2018-03-24 00:56
It's been another rough day in Babylon as Ras would say. I say rough, but rough depends on how you look it at. Always a lot going on, but I guess it is how you look at it. How yo… Read More
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Free Black space discusses African American history, culture, and current events.
2018-03-10 17:16
THE ALCHEMY OF BLACK FUTURES: BLACK COMICS, BLACK BEER CALENDARS & BLACK ICONOGRAPHYAs the information age gives way to the age of reckoning, where the dictates of nature will take prece… Read More
2018-03-09 15:51
The black panther is one of the most iconic symbols used by people of African descent. Majestic, sleek, regal, viral and fierce—not to mention unmistakably black—the a… Read More
2018-03-07 14:49
Below is a Poem from Samuel Miranda's New Collection Departures. Samuel is a a versatile visual artists, poet, and musician. Join him this Saturday March 10th 4-6 P.M. to v… Read More
2018-03-04 16:55
I am a Poet. I am an African American Poet.My son is a hip hop artist. He is eighteen years old.Much of my meditation these days is on the course of my son's development. H… Read More
2018-03-04 16:42
Empire of Language- Finale-Loving You is Complicated.So build buildagain the newvillages; youmust mix spittlewith dirt, dungto saliva.....Edward Kamau Braithwaite From the ArrivantsPoem… Read More
2018-03-04 16:40
Publishing this blog is a lot like rapping. When Chuck D, leader of Public Enemy, said Hip-Hop is Black America's CNN, he got at how beautiful and overlooked hip-hop can be. &hell…Read More
2018-02-18 17:05
I've been learning about the black imaginary. Special thanks to my friend Ernesto Mercer, long time warrior, poet, and priest for reminding me to root myself in the black joy of the #W… Read More
2018-02-05 15:15
Free Black Space: Short Take. I learned about Omar Sosa from T Yuan Chi Nicholson many years ago. T performed with Sosa years ago. When I traveled to Wuhan in China-he had already been th… Read More
2018-02-02 17:28
"Our awareness of the prevalence and magnitude of sexual assault has outpaced the systems that expose and adjudicate it. It’s incredibly difficult to match these two things up. But for… Read More
2018-01-30 03:21
I woke up this morning to find a minor tweet war had occurred between Jay-Z and Donald Trump over black employment and other matters in. Just a few minutes ago, I read a short article… Read More
2018-01-30 00:23
I woke up to a minor tweet war between Jay-Z and Donald Trump over black employment and other matters of importance in this morning's headlines. I've never really been a fan of Jay-Z… Read More
2018-01-20 15:47
The "real" is metaphor for authentic Black.Our stars cash this in. Some of our writers present it and it pays back. I saw today Monique suggest we boycott Netflix so she can get equal… Read More
2018-01-20 01:09
" China does not share the West's missionary impulse - it no longer seeks to export revolution, as it did during the days of Chairman Mao. Its goal nowadays is primary counter-revolutionary:… Read More
2018-01-19 07:41
Morning does not lie but can be mis-interpreted. For instance, I could say good morning on a day I had spent up all night. I used to do that shit all the time. The lie is innocent. A black l… Read More
2018-01-19 06:41
My time in China changed my approach to writing. To be truthful I think the country jacked up my personal discipline. For the myth of discipline as I learned it in the… Read More
2018-01-18 23:30
those big houses on main streetbecame a whiskey whose sightwe drank until drunkforgetting crept in like nightfallway home windingthrough the straight streetsleaving required no energynot eve… Read More
2018-01-15 23:34
forget this wordand you will rememberthe great forgetting the sea of it what you know and do not kno… Read More
2018-01-12 16:34
Audience is an essential component of any commercial enterprise.African American writers often operate in a murky water when it comes to audience. Who is the real audience for African Americ… Read More
2018-01-11 21:56
Ten Simple Things About Free Black Space1) Black intellectualism has always existed in America. Black intellectualism existed before America. There were black intelle… Read More
2017-12-30 20:33
Everyday for the last few months I've passed a giant Christmas tree on the main street by the university. It's at least fifty feet tall and looks like it is made of brownies and gingerbread… Read More
2017-12-30 18:52
Transcendence moment: The University I taught at in China offered a course called the Bible as literature. One of the unique things about Chinese culture is its "isolation." Colonialism m… Read More
2017-12-25 18:29
Brief Meditation on the Typo Is a typo like a tomato stain on a white shirt? Maybe ring around the collar?Without a doubt it is blemish. What does a blemish indicate?I… Read More
2017-12-20 02:13
The following post was published in April of 2015 on Free Black Space just two months before the publication of Between the World and Me. Part of the Free Black Space approach is to re… Read More
2017-12-19 18:02
One thing about the West/Coates whatever-rich and famous throw down over whose the most authentic/activistic Negro while Trump is in the White House trying to pass a tax bill that will drama… Read More
2017-12-10 22:51
By Dr. Valerie Prince Free Black Space Repost from July 11, 2014The Chinese still grieve over Japanese aggressions during the early parts of the second World War, which resulted i… Read More
2017-12-10 19:42
A few years back I got an e-mail that was excited about an article the New York Times was going to do on black poetry. I think it was front page. I remember it well, cuz there is this pod ca… Read More
2017-12-10 19:38
FBS-Short Take #2 Fake NewsThe truth about fake news is its a tactic that destabilizes our sense of what the truth is. But the truth is, if you black you never really knew what to believe an… Read More
2017-12-02 15:12
i thought my mama was godbecause the wind blew through the housewhen she told us to clean, she openedwindows and autumn air came through,cool relief. we moved. we felt.because i never… Read More
2017-11-30 00:42
All people love the positive, and the people I know are no different.Of course we have our wars and our violent crimes, and our crime T.V. shows, but we also have our Thanksgiving and Christ… Read More
2017-11-09 14:08
I've been reading steady lately, and almost all of the books seem to be under radar. There are a couple on China, including the China Mirage by James Bradley. Bradley's book gets… Read More
2017-08-05 19:07
Afaa M. Weaver's place in American Letters is unprecedented and unique. African American culture, especially the literary arts, are bound to the English language and… Read More
2017-08-05 15:59
Koan #23Lord Forgive meI done stole Something From myselfUsed it to pay The man Who stole from&nbs&hell…Read More
2017-07-28 23:32
Our high school boasted one of the best basketball teams in the country. Our football team was always at the top of local standings. Our freshman class was a tribe of young men whose fathe… Read More
2017-07-28 23:24
these days I read the world like a good book like a poet in heaven who no longer needs words the image grows &nb&hell…Read More
2017-07-16 06:53
Blues for Detroit After Kenny Garrett from Seeds from the Underground “All your cities are&nbs&hell…Read More
2017-07-11 03:09
Today I sit in another abandoned sector of the empire. The Capitol View Library not far off of the D.C. landmark, the Shrimp Boat. Shrimp Boat where nobody really eats, but everybody knows… Read More
2017-07-06 13:32
Home I think of home andI think of all the rain In this city, all the rain … Read More
2017-06-28 01:23
In November 2016, FBS interviewed Ursula Mims Relaford in Atlanta, GA. She has been singing her whole life. She talked to me about the origins of this work and growing up with a mother who l… Read More
2017-05-30 00:19
The South Sea The night tastes like waterThe night tastes like saltI look upon the horizon… Read More
2017-05-27 21:09
Bowie State University’s History and Government’s Honor’s Ceremony &n&hell…Read More
2017-05-26 16:31
residentialthe employment services brochure mentions no spaceships6pksbulletproof turtlenecks nor rice noodles.i told you i wouldn't work for fascists.i don't enjoy hearing them sm… Read More
2017-05-07 21:47
America is in a new era of reconstruction. And, as such, we are at both a moral and political nadir that mandates a “self-correction.” The end result will reflect… Read More
2017-05-01 16:51
I minedI minded I minded the minesI minded the mines foreverMining forever is hope The tired religionThe tried and tired religion I tried and tried to sing on topBut I am a mi… Read More
2017-04-17 03:07
I’m looking out of my window at trees whose blushing fingertips herald the coming spring, despite the fact that they are standing ankle deep in snow. The only constant is change… Read More
2017-04-12 01:50
BETWEEN MONDAY AND MAYBEYou have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn North. Deuteronomy 2:3Stop tucking yourself betweenmemory and maybe;come out from the longingfor vagaries manufac… Read More
2017-04-08 16:02
Free Black Space Update April 2017 First and foremost we would like to thank all of the Free Black Space contributors. They are a dynamic group of F… Read More
2017-03-25 17:55
1. We hate crime.Black people uproot their families and move into neighborhoods that are not particularly welcoming in an effort to get away from… Read More
2017-03-09 15:38
by Linell Ajello…In which I learn something people already knowWhen Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Harry Reid, and other Republican and Democrat congress members linked arms and sang &ld&hell…Read More
2017-03-09 15:37
coiled around the earthsilent mothers who heartheir children say terriblethings and wonderif all will be alri… Read More
2017-03-09 15:28
I must have read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a long time ago, back when I was a teenager or something like that. Never finished it. Figured there wasn’t much to it. A bunch of i… Read More
2017-03-09 15:23
by Valerie Sweeney PrinceI had heard about Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing first while listening to NPR and then I saw Yaa (a travel companion who happens to have the same name as the author) re… Read More
2017-02-25 05:32
African American funkiness is a direct result of their relationship with a dead metaphor. The dead metaphor is race, which insists that African Americans are black. The idea of blackness is… Read More
2017-02-25 05:21
Subscribe to Free black Space. Click the subscribe link to the right. The Market, I am told, just doesn’t demand this kind of book, doesn’t want book covers to look this or that… Read More
2017-02-22 18:46
Not too long bell hooks called Beyonce a terrorist.I am not sure what bell hooks fans thought.Beyonce fans probably don't know, don't care.Both hooks and Beyonce represent successful Black b… Read More
2017-02-21 03:02
Over city streetslast breaths of pain and fear, of desolationgather, accusing the livingof all the peace not sowed,all the justice not pursued,the healing still to doFinal breathsfrom every… Read More
2017-02-19 21:41
It's my first stop. I am beginning a new job in a neighborhood I don't know very well, a residential area without a lot of public amenities. The pocket park across the street, where I attend… Read More
2017-02-17 16:11
a tale under the clouded nightwhen the stars go backthey tell the child the country is an empirewithout bloodbut she knowsthere’s red in the flagand mud on its bootsbrown like the skin… Read More
2017-02-14 22:39
SpeakI am poetI dieMany deathsWhen a line endsWhen a child GrowsOut of its shoesWhen sorrow Marches across the frontOf the newspapersOr the season makesIt rain, and the city freezesTo iceI t… Read More
2017-02-13 14:33
After I received a comment on the Free Black Space Blog that described the work as too academic, too wordy, and too long; I went back to my initial contemplation on abstraction, intellectual… Read More
2017-02-12 14:45
As an African-American in the heart of the world’s most populous country I don’t think much about how people treat me. That may seem strange for many, but probably best describes… Read More
2017-02-12 14:19
The sea at nightTonight the same screamAgainst the beach,Black watersUnder the white eye of moon.Each its own chaos:Static rustlingAgain and again,Like men and womenIn and out of the worldBe… Read More
2017-02-11 14:15
In November 2016, FBS interviewed documentary photographer Sue Ross in Atlanta, GA. She has been the unofficial city photographer for five administrations. She talked to me about the origi… Read More
2017-02-11 13:49
I’d like to say a bit about what I’m driving at with a piece like Waterbearer. Waterbearer is a lyrical piece of historical fiction about what it means for African American wome… Read More
2017-02-07 19:43
christmas 1979father is gonewind howls outsidethe fireis not hot enoughmoon’s in uswhite lightmade of moans一九七九年圣诞父亲Ö……Read More
2017-02-07 01:45
EXCERPT from Journal of Black StudiesIntellectual histories allow us to uncover the intellectual antecedents and trace the theoretical steps of the great thinkers that set the foundation for… Read More
2017-02-07 01:22
Mother defined herself as a lady.A true lady. She Never snubbed anyone. Never slighted anyone.Was alwaysGraciously sorry for any unintended slight.BesidesNo woman, black like Mother, living… Read More
2017-01-30 11:24
REST/oration is specifically focused on African American women’s work life balance. Under that is the intent to promote the work we do so well and the strategies that we employ to tak… Read More
2017-01-28 18:15
1. Toast to Obama From June 2010-Jiangsu, China “Obama,” he says raising the glass to toast. He’s got one hand palm up beneath the glass and two fingers from the other gen… Read More
2017-01-28 18:07
The QuestionsIs a white man the hidden force within blackness? If in fact the Trump election shows a pattern in Black History, what is that pattern? If in fact the Trump election shows a p… Read More
2017-01-28 01:07
We drove here through miles of white windmills whose sleek and giant arms spun across the background of a perfect blue sky. Stretching out into a beautiful summer day like wings of a plane… Read More
2017-01-28 01:04
For those of us that have studied black politics, the presidency and racism, we understand how a white backlash produced Donald Trump. White backlashes occur in this country any time there i… Read More
2017-01-21 15:51
by Shirikiana GerimaDecember 31, 2016, I shared these thoughts during a New Year’s Eve gathering at Sankofa Video and Bookstore. At this year’s event, we watched Ava DuVernay&rs&hell…Read More
2017-01-18 15:08
by Valerie Sweeney PrinceIn between working, I managed to make some friends. It was hard to find time for it, though. Work was always so demanding. Work seemed like it was everything&mda&hell…Read More
2017-01-16 13:06
by Candace Wiley, co founder of The Watering Hole Poetry Retreat1In December, a white woman entered our poet-of-color space. The year before too, a different white woman entered our poet-of… Read More
2017-01-16 00:43
"Before I Take It Back (I'll Add More To It)": Eddie Long, Same-Gender-Love, and Damage Within Black Church Theologyby Kenyatta Dorey Graves“I’m coming. I’m on my way.&rdq&hell…Read More
2017-01-11 14:54
by Valerie Sweeney PrinceA copy of Hidden Figures just arrived in the mail today. I ordered it when I learned that it was written by Margot Lee Shetterly, the daughter of one of my erstwhil… Read More
2017-01-11 14:53
While serving in Afghanistan I walked through an office of military contractors, black contractors. They were working and watching the results of the 2016 election roll in over the wall moun… Read More
2017-01-11 09:35
finalist for the 2016 John Guyon Literary Nonfiction Prize1. It’s a regular morning and I head out the neighborhood passing the Glenn Dale Hospital, a clump of old abandoned buildings… Read More
2017-01-11 03:41
"The glorious history of man is filled with legends of dogs and memories of dogs: despicable dogs, respectable dogs, fearful dogs, pitiful dogs." From Red Sorghum by Mo Yan translated by Ho… Read More
2017-01-11 03:06
For Tyehimba Jess(leadbelly led led)it's an old song i've heard beforelead belly saygallows poleold Irish cuti think it's LedZeppelin singingblues it hurtsi think it's a circlescream riff… Read More
2016-12-26 03:35
Not too long ago, here in Wuhan, on a day whose weather I do not remember, as I passed a short row of grocery stores and restaurants on one of the main drags at the university, I recognized… Read More
2016-12-23 19:53
My son hits me up to tell me about a black smog in China. He don't really text me like that these days. His dad is another country not working for the U.S. Government or the military at th… Read More
2016-12-19 21:37
Michelle Obama, Green Party Candidate for President(a speculative never-gonna-happen in 3 thoughts)Is this a long shot? Certainly. There are myriad reasons why Michelle Obama will never run… Read More
2016-12-15 15:05
Survivor is a strange word. It connotes so many possible paths of analysis and definition. Usually you talk about the verb, “surviving,” as in “surviving” a wretche… Read More
2016-12-14 22:10
Free Black Space will end 2016 with close to 120k in hits. At the end of 2015 we were close to fifty k. Our upward trend continues.We understand how small and insignificant 120k in hits ar… Read More
2016-12-14 21:56
Survivor is a strange word. It connotes so many possible paths of analysis and definition. Usually you talk about the verb, “surviving,” as in “surviving” a wretche… Read More
2016-12-10 14:19
The Free Black space response to TaNehisi Coates' "The Case for Reparations" published a little over two years ago in The Atlantic discussed African American activist writing as a form of i… Read More
2016-12-05 04:18
One of the great riddles for me is the absence of the publication of Sekou Sundiata's work. There are the two CDs and his small chapbook, Free, which is somewhere in my personal collection… Read More
2016-12-04 02:52
China Note #6- The Wuhan Soundtrack Louis Armstrong in ChinaBut for real, for real, the real soundtrack here is the language I don't speak filling the air and swirling around me. I hear it… Read More
2016-12-03 20:47
by Valerie Sweeney Prince1.Music is a puppet master and I a marionette. Music pulls the strings and I dance. It tugs my heart and I cry. It lifts me or lays me down. If it whispers, I sp… Read More
2016-12-03 19:01
Unless I Dreamt I Was a GoatIt was like something yanked me awake, up and out from myself, lurching forwardinto what I gleaned was mid-night my right palm latchedto my nostril. I thought it… Read More
2016-11-27 10:02
Poem For Castrowith bluesday descends to the blue sea just ninety miles South, they sing mourningi imagine a horn muted by decades of embargoa simple religion oh Orisha and the cold war the… Read More
2016-11-27 10:01
Intro. Break Beats with Jazz Sample Wuhan Soundtrack #8 My Mama My Mama Catalog-I Woke Up Like This-not sung-read not heard on the front of a T-Shirt on Luoyo Rd. Wuhan, China sometime in… Read More
2016-11-23 16:28
16 November 2016To My Students During this Night:What shall we do in the face of a nation that has pointed its finger again toward some as the object of fear and hate? We will not slump our… Read More
2016-11-05 02:59
The riddle of the day is the officers without guns. Their uniforms don't seem as tight as in the States. I can't make out the meaning of the insignias pasted on their chest and look more a… Read More
2016-10-28 17:09
America (n) firstlike black first like cliche once we were lostand now we've found ourselves stewing the pot of history we make it today pun the prince who died this yearthe real prince is… Read More
2016-10-11 02:26
Alan King's Point Blank will published November 1st by Silver Birch Press. Books can be preordered for $12. For more information visit AlanW.King.comI'm a different poet now than I was whe… Read More
2016-10-10 13:04
This fall three books published bear an unusual connection in the marketplace. All three writers were members of a writer's group conducted at Bowie State University over five years ago. Bo… Read More
2016-09-28 16:38
I spent the summer working at a black book store. Each day I entered a free black space. The experience was as revelatory as usual. Meanwhile, my youngest son matriculated in the root of f… Read More
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