Elements & Embodiment // 050
Hey there! Thanks for keeping up with me through my little newsletter. I'm back with some items to share after a few weeks off. I hope you find something to read, listen to, or bookmark for later. As always, holler back my way with anything that's catching your eye or moving your feet. Here is a bit of what’s below:
Photos from a community beatmaking and DJing event
Music from James Baldwin’s record collection
A Detroit DJ who showed up in a video game
Obsidian, Your Second Brain
Reading Room
I've been sampling some chapters in the third edition of Patricia Leavy's Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice. I hope I'm not in trouble for skipping the first and second editions.
How American Textbooks Misrepresent the Collective Struggle for Racial Justice is an excerpt from Leigh Patel's new book, No Study Without Struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism in Higher Education. I learned a great deal from and often cite her previous book, Decolonizing Education Research, and look forward to reading the new one.
This cool profile of Detroit DJ and producer Moodymann covers his love for Prince, how he ended up as a character in the Grand Theft Auto video game, and more. I once recorded as a voice memo on my phone every time Moodymann worked the mic while DJing at an outdoor party in Detroit. His distinct voice can do as much to move the crowed as any record he plays.
I’ve learned a lot about human centered design from IDEO and used their design thinking toolkit for educators in some of my classes. Though, I have to pump the breaks a bit when they pitch design at the approach to solve all problems. Either way, I enjoyed this short podcast episode on storytelling for entrepreneurs by IDEO guy Tom Kelley.
Writing Lab
I've kept out of the writing lab the past few weeks having recently met a few goals and now spending that time preparing for the start of the semester and a new project on activist art collectives that is about to begin. In these downtimes, I like to reassess some of the work habits, flows, and technologies I’ve been keeping, intentionally or unintentionally. I try to adhere to the WORK CLEAN approach. But this reassessment has landed me down the rabbit hole of the Zettelkasten:
A Zettelkasten is a personal tool for thinking and writing. It has hypertextual features to make a web of thought possible. The difference to other systems is that you create a web of thoughts instead of notes of arbitrary size and form, and emphasize connection, not a collection.
The example nonpareil of Zettelkasten, I’ve learned, is an analogue one by social scientist Niklas Luhmann. But there are many digital platforms now that facilitate this kind of note linking and knowledge web, like Obsidian, Roam, and Notion. I’ve been trying out Obsidian this week, which is pitched as Your Second Brain. I don’t quite have my first brain around it yet, but this may be the start of something big — and fun.
Art Gallery
Some photos from the community beatmaking and DJ sessions that I reconvened this week at the Pontiac Library:
Listening Station
Here is a range of sounds I've been listening to the past few weeks. Click on the images to listen.
Mixes I'm playing
White Linen mix full of Afro house, cumbia, and other goodies by DuiJi 13 and Lil Dave, two brothers I used to see a lot in my old west Philly neighborhood.
Afro-Shingaling mix by Andre Schroeter
Lots of classic hip-hop samples throughout this three hours and thirty minute mix of funk, soul, and jazz by my friend Adam.
New discoveries
What a great surprise that Mother by Cleo Sol came out this week. I still play her 2020 debut album Rose in the Dark regularly. She has been one of my favorite singers in the last year not only because of her solo work but because of her involvement in SAULT, which I've said a lot about in this newsletter.
This Tiny Desk Concern by Mumu Fresh. Don't miss the Black Thought cameo at the end.
Lots of live performances from the 2021 Detroit Jazz Festival.
Music I'm making
I found time time to chop up this Jimmy Smith record and make a beat from it. I always seem to have M.O.P. 12-inches with a cappellas on hand, so the beat turned into a remix of "Uptown Swinger." Check it out here.
There's an active listening exercise that I sometimes to before composing a beat. That's why this beat sounds pretty similar in architecture to this beat by Lord Finesse. The full track is only on vinyl, so you can only hear a snipped in the link, but maybe you can hear the similarities.
From the Archives
Last year around this time I sent out issue #31, Writers on White Evangelicals & Trump.