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A Lover’s Blues: The Unforgettable Voice of Margie Hendrix

Remembering the woman who outsang Ray Charles.
by Tarisai Ngangura via Longreads on September 2, 2020
Diorama of Benjamin Banneker surveying the area around the White House

Art of History: Preserving African American Dioramas

Conservators are restoring a series of dioramas created for the 1940 American Negro Exposition, bringing their magical artistry, and stories, back to life.
by Robbyn McFadden via CBS News on August 30, 2020
Side by side portraits of LL Cool J and John D. Rockefeller, both sitting with left leg crossed over right, right hand on leg.

How a Maverick Hip-Hop Legend Found Inspiration in a Titan of American Industry

When LL Cool J sat for his portrait, he found common ground with the life-long philanthropical endeavors of John D. Rockefeller.
by Alice George via Smithsonian on July 24, 2020
Photograph of Sun Ra by Ming Smith

Sun Ra: ‘I’m Everything and Nothing’

Sun Ra, a seminal artist of afrofuturism, embraced a unique vision of blackness.
by Namwali Serpell via New York Review of Books on July 12, 2020
Rapper YG, one of a crowd of people at a protest over the death of George Floyd.

Hip-hop Is the Soundtrack to Black Lives Matter Protests

Songs from Public Enemy and Ludacris have been heard at marches, continuing a tradition that dates back to the blues.
by Tyina Steptoe via The Conversation on June 25, 2020

Rewriting Country Music's Racist History

Artists like Yola and Rhiannon Giddens are blowing up what Giddens calls a “manufactured image of country music being white and being poor.”
by Elamin Abdelmahmoud via Rolling Stone on June 5, 2020
Public art featuring silhouettes of enslaved people.

What Do We Want History to Do to Us?

Zadie Smith on Kara Walker, blackness and public art.
by Zadie Smith via New York Review of Books on February 6, 2020
Picture of DeFord Bailey holding a harmonica amplified by a gourd.

The Unsung Black Musician Who Changed Country Music

From the moment DeFord Bailey stepped onto a stage in Nashville, country music would never be the same. Decades after his death he finally got his due.
by Diana Bianco via Narratively on January 23, 2020
Ed Dwight Jr. with model rocket.

I Was Poised to be the First Black Astronaut. I Never Made it to Space.

Ed Dwight Jr. trained to go to the moon, but racism in the selection process kept him out of space.
by Ben Proudfoot via New York Times Op-Docs on December 19, 2019
Richard Pryor

A Nigger Un-Reconstructed: The Legacy of Richard Pryor

Comedian Richard Pryor's performance of Blackness throughout his career.
by Mark Anthony Neal via NewBlackMan (in Exile) on December 1, 2019
A microphone surrounded by multiple pairs of eyes against a brick background.

Cut Me Loose

A personal account of how one young woman travels to South Carolina in search of her family history and freedom narrative.
by Joshunda Sanders via Oxford American on November 19, 2019
Big Bird on the set of 'Sesame Street'

The Unmistakable Black Roots of 'Sesame Street'

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the beloved children’s television show was shaped by the African-American communities in Harlem and beyond.
by Bryan Greene via Smithsonian on November 7, 2019
Blind Willie Johnson animation

Drawn and Recorded: Blind Willie in Space

Dark was the night, cold was the ground, and brilliant is that song drifting through space.
by Drew Christie, Bill Flanagan via Aeon on October 31, 2019

How Isaac Hayes Changed Soul Music

The political rumblings beneath his 1969 album, "Hot Buttered Soul."
by Emily J. Lordi via The New Yorker on October 1, 2019

With a Brass Band Blaring, Artist Kehinde Wiley Goes Off to War with Confederate Statues

Kehinde Wiley unveils his new equestrian statue in Times Square. In December, it will be installed in Richmond, with those of Civil War generals nearby.
by Philip Kennicott via Washington Post on September 27, 2019

On Eric Garner, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Police Brutality as American Tradition

“¿DEFACEMENT?,” Inspired by the 1983 Police Murder of Michael Stewart.
by Johanna F. Almiron via Literary Hub on September 13, 2019

Muskets! Axes! Revolt! Here Are the Plans for a Reenactment of an Actual 1811 Rebellion

This fall 500 Louisianans, in 19th-century attire, will re-create America’s largest plantation uprising.
by Julian Lucas via Vanity Fair on September 9, 2019
Nina Simone

The Remarkable Story of the Drive to Preserve Nina Simone's Childhood Home

Simone's birthplace in Tryon, North Carolina, was declared a National Treasure. Now, local events celebrate her and raise money for preservation efforts.
by Sarah Edwards via INDY Week on August 14, 2019

Rihanna Reveals the Story Behind her Latest Collection’s Imagery

How the 1960s Black Is Beautiful movement inspired her latest Fenty fashion collection.
by Sarah Mower via Vogue on May 29, 2019

Rhiannon Giddens and What Folk Music Means

The roots musician is inspired by the evolving legacy of the black string band.
by John Jeremiah Sullivan via The New Yorker on May 13, 2019

How 'Green Book' And The Hollywood Machine Swallowed Donald Shirley Whole

Why relatives of the musician depicted in "Green Book" called the film “a symphony of lies.”
by Brooke Obie via Shadow and Act on December 14, 2018
James Baldwin.

James Baldwin’s Ideas and Activism during the 1980s

Baldwin's often overlooked final years of activism during the 1980's.
by Aderson François via Black Perspectives on September 20, 2018
The cover of Behold, a Pale Horse by Milton William Cooper.

The Conspiracist Manual That Influenced a Generation of Rappers

How "Behold a Pale Horse" found its way to the Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, Busta Rhymes, Tupac Shakur, NAS, and more.
by Mark Jacobson via Vulture on August 22, 2018
Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin Was the Defining Voice of the 20th Century

No one else sang as well as her, and no other singer changed popular music as much as her.
by Jack Hamilton via Slate on August 16, 2018

The Forgotten Story of Pure Hell, America’s First Black Punk Band

The four-piece lived with the New York Dolls and played with Sid Vicious, but they’ve been largely written out of cultural history.
by Cassidy George via Dazed on August 8, 2018
Leon Bridges singing on stage.

'They Put Us in a Little Box': How Racial Tensions Shape Modern Soul Music

While white Americana singers have infused more soul into their sound, black artists still feel restricted by limited expectations.
by Jon Bernstein via The Guardian on June 13, 2018

The Soviet Anthology of “Negro Poetry”

In the 1930s, Soviet leaders decided that black American authors could teach Russians “to write social poetry.”
by Jennifer Wilson via The Paris Review on May 15, 2018

King's Death Gave Birth to Hip-Hop

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. led directly to hip-hop, an era that is often contrasted with his legacy.
by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on April 8, 2018
Smiling man in front of a microphone

Fats Domino: Rock'n'Roll’s Quiet Rebel Who Defied US Segregation

The groundbreaking musician who inspired Elvis and The Beatles.
by Brian Ward via The Conversation on October 26, 2017

The Racist Legacy of NYC’s Anti-Dancing Law

The cabaret law—and its prejudicial history—is one of the city's darkest secrets.
by Eli Kerry, Penn Bullock via Vice on March 8, 2017
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