539 Search results for "sister"

by Amanda F. John  This essay contains discussions of alcoholism and self-harm  Anyone with access to an amazon prime account has likely come across what I like to call the golden scam. What is this fortuitous product you ask? Well, it’s a watch, ironically, it is often made with silver sterling—essentially putting an end to […]

by Maya Williams  This essay mentions r/pe.  One day, in the fifth grade, I was playing outside and fell on my crotch. I ran inside crying to my mom, “I hurt my…my…” gesturing to my pelvic area, “bad part.” The one thing I can appreciate from my mother was how she immediately responded, “No, your […]

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and as usual it’s got me reflecting on how utterly diabolical consumerist culture is, how it influences and perpetuates our constant need to measure who is most worthy of love, affection and gifts. And why we think it is our business to begin with. It also has me deeply bitter about […]

Contrary to their portrayal in the media, Black Muslim women (also referred to as Muslimas), are powerful and active change agents in our communities. They are fierce advocates who regularly contribute their time, energy and service towards a more equitable world.  New Jersey Muslimas, in particular, have a unique experience that rests at the intersection […]

by Cosima Smith Mobility is the ability to move, both physically over land (and territorial lines) and metaphorically through social and political classes and rankings. But mobility is also so much more than that: it is the chance to explore and live and interact across dividing lines, it in itself can be a lifeline when […]

by Daniel M. Johnson Lesson 1: Origins 1964-65 was a volatile time for Betty Shabazz. The conclusion of the winter saw her gazing at her husband’s corpse, riddled with bullets, leaving her to care for her four, soon to be six, daughters. Just into her 30s, she moved to Mount Vernon, NY to continue her […]

I always think of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) whenever someone pretends to be a Black woman or disingenuously evokes our aesthetics. While there are many who outright pretend to be Black women, there are also those convinced that they can somehow actually become Black women and others who simply benefit from appropriating our […]

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: This month at BYP, we will be exploring the US Midterms & Family/Parenting issues, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics. How has our political system been working for and against us? What dynamics are different today? How should we prepare for midterm elections vs presidential ones, and local […]

By Cosima Smith Audre Lorde is my personal heroine. I met her writing for the first time in my first year of university, and it has been a companion helping me work through my own internalized issues with my Blackness, my queerness, and my poorness ever since. Lorde was the first reflection of myself I […]

This essay contains spoilers for Set It Off, and discusses sexual exploitation and state violence   “Women respond to racism. My response to racism is anger. I have lived with that anger, ignoring it, feeding upon it, learning to use it before it laid my visions to waste, for most of my life. Once I […]

by Andrew Keahey  Netflix recently released the trailer for Raising Dion, an upcoming original series produced by Michael B. Jordan about a single Black mother raising her super-powered son as the government attempts to take him and use his abilities for their own nefarious purposes—or as we know it, “standard government stuff.” Based on the […]