Dean Baquet interviews Jay-Z Dean Baquet at The New York Times: Dean Baquet is executive editor of The New York Times, a position he assumed in May 2014. Mr. Baquet serves in the highest ranked position in The Times’s newsroom … Continue reading →

At 15:40 into this video, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah explains, before playing the tune with his group, the genesis of “Ku Klux Police Department.”

…the images are very much an homage to the black South, which is often forgotten, you know, in movements. And I don’t know why, because we keep having to return to the black South, you know, as we should. It’s … Continue reading →

There’s a political component to “One Big Self,” of course. By creating present-day inmate portraits that appear to be antiques, Luster slyly suggests that while the rest of the world has undergone social and technological sea changes, incarceration is essentially … Continue reading →

A quadroon nurse followed them about with a faraway, meditative air. — Kate Chopin, The Awakening. (2) Kim Vaz-Deville, author of The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition:

Ladies and Men of Unity and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux.  

Resa “Cinnamon Black” Bazile of the the Tremé Million-Dollar Baby Dolls.

Ausettua Amor Amenkum, queen of the Yellow Pocahontas and Washitaw Nation.

From NPR: Regine Chassagne of Arcade Fire pays tribute to her Haitian roots with a new Krewe du Kanaval at Mardi Gras this year. The effort is a collaboration with Preservation Hall Jazz band. Go here to listen.

New Orleans music has a whole breath of life in it. It’s music for the mind, body, and soul. — Donald Harrison, Jr.