Just an annual reminder to support Black people and communities while participating in The Capitalism this holiday season. Here is a list to get you started. These make great gifts! You can also make a donation in someone’s name at nonprofits listed here. Kitchen The Power Plate (spice blends, cookbooks, and private dining services) Brass… Continue reading The BLKest Friday 2019
I woke up Tuesday, 5 November 2019 knowing that Heed the Hollow, the collection of poems I worked tireless on for a few years that turned into the book I anxiously anticipated for a little over a year, was finally in the world. It was a great feeling. Taking into account the Poets & Writers… Continue reading On “Heed the Hollow,” Election Day, and June Jordan
A month into my life in New York City, Google wanted to tell me how many miles I had walked in the last four weeks. Because I depended on GoogleMaps so much to get around, I was definitely interested in that calculation. But as the months passed and I learned my way enough without exclusive… Continue reading The New York Moment
“Viewers walk away with recognition of how difficult it is, in the South and elsewhere, to live amidst the historical memories that some recognize as violent and others experience as nostalgia. It’s safe to say that this is history’s charge — to make us critical of the past as much as we are reflective of it.… Continue reading Photographer Keris Salmon conjures the voices of slavery’s past at Arnika Dawkins
“In a carefully curated sequence of woodcuts and screenprints, Barber attempts to break open those “hegemonic modes of seeing” that bell hooks describes by heeding the dissonance between race and color, between looking at and being seen.” -from my ArtsATL review of Jamaal Barber’s first solo show, Bright Black
“Confederate monuments are never about forgetting or correcting a violent past; they are about upholding a culture that is toxic and dominant.” –from “Allowing Racist Symbols to Remain Standing Shows What We Are Unwilling to Change in Society,” an op-ed of mine published this week on Truthout.
I know, I’m late. But just like “the man upstairs,” I’m right on time! It’s easy to forget that money has power, especially when you have little to none of either. It’s even more so easy to forget that we can use our money to support causes in other ways than financial donations, though we… Continue reading Buying Black Holiday Gift Guide 2017
My own personal history with HIV is at the front of my mind when I think about Michael L. Johnson. Johnson, who is born the year after me in 1991. Johnson, the Lindenwood University student and star athlete. Johnson, who was arrested before graduation and charged with one count of “recklessly infecting another with HIV”… Continue reading Between Michael L. Johnson and the Dark Street Corner
“I’m tired.” I say this to myself as I collapse into bed after a day of dissertation writing and plotting plays. Weaving through Atlanta traffic and applying to jobs. Interviewing and receiving rejection letters from poetry journals. Talking to my family on the phone and trying to devise a plan. I say this a lot… Continue reading Mountains and Molehills
