Christina

Name: Christina Age: 29 Hometown: Columbus, Ohio Love Is: An intense appreciation for another, an unexplainable connection. It is multifaceted. Beautiful and ugly but powerful. Last month I attended a brunch hosted by Blavity during Essence Festival. It was an event full of young, black women who all were there to network and learn one …

Love Poems: Tilted Crown on Write About Now (Live)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ewYQhUwRN0   From August 1-5, I traveled home to Atlanta to compete at the National Poetry Slam as a member of Eclectic Truth National Team, Baton Rouge. Amir Safi, Chibbi Orduña and Christopher Diaz of Write About Now were gracious enough to host an after hours cypher. More than 40 poets performed and yours truly …

Natty Dread: On Jamaican History and Hair Identity

  Children get your culture/And don't stand there and just stare/Or the battle will be harder - Natty Dread As a black person it is radical to love yourself. To be black and proud, to some, means that you are angry or uppity or a threat. In a post-colonial world (using this term lightly), the Diaspora is …

Chay Chay Poley: A Quick Lesson on Liberian English

Song: Chay Chay Poley Artist: Tokay Tomah The linguistics of the Diaspora is fascinating to me. No matter where we landed or remained, our tongues have been influenced by colonization. West Africa is known for its various forms of Pidgin or broken English, the West Indies for their patois and the United States for AAVE. …

Love Is: Dialogue with the African Diaspora

  Three years ago, I began collecting interviews of Black people, questioning their definition of love and discussing other issues related to their personal Black narrative. I started by asking friends (thanks to you BUGA), strangers and musicians, including Big Sant and 9th Wonder. Each interview, each personal narrative proved that Black is not a …

love poems: rivers and trees (for alton)

i think i love a ghost or a man or a man who may be ghost tomorrow that is to say i love he whose skin is worth its weight it is gold. it is black. or maybe his skin is the grim reaper's shadow maybe i am in love with death's shadow and i …

love poems: tilted crown

one black boys rap about their dick size how they'll bust this pussy wide open like the .45 that killed his best friend skull bust wide open brain matter on ground a mind is a terrible thing to waste hard to get out of concrete he can't sleep at night visions of it haunt him …

Back in the Day: On the Organization of African Unity

      The Creator has given us this share of the earth that goes by the name of the African continent; it belongs to us and we are its only masters. - Patrice Lumumba, African Unity and National Independence, 1959 By 1963, there were thirty-two liberated African nations. For any newly freed nation, the question …

love poems: amuzu (part one)

friends, neighbors, countrymen lend me your eardrums this is the story of my father may his life be long part one my father is a street boy never had shit grew up in voodoland will put a hex on you thirty-six siblings because his father liked to spread his seed. this is what farmers do remember, …

It’s Highlife Time: On the History of Ghanaian Brass Music

    My father and maternal grandfather are from Keta, Ghana, West Africa. There was never a time that I did not have a deep sense of pride in being Ghanaian. One of the greatest cultural traditions my father gave me is Ghanaian music, particularly highlife.  At any given time in our household, highlife played …