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Kovie Biakolo
Kovie Biakolo

639 Followers

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Published in ZORA

·Aug 1, 2021

The Rise and Reimagining of MTV

MTV is 40 years old, found its fortune with Gen X, and has reinvented itself for every generation since — Just after midnight on August 1, 1981, MTV debuted on cable television with the Buggles’ prescient music video, “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Like many groundbreaking innovations, its emergence was the result of an amalgamation of simultaneous events including the growing popularity of cable television and TV executives’ aspirations to…

MTV

4 min read

The Rise and Reimagining of MTV
The Rise and Reimagining of MTV
MTV

4 min read


Published in ZORA

·Feb 4, 2021

I Will Not Change My Name Because You Can’t Pronounce It

The roots of name discrimination are an extension of the harms caused by slavery and colonialism — For the Urhobo people of southern Nigeria, like many Africans across the continent, names are a serious matter. Traditionally, an Urhobo child is given a name according to their family’s desire for who they might become, the hope being that a child will live up to the likeness of what…

Identity

6 min read

I Will Not Change My Name Because You Can’t Pronounce It
I Will Not Change My Name Because You Can’t Pronounce It
Identity

6 min read


Published in ZORA

·Sep 17, 2020

The Cities Where Gentrification and Covid-19 Collide

A look at the crises impacting people of color in Miami, Oakland, and Brooklyn, where residents fight to protect their communities — Kerbie Joseph has lived in the same Crown Heights apartment her entire life. A first-generation American of Haitian descent, she has also watched the historically Caribbean and Hasidic New York City neighborhood become engulfed in recent years by mostly, but certainly not only, the White, professional yuppie class.

Gentrification

13 min read

The Cities Where Gentrification and Covid-19 Collide
The Cities Where Gentrification and Covid-19 Collide
Gentrification

13 min read


Published in ZORA

·Oct 31, 2019

What Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Gets Wrong About Blackness and Nigeria

She has often said she became Black in the United States, but what does this really mean? — In a recent interview about identity and feminism with the Economist, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie remarked on how she began to identify as Black only when she came to the United States for university. It’s a story she’s told many times before, referring to how “Blackness” becomes a marker…

Opinion

9 min read

What Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Gets Wrong About Blackness and Nigeria
What Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Gets Wrong About Blackness and Nigeria
Opinion

9 min read


Dec 19, 2016

Survival and Other Important Matters

Note: You can listen to an audio of this piece here: Survival and Other Important Matters. It has been a year of poetry. By that I mean I have probably read more poetry this year than any year prior. (I have also written some, though that remains a private undergoing.)…

2016

7 min read

Survival and Other Important Matters
Survival and Other Important Matters
2016

7 min read


Oct 7, 2016

Things you can do to Help Haiti right now, hit by Hurricane Matthew

I initally just wrote this on my Facebook as a way to answer the question, “What can we do?” when disaster strikes in a place. I thought I might post it here too. 1.) Learn about Haitian history to understand the factors that contribute to the country’s seemingly endless economic…

Haiti

1 min read

Things you can do to Help Haiti right now, hit by Hurricane Matthew
Things you can do to Help Haiti right now, hit by Hurricane Matthew
Haiti

1 min read


Oct 4, 2016

Mourning the Loss of My 12,000 Tweets

Yesterday afternoon, I attempted to use an app to delete a majority of my tweets, hoping to keep my “Twitter memory” within one year. It’s something I’ve considered doing for a while now, and yesterday seemed as good a day as any to finally say goodbye to thousands of tweets…

Twitter

10 min read

Mourning the Loss of My 12,000 Tweets
Mourning the Loss of My 12,000 Tweets
Twitter

10 min read


Sep 12, 2016

Rudyard Kipling is My Demon

It is always such a disappointment when we discover that people we admire — both those in the present as well as the past — held or hold problematic beliefs, committed unjustifiable acts, and lived their lives in such a way that it taints the way we approach and engage…

Poetry

5 min read

Rudyard Kipling is My Demon
Rudyard Kipling is My Demon
Poetry

5 min read


Jun 24, 2016

A Note on Brexit

When you consider the heightened ethno-nationalism sweeping the West currently, Brexit isn’t surprising. On a personal level however, I must admit I am disappointed in the UK. …

Brexit

3 min read

A Note on Brexit
A Note on Brexit
Brexit

3 min read


Oct 17, 2013

Do We Silence Moderate Voices?

Privileging Loudness at the Expense of Moderation — Our culture — that is the dominant culture that exists in the United States and that is exported to all corners of the globe — is one that is loud. We love loud things and loud people. People who take absolute and almost vulgarly strong positions on things, are the…

3 min read

3 min read

Kovie Biakolo

Kovie Biakolo

639 Followers

Culture writer and multiculturalism scholar. Find my best stuff here: www.koviebiakolo.com

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