2.11.2009

black history blogging here and there

Being a Black American, I didn't forget that this is Black History Month. How can I? My own personal feelings might be a bit conflicting, since I believe Black history should be celebrated all year round because it's made all year round. November 4th, 2008 and January 20th, 2009 anyone? But at the same time, it's nice that we get an entire month to reflect and appreciate great achievements of our African American heroes, legends and events--past and present. And I'm talking about the legends that don't get mentioned as much as MLK, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglas and President Barack Obama. Legends like Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, Frederick Gregory or... dare I say it... Sam Cooke. And events like the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Power Movement or the Greensboro Sit-In (which is typically grouped with the Civil Rights Movement, but still significantly important in Black history as well as being immensely interesting and not as widely discussed).

I wrote some commentaries about some great Black idols of my own. Specifically the screenwriter/director/actor idols. It wasn't an easy list to make, but talking about why I chose them and think they are great or deserve some attention was easy to do. Melvin Van Peebles was first on that list, even though I think most of this generation might be more familiar seeing his son, Mario.

Anyway, a friendly screenwriting teacher known as Jaden is the one that provoked my written opinions about the subject, and offered me to be a guest contributor this month on her blog! My first thoughts were... "Me? Just a mere blogger and novice movie guru? On your resourceful site with tons of readers?" It is indoob humbling. Despite my few years of writing and performing for an audience, it's a feeling I don't think I'll ever get used to. I accepted the offer and picked four African American auteurs in cinema. There are more, and it's a list I'm striving to be on someday. But for the time being, these are some people that I aspire to be like.

But enough of my babbling, head on over to Screenwriting For Hollywood and appreciate my aspirations with me. I didn't "advertise" my posting over there partly because I forgot, so I'm doing it now. But thanks again to Jaden for furthering me and the Indoob brand out into the blogosphere and Internet world. Make sure you stick around her blog past February, she has a lot of wisdom and knowledge to dispense whether you are screenwriting for Hollywood or not.

2 comments:

melinda said...

I think I was scarred by a college professor who was very hung up on the black history movement. The class was supposed to be "american revolutionary history" or "early american history", something like that, but she only taught about the civil rights movement of the 1950s.

That said, I think black history is a fascinating segment of history. Being an armchair historian, though, I'm quite fascinated by all things history- including Asian history, African history, European history, etc... All of the different cultures have contributed some fascinating stuff to what makes us who we are.

Anonymous said...

It was fun having you. Thank you Mr. T.