The year was 2016. Election Day. Mychal Denzel Smith was asked to be a guest on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now to provide election night coverage. Originally, his plans were to give a lukewarm welcome to the incremental possibilities of a Hillary presidency whilst also remaining skeptical of maintaining the system. But a Trump presidency was […]
Young, Black Voters Uninspired by Choices
Democratic nominees for President of the United States have traditionally been told that they don’t have to work too hard to secure the black vote. Presumptive nominee Joe Biden illustrated this attitude recently when he commented that African-American voters do not have diverse political views. Instead of actively catering to African-Americans, the conventional wisdom goes, […]
Muriel Simms’ deeply interwoven oral histories
If you want to understand the role that race has played in Madison’s past and present, Settlin’: Stories Of Madison’s Early African American Families is an essential read. Its author, educator and Edgewood College faculty member Muriel Simms, began interviewing people for the book in the early 2000s, focusing on people who descended from African […]
Black Jazz Musicians Find ‘Utopia’ in Denmark
Why is American jazz great, Ben Webster, buried in Copenhagen? That’s the question our next guest asked herself after stumbling across the legendary saxophonist’s tombstone while visiting Denmark. It turns out that hundreds of African Americans traveled to the tiny Scandinavian nation and found what many of them described as a sort of European utopia […]
Art Exhibit: Home is Where the Racism Is
From May 16 through May 18, the Yatra Gallery in one of the old Milwaukee Road train cars at Madison’s converted train station at 646 West Washington Avenue, will host the art exhibit, “Home is Where the Racism Is.” The show features photos, interviews, historical documents and personal narratives from a wide variety of African-American, […]
Hidden Voices: African American Writers in Wisconsin
Since April of 2017, three of the current literary lights of Madison’s African-American community have travelled around Dane County to talk about three literary giants from days gone by. Former Madison poet laureate Fabu, Inspiring Destiny founder and novelist Sherry Lucille and playwright Catrina Sparkman have been hitting the road with “Hidden Voices: African American […]
