Editor’s Take
BY NJEMILE Z. ALI
This is Age of the Return, when we gather the gifts from the past to fuel the next breakthrough to our highest Selves. Our writers are moving soil in the deep …
Black ACE Happenings
The drums are calling us to the fireside for stories, verse and film from the Black Arts, Culture & Entertainment abundant storehouse. Commune with fellow lovers of the arts …
Pop Pop Gro’ Sumn’
Check out Arc(k)’s Sankofa Village Unity Storytelling Hour every Sunday at 6pm on www.WURDradio.com Philadelphia.
It’s Personal
BY KHADIJA POUNSEL
These words by literary great, James Baldwin, seem a fitting site to explore within this issue’s theme of “Legacy.” Somehow, for me, these words feel old and deep and shared …
Black English/Ebonics: What It Be Like?
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:
Dr. Smitherman’s examination of Ebonics describes a great collective legacy of African Americans. We are bringing her study for the second time in KIZA BlackLit. Her clear explanation and lively usage of Black English gives us permission to be ourselves and appreciate what we bring to language and world culture.
un/locking
BY SEAN BEATTY
algorithms and subroutines
are coded into acids and proteins
as tides turbulent in my veins …
Africans Knew
BY KATHLEEN JOHNSON PRILLERMAN
Africans sailed the ocean blue
Long before Columbus knew …
The Beggar and the King
BY OTANCIA NOEL
This was our lives when we were there: waking up to the purple and pink tinged sky, full of squawking parrots at sunrise; exploring the cocoa and coffee fields; climbing the trees; eating Chinese tamarind, gru gru bef
The Specter + The Revolution
BY SEAN BEATTY
In two thought-provoking poems, Sean Beatty reveals his take on legacies of pride and resistance.
Ms. Ola: The Story of a Silent Generationer
BY VERGINIA JACKSON
Ms. Ola started working in the field to help supplement the family income at around ten years of age. Her day started well before sunrise and did not end until after sunset. Although she was only 10-12 years old …
Protecting Our Ancestors’ Creative Legacy
BY NASHID FURAHA-ALI
Why Do Our Ancestors
Call Us At This Moment?
Because / now is / the time. / More / than / ever / before …
Stories from the Blackbelt
BY DR. PAM C. DELAINE
Somewhere between grief and growth, I found myself. Between the pines and sweet gums of Alabama. In the yard, in a tent, at the bottom of a bottle of wine, my mind expanded. My heart imploded. My eyes …
Life as a Teen: The Legacy of the Compound
As one who lived in the compound for six years during my childhood, however, I can vouch that it was a relatively normal abnormal world. As a friend would later describe it, “Jim Jones without the suicide” …
