The idea of defunding and abolishing the police is rooted in the rich history of the Black freedom struggle. From Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois to Angela Davis and Mariame Kaba, abolition has always been about more than tearing down existing, oppressive structures. Abolition, at its core, has always been about building up new, truly democratic structures to replace those old structures that were never designed to affirm Black lives.

We find ourselves living in a special moment in history. As we continue to say their names — George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and far too many…

I hate u.

Stop. There it goes again. Did you hear it? That voice, inside your head. It’s saying something. Something that isn’t true…

u aren’t good enough.

There it goes again. It’s your u voice.

The Igbo people of Nigeria have a saying. “Where something stands, something else will stand beside it.” Duality is all around us. We value patience because we have all felt anxiety. We value humility because we all have seen what arrogance looks like. We strive to be kind because we all can remember a time when someone has been unkind to us.

There’s a…

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the world.” — Albert Einstein

The new year is upon us. This is a special moment, as the hands of time turn and begin the cycle anew, drawing our minds both to the past in reflection and to the future in resolution.

For several weeks now, I have found myself dwelling upon this quote by Albert Einstein. While this is not the first time that I have encountered these words by the brilliant physicist, this…

Fell in love through photograph

I don’t even know your name

Wonder if you’d follow back

I hope to see you one day

I won’t show my n****s now

I’II keep this one for myself

Love today’s gone digital

And it’s messing with my health

- J. Cole , “Photograph”

Before I begin, I would like to make one thing absolutely clear. This piece comes from a place of love, self-reflection, and a desire for personal growth. I recognize the irony of the fact that this likely made its way to your smartphone or tablet screen via social media. As…

Brother,

Four hundred years of slavery? A choice? Is that really what you think? Our ancestors, our culture — HIP-HOP. You are a black millionaire. In America. In 2018. Do you realize how incredible that is? The mere fact that you exist. That you could become an influencer in America. That your craft, HIP-HOP, could be born out of resistance and become the most popular form of music in America today. Do you realize that you exist at the very same time when black grandmothers and grandfathers still alive today can remember surviving through sharecropping — slavery by another name.

…

To the people and descendants of the so-called “s**thole countries” of the world, allow me to quote a poet from Compton:

I got, I got, I got, I got —
Loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA

- Kendrick Lamar

The story of black people does not begin with slavery. It does not begin with those images of war and starvation and disease that so often flash across our television screens.

Our story begins with and will always be one of royalty. …

Hail Mary, Jesus and Joseph
The great American flag is wrapped and dragged with explosives
Compulsive disorder, sons and daughters
Barricaded blocks and borders
Look what you taught us!
It’s murder on my street, your street, back streets
Wall Street, corporate offices
Banks, employees, and bosses with
Homicidal thoughts; Donald Trump’s in office

Kendrick Lamar raps these heavy lines on “XXX,” the eleventh track on his masterful DAMN. album released last April. It is one of my favorites on the album not only because the Compton rapper unleashes some of the sharpest political commentary of his career, drawing a direct…

South LA, I love,

Beauty, below and above,

Black, Brown fly like doves.