Little by little I am getting more media traction and, quite frankly, I am down with that. I am going to post about a TV appearance I made on NY-ABC about two weeks ago but right now I am going to point to you to Farai Chideya's show on NPR, "News and Notes". I was on the show's Blogger Roundtable with Baratunde Thursoton in NYC and Avery Tooley in Washington DC shooting the breeze on the black elite's split between Obama and Hillary, on how Obama is redefining blackness and, more somberly, on the LaVena Johson case.

These 20 minutes are, by far, the funnest I have had in a loooong time. I used to be a voice over artist and, quite frankly, if I had to choose between being in front of a camera or microphone and typing, I would go for the talking --because its easier on the body. And as I said that, I still have my issues when it comes to on-camera work, but that's topic for a whole 'nother post.

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Anyhow, I don't know you, but we could have gone on for another 20 minutes. Avery Tooley is one of the first bbloggers I read when I started doing my thing. Stereo Describes My Scenario was, back in the day (and am talking around 2003), the Switzerland of the blackosphere --you went to Avery's blog to talk about and work out the shit between black folk from all ideologies and walks of life : liberals, progressives and conservatives, christians and atheists, pro-war and pacifists.

I am one of those rare progressive bloggers who reads her conservative counterparts. I may not drop in everyday to baldilocks, LaShawn Barber, Black Informant or Avery, but I keep an eye on what they're doing. Why? Because they are infinitessimally more interesting or even pertinent to my work as an activist than most bloggers in the liberal whiteosphere.

So when I heard Avery was going to be there I was ecstatic.

Then, of course, the cherry on top was Baratunde Thurston. I met Baratunde as Baratunde offline and in a conference --it was either at SXSW or PDFCon. Online, I knew of him as ... and prepare yourself to be shocked and awe ... Jack Turner of Jack and Jill Politics. I know! I still can't get over that piece of news!

What's weird about our meets is that at every conference we've attended, he has performed his stand-up comedy routine and ... can you believe I have yet to see him perform. For some effed up reason or another I've missed the show. I hate that! But now that he's moved with his honey to New York (and to the hinterlands of Riverside), I'll be able to catch his gigs more often.

So it was awesome to be with him in the studio because it didn't feel like a show. It was just folk shooting the shit --some of it fun, most of it serious. Let me give you Baratunde's synopsis :

Black Hollywood Fundraising
The jump off was an LA Times story I had suggested for discussion. (Big Up / Hat Tip to Negrophile's Twitter posts for putting me on to the story. Gotsta love the Interweb.) We discussed several angles including: the generational gap between Obama and Clinton supporters and how that mirrors the black political generational gap; the effectiveness of fundraising; the ability of events like these to translate into black votes

What Kind of Black Are We?
This was based on a recent-ish Washington Post article by Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs. We covered: the importance of the labels "black" vs. "African" vs. "African American"; the distrust and misinformation between descendants of American slaves and those from the diaspora who have come here later; and what is "black" anyway? who gets to define it?

LaVena Johnson
Pfc. LaVena Johnson died in Iraq two years ago. The military says it was a self-inflicted wound, but evidence points to sexual assault, beating, shooting and an attempt to burn her. For a heart-wrenching and frustrating version of events, check the video below of LaVena's father, Dr. Jack Johnson, at a Veterans for Peace Rally

The roundtable discussed the logical connection to the Pat Tillman case and if the blogosphere is an appropriate place to get this sort of issue out. Of course it is, and I hope we can collaborate as in the Jena 6 case to shed light and action on this tragedy

I will be blogging separately about all these topics, especially LaVena Johnson's death. Stay tuned for that and more. Regular podcasting is definitely coming to this blog starting September.