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“The freedom songs are playing a strong and vital role in our struggle…They give the people new courage and a sense of unity. I think they keep alive a faith, a radiant hope, in the future, particularly in our most trying hours” — Martin Luther King, Jr. In our last blog post, Dr. Osei defines the ideas of freedom and liberation for us, be sure to read that here. In short, freedom refers to the state of being in captivity, while liberation is less about one’s physical state o

How can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, imagine possible futures? This is the question Mark Dery poses in his essay “Black to the Future.” He defines Afrofuturism¹ as speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth century technoculture.² Historically, Black people are wiped not only from past and present memory but the imagined futures many science fiction and fantasy authors

W hat parallels can be made between rising South African pop-star Tyla and U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris? In recent years,...

What can we take away from Kendrick’s “Not Like Us?” On the surface, this moment in pop culture is solidified in the greatest rap beefs of a