Ms. Hill complicated the Negress image in all the right directions and ways, and she made it clear the auras of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone were more stubborn than stereotypes, and she made it known paying audiences were waiting for more like them. Continue reading
This Black woman onscreen had to buy her freedom to agency and complexity for a high price. That price was her child’s life. Such is depicted in a spate of films now depending upon a Black woman losing a child violently with no one held accountable. Continue reading
Beah Richards and Bette Davis illuminate the essential if fraught alliance between Black women who serviced White men and White women who benefited from it all in the obscure 80’s HBO movie “As Summers Die.” Continue reading
A 16-year old woman of color received what female slaves may have if they refused their master’s sexual advances: death sentences at worst, and more tortured lives at best. Continue reading
No matter what I have learned from her brother Bill Genovese’s heart-wrenching push for the truth, I still can not extinguish the feeling of seeing myself in Kitty Genovese: young, happy, independent, innocent, moving toward the future, and fated to be a woman living alone in American big cities. Continue reading
When Weems received a 2013 MacArthur Genius Grant and a solo exhibit of her work opened at the Guggenheim in New York City in 2014, she was in her sixties. She has not had an orthodox career. Continue reading
Morrison has proved to be the most thorough documentarian of African-American female existence in all its forms: in the womb, baby, child, girl, woman, senior, from the afterlife. The mantra of “God bless the child…” is actually her most consistent answer to black women. Enjoy Holiday’s original version, as well as a neat cover by Boy George and Micah Paris. Continue reading
February 5, 2018, would have been Trayvon Martin’s 23rd birthday. Continue reading
Enough people have already donated to almost make Black Documents happen and keep Mosaic magazine thriving. Please donate to the fund or subscribe to Mosaic today. Continue reading
A Cosmopolitan online piece pointed out how women of color were best-dressed at the 2017 MET Gala. This got me to thinking about how long Black women have been unsung fashion and beauty changemakers… Continue reading
I’m grateful for all the readers, excitement and events for my third novel, SOLEMN. On the book’s 1st Birthday, I reflect on how it all began… Continue reading
Bolivians of African descent introduced Jensen to Saya music, an old artform which was a universal language in the Spanish-speaking land of their political and labor oppressors. Jensen’s film documents Saya music of today. Continue reading
Are whole Black families’ and intelligent Black women’s stories ever going to be good enough? Continue reading
We can all magnify our voices this year, to make some serious contributions and change some lives. I hope you take your ideas and visions- a new business, more love in your relationships, superior health, more education- to new heights. Continue reading
I hope, as this summer played out and I was blessed with many beautiful experiences from SOLEMN, my elders were looking down smiling and watching and knowing how much I appreciated their influence in my life, to bring me the opportunities they dreamed their hard work and sacrifices would yield for others. Continue reading
