There’s a line of thinking that calls out the problem of “slavery movies”—the apparent overabundance of depictions of Black people being enslaved, the way those depictions can too comfortably glide into voyeuristic pleasure at Black suffering. Why not portray other periods and experiences in Black history, this line of thinking goes. It’s an important point. […]
Archives for August 2023
On Sixto Rodriguez – The Sugar Man
Sixto Rodriguez, the Detroit singer and songwriter, died on August 8, 2023. He was 81 years of age. What follows is a short essay I wrote about him in July, 2012, the day after seeing the preview of the documentary film about his life entitled “Searching for Sugar Man.” The article was never published. I […]
A Small Slice of Private Life
For a few years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I had the good fortune to be in a relationship with Clem Maharaj, a former jazz drummer from Trinidad whose mother had taken the precaution of sending him to Europe in a suit made of flame-resistant fabric. This fireproof suit occupied a large space […]