Telling Your Story
Greetings,
The beauty of the internet is that it democratises storytelling. The flip side is that there is often so much noise, it’s hard to be heard.
1
There is the story of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raising their fists on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games. And then there’s the story of Australian Peter Norman, who was the silver medallist and stood on the podium.
2
If you are an Outkast fan, like I am, you dream of the day they record another album together, but I honestly don’t see it happening. Andre 3000 living his best life and doesn’t see a space for himself in the industry.
There is an interesting piece on Pudding titled A Look At Outkast’s History Through The Lens of Data which, for me, further amplifies and cements their place in hip hop lore.
3
Every summer (in the US) for the last decade, or thereabouts, DJ Jazzy Jeff and MICK (formerly Mick Boogie) would put out the Summertime Mixtape, until this year. They have decided to pause it … hopefully it’s just a pause.
4
I just finished reading Nikesh Shukla’s Brown Baby where he explores the challenge of raising Brown daughters in the UK and in a world that is often a little harder for Black and Brown babies, especially if they are girls. It is written as a series of letters to his older daughter and also explores grief - Shukla’s mother passed away before his daughter was born - in a way that is both truthful and painful. One can’t help but root for him.
5
For my Listen To Your Footsteps podcast this week, I shared a conversation I had with Wandi Nzimande, co-founder of Loxion Kulcha, the original streetwear brand in South Africa, that had an immense impact on culture in the country in the late 1990s, early 2000s. He went on to become a DJ, a television executive, a broadcaster, and a mentor to so many within South Africa’s entertainment, media and fashion industries. He was my friend and passed away in January of this year and so I shared a conversation from an event I did with him early last year, which I, as an afterthought, recorded on my phone.
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The history that we are taught was moulded with a specific agenda, especially when it comes to Africa and Africans’ place in it.
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It’s that simple.
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Easy, Kojo