Dr. Daphne A. Brooks

Have you ever had that moment? Whenever I see Lean Greenwood singing, proud to be an American.

Have you ever had that moment? Whenever I see Lean Greenwood singing, proud to be an American.

Have you ever had that moment? Whenever I see Lean Greenwood singing, proud to be an American.

I just have a problem with it. All art is political. The great cultural studies scholars, Stuart Hall, told us that many years ago in a landmark piece called What is this Black in Black Popular Culture? He told us that culture is not a zero-sum game. And so I just think propaganda feels like a flattening out of the ways in which we think about art and cultural performance in this day and age.

I just have a problem with it. All art is political. The great cultural studies scholars, Stuart Hall, told us that many years ago in a landmark piece called What is this Black in Black Popular Culture? He told us that culture is not a zero-sum game. And so I just think propaganda feels like a flattening out of the ways in which we think about art and cultural performance in this day and age.

I just have a problem with it. All art is political. The great cultural studies scholars, Stuart Hall, told us that many years ago in a landmark piece called What is this Black in Black Popular Culture? He told us that culture is not a zero-sum game. And so I just think propaganda feels like a flattening out of the ways in which we think about art and cultural performance in this day and age.

Nick, what about you?

Nick, what about you?

Nick, what about you?

I'm thinking about the fact that we live in 2025 on the edge of a new administration that's also an old administration in a world in which influencer is a lucrative and high profile line of occupation. And the heightened level of paranoia, anxiety, the extent to which publics are feeling manipulated, feeling vulnerable to the kinds of messages that are generated by

I'm thinking about the fact that we live in 2025 on the edge of a new administration that's also an old administration in a world in which influencer is a lucrative and high profile line of occupation. And the heightened level of paranoia, anxiety, the extent to which publics are feeling manipulated, feeling vulnerable to the kinds of messages that are generated by

I'm thinking about the fact that we live in 2025 on the edge of a new administration that's also an old administration in a world in which influencer is a lucrative and high profile line of occupation. And the heightened level of paranoia, anxiety, the extent to which publics are feeling manipulated, feeling vulnerable to the kinds of messages that are generated by

in a variety of different institutions.

in a variety of different institutions.

in a variety of different institutions.

I just was going to say, I do wonder if what people, at least some people, were wrestling with was a sort of presumptive, spectacular thing patriotism that was bound up in the performance, but that would really align the nuances of social critique that are bound up in the Cowboy Carter project.

I just was going to say, I do wonder if what people, at least some people, were wrestling with was a sort of presumptive, spectacular thing patriotism that was bound up in the performance, but that would really align the nuances of social critique that are bound up in the Cowboy Carter project.

I just was going to say, I do wonder if what people, at least some people, were wrestling with was a sort of presumptive, spectacular thing patriotism that was bound up in the performance, but that would really align the nuances of social critique that are bound up in the Cowboy Carter project.

And even in a song like Yaya, which she performed at the show that has an infamous line, whole lot of red and that white and blue. It tells us, again, so much the reaction about this moment that we're in, you know, about these questions about how America as a multiracial democracy is changing. broken in many, many ways.

And even in a song like Yaya, which she performed at the show that has an infamous line, whole lot of red and that white and blue. It tells us, again, so much the reaction about this moment that we're in, you know, about these questions about how America as a multiracial democracy is changing. broken in many, many ways.