Karen Frillmann

Black studies is not about inclusion. It’s about disruption – which is why some fear it.

Down in the Mississippi Delta, the Lester Family made a space for themselves and claimed their land–and they didn’t need “40 Acres and a mule” to do it. 

Boy meets girl, boy’s an immigrant, they go on a first date. The date does not go well. 17 years later, the boy discovers that being an immigrant played a role, on both sides. 

From the “Southern Strategy” to the civil rights movement, we’re surfacing what is true about our nation’s past, and what is propaganda masquerading as history.

In the spirit of the Grammys, Emil Wilbekin, a founding editor of VIBE, offers a first-person history of Black popular music, from Soul Train to Beyoncé.

When it comes to police reform, a retired NYPD detective argues that policing as a profession must evolve or go away completely. 

The release of brutal footage of the killing of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols by police officers in Memphis furthers an all-too-familiar conversation about accountability and police violence.

A mass shooting in Monterey Park, California – on the eve of Lunar New Year – sent shockwaves through the majority Asian American ethnoburb and the Asian American community nationwide.

Estrangement isn’t linear. For those who have severed ties or been cut off, it can be necessary, empowering, devastating and confounding—all at once. 

What made Louis Armstrong’s music so groundbreaking? And after he broke that ground, why were later generations of Black people reluctant to embrace him? 

How does Martin Luther King Jr.’s generation of young, gifted, and Black people inspire today’s changemakers and their ideas for how to achieve racial justice?

From near-fisticuffs on the House floor to Kevin McCarthy’s concessions to win the gavel, the chaotic start for the 118th Congress has finally settled – with consequences for us all. 

The Great Resignation. Quiet quitting. These concepts allegedly defined the way we worked last year. Will anything change in 2023?

Faith Ringgold’s art is an intimate dialogue and debate between generations of Black women, stretching from the formerly enslaved to today.

Afrofuturism is an old idea that’s reaching new people. Hollywood production designer Hannah Beachler walks us through some fantastical, imagined paths to Black liberation.

Folashade Olatunde, a WNYC Radio Rookie, shares a series of open and honest audio diaries, inviting listeners on her journey to rebuild a relationship with her dad.

For author Jason Reynolds, the key to writing compelling young adult literature is reconnecting with the formative childhood experiences that made him.

Throughout her career, American contralto Marian Anderson performed a repertoire well ahead of her time.

What does a next level victory look like for an Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner? For actor Billy Porter - it’s an authentic sense of self.

Hanukkah, Christmas, the Solstice, Kwanzaa – there’s so much to celebrate this time of year. And so many songs to go with the season!