Reclaiming Narratives With African Science-Fiction Film
Is it worse to be invisible or to suffer misrepresentation? Generally those have been the only options available to people of color — especially those in the African diaspora. Characters were either...
View ArticleHow I Learned to Stop Worrying and Get in Formation
If there is a Church of Beyoncé, then I am a late convert, a Christmas-Easter heathen who found an altar call a night after a club visit that ran too late. I’m the cat making change out of the...
View ArticleWhat We Bring to Light: A Conversation with John Legend
John Legend has ten Grammy awards. This may be the least interesting thing about him. After all, plenty of remarkably talented musicians also choose silence— especially in times like this one, where...
View ArticleAfro Brasil
A year ago, I decided to quit a Portuguese language course at the University of São Paulo, because I felt that the professors failed to represent the Afro-Brazilian and indigenous culture in their so...
View ArticleA Love That Takes Off Masks: On Assumptions, Intentions and Lemonade
In the wake of Beyoncé’s audiovisual masterpiece Lemonade, critics have decided they can see straight past the work and into the mind of Beyoncé herself, and they have determined that she did it all...
View ArticleLife After Losing Jordan: When 3 1/2 Minutes Becomes Forever
“You were supposed to protect him.” Barely five minutes into the HBO documentary 3 ½ Minutes, 10 Bullets, director Marc Silver depicts Jordan Davis’s parents, Lucia McBath and Ron Davis, having a...
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Creating to Create Joy: A Seven Scribes Interview with Jamila Woods
To many, Jamila Woods is perhaps best known as the soulful voice that has accompanied Chance the Rapper and The Social Experiment on songs like “Sunday Candy” and “Blessings,” but this week saw the...
View ArticleEA Big: Shifting Sports Gaming Paradigms
Grunting men and sneaker squeaks rush through my surround speakers, enveloping the room with sound and cradling me in its center. My fingers move in rhythm, perfectly in tune from years of repetition...
View ArticleMusic as My Ministry
I miss going to church. As I write this, it’s been months since I’ve entered a sanctuary. As someone who was raised, empowered by, and coddled within the Black church, with two preachers for parents...
View ArticleThe Last Soul Man Standing
Ray. Otis. Sam. Al. Bill. Bobby. James. Curtis. Stevie. Donny. Marvin. Mere mention of this lineage of soul men instantly evokes the emotion, pain, joy, and raw authenticity of the many classic songs...
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