What is Your Story?: The How I Got Over BlogTalkRadio Broadcast

Everyone has a story, a narrative. And everyone has had to overcome something in their lives, has had a bridge to cross in getting where they are now. If you haven’t, trust me on this, you will, and some of us may be going through something, crossing that bridge, at this very moment.

You know history, most specifically African American history, is a broad palimpsest of these stories, these narratives. If we comb through the annals of African American history, many of these narratives stand out. The narrative of Cinque and the slave ship Amistad is one. The narrative of Nat Turner is another.

Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the list of triumphant, inspirational narratives of people who refused to be slaves, who refused to be second class citizens, who insisted that their humanity and the humanity of all African American men and women be recognized goes on and on.

But these are the most popular, most well-known narratives. However, there are millions of other lesser known individuals whose names you will perhaps never see on the front page or in history books whose narratives are no less fascinating or uplifting.

These are the narratives that I find to be the most beautiful, the most compelling, those narratives of common people, people just like you and me, facing sickness, facing poverty, facing drug abuse, facing the daily vicissitudes of life, who emerge from the experience better and stronger.

And these are the narratives we will explore tonight on the Freedom thru Speech blog talk radio broadcast. We will feature the narratives of Nicole McLean of My Fabulous Boobies, Nina Brewton of Be Inspired, and Michael Stagg of My II Sense who all have beautiful narratives to share.

And we will perhaps feature your narrative, too, if you are willing to just tune in and call in. Nevertheless, this is a broadcast that you do not want to miss. You can listen or comment by dialing the show’s call-in number at 914-803-4881 or by simply going to our BlogTalkRadio page by just clicking here.

The Black Agenda: Black Leadership in the Age of Obama

Take just a second and listen to the exchange embedded above between Tavis Smiley and Rev. Al Sharpton. Can you tell me just what is happening here? First of all, I’m a bit surprised that this very public and seemingly acrimonious disagreement took place the way it did. Usually, African Americans do not air our dirty laundry in public like that. But most importantly, I am wondering what are they arguing about anyway?

Many times I’ve asked readers to enlighten me on just what is this “Black Agenda” I keep hearing so much about. And not only that, what this “Black Agenda” consists of. Furthermore, just who set this “Black Agenda”?

We have any number of people claiming the mantle of leadership in African America, and any number of people claiming to represent “The Black Agenda,” but I cannot for the life of me figure out what this “Black Agenda” is, nor can I find it articulated anywhere. Not only that, I cannot figure out exactly who is out front leading, and more specifically, where they are leading African Americans to?

Plus join me tonight along with RiPPa, our new co-host Fungke Blak Chik, and special guest Kris Broughton of the blog Brown Man Thinking Hard and contributor to Slate Magazine, Talking Points Memo, and The Big Think, as we engage in a round table discussion on the relevance of “Black Leadership” in the age of Obama.

Using the recent controversial and very public disagreement between Al Sharpton & Tavis Smiley on national radio, we’ll explore this disagreement to expand on the idea of a “Black Agenda.” Or what exactly is a “Black Agenda”. How do we incorporate said agenda in our perceived “post-racial” society? How do we go about communicating said agenda and is said “agenda” a political liability for Barack Obama?

Most importantly, we’ll discuss the division within our community caused by said agenda and try to come up with a solution as to just what is best for Black America. We’ll also explore the New York Times’ piece on the CBC, and discuss their relevancy as it relates the Black electorate at large. Are they, like “Black Leadership,” doing enough for Black America?

Stop by tonight to get in on the discussion at 9 PM EST. You can either listen directly from the platform at Freedom thru Speech Radio or by using the dial-in number at 914-803-4881. And remember, the most important voice in this discussion is yours.

The "Is Black Entertainment Dead?" Episode: Who Stole the Soul?

Back in the 1990’s, African American movies, music, and television seemed to be flourishing. It seemed that in these mediums African Americans were finally elbowing our way into the mainstream. However, in the new millennium, suddenly that production seemingly has fallen off.

As concerns African American movies, quality African American movies are few and far between, and for those which do see the big screen, mediocrity seems to be the prevailing norm.

And not to even mention African American music. From where I sit, the state of African American music has become such that I don’t even listen to mainstream radio any more. African American musical artists, and I use that term loosely, seem to becoming richer and richer; however, it seems to me that the overall quality of the music, especially the messages it conveys, is decreasing tremendously.

If we discuss African American television for just a second, in the 1990’s we had The Cosby Show, A Different World, The Fresh Prince, Roc, and a plethora of other African American sitcoms that became television mainstays. However, lately even those African American sitcoms that we enjoyed, namely The Game, seem to last only one or two seasons.

Maybe it is just me. I don’t know. But you can have your say on this matter. Join me and my co-hosts RiPPa of The Intersection of Madness and Reality and Michele Grant of Black N’ Bougie as we discuss the state of African American and African American themed art and entertainment tonight on Freedom through Speech Radio [click here to access show platform]. Because of the football game, the show will be on one hour later at 9 PM EST.

And remember, the most important voice in this conversation is your voice.

Freedom through Speech Radio: The Barack Obama Scorecard and Call to Service Show

This has been an interesting week to say the least. At the beginning of the week, “Negro” seemed to be the word in the streets. First of all, the inclusion of “Negro” as a choice in the racial identification categories on the upcoming census set all the Negroes a titter and a Twitter.

But before that conversation could even finish, the revelation that during the 2008 presidential campaign, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid listed then candidate Obama’s not speaking in the “Negro dialect” as one of his major qualifications for office. Well, this just made Negroes giggle and most could even see the truth in Senator Reid’s statement. It even inspired me to translate my favorite Shakespearean sonnet, Sonnet 29—When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, into the “Negro dialect.”

However, the Republican Party didn’t see the humor in Senator Reid’s remark. And because they just love Negroes so, they trotted out Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to demand his resignation. I wrote about that here.

However, this argument was not able to get any traction before the news of a catastrophic earthquake devastating Haiti. And the African American community responded tremendously. On Facebook, on Twitter, and through various other mediums, we coalesced to raise a remarkable amount of money in a remarkably short time.

But the question then becomes, what happens when the coverage of the tragedy ceases to dominate the news and moves from the front page to the back page? What will we do then? What will the world do?

Tonight at 8 PM EST on the Blog Talk Radio show I co-host along with OneChele and RiPPa, Freedom through Speech Radio, we will be discussing these issues along with giving a grade to President Obama’s first year as president. Sitting in will be Average Bro from averagebro.com and Thembi Ford from whatwouldthembido.com.

So, stop by, call in, and let your voice be heard. And remember, the most important voice is your voice.