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Kamau Bell talks with host Dennis Trainor, Jr. about The United Shades of America, Kamau’s new docu-series on CNN, Semi-Prominent Negro (his Showtime Comedy special directed by Morgan Spurlock), and Kamau’s podcast, Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor Of All Time Period. about the guest | Kamau Bell is a sociopolitical comedian based in The People’s Republic of Berkeley, CA. Kamau is the host the CNN docu-series United Shades of Americawhich premieres on April 24th. His one hour stand-up special “Semi-Prominent Negro” will premiere on Showtime on April 29th. He also is the host of Kamau Right Now! on KALW in San Francisco and co-hosts the podcast Denzel Washington is The Greatest Actor of All Time Period on Earwolf.  Kamau is best known for his critically acclaimed, but criminally short-lived FX comedy series, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Kamau is also proud to be the ACLU’s Ambassador of Racial Justice. Although he’s pretty upset that they didn’t give him a badge along with the title. Kamau sits on the advisory board of Race Forward, a racial justice think tank, and Hollaback, a non-profit movement to end street harassment. The New York Times called Kamau “the most promising new talent in political comedy in many years.” And Salon.com listed Kamau on their “Sexiest Men of 2012” list, calling the series “surreptitiously revolutionary in its effortless diversity and humanism.” The New Yorker said, “Bell’s gimmick is intersectional progressivism: he treats racial, gay, and women’s issues as inseparable.” The San Francisco Chronicle raved, “it makes The Daily Show seem like something your dad watches.” In its brief time, Totally Biased was nominated for both an NAACP Image Award and a GLAAD Award. Totally Biased was executive produced by Chris Rock, who became a fan after seeing a performance of Kamau’s one man show The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour. Kamau still performs that show at colleges across the country. He’s especially busy with it in February. Kamau has released two stand-up comedy albums: One NIGht Only and Face Full of Flour. Face Full of F

This week, Dennis interviews Shaleece Haas, Director of the new documentary REAL BOY (www.RealBoymovie.com). It is a film about “the coming-of-age story of Bennett Wallace, a transgender teenager on a journey to find his voice—as a musician, a friend, a son, and a man. As he navigates the ups and downs of young adulthood, he works to gain the love and support of his mother, who has deep misgivings about her child’s transition. Along the way, Bennett forges a powerful friendship with his idol, Joe Stevens, a celebrated transgender musician with his own demons to fight.” Also, as a bonus, Chris Hedges on why he thinks Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart have destroyed satire. LINKS REAL BOY website: http://www.realboymovie.com/ twitter: https://twitter.com/realboymovie facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealBoyMovie BELOW THE FOLD: Website www.btfpod.com iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/below-the-fold/id1087907540 Stitcher http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/below-the-fold RSS http://btfpod.libsyn.com/rss

An interview with the artist Dread Scott. It is not every artist whose examination of the past speaks so urgently to the present moment of now; Dread Scott’s work does. It is not every artist whose work provokes the United States Congress to pass legislation in response to it; Dread Scott’s work did that before he finished art school. It is not every artist who demands so much of his audience and yet Scott is an artist uniquely interested in audience participation and reaction. In a wide-ranging conversation, Dennis Trainor, Jr and Dread Scott discuss the Proper Way to Display the US flag, burning money on wall street – literally, white supremacy racism the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide and a tangential conversation about Hamilton the musical and whether that work is functioning on reform or revolutionary plane. Artist bio Dread Scott makes revolutionary art to propel history forward. He first received national attention in 1989 when his art became the center of controversy over its use of the American flag. President G. H.W. Bush declared his artwork What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag? “disgraceful” and the entire US Senate denounced this work and outlawed it when they passed legislation to “protect the flag.” To oppose this law and other efforts which would effectively make patriotism compulsory, he, along with three other protesters, burned flags on the steps of the US Capitol. This resulted in a Supreme Court case and a landmark First Amendment decision.   His art has been exhibited at the MoMA PS1, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, The Walker Art Center and at the Pori Art Museum in Pori, Finlandas well as on view in America is Hard to See, the Whitney Museum’s inaugural exhibition in their new building. In 2012, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) presented his performance Dread Scott: Decision as part of their 30th Anniversary Next Wave Festival. In 2008, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts presented Dread Scott: Welcome to America. Winkleman Gallery and Cristin Tierney in New York have exhibited recent work and his public sculptures have been installed at

Hounded and harassed by Homeland Security after his song and video Uncle Sam Goddam went viral back in 2007, Brother Ali continues to be called one of raps most insightful and political artists. He calls his album Mourning in America, Dreaming In Color (2012), a manifesto on the political, socioeconomic and cultural suffering in modern American life, as well as a declaration of hope and possibility for a brighter future. Working on the follow up currently, Brother Ali is mindful is focused on creating work that does no harm, as he told me during a recent interview for the podcast Below the Fold. “The ego is such a ninja. The ego is so masterful in trying to destroy everything that we do. It can poison the work that we are doing in terms of thinking that my truth is the best and only truth. Even in being humble, the ego gets off on people saying ‘Oh man, I can’t believe how humble you are’. Listen to that full interview where Brother Ali dishes on how far Homeland Security went to intimidate him, being a community organizer, the influence of his mentor Chuck D, and how Donald Trump’s racism has already made things much worse for his family. Islam is how Brother Ali wrestles with his ego and to listen to him now, it sounds like he is winning. Concerning his next album, Brother Ali told Soren Baker of Hip Hop dx “This album is a lot less overtly political in the sense of policies and distribution of things. It’s a lot more dealing with community and life, how to be a person, how to actively practice the art of loving and how to practice what it really takes to be a community. It has a lot to do with how we can get our hearts right and how to be bonded and to be connected to each other in really genuine ways.” No title or release date is set for the forthcoming album. Wrestling with his ego in Minneapolis, Brother Ali is not a man in a rush.  

Hip Hop Artist and social justice activist Jasiri X joins me to discuss Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and who should the black vote in 2016. We also talk about Hip-hop as a form of journalism, the reason behind the “Beyoncé Backlash” and whether or not artists like Jay-Z and Jamiri also weighs in on why he thinks the Green party has failed to inspire communities of color - among many other topics. Episode breakdown: (00:01) Welcome to Below The Fold (1:45) My God (from Black Liberation Theology) (7:25) The Empire v. Jesus (11:00) Hip-Hop as a form of journalism (13:00) From Ferguson to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime (15:00) Why Hillary Clinton Does Not Deserve The Black Vote (18:40) Why The Green Party Fails to Speak to Communities Of Color (27:05) Can – and should- Jay-Z and Kanye West Do More To Shed Light On Issues Involving Social justice and Activism? (29:20) The Reason For The Beyoncé Backlash (30:00) Is Donald Trump Exacerbating America's Race Problem, or Just Shedding Light On It? (32:45) Dismantling “All Lives Matter.” (36:30) Post Occupy, Where Does The Revolution Go? Jasiri X bio A new millennium leader leveraging the transformative power of Hip-Hop, Social Media and Technology into a new brand of social change. Jasiri performs nationally and internationally, delivering keynote addresses and speaking on scholarly panels. Jasiri has worked in underserved communities as a mentor, educator and community leader. He is a founding member of the anti-violence community organization, 1Hood. After garnering over 3 million YouTube views for his conscious elevating Hip-Hop, Jasiri felt that it was imperative to provide training for young people in new forms of digital media, empowering them to change their own communities and to tell their own, often maligned and marginalized stories. In 2010, Jasiri founded 1Hood Media Academy in Pittsburgh, where he leads a team of educators and artists in teaching young people media literacy, photography, videography, music production, creative lyricism, entrepreneurship, journalism and other 21st century skills. Jasiri X is a new millennium Civil Rights Activist working closely with his mentor, Harry Belafonte to address social ills of today’s society. Recipient of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellowship, BMe Fellowship, the August Wilson Ce

Below The Fold welcomes April Reign creator of #OscarsSoWhite, managing Editor of BroadwayBlack.com and Editor at Large of NU Tribe Magazine to discuss the #OscarsSoWhite campaign and this unique historical moment informed by the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Also discussed, how do the recent performances of Beyoncé at the Super Bowl and Kendrick Lamar at the Grammys set the stage for Chris Rock to host the Academy Awards?  This episode is brought to you by the listeners. Support the show at www.Patreon.com/DennisTrainorJr Leave feedback or contact Below The Fold at https://btfpod.wordpress.com/contact Follow April Reign Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril ******* Episode guide 00:25 Ironically, it is the success of April’s viral #OscarsSoWhite campaign that makes this year’s show, with Chris Rock serving as the MC for an Academy Award Ceremony where are grand total of zero black actors were nominated in the individual acting award categories, must see television. 9:00 How is #BlackLivesMatter influencing Pop Culture? April Reign talks about the nexus between Beyoncé’s homage to the Black Panthers at the Super Bowl, Kendrick Lamar’s performance at the Grammy’s, and the wild success of the Broadway musical Hamilton and how that feeds the #OscarsSoWhite campaign. 11:28 Star Wars and Hamilton prove how women and Black performers can open blockbuster productions that make money. 13:30 #OscarsSoWhite they wanna touch my hair. How the viral campaign started as a ‘joke’ 15:05 Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing’s Influence on #OscarsSoWhite 16:15 #OscarsSoWhite is NOT calling for a boycott of the Oscars 18:20 Chris Rock is expected to hit hard as Academy Awards Show host. 21:28 #OscarsSoWhite they wear Birkenstock’s in the winter 26:20 What would April Reign have Chris Rock say during his opening monologue? 28:50 Matt Damon: White. Progressive. Racist? 30:30 On efforts to co-Opt #OscarsSoWhite 35:25 Live tweeting in support of #OscarsSoWhite *** Links: Below The Fold website www.BTFpod.com iTunes (coming soon) Soundcloud: