The Story of Salvador’s Banda Didá By Tari Ngangura Feature In a country with violent history and violent politics, Brazil’s first all-female, Afro-Brazilian percussion group drums and dances and changes lives.
Leaning In with Alex P. Keaton By Nicole Cyrus Feature Born with serious CEO aspirations, Nicole Cyrus found her role model in a white kid from an ’80s sitcom.
“We’re All Still Cooking…Still Raw at the Core”: An Interview with Jacqueline Woodson By Adam Morgan Feature “When I look at that dress and how much intention went into the making of it…it’s like we want to have something that can’t be destroyed, because so much of the past has been destroyed…”
A Minor Figure By Longreads Feature While searching for photographs that depict black young women and girls living free in the second and third generations born after slavery, Saidiya Hartman finds a disturbing image.
If Following McMillan Cottom and Gay on Twitter Isn’t Enough, Here You Go By Michelle Weber Highlight More of this sort of thing, thanks.
Faith and Reproductive Justice Are Not in Opposition By Danielle Jackson Feature Black women face outsized threats if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
At Risk, at Home and Abroad By Joy Notoma Feature As Joy Notoma grapples with uterine fibroids, harmful biases in the medical establishment, and a move from Brooklyn to West Africa she wonders where, as a black woman, she can find safety.
Celebrating a Profound Literary Inheritance: Glory Edim on the Well-Read Black Girl Anthology By Joshunda Sanders Feature Glory Edim talks about editing her new anthology, the push for equity in publishing, and how black women writers have written themselves into spaces that neglect or ignore them.
The Resplendent Photography of Carrie Mae Weems By Danielle Jackson Highlight Carrie Mae Weems may be our best contemporary photographer.
Theater of Forgiveness By Hafizah Geter Feature Hafizah Geter contemplates the personal and cultural legacy of violence against Black bodies.
Lyrical Ladies, Writing Women, and the Legend of Lauryn Hill By Michael Gonzales Feature Joan Morgan’s “She Begat This” looks back at how Lauryn Hill crashed through hip-hop’s glass ceiling, while our critic looks at how the author and a cadre of black women writers did the same for hip-hop music journalism.
Muscle Memory: A Case History By Mariam I. Williams Feature While healing from a back injury, Mariam I. Williams learns to let go of the ways she has been taught to mistrust her body.
The Power in Knowing: Black Women, HIV, and the Realities of Safe Sex By Minda Honey Feature An invitation to appear in a PSA prompts Minda Honey to reflect on the responsibilities of safe sex, and her imperfect past.
A Woman’s Search for Salvation, Love, and Family By Danielle Jackson Highlight A woman searches for love and belonging inside and outside of the Christian church.
A House of Refuge Marred by Violence By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The house at 808 East Lewis Street has helped the upwardly mobile reach for their dreams. It’s also seen great violence.
My Secondhand Lonely By Aaron Gilbreath Feature Raised by a single, independent mother, one young woman struggles with her familial inheritance and the relationship between self-sufficiency and social isolation.
