Emma Wade, here – the Editor of the paper’s Culture Section! Every Monday, you can check back here for four wonderful picks made by yours truly to bring you bliss in the upcoming week. My selections entail a favorite album, a binge-worthy series, something important to read and a quote to get you inspired.
Hi team. I’m sorry, I know I abandoned y’all last week. The past seven days have been quite emotional and exhausting for me and for so many others. I took my quote from last week to heart and made sure I was okay. But I’m back and here are so little morsels of happiness for you –
Album: We Got It From Here, Thank You 4 Your Service, available for streaming on all sites
A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ) released their first album in 18 years,18 YEARS, so you could say the stakes were pretty high. Although nothing and no one can ever replace Phife, their legendary MC who died due to complications with diabetes earlier this year, this album delivers ATCQ’s famous high quality hip-hop beats and brings us back to the time of true lyricism. The project features today’s greats such as Kayne, Andre 3000, Kendrick and Talib, and rejuvenates any hip-hop head that has found themselves disappointed with the overwhelming lack of purpose within the genre. The group is angry and conscious as usual, and they inspire you to get out into the world and do something, and probably most importantly, to love yourself and your people while doing it. “The Donald” is real politics and protest through art, and shows a new generation of musicians how you can incorporate these topics into your music without trivializing the issues. Take some time to actually listen to the album, and not just passively either; listen to the lyrics, understand the message and be moved. LONG LIVE PHIFE.
Binge Worthy: Stranger Things available for streaming on Netflix
Netflix is really killing the game with their originals; I mean honestly, can they make a bad one? Stranger Things is no different. In fact, it goes above and beyond the expectations I had. SciFi has never been a film genre that I can fully get behind. I always find my logical reasoning stepping in and preventing me from fully appreciating any science fiction movies. The plot is always far too dramatic and plays off of old (and quite frankly, played out) images of extraterrestrial or undead beings and predictable thrills. Stranger Things, set in 1970s Indiana, has a new and exciting plot line that features a company performing science experiments on human subjects. Incredible child actors are cast that are not only convincing, but absolutely enthralling. By the second episode, you’ll be intrigued, rooting for the show’s protagonists and invested in finding out where the hell Will is.
Read: Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Citizen is a book of beautiful social justice poetry. Rankine tells the story of an average black citizen going through their daily life. Much of the material is from Rankine herself, although she also tells stories contributed by her friends. Her writing features many subtleties and microaggressions that so often go unnoticed by the “aggressor” and the witnesses. These situations are not made up or sensationalized; they’re true retellings of what black people, like me, experience every day. She includes modern issues such as Serena Williams’ success and police brutality victims, namely Trayvon Martin. Best of all, you can grab this book for under $20 and it’s so concise that you can read it in just a few hours.
Quote: “I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I’m changing the things I cannot accept.” – Angela Davis, leading voice and activist in the womanist movement towards black liberation. Do not become complacent. Whatever you believe is right, educate yourself as much as you possibly can on the subject, and then go out into the world and be an advocate for your interests. Make the world a better place when you leave it than when you entered in.
