Part One of The Drinking Gourd’s Afrofuturism roundtable series. — “Why is the future assumed to be the continuation of growth? What if it’s degrowth?” What is the future? Who dreams it? …

Their mistake was simple: They sent her body to the masjid — We say her body was the seventh ’cause that’s what we could gather from records. Truth be told, she could’ve been the eighth. The 10th. The 20th. It both does and doesn’t matter. When the story first broke, the media called her a “woman,” but she was freshly 18. Just…

Three years later, there are still more questions than answers — Everybody in the Twin Cities saw the video of Philando Castile dying, whether you wanted to or not. I barely remember pictures of Philando alive, but there is no way for me to forget the amount of blood that stained his white shirt; the face of his girlfriend recording; the…

Black liberation theology was something I always knew, even if I couldn’t name it — Sanction is given unto those who fight because they have been wronged; and Allah is indeed able to give them victory. — Qur’an, 22:39 If you speak of Minnesota, you’ll be met with the usual remark, “There ain’t no Black people up there,” as if the speaker has ever visited…

2019 Lightning Talk Transcript — Salaam. My name is Vanessa Taylor. I’m representing the Muslim Wellness Foundation’s 2017 Deeply Rooted Emerging Leaders, or DREL, inaugural class — which is a year-long fellowship centering the challenges, strengths, and well-being of Black Muslim youth. I didn’t know how much I craved DREL until I went to the…

We’ve become a stand-in for any “unidentifiable” Black religious group — and a source of persistent anxiety for white America — Black Muslims have generated fear in white America for almost 400 years. The root of that fear, and the history behind it, are worth exploring — especially today. Recently, a video captured Native American activist and Omaha people elder Nathan Philips performing the American Indian Movement song (known as the…

“Surviving R. Kelly” exposes even more of men’s bare minimum politics when it comes to Black women — Lifetime’s documentary series Surviving R. Kelly offers one of the most comprehensive dives into Kelly’s history of brutality. Accusations against Robert Kelly—the man who plays god—range from sexual assault to domestic violence, rape, sex trafficking, and more. Some culminated in court cases, such as a 2008 child pornography case where…

“I don’t worry, I’ll tell you. I’m a man who believed that I died 20 years ago, and I live like a man who is dead already.” — The moment where if becomes when is difficult to locate. The change is only noticeable to you, at first, settling deep inside of your body; a certainty that should weigh you down. Maybe it does. You don’t notice. You sit around tables watching newsfeed, absorbed in live streams and updates…

Its message of sacrifice is the biggest irony of all — A few weeks ago, Nike announced that Colin Kaepernick would become the face of the company’s iconic 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign. Overlaying a black and white image of the former NFL quarterback staring steadily into the camera are the words, “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing…