M.G. Reviews: Black Panther + Brown Girl Begins + S0.CI3.TY (SPOILERS!)

Black Superheroes + Black Leadership + The Responsibility of Building Societies in World-Changing Times Last week I had the privilege to see three films — of course, Black Panther, Canadian filmmaker Sharon Lewis’ Brown Girl Begins inspired by Nalo Hopkinson’s book, Brown Girl in the Ring, and Martinique-based filmmaker Khris Burton’s S0.CI3.TY.

M.G. Interviews: Yasmine Lancaster and Ida B. Wells for President Posters

Today is “Columbus Day,” and as you all may be well aware of there is the growing controversy of whether to keep or remove statues of Columbus and other problematic white figures of history. There is also the growing conversation of replacing these statues with statues of civil rights heroes and other notable black figures. […]

M.G. Recap: The Bag Lady Manifesta

Based on Taja Lindley’s solo healing performance ritual that debuted at La Mama’s SQUIRTS in 2015, “This Ain’t A Eulogy” is drawing parallels between discarded materials and the violent treatment of Black people in the United States. People in the African Diaspora have a long history of repurposing, remixing, and transforming oppressive systems into valuable cultural […]

M.G. Spotlight: Genius Is Common

I was reading Albert Camus’s famous lecture, “Create Dangerously,” when I came across this sentence: “A man’s obedience to his own genius,” Emerson says magnificently, “is faith in its purest form.” Bruce George, originally of Def Poetry Jam, has led the way for a new movement called Genius Is Common.

M.G. Reviews: Rasheedah Phillips’ The Telescoping Effect

One of my favorite mottos is to find the magic in the mundane because in doing so you realize how interdependent we all are to each other and to the universe. When we look at the sun and moon, we are so normalized to them that we can easily forget how we are dependent on […]

M.G. Reviews: Kiini Ibura Salaam’s “When the World Wounds”– Breaking Open the Boundaries of Self

Who we think we are is a fluid concept. We might have a stable image of ourselves but in reality we are constantly in flux as we come into contact and collide with others. And it’s not just other bodies but other possibilities of your self that disrupts who you are at this moment. […]

M.G. Reviews: Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and The Traveling Theater of History

Happy Black Speculative Fiction Month. This month I will post reviews and lists of black speculative works that I’ve read recently. By the way, please support my Go Fund Me as I raise money to get a new laptop and continue building my writing career. Here is my review of The Underground Railroad: It is […]

M.G. Reviews: “Yabo” and The Possibilities of Black Love

M.G. Recap: The Legacy of Octavia Butler

As a speculative fiction author, Octavia Butler broke new grounds in the genre, going beyond the patriarchal Eurocentric and white supremacist framework of a lot of early speculative fiction. In her novels, she explored underrepresented topics like the continuing impact of American slavery and racism on black bodies and minds and larger society, and the seeds […]

Modern Griots Recap: Poetic Fragments from “Black Magic: Afro Pasts/Futures”

Yesterday was the anniversary of Nat Turner’s rebellion, and with the growing controversy surrounding the film due to Nate Parker’s rape trial from 17 years ago, my desire to watch the film has been mostly vaporized. But last weekend as I went through my photos, I came across Delphine Fawundu’s “Mende Woman on Nat Turner Plantation” […]