July Newsletter!
Become a Patron and enjoy this content!To view this content, you must be a member of Obsidian Tea’s Patreon at $5 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.
Representation, #notmyariel, and you!
With #notmyariel going around, it seems like a great time to talk about representation! Racism aside, one of the major quoted reason against changing things about a character is often this implied entitlement. People might say: “Why fix what’s not broken? Isn’t changing things about beloved characters ruining them? It’s so unnecessary… and so must be PC …
5 current blues artists you should know : part 2
The current artist series to combat to popular myths that blues is dead, or that it is no longer Black. Obsidian has picked 5 artists of varying ages to highlight, all with very different sounds. Artists that can still be found today! Consider checking them out, buying a CD and adding them to your que …
5 current blues artists you should know : part 2 Read More »
How to add diversity to your community
So, you wanna be inclusive? A question that gets thrown around woke communities all the time is “how do we get more diversity” and honestly you probably aren’t going to like my answer… Get, uncomfortable. Uncomfortable? What’s that got to do with anything? Well, more than you think. If you are white in America I …
Innocent Fun isn’t Always Harmless
“Don’t you fucking dare!” I mumbled to myself as I hear the question echoing in my head. “Do you know how to play wade in the water?” It’s my grandfathers funeral and I’m 7 in awe and bewitched by the magic of the singing around me. Through songs I could hear their morning, their grief, …
Patreon newsletter June 2019
Become a Patron and enjoy this content!To view this content, you must be a member of Obsidian Tea’s Patreon at $3 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.
Stop What You are Doing and LISTEN
A few months back I was attempting to use my audible credits and I downloaded a bunch of random books. One was a book I bought for research on blues. And I’m in love. First the reader is simply one of the smoothest and easy voices to listen to. It’s dark, and gritty and yet …
So, you love blues but not Hip Hop (Soul, R&B, Funk, or other Black musics) Hm.
Music is the heartbeat of Black American culture. Right up there with church, and dancing. I LOVE all of the music that has come out of our culture. I always find it a bit distressing when people who dance to our music say “I love blues but I’m not really into hip hop/rap” or ” …
So, you love blues but not Hip Hop (Soul, R&B, Funk, or other Black musics) Hm. Read More »
Dance communities and time travel
A common cultural miscommunication that alienates Black people within our dance communities is the love of the past and time travel. I don’t mean Doctor Who time travel. What I mean is the the common idea that people who do these dances desire to go back in time. They say things like “I feel like …
Dressing up
For years there has been an ongoing debate about the importance of dressing up at social dances. Understand that dressing up is a part of the culture if you are doing an African American vernacular dance. I’m going to explore why dressing up matters, how it shows up often in Black Culture as a means …