Three Films to Watch Before You See Moonlight
In interviews, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins has talked about films that have influenced him and these three have regularly come up.
Seventy-One Years of Ebony Magazine
It was the mid-nineties and I was ten. I sat under the hairdryer at my great-aunt’s beauty shop. The gossip of old friends, sounds of laughter, the sight of steam … Continued
Highlights from Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad
Normally,I’m not a fan of historical fiction. I can watch a television show that’s centered around a certain time period, but I can’t stand reading it. Weird, I know. The furthest I went with it was reading Dear America and American Girl books as a child. However, I decided to give The Underground Railroad a chance because I read the description and thought it was interesting. Also, this book is one of Oprah’s Book Club picks and I knew it would gain popularity; so I wanted to see what the hype was about.
Throwback Thursday: Street Lit on the Tough Streets of Pittsburgh
Street lit features fast-paced stories; naturalistic depiction of poverty, drug abuse and substandard housing; interpersonal relationships that involve abuse, betrayal and other complications; and themes of surviving the streets and overcoming difficult circumstances. But the stories themselves are just like Shakespeare–only with more cussing.
The Fire This Time
The Fire This Time is a collection of essays and poetry edited by Jesmyn Ward that discusses being black in America. I had several favorites among this collection, but here are my top three.
Crank Up the Mixtape
Reading the print Mixtape is a door that swings both ways: if you’ve already seen the film about soul music, you’ll be thrilled to get the story behind the story. If this is your first encounter with Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson’s project, it will definitely inspire you to watch the documentary.
Listening to Citizen
Citizen by Claudia Rankine is a book that’s difficult to talk about, yet one that has the potential to serve as the gateway to some of our most important conversations. For just as Rankine isn’t defined as simply a poet, a playwright, an artist or an essayist, Citizen is a book that defies being boxed in by a single genre. Is it a poem? An essay? A meditation or prayer?