By Chelsea J. Ferguson • In a pair of recently-commissioned works for a beloved cousin, artist Chelsea J. Ferguson uses her distinct blend of screen-printing, collage, and archival newsprint to celebrate, uplift, and inspire the Black femme. This visual essay explores the themes, inspiration, and process behind each original artwork. View

By Maria Oluwabukola Oni • There’s something refreshingly liberating and empowering about letting your feelings bubble out of you, unfettered, unashamedly, without fear, worry or remorse as an African woman. Like the lady who calmly went to an amala and ogunfe spot to eat after an examination, despite knowing she did poorly, and her family would have her head when the result comes out. Read More

By Dr. Sydney Marie Simone Curtis • Liberatory education is not a discipline or theory; it is “grounded in the space between [emphasis added] theory and practice” (Jefferson et al., 2018). Liberatory education is not tied to state standards or college and career readiness metrics; instead, it operates “in the interests of justice and solidarity” by influencing theories and practices that challenge conditions of oppression and domination (McLaren & Jandric, 2017, p. 632). As a liberatory educator, the politics of my work are always front and center because of my Black feminist praxis. Read More

By Danika L. • Originally published on aye danika! (November 5, 2025) • The intimate liminal space between the knowing and the end. We sense the tide coming in to claw back the love lying on the shores of our tethered fears. We are entangled and unraveling. Our world is collapsing but the sidewalks lining the streets outside continue to catch quick pedestrian steps, capturing the inordinate pace of the world outside — life goes on. At home, in our bubble, the creak of a wooden beam releasing itself from expectation mediates our argument, forcing us to pause, the end is imminent, the beginning is ancient history; the breaking point is now. Read More

By Catherine Omeh • Originally published on Catherine’s Substack (December 11, 2025) • I believe that Autism is not a little white boy’s disability. Looking at the existing research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it is not unreasonable to draw the opposite conclusion. Presentations of autism often feature young white boys, due to the exclusion of other populations from research. “Female and Black populations in the United States have historically lower prevalence, are diagnosed later, are more likely to have co-occurring intellectual disability, and experience exclusion from research. Autistic Black girls are effectively invisible in the literature” (Diemer et al, 2022). Read More

By Avery Pratt • In the United States, Black women are 243% more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes. The CDC has stated that over 80% of Black maternal deaths were preventable. In 2022, 49.5 Non-Hispanic Black Women died for every 100,000 live births. This was more than twice the mortality rate that White, Hispanic, and Asian Women faced. Read More

By Kitty Scarlett and Stephanie Younger • In 2000, Kassiane Asasumasu defined neurodivergent as “neurologically divergent from typical,” encompassing mental illnesses, learning disabilities, acquired disabilities, and neurodevelopmental disabilities. In We See Things They’ll Never See: Love, Hope, and Neurodiversity, Chantelle Jessica Lewis and Jason Arday explore “neurotypical hegemony,” which persecutes deviations from neurotypicality. When our communities replicate “the master’s tools” of hegemony and constitute neurotypical minds as the norm, we fail Black neurodivergent women and gender-expansive people. Read More

“We’re All Warriors” — Poem by Melissa Lushington • This poem is centered around the topic of equality among Black women, and it motivates us to stop viewing one another as threats and start viewing one another as equal individuals. Read More

By The Optimistic Complainer • In this visual essay, artist The Optimistic Complainer reflects on two paintings from her collection, To feel much and do little. View

By Nia Barnes • Originally published on Yeye555 (February 9, 2026) • This piece discusses misogynoir and mental health, including mania and psychosis. It is a personal reflection, not a clinical guide. • Since my teenage years, I was always drawn to mysticism and spirituality. I practice a very ancient, beautiful, African Spiritual Tradition called Lukumi, and have since the age of 16. Called by Yemoja and Oshun, a true daughter of the waters. I have always been drawn to mermaids. They symbolize beauty, femininity, and fertility, but they also symbolize destruction, transformation, and healing. Spirituality did not cause my mania, nor did it replace treatment, but it shaped how I understood myself. Read More

By Camille Womack • Content warning: mentions of rape • Before Black feminist scholarship was cemented through the work of scholars like Angela Y. Davis, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Barbra Smith, just scratching the surface, there was Beah E. Richards. Beah Richards, born Beulah Elizabeth Richardson, is most known for her work her work as an actress in films and plays like The Amen Corner (1965), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), and The Great White Hope (1970), but it was through her work as a poet I came to know her. Read More

By Kayla Dorancy • Dedicated to Lance Shockley • Justice in the United States must be redefined. Our criminal “justice system”–which I will refer to as “criminal legal system” for the rest of this reflection–as it stands perpetuates the continued (albeit) rebranded, enslavement and violence against Black and Brown people. Equally importantly, our criminal legal system simply fails to achieve the goals it purports to meet. Read More

By Pelumi Sholagbade • Originally published on Please be Normal (November 4, 2025) • Discussion of childhood sexual trauma/abuse • No book has made me cry like The Bluest Eye has. I was a teenager, for starters: I read Toni Morrison’s debut novel the summer before my freshman year of high school, mere weeks before she passed that August. I couldn’t tell you what compelled me to pick it up, but I must have finished it in one or two sittings. To brusquely summarize, The Bluest Eye is a tragedy centered around a young dark-skinned Black girl named Pecola, who is thrown about by the forces of poverty, trauma, familial abuse, racism, and colorism as well as ableism. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • In 2020, Akua Daniella debuted “Town of Tawiah” as a social commentary channel on YouTube in which she discusses pop culture and media. “I focus on decolonising media and film narratives, challenging those systems that we see,” she said. By championing intersectionality, she has also reached multiply-marginalized Black people who face ostracism within their communities based on queerness and neurodivergence. Read More

By the Black Feminist Collective Team • Tamara Isaac’s Writing Our Migrations is a virtual poetry workshop exploring language, belonging, and the Black diasporic experience. We’ll open with warm-ups and reflections, and live poetry readings from three Black Feminist Collective members: Desiree McCray, Yasmine Bolden and Vie Kelley. Then we’ll move into guided writing exercises where you’ll craft poems about your own journeys across borders, cities, or internal landscapes of change. Watch

By Omolara Okunoren • June: After the melancholy months of biting winters and unreliable springs, I constantly yearned for summer. I adore the heat that glosses and glows on my skin and within my soul. Sunlight gently caresses my fingertips. Lavender-haze sunsets in the late-night sky. Yet, now that summer has arrived and is swiftly departing, I ask myself, “Who will I become when the season ends and the next makes its hasty arrival?” Read More

“Atlantis” — Poem by Maya-Gawonii Shabazz-Saleh • What if liberation wasn’t found on land, but beneath the waves? Read More

By Akua Frimpong • Content warning: Mentions of rape, incest, and abuse. All referred to in text and discussed with sensitivity across work. • Synopsis: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982) is an epistolary novel set in the 1920s, following Celie over approximately forty years and granting readers intimate access to her struggles as an African American woman. Walker’s text ruminates on themes of pain, trauma, and intraracial conflict. Crucially, it also valorises notions of community and womanism, imbuing the narrative with feelings of hope and healing. Read More

By Gabrielle Cassell • The world is burning before our eyes, and everyone is losing their minds. It is important to remember that the world has actually ended many times before, especially for those of us. It is not only understandable but expected to feel discouraged, angry, overwhelmed, scared, and even despair. The 2024 U.S. presidential election was a paradigm shift not only for the U.S. but for the world. Read More

By Monica Evans and Tomeeka Spruill • The portrayal of Blackness in fantasy often perpetuates harmful stereotypes, presenting Black characters as supernatural beings like witches or monsters, reinforcing ideas of malevolence and “otherness.” This is particularly important for Black women in fantasy, who are often depicted in roles that reflect harmful stereotypes, rooted in misogynoir. These stories reveal real-world inequalities and show the need for fairer, more complex portrayals while highlighting the importance of understanding Black women’s experiences through intersectionality. Read More

“This Worn Body” — Poem by Tamara Isaac • This poem explores the intersections of Black woman identity, migration, trauma, and survival. It centers the emotional labor and embodied experience of Black women from diasporic communities navigating systems of oppression. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • In 1983, Alice Walker defined the term womanism in her book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. 40 years later, EbonyJanice Moore coined a fourth wave of womanist canon in All the Black Girls Are Activists: A Fourth Wave Womanist Pursuit of Dreams as Radical Resistance. Read More

By Ashley Melcherts • Space invaders in the context of sports has not been used as much as you might expect (Ahmad and Thorpe 2020; Adjepong and Carrington 2014; Brown 2015; Brown 2018), given that sports is a highly visible space in which everything in it, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability and class, is up for public consumption (Brown 2018). Sports is a prominent institution in society that reproduces social injustices such as racism, sexism and economic stratification (Brown 2018; Manno 2023). Read More

“Tinnitus So Loud, Goddesses Awaken” — Poem by Blessing O. Nwodo • A lament about femicide, encompassing the shrill, unrelenting sound of tinnitus. Read More

By Kitty Scarlett • In the book Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman wrote, “waywardness is an ongoing exploration of what might be. It is the untiring practice of trying to live when you were never meant to survive. It obeys no rules and abides no authorities”¹. In today’s culture, some tend to characterize the whimsical, inquisitive, imaginative and futuristic as an expression of the naive, ascribing it to being an “airhead.” Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Alycia Kamil’s organizing and artistry encompasses “everything related to Black liberation, globally.” Through her participation in a poetry slam competition, Kamil became involved in community organizing efforts as a teen. “I was naturally writing about the things that people of my identities experienced,” she told Black Feminist Collective in March. Read More

By Angela Foster-Mason • The violence exercised through the societal perception of Black women’s hair in the UK is such that it forces an introspection of the self which is inorganically derived. The various perceptions of Black women’s hair do not exist in a meaningless vacuum as mere statements or opinions, but they are instead interwoven with reflections upon the individual, whether said individual has chosen adhere to the standard set by society or not. Read More

By Gabrielle Cassell • I was a Pan-Africanist before I even knew the term existed. I grew up in an inherently African diasporic home, with my heritage rooted in West Africa and the West Indies through my father and mother, respectively. My father, in particular, instilled a strong sense of racial consciousness in me and my sibling from a young age. Read More

By Tishayla Williams • Motherhood is one of the most defining experiences in a woman’s life, but for me, it has been a concept I have examined through the lens of the women around me rather than through personal experience. My decision to remain childfree was not made lightly; rather, it was shaped by reflection, conversations, and an understanding of the complexities of raising children. Read More

By Angela Foster-Mason • In this chapter, I explore the positioning of Black women in the UK in romantic and sexual relationships, insofar as this relates to the violence of the colonisation of the mind. I intend to assess to what extent internal perceptions of one’s sexuality and intentions match external projections of what this is implied to be. To do so, I begin by critiquing Fanon’s assessment of the psychology behind Black feminine relationships with white men, which is echoed by Moore-Gilbert (1996) and relating this both to misogyny, and more prudently, misogynoir. Read More

“What Doesn’t Kill You Doesn’t Always Make You Stronger” — Poem by Sincerely Denyze • This poem expresses the realities of living with anxiety and depression. I wrote this to break the stigma surrounding Black and ethnic minorities and challenges with mental health. Read More

“Love Would Do No Such Thing” — Poem by Dorothy Dorseanvil • One day, I sat down and realized love has always been here. It was inside of me all along. Until I learned to love myself, I would be stuck in a cycle of toxic relationships and patterns. I wouldn’t have had the courage to pack up and leave my toxic marriage. Read More

“The Black body is a commodity” — Poem by Vie Kelley • Content warning: state violence • On the way to work, I saw a mural of names of Black folks who have been murdered by the police. It evoked a lot of emotion in me. When I feel powerless, I write. This poem is an ode to all my Black ancestors whose lives were taken too soon. I touch on different aspects of Blackness that are used for entertainment and exploited. Read More

“Freedom Dreams” — Poem by Arowah • Inspired by Robin D. G. Kelley’s book ‘Freedom Dreams’, B.H.A.M. (Black History Arts Movement) is a musical project that tells the stories of forgotten freedom struggles. Listen & Read More

By Andraya Yearwood • Pajubá is a vibrant and dynamic lexicon originating in Afro-Brazilian and LGBTQIA+ circles, particularly among trans* and travesti communities. I deliberately make use of the terminology “trans*¹ with an asterisk in order to represent the multiplicities inherent in being anything other than the heteronormative standard attributed to gender and its expressions. At its core, Pajubá incorporates elements of African languages like Yoruba and Southern American languages like Brazilian Portuguese, reflecting deep cultural roots from the motherland. Read More

By Kitty Scarlett and Stephanie Younger • Carceral psychiatry is yet another systemic issue that pathologizes and controls Black pain instead of heals. When Black neurodivergent people experience mental health crises, they’re more likely to encounter criminalization, incarceration and police violence, and not genuine care. Read More

By Lauren Lane, Monica Evans, and Vanessa Nyarko • Disclaimer: Our analysis is based on the first two seasons of Harlem and is not reflective of the third and final season, as it was not released when the piece was written • Black women in television today have the voice and agency to create stories and images of Black womanhood never seen in the media before. Televisual depictions of Black womanhood have a lot of tension when it comes to crafting fictional Black women characters because of how fans can identify with them. Read More

By Sheyra Perez • Whispers on the water is a watercolor and gouache painting that illustrates a therapeutic relationship with nature with a hopeful poem by Emma O’Connell. Navigating a patriarchal and white supremacist society, Black feminists are evermore vulnerable to social and political changes inconsiderate of our best interests. View

By Angela Foster-Mason • As a British-born Gambian-by-nationality woman, I occupy the realms of the untethered and the unclaimed. While I was born in the United Kingdom, and have never lived nor settled anywhere else, my passport is issued by The Gambia. My rights to vote in the UK are dependent upon The Gambia’s fealty to The Commonwealth (at the time of writing this is secure; we have chosen to leave before), and I would have to pay the frankly barrier-imposing fees involved in obtaining British citizenship, let alone participate in the labour implicated in undergoing the naturalisation process. Read More

By Desiree McCray • Originally published on Desiree’s Divine Inspiration (December 15, 2024) • Nikki Giovanni (1943 – 2024) will always be an icon. She has truly touched me and left her mark on this earth. Writing about someone who meant so much to me and this world is difficult. The task is further complicated by the grief that swells up at the ends and corners of my heart as I think of a way to honor her light which was a true gift to this world. Read More

By Kitty Scarlett • Food justice, Black ecology, and environmental justice are deeply interconnected frameworks that challenge systems of oppression and envision pathways toward collective liberation. Food justice centers the right to accessible, nutritious, and culturally relevant food while exposing how systemic racism has shaped food systems that disproportionately harm Black and marginalized communities. Read More

By Gabrielle Miller • The issue that is the subject of my thoughts herein was bellowed into the American conscience the moment Sojourner Truth uttered the most famous inquiry of 1851 – “Ain’t I a woman?” This question did not represent a new sentiment. It represented the painfully overdue expression of a long-held feeling carried within Black women while traversing the American landscape. Read More

“Pet Peeves” — Poem by Sincerely Denyze • This poem addresses how marginalised groups are dehumanised and yet actual animals are often treated with much more kindness and respect. It’s a call to value empathy in the midst of the countless genocides against marginalised groups. This is connected to Black liberation as it highlights the ways in which we are treated. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Since she was five years old, Liza Mickens has been sharing the story of her great-great-grandmother, Maggie Lena Walker, speaking about her ardent dedication to gender and racial justice as it pertains to the conditions of women and Black people in Richmond, Virginia. Read More

“A Love Letter to Authenticity – I” — Poem by T. Athena Marshall • This is the beginning of exploration into my identity as a Black femme and what that means from beginning to end. It’s an exploration at its raw core of how Black women and femmes will fall into the stereotype trap of being strong and a superwoman to a detriment to self to please others. Read More

“Little Black Girl” — Poem by Abria Scott Read More

By Hannah Hall • In this illustration essay, multi-faceted writer and illustrator Hannah Hall reflects on four of her illustrations, We are not animals, The Moors, The Capitalist Theory, and Afrocentric Love in her thesis, The Trials and tribulations Of Creating a Black Princess. Her thesis is a comprehensive response to multiple Disney stimuli containing characters from the BAME diaspora. View

By Teresa Younger • It is a near-universal experience; that moment when Black girls realize what they are to the world, the world can seem hostile and confusing. As a new era of Black girls comes of age, introspection, and contextuality in life’s journey can be a lifesaving tool. Kemeshia Randle Swanson dedicates her book, “Maverick Feminist: To Be Female and Black in A Country Founded upon Violence and Respectability” to “every girl or woman who has ever been told what they shouldn’t say or do for fear of what someone else might say or do…” Read More

“partus sequitur ventrem” — Poem by Lee Gordon • Illustration by Hannah Hall • Content warning: sexual assault imagery • “partus sequitur ventrem” translates to “the birth follows the womb,” alluding to the generational violence Black femmes have suffered at the hands of chattel slavery. White patriarchal violence is omitted from discussions on the destruction of Black public health and the shackling of the Black womb. Read More

By Kitty Scarlett • Ayanami Hobbes opened their solo exhibition entitled “The Distortion and Perseverance of Black Femininity” on Tuesday, July 2nd from 3pm to 9pm at Compere Collective in Brooklyn, New York. The brilliantly crafted pieces, a genre of art, entitled “digital psychedelic impressionism,” celebrates the multiplicity of Black femininity in all its glory, pain, beauty and expression. Read More

“What Does a World that Accepts Non-Binary People Look Like?” — Poem by Desiree McCray • A womanist imagination of a world where non-binary people are accepted, that challenges White Supremacy and colonization that perpetuate binary ideals. Read More

“Ode to Scars” — Poem by Desiree McCray • A celebration of my resilience to endure adversity and emerge stronger and shining brighter. Read More

“Oxygen Meets Carbon” — Poem by Ife Al-Din • A story of evolution in a mother and daughter’s relationship that is the result of their individual growth. It is a story of freedom from a common trope in unhealed Black mother and daughter relationships, and a testament to their ability to heal each other and how necessary they are to one other. Read More

By Mother Prose • Elitist are the best teasers — The Black Bourgeoisie, while overlooked, is essential in the primordial stages of deep analysis. To quote the Black/Pan-African leader Malcolm X interview with Herman Blake, “You’ll find that negroes are just as on guard around bougie negros as they are around whites…” Read More

“The Problem with Keyana” — Poem by Darlene Anita Scott • Originally published on Stonecoast Review Issue 10 (Winter 2019) Read More

“Ars Poetica As Another Dashiki” — Poem by Darlene Anita Scott • Originally published on Stonecoast Review Issue 10 (Winter 2019) Read More

“The Riverkeeper” — Poem by Blessing Ahuoyiza Oziama • Content warning: Mentions of harm towards children • A poem that centres on infertility and the pressure for Black African women to be fertile for society’s needs. The poet persona realises that her powers of creation are solely hers to use as she desires. Read More

“Radiantly Resilient, Blessedly Brilliant” — Poem by Desiree McCray • Inspired by Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman,” this is a song of self-love, self-discovery, and self-affirmation, for all women of different races and ethnicities, sizes and shapes, and class and expansive genders. Read More

“Do You Love Me As I Am? A Letter to Myself” — Poem & Painting by Renata Hall • Written in March 2023 • A painting alongside a poem, that represents that constant self-development and imposter syndrome that Black women live within; an ode to myself and other Black women, constantly within the binds of understanding the self in the present and longing for the future. View & read more

By Naima Cooper • Originally published on Black, Human, and Free (February 7, 2023) • While my decision in the moment felt impulsive and wrong, as I reflect, it was neither of those things. This was something I’d been considering for a while, but I always feared I’d lose much more than my hair. I feared I’d lose community, desirability, and sense of self. Could I survive that? Read More

By Dijah Hayden • Is celebrating Black women for openly asserting themselves into elitist and white-dominated spaces really the flex we think it is? For a few years the discourse on “Black Girl Luxury” has been prevalent on social media, especially Twitter and TikTok. Read More

“Me & Mother” — Poem by Isarina Charles • Originally published on Glory Publication (September 11, 2023) • “Daughters and mothers exist as a generational mirror” Read More

By Isarina Charles • Originally published on Glory Publication (September 10, 2023) • Content warning: depressive undertones • Periods of Agony: For the Black teenagers who carry an interminable chronic period of sadness, our blood is too dark for the world who doesn’t want us to be experienced. We are told to not be a disruptor from the very moment our bodies are policed; it didn’t matter what happened to us along the way. Read More

By Chloe Alexandria • It is no surprise as a Black woman, I constantly feel like my sexuality is not my own. Racist ideas, originating from the foundations of European colonialism, have long influenced our perceptions of Black sexuality. This is something I am particularly aware of as a Black Caribbean woman. The Caribbean region is marketed to the world as a tropical destination, a paradise, with no acknowledgement of our experiences or history. Read More

By Isarina Charles • Originally published on Glory Publication (September 3, 2023) • The birthing of a Black feminist derives from the intent to trust the magic of our leadership, spiritual preservation, and our inner screeching. The Black feminist is born out of a rage that is typically feared in the Black women; a rage that tells the hidden truth of the suffering that most expect to keep under wraps. Read More

“Ode to O’Shae” — Poem by Shawn Williams • A tribute poem to O’Shae Sibley • Inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” (1959) • Content warning: death, violence on queer Black bodies Read more

By Pasq • Black British History is often ignored because of historical revisionism and a complete exclusion of Black people in the UK national educational curriculum. The only Black history that’s actually available is related to the United States of America implying that we do not have a significant history of our own. Currently, there are campaigns to include Black British History in the curriculum. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • As a community organizer who “grew up in the arts,” Jasmine Leeward’s involvement in movements for queer liberation and against police violence was integral to their filmmaking journey. In 2016, they began their organizing journey at New Virginia Majority, where they registered voters, participated in tenant organizing, advocated for the restoration of formerly incarcerated people’s civil rights, and for environmental justice. Read More

By Ikran Abdi • Educational inequality: Education is frequently the doorway to many chances in life and can provide success to those who choose to pursue it, yet harsh realities lurk right inside the classroom door. Many people from diverse backgrounds find themselves navigating a system that appears to be designed to push them away. Read More

By Chloe Alexandria • Eshe Kiama Zuri is a 27 year old organiser and activist from Nottingham. They are a founder of various projects including Co-Care Project, a Black activist led group facilitating non-financial and financial support and resources to marginalised communities across the UK. Set up in 2018, Co-Care Project formerly known as UK Mutual Aid grew as a response to an environment of discrimination, capitalistic individualism and greed. Read More

By Ikran Abdi • A few months ago, I was making my way back to my class after using the restroom when two white students stopped me and blocked my way from entering the classroom; barking at me that I “don’t belong here” and that I’m “one of them.” Read More

By Kahlia Phillips • Dr. LaShawn Harris, author of Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners, credits UC Berkeley professor Leigh Raiford for the concept of “critical Black memory.” Critical Black memory is the usage of history to inform the current moment. She suggests that the historical past offers both legacies and lessons for contemporary socio-economic issues relating to Black women. Read More

By Chelsea Ekwughalu • The film industry has influenced the perception of Black life throughout time using characterizations inherited from associated socio-political eras. This relationship between politics and art can be anticipated due to the role emotion and societal values often play in both. Read More

“I Experienced BGM” — Poem by Shanese Williams • “Julia” — Illustration by Angel Obadeyi • For the people that have experienced Black Girl Magic and left wanting more. View & Read More

By Oluwademilade Ogunlade • When I was younger, I recall my older cousin constantly reminding me that I wasn’t allowed to get false nails at a salon because it was ‘entirely too mature.’ When I mentioned other children who were allowed to do it, she’d point out that I had a different body than them and that my mere physical appearance, coupled with fake nails, was certain to communicate a message that I was “grown.” Read More

By Stephanie Younger • “I came to this realization that a magazine is a place where you can test out ideas, change the public opinion on things, and you can reach people through writing,” said Yasmeen Jaaber, a Black queer academic and writer. Read More

“Soft Tissue” — Poem by Yasmine Bolden • Content warning: minor references to historical anti-Black violence Read More

“Waterbird” — Poem by Yasmine Bolden • Originally posted on Mika Magazine’s Instagram page • Content warning: minor references to historical anti-Black violence Read More

“Making the Subtext Text: Collard Greens and Black-Eyed Peas Histories” — Poem by Yasmine Bolden Read More

By Malika Zwanya Crutchfield • In this photo essay, California-based artist, educator and community advocate Malika Zwanya Crutchfield reflects on two of her art pieces, Survival and Modernity. View

By Lisa Brown • “The Sun is Pro Black” is part of the work on Black women who often find themselves in a hard spot for resting. View

By Stephanie Younger • During the 2020 protests, community members in Richmond, Virginia reclaimed the Robert E. Lee Memorial and renamed it to Marcus-David Peters Circle. MDPC is named after Marcus-David Peters, who was murdered by the Richmond Police Department while experiencing a mental health crisis in May 2018. Read More

By Chelsea Ekwughalu and Stephanie Younger • Chanice McClover-Lee, 20, is a writer, speaker and “Black feminist advocate doing all things in the name of liberation, freedom, and justice.” Having grown up in a predominantly white environment, she began her literary journey reading books primarily written by white authors. However, as a teenager, McClover-Lee grew hungry for the work of more diverse voices and immersed herself in the world of Black literature. Read More

By Cree Nichelle Pettaway • Content warning: mentions of a racial slur • Two years into graduate school, I sit in my office doing what I am fated to do the entirety of my three years—trying to finish work at the last minute and silently praying that someone or something will come along and free me. Unfortunately, what comes is another task I do not want: the emotional labor of navigating the literary world as a Black woman. Read More

“Letters from America” — Poem by Tene’sha Crews • A 3-part political poem representing America’s history with key points being the displacement and pillage of Indigenous communities, corruption caused by war, and the perpetuation of oppressive systems by those in power. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Catch the Fire, a Black student advocacy group based in Richmond, Virginia, worked with community members, coalitions, and mutual aid groups to hold “Let the People Speak” in commemoration of Black History Month. Read More

By Alejandra Pretel • Originally published on Afrocolectiva (October 16, 2022) • Amefricanity is a geopolitical and sociocultural category coined by the great Lélia González, which appears as a hermeneutic proposal to rethink our own experiences and ailments of this territory, which today we call Latin America. Read More

By Chloe Alexandria, Kayla Dorancy, and Stephanie Younger • In September, we spoke with Jaimee A. Swift, a political scientist, and the executive director and creator of Black Women Radicals, “a Black feminist advocacy organization dedicated to uplifting and centering Black women and gender expansive people’s radical political activism.” Read More

By Alejandra Pretel • Originally published on Afrocolectiva, an “Afro-feminist, anti-racist, and pan-Africanist deconstruction media, focused on the fight against all systems of domination.” (September 18, 2022) • An analysis of the manifesto of the Combahee River Collective Read More

Anonymous • Content warning: psychiatric racism, sanism, and mentions of self-harm • I received my Autism diagnosis exactly one year ago, on October 21, 2021. Last year, I began the process of writing this essay, which prompted several months of journaling, reflecting on my childhood, and communicating with my loved ones. I have processed the years leading up to my recent diagnosis, and I hope that my essay resonates with someone, with or without a diagnosis. Read More

By Kitty Scarlett • For our first resource list for Black neurodivergent folks (specifically for Black Autistic and/or ADHD folks), we asked you on Instagram what you wished you knew when you found out you had Autism and/or ADHD, how people can support you in your journey, and what you want to learn more about Autism, ADHD and Blackness. This is the first in a series of resource lists. Read More

“Afro-Recrudescence” — Poem by Chelsea Ekwughalu • Content warning: blood, violence • A poem about colonial racism as it functions in the modern day, with a particular focus on the exploitation of the African continent. It intends to draw a comparison between a persistent parasite and imperialist nations that manipulate corruption in African governments to continue exploiting our nations for their natural resources. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • When we spoke with Nupol Kiazolu in 2018, she was completing her senior year of high school, on her way to Hampton University, and she was the President of Black Lives Matter Greater New York Youth Coalition. She is now 22 years old, and next year, she will graduate from Hampton University with her degree in political science and begin law school. Read More

By Chelsea Ekwughalu • Content warning: eating disorders, body image, anorexia, and bulimia • Cassie Ainsworth, Shannon Reed, Matilda Hunter, Blair Waldolf, Imogen Willis, Linda Carter, Honey Mitchell, and Cleo McQueen. The preceding names are those of film and television’s most prominent depictions of body dysmorphia. Read More

By Chloe Alexandria • Throughout the summer of 2022, Transport for London (TfL) and Network Rail staff have been protesting against the poor working conditions, low pay and increasing cuts towards the transport sector. On Friday, 19th August, 400 overground and 10,000 Tube workers are set to strike for 24 hours. This movement is a part of the biggest strike action in 30 years since 1989, and is set to continue if employers fail to address their concerns. Read More

By B.J. Wright • Originally published on Calypsoul (June 29, 2022) • In December 2018, the Black Feminist Collective published a short essay by Kiarran T.L. Diaz titled, “Why The Handmaid’s Tale is Problematic.” Now, I’ve never read the book or watched the show, and while Diaz’s critique focused explicitly on the Hulu original series, I’ve come to find that there is usually nothing lost in the translation of white narratives from literature to film. Read More

By Chloe Alexandria • Opportunity, social mobility and economic success is determined by one’s ability to fulfill the linguistic expectations of a white British society. Living in London, I often witness the ways in which English speakers are favored, seen as the norm and given access to linguistic capital. Read More

By Chloe Alexandria, Mariana Álvarez Castillo and Stephanie Younger • On May 5th, 2017, Black Feminist Collective started out as a project that affirms the work Black girls, women and non-binary people have done for LGBTQ+ liberation, feminism, civil rights and Black liberation movements. Read More

By Yasmeen Jaaber • Originally published on Medium (January 28, 2022) • In March 2020, when my Junior year ended, there was little I had control over. I thought of the future and saw either fire and dying or nothing at all. I struggled with feeling any difference in the days and I needed something to give the calendar on my wall meaning. So, Fridays ceased to be another day in an everlasting stream of days, and became my hair days. Read More

By Kevin A. Blanks • Finally, in the aftermath of Ahmaud Arbery’s trial, I am able to exhale. I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath until the verdict came in and the jury declared Arbery’s killers guilty for his murder. It should feel like a victory, but it doesn’t. Read More

By Teresa Younger • To me, motherhood is a critical aspect of Black feminism. A critical understanding of our experiences allows Black women to contribute to each other, and the liberation movements in significant ways. My late mother comes from a family that gatekeeps painful memories. But on her birthday, I reflect on a key experience that changed our family, highlights my mother’s strength and the fortitude she was able to glean from an unlikely resource. Read More

Originally published on MIZZOU Magazine (October 9, 2019) and Afroféminas (August 17, 2021) • First model for understanding skin-tone trauma indicates that colorist incidents lead to negative effects on health, relationships. Read More

By Micaela Stevenson • Colonialism has been defined by scholar activists as the process in which a group of people is dominated or subjugated by another group of people. This most commonly occurs between two ethnic groups or tribes but may also occur between different genders or sexualities. The field of medicine is not immune to this despite its moving toward an increasingly racially, ethnically, socioeconomically, and gender diverse field. Read More

By Micaela Stevenson • “Stratified reproduction,” as defined by Shellee Cohen, is “the practice in which a society assigns value to offspring and therefore reproductive capacity of different groups of people.” While commonly race or socioeconomically based, this can be based on any category into which we can divide people. This concept is ever present in medicine, even in the most progressive environments. Read More

By Stephanie Younger and Teresa Younger • The community fridge is a concept and a place where communities are given access to share and collect food. In August, we spoke with RVA Community Fridges founder Taylor Scott about mutual aid and how she brought the community fridge to Richmond, Virginia in 2021. Read More

Anonymous • Originally written in December 2019 • Texturism is prejudice against people based on the texture of their hair, which mainly impacts Black folks, especially Black people with type four natural hair. Read More

By the Black Feminist Collective Team • Garnett Achieng is a Kenyan data & digital rights researcher, and tech culture writer. Alongside activists and civil society representatives, she recently worked with Plan International, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to help make their platforms a safer space for women. Watch

By Carlota Memba Aguado • Originally published on Afroféminas (June 21, 2021) • Germany recognizes the massacre of the Herrero and Nama in Namibia during German settlement as genocide and plans to apologize before Parliament as well as pay reparations. Read More

By Chloe Dunston • The Tiger Flu is set in the year 2145, which author Larissa Lai depicts as a “time after oil” divided by factions, gender, disease and technology. After years of greedy leadership, environmental degradation, and the exhaustion of fossil fuels, Saltwater City and its outskirts stand alone in what was formerly Vancouver, Canada. Read More

By Teresa Younger • At Black Feminist Collective, we are celebrating Imani House, an organization that allows Black people to empower themselves through the provision of education, information and support services in the United States and Liberia. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • “Loves the Struggle”: Movement-Making for the Culture: An Intergenerational Conversation at KGCCWL Virtual Spring Conference (April 10, 2021) • At the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership Virtual Spring Conference, I had the unforgettable experience of interviewing Ruby Sales, a freedom fighter, theologian, graduate of Tuskegee Institute, Manhattanville College, Princeton University and Episcopal Divinity School. Read More

By Mariana Álvarez Castillo • Originally published on Afroféminas (March 26, 2021) • Regarding the feminist commemoration dates, it is important to think about some of the discussions that have historically taken place within the movement, but that in the context of the recent 8M are shaken, deepened, and resumed. I like to think that this is what these dates are for: not to assume that all the answers have been given, to surrender to the dilemma, the contradiction, the discomfort of being an activist, being anti-patriarchal, being anti-racist. Read More

By Mariana Álvarez Castillo • Originally published on Afroféminas (November 17, 2020) • Delphine Desane (B. 1988) places moments of her world in limbos of colors: from her experience as a Black woman in Europe, she brings situations, outfits, faces and hair to the canvas. With flat colored backgrounds and penetrating gazes, Delphine makes visible the Black corporality that surrounds her, from a place that involves the intimate, the meditative and the forceful. Read More

“Black Mommas” — Poem by Tanya Barnett Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Last week, we spoke with Fatima Derby, a Ghanaian feminist thinker, writer and organizer, who stands for freedom, justice and equality. During our conversation via Instagram Live, we discussed the violence LGBTQ+ people in Ghana are experiencing, what influences homophobic and transphobic violence against queer and trans Ghanaians, and the fight for their liberation. Watch & Read More

“Abused Womb of the Margin” — Poem by Anonymous • Content warning: language of abuse • An unfortunate somber of a person positioned and forced into compliance; whom, is left unfulfilled and disconnected. Read More

By Kayla Dorancy • In an effort to achieve what some may call “the American Dream”, “reparations”, or just “getting theirs” — far too often do we see the main perpetrators and victims sharing the skin color and experiences. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Back in October, I wrote a “Present-Day Analysis of how our Allies ‘Visit Blackness’ and Set the Timetable for Black Liberation”¹ about the ways in which liberal and carceral feminists silence Black feminists’ critiques. To continue my analysis, I’ll start by acknowledging the undeniably monumental victory that is electing the first Black female Vice President of the United States. Read More

By Teresa Younger • In the future what will we name the period of history that we are currently living in? Every aspect of life feels so volatile as we are thrown from one crisis to another. No matter how urgent, it is easy to fall out of the news cycle and thus our collective consciousness because of yet another urgent crisis. Read More

By Kayla Dorancy • Immigration is a universal practice by people that’s survived countless generations. The United States is known universally as a “melting pot” of culture and nationality. The inclusion and diversity of America is often embraced and is her most remarkable feature yet, internationally. Racial and ethnic variety is claimed to be the foundation of the United States’ greatness. Yet, the history of the United States pertaining to immigrants/immigration tells a different story, revealing a scarier reality. Read More

By Kayla Dorancy • If I were to ask you when New York City schools were integrated, what would you tell me? 1954, right? In fact, most people reference Brown versus The Board of Education and 1954 as when schools were integrated. You’re not wrong that in 1954, Brown versus Board of Education was won by abolishing separate but equal and compelled all schools in the United States to be fully integrated. However, the creation of laws to uphold the Supreme Court ruling and their enforcement were/are not reflective of the case’s ruling. Read More

“On the Ancestral Blessing of a Union” — Poem by Yemi Miller-Tonnet • Inspired by Harriet Tubman’s planning of the Combahee River Raid in 1863, this poem honors Tubman’s organizing efforts that eventually inspired the creation of The Combahee River Collective in the 1970s. Read more

By Stephanie Younger and Teresa Younger • Content warning: Sexual violence and murder • According to PEW Research Center, 235 Black people were shot to death by the police in 2019. The social movement against systemic racism and police violence continued in 2020, when believers around the world turned out following the May 25th police murder of George Floyd, during a global pandemic. Read More

By Teresa Younger • During a conversation about the Virginia Museum of History and Culture’s Agents of Change: Female Activism in Virginia From Women’s Suffrage to Today, an exhibit that featured a panel about my daughter and her artwork, I was asked, “Is your child happy doing this work?” Read More

By Marissa Mann • About the Project — I recently graduated from City University of New York (CUNY) Brooklyn College (BC) in the Spring semester of 2020. I came in as a transfer student in 2018 knowing exactly what career I wanted to pursue: speech-language pathology. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Are all people in America served and protected by the law? In the documentary, “Profiled – The Mothers of Murdered Black and Latino Youth,” director Kathleen Foster utilizes the power of art, amplifies the voices of Black and Latin American women and youth, and directs attention to protest and dissent. Read More

By Princess Jiménez • Originally published on Kultwatch (August 1, 2019) • In the Dominican Republic, where supposedly moral society and the Church often espouse virulent homophobia and transphobia, an unusual alliance has appeared among the very poorest: singers and producers of popular music genre Dembow are working with queer people and trans women, who have become huge stars in their own right. Read More

By TrayCee Truth • The following excerpt is the first chapter of TrayCee Truth’s e-book, The Therapeutic Alliance Handbook: A Study of Modern Intersectionalities of the 20th Century (2017). • Usually, it is customary to begin an essay/journal of this sort of measure with a precise definition regarding whiteness, yet what are the intersectionalities of this concept? Read More

“Broken Tree” — Poem by Kiarran T.L. Diaz • A short poem about the struggle of finding your culture. Read More

By Shelby Moring • A channeled essay and stream of consciousness contemplating money insecurity and the wisdom of my ancestors on creative abundance. Read More

By Krystal Tang • The struggles, in prose, of my interactions with white women and with older Black & WOC allies while working in the low ranks of academia. Read More

“Spots on the Rug” — Poem by Joshua Redd • Written in 2018 • A very real, raw look into what it means to be gay, voiceless, poor, etc. but to still be expected to survive and overcome. Read More

By Sharayah Alkire • Throughout American History systems have been built up to bring down Black people in many ways. Some of these systems have been legal and widespread, being used across the nation. One of these being the school’s systems. Read More

By Belan Yeshigeta • In collaboration with Generation Ratify • Women have often been given the short end of the stick when it comes to equal rights, and it is no secret that African Americans are still prejudiced against to this day. The unique experience of being a part of both marginalized communities is one that is too often overlooked. The voices of Black women are frequently smothered. Read More

“Birmingham Burning” — Poem by Ayana Graham • Inspired by John Coltrane’s “Alabama” (1963) Read More

By Kristin Couch • Originally published on Dream Warriors Foundation (February 2019) • Reading Zora Neale Hurston and Audre Lorde led me to question myself about the stance I take on activism. These writers represent two polar ideals of being that I have struggled to find identification with. Zora Neale, my humanist hero who finds that everyone should enjoy being in her company, and Audre, my radical writer who so eloquently speaks about the struggles of being a Black lesbian. Read More

By Joshua Redd • On October 1, 2019, Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean on September 6, 2018. The murder of Black folks by the hands of officers is nothing new. What made this case extremely peculiar was that he was murdered in his own home. Read More

By Ryan Edward Perry • I did not always appreciate my Blackness. I used to be one of those “I’m not Black, I’m O.J.” types that purposefully eschewed the culture in favor of a more centrist approach to interpersonal relationships. I grew up and still reside in a place called Woodbridge, Virginia, just a half hour down the road from my hometown of D.C. where I was born, and spent the majority of my childhood before third grade. Read More

By Brittany Jeter • The following excerpt is from Brittany Jeter’s upcoming novel, Of Cats and Women. Read More

“Fire and Mud” — Poem by Kiarran T.L. Diaz • A poem about experiencing microaggressions in day-to-day life. Read More

“Black Music” — Poem by Baletica Genous Read More

“Stage 2” — Poem by Maya-Gawonii Shabazz-Saleh • Read More

“Two Poets” — Poem by Quincy Evans Read More

“The Pen is Mightier than the Sword” — Poem by Tene’sha Crews Read More

By Kayla Austin • The aftermath of the natural disaster that was Hurricane Katrina is a display of the effects of environmental racism, redlining, and the neglection of people of color and those facing poverty. Katrina is one of the worst natural disasters to occur in the history of the United States. Read More

By Sarah Mathew • In collaboration with Richmond Peace Education Center’s Peace Essay Contest, “Remembering 1619 and Restoring Justice” • In 1619, my second great grandfather was kidnapped from his home in Angola and forced onto a Portuguese slave ship, just to be stolen by English pirates. After all this, he was finally delivered to the English settlement of Point Comfort where he, along with 20 other Africans, were sold to colonists who exploited them for hard labor in the tobacco fields. Read More

By Gloria Amado • In collaboration with Richmond Peace Education Center’s Peace Essay Contest, “Remembering 1619 and Restoring Justice” • 400 years ago, my ancestors were kidnapped from their homes. Not only was there fear from their original captors, the Spanish, but they were then seized by a Dutch warship and brought to an unknown land. They were sold as property and worked until they collapsed. Read More

“My Name is Pronounced ‘Revolution’” — Poem by Elease Willis Read More

By Graciela Barada • Originally published on Cuatro Meses en Barbados (February 5, 2018) • When I was about ten or eleven years old, I became overly conscious of my body and the lens through which the world saw it. Arguably, everyone deals with fluctuations in their self-esteem, particularly in regards to body image and especially during puberty, a confusing time of uncertainty and change. Read More

“Perpetual Home” — Poem by Tene’sha Crews Read More

“My Raw Thoughts on Depression” — Poem by Kenidra R. Woods • Originally posted on Twitter (May 29, 2019) Read More

By Havana Chapman-Edwards • Speech at White House Climate Strike (May 24, 2019) • My name is Havana Chapman-Edwards and I am 8 years old. I am here today because sometimes democracy looks like disagreement. I can’t sit in my classroom learning about our government when the government isn’t taking my future seriously. Read More

“Trigger Warning” — Poem by Quincy Evans Read More

“Black Girl” — Poem by NaVosha Copeland Read More

By Taneasha White, Brooke Taylor, Sarmistha Talukdar, and Rebecca Wooden Keel • In collaboration with Southerners on New Ground (SONG) • Mother’s Day inspires images of family, bonding and care. May 12 is right around the corner, and many of us will be spending the day with our family. However, we forget that many Black women will spend this day in cages, just because they don’t have enough money to pay bail. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Speech at Virginia Youth Climate Strike (May 3, 2019) and Richmond Climate Strike (December 6, 2019) • I believe in womanism, the abolition of youth prisons, gun violence prevention and diversity in the fields of science, technology, engineering, art and math. I also believe that climate justice is racial justice, and in this fight for climate justice it is important to validate Black lives. Read More

“It Has Happened Again” — Poem by Tene’sha Crews Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Black Women are Being Left Out of the Conversation Surrounding Human Trafficking. Read More

By Kiarran T.L. Diaz • In the age of “wokeness,” TV shows, and media alike are rushing to find a way to sell their ideas to people who are tired of the nonsense. Different shows, movies, and books try to align themselves with diversity by trying to take shortcuts left and right. Producers love to add one Black character and subtract them later by killing them off. Shows will introduce a queer character and give them the most heartbreaking story lines. Then, there are shows that do both. Read More

“Fight for You” — Poem by Stephanie Webb Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Originally published on The Melanin Diary (November 30, 2018) • 7-year-old student activist Havana Chapman-Edwards was the only student at her school in Alexandria, Virginia to participate in the National School Walkout to honor the victims of the 1999 Columbine school shooting. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • I would like to expand on a speech I delivered this year at both the Virginia Prison Reform Rally and National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls’ Town Hall. Specifically, to share how advocacy for juvenile justice is not only inspired by learning about Angela Davis’ work, but also heavily influenced by some of the discrimination I experienced growing up in western Henrico County. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • On Saturday afternoon, the Richmond community joined RISE For Youth, ART 180, and Performing Statistics, to “honor the voices, dreams and demands of youth affected by the school-to-prison pipeline.” Read More

By Stephanie Younger • The Hate U Give is a movie based on the 2017 YA novel by Angie Thomas. Directed by George Tillman Jr., the movie opens with 16-year-old Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) narrating her recollection of being given “the talk” by her parents Maverick (Russell Hornsby) and Lisa (Regina Hall), on how to survive encounters with the police. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • ART 180 is an RVA-based organization that gives marginalized young people the opportunity to create change by expressing themselves through music, poetry, dance, and more. On Friday, they opened “Lift Us Up! Don’t Push Us Out!” a mixed-reality exhibit that raises awareness about the school-to-prison pipeline, the youth and their families affected by this issue. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • International Day of Peace, launched by United Nations (UN), is a day that inspires “all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.” Read More

By Stephanie Younger • At an art build for the upcoming National March For Justice and Reformation for Marcus-David Peters on October 13, I met Princess Blanding, a co-founder of Justice and Reformation. In May of this year, Blanding’s brother, Marcus-David Peters, was murdered by the Richmond Police Department while he was going through a mental health crisis; and just yesterday, the commonwealth attorney of Richmond, Virginia ruled the murder a “justifiable homicide.” Read More

By Stephanie Younger • On June 11, I briefly met Patrisse Khan-Cullors after she accepted the “Next Generation Award” at the ACLU National Membership Conference. Cullors is an artist, organizer and writer who founded Dignity and Power Now, co-founded Black Lives Matter, and authored “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” with Asha Bandele. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • My painting in ART 180’s gallery, “Everything is Connected,” (on display at ART 180’s Atlas Gallery from July 6 through July 25) is about the racism I experienced within the gun violence prevention community. The different colors represent the emotions I felt throughout the time I faced online harassment. View & Read More

By Stephanie Younger • This spring, I interviewed Nupol Kiazolu, the president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York Youth Coalition who has been recognized for her work as a civil rights activist and proud Liberian advocate. I am immensely proud to be in the same generation as young Black women like her who are changing the world already. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Virginia, we have a problem. We need to come to terms with our state’s history of the marginalization of the Black community. Virginia is where the first enslaved Africans were brought against their will. Richmond is the former capital of the Confederacy. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Speech at 4th District Town Hall for Our Lives (April 21, 2018), Richmond Youth Peace Summit (April 28, 2018), and Safe Virginia Initiative (May 5, 2018) • I stand here as a Black youth who was excluded by the student organizers of the Virginia National School Walkout Protest, which occurred on Friday, April 20th at Brown’s Island in Richmond, Virginia. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Inspired by Teen Vogue’s “Things Black Girls are Tired of Hearing ft. Amandla Stenberg” and Courtney M. Privett’s “Keep Persisting” • This is a mixed media piece I created at VCU Future Studio, an art program of VCU’s Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, VCU Institute for Contemporary Art, and ART 180. Starting today, my artwork, among my classmates’ artwork, is being displayed in ART 180’s Atlas Gallery. At the opening reception, I was also invited to share a revised version of my March For Our Lives speech I prepared for an upcoming protest. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Today, I was a speaker at a March For Our Lives demonstration in Richmond, Virginia addressing the fatal school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. My speech shed some light onto how gun violence disproportionately affects women, queer and trans people, and Black communities. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • January 21 marks one year since the Women’s March on Washington. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • On Friday, November 3, hundreds in Richmond, Virginia attended the Juvenile Justice Parade, organized by ART 180, RISE For Youth, and the Performing Statistics project, calling for the closure of youth prisons in Virginia. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • On October 13, white students on Short Pump Middle School’s football team posted a video of themselves simulating sexual assault, while shouting racial slurs at their Black teammates they have pinned to the ground. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • On August 11-12, white supremacists protested the removal of the Confederate Monument in Charlottesville, Virginia, and attacked anti-racist counter-protestors. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • I am a 15-year-old based in Central Virginia who enjoys speaking about issues I care about through writing and activism. I have also been into robotics since I was 7 years old. When I was 9, I began learning how to code, and participated in competitive robotics teams at school. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Last night, nearly 100 people participated in the “Solidarity with DACA Holders March and Vigil,” which was organized by the Richmond Peace Education Center and Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Forms of oppression such as sexism and racism can overlap and systematically discriminate against an individual of many identities and create obstacles for them. When Black women resist misogynoir, they’re undermined and told that they should be remorseful of their voices, reinforcing these tropes that label them as “angry Black women.” Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Originally published on HCPL TeenScene’s Read + Review (March 11, 2017) • In the new YA novel, The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, a 16-year-old Black teen who has witnessed the two fatal shootings of her childhood friends tries to make sense of the world. Read More

“We Belong Here” — Poem by Stephanie Younger • Original spoken word performances at HOME of VA (April 7, 2017), Richmond Youth Peace Summit (April 29, 2017), and Community Justice Film Series (August 17, 2017) Listen & Read More

By Stephanie Younger • It’s important to acknowledge intersectionality and the experiences of Black queer people during LGBTQ+ Pride Month and to support Black queer liberation all the time. View

“Does My Life Matter” — Poem by Stephanie Younger • Original spoken word performances at Richmond Peace Education Center’s “Generation Dream” (February 3, 15, & 19, 2017) Listen & Read More

By Stephanie Younger • June 2 is “Gun Violence Awareness Day.” It also happens to be Hadiya Pendleton’s birthday, who would have turned 20 years old. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • I am a Black kid. Other Black kids I have spoken with worry about the world we’re about to inherit. We worry about police brutality, racial profiling, and unequal opportunity in general. Read More

By Stephanie Younger • Last month, I made a short film called “Black HerStory Month” that celebrates the intersections of Black history & feminist history. Why both? It’s not every day that you’ll find institutions educating people about Black history and feminist history from the narratives of Black girls, women and non-binary people, who have fortified our movements like feminism, LGBTQ+, civil rights in such powerful ways. Read More