Mel Hopkins

Kiese Laymon: A Writer's Writer

Writing takes far more than talent to be great. One most also possess courage to be at the top of her craft.  At least that's the takeaway from the essay "You Are the Second Person" by Kiese Laymon. 

Laymon is identified as an essayist and novelist but a few paragraphs into "You Are the Second Person" you begin to realize those aren’t just his job titles, he’s the embodiment of those skills.

Prior to reading his essay, the definition of hack eluded me.  Now I know it identifies someone who eschews writing for expression and instead kowtows to a publisher for a check.  Check out Guernica Magazine and "You're Are the Second Person"

U.S. Senators Demand Study on Federal Advertising in Black-owned Media

A 2007 report revealed the federal government agencies spent more than $4 billion in advertising but " a pittance of that amount (5% from 5 agencies) was spent with minority media publications."  In a letter sent, November 3, 2016, to the Government Accountability Office by the 5 U.S. Senators request-

"As one of the largest advertisers in the United States, the federal government should play an active role in ensuring that minority-owned media outlets have fair opportunities to compete for and be awarded federal advertising contracts."

Maybe some of those advertising dollars might find its way to websites with  large audiences too... Follow or contact these five senators .S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was joined by fellow Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) for updates on how to bid for these advertising contracts. 

"There’s no excuses for fathers/men who choose to be absent. Nor is it a woman’s responsibility to get him to return.  A mother/woman raises her children but it’s not her responsibility to raise, repair or rehabilitate a broken man or the relationship from which he walks away.  That is all very much an inside job. His job. " #Imnotyourmule

#blackhistory

According to " Why Do We Take Pride in Working for a Paycheck?"  by Livia Gershon,
The early American Labor movement didn't include black men or black women. 

Around 150 years ago, it was allegedly beneath white society to sell their time for wages thus bringing the term, wage slavery into the American lexicon when referring to corporate jobs. 

It's reported that in an effort to entice white workers including white working class women, whom worked the farms for their husbands, wages and working conditions were made more palatable.  This fight came from an organized labor union "Knights of Labor" however their advances didn't include black people.  

Today, black women only earn .68 cents on a dollar earned by a white man.  

12-year-old Activist Lands Book Publishing Deal

Marley Dias, Pictured

Photo credit: Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

Tired of the school's reading list filled with white boy and dog protagonist, Marley Dias kicked off her own hashtag #1000BlackGirlBooks, last January, which featured Black girls as stars of their stories.  She achieved her goal of collecting and donating books with black girls as the protagonist.   

Today Scholastic announced Dias will pen her own story about social activism.

“Marley is using her voice to advocate for social justice, a commitment reflected by her ambitious life goals: she dreams of becoming an editor of her very own magazine and plans to use media to spread positive messages and to perpetuate more socially conscious pop culture”

Scholastic, Inc. reports the book will be released in the Spring of 2018 . 

Why White Folks Love Hidden Figures by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Adebayo

“It’s a feel good movie that demonstrates that even during one of the vilest and most racist periods of American history white saviors rose to the occasion.”

SoulJourn: "Celebrating Black Women Filmmakers"

"On the occasion of the recent restoration and re-release of Julie Dash’s 1991 masterpiece Daughters of the Dust, BAMcinématek celebrates the black women directors who blazed the trail for that landmark film. The filmmakers represented in this series all worked far outside the mainstream, often with limited resources, overcoming a historically hostile system in order to tell their stories on screen. Taken together, their work represents a rich history of long-undervalued independent filmmaking.

“One Way or Another” is co-programmed by BAMcinématek’s Nellie Killian and Michelle Materre; founder, host-producer, Creatively Speaking Film Series; Associate Professor of Media Studies and Film at The New School."

Source: 'One Way or Another: Black Women's Cinema, 1970–1991'
BAMcinématek
February 3–23, 2017

SoulJourn: "Not all Blacks in America were enslaved 

but laws enacted against their freedom haven't changed since colonial times.

Source:  The Black North: A Social Study by  William Edward Burghardt Du Bois  November 17, 1901

SoulJourn: "Deciding to work where you're not welcomed"

Marlyn Thomas English Instructor Alabama A&M University talks about the hypocrisy black female artists face when going against the grain of popular opinion.

 In the book, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

"Black females working at West Computing in Hampton, Virginia worked on a government job that provided them neither the transportation or public area rights as white counterparts; however, they continued to work and eventually began to see where they could win battles one at a time."

Many have stated the film “Hidden Figures” and the actions of those black women featured were inspiring.  However, when Chrissette Michelle decided to perform at Trump’s presidential inauguration, she faced black twitter backlash and was all but black-listed among “progressive” Blacks.

So, what’s the difference?  Thomas states it goes back to the Madonna and Whore archetypes and the policing of black women’s movement must be checked and stopped.  Source: "The hypocritical attacks on black female artists that perform for Trump"