#BlackCritique

This program is intent to push the boundaries of Black thought as Black Critique. What do I mean? Contextualization is an art, an art that I find an affinity with and seek to perfect. Not for a personal gratification, but to discover and map a “rhythm” ---much like John Coltrane or an African shaman---that can serve as a spark of our critical consciousness. Black critique is a process of organic and evolutionary resistance to complicity, racial capitalism, colonialism/neocolonialism, imperialism, neo-imperialism sexism, racism, as well as any and all forms of discrimination/marginalization against people historically and contemporarily marginalized, centering the African world experience, and mapping outward. To understand Cornel West’s critique of Coates, one must engage with the long genealogy of Black Critique centered on Black Reason. Social media has its way of Christopher Columbus-ing things that have already been (for centuries in fact). The critique of West on Coates is in line with a long tradition of intellectual and ideological engagement; an invocation of critical dialogue and reasoning to discover paths towards freedom. To find ways to correct sociopolitical wrongs, with economic rights, cultural degradation with spiritual revitalization. Black Critique is built upon Black Reason. This argument is not simply aesthetically— racial. Black is used, here, as qualifier of resistance. An assertion of African world humanity. A notice that declares---it has always been. To understand Black reason is to understand the nature of the universe of thought and action itself. Both, its negative and positive reactions and responses. As Achille Mbembe writes in Critique of Black Reason, to understand Black reason is to understand what constitutes reason as we know it— the reason of state, the reason of capital, the reason of history. Today, we intend to start a critical conversation that moves beyond the aesthetic of critique ... Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native, indigenous, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people. Enjoy!