June 12, 2024

Beyond Repair:

The Psychic Life of Reparation

Carolyn Laubender

Ten years ago, on June 15, 2014, Ta-Nehishi Coates published his watershed Atlantic article, “The Case for Reparations.” An immediate cultural flashpoint, Coates’s piece sought to legitimize the demand for racial reparation in the contemporary United States by documenting how...

March 27, 2024

Laura E. Helton on Scattered and Fugitive Things

In Scattered and Fugitive Things, Laura E. Helton tells the stories of six Black collectors who played a pivotal role in shaping the early twentieth-century Black archive. From the parlors of the urban North to HBCU reading rooms and branch...

June 13, 2023

How Mapping the Black Experience Will Shape Society for a Better Future

Olive Vassell and Natasha A. Kelly

“If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.” With these words, writer James Baldwin captured the essence of the power of remembrance and commemoration: practices that unite and empower us, providing opportunities...

June 12, 2023

Ten Must-Read Books for Juneteenth 2023

June 19th, or Juneteenth, commemorates the 1865 proclamation for the freedom of enslaved people in Texas, but it also has come to broadly celebrate Black American culture and the continuing fight by Black Americans for liberation and equality. The books...

June 15, 2022

The Role of Narrative and Narrative Activism in Social Movements

Michele Moody-Adams

It has often been said that “those who tell the stories rule the world.” Versions of this claim can be found in sources as varied as Plato’s dialogues, traditional Hopi wisdom, and a recent work such as Narrative Economics (2019)...

June 19, 2020

A Juneteenth Reading List to Honor the Continued Struggle for Black Liberation

The New Press Takeover

In the wake of current events, we encourage our community to read beyond the important scholarship we publish and consider the urgent and timely books published by our friends and colleagues. Today’s spotlight is on The New Press, who are...