In my last essay on dancing, you may have noticed one glaring omission: MC Hammer. I did not exclude MC Hammer because I think he’s unimportant. Instead, I wanted to devote an entire essay to him. Hammer was unarguably a great dancer and entertainer. But his story is about much more than that. We didn’t […]
Read MoreHistorically, Black Americans have excelled at the art of dance. Black American males had a storied history with dance, delighting in performing. As a child, I grew up watching black-and-white videos of The Temptations. Grandma and Mama fawned over them in their pristine suits, elegantly stepping in sync. Their smooth coordination was spellbinding. I understood […]
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Last week, my favorite podcast, Behind the Bastards, started a five part crossover series with the Hood Politics podcast on the crack epidemic and the Iran-Contra scandal. Listening to it takes me back to that time. Throughout the 1980s in the early 1990s, there were two questions I frequently heard the adults pose: […]
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