8078 Search results for "black"

by Dr. Ravynn K. Stringfield Social media is currently flooded with messages from people encouraging others online to “get into print media” or “go analog,” while simultaneously bemoaning the loss of politically aware print media that centered marginalized voices—RIP Bitch Media—and a dearth of media that represent our experiences. However, for Black artists, writers and […]

by Juahl Ganaway In a scene ripped from The Sugar Shack, the character Pearline (played by the stunning Jayme Lawson) stalks across the stage purring the lyrics to “Pale, Pale, Moon,” the Brittany Howard-penned song that feels more like an invocation than a performance.  “I wanna sing Like I hear the crickets do I wanna […]

by Tayler Simon In the 2024-2025 school year, more than 4,000 unique titles were banned in the United States. Titles like All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison were among the most challenged books, reflecting a trend of targeting books by Black and/or LGBTQ+ authors. While all […]

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, […]

A rebuilt home for Black feminist, abolitionist storytelling—created to protect community memory, sustain truth-telling, and expand our archive. CHICAGO, IL (February 26, 2026) — Black Youth Project (BYP) announces the relaunch of its digital platform at a moment when Black media is being systematically eroded—from publications closing without warning to the displacement of Black women […]

by Jenn M. Jackson, PhD Almost a decade ago, I said goodbye to my editing position here at Black Youth Project. I was 33 years old, working on the final edits of my dissertation at the University of Chicago titled “Race, Risks, and Responses: Mapping Black American’s Reactions to Policing in the United States.” My […]

Across this series, people gather in fields, warehouses, studio spaces, and public events, carrying with them the practices that sustain everyday life. Children move between arms and laps, conversations continue while hands adjust weight and fabric, and small gestures — a hand on a shoulder, a shared glance, a phrase worn on a shirt — […]

Black Magic is here—the first drop from Black Life Everywhere’s upcoming freedom mixtape. It’s Chicago’s legendary Step Music, carried forward and reborn by the BLE Chicago Music Collective.It’s the sway of our elders, the laughter in basement parties, the slow glide across dance floors that have always been ours. This track is music and memory […]

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 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 […]

By Sarah Oberholtzer This love letter demands a softness and beauty for the Black womxn of Chicago. After an inhumane Chicago Police Department raid of a Black woman’s home, Sarah Oberholtzer created this piece as a salve for the Black womxn in their life, most of whom seemed widely heartbroken & traumatized by the viral […]