198 Search results for "healing"

By Tez Files Baptize me. Now that reconciliation is possible, if we’re gonna heal, let it be glorious. – Beyoncé, “Sandcastles” I must have heard Beyoncé’s “Sandcastles”a dozen times. I read all types of complexity into its lyrics. After having gone through a very difficult break-up, it was healing to sit with my emotions and […]

By Gloria O. The recent death of McKenzie Adams, a nine-year-old from Alabama who endured months of racist bullying before dying via suicide, really hurt me. It immediately evoked memories of bullying in my own childhood, reminding me of the sad fact that the world can make such little progress in so much time. Anti-blackness, […]

by Briana L. Ureña-Ravelo Content Warning: This essay mentions of r/pe of a child I just read Junot Diaz’s essay about his childhood rape and the years of sexual, romantic, and relationship trauma and toxic patriarchal behavior that followed. I applaud him opening up and owning to some really deep, dark trauma on a significantly […]

By Annie Alexandrian “We must leave evidence. Evidence that we were here, that we existed, that we survived and loved and ached. Evidence of the wholeness we never felt and the immense sense of fullness we gave to each other. Evidence of who we were, who we thought we were, who we never should have […]

Filmmakers Squeaky Moore and Kenneth “KT” Nelson, along with executive producers Terrie M. Williams and Mari Yanuzzi will host the  “Face of Darkness” – Journey to Healing event at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 in New York City at 6 p.m.

It was the last bright day of sunshine I can remember before the winter hit. I was at my friend’s home, celebrating her son’s 5th birthday. The party brought all the feelings that children bring, the sweetness of cake, pregnant laughter, and of course adults encircling care around the dining table. While my friend’s son […]

Tribal relationships—unions of people that involve romance and creativity—are hard to maintain because of conflicting worldviews. What it means to be a man or womyn in love causes problems for many tribes because their demands and dreams clash without a middle ground. Since I’m raised to be a black male by other black males, my […]

by Tayler Simon I remember when I was a child, I told my mom I never wanted to grow up. Adults complained about bills and errands, their days already spoken for in advance. It did not look like a fun time, moving through a script you didn’t write. Now, as an adult, I agree with […]

by Vanessa Anyanso I don’t know what it’s like to be a therapist during “normal times.” I, a Nigerian American born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, moved to Minneapolis in Fall 2019 to start my doctoral program in Counseling Psychology. The world shut down for the pandemic in March 2020. In May 2020, […]

by Juahl Ganaway In a scene ripped from The Sugar Shack, the character Pearline (played by the stunning Jayme Lawson) stalks across the stage purring the lyrics to “Pale, Pale, Moon,” the Brittany Howard-penned song that feels more like an invocation than a performance.  “I wanna sing Like I hear the crickets do I wanna […]

by Jari Bradley During the peak of the pandemic in 2020, there were numerous online poetry readings being held for the public to attend. I was just finishing my Master of Fine Arts program after three years on the East Coast, and with all the calamity that the world felt comprised of at that time, […]

Week One: Penelope French Introducing Penelope French (she/ he/ they) — the gypsy soul healer and Soul Empress whose music carries a lineage shaped by Black struggle, memory, and imagination. Raised in Lansing, Michigan, French grew up surrounded by the sounds of Motown, gospel quartets, and soul traditions that have long carried the emotional and […]