Rough Drafts

In this episode, Luke and Maurice sit with Vinson Cunningham’s novel, Great Expectations (2024). The novel follows the campaign of a historic presidential campaign narrated by a young Black man who works on the campaign. The hosts reflect on their own memories of the campaign, with Maurice reflecting on having to “act” as Obama for a school performance, and Luke sharing his own school reminiscences. They put Cunningham’s text in conversation with Alexander Chee’s How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, and a documentary of the Obama campaign. Ultimately, they wonder about the impact of the campaign on contemporary political movements, returning to their themes of political hope and nihilism.

Note: Luke spends significant time in the episode recounting a false memory of seeing Obama on the campaign trail; the hosts have included that part rather than redacting to emphasize the overarching allure/power of the campaign on individual and collective memory. 

Great Expectations: A Novel by Vinson Cunningham https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690565/great-expectations-by-vinson-cunningham/ 

“How Barack Obama Won the 2008 Presidential Election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7EmNLpkP8s 

How to Write An Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee 

https://www.alexanderchee.net/autobiographical-novel 

In this episode, we interview Vernon Jordan III, a Philly born and bred writer, filmmaker and poet. For this episode, we read Vernon’s feature film script “Lavender Boy” which is currently in development as their feature film debut. We discuss the project and talk about their inspirations, afro-futurism and queer cinema. 

If you want more, check out Vernon's acclaimed short proof of concept film ONE MAGENTA AFTERNOON (2022), which played at 14 film festivals nationally and internationally. It's free to stream on KWELI TV. 

https://www.kweli.tv/watch/kweli/one-magenta-afternoon

In a conversation recorded after Valentine’s Day, ZekeUltra joins Rough Drafts for a conversation about music, political formation, and intellectual trajectories. 

Zeke is a musician based in Dover, Delaware. A friend of Luke’s, the two reminisce on how they met and shows performed together over the years. During the conversation Zeke reflects on his perseverance in his music journey. He talks about the influence of SoundCloud, “abstract rap” -think Earl Sweatshirt— early Chicago drill (Chief Keef’s Sosa) as well as figures such as Fela Kuti on his music. Rastafarianism and Pan-Africanism also informs the music Zeke creates.

His new album, Babel Tower (prod. with Shengu) dropped May 1 and is now available on all platforms. It gets a hearty recommendation from the hosts of Rough Drafts - tune in!

Introduction Song

“Good Company” 

https://open.spotify.com/track/3txKs9CQ2YACyKIt3WXXPw?si=luKNr_NVQ9yQpJdng-k_ow

Credit song 

“6 Speed”

https://open.spotify.com/track/019Xq9arImGSZDmgf5Hzc7?si=23W1co_NRqGbEC0qZ8PPHA

What constitutes a martial art? In this episode recorded in Nov. 2024, L and M work out their respective understandings of what a martial art is; they swap stories about their early experiences with martial arts, thinking about visual representations (in television, movies, anime, etc.) or from personal experience. They draw on historical figures such as Jack Johnson, and think with the legacies of Jet Li and Bruce Lee on Black culture. 

Notes and Sources:

Luke mentions a boxer from Rockford, his name is Angel Martinez.

Fighting In the Age of Loneliness: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DoaUyMGPWI 

“How 1970’s Kung Fu Films Revolutionized Black Culture”, Snobhob: 

https://www.snobhop.com/how-1970s-kung-fu-films-revolutionized-black-culture/ 

Malcom X, “You Need Some Karate and Judo”: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQCKMxC0SX4

Maryam Aziz, Our Fist is Black: Martial Arts, Black Arts, and Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s:

https://chinesemartialstudies.com/2016/01/21/our-fist-is-black-martial-arts-black-arts-and-black-power-in-the-1960s-and-1970s/

“They Punched Black: Martial Arts, Black Arts, and Sports in the Urban North and West, 1968-1979”: 

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/713680

Theresa Rundstedler, Jack Johnson, Rebel Sojoyner: Boxing in the Shadow of the Global Color Line: 

https://www.ucpress.edu/books/jack-johnson-rebel-sojourner/paper 

Why Bruce lee and kung fu films hit home with black audiences, Phil Hoad, The Guardian: 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/18/bruce-lee-films-black-audiences

What would it look like if there was a civil war conflict, and how would journalists cover it in the United States? In a conversation recorded November 1, 2024 L and M invite their friend Dimo Ortiz to the podcast to reflect on the film ‘Civil War’ which portrays the experiences of journalists covering a domestic conflict in the mainland United States. In a wide-ranging conversation, they reflect their respective relationships with journalism and how journalism influences their perception of the political/social moment.

In particular, they sit with the tension between institutions that have captured the mainstream (the corporate media conglomerate, and the social media platforms that have captured collective attention), and  “movement journalism”, which was coined by Anna Simmonton in 2017, as a term to think about journalism in service of liberation. 

Dimo studied journalism while at Temple University and their formative experiences came as a student journalist covering Trump’s rise in 2016. They reflect on that experience in light of the past few years which has seen heightened surveillance and police violence, some targeted at journalists covering social movements. 

They think critically about who is a movement journalist, sitting with the legacy of Ida B. Wells, and the Chicago Defender, and think about the contemporary role of independent media and the potentiality//pitfalls of America’s celebrity-influencer culture. What is the consequence of news becoming ‘content’ or ‘entertainment’? 

Notes and Sources:

This conversation includes spoilers about the movie Civil War. 

Civil War: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17279496/ 

https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/03/fivethirtyeight-is-shutting-down-as-part-of-broader-cuts-at-abc-and-disney/ 

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/washington-post-opinion-head-leaves-paper-section-shifts-focus-2025-02-26/ 

https://culturalpower.org/media/pdfs/CCP_doc_01_Tina_r4b.pdf

In a conversation recorded on New Years Eve 2024, L and M reflect on artistic and cultural highlights of the year, their respective “ins” and “outs” for 2025, and forecast what the year/second half of the 2020s will hold. 

Episode 5: Hope and Nihilism (Jan. 20)

L and M ask: what roles do hope and/or nihilism play in shaping political culture. In a meditative discussion held shortly after the US 2024 General Election, they reflect on how social movements and artistic expression hold potential to counter the isolation/alienation/exhaustion of the season ahead. 

Tressie Cottom, Daily Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nno64FGj8d0

WEB DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (1935) https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/w-e-b-du-bois-black-reconstruction-an-essay-toward-a-history-of-the-part-which-black-folk-played-in-the-attempt-to-reconstruct-democracy-2.pdf 

Jiirgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

https://arditiesp.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/habermas_structural_transf_public_sphere.pdf

Ursula Le Guin, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9Nf-rsALk

Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000)

Gabriel Winant, Exit Right https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/exit-right/

Calvin Warren, Abandoning Time: Black Nihilism and the Democratic Imagination

https://amst.winter-verlag.de/article/amst/2021/1/40

How has Amtrak shaped American transit historically and in the contemporary period?  L and M share their experiences riding the rail; they reflect on trips they’ve taken up and down the coast, and cross country. They swap stories about folks they’ve met, and look at the local and national impact of the Biden Infrastructure bill on Amtrak. 

Sources: 

“All Aboard Obama Express”, CBS News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2GRwvk8EmI  

Amtrak Fiscal year 2023 (https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/nationalfactsheets/Amtrak-Company-Profile-FY2023-041824.pdf)

“Amtrak is Set to Carry More Passengers than Ever Before” NPR, Aug. 2 2024

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/03/nx-s1-5060436/amtrak-is-set-to-carry-more-passengers-than-ever-before-this-year

The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region by David Alff

What is the state of the Black Bourgeoisie? And who even is the Black Bourgeoisie? L gives M a preliminary entrance exam to see if he can make it (he fails). They reflect on common misconceptions of the Black bourgeoisie, with particular attention to the distinctions between “class” and “status”, and “wealth versus “income.” They swap examples from family and their dating lives, and pose questions about the future vitality of the Black bourgeoisie in relation to politics and literature.

Sources:

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Margo Jefferson, Negroland

Franklin Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie

Lawrence Otis Graham, Our Kind of People 

Mary Patillo, Black Picket Fences

Kenneth W. Warren, What was African American Literature?  

What is the state of jazz in contemporary American culture? Maurice and Luke reconnect with their friend Seth, an independent jazz scholar and musician who shares his perspective cultivated by his reading and practice. Seth gives a historical overview of how the genre evolved through some of its most impactful contributors. In addition, he provides commentary on the relationship between jazz and white spectatorship and imitators (Jack Harlow maybe catches some strays).

Seth’s reflections urge us to think about the refined exploitation in the music industry and in black cultural expression more broadly. 

**Disclaimer: Luke’s segregation take may make certain folks blush and offend others; in the spirit of Rough Drafts, he is unserious (though not uninformed). Despite what he says, he looks forward to seeing his mother come holiday season and is a strong supporter of a multicultural democracy :)

Sources:

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley (2010)

https://www.harvard.com/book/9781439190463 

As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and The Free Jazz Revolution By Val Wilmer (2018)

https://mastbooks.com/products/as-serious-as-your-life 

Free Jazz/Black Power By Philppe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli; translated by Gregory Pierrot https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Free-Jazz-Black-Power 

Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of Music by Gerald Horne

References:

How it Feels To Be Colored Me, by Zora Neale Hurston (1929)

https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/619238/D12_How_it_Feels_to_be_Colored_ZNH_students__1___1___1_.pdf 

Blues People: Negro Music in White America  by Amiri Baraka

https://archive.org/details/bluespeoplenegroexp00bara 

https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/91518/original/Baraka+-+The+Modern+Scene.pdf 

Solar Myth

https://metrophiladelphia.com/solar-myth-john-coltrane-birthday/ 

screening director Shahkeem E. Williams’ new short film ‘Speakn’ Trane’ (written and produced by John Coltrane Symposium founder Anyabwile Love,  

On the Road by Jack Kerouac Howl by Allan Ginsburg

Soul (Disney Pixar)

Fact Checks: 

Sun Ra was definitely Black Arts Movement 

Immanuel *Wilkins* (not wilkerson)