Sasha Bonet will be discussing her novel this week in her hometown, Houston. #KindredStories in #ThirdWard is hosting. Hope to see you there on Tuesday. #BookSky

"a fear of sleep loss that itself causes sleep loss that in turn generates an even greater fear of sleep loss that in turn generates even more sleep loss … until the next thing you know, you’re in an insomnia galaxy spiral..." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

A Searing Memoir of Black Womanhood, Across Generations In “The Waterbearers,” Sasha Bonét weaves her matrilineal history into a larger struggle for survival and self-knowledge. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/b...

The Legendary Children’s Librarian of Harlem Raised in a family of storytellers, Augusta Baker continued that tradition, imparting a love of books to readers of all ages. daily.jstor.org/legendary-ch...

"Lalah Hathaway wants everything vantablack — blacker than black, the blackest black, a black that reveals Hathaway’s genealogical relationship to sound, traceable to her father Donny Hathaway’s performance of 'Be Real Black For Me'." -- Joshua Myers www.capitalbop.com/lalah-hathaw...

'The Los Angeles wildfires leveled entire neighborhoods, but perhaps nowhere suffered more than west Altadena. This is an account of three families’ grueling recovery — the part of the story most people never see.' wapo.st/46jWqbf

‘The Brothers Size’ Review: A Spare and Poetic Restaging In honor of its 20th anniversary, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play gets a fiercely minimalist production at the Shed. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/t...

Currently reading this! It's a good one.

The amount of unqualified folks with passing grades simply due to AI is going to be huge. Cheating at the highest levels.

Left of Black Digital Series Wins Two Telly Awards for Video Excellence leftofblack.org/left-of-blac...

Trouble the Archive: Kim Roberts Tells the Story of Hurricane Katrina medium.com/p/6f08475ff0eb

'In an era when AI delivers the answer before the question is even asked, the sanctity of wonder is slipping away, and soon the act of asking might vanish entirely.' africasacountry.com/2025/09/the-...

How a Tradition Forged in Slavery Persists Today | Danielle Amir Jackson A new book argues that conjure—a Black spiritual practice—has touched nearly every corner of American life. www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

Listen to the vanishing sounds of Mali’s legendary music scene Over decades, Mali produced global stars and became a hub for West African guitar. Now, musicians are struggling to hang on amid economic and security crises wapo.st/3JSxmjU

Joseph McNeil, Young Spark in a Civil Rights Battle, Dies at 83 He and his classmates from a historically Black college in Greensboro, N.C., desegregated a Woolworth’s lunch counter in 1960, inspiring similar protests across the nation. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...

'From Black gondoliers to art depicting enslaved people, Venice has a long history of cultural exchange with Africa.' wapo.st/45PISVR

'The deployment of federal agents and National Guard troops has caused some Black parents to return to the days of “the talk” about policing that they had hoped was no longer needed to keep their children safe.' www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...

In this episode from #Season11 of #LeftOfBlack Historian Derrick E. White discusses his book 'Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football', which was just released in paperback from UNC Press www.youtube.com/watch?v=babS...

"Higher education is in for a long period of financial distress. And as bad as 2008 was for young scientists of color hoping to start their careers in research-oriented universities, this crisis will be much worse." www.chronicle.com/article/trum...

I've been thinking about this quite a bit. An interesting read. #CollegeAccess #StudentSuccess #EducationSky

My father was a member of 1199SEIU. My mother was a member of District Council 37, Local 372. I was a member of the United Federation of Teachers and United University Professions. I continue to support organized labor, in the spirit of our Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Bro. A. Philip Randolph.

The Excruciating Question Confronting Black College Applicants | Justin Driver "For striving Black high school seniors, the generalized essay anxiety arrives in a particular, acute form: Should my personal statement address race?" www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Why Black Women Are Seeing Job Losses Black women have been among the groups most affected by President Trump’s federal work force cuts this year. Erica L. Green explains why this is happening and what it could mean for the larger economy. www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol...

'In a new book, the journalist Howard W. French tells the story of decolonization and pan-Africanism through the life of Ghana’s visionary first leader, Kwame Nkrumah.' www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/b...

"Artificial intelligence has proved to be even more valuable as a writer of computer code than as a writer of words. This means it is ideally suited to replacing the very type of person who built it." The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

‘Positive Obsession’ Is a Fresh Look at Octavia E. Butler A new biography by Susana M. Morris reveals the struggles, passions and triumphs that shaped the science fiction icon and her books www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/b...

"'Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’' marries Jackson’s boyish exuberance with a complex rhythmic structure that propels the song into an ethereal exorcism of funk." medium.com/p/10e30cc2428a

Remembering Danielle Spencer, the child star who made a meaningful life beyond the spotlight | Renee Graham | @GlobeOpinion Success isn’t only defined by red carpet arrivals, shiny trophies, and hit movies and TV shows www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/21/o...

Highest 2 Lowest

Prison Debt Passed Down To Black Women Pushes Them Further Into Poverty New research highlights how passed-down prison debt disproportionately affects Black women. www.blackenterprise.com/prison-debt-...

"The early Christian patriarchs may not have realized that, in attempting to suppress ecstatic practices, they were throwing out much of Jesus too." From the Early Church to ‘Boots on the Ground,’ Dance Is Worship | @deirdrejonese.bsky.social sojo.net/articles/cul...

When the Bronx Burned, Tenants Died and Landlords Got Rich “Born in Flames,” by the historian Bench Ansfield, recounts how the wave of urban arson in the 1970s devastated poor communities while enriching building owners. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/b...

Why so few Americans read for pleasure Leisure reading among U.S. adults 15 and older has dropped 40 percent in the past 20 years, according to researchers. wapo.st/475WU6U

150 years of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, overlooked icon of Black classical music www.npr.org/2025/08/14/n...

Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire? To some, the fires lit in New York in the late seventies signalled rampant criminality; to others, rebellion. But maybe they were signs of something else entirely. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of history at @Harvard, president of the Organization of American Historians and an award-winning author on Trump's Targeting of School Curricula, Smithsonian | @democracynow.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtV9...

"Soledad Brother shows this one-sided love affair but some digging into the archives shows that Davis cared as much for Jackson as he did for her. In fact, some of Davis’ love letters were read to jurors when Jackson was on trial." www.newblackmaninexile.net/2016/09/till...

"Even before generative AI went mainstream, fewer people were reading books, whether for pleasure or for class." www.fastcompany.com/91385635/ai-...

"Given the daily threats and dances with death that Malcolm faced during the last years of his life, one can only imagine what comfort, and even joy, he took in just spending a few quiet moments with his little daughter." medium.com/p/c3a683dd6271

Keeping Tradition Alive, Gullah Geechee Elders Perform and Preserve Sacred Songs From Enslaved Ancestors "This Gullah Geechee thing is what connects us all across the African diaspora," said one of the artists using their work to preserve these connective traditions. www.bet.com/article/7bd6...

"The technology is no longer just a curiosity or a way to cheat; it is a habit..In the coming fall semester, this new reality will be undeniable. Higher education has been changed forever in the span of a single undergraduate career."-- @ibogost.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Bully Pulpits: Preachers Use Influence and Gospel to Fight Trump As President Donald Trump and his Republican allies continue to push an anti-Black agenda, ministers and priests nationwide are using the power of the pulpit to inspire resistance. wordinblack.com/2025/08/prea...

Left of Black | Tricia Rose on Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives www.youtube.com/watch?v=gflD...

Ralph Lauren, ‘The Gilded Age’ and Black Affluence | Yola Mzizi Recent portrayals of the Black elite have shown the complexities that can come with representing class www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/s...

This was a fantastic read. I'm listening to "Stranger on the Road" now and loving that layering technique they used on her voice. Thank you for writing this!

My mother's favorite song to sing anytime we complained. "For the nine months I carried you, growing inside me, no charge..."

'The law requires extensive background checks before Illinois police agencies hire officers. It was named for Sonya Massey, who was shot and killed in her home near Springfield by a deputy who had a string of prior discipline complaints.' chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/08...

my mama LOVES this song. posting to read tomorrow

"In retrospect, I was enough of a smart-ass as a child that I might have been that little boy in Harlan Howard’s classic song “No Charge.” The song is about a boy who invoices his mother for his household chores " medium.com/@tnimixtape/...

"Kincaid’s politics are not the totality of what makes her work worth engaging. What she is able to do with her seemingly simple language choices is speak what is true while capturing her desire for it to not be." -- Mychal Denzel Smith newrepublic.com/article/1986...