Norell Edwards: Seeking Safety as a Black Woman in New Cities
Certainly, policing cannot be the solution for the safety of Black women, who must navigate the line between white supremacist violence and its toxic violent byproducts that overwhelm the Black community.
Paul Laurence Dunbar: We Wear the Mask
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
Etheridge Knight: Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane
Hard Rock / was / “known not to take no shit
From nobody,” and he had the scars to prove it:
Tiffani Patton: How a Methodist Preacher Became a Champion for Black-Led Sustainable Agriculture
Drought and extreme heat notwithstanding, Hutson said his dream—to make Allensworth once again a beacon of hope for Americans of color—is slowly becoming a reality.
Toi Derricotte: Black Boys Play the Classics
their slick, dark faces,
their thin, wiry arms,
who must begin to look
like angels!
Michael T. Young: Two Poems
When you’re not the target
you can ignore the gun.
Video: While I Yet Live
A trip to Gee’s Bend, Alabama, where masterpieces hang from clotheslines.
Toi Derricotte: Holy Cross Hospital
would our bodies be the same? could we hide among the
childless? she always reminded me of a lady at the bridge
club in her mother’s shoes, playing her mother’s hand.
James Baldwin: A Talk to Teachers
The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it—at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.
Kenyatta R. Gilbert: John Lewis and the masks Black preachers wear on the public stage
Preaching, in their understanding, tells the truth about suffering in the contexts of fear and death. Ultimately it declares that evil and despair have an appointed end. Because of this, as John Lewis said in his posthumously publishe op-ed: “Each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up, and speak out.”
Keisha N. Blain: The hidden history of black nationalist women’s political activism
Black History Month is an opportunity to reflect on the historical contributions of black people in the United States. Too often, however, this history focuses on black men, sidelining black women and diminishing their contributions.
Video: Black Owned — Chicago
Black Owned, a film series exploring the Black entrepreneurial spirit and its essential contribution to the American economy through the perspectives of business owners.
Andrew Reginald Hairston: Pandemic Reflections on Money
I did everything right, but I perpetually had very little money.
