In the 1930s, the federal government sent (mostly white) interviewers to learn about slavery from former slaves. Can we trust the stories they brought back?
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Pillars of Black Media, Once Vibrant, Now Fighting for Survival
For the black community in Chicago and elsewhere, Johnson Publishing Company represented a certain kind of hope.
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Art That Lifts The Lid on Today’s Black America
Artist Sanford Biggers goes head-to-head on issues like Black Lives Matter, race visibility, and history with poet and friend Saul Williams.
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Field Niggas review – Hallucinatory Portrait of New York Street Life
Both gorgeous and achingly sad, this nocturnal creep into African American disenfranchisement refuses to judge its subjects, many addicted to cannabinoid K2.
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Simone Leigh’s The Waiting Room: Art That Tries to Heal Black Women’s Pain
The artist’s new exhibition pays tribute to Esmin Elizabeth Green, who died on the floor of a New York City hospital, by presenting an alternative vision of the US healthcare system
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Walter Fauntroy Vows to Return from UAE to Face Legal, Financial Troubles
Walter E. Fauntroy, the former District delegate to Congress and civil rights legend who left Washington in 2012 for the Persian Gulf — leaving his aging wife in debt and eluding a criminal charge in Maryland — vowed in his first interview in four years that he is coming home next week.
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Why Summer Matters More for Black Kids
Being black in the summer (or anytime, really) is not easy. The challenge black families face is navigating an educational context that requires excelling in mainstream school settings, while buffering against the very same education systems that deny one’s humanity.
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‘Mississippi Burning’ Civil Rights Case Closed After 52 Years
Attorney general says investigation into killings of three civil rights workers is over and no more prosecutions are expected.
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A Sculptor of Black Heroes Leaves a Legacy
Because the artist Inge Hardison created towering statues and small busts of schoolchildren, families and heroes like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she was often described as the lady who builds giants.
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Deconstructing African American Identity into Axioms, Photos, and Colors
Two things are true: Martine Syms likes both purple and words. As with her website and her publishing imprint Dominica, Syms’ exhibition Fact &Trouble at the Institute of Contemporary Arts is awash in the color purple: Royal purple C-stands, royal purple television monitors, and royal purple exhibition text.
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