black academia
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Scholar, Mentor, Pioneer: Remembering Professor Cheryl A. Wall
“What does it mean for a black woman to work in the U.S. academy today?” This is the question longtime Rutgers University professor and author Cheryl A. Wall posed while introducing a panel of black female academics in 2009. It was a question central to Wall’s career and life’s work, as she strove to make…
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The Bitter, the Sweet, and the Book: Beyoncé’s Seminal Work Enters the Literary Canon With The Lemonade Reader
In the three years since Beyoncé seamlessly merged black feminism and pop culture with the release of Lemonade, much has been said—and written—about the impact of her semi-autobiographical visual album, which traced a direct lineage from ancient African religion and folklore to Gullah culture to New Orleans’ “bounce” and the black female backbones of movements…
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Calling Professional Black Girls Everywhere! Ready for a Road Trip?
“Professional Black Girl is, like, my favorite thing that I didn’t plan to do.” Dr. Yaba Blay is talking about her self-produced sleeper-hit video series, Professional Black Girl, which quietly rocked our worlds when it debuted in fall 2016. The 14-episode first season was an exploration of what Blay calls “black-girl culture”—in all its regular,…