31 Search results for "smithsonian"

Black and in Vietnam, my hair is not a spectacle
by Adam Mahoney I’ve been living in Vietnam for four months and from the first 30 minutes I arrived in the country, my hair was a problem. I’m a 20 year old junior in college, so when the opportunity to not be in a classroom full of wealthy, white peers presented itself, I jumped at […]
Elbert Howard, one of the Black Panther Party founders, dies at 80
Elbert Howard, one of the original six members of the Black Panther Party, formally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, has died at the age of 80 years old. Howard had been sick for a number of years, according to his wife Carol Hyams who confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Howard had been […]
95 bodies—how sanitizing slavery keeps America’s hands clean
The remains of ninety-five Black people were recently found buried at a construction site in Sugar Land, Texas. The vast majority of reports about this discovery neglect to call these dead Black people what they really were: enslaved. This essay contains discussions of racialized state violence, slavery, and lynching. “African-American forced laborers” have […]
The Obsidian Collection and Google are working to digitize Black legacy newspapers for a modern world
According to reports from the Smithsonian and Chicago magazine, Google Arts & Culture is collaborating with digital archivists from the Chicago Defender and other Black newspapers such as the Dallas Post-Tribune, the Washington Informer and the Baltimore Afro-American to digitize their archives and maintain their legacy. This effort began in earnest when Angela Ford was searching […]
Kendrick Lamar becomes first rapper to win a Pulitzer Prize
Kendrick Lamar can now add Pulitzer winner to his impressive list of career accolades as he was awarded the prize in music for his Grammy-nominated album DAMN. The Pulitzer Prize was given to Lamar’s album for being a “virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the […]
A brief history of reactionary white violence in America
by Kamali Senior Content Warning: This essay contains discussion of anti-Black violences, including lynching and r/pe American history is marred by white violence, extremism, and terrorism, as harrowing as it is extensive. In America, the archetype of a terrorist is, allegedly, a disaffected Black or brown person with radical ideologies, willing to act on them. […]
Malcolm X documentary featuring never before seen footage allows his words to tell his story
A new documentary chronicling the last years of Malcolm X’s life was released on Monday on the Smithsonian Channel as part of its Lost Tapes series. Documentaries in the series break from tradition by allowing subjects to tell their own stories in their own words without commentary from experts or contemporaries.
Like my native tongue, Wakanda bridges the cultural gap between my African ancestry and Black American life
by Antoinette Gregg Until I moved to New York City for graduate school, I had never been asked the question, “What kind of Black are you?” Growing up, there was only one kind of Black that I knew of: Geechee. A hodgepodge of Caribbean, African, and European ways of life, Geechee/Gullah is the culture, language, […]
Remains of ship found in Gulf Coast could be the last known U.S. slave ship
According to a report from Ben Raines of Al.com, researchers may have found the long-buried and forgotten remains of the Clotilda, the ship widely believed to be either the last or among the last ships to complete voyages that brought Africans to America, entangling them in slavery. The ship was at least partially buried in […]
‘Tell Them We Are Rising’ documentary centering nation’s HBCUs to air in February 2018
Freedom work involving Black people in America, particularly when married to education as a liberation tool, necessitates studying historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). With this understanding, filmmaker Stanley Nelson created a first-of-its-kind documentary, Tell Them We Are Rising. The documentary is touted on the official website as an exploration of “the pivotal role” historically […]
Esperanza Spalding joins Harvard University faculty
They say the next thing to do after you reach the top of the mountain is to reach back and help someone else make it there. Esperanza Spalding has already won pretty much every award she can in music – including Grammys, an NAACP Image Award, a Boston Music Award and a Soul Train Music Award. Now, […]
Noose found in National Museum of African American History
Someone actually paid to leave a noose in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Y’all, that’s some serious hate. At least, that’s the most logical assumption to make given how tough it is to gain admission into the recently opened beacon of history. Visitors were the ones who found a noose in […]