What to Watch, Read, and Listen To Today

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For Juneteenth, three Atlantic writers and editors share their recommendations for what to listen to, read, and watch.

How to Spend Today

“Ooo Baby Baby,” by Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson

In 1979, Aretha Franklin sat shoulder to shoulder with Smokey Robinson on a piano bench during an impromptu performance of Robinson’s “Ooo Baby Baby.” Aretha tickled the keys while they harmonized effortlessly, and the Soul Train audience huddled around them in a hushed awe. It’s an intimate and perfectly organic performance, and the chemistry between them is undeniable and unsurprising; they went from childhood friends in Detroit to simultaneous cornerstones of Black American music. I don’t think I’ve ever skipped this rendition when it comes on shuffle. Three minutes of soul in its purest form.

“My Skin My Logo,” by Solange and Gucci Mane

This was a collaboration I never knew I needed. The track from When I Get Home, one of Solange’s more innovative and eccentric projects, is both simple and provocative. These two Black southerners are from opposite ends of the spectrum of Black musical expression—Solange, the Black bohemian foil to her pop-star sister; Gucci, the trap-star icon and a fixture of southern rap—and on this song, they rap about each other. Solange tells us what Gucci likes (to slang, to bang), Gucci tells us what Solange likes (to ball, to shop), and they both collapse on how their self-expression is tied to their Blackness—my skin, my logo.

— Malcolm Ferguson, assistant editor

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On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed

Back in 2021, about a month before Juneteenth became a federal holiday, The Atlantic published an excerpt from Annette Gordon-Reed’s book about its history. When I read the rest of On Juneteenth shortly afterward, I was struck not only by the events that the Pulitzer-winning historian thoroughly researched, but also by the dexterity of her prose. She looks beyond familiar landmark moments such as the Battle of the Alamo to construct a more truthful historical record of Texas and the country. Gordon-Reed also sheds light on the narratives that she encountered only in passing throughout her early education—about people such as Estebanico, an African man who was brought to present-day Texas decades before the start of plantation slavery. With rigor and curiosity, On Juneteenth ensures that memories of Black life are not shrouded by national mythologies.

Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America, by Saidiya Hartman

Like much of Saidiya Hartman’s more recent work, her 1997 debut book, Scenes of Subjection, illuminates difficult chapters of Black life. She presents an unflinching chronicle of American slavery and does not shy away from depicting the horrors that enslaved people endured when the institution was still legal. But Hartman also shows that liberation did not materialize for Black people with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation—or, for that matter, on Juneteenth. Scenes of Subjection details the haunting racist violence and legal injustices that continued long after the end of the Civil War, and the many other existential threats to Black personhood in the United States. If we begin to examine just how integral chattel slavery was to the nation’s founding, as the book suggests, then perhaps we can better understand the “unfreedom” that has shaped Black life centuries later.

— Hannah Giorgis, staff writer

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Stax: Soulsville USA (Max)

The Stax: Soulsville USA docuseries is a real treat and a nostalgia trip. It looks at Stax Records, founded in Memphis in 1957 and one of the most influential record labels in American history. The horn-heavy “Stax sound” once challenged Motown for supremacy in soul music, propelled by megahits such as Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man.” I’m a superfan of Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, two artists who recorded for Stax, so I was always in the target audience here—but Stax is a great Juneteenth watch for anybody looking to learn more about Black music.

A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks (Max)

I’ve also been on a serious Gordon Parks kick recently, so for my second recommendation I’ll go with the film A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks. It’s a pretty straightforward documentary about the life of Parks, one of the most important Black photographers and filmmakers of the 20th century, the world he chronicled, and the people he influenced. For anybody who leaves the film inspired to learn more about him, I also recommend preordering the rerelease of Parks’s Born Black, which features his original photographs and essays, out on June 25. It’s a remarkable and stunning work.

— Vann R. Newkirk II, senior editor

P.S.

I also have to mention the (Emmy-winning) film Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, available on Peacock and VOD, which was inspired by my reporting here at The Atlantic.

— Vann

Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.

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