39 Search results for "toni morrison"

By Tez Files Baptize me. Now that reconciliation is possible, if we’re gonna heal, let it be glorious. – Beyoncé, “Sandcastles” I must have heard Beyoncé’s “Sandcastles”a dozen times. I read all types of complexity into its lyrics. After having gone through a very difficult break-up, it was healing to sit with my emotions and […]

April is Black Women’s History Month. Throughout this month, Black Youth Project is celebrating Black women. This month is also National Minority Health Month, Autism Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month. We are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. This essay contains brief descriptions […]

“She don’t even like us. She only help us because of this.” My coworker pointed at her forearm with an ardent finger, calling attention to the mahogany of her skin. A deep, dark, gorgeous color. The white woman she spoke of was a member of the church that housed the after-school program we worked for. […]

Jesmyn Ward’s sprawling, definitively Southern novel Sing, Unburied, Sing has rightfully been rewarded by the National Book Foundation with the National Book Award in the genre of fiction. The novel sees Ward return to the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, which was also the setting of Ward’s 2011 National Book Award winning Salvage the Bones. […]

This article was originally published at Water Cooler Convos. “I love you. Mommy loves you, Charlotte.” I watched a character named “Ofwarren” speak those words to a rosey-cheeked baby before jumping from a bridge. She was attempting to end her own life. Ofwarren survived the plunge into the cold waters below. Yet, the image of […]

By Myles E. Johnson “Solitude can be a must-be-desired condition. In silence, we listen to ourselves, and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of God.” – Maya Angelou The search, as it were, began in wanting to deep-dive into something that was about me, and it began early. I wanted a nappy-headed […]

I am blessed enough to work with a staff of young writers who inspire me every single day. They are graduate students, community activists, educators, and content producers who make my job as Managing Editor that much easier. So, I wanted to take some time to spotlight them and give you a chance to get […]

For black women interested in art, the opportunity to speak with like-minded peers can be few and far between. The lack of space for black women in the art world compelled Jovonna Jones and Samantha Scott to create BlacQurl, an online magazine and platform for black women and femme writers, creatives, and critics.

The recent deaths of police officers have spurred a legal backlash in many states, with so called “Blue Lives Matter” legislation that would qualify negative interactions with police by civilians or protesters as a hate crime. This legislation has recently come to Chicago, with a proposed expansion to the Hate Crime Ordinance which would treat […]

By Mwende Katwiwa “I am a Black poet who will not stay silent while this nation murders Black people. I have a right to be angry” Poet and political activist Amiri Baraka once said, “the Black artist’s role is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it”. In a recent piece penned for The […]

By Victoria Massie   “The function, the very serious function, of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.”—Toni Morrison I’ve been haunted by Morrion’s words as details unfold daily around the crash of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 into the the […]

  The following post is from The Nation. It was written by Mychal Denzel Smith. By: Mychal Denzel Smith More than 50,000 people marched on the streets of New York City this past Saturday, December 13, to protest the two recent grand jury decisions—in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City—not to indict the police […]