“They (incarcerated people) are a dream constituency. You don’t have to build them any roads, or schools, or develop any new infrastructure to support them….and they can’t vote you out.” – Andrew Virgen, Director of Census Operations and Engagement, State of Minnesota Incarcerated people are counted in the facilities in which they are imprisoned, notContinue reading “From the 3/5 ‘Compromise’ to the 2020 Census: African Americans and the Myriad Realities of Being Counted”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
More Than A Single Story: Transracial Adoptee Voices
A definition: Transracial or transcultural adoption means placing a child who is of one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group. In the United States these terms usually refer to the placement of children of color or children from another country with Caucasian adoptive parents. https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/f_trans.pdf Another definition: TransracialContinue reading “More Than A Single Story: Transracial Adoptee Voices”
Smiling is not Resilience
Author Aundria Sheppard Morgan has just released her latest book, ‘Smiling is not Resilience, an Unfinished Memoir’, an invitation to walk with Aundria as she meets pain, heartache, illness, and unimaginable loss with such deep honesty as to compel me, as a reader, to examine my own grief. In this work, Author Sheppard Morgan alsoContinue reading “Smiling is not Resilience”
The Black Family Blueprint!
Join me in studio with Ayo and Adrian Mack, Co-Founders of The Black Family Blueprint. How are Black relationships impacted by the disruption of enslavement? How is Black love marketed to Black people? Who shapes the expectations for Black love? Join us to learn more about how “Black love is Black wealth”! (Wisdom shared fromContinue reading “The Black Family Blueprint!”
The Black Press Sees Black People!
“We didn’t exist in the other papers. We weren’t born, we didn’t get married, we didn’t die, we didn’t fight in any wars, we didn’t contribute anything of significant achievement.. we were truly invisible.. unless we committed a crime. The Black Press! The Negro Press! We did get married! They showed us our babies beingContinue reading “The Black Press Sees Black People!”
The Cosby Conundrum
Conundrum: A confusing and difficult problem. Bill Cosby: Stand Up Comedian, Actor, Author, Musician, Creator (Fat Albert), A Brand! Bill Cosby: Convicted Sex Offender. Bill Cosby: Black Man. In prison. Not in prison: Not Matt Lauer. Not Harvey Weinstein. Not Louis C.K. Not Moonves. Not John Hockenberry. Only Cosby. The Cosby Conundrum. Aluta Continua.
“🎧March for me, write for me, candle in the night for me, hold your head up high for me🎤”
“…keep on throwing pride for me…and I…will…be…okay. 🎼 ” – Tish Jones Tish Jones: Poet, Artist, Educator, Lover of Words, Founder and Executive Director, TruArt Speaks! I call her ‘Liberation Theologian’ because every time she speaks, 🗣, she is liberating minds, challenging us to confront our fears, teaching us about how to create authentic relationshipsContinue reading ““🎧March for me, write for me, candle in the night for me, hold your head up high for me🎤””
“No man can live with the absence of his child every day”…
“I’m going to release my new book, ‘The Past is Perfect: A Memoir of a Father Son Reunion.” Author Alexs Pate, in studio with me in late fall 2019. “I want to talk about that absence, but also about the reunification of this family.” “There is a space between my son and me, an emptiness.Continue reading ““No man can live with the absence of his child every day”…”
“You Have 1 Minute”
“This is a call from an inmate at the Lino Lakes Correctional Facility. If you want to accept, press 1, if you choose not to accept, you may hang up. (Repeat)” I first met Kevin Reese by phone, in 10-12 minute increments. He was incarcerated and I was hosting Urban Agenda live with in-studio guest,Continue reading ““You Have 1 Minute””
Black Women Must Write, and Publish!
In this segment of Urban Agenda, I’m in studio with Rekhet Si-Asar, Founder of ‘Ink Black Ink’, and Lesley Anne Brown, Author of ‘Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son‘. Join us as we explore myriad issues that are a part of living as black women in the world, and ourContinue reading “Black Women Must Write, and Publish!”
