What Didn’t Kill Her By Bernice L. McFadden Feature Bernice L. McFadden ruminates on all the things her mother has endured only to find herself spending her golden years in the midst of a deadly plague and state-sanctioned racism.
To Love and Protect Each Other — From Bigotry By Jay Deitcher Feature After Jay Deitcher sits silent as his wife is verbally assaulted by his father’s racist friend, he grapples with the ways his family has been muted by trauma.
White Looks By Soraya Roberts Feature Should white critics cover black culture? Only if they’re able to own their whiteness.
The Real Danger on the Promenade By Steffan Triplett Feature After coming out, Steffan Triplett considers rekindling a broken friendship, dancing with danger and mystery in a secluded area on the edge of town.
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me By Kimberly Mack Feature Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
Traveling While Black Across the Atlantic Ocean By Ethelene Whitmire Feature Following in the footsteps of African Americans traveling to Denmark in the early 20th century, Ethelene Whitmire experiences a 21st century transatlantic crossing.
Of Blackness and ‘Beauty’ By Morgan Jerkins Feature At an art exhibit exploring black models through Western art, Morgan Jerkins finds historical evidence of the white supremacist definitions of beauty Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom identifies in ‘Thick: and Other Essays.’
‘It Happened to My Father the Way It Happened’: The Truth About Green Book By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight At Vanity Fair, film critic K. Austin Collins explores the shaky “true story” of Green Book, the film by Peter Farrelly starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali.
Politics as a Defense Against Heartbreak By Minda Honey Feature Minda Honey assesses the deliberate choices and external factors affecting her dating life.
Poor, Gay, Black, and Southern: America’s Hidden H.I.V. Crisis By Krista Stevens Highlight If you have H.I.V in New York or San Francisco, you can life a long, healthy life. Not so if you live in the Southern United States and you’re poor, black, gay and/or bisexual.
The Roots of Cowboy Music: ‘This Is the Music We Made. This Is the Land We Made.’ By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Commentary Oakland writer Carvell Wallace travels to Elko, Nevada, for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and reflects on what it means to be black and American.
