YouTube's "Black Renaissance": The Revolution Will Not Be Televised; It's Streaming!

There is big spokenword poetry energy to the almost 90minute program It opens with a brief message about the ownership and intent of this work immediately followed by the first of many celebrity appearances none other than Grammy Awardwinning singersongwriter HER doing a piece called quotWhat is Black Culturequotamp160She calls it quota ubiquitous force a special spice sprinkled in every stew pot in the worldquotAfter a quick intro sequence Reynolds picks up where HER leaves off with quotBlackness is as wide as it is tall and itamp8217s impossible to hold or know in its entirety which to me is what makes it so specialquotamp160This is followed by a short montage of smiling Black folks dancing to the song quotExpress Yourselfquotamp160This was perhaps the only part of the special I kind of didnamp8217t care for mostly because I feel like too much singing and dancing has the potential to take away from the fact that Black culture is more than those things amp8212 a point that both HER and Reynolds literally just made during their opening pieces Still itamp8217s a lighthearted and positive little clip so it gets a passWhat follows that is a combination of historical timelines that jump around from one impactful black moment to another interspersed between segments that focus on specific people or concepts like Alvin Ailey quotthe power of the written wordquotamp160or Black LGBTQ pioneersThe events covered in the timelines include moments like nowVice President Kamala Harris39amp160swearing in ceremony the impact of Stacy Abrams and Dr Fauci shouting out the Black woman who developed the current COVID19 vaccine Dr Kizzmekia Corbett We see such trailblazing women of color as Janet Mock Tarana Burkeamp160Michelle Obama Alicia Garza Opal Tometi Patrisse Cullors Beyoncamp233 Condoleeza Rice Halle Berry Mae Jemison Shirley Chisholm Angela Davis Maya Angelou Fannie Lou Hamer Katherine Johnson Rosa Parks and finally Harriet Tubman Seriously if you don39t know who some of these women are Google them because you shouldShantell Martin39s sequence was one of my favorites She39s a British visual artist who39s made a name for herself in the art world via her large scale blackandwhite line drawings amp8212 many of which she creates in front of an audience In Black Renaissance we see her create one such piece as she discusses her personal relationship with art and her experience as a queer person of colorThe part that really got to me was when she described how the public39s view of her seems to change whenever she hits US soil quotWhen I39m in the UK Iamp8217m biracial Iamp8217m mixed racequot she says quotAnd then I come to America and Iamp8217m Black But then you live in America long enough and you realize that it has to be black and white here because that Black struggle is so real Itamp8217s so big itamp8217s so long that I have to pick up some of that weightquot As someone whoamp8217s also mixed race I personally have found myself in situations where that sort of quotlumping togetherquot of all of us has happened and I hated it because Iamp8217m a human being and sometimes I want to be recognized as such before my skin color comes into play But as depicted on shows like Hulu39s Woke the universe doesnamp8217t give a shit about what you care to be involved in The implication in both the cases is that once accepted that situation can feel a lot less like a burden and more like your share of the weightThatamp8217s what being Black in America is a weight we all must carry togetherBlack Renaissance is more focused on the arts then I expected I think I was looking for something along the History ChannelNetflixHulu documentaries line but still its educational value is top notch Jason Reynolds does a fine job hosting in fact he would give the Reading Rainbowera Levar Burton a run for his money Calling the list of contributors here quotimpressivequotamp160would be an understatement that list includes Barack and Michelle Obama among many other esteemed individuals but the really impressive part to me is the bookending ownership and intent statementsBefore the end of it all thereamp8217s a beautiful spoken word performance titled quotAfrofuturismquot in which Michelle Obama speaks followed by a poem from Tobe Nwigwe in which he tells you everything that the Revolution wonamp8217t be ie amp8211 televised After that and at the very beginning as well a message appearsquotThe Black Renaissance belongs to and is created by US Black storytellers joined together to make this content and to give tribute to the Black diaspora of identity creativity and artquotThat39s a powerful statement for many reasons but mainly because the need to establish and reiterate ownership of our culture is paramount My very Blackness depends on itI used to think of things like this as a great way to educate others because ignorance and misinformation play a huge part in the creation and growth of racism and bigotry but that39s not the point of this one Historically weamp8217ve had our talents monetized our histories destroyed and our culture appropriated and misinformationinformation withheld about us has played a huge part in that The above statement however really gave me the impression that this was meant to be more about Black people celebrating and educating each other than anything else which really makes my heart swellBlack Renaissance is available for free on YouTube and feels like the perfect way to celebrate Black History regardless of what month it is Like Mr Nwigwe says many a time during his poem quotThe Revolution will not be televised will not be televised will not be televisedquot In this case it isn39t televised It39s streamingClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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YouTube's "Black Renaissance": The Revolution Will Not Be Televised; It's Streaming!

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Ainsley Andrade

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YouTube's "Black Renaissance": The Revolution Will Not Be Televised; It's Streaming!

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