119 Search results for "brilliant"

Black, Southern, and Queer
By: Alana Brown-Davis I’ve been a daughter of the South all of my life. I was born in Alabama and raised in southwest Mississippi. Being Black and Southern meant that I grew up as Christian. Our family typically attended Methodist gatherings but in an effort to get into heaven, we went wherever. The COGIC church […]
Why Poetry? Ten Poets and Poems To Read As We Close Out Black History Month.
by Jari Bradley During the peak of the pandemic in 2020, there were numerous online poetry readings being held for the public to attend. I was just finishing my Master of Fine Arts program after three years on the East Coast, and with all the calamity that the world felt comprised of at that time, […]
The trans child in me still needs to feel wanted
by Jamila Dawn Mitchell I’m writing this because I need to feel wanted. That’s it. It may sound selfish to most. To a psychologist, though, this makes sense. Most things we do are done in spite of our desire to want to be loved. The sense of belonging is the essence of our humanity and […]
The white writer’s misimagination of Black characters in science fiction
by Inigo Laguda This essay contains spoilers for Another Life (2019) and Annihilation (2018) For a writer, I read astonishingly little. I chalk my aversion up to over-inundating myself with books as a boy and filling all my curious voids with grand words and fantastical tales. It’s almost like I nauseatingly engorged myself on literature […]
6 Mental Health Awareness podcasts and shows for Black women
by Ajeé Buggam If 2020 didn’t teach us anything, it taught us the importance of our mental health and how fragile it truly is if we don’t tend to it. Oftentimes in Black homes, checking in regarding each other’s mental health is not a common conversation we inquire about. The unfortunate truth is Black people […]
The endless appropriation of MLK and white supremacy’s need to rewrite historical narratives
Barely a month has passed since I wrote about appropriation and the vampiric nature of whiteness, specifically as it pertains to Black art and aesthetic. My focus was white artists and their simultaneous disavowal and infiltration of rap and hip-hop, and my purpose was to illustrate the pattern of how white society appropriates Black art […]
Millennials aren’t skipping church, the Black Church is skipping us
Washington Post columnist, Christine Emba, published a piece on Oct. 27, titled Why millenials are skipping church and not going back. Emba declared millennials were interested in gaming, ambitiously building their careers, or just too busy to make time to attend service. While Emba isn’t necessarily wrong in her assessment, I couldn’t help but notice […]
The presumption of attractiveness will always perpetuate violence
I hate the word privilege. Or maybe I just hate how it’s used. Niggas like to talk about privilege as if it gives a person the abilities of Domino from Deadpool 2. Y’all seen it? Zazie Beetz runs around kicking ass, and her power is that everything that can possibly turn out in her favor […]
Moving to South Africa meant my race was different, but not the realities of racism
By Kim M Reynolds “So, you’re coloured?” I get asked this question on fairly regular basis in Cape Town, and it’s no longer a jarring one.
How Ariana Grande uses “Black Cool” in her incremental appropriation game
by Ayika Tshimanga Ariana Grande recently released a music video for her song, “7 Rings”, a repetitive pop-trap&B tune with all the necessary ingredients to bring out your innermost bad bitch. The bouncy trap beat, braggadocious lyrics, and an attempt to ooze the kind of confidence radiating from pop stars like Beyoncé on “Apeshit”, or Rihanna […]
Spike Lee produced Netflix film ‘See You Yesterday’ brings us the Black time travelers we need
by Andrew Keahey What would you do if you could go back in time? If knowing what you know now, you had the power to change the outcome. To rewrite the story, and change it all. What would you do differently? You’d never have to worry about saying the wrong thing. You could play the […]
8 ways to exist in white spaces when setting them on fire isn’t an option
by Briyana D. Clarel This summer, I attended a conference for community-minded artists in New York City. Despite the conference’s commitment to activism, days passed without any Black presenters and the few presenters of color spewed dangerous rhetoric like “We’re all immigrants” and “It’s about class, not race.” Of course, the Black contingent came through, […]