15 Search results for "harlem renaissance"

As one looks more into the politics of respectability—a discourse that displays how many members of the black middle class strive to silence what they deem to be the moral inadequacies of those most marginalized—we are able to identify historical instances that were stifled in their time period and still today. We must reclaim the […]

It’s not everyday that mainstream publications constructively critique where they went wrong in the past, but recently two high-readership organizations shared their focus on more sensitive coverage moving forward. Both National Geographic and the New York Times admitted recently that their staffs produced coverage that often affirmed and celebrated the lived experiences of powerful white men at […]

Kenan Weaver and Darren Williams are set to premiere their new cartoon, Little Red, which follows a pre-Nation of Islam Malcolm Little (Malcolm X) and John Sanford (Redd Foxx) backed by Emmy-winning Titmouse Productions. The title is a nod to the pair’s names during that period of their lives as Little went by Detroit Red […]

If you’re a book lover, a literature lover, or a writer of any sort who needs recommendations on what to read, you’re in luck because NPR has released a “best of” list of over three hundred books in several different genres. I have gone through the trouble of looking through the list for work by […]

By: Imani J. Jackson Asking people how they self-identify is more instructive than presumptively assigning them labels. So I asked Jahaan Sweet, during a recent hour-long, sit-down interview in an artsy enclave, who he is. “I consider myself a music maker.” He added that he is a burgeoning businessman, “I just like to create shit.” […]

Recently American Girl announced their newest doll Melody—a Black girl from Detroit who fights for civil rights and is an aspiring Motown singer. This is the American Girl doll that we have been waiting for, but why did it take so long?

By Mwende Katwiwa “I am a Black poet who will not stay silent while this nation murders Black people. I have a right to be angry” Poet and political activist Amiri Baraka once said, “the Black artist’s role is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it”. In a recent piece penned for The […]

Dear White people, I am sooooo tired of this little cycle we keep playing at in America. As we all know the grand jury decided to not indict Darren Wilson and a collective sigh filled with anger and frustration was exhaled by almost an entire populace living in the United States. In the days preceding […]

  Today’s Google Doogle honors the birthday of one the most intriguing black women of the 20th century, Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston, who was born on this day in 1891, was a writer and anthropologist who did incredibly important work in the American South and throughout the Caribbean. Her work has become a staple in […]

Why is black history celebrated during the month of February? Because it’s the shortest month of the year. This joke has circulated in black communities for several years, and the cynicism embedded in it is telling. It points to a web of frustration, resignation and resentment which rarely fails to ensnare the observant black.

Emerging during the Harlem Rennaisance, Langston Hughes is one of the most important poetic voices of the 20th century. Honor his legacy today by checking out a few of his classic poems below, read by the man himself. “I, Too,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and more! What is your favorite Hughes poem?

Visceral, in your face, in your ears, in your snapping fingers, and tapping feet, spoken word poetry sprang loosely from the expressive energies of the blues, the Harlem Renaissance, and hip-hop music which had each permeated black communities throughout America over the course of the century. Mimicking the 1960s beat poets of coffee houses and […]