14 Search results for "rites of passage"

I’d like to momentarily interrupt my stellar rants about election season (/sarcasm) to briefly address white folks. I understand that this is not my typical style nor is this a venue where I might expect to attract white folks who need to read the forthcoming message, but hey, election fatigue is election fatigue. Halloween is […]

I’ve spent the last week treading in the liquid of a queer-flavored ambivalence, trying to determine why the Anderson Cooper and Frank Ocean coming out announcements mean less to me than other people. I have seen enough episodes of Coming Out Stories and foolishly subjected myself and my partner to the awkward anti-climax of telling my father […]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNI58Qc8pRY 14 year old black boy says: “I want to be one of the big black boys.”  14 year old black boy says: “So, I killed my black mother with a twelve gauge shot gun.” Since when does killing your black mother make you a big boy? I know this is the Black Youth Project […]

So, I am discovering how utterly depressing Facebook can be. Yes, I did not stutter. Facebook, touted as the pen-ultimate medium for awkward wall flowers to gain social inclusion and social integration, is depressing. Not depressing in the most clinical sense of depressing, but more depressing in the vein of, “Damn, all my friends (I […]

A Documentary project in New Orleans, LA by Park Triangle Productions | Film website About the film Close Ties: Tying on a New Tradition provides an intimate look at a rites of passage ceremony that connects teenage boys with male role models. The “Tie Tying ceremony” held at New Orleans barbershop, “Mr. Chill’s First Class Cuts”, was created by Dr. […]

Some students dive into politics Prega Govender, Times Live, May 15, 2011 Forum inspires black youth Don Lajoie, The Windsor Star, May 14, 2011 Black youth have less trouble if mentored Staff Writer, UPI, May 14, 2011 Spelman hosts historic summit on black LGBT students Anare V. Holmes, GA Voice, May 13, 2011 Racial quotas […]

Memorial service remembers accomplished youth Sneh Duggal, Ottawa Citizen, December 12, 2010 Should Oxbridge discriminate to boost the numbers of black students? Sarfraz Manzoor, The Oberver, December 12, 2010 Horse therapy aimed at troubled kids Harold Carmichael, The Sudbury Star, December 12, 2010 Youth show their volunteer spirit in cemetery clean up Angela Brown, Central […]

Content Warning: Descriptions of medical violence against folks who are intersex and/or have been diagnosed with PCOS by Gillian Giles When I was 12, the anticipation and excitement of preparing to experience my first period was all consuming. Cultural messaging taught me that the event would be a gender defining moment. I hoped starting my […]

by Andrew Keahey When I was young, I would intentionally avoid black and white television, except for The Twilight Zone. The show just hit all the right notes for me, even in my childhood. The wildly fantastic tales hosted by the slick man with the cigarette was part of the reason I got into writing […]

Nearly 90 years after it was first written, Zora Neale Hurston’s series of interviews with one of the last Africans brought to America from the Atlantic slave trade has arrived in bookstores across the country. Barracoon is introduced rather fittingly by Alice Walker, the woman whom we can thank for a revitalized interest and scholarship […]

By Zoé Samudzi Chances are, our engagement with “vaccine skeptics” has been limited to white anti-vaxxers. They often cite scientific empirics claiming causal relationships between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) sequences and autism diagnosis, even using the now retracted study published by British physician Andrew Wakefield in 1998 as a basis for their argument. Wakefield’s results weren’t […]

Afternoon News Round-UP September 14, 2011 Toure’s latest book “Who’s Afraid Of Post-Blackness?” is starting a helluva lot of controversy, and I can’t wait to read it. The first chapter is called “The Most Racist Thing That Ever Happened To Me,” and it’s available at TheAltantic.com right now. Do yourself a favor and check it […]