Food:
SUPPORT BLACK BUSINESSES
Mango’s
Atlanta, Georgia
Reviews:
“So. Freakin. BOMB. I ordered a large oxtail dinner with rice and peas (no cabbage). They still gave me cabbage, they knew I needed my veggies and they were so seasoned so perfectly! Most Jamaican places just steam it and throw it in the box but this was actually great and I FINISHED IT.”
“So. Freakin. BOMB. I ordered a large oxtail dinner with rice and peas (no cabbage). They still gave me cabbage, they knew I needed my veggies and they were so seasoned so perfectly! Most Jamaican places just steam it and throw it in the box but this was actually great and I FINISHED IT.”
“Mangos has been a staple in Atlanta for awhile. Always receive good customer service and the food is always delicious. I would definitely recommend this spot. I’ve tried the oxtails, curry chicken, jerk shrimp pasta, ackee & saltfish. All of the food is good.great and I FINISHED IT.”
Black Stories Film Series #15:
Steve McQueen’s “12 Years A Slave” (2013) is a slow burning masterpiece that takes an often sensationalized time in historic horrors, and grounds it, allowing the casual nature of the violence and dehumanization of an entire people to stand alone and speak for itself. McQueen, who prior to this was most known for “Shame” (2011) and “Hunger” (2008), was the ideal director to take on this story, as he masters the art of telling stories through observed details and simplicity until they ache into the bones of its audience and stay there intravenously.
It seems like it is near impossible to tell a story about slavery in America without it feeling sensationalized to some degree, due to the way that it is spoken about in the United States education system from an early age. It is delivered with an aggrandized eloquence, and tied up with a bow. Slavery was bad, we know. Then it ended, we were told. Abraham Lincoln, the Underground Railroad, Harriet Beacher Stowe, Harriet Tubman… The story of slavery is an epic of America. Yes, it was bad. Yes, it must be confronted. But, it is over now. We must never do it again (not like that). And so on. Though, it falls to that occasionally, overall what stands out about “12 Years A Slave” is the unrelenting choice to show it plainly, through the everyday agony of the black men and women in chains, and the gruesome apathy of their white counterparts.
This is the true story of a man named Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor ambitiously and successfully carrying the weight of this role), who was a free man living in the north with his wife and children, when he was drugged, kidnapped, and sold back into slavery in the south. Allowed no other option but to forsake his freedom, and survive until he can somehow escape this hell, Northup survives. Day to day, his focus is what drives him. It is razor sharp. It is concentrated. He is determined to survive, and because of that, he will. Would it be more difficult to endure the life of a slave if it was all you have ever known or if you knew the taste of freedom, and can envision what was pulled from you? It is impossible for one to ever know – having never experienced the other. But for audiences, Solomon’s story certainly strikes a chord.
Solomon Northup was born in the early 1800’s as an African-American, raised by his parents, a freed slave and a free woman of color, in New York. A landowner and professional violinist, he was offered a job as a traveling musician in 1841, and part of his route landed him in Washington, D.C. (where slavery was still legal). There, he was abducted using drugs, sold, and shipped to New Orleans, where he was purchased by a planter and held as a slave for over a decade in the Red River region of Louisiana. It wasn’t until he met a Canadian working on the plantation, who supported his abolition, and helped him contact New York legislators. At this time, New York state law provided aid to New York citizens who were kidnapped and sold into slavery, so his family and friends enlisted the Governor of New York (Washington Hunt) who managed to bring Solomon back to a life of freedom on January 3, 1853. The man responsible for Northup’s 12 years of horror, slave trader James H. Birch, was arrested and tried. However, infuriatingly, because Washington D.C. law had prohibited black men from testifying against white men, Northup was unable to do so, and Birch was acquitted. His kidnappers were also arrested and charged, but the case got conveniently tied up in jurisdictional confusion, and no one involved ever received punishment. The system was designed to protect white men from being punished for their heinous crimes against blacks.
The film version, smartly and beautifully, ends with Solomon Northup reuniting with his family. His children are now grown, and he has a grandson who has been given his namesake. Viewers have noted that he has not aged as significantly as the others, and with a film so tightly constructed, it is unlikely that this was an accident. After having to leave his fulfilling and accomplished life with his loved ones, his proceeding twelve years are a means of survival. He is stagnant, waiting, focused, determined, withstanding the aging process that actually living ones life allows. Driven by sheer, unanswered hope, he survives, and it is not until he is reunited with his family that the true lapse of time is understood. In the epilogue titles, we learn of Northup’s fruitless battle for justice. This could be an entire film of it’s own – one that reflects the institutional safeguarding of slave owners from being held accountable for their crimes against humanity. It is also worth noting that upon nationwide (mostly) emancipation in 1865, slave owners were actually compensated by the government a generous sum of money, to make up for the loss of labor. The slaves who became free were given no compensation, nor were they connected to any resources to allow them to move forward with advantageously.
Steve McQueen harnesses the loudness of silence, the overwhelming power of frustrated restraint, the startling pain of a million small abuses, and the abomination of apathy. With perceptive cinematography by Sean Bobbitt (who also worked on “Hunger” & “Shame,” as well as the elegantly filmed “Place Beyond the Pines”), we are strapped to Northup, experiencing each moment through him and we can feel the juxtaposition of the beautiful Georgian landscapes with the hell that lives there. Michael Fassbender, who completes the trio that collaborated for “Hunger” & “Shame,” intricately portrays a slave owner wrestling with his own inexplicable (to himself) affection for his slave Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o in an atonishing breakout performance). Paul Dano is grotesque in his delivery of Tibeats, an ignorant and egotistical reckless overseer. Benedict Cumberbatch depicts a slightly more dynamic slave owner who wrestles with the obvious lack of morality in his work. Brad Pitt plays Samuel Bass – the aforementioned Canadian who was able to assist Northup in his release. Weaving all the hefty performances together is Han Zimmer with an erupting and inspiring score.
“12 Years A Slave” is uncomfortable to watch. It hurts, a lot, and it should. But it is a masterful and harrowing true story that unearths a slice of history with a new sense. It foregoes the need to rely on the white perspective to tell the story of slavery, which should be told through the black experience. It is personal and truthful. Yes, it hurts, but it is a necessary discomfort. It is a must-see.
Inglorious Baguettes 
Leave a Reply