And this book is trying to tell a story of not just the contemporary moments, but also the long arc of resistance. Media and tech have always been part of the fight, but that role is changing as tech develops. Wells used photography to keep track of America’s lynching regime. Are we talking solely about caught-on-video instances of police brutality? When I think of visual media in this context, I think of the George Floyd video. In this new book, Seen and Unseen, you delve into how “visual media” have “shifted the narrative on race and reignited the push towards justice,” as your publisher summarizes it. And since the world ain’t gettin’ no simpler, the work I have to do will only get harder. The world is so messy, and my job as critic, scholar and analyst is to help people make sense of the world. The completion process is incredibly rewarding, but the writing is an intense, painstaking process. I “like” writing, but I love having written. On the subject of books, your seventh book comes out on May 3rd. Our motto is “Cool people, dope books, great coffee.” Most places don’t have all three. They buy the books, love the coffee, and appreciate the sense of community. If we broke even, or if I took a small loss each month, I would still keep it open. I’ve been fortunate to be able to transform it into a real business. We photographed you at Uncle Bobbie’s, the bookshop/cafe you opened in Germantown in 2017 as a labor of love. Now, I have to do some serious research to know what’s poppin’ on the street. When teaching about popular culture, I used to be able to go to my CDs for material. The problem is that the students stay the same age, but I just get older and older. How has the student body changed over the years? I moved on to Columbia and then Morehouse, but I was recruited back to Temple in 2017. After I graduated from Temple in 2000 and went to grad school at Penn, I came back to Temple as faculty in 2005. Anything else is an outgrowth of that or informs that. I started in Hunting Park, and then we lived in West Philly. At one point in my life, I was between Atlanta, Philly, L.A. I’m back full-time now, living in Germantown.

Marc lamont hill seen and unseen