428 Search results for "u s border"

Stop Cop City: The Social Movement Re-defining Community Safety   In the United States, police kill over 1,000 and injure more than 51,000 people each year, with evidence suggesting that these figures could be underreported by as much as 55%. In addition to these numbers being substantially higher than other developed nations, unfortunately, they are […]

by Miranda Goosby Chicago holds memory like a drum—echoing, constant, never still. This summer, the South Side sang in every register: fireworks cracking through the night sky, children shrieking with joy, organizers building futures block by block. Since Juneteenth, every weekend has felt like a pageant of presence. Brown skin shining like mirrors to the […]

by Bryson Scott Check out the amazing and imaginative art work of Bryson Scott. Ancestral Backturn We encounter a figure turned away from us—unbothered, unwavering. Clothed in a green kimono with traditional patterns, crowned by a natural halo of hair, and framed by a serene lunar glow, this piece speaks of quiet strength. It’s a […]

by Benji Hart       1. I’m a teenager, attending the annual Kwanzaa celebration at Amherst College, the small private school where my dad is a professor. A modest band of Black students and faculty have gathered for dinner in the Octagon. The plaster building, lemon meringue in both color and texture, was reclaimed […]

By Johnae Strong  A film by Johnaé Strong Some works capture the beauty of Black life.Others hold its tension, its memory, its muscle.This one does all of that—and then breathes into it. Black Things Today, directed by Johnaé Strong, is a cinematic offering rooted in presence, ritual, and return. Told through the lives of three […]

By Sarah Oberholtzer This love letter demands a softness and beauty for the Black womxn of Chicago. After an inhumane Chicago Police Department raid of a Black woman’s home, Sarah Oberholtzer created this piece as a salve for the Black womxn in their life, most of whom seemed widely heartbroken & traumatized by the viral […]

By Sarah Oberholtzer “Memory,” a rotoscope animation short, asks how small moments in our lives have lasting impacts that shape our sense of self and how we interact with the world. In the ways that a point in time can reach far beyond itself into the present day, this film catches a glimpse of that […]

By Jenn M. Jackson April 24, 2024 In recent months, Black women’s educational credentials and professional qualifications have been a central topic in the news media following the public attacks on Dr. Claudine Gay, the first Black woman to be President of Harvard University, and the ongoing political debates about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) […]

by Donnie Moreland The first time I held a gun, I was afraid. The scenario was all too awkwardly cinematic to not be memorable. It was on a vacation with my mother to my grandparents’ South Carolina home. Sitting in their entertainment room, my grandfather entered with two guns. A magnum revolver and shotgun. He […]

by Alycia Kamil We Speak Our City Back On Language, Gentrification, and Black Presence in Chicago There are stories that arrive already smoothed out. Made digestible for funders, developers, and media outlets. The kind that trades in progress narratives and polished soundbites. This is not that kind of story. This piece opens differently. The voice […]

by E’mon Lauren   Chicago, a crafty caucus, we cocooned in. a kid’s folded cot and cubby. we the poster childs. the classes, the pastels and pastillage. we be born here. we burn the bridges, the borders. the blues, crossing and cutting, our lines, a Van Gogh. our skyline, a Monet we walk through. we […]

by Asha Ransby-Sporn A full decade ago this summer, I arrived at a retreat center in the Chicago suburbs with about a hundred other Black organizers, and community leaders from around the country brought together by Cathy Cohen’s Black Youth Project. Not long into former President Barack Obama’s second term, the goal of the gathering […]