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“Spark the Brain”
This was originally slated as a tribute on Tupac’s birthday (June 16th), but since the assassination of Nipsey Hussle, I decided to publish it now. But before you start reading please watch this video: Tupac’s foreshadowing was short-sighted. I don’t think when the rapper said that he would “spark the brain that would change the…
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Theory II: The Face of A Queen
In Theory II, I propose what the “Queen” could look like if her face was not destroyed. I give her not only a face, but a voice as well drawing inspiration from the Black Girls Rock. To do so, I invoke Black women throughout history and their words that continue to navigate between various places…
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Flesh and Fragment: A Theory
Overview This project was inspired by and drew from Alexander Weheliye’s Habeas Viscus, Hortense J. Spillers “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book” (1987) and Sylvia Wynter’s “‘No Humans Involved’: An Open Letter to My Colleagues” (1994) in connection to the Black woman’s body through time and space in conjunction with “Fragment of a Queen’s…
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Our Love Songs
Yeah, the older you get, man, more you appreciate know The real babes They don’t get offended when you say shit Ayo, we good? Let me know when that drop Recently, rapper Wale dropped his video for “Black Bonnie” featuring Jacquees. When he first teased us with the shot I was excited. Then I read…
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Check Mate
In my Rough Drafts & Hard Times piece, one of my homies noticed something was off. I mentioned the deaths that were in the news, but when it came to the suicides, I wrote about the reactions of others. Knowing how I feel about the topic, he realized that I skipped a few steps. He…
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qotw: …I have to
Because it’s hump day… This is dedicated to that Friday conversation between my amigos and I. This is also dedicated to the dream chasers who are focused on building, growing, learning and getting ahead. Instead of enjoying the beautiful summer nights, we close ourselves from the world to work a little harder and a…
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qotw: Keep going
I haven’t done a qotw in a hot minute…OK, here goes! The key to writing and writing well is to keep writing, no matter the hell is happening. — Paul Cantor (@PaulCantor) June 14, 2018 While I was in my “writing slump,” I came across the tweet above and I totally agreed. So slowly,…
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Rough Drafts & Hard Times
I took a crazy break. It was not by choice, things just happened and it was hard to get back into my groove. In between my last piece and now, I have rough drafts all over the place. As I was going through them I realized nothing was positive, except for one. I just had…
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Defending Ours: Stephon Clark
As the news of Stephon Clark murder was being described last month, I envisioned it from an ominous viewpoint: a young Black male chilling in a backyard then all of a sudden his body is being riddled with bullets. I didn’t post anything about Stephon; I just watched the story develop. Then last week on…
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qotw: all the stars
I would be playing myself if I didn’t reference the movie, Black Panther. As much as I would like to talk about this epic cinematic experience, I don’t want to spoil it for those who have not seen it yet. So I am going to rely on “All the Stars” by Kendrick Lamar featuring SZA (it’s…
kashema
my view. my voice.
kashema 