Which Art History in Africa?
As an art writer working in Africa, I have no available model to craft an entire practice of writing books on contemporary art in Uganda.
Culture
Digitizing Ferguson
On March 4th, the Justice Department released an 86-page report of its investigation of the Ferguson Police Department. Though the report cleared Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Michael Brown last August, of any wrongdoing, this report represents a valuable composite of oral testimonies of antecedents of and proceedings of the events that resulted in […]
Dope Saint Jude messes with Cape Town’s head
Rap artist, Dope Saint Jude, is a nightmare for anyone stuck in the gender/race void of simplified constructions of identity.
Summertime Vibes
Hipsters Don't Dance "Top World Carnival Tunes" for February 2015.
Fresh eyes: Yannis Guibinga’s photos of Gabon
Guibinga documents the vibrant beach culture of the country's capital, Libreville, on the West African coast.
5 Questions for Filmmaker, Djo Munga
The Congolese cites the crime film, 'Carlito's Way,' starring Al Paciono, as a project he wished he had made. You can see the inspiration in "Viva Riva," his breakout film.
The art and activism of Gabriel Teodros
This past weekend I had the immense pleasure to sit alongside Gabriel Teodros, Bocafloja, and Linda Guyse at a series of panels in (very cold) Wooster, Ohio, for Wooster College’s Africa Week. During the day we discussed with students everything from African identity in the US, the failures of the international non-profit industrial complex, the continuation of […]
The Black Rhythms of Perú
The influence of people of African descent in the history of Peruvian music are overlooked. This documentary begins to set the record straight.
On Set: Abderrahmane Sissako’s ‘Timbuktu’
Cast members: "We want that film to enlighten our people’s situation, we, the real hostages of that crisis."
The music of Santiago, Chile
Chilean musicians argue that their feeling of isolation, combined with a higher than average internet penetration helped create and foster a local “scene" of musicians able to make a living from music.
A Social History of the Gambia
An archive - stretching from 1820 to 1960 - of civil, police, and criminal records in colonial Banjul.
The BLK Brother: uniting Johannesburg’s finest BLK JKS and The Brother Moves On
In 2013 South African alterna-rockers, BLK JKS and The Brother Moves On, met in Paris to represent their country in a show called “Rock in Johannesburg.” Although both groups hail from the same place, they found it hard to collaborate there, and found it strange that they were first uniting (and bonding) in a European capital. So to rectify […]
Why is this the story being told now?
The selective memory of 'Plot for Peace,' documentary film about South Africa's transition.
Ivorian designer Loza Maléombho’s #AlienEdits selfie series
The #AlienEdits series seems to come as a form of resistance to negative social projections regarding race, gender, sexuality and culture.
On The Way to School
A new documentary film offers a dignified and moving counterweight to how we in the West think - in static, sometimes pathologizing images - of kids elsewhere.
The Western Imagination of Morocco
Why at this late hour would The New York Times want to recycle Paul Bowles’ racist fantasies of Morocco?
The Wizard of Zimbabwe
What do you when your 70 year old South African father wants to meet Robert Mugabe for his birthday. Make a film about it.
Romance and the average Yoruba girl
Are quirky white people with thriving, trendy careers in New York City, the only ones to find love?
I hate Spur!
Nothing about the popular SPUR restaurant chain in South Africa is Native North American.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Hawa Essuman
Essuman believes that confining any storyteller to labels like "African stories" is a disservice to the story and the one telling it.