Malcolm X

Brother Ali: My fans are kicking the sh*t out of me over Trayvon Martin

Note: Brother Ali is a Minneapolis rapper signed to Rhymesayers Entertainment. His latest album, Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color, will be released in August. Here are portions of an interview following the One Million Hoodies March for Trayvon Martin held March 29 at the University of Minn ... More >>

Twin Cities Hip-Hop Awards, Father You See Queen, and more

Garland Jeffreys

Brother Ali wants dropouts back in school [VIDEO]

Brother Ali wants you to crack the books​How do you persuade kids who've dropped off the Minneapolis school district's radar to get back to class? Enlist the help of a Rhymesayers hip-hopper they're probably listening to on their iPods instead of answering the school bell. Brother Ali cut thi ... More >>

Public Enemy honor Brother Ali in new video

​In preparation for their forthcoming box set (BRING THE NOISE, HITS, VIDS, and DOC BOX: GREATEST SITES AND SOUNDS), Public Enemy dropped a new video for "Say it Like it Really Is" this morning, and it includes snapshots of inspirational public figures, activists, and musicians ranging from Malcol ... More >>

Bassgasm 2 at First Avenue, 7/23/10

Photos by Denis Jeong Plaster​Bassgasm 2July 23rd, 2010First AvenueYou could feel it before you walked through the door.  The low end was turned up as far as it would go, reverberating through the black brick of First Ave, making the concrete tremble beneath the feet of all the boys and girls ... More >>

The Mayhem Poets perform slam poetry tomorrow night

Check out these guys out while they're in town.

Talk of the Stacks: Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

Brother Ali releases promo videos for "Good Lord"

New videos have surfaced in anticipation of a new single by Brother Ali.

Mayor to Arrested Journalists: Drop Dead

Suddenly, the mayor wants nothing to do with hosting the RNC

The Meeting

Tubby Smith Was Not Born in A Barn

Robber Barons

Kanye Bests 50 Cent, But Is Either Album a Winner?

Music Is (Still) the Weapon

Femi Kuti makes Afrobeat for today's world

Concert Highlights for the Week of July 11 - July 17

The Shelf Life of Socialism

Inside a Leninist bookstore in West St. Paul, a familiar refrain: What is to be done?

Tuesday audio: James Baldwin and Malcolm X

4/25: Morning Communique

Free Will Astrology

Shiver Me Timbers

A disquisition on horripilation, cutis anserine, gooseflesh, and goose bumps

This is not my beautiful house

Mooning at the Howl

We used to be patient Wolves fans, but things have changed.

Dog Bites Man

Why did an MPD officer let a K-9 unit dog savage a man who already surrendered?

The Red and The Black

Chris Marker dissects the corpse of the Sixties revolutions

Mann vs. Machine

Race for Last

In One Drop of Blood,writer Scott L. Malcomson examines the destructive legacy of racial designations

The Candidate

Two years after topping polls as a live local favorite, Mason Jennings recasts his tunes in a political key

Geek Squad

X-Men puts its superhero "muties" in charge of flattering the core audience

Newton's Laws

A one-man show captures the complications Huey P. Newton faced in trying to walk like a Panther

Walk Like a Panther

Baritone saxophonist Fred Ho makes music for the revolution.

Shades of Bey

At age 59 jazz singer Andy Bey is moving from the fringes to the mainstream and making the best music of his strange career

Because They Can

Six minor-party contenders for governor promise to bring back the primo dime-bag, turn the governor's mansion into a flophouse, tax water, get big brother out of your bedroom, ditch the nukes, and reveal the secrets of gravity-defying hair.

Scarlett Fever

Along Comes Jones

Todd Jones was tapped as only a temporary fill-in, but he's at the top of a very short list to replace U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug

Products of the 'Hood

Face/Off: Denzel Washington and Ray Allen in Spike Lee's He Got Game

Firestarter

William L. Van Deburg: Black Camelot

Play Against Type

Dancing in the Street: A rarely produced play by Lorraine Hansberry shows the small man behind the most principled activist in the world.

Making It Plain

Etched in Memory: 4 Little Girls.

Tupac Shakur

MUSIC: Mike Ladd

On Wings and a Prayer

alt.film.critic

Internet, Book, Video, Music

Art Crimes, Susan Welch, Amiri Baraka, Edward Humes, Garry Wills, The Wife, Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, Sweet Nothing, Boz Scaggs, dEUS

The Women by Hilton Als

Dreams Endured

History and Mystery

All Aboard

Tongue Untied

Poet Paul Beatty makes polyglot Americana with his debut novel, The White Boy Shuffle.

The Trials of David Lillehaug

In the wake of Najarian and Shabazz, the U.S. attorney and former DFL prodigy finds his once-bright political future in question.