80 Search results for "black elders"

By Imani J. Jackson It is the week of Thanksgiving 2016, the same 2016 many of us would prefer to put in rice, turn on and off for a reboot, or take to a specialist to see if 2017 will emerge and actually be working properly. This year brought losses: of creative genius through Prince, […]

by Michael J. Ivory, Jr. The day I told my Pentecostal preacher parents I didn’t want to attend church with them anymore, I remember feeling a profound freedom. For once, I chose my Black queer body’s peace over witnessing my existence being raked over hellfire coals. No more shallowed breath at the altar. No more […]

by Naiquan. Last summer, a friend and I realized we hadn’t seen children playing in the fire hydrant. No elder on the block with a key to unlock the “Johnny Pump”. As a child of the Brooklyn Spike Lee portrayed in “Crooklyn,” I know first-hand the feelings of protection and support from my neighbor’s grandfather, […]

Directed by Cai Thomas, Change the Name follows Black girls on Chicago’s West Side as they organize to rename a school that still bears the legacy of an enslaver. Through Thomas’s attentive lens, we don’t just see a campaign—we witness strategy, tenderness, and clarity from young people who are shaping the city in their image. […]

By Terrence F. Chappell “What your mom did to you, you’re doing to me. You treat me exactly the same way your mom treated you.” My sister didn’t yell this to our mother. Her tone was much more purposeful and so it demanded much more attention. Her words authored a truth that forced my mom […]

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 […]

Content warning: mentions of slavery, police brutality “The buyers paraded them and made them dance. They opened their clothing to check for wounds; they pinched their limbs and flexed their muscles. They searched earnestly for scars, since scars were said to be evidence of a rebellious nature. When they finished their inspections, they posed questions […]

“That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.” – Octavia E. Butler While on a hike today, I spoke with two folks about how our bodies are shaped by the […]

The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us, and which knows only the oppressors’ tactics, the oppressors’ relationships. -Audre Lorde I check my bank account every day, regardless of whether or not […]

I am the reason Donald Trump was elected. I woke up early the morning of November 8th, 2016, took my sweet ass time in the shower like I always do (a nigga doesn’t like to feel dirty, okay?!), walked to the train, found myself in the churchy spirit so I turned on Chance’s Coloring Book […]

By “DJ Ferguson” If you were to listen to “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin—really listen to the words and let their meaning sink in—it becomes clear after a few verses that despite its name the song is not about immigration. It’s about colonialism. We come from the land of the ice and snow From the […]

Editor’s Note: This essay contains spoilers of season 1 of Haunting of Hill House and discussion of suicide I don’t remember how my parents died in the nightmare, but I woke up screaming bloody murder. I had to have been about 4-years-old. I don’t think I had considered being indefinitely away from my parents before, […]