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A Commanding Voice from the Past Speaks with Brilliant Clarity to the Present | LinkedIn

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This French edition of "King, Malcolm, Baldwin: Three Interviews" by Dr. Kenneth B. Clark illustrates just influential Baldwin's writings became during the 1960s and 1970s . Editorial Note : The full post of this article by Aberjhani on LinkedIn and accessible via the link below incorporates a segment of the previously published essay The Year of James Baldwin Now in Full Classic Literary Swing Before there were human resource managers and action research teams counseling American corporations on the advantages of embracing diversity rather than vilifying it, there was author James Baldwin putting the theory to the test in acclaimed essays, novels, plays, short stories, poems, and dialogues. Social networkers in recent weeks have found occasion to quote those writings in regard to everything from a Palestinian state and gay marriage equality to Barack  Obama’s presidency and the American identity. It is true that he marched alongside ...

The Year of James Baldwin Now in Full Classic Literary Swing (part 1) - by Aberjhani

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Author James Baldwin in St. Paul de Vence, France, 1976. (photo by Dmitri Kasterine) “It has always been much easier (because it has always seemed much safer) to give a name to the evil without than to locate the terror within. And yet, the terror within is far truer and far more powerful than any of our labels: the labels change, the terror is constant.” –James Baldwin, from  the essay Nothing Personal Members of New York City’s cultural arts community made a rare kind of decision earlier this year and the results of that decision continue to generate exceptional events and responses. They–– as in Columbia University School of the Arts, Harlem Stage, and New York Live Arts–– elected to observe The Year of James Baldwin from April 2014 until June 2015 in honor of the late iconoclastic African-American author’s 90th birthday August 2, 2014. Long before he died on December 1, 1987, millions came to recognize the indelible mark...

Text and Meaning in Michael Jackson's Xscape (part 4) - by Aberjhani

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“It is difficult to listen to [Michael Jackson’s] ‘Do You Know Where Your Children Are’ without thinking about the ongoing #BringBackOurGirls campaign.” –Article Excerpt (Aberjhani) What television audiences experienced with the debut of “Slave to the Rhythm” was Mr. Jackson as transhumanist art in its more positive and inspiring holographic form. Anyone who finds that statement unsettling probably should not. At least one potential definition of transhumanist art is the creative representation of a person, such as in a work of visual art or literature, which utilizes advanced technologies (or allusion to such technologies) to symbolize humanity as an enhanced species closer to cyborgs or angels than to apes. In its broader philosophical framework, transhumanism is a futuristic ideology that studies both the likely pitfalls and potential benefits of employing technology to enhance the physical, intellectual, and overal...

Text and Meaning in Michael Jackson's Xscape (part 1) - by Aberjhani

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                 ( Postered Poetics Xscape graphic derived from original art by Mat Maitland ) “He talked always about giving love. It was never about how much love he got back.”––Antonio “L.A.” Reid discussing Michael Jackson , Xscape Documentary DVD Any announcements of “new music” from Michael Jackson must necessarily and rightly be met with a healthy amount of skepticism. Important questions have to be answered: Is this new music going to be something dug out of once-private vaults simply because of its guaranteed ability to stimulate cash-flow for all those who manage to attach their names to it?  Or will it emerge and stand as a true representation of Jackson’s certified brilliance and successfully extend the incandescent legacy of soul-nourishing rhythms and altruistic service he spent a lifetime creating? The now much-discussed 17 tracks on the “deluxe editio...