23 Search results for "afro soul"

Reading ‘Black Museum’ and ‘Get Out’ as comparative Afrofuturist zombie slave narratives
This essay contains spoilers for Get Out and Black Mirror S4, E6, “Black Museum” Can we just agree that Get Out is obviously a lost episode of Black Mirror? More specifically, it’s a companion tale to season four’s “Black Museum” (which feels very much like a series finale) that somehow found its way into Jordan […]
What is critique and who gets to do it?
by Dr. Ravynn K. Stringfield I am not sure when we began to construct “the artist” and “the critic” as two distinct entities, but I am concerned about who gets pushed out of being seen as a credible critic when the two are separated. In her lecture “The Individual Artist,” collected in The Source of […]
Inland, a short story
by Vernon Jordan, III She sat in the back of the joint, eyeing him. From over the shoulder of his bass, he noticed her fingers around the rim of a glass, miming the bass notes. He was the player, but so was she. Rooted, was their first glance, she minded him the way trees mind […]
Turpentine, a short story
by Janyce Glasper Hannah Bledsoe loved Linda Crawford. Yet Hannah desperately needed a quiet, isolated place to paint alone. One simply could not crash on a college friend’s couch forever. She found salvation in the good neighborhood— a drafty basement converted into a studio apartment. The tightly jarred windows and cracked ceilings poorly congealed together […]
How I use ancestor veneration to navigate my Mother’s Death
by Hess Love Sometimes I feel like a motherless child… a long way from home- Negro Spiritual Sunday is Mother’s Day. And the grief of losing my mother regularly brings me to my knees. I don’t imagine this day being any different. Sometimes my grief is a distant shore, sometimes the water of it wades […]
Exploring the Black spectator’s relationship to film
by Donnie Moreland Most folk respond to the words, “I have a Master’s degree in film studies” with either, “What can you do with that?” or the more biting, “What’s the point of that?” Funny thing is that for much of my program, I asked the same questions. It’s when films such as Queen and […]
How Dr. Yaba Blay’s ‘Professional Black Girl’ captures the creativity and artistry of Black Girl Culture
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 Josie Pickens […]
10 body affirmations for Black girls when the world tells us we’re too much
By Salaam Green Dear Black Girl, While tutoring an eight year old girl, she looked down at me and stated, “We have the same bodies.” This young girl attends a predominately suburban white school, and as we were doing homework she observed the notable fact that we were shaped alike. The look on her face […]
Janelle Monáe and the road to ‘Dirty Computer’
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 […]
Black Mirror’s “Black Museum”: The slave revolt fantasy Hollywood never intended to make?
Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers of Black Mirror S4, E6, “Black Museum” I do not trust myself when I enjoy a tale of Black people experiencing unbearably violent situations on screen. Perhaps I have read too much of Frank Wilderson’s Afro-pessimist film critique Red, White and Black, but I am never quite sure whether […]
The Problems With Zoe Saldana’s Casting As Nina Simone Are More Than Skin Deep
On Tuesday, we learned that the embattled biopic loosely based on Nina Simone’s life, simply called Nina, will be released on April 22. On Wednesday, the trailer was released. And, while all the sentiments against Zoe Saldana’s blackface (or “mud face”) and fake accent are correct, there’s a bigger reason why Saldana never should have […]
‘The Wiz Live!’ gives us the representation we need
Forty years later, the creative retelling of the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz was revitalized when the The Wiz Live! aired on NBC on December 3rd. While watching, it wasn’t hard to connect with the familiar songs like “Ease on Down the Road” and “Home.” The live musical kept the same soul and excitement that made The Wiz […]