2313 Search results for "community"

I have not known rivers. I have never experienced rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. I am not as lucky as Langston, even in the context of metaphors and similes. But my soul has grown deep with sadness. I am the artistic director for a […]

I faced history one day and found myself. Beginning in my 9th grade year of high school, I was a “Facing History and Ourselves” student in Cleveland, Ohio. My first experience with this organization was with a Holocaust survivor named Max Adelman. I can still hear his voice ringing in my ear as I remember […]

  httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55FpBt6jJc0 “Where were the cops?” asks Letzbeforreal in his mini-video.  His question is not new. He, like everyone else, is looking to hold some bigger entity accountable for the murder of Derrion Albert.  He wants to lay blame where it does “the most good.”  Others assign blame to the administration of Fenger High School.   Despite […]

I want to thank my good sisterfriend and comrade, Alexis Gumbs, for pulling the Be Bold Be Re(a)d podcast together. 3 years ago women of color came together and transformed what it meant to transform terror on Halloween, declaring October 31st Be Bold Be Red Day, a day for women of color and allies to […]

This past weekend I took a break from the monotony of the “ivory tower”. I threw down my books and pushed aside my assignments so I could be entertained. My friends and I decided that with midterms rapidly approaching we needed a few good laughs to maintain our sanity, so we decided to go see […]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg-zTiHSYMM Over the past month I have been writing on the good and bad of “The Ballroom Scene.” Now I want to take a moment to explain more about the rising underground dance, that is becoming one of the new “black arts.”  If homophobic, masculine idolizing, intolerant schools like Morehouse would be a little more […]

http://www.iviewtube.com/videos/89320/16-year-old-derrion-albert-beaten-to-death-in-chicago Derrion Albert’s murder was something like a blood sport event. As you watch in this clip, you can hear the man and woman, the camera crew, filming with their phone.  Starting at 36 seconds, the man says “Let me see that shawty,” to which the female responds presumably as she hands over the phone, […]

A week before I returned to University of Chicago for my second year of college, I encountered what I like to call “an incident.” My brother, on this particular day followed his normal pattern of entering the basement room of my mother’s house in a drunken state. His drinking problem is one thing, but his […]

Here’s your daily dose of hate-filled pessimism. Dear Vh1, Guess who’s having the best year ever.  Hope.  That’s right, Hope–a four-letter word I find no reason to use unless it’s accompanied by a “-less.”  Yet, in retrospect, I totally should’ve kept the little bit of Hope stock I had.  Instead, I panicked when the economy […]

A couple weeks ago, i had a friend visit and on the way home from a club, the song “Five Star Chic” came on the radio. As soon as we heard the first verse, we looked at one another, simultaneously amused and disgusted. She commented that a woman like the type described in the song […]

Over the next several weeks I will be writing a series on  The Ballroom Scene. Wikipedia cheapens the culture by diluting the definition, calling it a “subculture of the LGBT community involving staged competitive, drag fashion performances.” The ballroom scene is not only a new black art, but it comes with a lot more baggage […]

There are two sides to every story. On one side you have a 14 year old girl, Tryna Middleton. An innocent girl who grew up a couple blocks from where my house is in East Cleveland, Ohio. Tryna Middleton attended Shaw High School, the same high school that I graduated from. A girl who literally […]