Black History Month 2023 February is Black History Month in the U.S., and this year's theme is "Black Resistance." Throughout the month, NPR will compile a list of stories, music performances, podcasts and other content that chronicles the Black American experience.
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A screenshot from the Melvin Van Peebles film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Yeah hide caption
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Movies
How Black resistance has been depicted in films over the years
March 2, 2023 From Something Good — Negro Kiss to Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Black cinema has long served as a form of resistance.
How Black resistance has been depicted in films over the years
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Omah Lay performs a Tiny Desk concert Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023, at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. Michael Zamora/NPR/Michael Zamora/NPR hide caption
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Tiny Desk
Omah Lay: Tiny Desk Concert
February 28, 2023 The singer and songwriter made a special trip from Nigeria to the Tiny Desk for a performance of his Afro-fusion hits.
"It's not all just about anger and aggression," Zulu's Anaiah Lei (far left) says, "I'm kind of tired of being expected to express that when I want to express love." Alice Baxley/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
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Alice Baxley/Courtesy of the artist
Music Features
Zulu's soul-sampling powerviolence shifts the pit toward love
February 27, 2023 Meaty riffs, disembodied screams and... Curtis Mayfield? Anaiah Lei carefully curates samples to acknowledge past freedom fighters and provide windows of hope.
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Tiny Desk
Ab-Soul: Tiny Desk Concert
February 23, 2023 Ab-Soul's career is a prime example of how rap has grown over the past 50 years. For his Tiny Desk set, he hand-picked a live band and gave a display of raw honesty and next-level lyricism.
LOS ANGELES - JAN 8: Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data in the STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION episode, "The Hunted." Season 3, ep 11. Original air date, 1/8/90. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images hide caption
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CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images
Short Wave
What is life? For scientists, asking is easier than answering
February 23, 2023 In this Back To School episode we consider the "List of Life": the criteria that define what it is to be a living thing. Some are easy calls: A kitten is alive. A grain of salt is not. But what about the tricky cases, like a virus? Or, more importantly, what about futuristic android robots? As part of our Black History Month celebration, developmental biologist Crystal Rogers and scientist-in-residence Regina G. Barber dig into what makes something alive, and wade into a Star-Trek-themed debate.
What is life? For scientists, asking is easier than answering
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Courtesy of Craig Woodson
Code Switch
1 side owned slaves. The other side started Black History Month. How a family heals
February 19, 2023 In the U.S., what does it mean when a white family and a Black family share a last name — and one of their ancestors is a pioneer of Black history? How Black and white Woodsons became one family.
1 side owned slaves. The other side started Black History Month. How a family heals
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Theo Croker performs a Tiny Desk concert. Photo: Bob Boilen/NPR hide caption
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Tiny Desk
Theo Croker: Tiny Desk Concert
February 17, 2023 The trumpeter brings his unmistakably chill attitude and determination to expand the sound of jazz to this stripped-down Tiny Desk set.
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Tiny Desk
Fousheé: Tiny Desk Concert
February 15, 2023 Britanny Fousheé is not an artist who can be boxed in. In her Tiny Desk set, she flexes her eclectic artistry and vocal — and emotional — range.
The documentary Wattstax celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. It will be returning to theaters alongside a new box set called Soul'd Out: The Complete Wattstax Collection. Courtesy of Stax Records and Craft Recordings hide caption
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Courtesy of Stax Records and Craft Recordings
Music Features
50 years later, the celebrations and contradictions of 'Wattstax' still resonate
February 15, 2023 The documentary returns to theaters this month alongside the release of a new box set. It's a chance to consider what it captures (and doesn't) about music, race and justice in the 1970s and today.
Pulse oximeters are known to be biased against darker skin tones. Kimani Toussaint is a physicist at Brown University working on an alternative to the pulse oximeter. Joshua Burrow/Kimani Toussaint hide caption
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Joshua Burrow/Kimani Toussaint
Short Wave
COVID-19 made pulse oximeters ubiquitous. Engineers are fixing their racial bias
February 13, 2023 During the COVID-19 pandemic, one measurement became more important than almost any other: blood oxygen saturation. It was the one concrete number that doctors could use to judge how severe a case of COVID-19 was and know whether to admit people into the hospital and provide them with supplemental oxygen. But pulse oximeters, the device most commonly used to measure blood oxygen levels, don't work as well for patients of color. Kimani Toussaint, a physicist at Brown University, is leading a group trying to make a better, more equitable alternative a reality.
COVID-19 made pulse oximeters ubiquitous. Engineers are fixing their racial bias
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Tiny Desk
Lee Fields: Tiny Desk Concert
February 10, 2023 NPR Music's Tiny Desk series continues a celebration of Black History Month with this set from Lee Fields.
Stokely Carmichael, shown here in 1967, helped popularize the term "Black Power!" in 1966. AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Race
How Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers changed the civil rights movement
Fresh Air
February 8, 2023 Journalist Mark Whitaker says that much of what's happening in American race relations today traces back to 1966, the year the Black Panthers were formed. His new book is Saying It Loud.
How Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers changed the civil rights movement
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Physicist Desiré Whitmore teaches workshops to help teachers better communicate science. As part of that, Desiré uses optical illusions to explain how social blind spots come into play in the classroom. Scott Barbour/Getty Images for NGV hide caption
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Short Wave
What physical blind spots can teach us about social blind spots
February 6, 2023 Everyone sees the world differently. Exactly which colors you see and which of your eyes is doing more work than the other as you read this text is different for everyone. Also different? Our blind spots – both physical and social. As we continue celebrating Black History Month, today we're featuring Exploratorium Staff Physicist Educator Desiré Whitmore. She shines a light on human eyesight – how it affects perception and how understanding another person's view of the world can offer us a fuller, better picture of life.
What physical blind spots can teach us about social blind spots
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Miami Police Department
Race
A Black History Month-themed police car in Miami draws criticism
February 4, 2023 Some community members describe the cruiser as tone deaf and ill-timed, given tensions with police around the country. Miami police said they stand by the decision to unveil the special design.
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Review
Book Reviews
'Black on Black' celebrates Black culture while exploring history and racial tension
February 2, 2023 Daniel Black's essays call for an overhaul of the U.S. criminal justice system, of the Black church, of the way Black people see themselves, and of the country itself — and do so with authority
The Black Panthers march in protest of the trial of co-founder Huey P. Newton in Oakland, California. Bettmann/Getty Images hide caption
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Bettmann/Getty Images
Throughline
The Real Black Panthers (2021)
February 2, 2023 In 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said the Black Panther Party "without question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." And with that declaration he used United States federal law enforcement to wage war on the group. But why did Hoover's FBI target the Black Panther Party more severely than any other Black power organization? Historian Donna Murch says the answer lies in the Panthers' political agenda: not their brash, gun-toting public image, but in their capacity to organize across racial and class lines. It was a strategy that challenged the very foundations of American society. And it was working.
The Real Black Panthers (2021)
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration rejected the original curriculum for the African American studies course in January. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption
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Education
College Board's revised AP African American studies course draws new criticism
February 1, 2023 The organization released the new curriculum for the Advanced Placement course after Florida rejected the pilot. The revisions removed units on Black feminist literary thought and Black Lives Matter.
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Tiny Desk
Lady Wray: Tiny Desk Concert
February 1, 2023 NPR Music's Tiny Desk series kicks off a celebration of Black History Month with this stunning performance from Lady Wray.
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Short Wave
The ancient night sky and the earliest astronomers
February 1, 2023 Moiya McTier says the night sky has been fueling humans' stories about the universe for a very long time, and informing how they explain the natural world. In fact, Moiya sees astronomy and folklore as two sides of the same coin.
The ancient night sky and the earliest astronomers
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