When he visited An American City, the inaugural FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in September 2018, my librarian attended an evening reception for the launch of the second volume of the exhibition catalog at an event at the Cleveland Public Library amid Yinka Shonibare’s The American Library, a both dazzling and sobering installation […]
I appreciate that today of all days it may be hard to read the musings of a fictional ghost. Orange Shirt Day, otherwise known as Truth and Reconciliation Day, which this year has been elevated by the Canadian government from the level of an observed to a statutory holiday, is a day to educate and […]
Holiness is what is dear to the gods. Who said that? I dunno but it’s not helpful. Never mind, ignore it. Let’s check-in instead. So, how are you coping? Healthy and sane? My starting position (forced on each of us, black reader and white writer, by this writing and our society) were the sites of […]
Even now, in the memory, she dazzles, must be circled about and about. We may perceive her indirectly, in her effects on others … Ah, the dead, the unended, endlessly ending dead: how long, how rich is their story. We, the living, must find what space we can alongside them; the giant dead whom we […]
While in the cradle, every parent, grandparent and god-fearing aunt wants the best for the new baby, hoping to keep the Evil Eye at bay. Over the years, their prayers for safety turn into dreams of success as the child grows and starts on the path through school to college. Now, bursting with pride at […]
I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. It is that vague time between the COVID-19 lock-down and the great reopening. With the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery on my mind, I scribble the following oddly formed questions into my notebook: what position is left for, or forced upon you, […]