Desne A. Crossley: My Cousin’s Suicide
The first lesson in keeping secrets came in 1962, when I was eight.
Jean Toomer: Banking Coal
Somehow the fire was furnaced,
And then the time was ripe for some to say,
“Right banking of the furnace saves the coal.”
I’ve seen them set to work, each in his way
George Yancy: When Philosophy No Longer Smells of the Earth
In these times of narrow ideological allegiances and goose-stepping conformity, philosophers who ask “why?” as a challenge to the status quo are asking an unsafe question. And that fact, more than anything else, shows us why we need philosophy in times like these.
Video: Bree Jones | How to Revitalize a Neighborhood Without Gentrification
Equitable housing developer and TED Fellow Bree Jones shares how she found a way to revitalize neighborhoods experiencing hyper-vacancy while preventing gentrification — supporting home buyers and transforming communities along the way.
Lynn Levin: ‘Masquerade’ by Carolyne Wright
In her new poetry collection, Carolyne Wright recounts a love affair between two poets—he African-American, she white—from its rapturous beginning to its shattering end. Wright gifts us with that rarity in verse: a page turner.
Ruth King: A Journey From Rage to Mindfulness
An approach to examining systems, navigating emotional distress, and increasing social harmony.
Abby Zimet: Freedom Reads. Books Are a Lifeline To a Still-Flawed World
On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X – former inmate, fierce civil rights warrior, “one of the greatest leaders this country has ever seen” and for what he proudly deemed Afro-Americans “our own … Continue reading
Video: Battleground
The short film captures the particular discomfort of having to argue for one’s value in a society that should care instead of question. Kwesi, a Black man, powerfully conveys these feelings to his co-director Mark, a white man, in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May, 2020.
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley: A Dirge for Our Murdered Sons
Oh, America, how many tears do you want
before you stop killing our sons?
Countee Cullen: Yet Do I Marvel
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind
Video: Miracle Jones | The Radical, Revolutionary Resilience of Black Joy
In the face of trauma, happiness is resilience: a revolutionary act of thriving despite all odds, rather than wilting or surrendering. Community organizer and activist Miracle Jones offers a heart-to-heart … Continue reading
Derrick Z. Jackson: The People of the People’s Trail
I am the very accidental Black nature lover.
Rev. John Dear: The clash between history and today’s movements — a conversation with Rev. James Lawson
Nonviolence is that quality that comes out of all the great world religions, the notion that the creative force of the universe is love.
Earl S. Braggs: Such is the Love Story of Sally
It was not the first time that Thomas Jefferson asked
her to dance.
