music through many tumultuous eras has allowed it to re-root into a musical culture like no other in history.”
https://mathewknowles.com/product/the-emancipation-of-slaves-through-music-hardback/