Hidden Gems to Help You Learn Something New
Deep cuts.
In music, deep cuts are tracks that are lesser known than the rest of an artist’s music—but they’re often the ones that stick with us, that reveal something vital and true about the artist and their body of work. When it comes to the battle hymn against racism, it’s safe to say that many of us have spent some time soaking in the obvious hits. So, since we’re all about the ongoing search for depth, we thought we would again share some of our more non-obvious resources to enhance our understanding.
Coffee talk (keep it real).
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Beyond the quote.
At this point, quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. are so ubiquitous (and so often co-opted or out of context) it’s rendered many of his most brilliant writings tragically misunderstood. That’s why A Testament to Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches is such an essential bookshelf fixture. Absorbing King’s longer writings over time gives you a view to how he formulated his beliefs, responding to a changing movement and incorporating the lessons of the wider world.
A shining star.
We’ll admit that some of our enthusiasm for 2022 waned when we lost Sidney Poitier so soon after the ball dropped. Of course, we vaguely knew that we had lost a giant, but Wesley Morris’ passionate remembrance (Don’t have beyond-the-paywall access to The NYT? Listen to him here) not only took full inventory of the void left by Poitier, but convinced us of his true movie-star chops. Since then, we’ve been revisiting his IMDb rundown with freshly opened eyes.
No, the other counterculture concert.
Quick: Name a New York state-located concert lined up with blockbuster talents in the summer of 1969. You thought “Woodstock,” right? Well, sure, that happened, but at the same time in Harlem, the likes of Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and Sly & The Family Stone were performing in a park over a six-week period. In Questlove’s (what can’t he do?) first documentary, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) he unearths buried footage of the concert, seamlessly blended with interviews to show how music and art can uplift during turbulent times.
