About taliawhyte

Posts by taliawhyte:

Grio100: Kara Walker, activism through art

By Talia Whyte

Slavery left an indelible mark on the American psyche, and African-Americans have many different ways of exploring this part of history. Artist Kara Walker explores the racial and sexual politics of the Antebellum South through her black cut-paper silhouettes. One of her best-known pieces is The Battle of Atlanta, a 400-foot painting which graphically depicts the literal and figurative rape of black females by white males during the Civil War.

“All of the bad vibes, the bad feelings, all of the nastiness, and all of the sort of vulgar associations with blackness, and the more base associations in this culture about Black Americans or Africans bubble up to the surface of my brain and spill out into this work,” said Walker in a 1999 interview with the Museum of Modern Art.

Read the full article here

Grio100 Lynn Nottage, a warrior writer

By Talia Whyte

Lynn Nottage calls herself a warrior writer. The New York playwright inspires with honest portrayals of strong “warrior women,” drawn from the characters in her own life, like her grandmother, who also had a knack for telling stories.

“I grew up in a family of storytellers,” Nottage during a NPR interview. “My grandmother was a phenomenal storyteller, and I think if she lived in a different generation, she probably would have written for the stage or she would have written novels.”

Read the full article here

Grio100: Jason Moran, the future of jazz

[clearspring_widget title=”The Grio 100’s: Jason Moran” wid=”4a784acd2b1a7e80″ pid=”4b683dc33b626562″ width=”400″ height=”400″ domain=”wgtclsp.nbcuni.com”]

If Johann Sebastian Bach and Thelonius Monk were both alive today, they would probably be impressed by the musical ingenuity of Jason Moran. This jazz pianist has been making waves since his debut 1999 album Soundtrack to Human Motion, which is a mix of avant-garde jazz, hip-hop and spoken word.

Moran, a Texas native, started to receive classical piano lessons at the age of six from his late mother, an amateur cellist. However, when he was 14 years old, he had the pleasure of listening to Thelonius Monk’s The Composer, and realized his true musical passion.

Read the full article here

Grio100 Darin Atwater – the jazziest conductor to date

By Talia Whyte

There are only so many people who actually deserve to be called a leader and Darin Atwater is one of those people. As conductor of the Baltimore-based Soulful Symphony, Atwater is a trailblazer in the orchestral world for fusing traditional classical music with gospel, jazz, R&B and a dash of hip-hop.

Music has always been a part of Atwater’s life, starting at Washington, D.C. Third Street Church of God, where both of his parents sang in the choir. Atwater, who learned music primarily without instruction, dropped out of both Morgan State University and the Peabody Institute knowing early that success in the music business was in store for him.

Read the full article here

«< 34 35 36 37 38 >»