Thursday, March 23, 2017

Field Notes...From The Sunken Place






By Teresa Leggard:

I know, I know. It’s been out for weeks now. But it’s staying with me, this movie. It’s a warning, this movie. It’s still telling my subconscious things I hope I can bring to bare when a cold sweat breaks on my skin, the hairs on my arm stand at attention and it’s time to break the hell out.

Since viewing the motion picture debut of writer/director Jordan Peele, my mind has been a split screen wherein Get Out stays put on one side and the other side is a changing gallery of black creative work. I find myself trying to put them in conversation with each other to see what new meaning—if any—emerges.




First, most fortunately, there was a production of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman playing at one of the local theaters. I saw the play just a few days after watching Get Out, and the comparison was almost too easy. Dutchman is a one-act play about a black man (Clay) and a white woman (Lula) who share a train car on the NYC subway. It would be a gross oversimplification to say having a black male and white female lead were all the two productions had in common. For a full synopsis of the play:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutchman_(play)

Of course, if anyone would have work that complemented Peele’s piece, it would be Amiri Baraka. But Brother Amiri was a poet as well as a playwright, and more accomplished as the former in my opinion. So, I began to search for any of his poetry that might speak to the same themes and anxieties. I don’t remember what I put into the search bar, but I turned over some virtual stone and found this:
“Wise I”

WHYS (Nobody Knows
    
The Trouble I Seen)
    
Traditional

If you ever find
yourself, some where
lost and surrounded
by enemies
who won't let you
speak in your own language
who destroy your statues
& instruments, who ban
your omm bomm ba boom
then you are in trouble
deep trouble
they ban your
own boom ba boom
you in deep deep
trouble

humph!

probably take you several hundred years
to get 
out!



I’m still wrapping my mind around the ways in which the two works speak to each other, but I believe it’s far more than the title of Peele’s film sharing the final two words of Baraka’s poem. One seems to be an evocation of instinct, a call to trust your gut. The other an ironic warning come too late.

Monday, March 13, 2017

The "Ji" Spot - That's The Girl Code!









But first, a word from the CogNegro!

On second thought, I'm going to sit this one out. This is all you Ji! You can cash me oussah if you need me!-CgN





  


But wait !







Talented 10th and the Ignorant 5th :
The Back Stabber Conundrum aka : You know damn well you were always plotting!

By: Khalil  Hamiduddin

To answer the question is it ok to date someone your friend has previously had dealings or relations with the answer is… Its complicated. Complicated as in did your friend die because then and only then does that in my best john legend voice GIVE ME THE GREEN LIIIIIIGHT.Now now now some of you may be asking but K what if they never slept together well see that falls into the grey area of you probably really weren’t dating then and you probably never even meet them while they “dated” (celibates sit in the corner y’all are the exception) Having said that don’t lie to yourself. You know you were always looking and scheming, plotting, maybe even threw a word or 2 in there to precipitate their demise or as I like to call them to borrow a rap phrase sneak dissing and "subliminals". See most people think it’s only the lonely and miserable friend who wants everyone else to be lonely and miserable with them nope nope nope. Giving bad advice

Wrong

Wrong

I bet you’ve had your boy say: What she doesn’t do what man I wouldn’t put up with that ish.
Or your sister from another mister say: Oh word he did what girl I don’t even know why you dealing with that fool.They are plotting. Smiling in your face but all the time they want to take your place…
So let me know those of you in the backstabber conundrum what’s the end game are you going to be upfront with your “friend” and admit their ex is your soul mate and you're planning on moving to Atlanta to solve all of your problems.Or will you cut your friend off never tell them and they can find out when you post the engagement ring or beach side wedding photos of your magical romance.



Thursday, March 9, 2017

Reel Talk- Logan











by Da CogNegro


Synopsis: In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world is interrupted when a young mutant arrives.

Director: James Mangold

Release Date: March 3, 2017

Review: With the  surprising success of last year's Deadpool, R-rated comic adaptations became the talk of Tinseltown. Even though Wolverine's source material can easily lend itself to such a rating, this did not mean that such a move would be met without reservations. One only has to look at Fox's track record, when it comes to the X-Men franchise, to validate such a response. Fortunately, Logan succeeds at not just being the best of Fox's comic book offerings, but a worthwhile film in its own right! Logan is relentlessly grizzly, brutal and gut wrenching.But just like Johnny Cash's rendition of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, which was cleverly chosen to accompany this movie's first trailer, there is an undeniable beauty to be found in the pain. Whether it's the examination of relationships, bouts with guilt, or the sheer will to survive and persevere, all of Logan's emotional components  are just as authentic as anything a well crafted drama can produce. Like The Dark Knight, Logan transcends the pigeonholed comic book genre by successfully blending various tropes found in a variety of  film genres .This results in a film that audiences abound will find satiating as well as memorable. If you don't find yourself affected by your viewing, then perhaps your latent mutant power involves the inability to feel. What a sendoff to such an iconic character... BUB! (A-) -CgN   





Monday, March 6, 2017

Cornelia’s Nook: A Day Without a Woman (an Alternative Facts version)








By: Cornelia L. Dolian

March 8th has long been International Women’s Day, some kind of celebration of the paltry contributions of the weaker sex. This year—because the COMMIES and the SJWs and the EVIL FEMINISTS want you to believe that women are oppressed—many women from around the world are also pledging a general strike in protest of supposed social and economic gender inequalities. To take part, these nasty, unfair women plan to:

  1. Repay the generosity of the hard-working men who gave them jobs by NOT SHOWING UP TO WORK! They also plan to neglect their kids AND starve their poor husbands, who depend entirely on them for food (due to a newly discovered gene that prevents them from being able to cook).
  1. Bankrupt businesses not owned by women or minorities, by only shopping at that feminist bookstore from Portlandia. While their families starve to death at home, they may also enjoy some ribs from that BBQ restaurant owned by Freddy on House of Cards.

  1. Wear red: the color of Marxism and menstruation. In certain cities, right now, they are actually performing blood sacrifices so they can dye their clothes. It’s unbelievable (but totally true, just don’t ask for our sources!).

And you may think this is terrible. But wait, because sources say these horrible women are up to more than just that. Some factions are going EVEN FURTHER. Here’s what they’re planning to do AFTER March 8th (this is scary stuff, folks):

  1. Destroy TV ratings by storming the networks and forcing them to play only boring, progressive, feminist shows like Gilmore Girls, Girlfriends, Golden Girls, Living Single, How to Get Away with Murder, Orange is the New Black, and Buffy: the Vampire Slayer.

  1. Ruin movies by replacing all Bond girls, sassy sidekicks, and barely post-pubescent love interests of middle-aged men with pouty-mouthed sex dolls. Also, they’re planning to replace every buddy comedy and buddy action film with an all-female slumber party movie that has no pillow fights, and in which everyone is wearing adult onesie pajamas!  

  1. Decimate their husbands’ colons by cooking only that meatloaf they hate for the next year.

  1. Publicly breastfeed anyone who looks hungry, making it UNSAFE to go outside.

  1. Destroy great American institutions like Victoria’s Secret and Gillette by refusing to wear bras or shave their legs.

We cannot let this happen. And we cannot cave to their demands.

Equal pay for equal work? Their work will never be equal! Science proves it.

Rape culture? Violence against women? Sexual harassment? That’s what THEY created, and clearly want, given they have replaced the Bible with a new holy book: 50 Shades of Grey.

All good, thinking people must unite against this tremendous threat. Chaos. So sad.

Just say nyet to A Day Without a Woman.

---------------

Cornelia L. Dolian is a writer between websites. She can be found on Twitter, Medium and Facebook. Today she is trying her hand at satire.