Hank Willis Thomas in “Bodies of Knowledge”
As a child, artist Hank Willis Thomas was told he stared too much and asked too many questions. Today, these very attributes shape his artistic practice, which pivots on the…
The Combahee River Collective and Intersectionality in the Age of Identity
Having identified intersecting systems of oppression, the Collective argued that overlapping solutions were needed. The 1980 statement is the first recorded use of ‘identity politics’ and they did indeed root…
The Poet and the Riot
Shortly after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote a poem about the power of riots.
What Liberals Get Wrong About Identity Politics
Identity politics has its roots in an expansive, radical agenda. But you wouldn’t know that from its liberal critics. “We haven’t taken the intellectual contributions of black women seriously enough…
The Soprano Who Upended Americans’ Racist Stereotypes About Who Could Sing Opera
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was in many ways the nation’s first black pop star
Kara Walker, ‘Tired of Standing Up,’ Promises Art, Not Answers
Kara Walker with her art installation at the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn in 2014.Credit...Abe Frajndlich for The New York Times By Blake Gopnik Aug. 16, 2017 “I am tired,…
The Beginning or the End of America
During Black History Month we share a letter written by James Baldwin, one of the foremost novelists and public intellectuals of the 20th century. In 1970 Baldwin wrote an open letter to…
Civil War Widows
A woman who died in 1998 was married to a man who was born a slave and fought in the civil war in the union army. {listen} here is her…