Medieval Graffiti

"Many of the markings discovered in medieval churches are all but identical. A survey of a church in northern England will reveal the same graffiti motifs and markings as those found in a church on the English South Coast. Even more remarkably, the same medieval markings recorded in most English churches are in churches across the whole of western Europe. Essentially, everywhere the medieval Christian church thrived, medieval Europeans inscribed their places of worship with the same graffiti marks. Known as ‘ritual protection marks’, medieval people believed that these symbols warded off evil influences. Today they are more commonly called ‘witch marks’.
...
Why are there no angels? The reason is quite simple. The graffiti on the walls shows only what those who made it thought was real and immediate. Angels were heavenly beings. They littered the pages of the Bible, but could not be expected to play a part in the lives of the people in the world. Demons, on the other hand, were very real indeed. It was demons who were responsible for any sudden illness or unexplained death. Demons brought down a blight upon the harvest crops. Demons unbalanced the mind of the simpleton, and brought on the terrifying storms that could lay waste a whole year’s crop in a single afternoon. Demons were real and to be feared. This fear drove medieval people to carve their counter-curses into the walls of the parish church."

read full article here

Underground White Rappers' Hegemonic Masculinity and Racial Evasion

By: Matthew Oware

Abstract:
Employing the concept of racial evasion—a derivation of Bonilla-Silva’s colorblind ideology theory—the author analyzes 237 songs of underground white and nonwhite rappers from 2006 to 2010. Performing a content analysis on their lyrics, the author finds that white artists make fewer references to racially political and social themes (e.g., racial profiling, police brutality, racist policies) than nonwhite artists—what the author terms racial evasion. The author speculates that white rappers, understanding that they operate in a specifically racialized black and brown cultural art form, deemphasize or mask their racial identity in their lyrics. This tactic is achieved through lyrically referencing hypermasculine tropes such as violence, misogyny, and homophobia to a greater degree than nonwhite artists. This work demonstrates the strategic use of hypermasculine discourse as a rhetorical strategy to achieve “hip hop authenticity” by minimizing or evading racial discourse within this popular cultural form. Furthermore, the author illustrates how the maintenance and manifestation of white male privilege operates via the process of deracialization as a form of meaning making. Ultimately, this work elaborates on the debate of “authenticity” within hip hop studies, providing a window into white racial identity construction within popular culture.

Full article here

Graffiti and Political Possibility in Athens, Greece

By: Othon Alexandrakis

Abstract:
Based on field research in Athens, Greece, this essay considers graffiti as a mode of political response to the material and symbolic violences of neoliberal governmentality. In 2010, the Greek state declared sovereign debt crisis and began to implement an aggressive austerity program in exchange for economic aid from a troika of international lenders. This resulted in the dismantling of public services, tax increases, salary and pension reductions, layoffs, and, generally, the impoverishment of the middle and lower classes. In this work I consider a crew of three young graffiti writers, both before and during the years of the crisis, as they came to realize a fear of becoming integrated into an economized social mainstream and responded by creating street art intended to bolster critical reasoning among Athenians. I argue that fear of abjection and the experience of being at the social margins served as a stimulus of critical agency, and that the crew’s intervention can be considered indirect activism: a mode of resistance whose critical agents attempt to bring about their ambitions and visions by activating other groups to undertake resistance of their own. I show how my interlocutors made political possibility by creating art that lessened the capacity of neoliberal governmentality to manufacture consent, thereby contributing to a thriving ecology of resistance action in Athens.

Read full article here

Prophets of Rage - "Prophets of Rage"

Rally for Poverty in protest on the first day of the RNC

Tom Thum - Ratchet Face

Bob Marley ft. Chuck D - Survival

Bob Marley ft. The Lost Boyz & Mr. Cheeks - Guiltiness

Funk the Power - iNO

Ibiza

source

Joe Budden Freedom Freestyle

Budden:
"I was told there was once a world where slaves communicated with each other via music, and tho I wasn’t present for that, the Hip Hop I fell in love with always encouraged me to do the same (Thank you Public Enemy)…. Let this act as an unfortunate reminder that times change and they don’t. #BlackLivesMatter #YallLivesMatter #OurLivesMatter … I’m afraid to wonder what happens when we as a ppl decide to stop saying it. Some deem us threatening now by sheer design. We are not. We are loving, passionate, cultured and proud, even during unrest. However, with every life viciously and maliciously taken by costumed evil, we grow more and more afraid. What will occur when too many of us are afraid? #IfYouDontValueMyLifeEYEWill #GodHelpUsAll #TheMissionIsGreat"



source

Jay-Z makes playlist: songs for survival

1. Goodie Mob – “Free”
2. Curtis Mayfield – “We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue”
3. Nina Simone – “Four Women”
4. Stevie Wonder – “Village Ghetto Land”
5. Marvin Gaye – “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”
6. Gil Scott-Heron – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
7. Fela Kuti – “Zombie”
8. Bob Marley and The Wailers – “War”
9. James Brown – “Say It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud”
10. Stevie Wonder – “Love’s In Need Of Love Today”
11. The Five Stairsteps – “O-o-h Child”
12. Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
13. Bob Marley and The Wailers – Redemption Song
14. Kanye West – “Ultralight Beam”
15. Common – “Forever Begins”
16. Mos Def – “UMI Says”
17. Nina Simone – “Feeling Good”
18. Beyoncé – “FREEDOM”
19. Nina Simone – “Here Comes the Sun”
20. The Staple Singers – “I’ll Take You There”
21. OutKast – “Vibrate”
22. Curtis Mayfield – “Move On Up”
23. Donny Hathaway – “Someday We’ll All Be Free”
24. Sam Cooke – “A Change Is Gonna Come”

Read More: Jay Z Makes 'Songs for Survival' Playlist - XXL | http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2016/07/jay-z-songs-for-survival-playlist-goodie-mob-kendrick-lamar/?trackback=tsmclip

Orishas - Cuba Isla Bella (Cuba)

Orishas re-unite: source

Poppin Hyunjoon & Park Aeri - Dear Friend

Garner Family releases: 'I Can't Breathe'

Follow up: Killer Mike motivates Atlanta residents to move their money

read here

Kendrick Lamar and Jeremiad

"Jeremiah was a prophet tasked with guiding the people through the loss of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Kendrick is navigating us through the loss of black life in a “post-racial” America. Both poets’ writings also reveal a deep conflictedness not only with their own inner life but with the realpolitik of their day."

"The all-encompassing, oppressive ideology of Jeremiah’s day was lauded by the urban elite, the religious, the imperial superpowers and local politicians who created hell on earth for the poor. Jeremiah’s cry can be summed up in Kendrick’s lyric, “Some of us never did wrong but still went to hell.” For Kendrick, hell is America’s creation of the ghettos, its prison industrial complex, its clandestine torture dungeons in poor neighborhoods."

read the rest here:
http://religiondispatches.org/kendrick-lamars-hip-hop-jeremiad/

Street Art; Christchurch, New Zealand

source

Read/watch about Street Art in Christchurch after the earthquakes here

Korea's acceptance of breakdancing

"Wing got his big break after winning first place at the prestigious Red Bull BC One competition in Paris in 2008. Then in 2010, Jinjo Crew went on to win the Battle of the Year competition. They emerged as one of the hottest B-boy crews in the world and continued to win at major competitions across the globe.

Since then, the B-boy craze in Korea has skyrocketed. It is now not only a well-recognized type of dance, but a popular form of entertainment enjoyed by both younger and older audiences, attracting local and international spectators alike.

Today, there are countless nonverbal plays featuring interludes of break dancing and even plots based entirely on B-boying, including shows like “Ballerina Who Loved a B-Boy,” “Jump,” “B-boy Musical Marionette” and the popular “B-boy Kung,” the only B-boy musical in the world to have an exclusive theater.

“I can’t even begin to explain the huge boom in the B-boy movement in Korea over the past several years,” Wing said. “The B-boying culture has become so popular in Korea that even many senior citizens here have heard of it and know what it is, which was unthinkable to me years ago.”

“Even though break dancing was invented by Western dance crews, Asian B-boys have created a reputation for elevating the level and complexity of the dance moves,” he added. “Something about our body type allows us to make for the ideal B-boy dancers.”

The country continues to make great strides in promoting local break dancing and creating an internationally recognized reputation for its pool of talented B-boys and fiercely competitive dance crews.

Capitalizing on the dance form’s substantial popularity here, the Korean government established in 2007 the R-16 Korea, an annual international B-boy competition hosted by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism."

read rest here

Silenced - Dr. Martin Glynn

Calligraffiti: “anyone who wants to see the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eye first.”

"On the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, lies the community of Manshiyat Naser, famous for providing informal trash and recycling services for the city, but also notorious for the mess and smell that go with that role."

"The mural blends aspects of Arabic calligraphy with contemporary graffiti, all while highlighting the architecture of the area. The entire work is only visible from the nearby Mokattam Mountain."

read rest here

"Take your money out of this dog's hands" - Killer Mike

“Take your money out of this dog’s hands,” he says. “It’s time to get these dogs out of office that care nothing for you.”

"Mike’s point is that speaking with money is a faster way to change as corporations will notice a monetary shift more than any other. He applauds Atlanta and the police force there for continuing to create a safe environment for black communities, but notes that by galvanizing their financial interests, they can inspire change throughout the country."

watch interview and read the rest here

I Can't Breathe

Ft. Samuel L. Jackson, KRS-One, Sticky Fingaz, Mad Lion, Talib Kweli, Brother J

Mike Dean & Z-Ro - No Justice No Peace

Sad News - Swizz Beats ft. Scarface