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Models Monday: Getting Up

“Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up.” Alfred Pennyworth, Batman This weekend, I watched 30 for 30: Marion Jones: Press Pause–this after viewing 9.79*, another 30 for 30 documentary about the track and field doping scandal involving Ben Johnson in the 1988 Seoul Games. Watching Press Pause was painfulContinue reading “Models Monday: Getting Up”

Models Monday: Sustaining Fictions (Re-post)

I don’t know how these things are connected, but I’ve been holding them together in my mind for some time now. For some reason, I’ve been thinking about these lists we chronicle in popular culture at this time of year at the same time that I have been thinking about the stories that we needContinue reading “Models Monday: Sustaining Fictions (Re-post)”

James Meredith at Ole Miss

Today marks the 50th anniversary of James Meredith’s first day of class at the University of Mississippi. NPR’s “The Picture Show” has some of the photographs that Ed Meek recorded. NPR also has two wonderful discussions about Meredith and the violence that occurred on the campus over desegregation. Thus, in addition to checking out “TheContinue reading “James Meredith at Ole Miss”

Models Monday: Ava DuVernay

Last Thursday, I had the great pleasure of being in the audience at Spelman College where filmmaker Ava DuVernay screened three clips from her film Middle of Nowhere, which won her the Best Director’s nod at Sundance in January. The film personalizes mass incarceration through the lens of one couple’s experience. If you have notContinue reading “Models Monday: Ava DuVernay”

Models Monday: Paying Attention in the Age of Angry Birds

A friend asked me to be on a book panel to discuss Manning Marable’s book Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention that a group of college honors students had been assigned to read over the summer and I accepted her invitation. Only after receiving the itinerary did I learn that the event would take placeContinue reading “Models Monday: Paying Attention in the Age of Angry Birds”

Models Monday: “I Knew, not from Memory…”

There’s an article in The New York Times about the first comprehensive retrospective of Carrie Mae Weems’s career opening at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville on Friday. Given that Weems’s series Not Manet’s Type inspires this blog, I thought I would highlight the article and Weems’s work, featured on her website, today.

Models Monday: Books and the Generous Poor

I watched the 2009 Academy Award nominated documentary film Trouble the Water this weekend and it was an enthralling feature. The film combines footage that Kim Roberts captures while she and her husband Scott are trapped inside their home in the 9th ward as Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans. The film also chronicles theContinue reading “Models Monday: Books and the Generous Poor”

Back-to-School Series: School Supplies

Searching for school supplies might be the one time when I enjoy shopping. I actually think that good school supplies can contribute to an improved attitude and inclination towards doing school work. Crayola 64s prove this point. Anyone who has ever received a box of Crayola 64s remembers what it was like to have theseContinue reading “Back-to-School Series: School Supplies”

Models Monday: Race and Forgiveness

My relationship with my father was a hard thing for me to describe to people who only knew me as being estranged from him; so I usually didn’t talk about it. It was hard to explain how I knew that my father adored me, that he loved me as much as he was capable; IContinue reading “Models Monday: Race and Forgiveness”

Back-to-School: Thoughtful Excursions

(Caption: Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee.) My friend Julia and I were casually chatting on our way to a meeting when she shared with me the details of a trip she had taken with J.P., her son. I was taken aback by how beautiful her trip was in its thoughtfulness and its execution. Julia always doesContinue reading “Back-to-School: Thoughtful Excursions”