Originally posted on Chicago Review of Books:
Kalisha Buckhanon doesn’t have a smart phone. Her first advice to new writers is to get rid of it. She writes on an old desktop computer without internet for the same reason she likes being a writer in Chicago — it allows her to get work done. And…
Gholar’s display of glorious art and life-giving paintings, completed across five years, come with grown woman commentary about what it took to see each piece through. In wisdom, she snakes the darkest corners of life- grief, breakups, economic peril- in a chronology of change and chaos where blank canvas was the steadiest hold. … More Tiffany Gholar Tells the Truth
Develyn Biagas: a longtime educator and youth advocate now working on her PhD, with a specialty focus area of African-American girls and the school to prison pipeline. She also works in young adult literature and plans to publish her first Young Adult novel soon. I am happy girls she works with now have someone like her to look up to. … More Happy to share a Woman of Power, Develyn Biagas
Emmett, Trayvon, Markeis, Kalief, Oscar, Tamir, Aiyana, Stephon, Botham, Sandra, Amadou, Eleanor, Terence, Philando, Alton, Walter, Sharmel, Miriam, Tony, Jordan, Rumain, Rekia, Laquan, Eric, Michael… … More “You are not gonna silence me.” -Senator Stephanie Flowers on racist Stand Your Ground “rights”
The ultimate power of evil is diversion, devouring, annihilation and blacking out of what is good. This is all our faults, not Kelly’s. How many more men are out here for us to listen to, most of them much better vocalists than Kelly, and more romantic lyricists as well? … More No Excuses: 20 Black Male Soul Singers to Stream Besides R. Kelly
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. … More Lauryn Can Rest On Her Laurels.
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. … More At the Movies, Mammies Make Way for Mourners
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… … More Negress Allure (in honor of sisters at the 2017 MET Gala…)
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. … More A Powerful 2017 For Us All…
This woman is the strongest example of power and sacrifice to higher purposes I have ever known up close and personal. She shows us life lived to maximum potential, and inspires us all to the same. … More My tribute to my Grandma Vanilla at her homegoing…
