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United States vs Billie Holiday Is Rewriting Billie Holiday's Legacy
“Changing our narratives, manipulating our narratives and suppressing our narratives is a huge, integral part of continuing a system of oppression.” —Andra Day, Actor text Jazz singer Billie Holiday was unequivocally a Civil Rights icon, but history doesn’t remember her as such. As the first person to perform “Strange Fruit” on stage, Holiday, a Black…
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Black and Jubilant: Unpacking Black Joy From the Revolutionary to the Ordinary
“I would argue that a lot of oppressed populations turn to expressions of joy and make them more potent because they understand that life is not promised to you. The next day is not a promised.” — André L. Brock, Ph.D. text Black. Joy. We absolutely love to see it—in all of its forms. From…
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28 Days of Black Joy: Experiencing Black Joy Together
Does Black joy exist if there’s no one to share it with? I imagine that one could make the argument that Black joy could be an individual act, pointing to the joy that one feels within self, and that’s real. But through my life experiences—and recent conversations with scholar André Brock and founder of The…
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All Power to the People: Judas and the Black Messiah Cast Discuss the Revolutionary Spirit of Fred Hampton and How White Fear Tried to Destroy It
“White fear has not only been a tremendous impediment in terms of Black liberation, but the irony is that it’s been an impediment in terms of white liberation.” — Shaka King, Director text Why do white people fear Black liberation? This white fear is centuries old. Within the context of the federal government, the FBI…
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Ma Rainey Director George C. Wolfe on the Legacy of Race and Black Artists in the Entertainment Industry
“We’re all caught up trying to figure out how to have our stories told, how to protect those stories, how to be paid [what we feel is that we deserve], how to fight and protect those stories so they don’t get diluted or transformed. —George C. Wolfe, Director text Know your worth. Period. This idea…
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Kinaras Stay Lit: Unpacking the Future of Kwanzaa in the Black Community
“It doesn’t matter if only one person celebrates [Kwanzaa]. It is part of African-American history and in a way that suggests that it’s permanent, it’s never going away.” —Keith A. Mayes, Ph.D. text It’s that time of year again! While we all know that Christmas is the Beyoncé of holidays, among the trifecta of December…
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Know Your Worth: Viola Davis Is Every Black Woman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
“Society’s most definitely failed Black women. Without question…I don’t think that we were thought of. We were seen as chattel. We were seen as just, you know, something that was bought on the auction block…And now we’re living in a culture that just reduces us to strong; to almost masculine in nature. There’s no sense…
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All Black Everything: John Boyega on His Activism and Small Axe Role as a Black Policeman
“It’s not that simple. There are officers in there [the police force] that are Black, that do have good intentions. But this [film, Red, White and Blue] is about them having to navigate a space where their intentions can’t even be actualized because the system won’t even support them” —John Boyega, Actor text Are…
