feature: my multimedia dinner series to explore blackness in america – part 2

i’m launching a new dinner series to explore, more explicitly, themes that are politically relevant. because dining spaces have more to say than what is served on their plates.

the dinners are being held in spaces specifically contrived as a “black spaces”— places where the perspective of black folks is priority. the food, traditional nigerian food, is another important element of the dinner because it also prioritizes non-american, specifically african cuisine, over the dominant eurocentric flavor profiles.

By Tunde Wey, AFROPUNK Contributor *

i journaled my preparation leading up to these dinners and i want to share them with you.

i decided to sketch/ illustrate the folks i recorded. don’t ask me why— it was just fun.
 

Today’s audio piece, ‘Black | Weird’, is a conversation with Zac Manuel.

– title:
black | weird

– voices:
zac manuel
zac is a filmmaker. his latest project, the painted lady, is a short period film about a couple coming to terms with what they each want in the relationship. zac’s work explores identity in interesting and complicated ways.

– location:
horns restaurant. NEW ORLEANS, LA

– introduction:
zac doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of a black male. he’s light skinned, dresses in fitted jeans and loose shirts, sort of like kanye but not as rude. we talked about the rigidity of black identity.

– liner notes:

• There’s a stereotypical attitude black men are supposed to proffer, and deviations from this perceived norm are labelled disparagingly as white, or gay. these stereotypes of the “super thug” (s/o noreaga) reinforce the idea of blackness as a hyper masculine prerogative— it’s problematic because, it obscures black women, black queer folk as well as limiting black masculinity.

• these stereotypes are fungible however, expanding in some instances to accommodate other expressions of blackness. like most other identities, they are only valid in context, with attitudes towards certain expressions of identity different depending on the time or place they exist in.

• being “weird” is a misnomer that prevents black kids from embracing the fullness of their individual possibilities and public opportunities.

• to subvert the restrictions placed on black identity requires black folks to be transgressive. to erase the strictures and borders within which black human performance is confined— confines not usually forced on white folks.

• while basquiat, jayz and charlie parker are strong examples of transgressive blackness. black women and black queer folks, because they exists at the intersection of patriarchy, race and sexuality might be the ultimate exercise in black transgressiveness.

* http://www.fromlagos.com/
https://www.instagram.com/from_lagos/

https://soundcloud.com/from_lagos