88 Search results for "black literature"

‘Sex Crimes Against Black Girls’ Exhibit Uses Art to Confront Incest Akiba Solomon, Colorlines | February 21, 2011 Last week, I checked out “Sex Crimes Against Black Girls,” a multimedia art exhibit that tackles many forms of sexual abuse black girls endure in the African Diaspora. The work, which will be at Bed-Stuy’s Restoration Plazauntil April […]

I was blessed last week to hear one of our most profound scholars Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu. His lecture was an alarm bell sounding the state of emergency in our communities especially economically. One of the incredible stats he presented was that the black community combined made $836 billion dollars last year, but we spent only […]

Instead of letting all of my righteous indignation flood the internet, I email back and forth with a couple of homies about stuff we see here. We sometimes conclude that it must be our brains that our screwed up, because clearly everyone else seems okay with all of this mess. A recent string of conversations […]

A few years ago, when I was still taking graduate school course work, I got into a “disagreement” with a colleague about race and class. We had just left our course on mid-20th century black literature, and were hanging out in the department lounge for some strange reason–something I’d never do now. I think we […]

This essay contains discussion of sexual violence, gendered violence, and mention of r/pe   by Sabelo Mtsweni “khanda elixegaxegayo liyofulela abafazi; indoda iyindoda ngokuba umthetho wayo uhlonishwe ekhaya” Loosely translated, this isiZulu idiom means that a man’s authority in a household forms his very essence as a man. Before I read it in Laurence Mabuya’s […]

This essay contains spoilers for season two of Pose, as well as discussion of transmisogyny. by Avery Ware “On the heels of Pose, so many more folks are aware of ballroom culture and vogue is in vogue again,” says creator, director, and executive producer Steven Canals of FX’s hit series Pose – a drama that […]

by Avery Ware I sat up in his bed and glared at him through squinted eyes, “What do you mean you only sleep with Black guys? Are you a fetish queen?” Boldly he responded, “Yeah, I probably am.”  I’ll spare you the curse words that followed that statement. I was more angry with myself than […]

by JeCorey Holder

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 […]

By Kim M Reynolds “So, you’re coloured?” I get asked this question on fairly regular basis in Cape Town, and it’s no longer a jarring one.

by Loni Amor This essay contains discussions of suicidal ideation. Inspired by First Fruit festivals of Southern Africa, African-American civil rights activist and academic, the extremely problematic  Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga established Kwanzaa in 1966. Deriving from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza”, which translates loosely to “first fruits of the harvest”, Kwanzaa offers Black […]

Not enough people know about Bois Caïman. I only learned of it myself within the last few years. Even among those of us who are familiar with the 18th century slave rebellion that led Haiti (once called Saint-Domingue) to its independence from French colonial rule, some do not know that this insurrection began with a […]