Note on The Ali Interview 5-24-14

Ali was a great sport in the interview we did this past Saturday. James wrote up an interesting set of questions for him and the panel and audience expanded on a lot of them. I felt like we may have lost focus at times, staying on one or two questions too long here and there, but  overall I felt we kept up a good pace. I'm glad that Ali was as open as he was to answering all the questions and keeping things upbeat even when we got into difficult territory. I hope Ali will continue to join us a as a regular guest. He added a lot to the conversation.

Post Hangout Wrap Up for May 17, 2014

We've yet again managed to have a great hangout on little more than a wish and a preyer. I've been making a point to call people days before the weekend to get a better idea of who will be able to join and to get them thinking about the topics before we start our planning session before we go life. This week I wasn't able to get a commitment from anyone. As it turns out I was calling a few wrong numbers and I didn't even consider Tony because he's usually busy of Saturday, but he messaged me to see if we could do the hangout. I was at that point just planning on it being Tony and me when Trebor, James, and Gerald also joined in. You can watch it here http://youtu.be/VCMDHalUwzs

Notes on the Live M3 Weekly Hangout 5-10-14

This past weekend I was not feeling to good. My seasonal allergies were really getting to me and I wasn't getting the amount of sleep I needed to recover. It's amazing how things can still come together even when you feel like shit. I wish our special guest, Ali Lopez, got to see me at my best, but I take comfort in the small victories. At least I didn't fuck it up. I wanted to have all the topics planned out by Thursday and review them with our regular contributors. I didn't. I will in the future. It felt a little like free falling when we're not prepared. Life send me a parachute most times, but next time I'll be prepared. Watch the hangout here http://bit.ly/1oBSqqe

Quick Note

Just had a interesting conversation with Breeze about naivety and it has sparked a writing jag for me. I'm hoping to bing it up in the next hangout as well. Why do we mourn a person getting realistic about life? It seems like the loss of childhood should be something we celebrate. It came up because we get a lot of questions from young men in the gay dating scene who just can't come to grips with how unfair it all is. By this point in my life I've abandoned those notions that kept me from accepting the world as it is. I also have quite a bit to say about hope and how abandoning hope in some situations can be a good thing.

I'm also looking to compile the notes for the hangouts by Thursday now so I can call everyone up and get them thinking about the topics about 48 hours ahead of time. I still need to make the trailer for the events and I'm working on making the audio from the hangouts into a podcast. Lots to look forward to for this weekend.

'Who's Afraid of Post Blackness?' by Touré

Originally Posted in The Male Media Mind

“If there are 40 million black Americans, then there are 40 million ways to be black.” - Henry Louis Gates Jr

We talk about race a lot on M3. We often disagree about what challenges we face as black Americans. We talk about racism and white privilege, ratchet videos that fuel black stereotypes and the people who exploit them. From my time as editor and moderator of the M3 Weekly Hangouts, I get a real sense that the conversation about race has a lot more to do with identity than we'd like to admit. It seems like we're stuck in the war paradigm, that if you're not on the front lines of black liberation than you should at least be supporting the troops. Whenever a person makes a criticism of black America we have to check his credentials. Is he one of us? What we most often lack in our conversations about race is the question of identity. With all the problems that we face as a race it would seen the question is frivolous, but it is far from it. Touré manages to get a wide range of perspectives by interviewing more than a hundred black intellectuals and public figures about what it means to be black and how it has changed over time. The result is a book that I would highly recommend to anyone who is interested in having a productive conversation about race in America.

"Who's Afraid of Post Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now" by Touré (with foreword by Michael Eric Dyson) available at Amazon and iTunes

Editor's Notes, New Video Trailers, and Updating the "About M3" Section

How The Editor's Notes Got Started

I decided to revamp my old blog in order to give members of M3 an inside look into the workings of our organization. I originally wanted to post on the main blog, but it didn't make sense to place these in the main news feed. After each Saturday hangout I wanted to write a wrap-up post explaining what we talked about and what our viewers had to look forward to in the week ahead. We have a pretty tight schedule of posts and after the hangout I'm pretty exhausted. So when Breeze came up with the solution of posting these notes on my personal blog and linking linking them to the main blog, I jumped at the chance.

Post Hangout Notes for May 3, 2014

Whenever I start planning for the M3 Weekly Hangout each Saturday morning I've very anxious. I'm anxious about everything anyway, but the biggest fear is that I will not have anyone show up. People have their own lives, and there is the real possibility that no one will show up except for Breeze. I just never thought he and I could do the show own our own. Part of what makes the hangouts so lively is the number of contributors we usually have. Without any guests where would all the dialogue come from? I'm nervous that we would be there all alone and have to cancel.