By Deria Matthews “The university was not created to save my life. The university is not about the preservation of a bright brown body. The university will use me alive and use me dead. The university does not intend to love me. The university does not know how to love me. The university in fact, […]
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. By […]
This essay contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse I’ve been thinking a lot about Black children, more so than usual. About how we can best love and support them as adults in their lives. I don’t know if it’s because of the media I’ve been consuming, the conversations I’ve been having, the news I’ve […]
By Teju Adisa-Farrar Growing up in West Oakland, having asthma did not seem abnormal to me. My brother often had asthma attacks and my parents would have to rush him to the emergency room. I was taken to the hospital several times to do breathing treatments using a nebulizer. When playing sports at Lowell Park […]
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 […]
By Habiba Katsha Race and racism aren’t topics that are spoken about openly enough in the U.K., and when they are mentioned it’s usually just to compare it to racism in the States. White British people look at the U.S as the epitome of a racist country, especially with Donald Trump as president. They are […]
by Maximillian Matthews After arriving on the campus of Elon University in the fall of 2005, I instantly sought out the Black community in an effort to not feel isolated and misunderstood. I knew I would need Black folks in order to thrive at predominantly white institution. My need for kinship led me to Alpha […]
by Tiffany Hobbs I hope Jesus doesn’t look like the white man on the wall. That flowy-locked iteration of the Messiah they wanted Black people to believe in would find his alabaster skin colored with surprise as Ms. Aretha Franklin entered the gates and demanded payment—her heavenly reward—upfront. Her blessings must be plentiful, as she […]
When Beyoncé’s Lemonade dropped in 2016, I became the target of ire from many of her fans. The album, its imagery, and subject matter did not move me in the way that it moved most of them, and my apathy towards it and critiques of the artist have always been easily dismissed as hateration. But […]
In Brownsville, Texas, an old Walmart sits along the Mexican border. Today, it has been transformed into a safe haven, a lively city, and a home called “Casa Padre” for over 1,400 immigrant children.
A number of Black girls and women have gone missing in Chicago. Families are pleading for answers to the disappearances and a local activist community is taking note.
Across America there are more than 220 land trusts, varying in size and location but mostly tending to exist close to the coasts. In a trust, a community-controlled nonprofit owns land makes rules for how buildings on that land should serve the community, which are largely aimed at undoing centuries of oppression and dispossession. However, there […]
