Africa Is a Country

Music Break. Alabama Shakes

Music Break. Alabama Shakes

By
Sean Jacobs

Remember the Alabama Shakes–the best band of 2011. At the heart of the band is guitarist and singer Brittany Howard, described by my wife as “a cross between Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse” when we saw them performing live in early December at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan. Probably the best live gig I’ve seen in a while. At the Mercury Lounge we stood for long periods just staring at Howard working the mic. The rest of the band can play too. Anyway, in the video above you can see another one of Alabama Shakes more recent live performances–and Howard’s talents as a performer–captured on video. Go see them before they’re really famous.

Further Reading

An unfinished project

Christian theology was appropriated to play an integral role in the justifying apartheid’s racist ideology. Black theologians resisted through a theology of the oppressed.

Writing while black

The film adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel ‘Erasure’ leaves little room to explore Black middle-class complicity in commodifying the traumas of Black working-class lives.

The Mogadishu analogy

In Gaza and Haiti, the specter of another Mogadishu is being raised to alert on-lookers and policymakers of unfolding tragedies. But we have to be careful when making comparisons.

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.