88 Search results for "western world"

by Kathleen Anaza  Richard Akuson obtained a level of success and visibility that could be the envy of many young people around the world. Before the age of 25, he was a licensed lawyer and opened a boutique PR firm within the Nigerian economy’s all-time highest youth unemployment rate. With all this success, his most […]

There aren’t enough accessible therapists to go around. I met this reality after an Ifa divination that I got while I was in Cuba, and my dreams for an entire year afterward, told me that I needed to focus on my mental health. My ancestors were LOUD about the mental work that I needed to […]

by Donnie Moreland  In my six years participating in scholastic speech and debate competition, the one lasting impression of the sport itself, less any social interaction, was that language is never fixed. Language is neither absolute, or inherent. Language is craftable, manipulatable, sellable and infinitely interpretable.  This seems obvious, but when you think of how […]

*Please note that below this essay on colorism is a list of dark skinned Black folks’ GoFundMes you can contribute to today.* Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs – all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. – The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison  The […]

by Taneasha White Nonprofit work is always seen as “God’s work.” Before they even know which organization I work with, chatty Uber and Lyft drivers immediately thank me for my service.  There are things that are commonplace within nonprofits that aren’t expected in corporate settings. The idea of “ice breakers” before meetings, flex time, or […]

by Donnie Moreland  This essay discusses body dysmorphia, self-harm ideation, and fatphobia.  I remember wanting to drop fire in my belly. Wanting to light a match, open my mouth and drop it in to burn the fat. This was one of the engrossing illusions I obsessed about, from age thirteen until an age very much […]

by Jamila Mitchell This article discusses suicide, r/pe, and other topics that may be triggering for some readers.  For some reason, I found myself in pain on the floor of my bathroom with a closed door, empty pill bottles, and spilt bleach. Frantically, I reached out to people through my phone and Facebook contacts. All […]

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 […]

by Cosima Smith  Television, movies, and literary representations all serve to enforce, perpetuate, and reinforce the lived-realities of their subjects and audience. They also proliferate the ideas of their creators by portraying a set of characters who, ideally, undergo hardships and growth, experience love and loss, and who (work to) internalize a great deal of […]

Editor’s Note: May is Mental Health Awareness Month and National Masturbation Month. This is also the month that we celebrate Mother’s Day. At BYP, we will be exploring these topics alongside the theme of Imagination and the Arts, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them.

According to NBC News, not too long after she became the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Coalition in Columbus, Ohio; Amber Evans went missing. The 28-year-old Evans has worked for the organization since 2015, and though she loved her job, her mother Tonya Fischer said Evans had begun to grow weary. “The work was […]

by Daniel Johnson Toni Morrison, arguably the most influential living Black writer and some would say the most influential writer regardless of race, has crafted a body of work that is simultaneously grounded in a Black feminist/womanist politic, unquestionably Black, and commercially successful. In America, those things usually do not come all in the same […]