Check out the latest piece that I did for British-based magazine Kisua on visual artist Toyin Odutola. – LOM
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Check out this really interesting article by Dan Osa Amadasun. Let me know what you think after reading it. This article definitely warrants a deeper conversation no only for folks for color, but all groups who feel disenfranchised and excluded from participating in the joys of contemporary art. -LOM
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Since childhood I have always been curious as to why rich people were rich and the poor were poor. Fast-forward two decades and that same curiosity has evolved into a call for action to do something about the insidious ways in which inequalities infect our daily lives. It was during the second year of my undergraduate degree, at the age of 32, that I became aware of the limited exposure I had had to certain social and cultural resources as a child and young adult. As a teenager my experience and aspirations were heavily influenced by two things: the media (mainly TV and music) and the church – my mother was an international evangelist. During one of my undergraduate courses I was mentally conversing with a lecture about the ideas of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu on Social and Cultural Capital. I had one of those eureka moments, I wonder if I can use these ideas to increase my kids’ life chances? Bourdieu was the son of a farmer who went on to become an academic and public intellectual. Despite his success Bourdieu always felt out of place among the middle-classes, ‘like a fish out of water’ – a concept he called ‘hysteresis’. The matter of how class is reproduced by the unconscious imbibing of tacit rules, values, dispositions and tastes was to become an enduring theme in Bourdieu’s writing and research.
This article that popped up on the Business Insider really shouldn’t be new news to folks who’ve paid attention to Jay Z’s career for the past couple of years. When the majority of the “chess moves” that you are making is motivated by the almighty dollar at some point people will start looking at you funny. It will be interesting to see what Hov does in 2014 to regain the trust of the people. – LOM
In July, the rapper and business mogul Jay Z partnered with Samsung to release a new album, “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” by giving away 1 million copies to the first Samsung mobile users to download a free app.
The deal netted Jay a cool $5 million in sales and a platinum album the moment it was released, and it burnished his image as an innovative businessman. But it’s not clear that the $20 million partnership — or other recent Jaz Z ventures — have actually helped Jay Z’s image.