705 Search results for "memo"

by Miranda Goosby Grief isn’t always sad. Sometimes, grief is a portal. It cracks something open. It clears space. If we allow ourselves to surrender to the breaking, grief can become more than sorrow—it can reveal what’s been buried. It can offer honesty, possibility, and even joy. After the 2024 election, when yet another administration […]

by Christian M. Ivey “What We Carry” is a powerful coming-of-age story that follows Drew, a young Black college student grappling with grief, anxiety, and the long shadow of racial trauma.  Get yo ass up, Drew! My alarm rang, a nasty, raggedy rang, almost soundin’ like it was yellin’ at me. Get yo ass up, […]

By Cai Thomas   Trina Reynolds-Tyler and the Labor of Uncovering There is a kind of story that lives in silence. These are stories deliberately hidden inside systems, obscured by bureaucratic language, mislabeled in public records, or buried deep within data sets that were never meant to be read closely. They do not reveal themselves […]

by Bryson Scott Check out the amazing and imaginative art work of Bryson Scott. Ancestral Backturn We encounter a figure turned away from us—unbothered, unwavering. Clothed in a green kimono with traditional patterns, crowned by a natural halo of hair, and framed by a serene lunar glow, this piece speaks of quiet strength. It’s a […]

by Benji Hart       1. I’m a teenager, attending the annual Kwanzaa celebration at Amherst College, the small private school where my dad is a professor. A modest band of Black students and faculty have gathered for dinner in the Octagon. The plaster building, lemon meringue in both color and texture, was reclaimed […]

By Johnae Strong  A film by Johnaé Strong Some works capture the beauty of Black life.Others hold its tension, its memory, its muscle.This one does all of that—and then breathes into it. Black Things Today, directed by Johnaé Strong, is a cinematic offering rooted in presence, ritual, and return. Told through the lives of three […]

Throughout my work creating collages, and scouring the web for meaningful art, I have found thousands of images of unidentified Black people. These photos of Black women, children, men, and their families, are all with unknown origins. The archives show blank faces that stare at the camera, remaining still because the slightest move will ruin […]

by Donnie Moreland The first time I held a gun, I was afraid. The scenario was all too awkwardly cinematic to not be memorable. It was on a vacation with my mother to my grandparents’ South Carolina home. Sitting in their entertainment room, my grandfather entered with two guns. A magnum revolver and shotgun. He […]

By Teju Adisa-Farrar When God made mountains He made runaway slaves — Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia We were not supposed to survive. in 2018, AfroPunk published an article about Argentina’s genocide of their Black populations. Unsurprisingly, Argentina is not much different from other countries who have tried to erase their Black populations or their impact […]

By Sherronda  J. Brown Seems like every year I learn some new factoid about how plantations operated during the time of chattel slavery of African peoples in the Americas. I inevitably come across another unfortunate piece of knowledge that I wish I never had to know. At the same time, I always understand how it’s […]

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 […]

by Donnie Moreland My grandfather—my mother’s father—participated in the first sit-ins in Greenville, South Carolina. My grandfather is a military veteran. He patrolled the tomb of the unknown soldier, was employed as a manufacturer with the Department of Defense and was a supervisor, in the Pentagon, when Flight 77 made contact with the building at […]