When combined, the sum total of movies, music, books, athletics and visual arts commandeered by black nerds looks like a downright proliferation. But if you can count 'em, it ain't a lot.
Still, a movement is afoot whenever a cache of creative output by or about a (sub)culture pervades mainstream culture. They're closer than you think.
Here's a random, biased list:
Hilton Als, The Women
Arthur Ashe, dead tennis player
Bahamadia, mealy-mouthed Philly Rapper
James Baldwin, author, gay expatriate
Amiri Baraka, nee Leroi Jones, scary black beat poet
Jean-Michel Basquiat, painter who overdosed on heroin; cash cow for white art collectors and dealers
Paul Beatty, Big Bank Take Little Bank & Joker, Joker Deuce
Andy Bey, Jazz singer/pianist/composer; former hairdresser
Bilal, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist; often stoned
Jayson Blair, former New York Times reporter; liar
Wanda Coleman, Bathwater Wine
John Coltrane, giant stepper, Jazz phenom
Terrence Trent D'arby, The Hardline According to... (Columbia)
Digable Planets, Blowout Comb (Pendulum)
Donny, The Colored Section (Giant Step Records)
Michael Evans, white-talking baby brother on Good Times; midget revolutionary
Dionne Farris, Wild Seed-Wild Flower (Columbia)
Ella Fitzgerald, shy scat singer
Roberta Flack, dispassionate Soul singer (see Donny Hathaway)
Donny Hathaway, dead Soul singer (see Roberta Flack)
Zora Neale Hurston, folklorist/writer/social critic/mule of de world
Michael Jackson, former black man; once sang and danced with four of his brothers
Jesus, believed to be black; died to save some, lost others
Sarah Jones, poet/performance artist, banned from and reinstated to radio for criticizing Rap's subjugation of women
Kenna, New Sacred Cow (Columbia)
Adrienne Kennedy, playwright
Randall Kennedy, nigger
Talib Kweli, rapper who samples Nina Simone
Victor D. LaValle, Slapboxing With Jesus & the Ecstatic
Spike Lee, filmmaker, overlooked at Oscar time
Bob Marley, deified dead Reggae star
Leanita McClain, A Foot in Each World
Aaron McGruder, creator of "Boondocks," smart-ass, hip syndicated comic strip
Thelonious Monk, Jazz genius
MeShell NdegeOcello, Plantation Lullabies, et al (Maverick)
Jill Nelson, Volunteer Slavery & Straight, No Chaser
Neptunes, aka N.E.R.D., ubiquitous producers, black boys with beats, millionaires
Outkast, outlandishly dressed Rap duo
Suzan Lori-Parks, Obie, Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Award-winning playwright; author of Topdog/Underdog
Daryl Pinckney, High Cotton
William Pope. L, The Friendliest Black Artist in America
Kevin Powell, editor; Step Into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature
Toshi Reagon, singer/songwriter
Condaleeza Rice, works for President Bush; Classical pianist
"The Rise of the Black Nerd," by James Hannaham (Village Voice, July 31-Aug. 6, 2002; inspiration for this package)
Paul Robeson, deceased football player and actor; Communist sympathizer
The Roots, Rap group, plays own instruments
Nina Simone, dead singer; made it on talent, not looks
Pamela Sneed, Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery
Thandeka, Learning to be White
Marc Anthony Thompson aka Chocolate Genius, Black Music (V2 Music)
Tribe Called Quest, Low End Theory (Jive)
Cornel West, preacher, professor, homeboy
Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist & John Henry Days
Saul Williams, poet/actor, said the shotgun to the head
Venus Williams, tennis player; loses to younger sister
Kathy Y. Wilson, smart-ass columnist and wannabe book author; Hamilton native
George Wolf, The Colored Museum
Malcolm X, nee Malcolm Little, later El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz; autobiography widely read by black prisoners
* According to Napoleon Maddox, Cincinnati-based MC, beat boxer and black nerd
-- KATHY Y. WILSON
Printer-friendly version
