16 Bars is a recurring column at MusiQology. When we want to get a sense of the discourse around a particular pop culture moment or event, we search the web, highlighting diverse voices across social media and aggregating them in a kind of thematic digital verse. A sign of a rapper’s ability is his or her ability to freestyle 16 bars—MusiQology’s piece is an improvisational sampling of speakers in concert.
This has been a most difficult year.
Between the passing too soon of many musical luminaries and the fallout from the election of a racist demagogue and the attacks on students of color on our own campus at Penn, taking a moment to count our blessings feels almost inappropriate. The stakes are too high; the danger too pressing; the reality too stark.
But before we take a much-needed holiday break to convalesce among family and friends, we at MusiQology wanted to take a little time to make space for thankfulness in these trying times. While as President Obama once said, “the road ahead will be long,” in the days and months ahead we will try to cling to our heroes and allies in the struggle who give us joy, satisfaction, and a soundtrack to protest. Thus, this #16Bars highlights those to whom we owe a debt—for keeping us engaged, inspired, and motivated when the fight feels tough and the load feels heavy. In spite of the horrors of the moment, we still have a lot of reasons to be thankful.
Miss Sharon Jones’s singular brilliance
Gone too soon, the legendary singer who battled racism for decades only to achieve the late-career success she deserved was singing until the end of her life. This performance of “Stranger to My Happiness” shows how much dynamism she could pack into her tiny frame.
The Philadelphia Institute for Contemporary Art
The West Philadelphia community around our University of Pennsylvania campus is rich with a cultural diversity and history all its own. No institution embodies that more than the ICA, which has emphasized the work of under-recognized artists of color, particularly with two current exhibitions, “Freedom Principle” and “Endless Shout.” We had the pleasure of a running a piece by new contributor Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn as part of our Fresh Wax series, and the ICA recently hosted Dr. Guy’s highly successful panel, “Cross Relations: Experimentation and the Arts.” To relisten to the panel, CLICK HERE.
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther comics
Since he started writing a new history of the mythical king of Wakanda earlier this year, Coates has pushed the comic book genre in new and exciting directions. Behold the cover art from a series of recent issues.
Michelle Obama
The First Lady’s grace and poise combined with her relatability make her such an important voice in the political world. Our managing editor had the privilege of working on a recent Vogue cover story about her. It’s full of great anecdotes—see this one on music: “Between takes, Ellen blasts her favorite songs, mostly seventies R&B, soul, and funk—and Mrs. Obama seems to know the lyrics to every one, singing along to herself with her eyes closed while someone touches up her makeup or a techie fusses over her mic. At one point, she and Ellen sing the Salt-N-Pepa song “Shoop” to each other, a tune with complex wordplay that is more than a little racy. Music, Mrs. Obama tells me, “is my best de-stresser in life. The times when Barack and I are at our most relaxed are when we invite some friends over who we have known forever. And you put a little music on top of that? Some good food? It renews your spirit to get back in the game.”
Academic Discourse and Mentorship
Trading Fours has been one of our favorite new recurring pieces at MusiQology over the last year. Our most recent edition was a three-generational academic genealogy, with Dr. Guy at the center reflecting on the legacy of his own mentor, Samuel Floyd, with Managing Editor John Vilanova.
Nina Simone
Spoiler Alert: We’re tweeting this at the PEOTUS every day in the month of December.
Barry Jenkins’s Unique Vision
The Miami-born black filmmaker has been making major waves with Moonlight, an experimental and personal film that uses cinematographic wizardry to engage with race in a way seldom have done before on screen. Here’s a conversation between Jenkins and Ta-Nehisi Coates courtesy of The Atlantic.
#HAM4BEY
Just watch it.
Van Jones’s Truth
Not a lot of positives can or should be taken from Election Night, but in a time when our mainstream media voices have been often untrustworthy and certainly not progressive enough, Van Jones’s willingness to call the election what it was—“a whitelash”—as votes rolled in was an important moment of understanding on an awful night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GHpX5kfZ1k
Amiri Baraka’s Poetry
“Dope” in particular hits on all the important notes of our moment, though it was written more than 40 years ago. How prescient does a set of lines like these feel right now? “must be the devil, it ain capitalism, it aint capitalism,/it aint capitalism, /naw it aint that, jimmy carter wdnt lie,/“lifes unfair” but it aint capitalism.”
Wesley Morris’s Testicular Fortitude
The esteemed film critic just wrote a 5,000 word opus on the black phallus and its place in American cinema. It’s an incredible read—and quite the topic for the Thanksgiving dinner table.
Gil-Scott Heron
This question needs to be asked.
Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock’s Comedic Brilliance
Saturday Night Live will have to atone for enabling and normalizing the President Elect, but their first episode after his victory was one for the ages. With Dave Chappelle hosting and A Tribe Called Quest the musical guest, a show often rightly criticized for its lack of diversity was giving space to black entertainers and performers in a very real way. This sketch was an important moment of honesty for a nation still reeling from the election results. For many well-meaning people shocked at the results, it was a necessary reminder that, for many, the
Prince’s Obsessive Archiving
Our grand hope is that although The Artist has left this earth, that over the years to come, more of his allegedly massive unreleased back catalogue will leak out of the vaults at Paisley Park. The first song, “Moonbeam Levels,” which was recorded during the 1999 sessions, has just been released and can be heard HERE. A deluxe edition of his masterwork Purple Rain due out next year is expected to contain a second full album of unreleased magic.
Solange Knowles’s A Seat at the Table
H/T to Pitchfork for this review: “A Seat at the Table’s nature is beneficent, but at its spiritual core it is an ode to black women and their healing and sustenance in particular; in writing about herself, Solange turns the mirror back upon them, and crystallizes the kinship therein.”
Kendrick Lamar’s Optimism
Because we need this song now more than ever.
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