DJ Lynnée Denise on Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton 'Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters' is a queer, Black “biography in essays" that reclaims the cultural impact of “Big Mama” as one of the most prominent Black women in contemporary music history www.youtube.com/watch?v=syKZ... |

Basquiat. #BoTD Photo: James Van Der Zee (1982) #LegendToLegend

'In 1963, prominent Black artists and activists including Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and James Baldwin called for a nationwide Christmas boycott, urging Americans to refrain from holiday spending as a moral response to racial terror.' www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WKm... | @thirteenwnet.bsky.social

Assata Shakur: Freedom came with shattering costs for her and her family. | Nikole Hannah-Jones www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

@ralphbakshi.bsky.social 's Coonskin still has the power to stir it up.

George Bell Served 24 Years in Prison for a Crime He Didn’t Commit. After a quarter century behind bars, he was exonerated for the 1996 crime and received the largest payout ever from New York City. But money can’t buy back all that time. www.esquire.com/news-politic...

"We’re in a crisis of Black aesthetics with no easy way out. Maybe Coonskin just digs the hole deeper. But understanding just how deep it goes might fully illuminate the stakes of the moment." -- Justin A. Davis lareviewofbooks.org/article/draw... | @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social

It's interesting how the Caribbean continues to be the site of lone wolf white colonizers' ambitions. It's like they figure it's a whole bunch of islands that are there to be claimed by anyone either because no one's there or the people there are monkeys. They still suffer from would be colonizers.

"Now that We Found Love"? The O'Jays? Third World? or Heavy D & The Boyz? #BlackSkyOver40

My Map to a Literary Life in Los Angeles | @lynellgeorge.bsky.social Making Community in Bookshops, Cafes, and Bootleg Backroom Venues www.zocalopublicsquare.org/map-to-liter...

"Phillips, who would have turned 90 this month, went on to be one of the most overlooked singers....part of it, I feel sure, was that in 1962, Nashville wasn’t ready—it perhaps still isn’t ready—for a Black woman bringing a Black sensibility to country music." www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta...

'From the South and beyond, we mourn the passing of Black Revolutionary and Islamic faith leader, Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, who transitioned in federal prison custody on November 23, 2025 at the age of 82.' scalawagmagazine.org/2025/12/reme... | @scalawagmagazine.bsky.social

"Bingham’s photos like those of Malcolm X are significant for the methods in which they capture BlackSpace...those embodiments not necessarily intended for consumption, but rather to be loved, and adored and desired in the intimacy of Black Lives." medium.com/p/0532e9c48b74

"We decided to bridge that gap by meeting people where they already are: at the bar. The idea was to take intellectualism out of the lecture hall and return it to a more organic third space—one where people feel comfortable, a little loose, and ready to engage." africasacountry.com/2025/12/pint...

In a N.C. Town With Almost No Grocers, One Farmer Is Expanding Local Food Access On land once targeted for toxic dumping, a Black family is fighting environmental racism and teaching residents how to feed themselves. capitalbnews.org/north-caroli... | @capitalb.bsky.social

Kenia Thompson sits down with jazz legend Nnenna Freelon to discuss her new memoir, 'Beneath the Skin of Sorrow,' which explores her journey through grief after the loss of her husband, renowned architect Phil Freelon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDag...

Do we need to make a Sam Cooke song go viral on TikTok or something because I need more people to know about his music and his legacy.

Only 2% of US students who study abroad are Black men. Meet Tremaine Collins, of Tokyo. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Educatio...

"The life and 1984 murder of a beloved Black grandmother that changed community activism forever—and sparked the ongoing movement against racist policing and brutality. The story of Eleanor Bumpurs, told for the first time by decorated historian LaShawn Harris" www.beacon.org/Tell-Her-Sto...

Professors are turning to this old-school method to stop AI use on exams A growing number of educators are finding that oral exams allow them to test their students’ learning without the benefit of AI platforms such as ChatGPT. wapo.st/48zzw1Z

Sam Cooke is always in my music rotation.

If you don't know enough about the life and legacy of the great Sam Cooke -- who was killed 61-years-ago today, the @netflix.com doc series 'Remastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke' is a great place to start. #BlackSkyOver40 #BlackSkyOver50 #BlackSky

When A Byrd Flew To North Carolina Central University Jazz trumpeter #DonaldByrd pioneered jazz education programs at Historically Black Colleges. #SaggGenius #BornOnThisDay www.ncarts.org/blog/2019/04...

"Born in Jim Crow–era Monroe, North Carolina, Robert F. Williams and Mabel R. Williams were the state’s most legendary African American freedom fighters." -- @uncpress.bsky.social uncpress.org/978146968013...

‘I can’t be silent. I’ve been through too much’: Dee Dee Bridgewater on singing with the greats – and confronting Maga with jazz www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

Mahmood Mamdani on exile, belonging, and watching Zohran make US political history | UpFront www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjAf...

Killings of Black Panthers dedicated with plaque in Chicago 56 years later The plaque marks the Near West Side home where Black Panther leaders Mark Clark and Fred Hampton were killed by police on Dec. 4, 1969. chicago.suntimes.com/chicago/2025...

#SaggGenius #SaggSeason “There was a world of junkies and winos, pool hustlers and prostitutes, women and family screaming inside my head, trying to be heard.” A Nigger Un-Reconstructed: The Legacy of #RichardPryor medium.com/@tnimixtape/...

#SaggSeason #SaggGenius #BillyPaul “in my case, that meant singing like a horn player. I’d always been a John Coltrane fan—he was from Philly; you know, and he told me once he wanted to be a singer and that’s why he played the way he did. Well, I sang the way he blew." medium.com/@tnimixtape/...

#WorldAIDSDay Daniel Royles joined #LeftOfBlack to discuss his book 'To Make the Wounded Whole: The African American Struggle Against HIV/AIDS' (@uncpress.bsky.social) www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdko...

I still love that line in Biz! 🔥 #ShirleyChisholm #NobodyBeatsTheBiz 😆

I regularly write her in instead of Jeffries in her old district

"Of the character of “Benson,” Guillaume wrote, “For a Black man the material was complex. The character was irreverent. The question was, how to express such irreverence?…I saw Benson as Mantan Moreland’s revenge...” #SaggGenius #BoTD medium.com/@tnimixtape/...

In this S13 episode of #LeftOfBlack, Casarae Lavada Abdul-Ghani joined host Mark Anthony Neal to discuss her book 'Start a Riot! Civil Unrest in Black Arts Movement Drama, Fiction, and Poetry' www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NL...

"For those who read Jackson’s ever devolving facial features as some evidence of racial self-hatred, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” is Jackson’s unspoken retort, as he summoned the Orishas in a way never experienced in American pop music." medium.com/@tnimixtape/...

"Reagan is the Pres but I voted for #ShirleyChisholm" -- Biz Markie #SaggSeason #SaggGenius #BoTD #UnboughtAndUnbossed Photo Credit: R. Norman Matheny/ @csmonitor.bsky.social

#SaggSeason #SaggGenius #GordonParks #AChoiceOfWeapons #BoTD

Meet the Members of Mamdani’s Arts and Culture Transition Committee Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander, curator Kimberly Drew, and The Kitchen Executive Director Legacy Russell are among the 28 members of the advisory team hyperallergic.com/meet-the-mem...

Frankie too is a Sagittarius #SaggSeason @markanthonyneal.bsky.social

Sheryll Cashin, the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Civil Rights and Social Justice at Georgetown and former clerk for Thurgood Marshall joins #LeftOfBlack to discuss her book 'White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding & Segregation in the Age of Inequality' www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDsJ...

#SaggSeason #SaggGenius #BillyStrayhorn #LushLife #TakeTheATrain #ChelseaBridge #BoTD

"From an award-winning historian of Black radical politics comes the definitive biography of Audley Moore—mother of modern Black Nationalism and trailblazer in the fight for reparations." -- @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/745621...

A legacy of equality: Revisiting the Highlander Folk School and its role in the American civil rights movement | Mark I. Pinsky thehill.com/opinion/civi... | @thehill.com

'“grief does factor into the conversation about hair. Grief and hair are tied together,” she notes. Nnenna Freelon recalls the moment she looked in the mirror during COVID-19 lockdown and realized the person staring back at her was a widow.' www.essence.com/beauty/jazz-...

#SaggSeason #SagGenius #BoTD 'Berry Gordy, Jr. is the very embodiment of the so-called American Dream and hid record company, Motown, might be the most recognizable African American brand of the 20th century.' Motown and #BerryGordy’s Wildest Dreams medium.com/@tnimixtape/...

‘BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions’ Review: An Artist’s Mind-Expanding Collage In this dazzling essay movie, the director Kahlil Joseph draws on an array of sources—news clips, old movies, family albums, an encyclopedia of "Africana"—to create a thrilling whole www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/m...

We're not buying what Trump enablers sell this Black Friday | Opinion | LaTosha Brown Support a Black or locally owned business. Keep your money in your community. Let's show them what happens when we stop playing a game rigged against us www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

THIS. Also through redlining - when home damage happens and your insurance company refuses to cover the cost of repair, it often forces families to abandon their homes.

Do not disagree. Don't Leave Me This Way is a vocal masterpiece.

Solange Knowles Wants to Lend You a Book The Grammy winner, now a scholar in residence at U.S.C., is expanding a one-of-a-kind library featuring rare books by writers of color. (Just mind the due date.) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/s...