Curated Conversations EP 16: What's the origin of the pain?

Black On Black Project’s Curated Conversations EP 16 featuring Johnny Lee Chapman, III, Anthony Otto Nelson Jr., Jade Wilson and Angela Thorpe. This episode was recorded LIVE and in partnership with the North Carolina Museum of Art.

In 2020 the world has dealt with COVID-19 and quarantine, and then again, we see more hashtags for African-American citizens — Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The confluence of events led to more than a week of protests around the country, including in North Carolina. In some instances, even violence.

In addition to talking about the protests themselves, Black On Black Project founder Michael S. Williams wants to go deeper and explore why so many citizens are in pain. By looking at some of the history of enslaved people in the United States we can begin to look at the origins of these feelings. If we can understand where some of this pain comes from, we can begin to understand how to break it down and address it.

This episode features a conversation that offers insight and historical context into the events we’ve seen across the nation in recent weeks. The keen perspectives shared are from poet Johnny Lee Chapman, III, dancer and choreographer Anthony Otto Nelson Jr., videographer and photographer Jade Wilson and Angela Thorpe, director of the NC African-American Heritage Commission.

[Note: The short film “The Will of the Father” is not part of this recording.]

Curated Conversations features Black On Black Project founder Michael S. Williams chatting with people in the community about what’s happening the world around us. Watch the entire Curated Conversations series here.

REFERENCE MATERIAL FOR THIS EPISODE OF CURATED CONVERSATIONS:

• "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave," Frederick Douglass

• "Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880," W.E.B. Du Bois

• "Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow," Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

• "The Red Record," Ida B. Wells-Barnett"

• "The True Story Behind The Wilmington Ten," Larry Reni Thomas

• "Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World," David Brion Davis

• "A People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn

• National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) report, 1968

(Note: Look for these titles online at black-owned independent bookstores. Here’s a list to start with.)