My name is Annette Lapel. And I have enough time on my hands to take a stab at my autobiography—at least a first draft… My mother was a seamstress who owned a dress shop on Decatur. My father was a photographer who traveled the world. I spend most of my days in my … What’s your name? Where are you from? Who’s your family? (Annette, Le Vampire, 2018.)
Lina Iris Viktor, Eleventh, 2018 Something used by someone else carries a history with it. A piece of cloth, a platter, a cut-glass pitcher, a recipe. A history and a spirit. You want to know when it was used. And how. And what it wants from you. [1] Reminiscent of a Babylonian Lillith in her … Lina Iris Viktor: A Haven, A Hell, A Dream Deferred (A Review)
In 2003, Marvel Comics released Kyle Baker’s Truth: Red White and Black, an original, in-continuity graphic novel exploring the idea that before giving the super-soldier serum to a white test subject, the US Army tested the serum on a group of black GIs, most of whom perished in the process. The series was dark, well-written, … The Black Family Gets Its Own on Black Lightning
This past August, in a bit of a writing funk, I came across Lawrence Ware’s, “What The Source Taught Me.” An homage to the magazine in its glory days as a hip-hop magazine edited by Black people, the article brought memories to the surface. Good memories, often buried underneath thirteen years of post -Katrina drama. Ware’s … History & Geography: Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi Covers “The Source”
Is it still Lion in Winter if there are no signs of frost? Kalamu Ya Salaam’s Be About Beauty arrived in our inboxes as we sent New Orleans Griot: The Tom Dent Reader to the printer. New Orleans Griot was Kalamu’s tribute to his mentor, showing Dent in many of his roles in the … Kalamu Ya Salaam’s Be About Beauty:
A review by Jeremy Tuman Many people understand that wealth inequality, the gap between the poorest and wealthiest members of a society, has drastically increased in recent years, both in the United States and in other countries. We know, for instance, that C.E.O.-to-worker pay was quantified fifty years ago in double-digits, around twenty to one, … If We Could Just Be More Like Iowa
“How do you know if you’re innovating, if you don’t know that you’re imitating?” (paraphrased from Kiese Laymon’s Facebook page). I’m starting this month off with this paraphrased quotation for a few reasons. For writers and thinkers, social media definitely exists as a legitimate space for writing and the hashing out of new ideas. Paradoxically, the internet … SOUND
Kim van Kaam ( the Netherlands) I met Kristina Kay Robinson by coincidence, while she sat next to me at an Antenna meeting. Almost by accident, we found out she had been writing letters with one of the writers I work with, Simone Atangana Bekono, commissioned by the Dutch literary festival Read my World in … Read My World
When we think of Louisiana music, often genres such as Zydeco, Jazz, and now Bounce music are at the forefront of these conversations. These cultural movements are preserved by their practitioners and globally recognized as part of the exotic fabric of music in the Gulf South region. However, classical music is hardly ever mentioned in … Bloodline: The Power of Music and Memory
Castle Rock’s Henry Deaver represents a major change I began reading Stephen King, at the age of 10. On a whim, I picked up his novel, IT during a library trip—that was how I got my hands on most of the work my parents wouldn’t have approved. The story was rich, dark, surprising, and inescapable. In … Beyond The Magic Negro
