#vulture festival 2023

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How to save the new from Big Tech

This Saturday (May 20), I’ll be at the GAITHERSBURG Book Festival with my novel Red Team Blues; then on May 22, I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.

On May 23, I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.

It’s no longer controversial to claim that Big Tech is a parasite on the news business. But there’s still a raging controversy over the nature of the parasitism, and, much more importantly, what to do about it.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/18/stealing-money-not-content/#beyond-link-taxes

This week on EFF’s Deeplinks blog, I kick off a new series on the abusive relationship between Big Tech and the news, analyzing four different dirty practices and proposing policy answers to all four:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

The context here is that various governments around the world have taken notice of the tech/news problem, and are chasing a counterproductive “solution” — the “link tax,” where tech firms are required to pay for the links and short snippets their users or news search-tools make to news-stories. In some cases, the “tax” is indirect: tech is required to negotiate a payment to make up for other misdeeds (like ripping publishers off with ad fraud).

You can argue that this isn’t a link tax, it’s just pressure to bargain, but because these rules typically ban platforms from simply blocking publishers’ content if they can’t reach an agreement, they become link taxes: “You must carry links, and you must pay the sites you link to” isn’t meaningfully different from “You must pay for linking to those sites.”

This “must-carry” dimension — requiring tech firms to publish links to sites they don’t want to link to — has lots of things wrong with it, but in the US, must-carry has a showstopper bug: it contravenes the First Amendment and any law with a must-carry provision is unlikely to survive a court challenge. So people who care about protecting the news from Big Tech predators — like me — need to try other approaches.

But no matter where you are, requiring tech to pay fees to news is the wrong approach. For one thing, it’s a solution that only works for so long as Big Tech stays big: that means that efforts to break up Big Tech, force it to pay taxes and fines, and limit its profits (say, through privacy laws that end surviellance ads) are incompatible with link taxes and adjacent proposals.

The big risk here is that news outlets will become partisans in the fight against shrinking Big Tech, because news companies’ destinies will be linked to the tech giants’ own fate. More immediately, there’s the risk that news companies that depend on negotiating payments from Big Tech will not act as the effective watchdogs we need them to be.

That’s not just a hypothetical risk: in Canada, Big Tech entered into negotiations with the Toronto Star — the country’s widest-circulating paper — ahead of a proposed “news bargaining code” that was working its way through Parliament. Once that settlement was reached, the Star abruptly killed “Defanging Tech” its excellent critical series on the tech giants it had just climbed into bed with:

https://www.thestar.com/news/big-tech.html

Another important risk from “bargaining codes” and link taxes is that they tend to favor the largest and/or most sensationalist news companies, who have the leverage to bargain for the highest sums. In Australia, Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp bargained for a sizable payment from the tech sector — but then it laid off its news workers. Merely transferring money to media giants doesn’t mean an increase in investment in news. That’s especially true in the Canadian context, where a US vulture-capitalist fund bought out the National Post and its nationwide affiliates and then loaded the chain up with debt, while hacking newsroom staff to the bone and beyond. There’s no reason to think that tech payments to the Post will go anywhere except to the financial speculators who are its major creditors.

Meanwhile, the proposed US version, JCPA, has a payout schedule based on the number of clicks a news outlet generates for each platform — a metric that will see the lion’s share of money going to the far-right clickbait sites that push conspiracy theories, disinformation, and culture-war nonsense — and see floods of social media traffic as a result.

Any solution to the tech/news conflict should benefit the news, and the workers who produce it — not the shareholders of the giant companies whose short-sighted consolidation, mass firings, and sell-offs of physical plant created the hyper-concentrated, brittle news sector of today:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/16/sociopathic-monsters/#all-the-news-thats-fit-to-print

Luckily for the news, there’s a whole bushel of policy levers we can yank on to make the news better, stronger, and more sustainable, even as tech monopolies and the surveillance they rely on are consigned to the scrapheap of history.

In this series — which will publish weekly over the next four weeks — I’ll dig into four policy prescriptions for making a better news that is free of Big Tech, not dependent on it:

I. Break up ad-tech: Following the lead of Senator Mike Lee’s AMERICA Act, we must end the ad-tech sector’s self-dealing. Ad-tech scoops up 51% of every ad-dollar. That’s thanks to the ad-tech companies practice of offering marketplaces in which they represent both advertisers and publishers: that’s like a game where the referee pays the salaries of the head coaches for both teams. If we pare back the ad-tech tax to, say 10% and split the difference between advertisers and publishers, then every publisher will see an immediate 20% increase in their top-line revenue, without having to “bargain” for a “voluntary” payment from tech companies.

II. Ban surveillance ads: America is long overdue for a federal privacy law with a private right of action. When we finally get such a law, surveillance advertising is dead. Ad-tech has long argued that people like ads, so long as they’re “relevant,” a state that can only be attained through continuous, invasive surveillance. In reality, no one consents to surveillance — which is why, when Apple gave its users a one-click opt-out from spying, 94% blocked spying (unfortunately, Apple only blocks its competitors from spying on Apple customers; even if you opt out of spying on your Apple device, Apple will continue to spy on you).

The natural successor to surveillance ads is context ads: ads based on the content you’re looking at, not the surveillance data an ad-tech platform amassed on you without your consent. Context ads are intrinsically better for publishers: no publisher will ever know as much about a reader’s behavior than a spying ad-tech platform, but no ad-tech platform will ever know as much about a publisher’s own content than the publisher does.

That means that the benefits of a ban on surveillance ads wouldn’t just be an end to creepy internet spying — it would also transfer power from tech companies to news companies, online performers and other creative workers.

III. Open up app stores: 30% of every dollar spent on app-based digital subscriptions is claimed by two companies, Google and Apple, the mobile duopoly. This app store tax is a pure transfer from news to tech. The EU’s Digital Markets Act and the proposed US Open App Markets Act are both designed to kill the app store tax. Dropping mobile payment processing fees from 30% to the industry standard 2–5% will instantaneously make increase the revenue from every subscriber by 25% or more.

IV. Make social media end-to-end: Tech platforms’ predictable enshittification strategy always ends with publishers no longer being able to reach their subscribers unless they pay to “boost” their content. Social media companies claim to be facilitators of the connection between publishers and audiences, but in reality, they take those audiences hostage and ransom them off to publishers. An end-to-end rule for social media would require platforms to reliably deliver material published by accounts to their own followers, who asked to see that material.

The debate over news and tech starts from the erroneous — and dangerous — assumption that the platforms are stealing the news media’s content, by letting their users talk about, quote and link to the news. This isn’t theft: if you’re not allowed to talk about the news, then it’s not the news — it’s a secret.

The platforms are stealing from news, though: they’re not stealing content, they’re stealing money. Between sky-high ad-tech rakes, app store taxes, and ransom demands to reach your own subscribers, the tech companies have grabbed the majority of money generated by news workers and the companies they work for.

Ending this theft will produce a more sustainable and robust source of funding for the news — without compromising news companies’ ability to aggressively hold tech to account, and without propping up financialized, hollowed-out media monopolies at the expense of an independent press.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/18/stealing-money-not-content/#beyond-link-taxes

[Image ID: EFF's banner for the save news series; the word 'NEWS' appears in pixelated, gothic script in the style of a newspaper masthead. Beneath it in four entwined circles are logos for breaking up ad-tech, ending surveillance ads, opening app stores, and end-to-end delivery.]

Image: EFF https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[japhan2024]

💛Smoshblr December Asks Final Day💙

We‘ve done it! We’ve finally reached the end of this lil ask game and also the end of 2023! 🥳 Thank you so much for joining in on this, I truly appreciate it so much 🫶! I wish you a wonderful start into the new year and that all your hopes and dreams for 2024 will come true! ✨💞

But, since the year isn’t quite over yet, I thought this might be a nice time to reminisce a little bit. Therefore, the final question of the Smoshblr December Asks Game:

What are your favourite smosh-related memories of 2023? 💖

(no specific amount required for this one; and you can ofc also include older smosh memories, if you want to 🤗)

Stella!! I'm so gonna miss getting your asks every day in my inbox T_T thank you so much for making this month extra special and festive, it was absolutely wonderful waking up knowing there would be a new one waiting!!! <3

My favorite Smosh-related memory? Well, idk, I read a really great fanfic, but it was a bit out there, a bit too sentimental and unrealistic... it goes like this:

Friendship always wins

The sun scorched the suburbs of Sacramento. The neighborhood looked like if a stock photo had a heroine problem. Bored out of their minds, two sixth graders got grouped together for a school project.

"Here, let me draw some turds on the trash pile."

"I'll add flies."

"Hehehe, yeah that looks better."

The two kids, Ian and Anthony, connected through their shared humor, which ranged from Beavis and Butthead to Home Alone to Southpark, and to whatever was on the internet in that godforsaken time pre-2005.

The oldest one, Anthony, came from a broken home. He had to grow up fast and take care of his siblings and mom. The only times he could really be a kid and fuck around, was with his best friend Ian. Feeling nurtured by Ian's mom and dad, and constantly laughing at Ian's jokes, his happiness was there, with Ian. He could get through working hard, as long as he had Ian to go back to and have fun.

Their nerdy friend group were all into internet humor and Anthony came up with the idea of having a forum for them all to shitpost on and share their creations and collaborate.

But then he got sick. Really sick. He couldn't go to school, had to stay home for six months. He felt so isolated, not seeing his friends, most of all Ian. But Ian showed up at his house with a get well soon card. It was signed by everyone from his class. He could cry, he was so happy with this symbol of friendship. It kept him going the rest of the months. He put his time and energy into coding and learning how to do graphic design.

Smosh was born and it took off. First the website was just for them; Ian, Anthony, and their friends. It had stuff like articles, memes and videos. But soon the whole school was frequenting the site. News traveled outside the school even, and before they knew it, Smosh was an internet phenomenon. After they graduated, Ian and Anthony chose to keep the website going. Just for fun. And they got some money from merch they would distribute themselves.

One day, they saw that one of their videos was pirated and hosted on some new platform: YouTube. That gave them an idea: why not host all their videos there? It was free after all. Being at the right place at the right time, with the right kind of humor and the right kind of raw talent, Smosh was propelled to be one of the biggest YouTube channels there were. They even became the biggest one. However, with success also comes vultures, ready to take everything from you...

A company introduced themselves to Ian and Anthony and promised them the world: give Smosh to us, and you will only have to worry about making videos. We will take care of everything else. It sounded too good to be true. And sadly, it was. For even though at first, Ian and Anthony had more fun than ever, coming up with bigger and funnier videos than ever, they soon found out they were not in control anymore.

Anthony, who had always fought to stay in control of things; his family, his health, his whole life... it was very hard to see his creation being contorted and mutilated into something he didn't want it to be. And he grew to hate it. That hate spread everywhere, even towards his best friend, who kept trying to tell him "man, let's take the losses and be happy we have this job, we could have still been in Sacramento with nowhere to go."

But Anthony had had it.

"Ian, come with me, let's start a new channel, just the two of us."

"Anthony... I can't. It doesn't make any sense business wise. I know it's not ideal, but please, Anthony, stay?"

After years and years of putting his all into the company, Anthony couldn't do it anymore. He quit Smosh, and a shockwave went through the entire fandom that had built around it.

Smosh was still going. But you see, money and power got involved, and Ian and Anthony had lost sight of each other... they tried to hold on, you could see it clear as day, but they were ripped apart by the greed of the soulless company, which is a tautology, if you think about it.

Both guys were heartbroken. Still sneaking glances at each other, but not able to speak. Too much had happened between them.

And then the company went bankrupt and Smosh was in mortal danger. Ian, who had fought to keep the brand alive ever since Anthony left, fought as hard as he could to find someone to buy it, who wouldn't just sell it off for parts like an old car. Luckily, a YouTuber duo who knew Smosh from afar, stepped in and saved the day. Thanks to them and to Ian, Smosh survived. But was it really still Smosh? What was Smosh if it wasn't Ian and Anthony?

In the meantime, Anthony had rebooted his personal YouTube channel and through trial and error found success. Nothing like Smosh, of course, but impressive nonetheless.

Apart from each other, Ian and Anthony persevered. But they were still heartbroken and in need of something. That something was each other of course. And finally, years later, they met again. And they were both surprised. They had both healed and grown enough to see each other and talk freely, like adults. And they were surprised to see how well they still clicked.

It was like they were the same friends they had been all those years ago, but eve better. The slogan they had come up with all those years, finally rang true again, more than it had ever done. Friendship always wins.

And as they reconnected more and more, one faithful day, one of them said..

"what if we bought Smosh?"

And at that moment, their family was no longer broken, they were reunited and Anthony suddenly had a lot more 'kids' to take care of. But he was so happy, so happy to be with Ian again. He was finally fulfilled.

[jesstasticvoyage]

Cody Fern & Adam Lambert

Sundance Film Festival 2023 - Vulture Interview

January 21, 2023

[babyjujubee]

Alden Ehrenreich. Photograph by Ryan Pfluger for Vulture Entertainment. Promoting "Fair Play" at the Sundance Film Festival 2023.

[burlveneer-music]

Electric Sufi - Breathe In Love

This is Breathe in Love, the new album by Electric Sufi. A first single 'O Ignis Spiritus' will be released on 1 February 2023, the album will be released later that year.

Electric Sufi are Sheffield based Professor of Music and Sound Archaeologist at Huddersfield University Rupert Till, Manchester based singer-songwriter and environmental activist Sarah Yaseen and Nottingham based multi-instrumentalist / University lecturer Mina Mikhael Salama.

Rupert has produced ambient dance, chillout and electronic music under the the moniker Professor Chill throughout his career, including the album Dub Archaeology released in 2018. He’s also written the book Pop Cult which delves into the mysteries of music and spirituality, participated in the BBC TV series Civilisations as well as numerous other TV and radio shows, plus written articles in The Quietus, Huffington Post and New Scientist. His extensive research projects have been wide and varied, covering a multitude of subjects ranging from ‘The influences of Religion on British Club Culture and Electronic Dance music’ to ‘Sound Archaeology, Acoustics and Cave Art’.

Sarah, whose family roots are in Kashmir, is known in world music circles as a singer in UK Womad favourites Rafiki Jazz and Danish all-woman ensemble Radiant Arcadia. In Electric Sufi she sings in Urdu, Punjabi, Persian, Latin and English – and by doing so, draws upon a wide range of cultural influences. Inspired by Qawwali (Islamic devotional singing from India) and Ghazals (Arabic poetry), she has one foot firmly placed in a contemporary multicultural world and the other in the ancient lyrical and musical traditions on which she draws.

Mina, a Coptic Christian from Alexandria, Egypt, came to the UK as a refugee, taking asylum here from persecution in his homeland. He has since contributed much to UK culture through his performances at WOMAD, Edinburgh Festival, The Southbank, London as well as Cardiff, Leicester, Manchester and beyond. Along with Rupert, Mina has also contributed to the BBC TV series Civilisations where he demonstrated a 30,000-year-old Isturitz Vulture bone flute. On an international level, Mina has contributed to the music score on Disney’s Aladdin, directed by Guy Richie and starring Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott.

With a first performance at Bradford’s Kala Sangam Arts Centre, which received much applause from a diverse audience, this trio brings much collectively and individually to the Electric Sufi sound, resulting in a rich tapestry of cultural and musical layers of influence that their album Breathe In Love explores in much detail. Their modern interpretation of O Ignis Spiritus is a wonderful introduction to this enchanted world and their message of hope.

[ecsundance]

2024 Sundance Film Festival Summary

Sundance, Slamdance, what-a-chance to see a lot of movies and have a lot of fun!

I now have an idea of the evolution of the film festival in Park City, Utah. After attending both Sundance and Slamdance for the first time, I have come away with a new appreciation for the effort and challenges faced in making a film. I also have a better understanding of Michael Z. Newman’s claim in his book, Indie: An American Film Culture, stating that indie films cannot simply be defined in economic, stylistic, or thematic terms but rather, needs to be understood culturally. In his book Newman identifies three strategies to use when viewing films: characters as emblems, form is a game, and when in doubt, read as anti-Hollywood. Throughout my time watching here at the festival, I tried to engage with these films using these strategies.

Talking to people who have lived in Park City their entire lives, I have come to realize that the Sundance Film Festival has changed significantly over the years into what it is today. First off, the film festival scene has not fully recovered from the effects of COVID. Secondly, the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strike also had an impact on the filmmakers, some of which were not able to meet the Sundance deadline. In the years prior to COVID it was difficult to walk down the street due to the crowds. This year the crowds were definitely larger but did not get back to pre-COVID levels.

Sundance has grown over its forty-year history. It is still bringing indie filmmakers together, but often in a larger way in multiple areas. Whether it be star power, budgets, scope of the film, or trying to get studio or distribution support, it is definitely larger than it was. Additionally, there are now major companies sponsoring Sundance, setting up large tents, buildings, and erecting facades on the storefronts in the Main Street area during the festival. These included Adobe, Acura, Audible, Canon, Chase Sapphire, DoorDash, Dropbox, Shutterstock, United Airlines, and United Talent Agency (UTA) as well as media publications such as IndieWire, Variety, and Vulture.

Contrast this to Slamdance, which is held in three theaters right next to each other inside the same hotel. Having them close together along with lounges above provided convenient access for the production staff and created an atmosphere that makes it easier to speak and connect with the filmmakers. They were very willing to talk about the films, how they got there, lessons learned, and even to provide their contact information. Slamdance appears to be more like what Sundance started out as.

I also have a better understanding of some of the challenges that go into the business of independent filmmaking. The first is obtaining funding. Sources for funding include personal funding (like George Lucas who mortgaged his house to make Star Wars), state grants, crowdfunding, and major studio backing. The other challenges come from all directions. Planned and unplanned. Planned like trying to get the actors that you want to work with you such as the interviewees in The Greatest Night in Pop which was the “We Are the World” production. Unplanned challenges which can come from out of nowhere and are sometimes technical. For example, imagine losing part of the audio and having to later fill in the missing audio during editing and not having the actors available since they had already left. This happened to the filmmakers of Thirsty Girl.

Every film, regardless of size, will have its own goals. Some want to increase their funding to produce a larger project. Others want to make a political statement. Still, there are documentaries that may want to show the effort it takes to accomplish something like The Greatest Night in Pop or the film, Union.

When it comes to making indie films, Newman states, “It [independent cinema] is most centrally a cluster of interpretive strategies and expectations that are shared among filmmakers; their support personnel, including distributors and publicists; the staffers of independent cinema institutions such as film festivals; critics and other writers; and audiences. All of these different people are audiences who employ these [three viewing] strategies, and it is only because filmmakers are also film spectators that they are able to craft their works to elicit particular responses from the audience. Indie constitutes a film culture: it includes texts, institutions, and audiences. Indie audiences share viewing strategies for thinking about and engaging with the texts—they have in common knowledge and competence—which are products of indie community networks” (Newman 11).

While watching the films during the Sundance Film Festival I tried to analyze the films using Newman’s three strategies. For example, characters as emblems are used in Winner as the main character is symbolic of anyone that stands up for what they believe to be right but is in conflict with the law or society. Form is a game is another strategy of Newman’s that I saw used in the short film, Pasture Prime. This film transitions from a stalker to horror film with a twist at the very end as the snake slithers away. The third viewing strategy, when in doubt, read as anti-Hollywood, is identified as movies that do not have a happy or conclusive ending. Examples of this include Winner, where the hero goes to jail as well as the short film, The Lost Season, where people are indifferent to climate change. Anti-Hollywood movies also include films that leave you asking questions at the end. For example, in the instance of Winner, I am left wondering why there is such a difference in her punishment for crimes compared to others that were more serious. Also, in The Lost Season, I wonder if the next generations would care if they never got to experience winter. For short films, like Pasture Prime and The Lost Season, you have to wonder why they hit home for the director and how long they had this burning desire to make them. Newman’s three strategies are not mutually exclusive and often overlap as in Winner with the use of characters as emblems and when in doubt, read as anti-Hollywood.

As you can see, independent film is much more than inexperienced people with little money and unknown actors and directors producing a film. It encompasses films that are trying to send a message, provoke thought, think outside the box, or just be different.

Here is a list of the films I saw broken out between Sundance and Slamdance. My favorite film is Rob Peace, and my least favorite is I Saw The TV Glow.

Including both Sundance and Slamdance, I watched a total of 24 films (this is counting each short program as just one film).

Sundance:

Feature Films

A Different Man – Very well done. Psychologically the character in this film is crazed by the fact that he changed his appearance, but it did not make him who he wanted to be. This is because people preferred someone else that looked like he used to, begging the question, is personality or looks more important.

A Real Pain - Two cousins tour a concentration camp. They then have to rethink what they consider pain and suffering after seeing what the Holocaust victims experienced.

As We Speak - We have freedom of speech, however, the way our words are interpreted can be based on our skin color. This is a major problem when our words are used against us in court.

Freaky Tales - Based vaguely on real events, this movie intertwines the lives of four distinct groups in a very interesting and fun way. It reminds me of a live action anime, and I found myself engulfed in each story. The culmination was perfect.

How To Have Sex - An interesting take on consent and dealing with assault and the emotions that come along with it. Great cinematography and music selection. The director stated it was loosely based on personal experience.

Ibelin – A sad but heartwarming film about a boy who was born with muscular dystrophy and even though bound to a wheelchair he could still have friends online. It demonstrates that online communities should not be stigmatized and that you can find love, friendship, and be able to make a difference in others’ lives from across the globe.

I Saw The TV Glow – A strange film about a warped reality, where the TV show is the actual reality and not knowing you are trapped. It was very strange and confused me.

Krazy House – Krazy is a perfect title for this film, with it being a completely normal sitcom and then as the director says, “everything gets f****d up.” This film foreshadowed later events in the film very well. It is the only film I have ever heard people laugh when a dog dies. It is just so entertaining, and you are left thinking after the film is over, “what did I just watch?” It is so hard to explain this film, but I highly recommend seeing it.

Little Death – This film asks questions about wholeness and drug addiction. It manages to tell the stories of two different characters over the course of one film while only following each story for half the film, which I found really cool, interesting, and very much enjoyed.

Presence – A creepy horror film about just that: a presence in someone’s home. It ends up saving someone’s life, but at what cost? I found this film intriguing as the camera is handheld the entire time from, I assume, the presences’ point of view. I really enjoyed this film, and it gave me chills.

Rob Peace – This was my favorite film. The acting was amazing. The storytelling was great. It was able to keep the audience engaged and take artistic liberties without losing the true story of the film.

Suncoast – This is about a girl, Doris, taking care of her brother who is dying of cancer while at the same trying to navigate the teenage years.

The Greatest Night In Pop - This film did a great job in capturing the stress that went into the making of the song, as well as how much was unknown going into that night. It showed the seriousness of the process, and the comedy that lightened the mood, which had the whole crowd laughing throughout the film. It was a heartwarming film that brought laughter and joy to the entire crowd.

Thelma – A heartwarming and humorous film based on Thelma, the grandmother of the director, Josh Margolin, who was scammed out of ten thousand dollars and her journey to get the money back while also asking questions about when to ask for help and is being on your own always best?

Union – A documentary about organizing the Amazon Labor Union in New York. You may have to offer new incentives to get people to listen to your pitch. Would you like pizza or weed?

War Game -A documentary about a simulation held to help prep the government if something like January 6th were to happen again. I got the opportunity to talk to the producer of the simulation after and it was very interesting.

Winner - I gave it five stars. I thought it was thought provoking on the difference between what is right and wrong in that situation. It must have been difficult having that inner conflict about what is morally right but illegal in the eyes of the law and trying to make the decision of what to do.

Shorts Films

Midnight Short Film Program (3 of 6 shorts watched)

Bold Eagle – This was about a man named Bold who is struggling during the pandemic. He talks to his cat and engages in online sex. I did not enjoy this film. The Looming – This was a very interesting horror film about the elderly and their struggles with mental disorders and dementia.

Dream Creep – This was about a monster living in his partner’s ear, and while trying to help her, he accidentally sets the monster free and traps his partner.

Short Film Program 2 (3 of 7 shorts watched)

The Lost Season – This is a narrated view of an entire season, winter, disappearing due to climate change and no one really seems to care after it is gone. Thirsty Girl – This was about one person’s battle with sex addiction while also trying to help her sister who is battling drug addiction. Pasture Prime – This is about one person’s obsession with another and ends with an interesting twist.

New Frontier

Being (the Digital Griot) – This film uses artificial intelligence, dance, and poetry to speak about race and slavery.

Eno – A film based on the life of musician Brian Eno. It is unique because you can watch it repeatedly and have a different experience every time.

Slamdance:

Feature Films

Citizen Weiner - This feature is about the true story of someone running for City Council in New York and the trials and tribulations that come with running a campaign. They filmed the entire process to encourage other young people to get involved in politics and I think they did a great job. This movie had the whole audience laughing from start to finish, sometimes unable to believe that this really happened.

Shorts Films

Dumpster Archeology Short - This was about a man who dumpster dives for things for his house as well as mementos. He feels as though every item tells a story and he enjoys uncovering those stories after he finds the objects.

Slamdance Short Narrative 2 (3 of 6 shorts watched)

Hunter - This short was about role reversal if animals were to hunt humans and humans be the food. I thought it was very clever and the director also made it as a music video which I thought was very interesting.

Fettyland – This was filmed in Sarasota, Florida, not far from Eckerd College. It is based on the drug crisis in the Tampa area and in the USA in general. There are no “actors” so to speak in this film; everyone in it is basically doing things they would do in daily life as they are all in this drug life and live it every day.

Dissolution – This is a film about going through a divorce after so many years of marriage. I thought it was such a great description of what that is like. The filmmaker’s parents actually went through this, and he used them as the actors.

I can’t believe my time at the Sundance Film Festival is over. I really had a great time! I saw a lot of wonderful movies and throughout, I tried to implement what I had learned in class prior to heading out to Park City. I really hope to continue this journey in film and add to what I have learned so far.

I really hope to make it back to another Sundance Film Festival!!

Referenced Text link:

Newman, Michael Z. Indie: An American Film Culture. Columbia University Press, 2011.

Ryan McCormick

[thirstytales]

Laugh out Law. 01 ( 31 August 2023) Here I am again, deactivating, activating, and waving with a long post that I might set in private later.

New school year, new classmates, new professors, new experience, new learning, SAME-OLD CLASSROOM.

I started my Law School journey last year, a proud SOCRATES. We were 48 bold lions during the first day at Jurassic Park, 1 down the next day, 2 the following week, and at least 3 in the subsequent months, until I lost count. We were lions, the supposed king of the jungle, but, we turned out to be prey, eaten alive, one by one. From the pack of 48, some 38 survived.

The first day of classes was the culmination of Gensan Tuna Festival, people were partying at the Oval Plaza while we were braving our Criminal Law class with Atty. Pantua in a navy blue suit and tie. (Vultures in my stomach! This is it! first night as a law student.)

We then had our TYPICAL meet and greet where you will be asked for your name, work, reason for entering law school, etc. BUT YOU WILL NEVER PREDICT THE FOLLOW-UP QUESTION.hehe (surprise!)

I remember my introduction to the question—“Good evening Atty, “musing” from…” With that one word, I was immediately cut “musing? ano na? may pa musing2x pa, use simple words”—said he. hahahahha. YES! In the end, we all stood up in class like lost lions in the jungle. (Kataw-anan nalang gid ni karon, but the feeling back then is unimaginable.)

Fast forward, now a second-year student…

We had our first class last night with Atty. Panganduyon for Labor Law and Social Legislation. In law school, you will get the jitters not as an exclusive on the first day of classes, but as an everyday general rule.

Meet and greet again, this time, with expectations from the class. There were new faces in the room, the majority were teachers, some were from government agencies, others were from big private corporations, and a few were freelance or private practitioners. The introduction collected expectations of a fun, fair, interactive, and unintimidating learning experience, and posed a hope of “not leaving anyone behind” at the end of the semester. (This made my heart happy, even in school we are applying the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), YES PO!!!)

Last night, Atty. Panganduyon shared how he struggled back as a working student, and how he triumphed as a lawyer today. It is not a new story, of course. When I feel demotivated, anxious, and a ‘bogo’ student, hearing a “common” story hits differently. A perfect timing.

“Kapalan ang mukha tatagan ang loob” - when you are thrown out of the class or punished to stand for 3 hours.

“Be humble” - you may be a graduate with Latin honor, the son of a powerful politician, the boss of your own company, or the richest man among the pack, yet in class, YOU ARE SEATED AS A STUDENT. The teacher is the rule.

“Fight your fear” - if you let fear in, it will hinder your success.

With all, I guess what I will remember, more than his words above, will be him, his name, “PANGANDUYON” - in Bisaya, is equivalent to a “big dreamer”.

Remember that you are where you are because you are a big dreamer.

As a law student, remember that you are still a lion, maybe Simba for now. But the jungle is waiting.

📢📣🔈🔉🔊sound on🔊🔉🔈📣📢

[paastliives]

kim sejeong + they/she + nonbinary – have you seen sunhee ‘maris’ kang around los angeles? the twenty six year old is usually jamming to cleopatra by the lumineers. word around the city is that they’re tactful, yet, they can also be fretful, but you didn’t hear that from me. they’re currently a screenwriter and twitter comedian and are typically seen walking the streets of los angeles with decorated airpod maxs. when i think of them, i think of painted on freckles splattering their nose, a mothman pin on a crisp black baggu, philosykos by diptyque and beaten up converse covered in doodles. let’s hope the city treats them good!

( WANTED CONNECTIONS )

full name: kang sunhee

nicknames: maris, mari, sun kang (penname)

birthday: october 13th, 1996

zodiac: libra

birthplace: busan, south korea

hometown: los angeles, california

occupation: screenwriter + horror writer, twitter comedian

sexual orientation: bisexual

gender: non-binary

character inspiration: nayoung 'nora' moon (past lives), sydney adamu (the bear), erin quinn (derry girls), jal fazer (skins)

headlines

RETURN OF THE VAMPS? ( author sun kang sits down to discuss 'twilight', k-dramas and their favorite cryptids. ) - the new york times, july 2023 'ILMOL' AUTHOR JOINS NETFLIX THRILLER'S WRITING ROOM. - deadline, may 2023 NEPO BABIES? HOW 'BOUT NEPO AUTHORS! ( meet booktok's newest favourite darling and author of 'karrington road' - the child of mina nam and seong-wu kang, sun kang. ) - vulture, dec 2021 SIT DOWN WITH MARIS KANG, THE 'ROSIE'S DEAD' WRITER - ucla magazine, jan 2018

the story

born in her mother's hometown of busan, south korea to famed korean film director, kang seong-wu (fifty-five) and korean-canadian actress mina nam (fifty-three) - maris feels they were destined to be a creative person. both her parents were in an upwards plateau of their career when she was born, and she was often brought to seoul for premiers & filming & meetings, and everything in between. their younger brother, wanted connection (??), was born not far after maris, completing the small family.

when maris was nine, their mother was offered a life-changing role in iron man (2008) as pepper potts. the small family promptly boarded a flight to lax for filming, and almost twenty years later - the family's homebase remains in los angeles. despite this, her father is still based in korea for his movies and shows and maris often found themself travelling to seoul at least twice a year for most of their childhood.

maris's love of horror and all things creepy came from seong-wu. their father built his whole career on horror, and has built a cult following with his four movies and two shows. in interviews, maris is open about wanting to collaborate with seong-wu one day - but they doubt that day will ever come. maris often feels at an arms-length away from her father, despite their similar careers and similar personalities.

mina loves her child. she frequently name drops her projects (books & tv shows) in multiple interviews, and anywhere she can. maris is grateful for her mother's love, but sometimes feels pressured and smothered by her.

they spent most of their childhood writing. they would write about the things around them; stories about the family vacations on jeju island, or visiting her grandparents in vancouver. maris wrote their first short story when they were 14 - a ghost story featuring banshees.

they continued to write - gradually moving into scripts as they started school at ucla for film studies. while at ucla, they entered multiple film festivals with friends and classmates. amongst those films, included "rosie's dead" (2017) which was a film maris wrote based on her first short story about banshees. "rosie's dead" won multiple awards in the 2017/2018 school year, and was the foundation for maris to start their career after graduating (although her mother and father's names didn't hurt, either)

during their final year at ucla, maris began interning on sets and working in writer's rooms. they used those experiences to better their writing, and push themselves to write scripts & stories. eventually, they finished their first novel - 'karrington road' a horror novel about two sisters who spend the night in a haunted house in vancouver, british columbia (mina's canadian hometown).

'karrington road' was published in 2021 by tor books under the pen name 'sun kang'. it was received to rave reviews, and was on the new york times bestsellers list for three weeks.

with her family & her book blowing up on tiktok, maris's social media began to blow up too. the small quips they'd make on twitter began to go viral, and silly little edits they'd make would get watched over & over. she would occasionally get stopped in the street to ask if the silly little tweets were theirs, and she revelled in it. they supposed it's how their mom feels at premiers, and on screen.

their second novel 'ilmol' was published in march 2023 by tor books. it follows multiple generations of vampires in korea. it was published to more rave reviews, and sat on top of the new york times best sellers list for three months.

shortly after ilmol was published, maris joined the writing room on a horror series on netflix - the series is rumoured to be a collaboration with her father (and they're right.). maris is incredibly nervous about the collaboration - worried they'll let their father down, but also let themself down.

in the period between 'karrington road' and 'ilmol', maris joined the writing room on an hbo miniseries. it was her first tv or movie project, and the episode she helped write was nominated for an emmy. looking towards their mother again, maris felt a sense of accomplishment. they felt apart of their great family - not just a shadow in her parent's way.

MARIS KANG'S CREDITS

zombie girl in 어두운 날 (the dark day) (2001) dir. kang seong-wu

tween in iron man 2 (2010) (uncredited)

writer on rosie's dead (2017) (ucla student film)

student in spiderman: homecoming (2017) (uncredited)

karrington road (2021)

writer on hbo mini-series (2022)

ilmol (2023)

writer on untitled netflix project (2024) dir. kang seong-wu

OTHER THINGS

maris was included in new york magazine's article on nepo babies. she thought it was funny, and made it her header on twitter. it did bring up some of their insecurities to the forefront of her mind, but they've been working to push past those.

seong-wu's first movie after maris was born was dedicated to her, and him & mina collect different editions they find of maris's books around the world.

her profile picture on twitter is a screenshot of them as a zombie child in the dark day.

they try to go back to korea once a year to visit, but have been finding it harder & harder each year. they used 'research for ilmol' to stay for months last time they went.

their books keep blowing up on tiktok, and they're excited but also confused because tiktok makes them feel old.

they have multiple tattoos; a spiderweb up their arm is their favourite.

the family has lived in the same apartment building since they moved to los angeles in 2007.

[nvlv]

DONKEY from Matt Kazman on Vimeo.

After receiving an emergency call, a struggling actor has to face his family during his lowest moment.

FEATURED ON: Short of the Week - shortoftheweek.com/2023/06/28/donkey/ Vulture - vulture.com/article/donkey-short-film-matt-kazman.html The Moveable Fest - moveablefest.com/matt-kazman-donkey/

WINNER: Audience Award / Best Short Film - Seattle International Film Festival Jury Award / Best Narrative Short - Lower East Side Film Festival

STARRING: Dru Johnston, Sarah Hagan, Ruha Taslimi, Nelson Cheng & David Schroeder

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Matt Kazman PRODUCED BY: Pamela Robison DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jack Caswell PRODUCTION DESIGN: Madelyn Wilkime COSTUME DESIGN: Kali Summer HAIR & SPECIAL EFFECTS MAKEUP: Jed Olmedo EDITOR: Alexander Christenson MUSIC BY: Zak Engel SOUND DESIGN & MIX: Jay Culliton COLORIST: Jack Caswell PRODUCTION SUPPORT: Superlative

mattkazman.com

[ghostcultmagazine]

We chatted recently with Laura and Veronica, two of the three founders and bookers of the 3rd annual Camp Punksylvania, the awesome Punk festival taking place in Scranton, Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. The lineup includes The Suicide Machines, A Wilhelm Scream, Tsunami Bomb, Bad Cop Bad Cop, War On Women, The Dollyrots, The Bar Stool Preachers, Belvedere, Mikey Erg, and many more!! We learned a lot about the team and this festival in this informative convo! To buy tickets and for more information: https://ift.tt/1Ph4RdY The confirmed artists to appear at Camp Punksylvania each day include: Friday, September 1, 2023 Tsunami Bomb (California) The Dollyrots (California) Mikey Erg (New Jersey) Lenny Lashley’s Gang of One (Massachusetts) The Squalors (Pennsylvania) Teen Mortgage (Maryland) Dead Rest (Illinois) Oh the Humanity (Massachusetts) Coffee With Lions (Pennsylvania) Tail Light Rebellion (Wisconsin) Black Guy Fawkes & the Co-Conspirators (Maryland) Saturday, September 2, 2023 The Suicide Machines (Michigan) Bad Cop Bad Cop (California) Escape From the Zoo (Texas) The Bar Stool Preachers (England) The Potato Pirates (Colorado) Belvedere (Canada) The Homeless Gospel Choir (Pennsylvania) Fat Chance (Pennsylvania) Working Class Stiffs (New York) The What Nows?! (Pennsylvania) Stop the Presses (New York) Pity Party (California) ÅSMR (Ohio) Suburban Downgrade (Pennsylvania) Cardboard Homestead (New York) Condition Oakland (Pennsylvania) Brandon Richie (Pennsylvania) Amy Gabba (Toronto) Vulture Raid (Pennsylvania) The Karens (Pennsylvania) The Chemical Imbalance (New Jersey) No Complyance (New York) Sunday, September 3, 2023 A Wilhelm Scream (Massachusetts) War On Women (Maryland) River City Rebels (Vermont) The Bar Stool Preachers, unplugged (England) Jon Snodgrass (Colorado) Dissidente (Pennsylvania) Froggy (Pennsylvania) Fat Heaven (New York City) The Car Bomb Parade (New York City) Dead 77 (California) Doc Rotten (New Jersey) Avenues (Illinois) Freeze MF (Pennsylvania) The Mostly Dead (Maryland) Sweet Anne Marie (Pennsylvania) The Wasted (Pennsylvania) Interview by Keefy https://ift.tt/SCnkPHU Produced & edited by Ojaay https://www.instagram.com/ojcpics​​​​ Theme music by Salted Wounds https://ift.tt/eNDkPuY ▵ PODCAST ▵ (Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Anchor) "Ghost Cult MagazinePODCAST" ▷https://ift.tt/6uh4Tg1 ▵ GEAR WE USE ▵ (These are affiliate links) Set up A: Sony A7 III - https://amzn.to/3tQm422 Tamron 17-28 - https://amzn.to/3ePrlTd Tamron 28-75 - https://amzn.to/3fqCjgY Desview Mavo-P5 Monitor- https://amzn.to/33LlTub Manfrotto Befree Travel Tripod - https://amzn.to/3hxbL0e Set up B: Feelworld T7 Monitor - https://amzn.to/2Re9hta Audio: Sound Devices MixPre-3 - https://amzn.to/3tKkJd2 Gearlux XLR Mic Cable - 3 Pack - https://amzn.to/3w3zN6Y Deity D3 Microphone - https://amzn.to/3tRa6W2 Fifine Usb Mic - https://amzn.to/3w8JHEG Lighting: YONGNUO YN600L - https://amzn.to/2QkNrn5 YONGNUO YN300 Air - https://amzn.to/2QjN5gu Dfuse Softbox - https://amzn.to/3uQq4AN Aputure MC - https://amzn.to/3oirFgx NanLite PavoTube II 6C - http://bit.ly/NanLitePavoTubeII Lightstands - https://amzn.to/3uSBl3x 5 in 1 Reflector - https://amzn.to/33KHdjo And our iconic Rope Light https://amzn.to/3ycdmyz For the full list of Ghost Cult gear: http://bit.ly/OJCPicsKit This video contains a shoutout to the band Villians In Vain https://ift.tt/tomBRVz Get your DIY band, record label, or shop mentioned in our videos on YouTube, by visiting our pinned post on Twitter for instructions! https://twitter.com/GhostCultMag/status/1142861626590355456

[supermdtv]

DONKEY from Matt Kazman on Vimeo.

After receiving an emergency call, a struggling actor has to face his family during his lowest moment.

FEATURED ON: Short of the Week - shortoftheweek.com/2023/06/28/donkey/ Vulture - vulture.com/article/donkey-short-film-matt-kazman.html The Moveable Fest - moveablefest.com/matt-kazman-donkey/

WINNER: Audience Award / Best Short Film - Seattle International Film Festival Jury Award / Best Narrative Short - Lower East Side Film Festival

STARRING: Dru Johnston, Sarah Hagan, Ruha Taslimi, Nelson Cheng & David Schroeder

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Matt Kazman PRODUCED BY: Pamela Robison DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jack Caswell PRODUCTION DESIGN: Madelyn Wilkime COSTUME DESIGN: Kali Summer HAIR & SPECIAL EFFECTS MAKEUP: Jed Olmedo EDITOR: Alexander Christenson MUSIC BY: Zak Engel SOUND DESIGN & MIX: Jay Culliton COLORIST: Jack Caswell PRODUCTION SUPPORT: Superlative

mattkazman.com

[wozman23]

Tonight, On A Very Special Clone High Tribute

I don’t quite remember how I found Clone High in 2002. I’d assume being a fan of Will Forte put it on my radar. Or possibly that it was a Bill Lawrence project that relied heavily on the Scrubs cast. Whatever the case, it quickly rivalled Futurama to be quite possibly my favorite cartoon. But, just as it was getting started, the flame died out, mostly due to backlash with the portrayal of Ghandi. I’d always held onto hope that with the massive success of the creators Phil Lord and Chris Miller, maybe, just maybe we’d see the project again. When I moved out to LA in 2017, one of the first Hollywood-like things I had the pleasure of doing was attending the Clone High Reunion at the Vulture Festival. I was in awe of the talent in that room. The creators and voice cast are legendary. I got to interact with Forte and take a selfie. Then I met Tommy Walter, the man behind the infectious theme song, credited to his band, Abandoned Pools. By that point, not only was I a massive fan of Clone High, but of Tommy’s as well. He wasn’t putting out new Abandoned Pools music, instead focusing on his budding family and more traditional soundtrack and scoring work. But I remember telling him, dressed to the nines in my Sublime Currency shirt, that if he ever got back around to putting out more Abandoned Pools music, I’d be there to support it. But there wasn’t any real momentum for a second season, or more music from Tommy. Years passed. A silly Easter egg appeared in Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, but even that just felt like Phil and Chris just paying their respects to their former franchise.

Then all that changed, on both fronts. Tommy announced he was Kickstarting a new Abandoned Pools album. I threw money at it. And not much later, Clone High was renewed for another season. I was pumped!... And then, wildly, it was picked up for another season on top of that! Say What?!

Well we’re finally here in 2023, over 20 years after I fell in love with the original run. And it’s everything I could have hoped for! Initially I had my doubts about the show returning. Ghandi was a crucial character. How could you replace him? How would you reference his absence? Thankfully, it was done beautifully in a multitude of ways, through some jokes and sight gags, as well as by introducing a new cast of characters to make up for his absence. While I initially wasn't all that invested in the new cast, I warmed up to them rather quickly. And I love how their character design boldly contrasts the original clones. Candide is a terrific addition as well. I was also concerned about whether or not the show would mold itself to modern times. In 2002, it felt so ahead of its time. Many of the cartoons these days irk me. Shows like Bob’s Burgers, Rick & Morty, Family Guy (the list goes on...) feel like they rely far too much on over the top voice acting to deliver serviceable scripts. There were also concerns about whether or not the animation style would be overhauled. Thankfully all of these fears were quickly quelled. Stylistically the show picks up right where it left off. The off-beat, angular style of everything is still front and center. The backgrounds still juxtapose the action beautifully. Everything is just so wonderfully distinct. And it still has so much of that offbeat humor that made it great. 

While one could easily enjoy the show without prior knowledge of the series, it’s chocked full of fan service. I was grinning within the first minute thanks to the dolphin sound. Minor characters are a joy to see, especially when voiced by the Scrubs cast. The new intro slaps, just like the original, which is what originally made me seek out the other work by Abandoned Pools. Hearing it modified many more times to fit the episodes’ themes was a welcome revival. Will Forte’s voice over introductions were as quirky as ever. Tommy’s more involved hands created some wonderful and weird music. It’s just such a joy, and a joy that I really didn’t ever think I’d get to witness again. Besides all of those qualities, one other thing that really cemented the original run as a favorite was the show’s ability to feel unique with many episodes. My favorite was probably the episode about smoking raisins because it was such a departure with its overall style and visuals. This season hosted multiple episodes like that. It’s all still so fresh in my mind, but the For Your Consideration episode really knocked it out of the park when it came to experimenting further with styles. Plus we got Mr. B backstory... Wesley. I feel like in my more recent years I’ve become somewhat of a softie. I used to never tear up over shows, or video games, or other works of art. But when Abandoned Pools’ “Remember to Remember Memories” unfurled, I got emotional. I’m not crying, it’s my contacts. There must be something in my eye. I’m sad to see it so quickly wrap up, but there’s still so much left for me to re-explore and digest. I’ll really need more time to go back through this season. Five weeks flew by like nothing. But as it ramped up, I found myself more and more enamored with the show again. The last four episodes really stood out. And the ending should take it in an interesting direction for next season. So I absolutely can’t wait to see what all those involved cook up in the not-too-distant-future, whether that be next season’s episodes, or that album Tommy is working on. It’s also absurd that Futurama is FINALLY back from the dead soon too!!! Here’s to hoping it picks up where it left of just as well as Clone High did...

[kcyars52]

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THE LIBRARY IS OPENJUNE 17, 2023

Put Down the Juneteenth Ice Cream and Pick Up These 16 Books

Photo-Illustration: Vulture

This list was previously published and has been updated for 2023.

Don’t let the day off and the parties fool you. The legacy of Juneteenth — Juneteenth National Independence Day, Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Black Independence Day, if you will— is much more than an opportunity to barbecue. In fact, it’s a day that ought to unsettle our comforts.

The history goes as follows: On June 19, 1865, more than two years after Abraham Lincoln manumitted all enslaved people in the Confederate states, Union Army general Gordon Granger announced the news of freedom to enslaved people in Texas, making them the last in the formerly Confederate South to get word of emancipation. The next year, beginning in the Black churches of Galveston, Texas, Juneteenth began as an observation and celebration of this belated end to bondage. The fine print: This commemoration of slavery’s end is a lesson in how its power persisted.

In the two years since this Black Texan celebration became a federal holiday recognized by the Biden administration, concerns regarding the integrity of the holiday linger as corporations, institutions, politicians, and communities continue to determine their relationships to Juneteenth, its history, political appeal, and profitability. With the much disparaged Juneteenth ice cream, themed watermelon salads, decorations, and trademark wars behind us, this year’s Juneteenth controversies have primarily concerned the holiday’s institutional and representational life.

In the past few weeks leading up to June 19, a number of stories have appeared in the news surrounding Juneteenth conflicts. A South Carolina–based nonprofit organization received criticism for promoting a Juneteenth event banner in downtown Greenville that featured a white couple and described the holiday as “an upstate celebration of freedom, unity, and love.” Franklin, Tennessee’s alderman-at-large Gabrielle Hanson has met public scrutiny for a number of recent incidents including her call for the Nashville International Airport to withdraw its financial support from “radical agendas,” which included events like an upcoming Juneteenth festival in Franklin. Making matters even more dissonant, on June 13, the White House hosted a Juneteenth concert that included a wide range of guests, from Opal Lee, activist and “grandmother of Juneteenth,” to Coi Leray, bop star and daughter of Benzino. And on Juneteenth Day, CNN is hosting Juneteenth: A Global Celebration of Freedom. More than a mere example of the lengths organizations and politicians will go to erase history or pander to those who bear its mark, these spectacles (celebratory or otherwise) reveal the ways that power overdetermines the terms of remembrance, representation, and redress. This is why the holiday’s nationwide popularization, marketability, and federal recognition ultimately threaten the integrity of our Juneteenth observations. A day that ought to inspire radical resentment for lapses in liberation can so easily become an institutional symbol of captivity’s circularity. This list of Juneteenth reads was curated to support the former rather than the latter. By reading these works closely, we can begin to understand what Juneteenth really means and what its observance demands of us.

PART I 

BEFORE 1863

If, as Toni Morrison has written, “nothing highlighted freedom — if it did not in fact create it — like slavery,” it would stand that our close reading of freedom must begin with the narratives of the enslaved. As they show us, it often took fugitivity (and, often, more and worse) to secure one’s freedom from the formidable grasp of captivity.

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” by Zora Neale Hurston

It is perhaps fitting that a list dedicated to the celebration of slavery’s “official end” in the U.S. begins with the oral account of Cudjoe Lewis, long believed to be the “last” survivor of the Middle Passage. Lewis was one of more than 100 kidnapped Africans stashed in the hold of the slave ship Clotilda and smuggled from Benin to Mobile Bay, Alabama, in either 1859 or 1860 (it’s hard to say), decades after Congress’s formal 1808 ban on the importation of African slaves. Hurston tells Lewis: “I want to ask you many things. I want to know who you are and how you came to be a slave; and to what part of Africa do you belong, and how you fared as a slave, and how you have managed as a free man?” He responds: “Thankee Jesus! Somebody come ast about Cudjo! I want tellee somebody who I is, so maybe dey go to tell everybody whut Cudjo says, and how I come to Americky soil since de 1859 and never see my people no mo.’” Eager to be asked, Lewis shared his experience of alienation and enslavement with Hurston, whose sensitive transcriptions add a new texture to our existing archive of slave narratives.

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” by Zora Neale Hurston$25

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$18

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Flight to Canada, by Ishamel Reed, and Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Taking to fiction to confront the limits of and unmake our concrete understanding of slavery, the literary development of “neo-slave narratives” muddy the border between enslavement and emancipation through narratives that address the problem of self-possession. Reed’s enslaved protagonist declares, “Here I am, involuntarily, the comrade of the inanimate, but not by choice … I am property. I am a thing.” Morrison’s Sethe, a fugitive slave haunted by both slavery and freedom, understands that “freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” Though these novels often explore the harrowing conditions of the peculiar institution through humor (“The devil’s country home. That’s what the South is,” one of Reed’s characters remarks) and haunting (“124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children,” opens Beloved), they push readers to consider the psychic toll of slavery and how its material cost to the mind defies tone and time.

Flight to Canada, by Ishmael Reed$17

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Beloved$17

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PART II 

FREEDOM RINGS HOLLOW

The social momentum that led to Juneteenth’s federal appropriation has transformed it into a festive footnote, a citation of American political progress that fails to ask what it means for the government to claim emancipation as a victory while many inheritors of slavery’s legacy remain dubious, if not outright disdainful. After all, for those who had been enslaved in Union states, legal and literary word of emancipation would not come until later in 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. And what did the Texas proclamation matter to the enslaved people who were held in bondage in Indian Territoriesuntil 1866 (the same year Juneteenth celebrations began)? What do we make of slavery’s resilience? How has it undergirded our freedom?

Scenes of Subjection, by Saidiya Hartman

Explicitly concerned with the elusiveness of free ground, this groundbreaking text — to be reissued later this year by W.W. Norton with a new preface by Hartman, a foreword by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and afterwords by Marisa J. Fuentes and Sarah Haley — sets the complex stage of terror under slavery and its influence on scenes of Black self-making in the 19th century.

Calling us to consider “the nonevent of emancipation” in a country where “freedom did not abolish the lash,” Hartman frames the question of liberation on terms that center on the “terrible spectacle” of bondage that lingers in our discourses of redress, resistance, and individual rights.

Scenes of Subjection, by Saidiya Hartman$20

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The Known World, by Edward P. Jones

Jones’s historical novel follows Henry Townsend, a freeman born to former slaves, as he takes up the charge of liberty as a challenge to brutality. For Henry, freedom is best affirmed in contrast to the unfree, and thus, he dreams of running the perfect plantation — one that exceeds the standards set by the white enslavers who came before him: “Henry had always said he wanted to be a better master than any white man he had ever known. He did not understand that the kind of world he wanted to create was doomed before he had spoken the first syllable of the word master.”

The Known World, by Edward P. Jones$18

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On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed

The Black Texans who created the Juneteenth holiday did so as “the celebration of the freedom of people they had actually known.” As Gordon-Reed’s work shows, this intimate and regional specificity cannot be severed from the celebration. Fusing memoir and rigorous research, the Texan author proposes a new telling of her state’s legacy, one which centers the significant influence enslaved Africans and their descendants have had on the political, geographic, and social shape of the Lone Star State.

On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed$16

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Palmares, by Gayl Jones

In this runaway-slave narrative set in Brazil, where slavery was not abolished until 1888, Jones conjures Almeyda, an escaped slave who takes leave of her Portuguese captors to join the historic 17th-century Brazilian maroon society that the book is named for — only to discover that some still occupy the position of slaves even among the maroons. Nobrega, one of those slaves of Palmares, remarks on the contradiction, “I am not a free woman … I have no free ground to hold. Every ground I walk on is the same.” Indifferent to the fate of Palmares, whose members faced constant threats of Portuguese land conquest and reenslavement, Nobrega remarks, “Why should it matter to me if Palmares is no more?” As Jones’s novel shows, the unbound possibility of slavery beyond the plantation and the narrative of emancipation in the U.S. can be neither settled nor singularly confined to Juneteenth.

Palmares, by Gayl Jones

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The Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom, by Rinaldo Walcott

The issue of freedom’s lag is precisely what marks the narrative legacy of Juneteenth as precarious. Challenging the popular understanding of emancipation as a singular event that secured Black freedom, The Long Emancipation presents the issue on a global scale weighed by slavery and colonialism, in which the end of bondage could be said to be buffering at best.

Posing the “long emancipation” as a more accurate description of the chasm between freedom and manumission, Rinaldo Walcott contends that, “the conditions of Black life, past and present, work against any notion that what we inhabit in the now is freedom.”

The Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom, by Rinaldo Walcott

$24

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Juneteenth, by Ralph Ellison

An incomplete manuscript that was edited and published following Ralph Ellison’s death, Juneteenth embodies the essence of “unfinished business” embedded in its title. Giving voice to a righteous skepticism about the holiday’s presumed meaning, the protagonist, a Black Baptist preacher, retorts in a sermon (at a Juneteenth gathering no less), “There’s been a heap of Juneteenths before this one and I tell you there’ll be a heap more before we’re truly free!” And though the scope of the novel is not centered on the observation of Juneteenth, its characters — a race-baiting, white-passing Black senator and the aforementioned preacher who raised him — live out the ambiguous legacy of emancipation through a complex melding of ambivalence, anguish, and ambition.

Juneteenth, by Ralph Ellison$25

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Black Age: Oceanic Lifespans and the Time of Black Life, byHabiba Ibrahim

Habiba Ibrahim’s 2021 book Black Age: Oceanic Lifespans and the Time of Black Life considers how “through the various phases of transatlantic slavery, blackness ha[s] been dispossessed of time on various scales, from bodies to histories.” Theorizing “black untimeliness” within the Black literary and film culture of the 20th and 21st centuries, Ibrahim explores representations of Black children, elders, vampires, ghosts, and more. In her reading of Jordan Peele’s 2017 film Get Out, Ibrahim draws attention to the film’s Black protagonist, Chris, and the ways that dispossession collapses the distance between his childhood and adulthood. Noting the “unaged” quality of Blackness in literature and popular culture, Ibrahim examines the unruly time card of history through narrative. The book offers an analysis of Black time and its contingencies that is invaluable for our meditations on the legacy of Juneteenth. Black Age reminds us of the ways that anti-Blackness warps temporality. As we set out to celebrate a holiday that is indivisible from slavery’s timeline of terror, books like this situate the afterlife of slavery as one marked by deadly delays, time-theft, premature death, and unaged precarity.

Black Age, by Habiba Ibrahim$28

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PART III 

BETWEEN EMANCIPATION AND LIBERATION

Because the 13th Amendment to the Constitution grants the continuation of slavery through the language of penalty, no one has sharpened our collective critical eye toward the political economy that threatens emancipation like incarcerated Black writers and the stories of incarcerated people. It comes as no surprise that allegories and allusions to the structure of prison populate Black literary musings on emancipation across genre and form. Just as the prison (in figures of speech, fact, and fiction) points us to a contemporary language of slavery’s afterlife, Juneteenth invites us to read emancipation more critically and celebrate the political conviction such a reeducation demands.

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, by Terrance Hayes

“It is not enough to love you. It is not enough to want you destroyed,” Hayes writes in this collection of seventy poems concerned with themes of American politics as they secure his own implied and impending death. Embracing the language of assassination — a murder that, owing to the influential status of its victim, gives death new meaning — his poetics work to reconstitute the meaning of a “land of the free” predicated on deadly pursuits. Speaking to violence and capture as distinguishing elements in the formation and future of the U.S., the poet names a sense of confinement at the level of the nation’s literary form: “an American sonnet that is part prison, part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame.”

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, by Terrance Hayes$18

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Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson, by George Jackson, and Assata: An Autobiography, by Assata Shakur

Jackson writes, “When I revolt, slavery dies with me. I refuse to pass it down again. The terms of my existence are founded on that.” Shakur likewise asserts that “after a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.” Framing slavery in terms of a consciousness forged by criminality, the writings of Black activists who have suffered the conditions of being “locked up,” compel us to unlock our minds toward the psychology of state violence and a legal apparatus that preserves anti-Blackness.

Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson by George Jackson$19

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Assata, by Assata Shakur$19

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The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead

In Colson Whitehead’s novel, inspired by the horrifically unstable distinctions between school and prison for mid-century Black youth, the teenage protagonist, Elwood, shakes his head when he listens to a 1962 recording of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermon at Zion Hill Baptist Church in Los Angeles. On the record, the reverend declared, “Throw us in jail, and as difficult as that is, we will still love you … We will wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom.” For Elwood, a Black boy abused at a racist reform school, this request for love prior to liberation is unfathomable: “What a thing to ask. What an impossible thing.”

The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead$25

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PART IV 

IMAGINING FREER FUTURES

Throughout popular culture, Black creatives have made use of the language of slavery and emancipation to address their fraught relationships to their identities and crafts in industries shaped by racial capitalism. From Prince writing the word slave on his face in 1993 during a contract dispute with Warner Bros. to Anita Baker’s declaration on obtaining the masters to her albums that she’d “retired from the plantation,” the issue of freedom has shown itself foundational to the conflicts faced by Black artists who look back as they try to help create new paths forward.

The Meaning of Mariah Carey, by Mariah Carey and Michaela Angela Davis

Mariah Carey’s memoir features a comparison of her former Bedford marital home (a 33,000-square-foot mansion on 51 acres where she was plagued by anti-Black bigotry, constant surveillance, and emotional abuse) to the nearby Sing Sing Correctional Facility: “No matter how prime the real estate, how grandiose the structure, if it’s designed to monitor movement and contain the human spirit, it will only serve to diminish and demoralize those inside.” After Carey’s personal Sing Sing has burned to the ground, the R&B artist responsible for 2005’s best-selling album The Emancipation of Mimi, declares, “I have had to emancipate myself several times.” Even the most glamorous among us cannot deny the glaring fault lines in our flimsy talk of freedom.

The Meaning of Mariah Carey, by Mariah Carey and Michaela Angela Davis$30

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Magical Negro, by Morgan Parker

Named after a cinematic trope coined to describe the prevalence of Black secondary characters in film whose narratives were shaped by a superhuman (if not supernatural) selflessness, the “Magical Negro” is the visual manifestation of slavery’s afterlife in myth and metaphysics.

Blending pop-culture references with a biting poetic form, Morgan Parker takes up this figure in contemporary culture as a means to assess our political imagination. In so doing, she reminds us that only after reading the world and fully realizing the stakes before us might we, as in Parker’s “Magical Negro #80: Brooklyn,” “learn to pronounce freedom.”

Magical Negro, by Morgan Parker

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New Original Podcast “Wilder” Debuts At 2023 Tribeca Film Festival

iHeartPodcasts has announced that Wilder, a new original podcast exploring the life and legacy of American author Laura Ingalls Wilder, will premiere at Tribeca Film Festival as part of the 2023 audio storytelling lineup.  

Named one of Vulture’s “Top Podcasts We Can’t Wait to Listen to This Summer,” Wilder centers on the life and legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the great American storyteller. Since the first Little House on The Prairie book was published in 1932, generations of readers have flocked to Wilder’s cozy stories of the Ingalls’ family settling the Western frontier. The series inspired a TV show, (Little House on The Prairie) pageants and entire fashion lines. Behind this franchise is a woman who experienced almost a full century of American history. Wilder made her first trips in a covered wagon and later flew on a jet plane. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and legacy remain as powerful, mesmerizing, controversial and violent as the America she represents. In a country currently at odds with itself and its history could there be a better time for an exploration of this woman? 

The podcast host is Glynnis MacNicol, who is a writer, speaker, digital media consultant and podcast editor who lives in New York City. Her memoir, No One Tells You This, was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Esquire, the Financial Times and was a 2019 New York Times 'Paperback Row' pick.

Of course, a famous person's legacy is almost always a complicated affair. Even the legacy of Mother Theresa has undergone scrutiny.

In 2018, a division of the American Library Association voted to strip Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from a major children’s literature award over concerns about how the author referred to Native Americans and blacks. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was renamed as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association released a statement defending Wilder’s work, saying that while her writing included “the perspectives of racism that were representative of her time and place,” it also made “positive contributions to children’s literature.”

While the controversy appears to have subsided, in some instances, racist passages in the “Little House” series were amended in newer editions by booksellers. 

Wilder was released on June 8, 2023, with new episodes launching every Thursday.