Uptown Notes

And one of them is not the use of the word Negro which has BEEN appearing, including on the 2000 [...]

This is my reflection on Kuumba: Creativity
I have to admit, I never really remember reading the “official definition” of Kuumba.
“To [...]

This is my reflection on Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility
For more than a year, I’ve entertained way too many conversations [...]

A year ago, I began a series on Kwanzaa, this year I will finish it (thanks to all who remember [...]

To me, the situation of urban education is much like the common cold, as technology advances, we find more and more options that tend to abate sickness, cover the symptoms, but still there is no cure. The biggest confusion that I see emerging around urban education is the highlight of a few successful schools in a city and mistaking that as the probable, that is what will likely happen, in the city as the whole.

Recently, I had the pleasure of being on the Addicted to Race podcast. I was on with Tami from What [...]

I just watched Precious, Lee Daniel’s film based on the novel Push by Sapphire, and the only way I can find to describe it is extraordinary in the superlative and literal sense. Extraordinary, in the superlative sense, for its craftsmanship in visually and textually telling a narrative of the composite character Precious. It is extra-ordinary (beyond ordinary), in the literal sense, in that it concentrates on a particular set of lives ravished by sexual abuse, physical abuse, and poverty. This is not the tale of all in poverty, but it is a tale that exists.

On Sunday night, Kanye West once again burst into the limelight with his interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at [...]

A look at what happens when race and gender are uncorked in a chicago eatery

Do you know some Black birthers? I bet you do!