title: Quechuan languages

text: As in the case of the pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, there are a number of Andean texts in the local language which were written down in Latin characters after the European conquest, but which express, to a great extent, the culture of pre-Conquest times. For example, Quechua poems thought to date from Inca times are preserved as quotations within some Spanish-language chronicles dealing with the pre-Conquest period. However, the most important specimen of Quechua literature of this type is the so-called Huarochirí Manuscript (1598), which describes the mythology and religion of the valley of Huarochirí and has been compared to "an Andean Bible" and to the Mayan Popol Vuh. From the post-conquest period (starting from the middle of the 17th century), there are a number of anonymous or signed Quechua dramas, some of which deal with the Inca era, while most are on religious topics and of European inspiration. The most famous dramas are "Ollantay" and the plays describing the death of Atahualpa. Juan de Espinosa Medrano wrote several dramas in the language. Poems in Quechua were also composed during the colonial period. A notable example are the works of Juan Wallparrimachi, a participant in the Bolivian War of Independence.


title: Quechuan languages

text: As for Christian literature, as early as 1583, the Third Provincial Church Council of Lima, which took place in 1583, published a number of texts dealing with Christian doctrine and rituals, including a trilingual catechism in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara and a number of other similar texts in the years from 1584 to 1585. More texts of this type were published until the middle of the 17th century, mostly adhering to a Quechua literary standard that had been codified by the Third Council for this purpose. There is at least one Quechuan version of the Bible.


title: Quechuan languages

text: Dramas and poems continued to be written in the 19th and especially in 20th centuries as well; in addition, in the 20th century and more recently, more prose has been published. However, few literary forms were made present in the 19th century as European influences limited literary criticism. While some of that literature consists of original compositions (poems and dramas), the bulk of 20th century Quechua literature consists of traditional folk stories and oral narratives. Johnny Payne has translated two sets of Quechua oral short stories, one into Spanish and the other into English.


title: Quechuan languages

text: Demetrio Túpac Yupanqui wrote a Quechuan version of "Don Quixote", under the title "Yachay sapa wiraqucha dun Qvixote Manchamantan".


title: Quechuan languages

text: Many Andean musicians write and sing in their native languages, including Quechua and Aymara. Notable musical groups are Los Kjarkas, Kala Marka, J'acha Mallku, Savia Andina, Wayna Picchu, Wara, Alborada, Uchpa and many others.


title: Quechuan languages

text: In the 1977 science fiction film Star Wars, the alien character Greedo speaks an adapted form of Quechua.


title: Karan Brar

text: Karan Brar (born January 18, 1999) is an American actor. He portrayed Chirag Gupta in the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" film franchise and Ravi Ross on the Disney Channel Original Series "Jessie" and its subsequent spin-off "Bunk'd".


title: Karan Brar

text: Karan Brar was born on January 18, 1999, in Redmond, Washington, to parents who are of Indian ancestry. He was raised in Bothell, Washington, and has one older sibling, a sister named Sabreena. Brar attended Cedar Wood Elementary School and studied acting at John Robert Powers and Patti Kalles workshops.


title: Karan Brar

text: Brar began his acting career at the age of 11, starring as Indian middle schooler Chirag Gupta in the comedy feature film "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". Born and raised in the United States, Brar naturally speaks with an American accent and worked with a dialect coach to perfect his Indian accent for the role.


title: Karan Brar

text: In March 2011, Brar reprised his role as Chirag Gupta in the feature film sequel "". In October 2011, it was confirmed that he would also be reprising his role as Chirag for the third installment of the "Wimpy Kid" franchise, "", released on August 3, 2012. In April 2010, he appeared in the "Seeds of Compassion" advertorial campaign announcing the Dalai Lama's visit to Seattle, as well as appearing in commercials for Shell Gasoline and Committee for Children.


title: Karan Brar

text: Brar began starring in the role of 10-year-old Indian adoptee Ravi Ross on the Disney Channel comedy series "Jessie" in September 2011. During pre-production of the show, the role of Ravi was originally intended to be a Hispanic boy named Javier from South America, but casting directors were impressed with Brar during the audition process and ultimately decided to recreate the role for him.


title: Karan Brar

text: In February 2015, a new Disney Channel series "Bunk'd", a spin-off of "Jessie", was announced, in which Brar would reprise his role as Ravi Ross. That year, he played the role of George in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Invisible Sister". In 2018, he had a minor role in the science fiction film "".


title: Karan Brar

text: Brar lived in the Los Angeles area with his parents and older sister, until he moved in with fellow actors Cameron Boyce and Sophie Reynolds in May 2019.


title: Suits (season 6)

text: The sixth season of the American legal drama "Suits" was ordered on July 1, 2015, and began airing on USA Network in the United States July 13, 2016. The season is produced by Hypnotic Films & Television and Universal Cable Productions, and the executive producers are Doug Liman, David Bartis, and series creator Aaron Korsh. The season has six series regulars playing employees at the fictional Pearson Specter Litt law firm in Manhattan: Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, and Gina Torres.


title: Suits (season 6)

text: Gina Torres left the show following the summer season due to her contract being up, and she starred in ABC's "The Catch". She returned for the season finale and was still credited as main cast for the episode. She further went on to star in the "Suits" spinoff, "Pearson".


title: Nephrology

text: Nephrology (from Greek" nephros" "kidney", combined with the suffix "-logy", "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kidney health, and the treatment of kidney disease, from diet and medication to renal replacement therapy (dialysis and kidney transplantation). The word “renal” is an adjective meaning “relating to the kidneys”, and its roots are French or late Latin. Whereas according to some opinions, "renal" and "nephro" should be replaced with "kidney" in scientific writings such as "kidney medicine" (instead of nephrology) or "kidney replacement therapy", other experts have advocated preserving the use of renal and nephro as appropriate including in "nephrology" and "renal replacement therapy", respectively.


title: Nephrology

text: Nephrology also studies systemic conditions that affect the kidneys, such as diabetes and autoimmune disease; and systemic diseases that occur as a result of kidney disease, such as renal osteodystrophy and hypertension. A physician who has undertaken additional training and become certified in nephrology is called a "nephrologist".


title: Nephrology

text: The term "nephrology" was first used in about 1960, according to the French "néphrologie" proposed by Pr. Jean Hamburger in 1953, from the Greek νεφρός / nephrós (kidney). Before then, the specialty was usually referred to as "kidney medicine".


title: Nephrology

text: Nephrology concerns the diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases, including electrolyte disturbances and hypertension, and the care of those requiring renal replacement therapy, including dialysis and renal transplant patients. The word 'dialysis' is from the mid 19th century: via Latin from the Greek word 'dialusis'; from 'dialuein' (split, separate), from 'dia' (apart) and 'luein' (set free). In other words, dialysis replaces the primary (excretory) function of the kidney, which separates (and removes) excess toxins and water from the blood, placing them in the urine.


title: Nephrology

text: Many diseases affecting the kidney are systemic disorders not limited to the organ itself, and may require special treatment. Examples include acquired conditions such as systemic vasculitides (e.g. ANCA vasculitis) and autoimmune diseases (e.g. lupus), as well as congenital or genetic conditions such as polycystic kidney disease.


title: Nephrology

text: Patients are referred to nephrology specialists after a urinalysis, for various reasons, such as acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, hematuria, proteinuria, kidney stones, hypertension, and disorders of acid/base or electrolytes.


title: Nephrology

text: A nephrologist is a physician who specializes in the care and treatment of kidney disease. Nephrology requires additional training to become an expert with advanced skills. Nephrologists may provide care to people without kidney problems and may work in general/internal medicine, transplant medicine, immunosuppression management, intensive care medicine, clinical pharmacology, perioperative medicine, or pediatric nephrology.


title: Nephrology

text: Nephrologists may further sub-specialise in dialysis, kidney transplantation, home therapies (home dialysis), cancer-related kidney diseases (onco-nephrology), structural kidney diseases (uro-nephrology), procedural nephrology or other non-nephrology areas as described above.


title: Nephrology

text: Procedures a nephrologist may perform include native kidney and transplant kidney biopsy, dialysis access insertion (temporary vascular access lines, tunnelled vascular access lines, peritoneal dialysis access lines), fistula management (angiographic or surgical fistulogram and plasty), and bone biopsy. Bone biopsies are now unusual.


title: Nephrology

text: To become a nephrologist in India, one has to complete an MBBS (5 and 1/2 years) degree, followed by an MD/DNB (3 years) either in medicine or paediatrics, followed by a DM/DNB (3 years) course in either nephrology or paediatric nephrology.


title: Nephrology

text: Nephrology training in Australia and New Zealand typically includes completion of a medical degree (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery: 4–6 years), internship (1 year), Basic Physician Training (3 years minimum), successful completion of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians written and clinical examinations, and Advanced Physician Training in Nephrology (3 years). The training pathway is overseen and accredited by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, though the application process varies across states. Completion of a post-graduate degree (usually a PhD) in a nephrology research interest (3–4 years) is optional but increasingly common. Finally, many Australian and New Zealand nephrologists participate in career-long professional and personal development through bodies such as the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology and the Transplant Society of Australia and New Zealand.


title: Nephrology

text: In the United Kingdom, nephrology (often called renal medicine) is a subspecialty of general medicine. A nephrologist has completed medical school, foundation year posts (FY1 and FY2) and core medical training (CMT), specialist training (ST) and passed the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) exam before competing for a National Training Number (NTN) in renal medicine. The typical Specialty Training (when they are called a registrar, or an ST) is five years and leads to a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in both renal medicine and general (internal) medicine. In those five years, they usually rotate yearly between hospitals in a region (known as a deanery). They are then accepted on to the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council (GMC). Specialty trainees often interrupt their clinical training to obtain research degrees (MD/PhD). After achieving CCT, the registrar (ST) may apply for a permanent post as Consultant in Renal Medicine. Subsequently, some Consultants practice nephrology alone. Others work in this area, and in Intensive Care (ICU), or General (Internal) or Acute Medicine.


title: Nephrology

text: Nephrology training can be accomplished through one of two routes. The first path way is through an internal medicine pathway leading to an Internal Medicine/Nephrology specialty, and sometimes known as "adult nephrology". The second pathway is through Pediatrics leading to a speciality in Pediatric Nephrology. In the United States, after medical school adult nephrologists complete a three-year residency in internal medicine followed by a two-year (or longer) fellowship in nephrology. Complementary to an adult nephrologist, a pediatric nephrologist will complete a three-year pediatric residency after medical school or a four-year Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency. This is followed by a three-year fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology. Once training is satisfactorily completed, the physician is eligible to take the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) or American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine (AOBIM) nephrology examination. Nephrologists must be approved by one of these boards. To be approved, the physician must fulfill the requirements for education and training in nephrology in order to qualify to take the board's examination. If a physician passes the examination, then he or she can become a nephrology specialist. Typically, nephrologists also need two to three years of training in an ACGME or AOA accredited fellowship in nephrology. Nearly all programs train nephrologists in continuous renal replacement therapy; fewer than half in the United States train in the provision of plasmapheresis. Only pediatric trained physicians are able to train in pediatric nephrology, and internal medicine (adult) trained physicians may enter general (adult) nephrology fellowships.


title: Nephrology

text: History and physical examination are central to the diagnostic workup in nephrology. The history typically includes the present illness, family history, general medical history, diet, medication use, drug use and occupation. The physical examination typically includes an assessment of volume state, blood pressure, heart, lungs, peripheral arteries, joints, abdomen and flank. A rash may be relevant too, especially as an indicator of autoimmune disease.


title: Nephrology

text: Examination of the urine (urinalysis) allows a direct assessment for possible kidney problems, which may be suggested by appearance of blood in the urine (hematuria), protein in the urine (proteinuria), pus cells in the urine (pyuria) or cancer cells in the urine. A 24-hour urine collection used to be used to quantify daily protein loss (see proteinuria), urine output, creatinine clearance or electrolyte handling by the renal tubules. It is now more common to measure protein loss from a small random sample of urine.


title: Nephrology

text: Basic blood tests can be used to check the concentration of hemoglobin, white count, platelets, sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, urea, creatinine, albumin, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, alkaline phosphatase and parathyroid hormone (PTH) in the blood. All of these may be affected by kidney problems. The serum creatinine concentration is the most important blood test as it is used to estimate the function of the kidney, called the creatinine clearance or estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR).


title: Nephrology

text: It is a good idea for patients with longterm kidney disease to know an up-to-date list of medications, and their latest blood tests, especially the blood creatinine level. In the United Kingdom, blood tests can monitored online by the patient, through a website called RenalPatientView.


title: Nephrology

text: More specialized tests can be ordered to discover or link certain systemic diseases to kidney failure such as infections (hepatitis B, hepatitis C), autoimmune conditions (systemic lupus erythematosus, ANCA vasculitis), paraproteinemias (amyloidosis, multiple myeloma) and metabolic diseases (diabetes, cystinosis).


title: Nephrology

text: Structural abnormalities of the kidneys are identified with imaging tests. These may include Medical ultrasonography/ultrasound, computed axial tomography (CT), scintigraphy (nuclear medicine), angiography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).


title: Nephrology

text: In certain circumstances, less invasive testing may not provide a certain diagnosis. Where definitive diagnosis is required, a biopsy of the kidney (renal biopsy) may be performed. This typically involves the insertion, under local anaesthetic and ultrasound or CT guidance, of a core biopsy needle into the kidney to obtain a small sample of kidney tissue. The kidney tissue is then examined under a microscope, allowing direct visualization of the changes occurring within the kidney. Additionally, the pathology may also stage a problem affecting the kidney, allowing some degree of prognostication. In some circumstances, kidney biopsy will also be used to monitor response to treatment and identify early relapse. A transplant kidney biopsy may also be performed to look for rejection of the kidney.


title: Nephrology

text: Treatments in nephrology can include medications, blood products, surgical interventions (urology, vascular or surgical procedures), renal replacement therapy (dialysis or kidney transplantation) and plasma exchange. Kidney problems can have significant impact on quality and length of life, and so psychological support, health education and advanced care planning play key roles in nephrology.


title: Nephrology

text: Chronic kidney disease is typically managed with treatment of causative conditions (such as diabetes), avoidance of substances toxic to the kidneys (nephrotoxins like radiologic contrast and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), antihypertensives, diet and weight modification and planning for end-stage kidney failure. Impaired kidney function has systemic effects on the body. An erythropoetin stimulating agent (ESA) may be required to ensure adequate production of red blood cells, activated vitamin D supplements and phosphate binders may be required to counteract the effects of kidney failure on bone metabolism, and blood volume and electrolyte disturbance may need correction. Diuretics (such as furosemide) may be used to correct fluid overload, and alkalis (such as sodium bicarbonate) can be used to treat metabolic acidosis.


title: Nephrology

text: Auto-immune and inflammatory kidney disease, such as vasculitis or transplant rejection, may be treated with immunosuppression. Commonly used agents are prednisone, mycophenolate, cyclophosphamide, ciclosporin, tacrolimus, everolimus, thymoglobulin and sirolimus. Newer, so-called "biologic drugs" or monoclonal antibodies, are also used in these conditions and include rituximab, basiliximab and eculizumab. Blood products including intravenous immunoglobulin and a process known as plasma exchange can also be employed.


title: Nephrology

text: When the kidneys are no longer able to sustain the demands of the body, end-stage kidney failure is said to have occurred. Without renal replacement therapy, death from kidney failure will eventually result. Dialysis is an artificial method of replacing some kidney function to prolong life. Renal transplantation replaces kidney function by inserting into the body a healthier kidney from an organ donor and inducing immunologic tolerance of that organ with immunosuppression. At present, renal transplantation is the most effective treatment for end-stage kidney failure although its worldwide availability is limited by lack of availability of donor organs. Generally speaking, kidneys from living donors are 'better' than those from deceased donors, as they last longer.


title: Nephrology

text: Most kidney conditions are chronic conditions and so long term followup with a nephrologist is usually necessary. In the United Kingdom, care may be shared with the patient's primary care physician, called a General Practitioner (GP).


title: Nephrology

text: The world's first society of nephrology was the French 'Societe de Pathologie Renale'. Its first president was Jean Hamburger, and its first meeting was in Paris in February 1949. In 1959, Hamburger also founded the 'Société de Néphrologie', as a continuation of the older society. The UK's Renal Association was founded in 1950; the second society of nephrologists. Its first president was Arthur Osman and met for the first time, in London, on the 30th of March 1950. The Società di Nefrologia Italiana was founded in 1957 and was the first national society to incorporate the phrase nephrologia (or nephrology) into its name.


title: Nephrology

text: The word 'nephrology' appeared for the first time in a conference, on 1–4 September 1960 at the "Premier Congrès International de Néphrologie" in Evian and Geneva, the first meeting of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN, International Society of Nephrology). The first day (1.9.60) was in Geneva and the next three (2–4.9.60) were in Evian, France. The early history of the ISN is described by Robinson and Richet in 2005 and the later history by Barsoum in 2011. The ISN is the largest global society representing medical professionals engaged in advancing kidney care worldwide.


title: Nephrology

text: In the US, founded in 1964, the National Kidney Foundation is a national organization representing patients and professionals who treat kidney diseases. Founded in 1966, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) is the world's largest professional society devoted to the study of kidney disease. The American Nephrology Nurses' Association (ANNA), founded in 1969, promotes excellence in and appreciation of nephrology nursing to make a positive difference for patients with kidney disease. The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) is a non-profit, patient-centric group focused on improving the health and well-being of CKD and dialysis patients. The National Renal Administrators Association (NRAA), founded in 1977, is a national organization that represents and supports the independent and community-based dialysis providers. The American Kidney Fund directly provides financial support to patients in need, as well as participating in health education and prevention efforts. ASDIN (American Society of Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology) is the main organization of interventional nephrologists. Other organizations include CIDA, VASA etc. which deal with dialysis vascular access. The Renal Support Network (RSN) is a nonprofit, patient-focused, patient-run organization that provides non-medical services to those affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD).


title: Nephrology

text: In the United Kingdom, UK National Kidney Federation and Kidney Care UK (previously known as British Kidney Patient Association, BKPA) represent patients, and the Renal Association represents renal physicians and works closely with the National Service Framework for kidney disease.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American culture refers to the contributions of African Americans to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American culture. The culture is both distinct and enormously influential on American and global worldwide culture as a whole.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American culture is a blend between the native African cultures of West Africa and Central Africa and the European culture that has influenced and modified its development in the American South. Understanding its identity within the culture of the United States, that is, in the anthropological sense, conscious of its origins as largely a blend of West and Central African cultures. Although slavery greatly restricted the ability for Africans to practice their original cultural traditions, many practices, values and beliefs survived, and over time they have modified and/or blended with European cultures and other cultures such as that of Native Americans. African-American identity was established during the period of slavery, producing a dynamic culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on American culture as a whole, as well as that of the broader world.


title: African-American culture

text: Christianity has played a defining role in African-American culture. In late 18th century Philadelphia for example, the black church was born out of protest and revolutionary reaction to racism by freedmen whom resented being relegated to a segregated gallery. This was as custom in the Antebellum South for slaves whom generally attended their masters' white churches. The black church is regarded as the center of the American civil rights movement in that it also served as the “symbol of the movement”.


title: African-American culture

text: After emancipation, unique African-American traditions have continued to flourish, as distinctive traditions or radical innovations in music, art, literature, religion, cuisine, and other fields. 20th-century sociologists believe that African-Americans have lost most of their cultural ties with Africa. Influence however of African traditions and cultural practices on European culture for example, may be found in the American South below the Mason–Dixon line.African-American culture is also part of the culture of the Southern as well as Northern regions of the United States. Black American food and language is influenced by white Southerners who enslaved them on plantations in the South.


title: African-American culture

text: For many years African-American culture developed separately from American culture, due to enslavement, racial discrimination, and the persistence of African-Americans to make and maintain their own traditions. Today, African-American culture has influenced American culture and yet still remains a distinct cultural body.


title: African-American culture

text: From the earliest days of American slavery in the 17th century, slave owners sought to exercise control over their slaves by attempting to strip them of their African culture. The physical isolation and societal marginalization of African slaves and, later, of their free progeny, however, facilitated the retention of significant elements of traditional culture among Africans in the New World generally, and in the United States in particular. Slave owners deliberately tried to repress independent political or cultural organization in order to deal with the many slave rebellions or acts of resistance that took place in the United States, Brazil, Haiti, and the Dutch Guyanas.


title: African-American culture

text: African cultures, slavery, slave rebellions, and the civil rights movement have shaped African-American religious, familial, political, and economic behaviors. The imprint of Africa is evident in a myriad of ways: in politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion, cuisine, and worldview.


title: African-American culture

text: In turn, African-American culture has had a pervasive, transformative impact on many elements of mainstream American culture. This process of mutual creative exchange is called creolization. Over time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has been ubiquitous in its impact on not only the dominant American culture, but on world culture as well.


title: African-American culture

text: The Slaveholders limited or prohibited education of enslaved African-Americans because they feared it might empower their chattel and inspire or enable emancipatory ambitions. In the United States, the legislation that denied slaves formal education likely contributed to their maintaining a strong oral tradition, a common feature of indigenous or native African culture. African-based oral traditions became the primary means of preserving history, mores, and other cultural information among the people. This was consistent with the "griot" practices of oral history in many native African culture and other cultures that did not rely on the written word. Many of these cultural elements have been passed from generation to generation through storytelling. The folktales provided African-Americans the opportunity to inspire and educate one another.


title: African-American culture

text: Examples of African American folktales include trickster tales of Br'er Rabbit and heroic tales such as that of John Henry. The "Uncle Remus" stories by Joel Chandler Harris helped to bring African-American folk tales into mainstream adoption. Harris did not appreciate the complexity of the stories nor their potential for a lasting impact on society. Other narratives that appear as important, recurring motifs in African-American culture are the "Signifying Monkey", "The Ballad of Shine", and the legend of Stagger Lee.


title: African-American culture

text: The legacy of the African-American oral tradition manifests in diverse forms. African-American preachers tend to perform rather than simply speak. The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker's tone, volume, and cadence, which tend to mirror the rising action, climax, and descending action of the sermon. The meaning of this manner of preaching is not easily understood by European Americans or others of non-African origin. Often song, dance, verse, and structured pauses are placed throughout the sermon. Call and response is another element of the African-American oral tradition. It manifests in worship in what is commonly referred to as the "amen corner". In direct contrast to the tradition present in American and European cultures, it is an acceptable and common audience reaction to interrupt and affirm the speaker. This pattern of interaction is also in evidence in music, particularly in blues and jazz forms. Hyperbolic and provocative, even incendiary, rhetoric is another aspect of African-American oral tradition often evident in the pulpit in a tradition sometimes referred to as "prophetic speech".


title: African-American culture

text: Modernity and migration of African American communities to the North has had a history of placing strain on the retention of African American cultural practices and traditions. The urban and radically different spaces in which black culture was being produced raised fears in anthropologists and sociologists that the southern African American folk aspect of black popular culture were at risk of being lost within history. The study over the fear of losing black popular cultural roots from the South have a topic of interest to many anthropologists, who among them include Zora Neale Hurston. Through her extensive studies of Southern folklore and cultural practices, Hurston has claimed that the popular Southern folklore traditions and practices are not dying off. Instead they are evolving, developing, and re-creating themselves in different regions.


title: African-American culture

text: Other aspects of African-American oral tradition include the dozens, signifying, trash talk, rhyming, semantic inversion and word play, many of which have found their way into mainstream American popular culture and become international phenomena.


title: African-American culture

text: Spoken-word poetry is another example of how the African-American oral tradition has influenced modern popular culture. Spoken-word artists employ the same techniques as African-American preachers including movement, rhythm, and audience participation. Rap music from the 1980s and beyond has been seen as an extension of African oral culture.


title: African-American culture

text: The first major public recognition of African-American culture occurred during the Harlem Renaissance pioneered by Alain Locke. In the 1920s and 1930s, African-American music, literature, and art gained wide notice. Authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen and poets such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen wrote works describing the African-American experience. Jazz, swing, blues and other musical forms entered American popular music. African-American artists such as William H. Johnson, Aaron Douglas, and Palmer Hayden created unique works of art featuring African Americans.


title: African-American culture

text: The Harlem Renaissance was also a time of increased political involvement for African Americans. Among the notable African-American political movements founded in the early 20th century are the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Nation of Islam, a notable quasi-Islamic religious movement, also began in the early 1930s.


title: African-American culture

text: The Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s followed in the wake of the non-violent Civil Rights Movement. The movement promoted racial pride and ethnic cohesion in contrast to the focus on integration of the Civil Rights Movement, and adopted a more militant posture in the face of racism. It also inspired a new renaissance in African-American literary and artistic expression generally referred to as the African-American or "Black Arts Movement".


title: African-American culture

text: The works of popular recording artists such as Nina Simone ("Young, Gifted and Black") and The Impressions ("Keep On Pushing"), as well as the poetry, fine arts, and literature of the time, shaped and reflected the growing racial and political consciousness. Among the most prominent writers of the African-American Arts Movement were poet Nikki Giovanni; poet and publisher Don L. Lee, who later became known as Haki Madhubuti; poet and playwright Leroi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka; and Sonia Sanchez. Other influential writers were Ed Bullins, Dudley Randall, Mari Evans, June Jordan, Larry Neal, and Ahmos Zu-Bolton.


title: African-American culture

text: Another major aspect of the African-American Arts Movement was the infusion of the African aesthetic, a return to a collective cultural sensibility and ethnic pride that was much in evidence during the Harlem Renaissance and in the celebration of "Négritude" among the artistic and literary circles in the US, Caribbean, and the African continent nearly four decades earlier: the idea that "black is beautiful". During this time, there was a resurgence of interest in, and an embrace of, elements of African culture within African-American culture that had been suppressed or devalued to conform to Eurocentric America. Natural hairstyles, such as the afro, and African clothing, such as the dashiki, gained popularity. More importantly, the African-American aesthetic encouraged personal pride and political awareness among African Americans.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American music is rooted in the typically polyrhythmic music of the ethnic groups of Africa, specifically those in the Western, Sahelean, and Central and Southern regions. African oral traditions, nurtured in slavery, encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The African pedigree of African-American music is evident in some common elements: call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, swung notes, blue notes, the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony. During slavery, Africans in America blended traditional European hymns with African elements to create spirituals. The banjo was the first African derived instrument to be played and built in the United States. Slaveholders discovered African-American slaves used drums to communicate.


title: African-American culture

text: Many African Americans sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in addition to the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", or in lieu of it. Written by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson in 1900 to be performed for the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the song was, and continues to be, a popular way for African Americans to recall past struggles and express ethnic solidarity, faith, and hope for the future. The song was adopted as the "Negro National Anthem" by the NAACP in 1919. Many African-American children are taught the song at school, church or by their families. "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" traditionally is sung immediately following, or instead of, "The Star-Spangled Banner" at events hosted by African-American churches, schools, and other organizations.


title: African-American culture

text: In the 19th century, as the result of the blackface minstrel show, African-American music entered mainstream American society. By the early 20th century, several musical forms with origins in the African-American community had transformed American popular music. Aided by the technological innovations of radio and phonograph records, ragtime, jazz, blues, and swing also became popular overseas, and the 1920s became known as the Jazz Age. The early 20th century also saw the creation of the first African-American Broadway shows, films such as King Vidor's "Hallelujah!", and operas such as George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess".


title: African-American culture

text: Rock and roll, doo wop, soul, and R&B developed in the mid-20th century. These genres became very popular in white audiences and were influences for other genres such as surf. During the 1970s, the dozens, an urban African-American tradition of using rhyming slang to put down one's enemies (or friends), and the West Indian tradition of toasting developed into a new form of music. In the South Bronx the half speaking, half singing rhythmic street talk of "rapping" grew into the hugely successful cultural force known as hip hop.


title: African-American culture

text: Hip hop and contemporary R&B would become a multicultural movement, however, it still remained important to many African Americans. The African-American Cultural Movement of the 1960s and 1970s also fueled the growth of funk and later hip hop forms such as rap, hip house, new jack swing, and go-go. House music was created in black communities in Chicago in the 1980s. African-American music has experienced far more widespread acceptance in American popular music in the 21st century than ever before. In addition to continuing to develop newer musical forms, modern artists have also started a rebirth of older genres in the form of genres such as neo soul and modern funk-inspired groups.


title: African-American culture

text: Famous contemporary African American musicians include 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Usher, Mary J. Blige, Ne-Yo, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American dance, like other aspects of African-American culture, finds its earliest roots in the dances of the hundreds of African ethnic groups that made up the enslaved African population in the Americas as well as in traditional folk dances from Europe. Dance in the African tradition, and thus in the tradition of slaves, was a part of both everyday life and special occasions. Many of these traditions such as get down, ring shouts, Akan Line Dancing and other elements of African body language survive as elements of modern dance.


title: African-American culture

text: In the 19th century, African-American dance began to appear in minstrel shows. These shows often presented African Americans as caricatures for ridicule to large audiences. The first African-American dance to become popular with white dancers was the cakewalk in 1891. Later dances to follow in this tradition include the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, the Jitterbug and the swing.


title: African-American culture

text: During the Harlem Renaissance, African-American Broadway shows such as "Shuffle Along" helped to establish and legitimize African-American dancers. African-American dance forms such as tap, a combination of African and European influences, gained widespread popularity thanks to dancers such as Bill Robinson and were used by leading white choreographers, who often hired African-American dancers.


title: African-American culture

text: Contemporary African-American dance is descended from these earlier forms and also draws influence from African and Caribbean dance forms. Groups such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have continued to contribute to the growth of this form. Modern popular dance in America is also greatly influenced by African-American dance. American popular dance has also drawn many influences from African-American dance most notably in the hip-hop genre.


title: African-American culture

text: One of the uniquely African-American forms of dancing, turfing, emerged from social and political movements in the East Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area. Turfing is a hood dance and a response to the loss of African-American lives, police brutality, and race relations in Oakland, California. The dance is an expression of Blackness, and one that integrates concepts of solidarity, social support, peace, and the discourse of the state of black people in our current social structures.


title: African-American culture

text: Twerking is an African-American dance similar to dances from Africa in Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Somalia and the Congo.


title: African-American culture

text: From its early origins in slave communities, through the end of the 20th century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States. During the period between the 17th century and the early 19th century, art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures, and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa. In contrast, African-American artisans like the New England–based engraver Scipio Moorhead and the Baltimore portrait painter Joshua Johnson created art that was conceived in a thoroughly western European fashion.


title: African-American culture

text: During the 19th century, Harriet Powers made quilts in rural Georgia, United States that are now considered among the finest examples of 19th-century Southern quilting. Later in the 20th century, the women of Gee's Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional African-American quilts with a geometric simplicity that developed separately but was like that of Amish quilts and modern art.


title: African-American culture

text: After the American Civil War, museums and galleries began more frequently to display the work of African-American artists. Cultural expression in mainstream venues was still limited by the dominant European aesthetic and by racial prejudice. To increase the visibility of their work, many African-American artists traveled to Europe where they had greater freedom. It was not until the Harlem Renaissance that more European Americans began to pay attention to African-American art in America.


title: African-American culture

text: During the 1920s, artists such as Raymond Barthé, Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, and photographer James Van Der Zee became well known for their work. During the Great Depression, new opportunities arose for these and other African-American artists under the WPA. In later years, other programs and institutions, such as the New York City-based Harmon Foundation, helped to foster African-American artistic talent. Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and others exhibited in museums and juried art shows, and built reputations and followings for themselves.


title: African-American culture

text: In the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few widely accepted African-American artists. Despite this, The Highwaymen, a loose association of 27 African-American artists from Ft. Pierce, Florida, created idyllic, quickly realized images of the Florida landscape and peddled some 50,000 of them from the trunks of their cars. They sold their art directly to the public rather than through galleries and art agents, thus receiving the name "The Highwaymen". Rediscovered in the mid-1990s, today they are recognized as an important part of American folk history. Their artwork is widely collected by enthusiasts and original pieces can easily fetch thousands of dollars in auctions and sales.


title: African-American culture

text: The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s was another period of resurgent interest in African-American art. During this period, several African-American artists gained national prominence, among them Lou Stovall, Ed Love, Charles White, and Jeff Donaldson. Donaldson and a group of African-American artists formed the Afrocentric collective AfriCOBRA, which remains in existence today. The sculptor Martin Puryear, whose work has been acclaimed for years, was being honored with a 30-year retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in November 2007. Notable contemporary African-American artists include Willie Cole, David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Mose Tolliver, Reynold Ruffins, the late William Tolliver, and Kara Walker.


title: African-American culture

text: In Charleston, South Carolina, thirteen colonoware from the 18th century were found with folded strip roulette decorations. From the time of colonial America until the 19th century in the United States, African-Americans and their enslaved African ancestors, as well as Native Americans who were enslaved and not enslaved, were creating colonoware of this pottery style. Roulette decorated pottery likely originated in West Africa and in the northern region of Central Africa amid 2000 BCE. The longstanding pottery tradition, from which for the Charleston colonoware derives, likely began its initial development between 800 BCE and 400 BCE in Mali; thereafter, the pottery tradition expanded around 900 CE into the Lake Chad basin, into the southeastern region of Mauritania by 1200 CE, and, by the 19th century CE, expanded southward. More specifically, the pottery style for the Charleston colonoware may have been created by 18th century peoples (e.g., Kanuri people, Hausa people in Kano) of the Kanem–Bornu Empire. Within a broader context, following the 17th century enslavement of western Africans for the farming of rice in South Carolina, the Charleston colonoware may be understood as Africanisms from West/Central Africa, which endured the Middle Passage, and became transplanted into the local culture of colonial-era Lowcountry, South Carolina.


title: African-American culture

text: Symbolisms from Africa may have served as identity markers for enslaved African-American creators of stoneware. For example, David Drake’s signature marks (e.g., an "X", a slash) and well as Landrum crosses, which were developed by enslaved African-Americans and appear similar to Kongo cosmograms, are such examples from Edgefield County, South Carolina.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American literature has its roots in the oral traditions of African slaves in America. The slaves used stories and fables in much the same way as they used music. These stories influenced the earliest African-American writers and poets in the 18th century such as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano. These authors reached early high points by telling slave narratives.


title: African-American culture

text: During the early 20th century Harlem Renaissance, numerous authors and poets, such as Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington, grappled with how to respond to discrimination in America. Authors during the Civil Rights Movement, such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation, oppression, and other aspects of African-American life. This tradition continues today with authors who have been accepted as an integral part of American literature, with works such as "" by Alex Haley, "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, "Beloved" by Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison, and fiction works by Octavia Butler and Walter Mosley. Such works have achieved both best-selling and/or award-winning status.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American films typically feature an African-American cast and are targeted at an African-American audience. More recently, Black films feature multicultural casts, and are aimed at multicultural audiences, even if American Blackness is essential to the storyline.


title: African-American culture

text: The African-American Museum Movement emerged during the 1950s and 1960s to preserve the heritage of the African-American experience and to ensure its proper interpretation in American history. Museums devoted to African-American history are found in many African-American neighborhoods. Institutions such as the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, The African American Museum in Cleveland and the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture were created by African Americans to teach and investigate cultural history that, until recent decades, was primarily preserved through oral traditions.


title: African-American culture

text: Other prominent African-American museums include Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, established in 2003 as part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.


title: African-American culture

text: Generations of hardships created by the compounded institutions of slavery imposed on the African-American community which prevented them from learning to read, write English or be educated created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English. This, combined with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidgins, simplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages could use to communicate.


title: African-American culture

text: Examples of pidgins that became fully developed languages include Creole, common to Louisiana, and Gullah, common to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a variety (dialect, ethnolect, and sociolect) of the American English language closely associated with the speech of, but not exclusive to, African Americans. While AAVE is academically considered a legitimate dialect because of its logical structure, some of both whites and African Americans consider it slang or the result of a poor command of Standard American English. Many African Americans who were born outside the American South still speak with hints of AAVE or southern dialect. Inner-city African-American children who are isolated by speaking only AAVE sometimes have more difficulty with standardized testing and, after school, moving to the mainstream world for work. It is common for many speakers of AAVE to code switch between AAVE and Standard American English depending on the setting.


title: African-American culture

text: The Black Arts Movement, a cultural explosion of the 1960s, saw the incorporation of surviving cultural dress with elements from modern fashion and West African traditional clothing to create a uniquely African-American traditional style. Kente cloth is the best known African textile. These colorful woven patterns, which exist in numerous varieties, were originally made by the Ashanti and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo. Kente fabric also appears in a number of Western style fashions ranging from casual T-shirts to formal bow ties and cummerbunds. Kente strips are often sewn into liturgical and academic robes or worn as stoles. Since the Black Arts Movement, traditional African clothing has been popular amongst African Americans for both formal and informal occasions. Other manifestations of traditional African dress in common evidence in African-American culture are vibrant colors, mud cloth, trade beads and the use of Adinkra motifs in jewelry and in couture and decorator fabrics.


title: African-American culture

text: Another common aspect of fashion in African-American culture involves the appropriate dress for worship in the Black church. It is expected in most churches that an individual present their best appearance for worship. African-American women in particular are known for wearing vibrant dresses and suits. An interpretation of a passage from the Christian Bible, "every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head", has led to the tradition of wearing elaborate Sunday hats, sometimes known as "crowns".


title: African-American culture

text: Hip hop fashion is popular with African Americans. Grillz were made popular by African American rapper Nelly.


title: African-American culture

text: Sagging pants was a part of African American culture. Air Jordan, a shoe brand named after former African American basketball player Michael Jordan, is very popular among the African-American community.


title: African-American culture

text: African American fashion designers include Sean Combs, Kimora Lee Simmons, Virgil Abloh and Kanye West.


title: African-American culture

text: Hair styling in African-American culture is greatly varied. African-American hair is typically composed of coiled curls, which range from tight to wavy. Many women choose to wear their hair in its natural state. Natural hair can be styled in a variety of ways, including the afro, twist outs, braid outs, and wash and go styles. It is a myth that natural hair presents styling problems or is hard to manage; this myth seems prevalent because mainstream culture has, for decades, attempted to get African-American women to conform to its standard of beauty (i.e., straight hair). To that end, some women prefer straightening of the hair through the application of heat or chemical processes. Although this can be a matter of personal preference, the choice is often affected by straight hair being a beauty standard in the West and the fact that hair type can affect employment. However, more and more women are wearing their hair in its natural state and receiving positive feedback. Alternatively, the predominant and most socially acceptable practice for men is to leave one's hair natural.


title: African-American culture

text: Often, as men age and begin to lose their hair, the hair is either closely cropped, or the head is shaved completely free of hair. However, since the 1960s, natural hairstyles, such as the afro, braids, waves, fades, and dreadlocks, have been growing in popularity. Despite their association with radical political movements and their vast difference from mainstream Western hairstyles, the styles have attained considerable, but certainly limited, social acceptance.


title: African-American culture

text: Maintaining facial hair is more prevalent among African-American men than in other male populations in the US. In fact, the soul patch is so named because African-American men, particularly jazz musicians, popularized the style. The preference for facial hair among African-American men is due partly to personal taste, but also because they are more prone than other ethnic groups to develop a condition known as "pseudofolliculitis barbae", commonly referred to as "razor bumps", many prefer not to shave.


title: African-American culture

text: European-Americans have sometimes appropriated different hair braiding techniques and other forms of African-American hair. There are also individuals and groups who are working towards raising the standing of the African aesthetic among African Americans and internationally as well. This includes efforts toward promoting as models those with clearly defined African features; the mainstreaming of natural hairstyles; and, in women, fuller, more voluptuous body types.


title: African-American culture

text: While African Americans practice a number of religions, Protestant Christianity is by far the most prevalent (more than 85%).


title: African-American culture

text: The religious institutions of African-American Christians are commonly and collectively referred to as the black church. During the era of slavery, many slaves were stripped of their African belief systems and typically denied free religious practice, forced to become Christians. However, slaves managed to hang on to some of their traditional African religious practices by integrating them into Christian worship during secret meetings. These practices, including dance, shouts, African rhythms, and enthusiastic singing, remain a large part of worship in the African-American church.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American churches taught the belief that all people were equal in God's eyes and they also believed that the doctrine of obedience to one's master which was taught in white churches was hypocritical – yet they accepted and propagated internal hierarchies and supported the corporal punishment of children among other things. Instead, the African-American church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future. Before and after emancipation, racial segregation in America prompted the development of organized African-American denominations. The first of these was the AME Church founded by Richard Allen in 1787.


title: African-American culture

text: After the Civil War the merger of three smaller Baptist groups formed the National Baptist Convention. This organization is the largest African-American Christian Denomination and the second largest Baptist denomination in the United States. An African-American church is not necessarily a separate denomination. Several predominantly African-American churches exist as members of predominantly white denominations. African-American churches have served to provide African-American people with leadership positions and opportunities to organize that were denied in mainstream American society. Because of this, African-American pastors became the bridge between the African-American and European American communities and they thus played a crucial role during the Civil Rights Movement.


title: African-American culture

text: Like many Christians, African-American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a Christmas play. "Black Nativity" by Langston Hughes is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music. Productions can be found in African-American theaters and churches all over the country.


title: African-American culture

text: Generations before the advent of the Atlantic slave trade, Islam was a thriving religion in West Africa due to its peaceful introduction via the lucrative Trans-Saharan trade between prominent tribes in the southern Sahara and the Arabs and Berbers in North Africa. In his attesting to this fact the West African scholar Cheikh Anta Diop explained: "The primary reason for the success of Islam in Black Africa ... consequently stems from the fact that it was propagated peacefully at first by solitary Arabo-Berber travelers to certain Black kings and notables, who then spread it about them to those under their jurisdiction". Many first-generation slaves were often able to retain their Muslim identity, their descendants were not. Slaves were either forcibly converted to Christianity as was the case in the Catholic lands or were besieged with gross inconveniences to their religious practice such as in the case of the Protestant American mainland.


title: African-American culture

text: In the decades after slavery and particularly during the depression era, Islam reemerged in the form of highly visible and sometimes controversial movements in the African-American community. The first of these of note was the Moorish Science Temple of America, founded by Noble Drew Ali. Ali had a profound influence on Wallace Fard, who later founded the Black nationalist Nation of Islam in 1930. Elijah Muhammad became head of the organization in 1934. Much like Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam in 1964, many African-American Muslims now follow traditional Islam.


title: African-American culture

text: Many former members of the Nation of Islam converted to Sunni Islam when Warith Deen Mohammed took control of the organization after his father's death in 1975 and taught its members the traditional form of Islam based on the Qur'an. A survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows that 30% of Sunni Mosque attendees are African Americans. In fact, most African-American Muslims are orthodox Muslims, as only 2% are of the Nation of Islam.


title: African-American culture

text: There are 150,000 African Americans in the United States who practice Judaism. Some of these are members of mainstream Jewish groups like the Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox branches of Judaism; others belong to non-mainstream Jewish groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites. The Black Hebrew Israelites are a collection of African-American religious organizations whose practices and beliefs are partially derived from Judaism. Their varied teachings often include the belief that African Americans are descended from the biblical Israelites.


title: African-American culture

text: In the last 10 to 15 years, studies have shown that there has been a major increase in the number of African-Americans who identify themselves as being Jewish. Rabbi Capers Funnye, the first cousin of Michelle Obama, says in response to skepticism by some on people being African-American and Jewish at the same time, "I am a Jew, and that breaks through all color and ethnic barriers."


title: African-American culture

text: Aside from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, there are also African Americans who practice Buddhism and a number of other religions. There is a small but growing number of African Americans who participate in Syncretic Religions, such as Voodoo, Santería, Hoodoo, Ifá and diasporic traditions like the Rastafari movement. Many of them are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean and South America, where these are practiced. Because of religious practices, such as animal sacrifice, which are no longer common among the larger American religions, these groups may be negatively viewed and they are sometimes the victims of harassment. It must be stated, however, that since the Supreme Court judgement that was given to the Lukumi Babaluaye church of Florida in 1993, there has been no major legal challenge to their right to function as they see fit.


title: African-American culture

text: In a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 12% of African Americans described themselves as being nothing in particular (11%), agnostic (1%), or atheist (<0.5%).


title: African-American culture

text: For most African Americans, the observance of life events follows the pattern of mainstream American culture. While African Americans and whites often lived to themselves for much of American history, both groups generally had the same perspective on American culture. There are some traditions that are unique to African Americans.


title: African-American culture

text: Some African Americans have created new rites of passage that are linked to African traditions. Some pre-teen and teenage boys and girls take classes to prepare them for adulthood. These classes tend to focus on spirituality, responsibility, and leadership. Many of these programs are modeled after traditional African ceremonies, with the focus largely on embracing African cultures.


title: African-American culture

text: To this day, some African-American couples choose to "jump the broom" as a part of their wedding ceremony. Some sources claim that this practice can be traced back to Ghana. However, other sources argue that the African American tradition of "jumping the broom" is far more similar to the tradition in England. Although, this tradition largely fell out of favor in the African-American community after the end of slavery, it has experienced a slight resurgence in recent years as some couples seek to reaffirm their African heritage.


title: African-American culture

text: Funeral traditions tend to vary based on a number of factors, including religion and location, but there are a number of commonalities. Probably the most important part of death and dying in the African-American culture is the gathering of family and friends. Either in the last days before death or shortly after death, typically any friends and family members that can be reached are notified. This gathering helps to provide spiritual and emotional support, as well as assistance in making decisions and accomplishing everyday tasks.


title: African-American culture

text: The spirituality of death is very important in African-American culture. A member of the clergy or members of the religious community, or both, are typically present with the family through the entire process. Death is often viewed as transitory rather than final. Many services are called homegoings or homecomings, instead of funerals, based on the belief that the person is going home to the afterlife; "Returning to God" or the earth. The entire end of life process is generally treated as a celebration of the person's life, deeds and accomplishments – the "good things" rather than a mourning of loss. This is most notably demonstrated in the New Orleans jazz funeral tradition where upbeat music, dancing, and food encourage those gathered to be happy and celebrate the homegoing of a beloved friend.


title: African-American culture

text: In studying of the African American culture, food cannot be left out as one of the mediums to understand their traditions, religion, interaction, and social and cultural structures of their community. Observing the ways they prepare their food and eat their food ever since the enslaved era, reveals about the nature and identity of African American culture in the United States. Derek Hicks examines the origins of "gumbo", which is considered a soul food to many African Americans, in his reference to the intertwinement of food and culture in African American community. No written evidence are found historically about the gumbo or its recipes, so through the African American's nature of orally passing their stories and recipes down, gumbo came to represent their truly communal dish. Gumbo is said to be "an invention of enslaved Africans and African Americans" in Louisiana.


title: African-American culture

text: The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, indigo dyes, and cotton, can be traced to African influences. African-American foods reflect creative responses to racial and economic oppression and poverty. Under slavery, African Americans were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many were often too poor to afford them. During slavery, many African-Americans would take these sorts of leftover ingredients from their white owners, often less desirable cuts of meats and vegetables, and prepare them into a dish that has consistency between stew and soup. Through sharing of this food in churches with a gathering of their people, they not only shared the food, but also experience, feelings, attachment, and sense of unity that brings the community together.


title: African-American culture

text: Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South (but also common to African Americans nationwide), makes creative use of inexpensive products procured through farming and subsistence hunting and fishing. Pig intestines are boiled and sometimes battered and fried to make chitterlings, also known as "chitlins". Ham hocks and neck bones provide seasoning to soups, beans and boiled greens.


title: African-American culture

text: Other common foods, such as fried chicken and fish, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and hoppin' john (black-eyed peas and rice) are prepared simply. When the African-American population was considerably more rural than it generally is today, rabbit, opossum, squirrel, and waterfowl were important additions to the diet. Many of these food traditions are especially predominant in many parts of the rural South.


title: African-American culture

text: Traditionally prepared soul food is often high in fat, sodium, and starch. Highly suited to the physically demanding lives of laborers, farmhands and rural lifestyles generally, it is now a contributing factor to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in a population that has become increasingly more urban and sedentary. As a result, more health-conscious African Americans are using alternative methods of preparation, eschewing trans fats in favor of natural vegetable oils and substituting smoked turkey for fatback and other, cured pork products; limiting the amount of refined sugar in desserts; and emphasizing the consumption of more fruits and vegetables than animal protein. There is some resistance to such changes, however, as they involve deviating from long culinary tradition.


title: African-American culture

text: Other soul foods African Americans cook is chicken and waffles and desserts like banana pudding, peach cobbler, red velvet cake and sweet potato pie. Kool-Aid is considered a soul food beverage.


title: African-American culture

text: Okra came from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Rice, common to Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, was imported from the island of Madagascar. Soul food is similar to gypsy cooking in Europe. The roots of soul food are spread up and down the West Coast of Africa, including countries like Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria and Angola, as well as in Western European countries such as Scotland, but the fruits can be found across America.


title: African-American culture

text: As with other American racial and ethnic groups, African Americans observe ethnic holidays alongside traditional American holidays. Holidays observed in African-American culture are not only observed by African Americans but are widely considered American holidays. The birthday of noted American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has been observed nationally since 1983. It is one of four federal holidays named for an individual.


title: African-American culture

text: Black History Month is another example of another African-American observance that has been adopted nationally and its teaching is even required by law in some states. Black History Month is an attempt to focus attention on previously neglected aspects of the American history, chiefly the lives and stories of African Americans. It is observed during the month of February to coincide with the founding of the NAACP and the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a prominent African-American abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln, the United States president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation.


title: African-American culture

text: On June 7, 1979, President Jimmy Carter decreed that June would be the month of black music. For the past 28 years, presidents have announced to Americans that Black Music Month (also called African-American Music Month) should be recognized as a critical part of American heritage. Black Music Month is highlighted with various events urging citizens to revel in the many forms of music from gospel to hip-hop. African-American musicians, singers, and composers are also highlighted for their contributions to the nation's history and culture.


title: African-American culture

text: Less-widely observed outside of the African-American community is Emancipation Day popularly known as Juneteenth or Freedom Day, in recognition of the official reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865, in Texas. Juneteenth is a day when African Americans reflect on their unique history and heritage. It is one of the fastest growing African-American holidays with observances in the United States. Juneteenth was recognized as federal holiday in 2021, and was first observed as such on June 19, 2021.


title: African-American culture

text: Another holiday not widely observed outside of the African-American community is the birthday of Malcolm X. The day is observed on May 19 in American cities with a significant African-American population, including Washington, D.C.


title: African-American culture

text: Another noted African-American holiday is Kwanzaa. Like Emancipation Day, it is not widely observed outside of the African-American community, although it is growing in popularity with both African-American and African communities. African-American scholar and activist "Maulana" Ron Karenga invented the festival of Kwanzaa in 1966, as an alternative to the increasing commercialization of Christmas. Derived from the harvest rituals of Africans, Kwanzaa is observed each year from December 26 through January 1. Participants in Kwanzaa celebrations affirm their African heritage and the importance of family and community by drinking from a unity cup; lighting red, black, and green candles; exchanging heritage symbols, such as African art; and recounting the lives of people who struggled for African and African-American freedom.


title: African-American culture

text: Although many African-American names are common among the larger population of the United States, distinct naming trends have emerged within African-American culture. Prior to the 1950s and 1960s, most African-American names closely resembled those used within European American culture. A dramatic shift in naming traditions began to take shape in the 1960s and 1970s in America. With the rise of the mid-century Civil Rights Movement, there was a dramatic rise in names of various origins. The practice of adopting neo-African or Islamic names gained popularity during that era. Efforts to recover African heritage inspired selection of names with deeper cultural significance. Before this, using African names was uncommon because African Americans were several generations removed from the last ancestor to have an African name, as slaves were often given the names of their enslavers, which were of European origin.


title: African-American culture

text: African-American names have origins in many languages including French, Latin, English, Arabic, and African languages. One very notable influence on African-American names is the Muslim religion. Islamic names entered the popular culture with the rise of The Nation of Islam among Black Americans with its focus on civil rights. The popular name "Aisha" has origins in the Qur'an. Despite the origins of these names in the Muslim religion and the place of the Nation of Islam in the civil rights movement, many Muslim names such as Jamal and Malik entered popular usage among Black Americans simply because they were fashionable, and many Islamic names are now commonly used by African Americans regardless of their religion. Names of African origin began to crop up as well. Names like Ashanti, Tanisha, Aaliyah, Malaika have origins in the continent of Africa.


title: African-American culture

text: By the 1970s and 1980s, it had become common within the culture to invent new names, although many of the invented names took elements from popular existing names. Prefixes such as or and suffixes such as and are common, as well as inventive spellings for common names.


title: African-American culture

text: Even with the rise of creative names, it is also still common for African Americans to use biblical, historic, or European names.


title: African-American culture

text: When slavery was practiced in the United States, it was common for families to be separated through sale. Even during slavery, however, many African-American families managed to maintain strong familial bonds. Free African men and women, who managed to buy their own freedom by being hired out, who were emancipated, or who had escaped their masters, often worked long and hard to buy the members of their families who remained in bondage and send for them.


title: African-American culture

text: Others, separated from blood kin, formed close bonds based on fictive kin; "play" relations, "play" aunts, cousins, and the like. This practice, a holdover from African oral traditions such as "sanankouya", survived Emancipation, with non-blood family friends commonly accorded the status and titles of blood relations. This broader, more African concept of what constitutes family and community, and the deeply rooted respect for elders that is part of African traditional societies, may be the genesis of the common use of the terms like "cousin" (or "cuz"), "aunt", "uncle", "brother", "sister", "Mother", and "Mama" when addressing other African-American people, some of whom may be complete strangers.https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/free-blacks-in-the-antebellum-period.html


title: African-American culture

text: Immediately after slavery, African-American families struggled to reunite and rebuild what had been taken. As late as 1960, when most African Americans lived under some form of segregation, 78 percent of African-American families were headed by married couples. This number steadily declined during the latter half of the 20th century. For the first time since slavery, a majority of African-American children live in a household with only one parent, typically the mother.


title: African-American culture

text: This apparent weakness is balanced by mutual-aid systems established by extended family members to provide emotional and economic support. Older family members pass on social and cultural traditions such as religion and manners to younger family members. In turn, the older family members are cared for by younger family members when they cannot care for themselves. These relationships exist at all economic levels in the African-American community, providing strength and support both to the African-American family and the community.


title: African-American culture

text: Fifty six percent of African American children are born to unmarried mothers. African American parents are more likely to be strict and to hold demanding standards for behavior. In 1998, 1.4 million African American children lived in a grandparent's home.


title: African-American culture

text: Since the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans are voting and being elected to public office in increasing numbers. the United States had approximately 10,000 African-American elected officials.


title: African-American culture

text: African Americans overwhelmingly associate with the Democratic Party. Only 11 percent of African Americans supported for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential Election. In 2016, only 8% of African Americans voted for Republican Donald Trump while 88% of African Americans voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton.


title: African-American culture

text: Social issues such as racial profiling, racial disparities in sentencing, higher rates of poverty, lower access to health care and institutional racism in general are important to the African-American community. While the divide on racial and fiscal issues has remained consistently wide for decades, seemingly indicating a wide social divide, African Americans tend to hold the same optimism and concern for America as any other ethnic group.


title: African-American culture

text: African-Americans may express political and social sentiments through hip-hop culture, including graffiti, break-dancing, rapping, and more. This cultural movement makes statements about historical, as well as present-day topics like street culture and incarceration, and oftentimes expresses a call for change. Hip-hop artists play a prominent role in activism and in fighting social injustices, and have a cultural role in defining and reflecting on political and social issues.


title: African-American culture

text: Prominent leaders in the Black church have demonstrated against gay-rights issues such as gay marriage. This stands in stark contrast to the down-low phenomenon of covert male–male sexual acts. Some within the African-American community take a different position, notably the late Coretta Scott King and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Sharpton, when asked in 2003 whether he supported gay marriage, replied that he might as well have been asked if he supported black marriage or white marriage.


title: African-American culture

text: The Black LGBT community refers to the African-American (Black) population who are members of the LGBT community, as a community of marginalized individuals who are further marginalized within their own community. Surveys and research have shown that 80% of African Americans say gays and lesbians endure discrimination compared to the 61% of whites. Black members of the community are not only seen as "other" due to their race, but also due to their sexuality, so they always had to combat racism and homophobia.


title: African-American culture

text: Black LGBT first started to be visible during the Harlem Renaissance when a subculture of LGBTQ African-American artists and entertainers emerged. This included people like Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Moms Mabley, Mabel Hampton, Alberta Hunter, and Gladys Bentley. Places like Savoy Ballroom and the Rockland Palace hosted drag-ball extravaganzas with prizes awarded for the best costumes. Langston Hughes depicted the balls as "spectacles of color". Historian George Chauncey, author of "", wrote that during this period "perhaps nowhere were more men willing to venture out in public in drag than in Harlem".


title: African-American culture

text: African-American neighborhoods are types of ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. The formation of African-American neighborhoods is closely linked to the history of segregation in the United States, either through formal laws, or as a product of social norms. Despite this, African-American neighborhoods have played an important role in the development of nearly all aspects of both African-American culture and broader American culture.


title: African-American culture

text: Many affluent African-American communities exist today, including the following: Woodmore, Maryland; Hillcrest, Rockland County, New York; Redan and Cascade Heights, Georgia; Mitchellville, Maryland; Converse, Texas, Missouri City, Texas; Desoto, Texas; Quinby, South Carolina; Forest Park, Oklahoma; and Mount Airy, Pennsylvania.


title: African-American culture

text: Due to segregated conditions and widespread poverty, some African-American neighborhoods in the United States have been called "ghettos". The use of this term is controversial and, depending on the context, potentially offensive. Despite mainstream America's use of the term "ghetto" to signify a poor urban area populated by ethnic minorities, those living in the area often used it to signify something positive. The African-American ghettos did not always contain dilapidated houses and deteriorating projects, nor were all of its residents poverty-stricken. For many African Americans, the ghetto was "home", a place representing authentic "blackness" and a feeling, passion, or emotion derived from the rising above the struggle and suffering of being of African descent in America.


title: African-American culture

text: Langston Hughes relays in the "Negro Ghetto" (1931) and "The Heart of Harlem" (1945): "The buildings in Harlem are brick and stone/And the streets are long and wide,/But Harlem's much more than these alone,/Harlem is what's inside." Playwright August Wilson used the term "ghetto" in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1984) and "Fences" (1987), both of which draw upon the author's experience growing up in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, an African-American ghetto.


title: African-American culture

text: Although African-American neighborhoods may suffer from civic disinvestment, with lower-quality schools, less-effective policing and fire protection, there are institutions such as churches and museums and political organizations that help to improve the physical and social capital of African-American neighborhoods. In African-American neighborhoods the churches may be important sources of social cohesion. For some African Americans, the kind spirituality learned through these churches works as a protective factor against the corrosive forces of racism. Museums devoted to African-American history are also found in many African-American neighborhoods.


title: African-American culture

text: Many African-American neighborhoods are located in inner cities, and these are the mostly residential neighborhoods located closest to the central business district. The built environment is often row houses or brownstones, mixed with older single-family homes that may be converted to multi-family homes. In some areas there are larger apartment buildings. Shotgun houses are an important part of the built environment of some southern African-American neighborhoods. The houses consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways. This African-American house design is found in both rural and urban southern areas, mainly in African-American communities and neighborhoods.


title: African-American culture

text: There are African American social networking websites such as BlackPlanet. Social media is an important political outlet for African Americans. African American teenagers are the biggest users of Instagram and SnapChat.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: Alfie Haaland (born Alf-Inge Rasdal Håland; 23 November 1972) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a right-back or midfielder.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: Haaland notably played in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Manchester City, and won 34 caps for Norway. He also had spells in his home country with Bryne FK and Rosseland BK. His career initially ended due to a left knee injury, although he also suffered an injury to his other leg that was caused by an infamous tackle by Manchester United captain Roy Keane; the pair had a history of clashes on the field. He is also the father of current Manchester City player Erling Haaland.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: Born in Stavanger and raised in Bryne, Haaland joined the youth academy of his hometown club Bryne FK in 1979 and made his first-team debut in 1989 aged 17. He then signed his first professional contract with the club just a year later. Haaland then moved to Premier League club Nottingham Forest in December 1993, making his debut against Leicester City. After a four year spell at the club, he made another move to league rivals Leeds United where he had his first clash against well-known foe Roy Keane. He was part of the Leeds team that reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup and qualified for the Champions League. Haaland then proceeded to make his final transfer to Manchester City, where he famously clashed with Roy Keane several times allegedly resulting in long-term injuries, though he denounced these claims in 2003. On the same year Haaland took an eight-year break before returning to Bryne FK's third team and officially ending his career in 2013 with Rosseland BK.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: Haaland was born in Stavanger and raised in nearby Bryne. He joined the youth team of his hometown club Bryne FK in 1979. He made his first-team debut in 1989, aged 17, and established himself in the team the following year after signing his first professional contract with Bryne.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: Haaland moved to England, joining First Division club Nottingham Forest after a protracted transfer. Attempts to sign Haaland started with Brian Clough in October 1992 but was completed under the management of Frank Clark in December 1993. He made his debut for Forest against Leicester City.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: In July 1997, Haaland joined Leeds United under George Graham. He made his Leeds debut against Arsenal on 9 August. In September, when Manchester United were losing 1–0 to Haaland's Leeds United at Elland Road, Roy Keane injured his anterior cruciate ligament running for the ball with Haaland. As Keane lay prone on the ground, Haaland, unaware of the seriousness of the injury, stood over him and criticised Keane, suggesting that he was merely feigning injury to try to gain a penalty. Haaland was booked as Keane was stretchered off the field and was out of action for nearly a year afterwards. On 26 December 1997, Haaland scored a goal in a 3–1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, a feat later achieved by his son, Erling Haaland, on 2 October 2019 while playing for Red Bull Salzburg.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: He was part of the Leeds team which reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals during the 1999–2000 season and which also qualified for the Champions League. Haaland was mainly used as a utility player, playing in both midfield and defence under David O'Leary.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: In 2000, Haaland left Leeds to join Manchester City for a fee of £2.5 million. In April 2001, during a match against Manchester United, Roy Keane tackled Haaland, kicking him high on his right knee, for which he was immediately sent off. Of the incident, Haaland said: "I'm only glad my leg was off the ground, otherwise he would have done me a lot of damage". Keane was subsequently fined £5,000 and received a three-match ban. In his autobiography, published a year later, Keane stated that the tackle was a pre-meditated, deliberate act of vengeance against Haaland for the on-field criticism he received from him three and a half years previously. After this revelation, Keane found himself subject to an FA inquiry. He claimed inaccurate paraphrasing by his ghostwriter, but received an additional five-game ban and a £150,000 fine for bringing the sport into disrepute. Following the tackle, Haaland had initially claimed Keane would not dare to look him in the eye, and he once said: "I really dislike [Manchester] United and I can't stand their players".


title: Alfie Haaland

text: At the time of Keane's tackle, Haaland's left knee was already giving him sufficient problems for him to have to play with strapping around it. After the tackle, Haaland finished the match and played a midweek friendly for Norway coming off at half-time, and the next league game, coming off in the 68th minute. That summer, he underwent surgery on his left knee, but only managed a further four substitute appearances the following season, and finally retired in July 2003 after failing to recover full fitness. Haaland was originally contracted with Manchester City until the end of the 2004–05 season, but in his contract it was stated that City could terminate the contract if medical conditions indicated that he could not play first-team football again, and decided to use this option.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: Following the release of Keane's autobiography in 2002, Haaland and Manchester City stated that they were considering taking legal action against Keane. However, it emerged that Haaland had stated on his personal website that he had been playing with the injury to his left knee a few months, that his left leg did not receive a knock in the game (Keane kicked his right thigh), and that Keane did not cause his long term injury. Legal action was dropped in February 2003 after the club reviewed the medical advice.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: Haaland came out of retirement after eight years, to play for the Bryne-based club Rosseland BK in the Norwegian Third Division in August 2011. He retired again in 2013.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: Haaland made his debut for Norway in friendly match against Costa Rica in January 1994. He was later named in Norway's squad for the 1994 FIFA World Cup where he played the matches against Mexico and Italy. Haaland was capped a total of 34 times, with his last international appearance against Bulgaria in April 2001. Haaland is – along with Hallvar Thoresen, Dan Eggen, Espen Baardsen, Hans Herman Henriksen and Joshua King – among the few players to have played for the Norwegian national team without ever playing in the domestic top division.


title: Alfie Haaland

text: His son, Erling Haaland, is also a professional footballer and currently plays for his former club Manchester City. His nephew, Albert Tjåland, plays as a striker for Bryne.


title: New Jack City

text: New Jack City is a 1991 American action crime film based upon an original story and written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, and directed by Mario Van Peebles in his feature film directorial debut. Released in the United States on March 8, 1991., the film stars Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown, a rising drug lord in New York City during the crack epidemic, and Ice-T as Scotty Appleton, a detective who vows to stop Nino's criminal activity by going undercover to work for Nino's gang. Allen Payne, Chris Rock, Judd Nelson, Bill Cobbs, and Van Peebles appear in supporting roles.


title: New Jack City

text: In the New York City neighborhood of Harlem in 1986, Nino Brown and his gang, the Cash Money Brothers (CMB), become the dominant drug ring in the City once crack cocaine is introduced to the streets. His gang consists of Gerald "Gee Money" Wells, his best friend since childhood; enforcer and personal bodyguard Duh Duh Duh Man; gun moll Keisha; Nino's girlfriend, Selina Thomas; and her tech-savvy cousin, ex-bank teller Kareem Akbar.


title: New Jack City

text: Nino converts the Carter apartment complex into a crack house. Gee Money and Keisha kill rival Fat Smitty, the CMB throws out the tenants, and Nino forces the landlord out onto the streets naked. Meanwhile, undercover detective Scotty Appleton attempts to make a deal with stick-up kid Pookie, who absconds with the money. Appleton chases Pookie and shoots him in the leg, but the police release him. Nino's gang successfully run the streets of Harlem over the next three years.


title: New Jack City

text: When Det. Stone comes under pressure, Appleton volunteers to infiltrate Nino's gang and is partnered with loose-cannon Nick Peretti. Elsewhere, mobster Frankie Needles attempts to collect taxes from Nino, who refuses to pay. While Appleton and Peretti spy on Nino and his gang as they hand out Thanksgiving turkeys to the poor, Appleton spots Pookie, now a crack addict, as the man beats his junkie girlfriend. Instead of arresting him, Appleton gets Pookie into rehab. Later Pookie offers to help bring down Nino. Against his better judgment and the disapproval of Stone and Peretti, Appleton recruits Pookie as an informant in the Carter.


title: New Jack City

text: When Pookie relapses, Gee Money realizes that he is wired and orders the Carter destroyed. The cops find Pookie's bloody and booby-trapped corpse; Peretti defuses the explosives seconds before it explodes. Nino angrily warns Gee Money against repeating such a costly mistake.


title: New Jack City

text: After Pookie's funeral and no longer needed by Stone, Appleton, and Peretti go undercover as drug dealers. After bribing Frankie Needles, Appleton infiltrates the CMB, partly due to Gee Money's increasing ambition and drug use. Though Nino distrusts them, he agrees to do business. After relating an anecdote about his own violent initiation into a gang, Nino warns that he will kill both Appleton and Gee Money if any problems occur.


title: New Jack City

text: Appleton gains Nino's trust when he reveals information about Gee Money's side deal and saves Nino from the gun-toting Old Man who had earlier appealed to police for help against Nino. While Nino, Appleton, and the CMB attend a wedding, Peretti sneaks into Nino's mansion to collect evidence.


title: New Jack City

text: Don Armeteo sends hitmen to kill Nino, and a massive shootout erupts between the CMB and his hitmen. When Nino uses a child as a shield, Appleton attempts to shoot Nino behind his back. Keisha is killed as she shoots the hitmen's van as they escape. Later, Selina condemns Nino for being a murderer, and Nino throws her out. Nino later kills Don Armeteo and his crew in retribution for the wedding shootout.


title: New Jack City

text: Stone, Appleton and Peretti arrange a sting operation to nab Nino. Kareem, aware that Appleton and Pookie were connected, exposes Appleton, and a shootout ensues. Peretti saves Appleton by killing the Duh Duh Duh Man, and Nino escapes. That night, Nino confronts Gee Money, who accuses Nino of egotism, and Nino regretfully kills him. After the gang's collapse, Nino holes up in an apartment and continues his criminal empire solo. Appleton and Peretti assault the complex, and Appleton brutally beats Nino, revealing that it was his mother whom Nino killed in his gang initiation. Peretti dissuades Appleton from killing Nino, who is taken into custody amid threats of retaliation.


title: New Jack City

text: At his trial, Nino pleads guilty to a lesser charge, claims to have been forced to help the gang due to threats, and identifies Kareem as the leader. When Nino is sentenced to only a year in jail, Appleton is outraged. As Nino speaks with reporters outside the courtroom, the Old Man again confronts Nino and fatally shoots him in the chest. Appleton and Peretti are both satisfied as Nino falls over the balcony to his death. As onlookers look down at Nino's corpse, an epilogue states to the viewers that decisive action must be taken to stop real-life Nino Brown analogues.


title: New Jack City

text: The film is based upon an original story and screenplay written by Thomas Lee Wright. According to Carl Hart, who corresponded with Wright following Hart's criticism of "New Jack City", the screenplay was originally written as "The Godfather: Part III", and featured a protagonist who sold heroin rather than cocaine. Wright later wrote, directed and produced "Eight Tray Gangster: The Making of a Crip," a documentary of gang life in South Central Los Angeles.


title: New Jack City

text: The screenplay was co-written by Barry Michael Cooper, a former investigative reporter with the "Village Voice" who would later write the screenplays for the 1994 dramatic films "Above the Rim" and "Sugar Hill", the latter of which also starred Snipes.


title: New Jack City

text: Cooper's rewrite was adapted from his December 1987 "The Village Voice" cover story entitled "Kids Killing Kids: New Jack City Eats Its Young," about the drug war in Detroit. The account referred to the 20th anniversary of the 1967 riots in Detroit, and in its wake, the rise of crack cocaine gangs in the late 1980s, such as Young Boys Inc., and the Chambers Brothers.


title: New Jack City

text: "New Jack City" was favorably received by film critics for its cast, storyline, and soundtrack. Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing:


title: New Jack City

text: "Time Out London" described the film as "a superior example of what used to be called blaxploitation."