You've heard of Kent State (1970) & maybe Jackson State (1970).
Did you know #tdih 1968, 28 students were injured and three killed (one a HS student) — most shot in the back by state police while involved in a peaceful protest in Orangeburg, SC? 💔 🧵
Read ⬇️
www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/or...
stewarding an archive of tenderness ♥️🌸
“Writing history, for James, was an endless, recursive process of revision, of recontextualization, of asking again and again what the present circumstances enabled him to see or urged him to emphasize of the past he was recounting.”
David Scott on C. L. R. James, born on this day in 1901:
A white square quilt with a black trim, with the scales of justice in the center, encircled by a ring of black human stick figures
A black quilt depicting, nine black children in their Sunday best, walking to school, accompanied by soldiers
A view of The Gallery, with a line of quilts, suspended from the ceiling, hung in a semi circular pattern
If you have another gallery, with a red circular patterned quilt laying flat in the center, with other quilts ringing the walls
Cleota Proctor Wilbekin’s “The Unbalanced Scales of Justice” and Sandra Noble’s “The Little Rock Nine,” in the “”We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists,” at the Renwick Gallery
thank you for visiting the exhibit!
“I decided to attend to the qualities of time that exist outside of capital.”
Dionne Brand
A week from today I will be hosting this event at UNC-Greensboro (below is a thread with flier and description of event. Please share with your networks. Thank you ❤️
*deep ancestral sigh*
'On weekends, Stanford University professor Adam Banks flies from the California campus to Cleveland, on a mission to teach a college-level African American studies class to the Black community — for free.'
wordinblack.com/2025/02/brin...
😮 i haven’t seen promos for it either!
respect my home state’s music legacy 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
1) We need to talk about why these prototypes are almost always women.
2) talking about real black, queer issues is considered “political” and suppressed/ shadowbanned by these platforms
But a fake “Black queer “momma” (peep the AAVE) can be controlled/ marketed
3) I hate it here
So if you care about countering this kind of suppression, buy my book and other Black history books. My book makes a great gift! Let’s push back on those who want to silence Black authors and Black history. #BlackFolk wwnorton.com/books/978163...
“The Black University already exists; it’s for us to recognize it, not to create it. Our work is crystal-clear. The question is, are we teachers ready to learn—are we leaders ready to follow?”
Nikki Giovanni “I Fell off the Roof One Day (A View of the Black University) 1969
“I really like to think that a black, beautiful, loving world is possible. I really do. I think.”
-- from Nikki Giovanni's essay collection Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-five Years of Being a Black Poet (1971)
RIP dear Nikki
#BlackSky
🔗 to giving page—https://www.makingblackmovies.com/about
we have a capacious vision for the coming year: 1. ensure all materials are cataloged and digitized and address film preservation issues. 2.) upgrade temp/humidity control unit 3.) fund the next cycle of fellows.
they were so moved by the material from the documentary wilmington 10: usa 10,000 that they have organized a screening and panel discussion that will happen later this month.
this summer shirikiana and i piloted the sankofa film archives fellowship program that trained four young people in basic archiving skills with a black liberation orientation. with enthusiasm they cataloged 1/3 of the collection—a portal to other worlds housed in a basement on georgia ave.
this work counters having an institution accession the archive, alienating everyday folks from their history. we are for liberation and against accumulation and capture.
over the past two years, i have been fortunate to work alongside haile + shirikiana gerima in an effort to build the sankofa archive. the vision is to ensure that they maintain stewardship of the archive + organize it so that the community has a role in its development.
