Artists in the hood – ED MORALES

America and Race, Artists in the hood, George Zimmerman case, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latin Music, Latinos and Race, Latinos in Media, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Living in Spanglish Radio: Afro-Latino Edition

This edition of Living in Spanglish Radio features an interview with Amilcar Priestly, co-director of New York’s Afro-Latino Festival. In our conversation we talk about the growing need for and efficacy of expressing an Afro-Latino identity and even talk a little about its connection with Black Lives Matter. I also play music featured at the […]

America and Race, Artists in the hood, Gentrification of New York, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Latinos in Hollywood, Latinos in Media, New York City Politics, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Republican Party politics, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

The Fix Was In: Puerto Rico Re-Colonized by Senate Trying to Get Out of Town

The imposition of the Fiscal Oversight Board on Puerto Rico constitutes a wholly undemocratic re-colonization of what was once known as the Commonwealth, one that should immediately compel all Americans to take to the street to denounce this hideous betrayal of their country’s imagined role as the leader of the free world. But the most […]

America and Race, Artists in the hood, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Latinos in Hollywood, Latinos in Media, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Republican Party politics, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Why Congress (And John Oliver and Lin Manuel Miranda) Can’t Save Puerto Rico

“There are certainly better voices than mine to speak on behalf of Puerto Rico” -John Oliver Can’t argue with that. Oliver’s awkward tittering about vejigante masks and sex at Loiza’s annual carnival notwithstanding, the debt crisis is no joke, and resisting the Republican Congress’s attempt to impose a fiscal oversight board—as well as a raft […]

America and Race, Artists in the hood, Gentrification of New York, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Latinos in Media, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

7 Tweets About Hamilton

[Click on tweet for link to article referred to in tweet]

America and Race, Artists in the hood, Latin Music, Latinos in Media, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Rock Music, Urban/Global Politics

Calle 13’s Transformative Space

The sold-out crowd at Times Square’s Best Buy Theatre last Saturday night could not control itself as their hero, René Pérez a/k/a MC Residente of Calle 13 took the stage with his typical buoyant boxing stance, ready to slay the dragon of indifference with lyrics spat and batucada attack. The backing band, now so well-rehearsed […]

America and Race, Artists in the hood, Latin Music, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics

Salsa DJs, Not Fania All-Stars Slam Dancers in Central Park

To be a fan of salsa music in New York during the ‘60s and ‘70s was to witness an explosion—a growing diversity of Latinos came together to create a new kind of Latin music that was no longer dependent on Cuban exports and reflected the gritty reality of living in the city. At the center […]

America and Race, Artists in the hood, Gentrification of New York, Urban/Global Politics

Kara Walker and the Culture of Decay

Made it over to the last day of viewing for Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety,” the now-famous (or infamous) installation at the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The night before I overheard a heated discussion about it at the Blitz the Ambassador show at the Brooklyn Museum, and of course, it had been a buzz […]

Artists in the hood, Latinos in Hollywood, Urban/Global Politics

One Degree of Separación: Latin@s Still Invisible in Hollywood

When I got wind last month of the unexpected passing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I was of course, saddened, and then contemplated it as another New York tragedy about a Downtown artist with great talent whose death garnered headlines because he had managed to break thorough into Hollywood celebrity. In other words, a story close […]

Artists in the hood, New York City Politics, Urban/Global Politics

Spike Lee Said the Right Thing

Spike Lee’s now-famous rant against gentrification is a mixed blessing. As an extremely high profile New York voice, Lee commands headlines and brings even more visibility to an increasingly hot topic. But his unfortunate characterization as a racial lightning rod, as well as the contradictions raised by his own profiting from the New York real […]

Artists in the hood, New York City Politics, New York Mayoral Politics, Urban/Global Politics

¡Brujería!

The worst thing about today’s stories in the Daily News and the Unmentionable Murdoch Propaganda Tabloid (I refuse to link to it, so find it for yourself) about “El Barrio Chickengate,” besides the fact that they are at times sloppily written and racist, is that they are in danger of giving thoughtful criticism of the probable […]