342 Search results for "performance center"

by JeCorey Holder Clearly, you straight people are watching far too much of the played-up drama in all these episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race, because I’ve noticed that you’ve gotten HELLA comfortable with casually pitting queer folks against each other. Listen. I really need some of y’all to understand that when there’s more than one […]

I have always wanted to be strong. Not strong as in a Strong Black Woman™—an expectation of impossible emotional and spiritual fortitude against a world imbued with misogynoir. Strong as in twenty three-time Grand Slam Champion Serena Williams. Powerful as in Olympic Shot Putter and gold medalist Michelle Carter. Formidable as in the Dora Milaje […]

by Tonya McKenzie This essay contains discussions and descriptions of sexual violence, child abuse, and murder There are some things that you never forget, like the sound of a car screeching down the street and slamming into one of your neighbors or the bombastic sound of a gunshot and the sight of the damage that […]

by Kathleen Anaza Drawing in viewers with juicy telenovela-style drama, star-studded casts and curated soundtracks, MTV Shuga has become a favorite among the scandalous and socially-conscious television viewer on the African continent. Over five seasons, Shuga has operated as three self-contained miniseries, each set in a unique country and with a distinct cast. The stories […]

by Victoria Collins Though she was absent of critical acclaim in the very beginning, Janelle Monáe set in motion the narrative of a dystopian reality that would serve as the backdrop for a decade-long narrative of freedom, love, and acceptance with her 2003 self-released album, The Audition. In 2007, she followed her debut album with […]

Editor’s Note: April is Black Women’s History Month. Throughout this month, Black Youth Project is celebrating Black women. This month is also National Minority Health Month, Autism Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month. We are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. By Tynesha McCullers […]

Beyoncé just gave everyone, especially Black women, more to buzz about. This year, Coachella, the celebrated, historically white music and arts festival of nearly 20 years, became dubbed “Beychella” as the artistic phenom, businesswoman and humanitarian brought continental African and African American culture, and some comedic relief, to the stage. And while attendees undoubtedly were […]

By Arielle Iniko Newton Last weekend, my six roommates and I were interviewing potential roommates to fill an unoccupied room in the social justice-oriented home we share. One of the prospects was a white, cisgender, heterosexual man. Upon interviewing him we quickly learned that he did not possess a commitment to dismantling whiteness that we […]

by Andrew Keahey Awards season is never much of a shining time for creatives of color. It’s consistently a celebration of white achievement while Black excellence and other visionaries of color are routinely ignored in favor of the same tropes and story telling devices that we’re used to seeing year after year. These tropes become […]

Gwendolyn Brooks is a name synonymous with Chicago, so it is only fitting that three of the city’s brightest literary stars worked together to create a play that bottles up some of her brilliance and exposes a new generation to her timeless wonders. Eve Ewing, Nate Marshall, and Jamila Woods spearhead the production, with Ewing […]

by Tabias Olajuawon This essay contains discussion of racialized sexual violence and anti-Black fetishism “You are not to touch other flesh without a police permit. The State wants to seize your bed And sleep with you… The message is clear: your penis.. your anus, your orgasm, these belong to the state. The erogenous zones are […]

By Ashley Nkadi Do you remember Abigail Fisher? If you are drawing a blank, allow me to refresh your memory:  Abigail Fisher is the white woman whose college rejection was heard around the world, mainly because she basically grabbed the world’s biggest megaphone and wailed into it like a toddler. When Fisher was denied entry […]