Pas de Duke is Alvin Ailey’s spirited modern dance translation of a classical pas de deux, originally created in 1976 as a showcase for Judith Jamison and Mikhail Baryshnikov. She was a reigning star of modern dance; he was one of the world’s most famous ballet dancers, having defected from the Soviet Union two years earlier. Ailey made brilliant use of the dancers’ physical and stylistic differences, crafting an elegant, flirtatious work that showed off their exuberance and virtuosity as they engaged in a playful game of one-upmanship.
The work is comprised of five solos and duets that require extraordinary technical facility, flawless timing, and strong acting skills. Since its premiere nearly 40 years ago, it has been performed by generations of dancers who have each put their own unique twist on the choreography, and it has stood the test of time in part for how perfectly it captures the timeless sophistication of Duke Ellington’s jazz music. The New York Times has praised it as “one of those special dances that lives in new ways with each new set of performers.”
March 21, 2014
The Politics of Black Aspiration
Posted by Jelani Cobb
As wide-eyed Southern migrants stepped off trains in the big cities of the North a century ago, they were met by groups like the National Urban League, who presented them with care packages that often included basic items like soap and toiletries. This racial noblesse oblige was motivated by a sense of community responsibility, but also by the embarrassment that an upper tier of black America felt at the rough-hewn ways of their newly urban counterparts. The gifts were sometimes accompanied by handbills detailing the behavior expected of the new arrivals: admonitions against congregating on stoops, dressing inappropriately, wearing hair rollers in public, or raising chickens in the city. From the most cynical—and not entirely incorrect—perspective, the black struggle for civil rights in this country was driven by the desire of a fragile class of black strivers to distance themselves from the Negro non grata in a way that segregation made all but impossible.
At the turn of the twentieth century, W. E. B. Du Bois crusaded against the evils of segregation, one of which was the forced association of men of his standing with ruffians and undesirables. The sentiment was familiar to me long before I ever encountered his work, from my father’s frequent admonishment: “Never be common.” This was told to me by a man with only three grades of formal education, the product of an overlooked outpost called Hazelhurst, Georgia, who had joined the Army and then made his way to Harlem in pursuit of better odds. The pervasive inequity, and nearly uniform poverty, of Jim Crow did not eliminate the capacity for class condescension among black people; it simply meant that “class” would be defined far more by behavior than by education or wealth.
Years later, at the graduation where I received my doctorate, I gave my degree to my mother—a woman born in Bessemer, Alabama, who left the South at age fifteen for Chicago and finished high school there, but who, throughout her life, wielded her refined diction as a shield. Handing her the diploma was partly an act of filial deference, and mostly acknowledgement of an inside joke. The casual observer might see the arc of this family history—from an elementary school education to a Ph.D., in a single generation—as a metaphor for the successes of the civil-rights movement and a testament to the elastic potential of American democracy. But to my mother it had more to do with the guile of Brer Rabbit than the benevolence of Lyndon B. Johnson.
Of late, we have begun to speak a great deal about black aspiration. Between the announcement, at the end of February, of Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, and Paul Ryan’s uncommonly blunt appraisal, last week, of “inner-city” men, poor black people find themselves, once again, part of a vexed dialogue about poverty, race, and government. “Common,” as my father used it, has become an obscure epithet, but for those curious about its meaning Ryan provided a serviceable definition:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/president-obama-striving-while-black.html?currentPage=all
Hey Chicas!
They’ve started a BIG lie about Mama Robinson. The Daily Mail has a story that Mama Robinson was “barking at the staff” at the hotel and giving orders. Yall KNOW that’s some real bullshit. See, the deal is the hotel is luxurious and expensive & folks are jealous as HELL. I guarantee some reporter asked the staff if anyone asked for extra towels etc and then gave their own “interpretation”. Funny, the Chinese people love them and have become smitten with the Obama daughters. Haters can’t stand that so they have to resort to trifling bs lies about a grandmother who hasn’t done a damn thing to no one.
Ya’ll know darn well AIN’T no way on God’s green earth a black grandmother whose daughter is the First Lady is going to another country and do things to embarrass her daughter and son -in law. I could smack the taste out of the mofo who paid money for this bullshit lie. The mofo need a mudhole stomped in his/her natural ass for lying on Marian Robinson.
all they know how to do is LIE.
But, they will learn.
Ain’t nobody gonna stand for them disrespecting Mama Robinson.
AW HELL NAW! It’s on, MOFOS
Rap sheet of the thug who is so jealous of the Potus & Flotus and lied on Mama Robinson
*********************
HOLLARING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom Jailed for Enrolling Kids in School Tells Her Story in New Book, Film
AN UPDATE ON OHIO MOM KELLEY WILLIAMS-BOLAR, WHO WAS JAILED IN 2011 FOR ENROLLING KIDS IN PREDOMINATELY WHITE SCHOOL DISTRICT
By KHADIJAH Z. ALI-COLEMAN
With Hollywood knocking on her door, Kelley Williams-Bolar will be marking 2014 as the year that her story is finally told in summation.
In 2011, Williams-Bolar was jailed for sending her two daughters to school in a predominately White school district in which her father lived. This year, audiences will be able to get a more in-depth look behind-the-scenes when her story is brought to life with her upcoming book, The Kelly Williams-Bolar Story set for an April 1 release and a movie, directed by Stephen Stix Josey and starring Garrett Morris and A Different World’s Charnele Brown, who will portray Williams-Bolar.
The family had lived in an Akron, Ohio housing project neighborhood where lacking schooling options spurred her to ask her father if she could she use his address to enroll her children in a school in his Copley Township school district in Ohio. Her children were enrolled for two years until the school district filed criminal charges against her for enrolling her children in a school district where she was not a legal resident. Williams-Bolar, like many of her supporters, to this day, asserts that the charges were racially motivated.
http://www.ebony.com/news-views/mom-jailed-for-enrolling-kids-in-school-tells-her-story-in-new-book-film-405#ixzz2wjVVrv7H
a gif for 3CHICS…LOL
http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/a3YNNGm_460s.jpg
and another one:
http://img.pandawhale.com/89754-SHEEIT-gif-Clay-Davis-The-Wire-R90q.gif
BWA HA HA
Hollering!
Answer this question, ladies and gentlemen…
WHAT IF THE CANDIDATE WERE BLACK?
UH HUH
UH HUH
…………………………………………
Thom Tillis says where he went to college shouldn’t matter
By John Frank
A day after questions surfaced about his alma mater, U.S.
Senate candidate Thom Tillis said where he went to college shouldn’t matter and dismissed suggestions he misled voters.
In an interview Friday, the House speaker acknowledged his college diploma says “University of Maryland University System,” not the University of Maryland at College Park – which he repeatedly cited as his alma mater in interviews, a resume and his campaign websites, dating to 2003.
Even as he makes his background a central part of his campaign, the Republican downplayed the discrepancy, saying he has never campaigned onthe source of his college diploma.
“I’ve never listed my education degree as why people should vote for me,” he said. “I think the average person is thinking more about what I’ve accomplished in my professional career and what I’ve accomplished in my career as a legislator.”
The campaign corrected the two websites, his LinkedIn
profile and a legislative page Thursday, in response to questions
raised in the Talking Points Memo political blog. A spokesman said they were written by campaign aides, not Tillis.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/21/3722164/thom-tillis-says-where-he-went.html#storylink=cpy
Moving the old PROVERBIAL GOALPOST, it’s what the 2520s DO.
Man dies defending daughter during alleged hate crime
by Carrie Healey | March 22, 2014 at 3:47 PM
Are gangs a bigger threat than guns in Chicago?
A Chicago man was killed Wednesday while protecting his only daughter during an alleged hate crime.
Fifty-nine-year-old Michael Tingling was walking his 15-year-old daughter, Masharah, home from school around 2 p.m. when he noticed Joseph Firek, 59, making inappropriate gestures towards her, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Firek approached the girl, Tingling stepped in and a fight ensued.
“He was staring at me up and down, eyeballing me,” Masharah said to NBC Chicago. “My dad, being a father, he got protective and put me behind him and told the guy to go away.”
http://thegrio.com/2014/03/22/man-dies-defending-daughter-during-alleged-hate-crime/
rikyrah, don’t know if you watch Grey’s Anatomy or not, but you must watch those 3 segments below. Mama Avery, ya’ll know Mama was telling all kinds of truth.
Old Black People that Look Younger Than Lorde
I know they say black people age well, but come on now..
http://blkdontcrack.tumblr.com/
OOPS! Who da HELL is Loude? Just asking…
ANY QUESTIONS?
Which First Lady Flies Highest? Michelle vs. Laura
http://www.ntu.org/governmentbytes/7-9-13-first-lady-international-flights-vacations.html
The very fact that folks are questioning and comparing FLOTUS international travels during the
Obama presidency and not the prior presidencies says it ALL.
I had to set a wing nut straight on this very thing. Read my tweets. But guess what? He’s blocked me. I posted photos of Laura and Jenna on several trips to Africa b/c he lied and said Laura never took family on trips. The mofo has no blocked me. But but he claimed he was so much smarter than I am. So why block me if you can’t handle it. PUNK ASS COWARD!
I backed my comments up with links and facts. All he could do was call Michelle & Potus leeches. But not one word against Laura Bush and Jenna for doing the same exact thing. Racist mofo!
At the same point in presidency, August 13th 2013 PBO vacationed 92 times. Bush vacationed 367 times. So how the fuck is PBO taking a vacation every month with those numbers? Bitch can’t handle the truth so he blocked me. Don’t post ish and then get mad when you’re challenged. PUNK!
And another thing, fools: DON’T COME, UNLESS WE SEND FOR YA!
why you gonna go confront him with FACTS…
SG2, come on..they don’t do well with FACTS.
LOL Beat that ass, SG2. Racist, an NEVER handle FACTS, the, TRUTH,especially when their DNA is allergic to TRUTH.
And what is the truth, you ask? it’s fine for First Ladies to take all kinds of trips on tax payer’s dime, just as long as it’s not that “Black” Michelle Obama!
Debbie Allen reads Jackson & April- POWERFUL segments here:
Grey’s Anatomy 10×16: All April and Jackson scenes Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvf2tw1xwcg
Grey’s Anatomy 10×16:
All April and Jackson scenes Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ScyLmbIz0&src_vid=Tvf2tw1xwcg&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_2551525199
Grey’s Anatomy 10×16:
All April and Jackson scenes Part 3
I’oin’t blame Mama Avery for wanting to pass on the family legacy. Many black families don’t have that luxury. Y’all get me?
She read them, and ICAM with Mama Avery.
LYING
WAH WAH WAH!
We can’t drive while blk, celebrate while blk, walk while blk, ask for help while blk, or drink a Arizona tea while blk. WTFF?
Not Going To The Back Of The Bus
We ALL know who wants to go back, and NOPE; it’s certainly not us.
HUH?
HUH?
WHAT THE FUCK?
I love this pic.
We are EVERYWHERE…including CHINA.
There is no place on EARTH were we are NOT THERE.
*******************
SMACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!
HA HA HA HA That’s gonna leave a a MARK!
Scott, “PLAYGIRL” Brown is a “MONSTROSITY”
Good Morning, Everyone.
I have absolutely LOVED this series!
Thank you very much. I loved presenting it.
Good Morning,, Everyone! :-) Guess who got to sleep in this morning. *yawns&sipscoffee*
CarolMae, sending blessings your way for your eye surgery.
This is so beautiful, thank you again. I’ll miss you all while I’m recovering from eye surgery next Thursday for a few weeks. :) O_o
Good morning, CarolMae! TY! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the dance series. So sorry to hear about you having eye surgery. Hope all goes well and we are praying for a speedy recovery. Take care of yourself.
Thank you so much.
Carol,
Prayers that the surgery goes as planned and that your recovery period is fine.
Thank you very much.
I am sending my prayers to you, CarolMae, for successful surgery and good recovery.
Love you!
Thank you so much. I will miss everyone even though I rarely post, I do read and enjoy all the discussions.