A selection of songs that I’ve been listening to recently by Black artists “Bikini Bottom” – Ice Spice: Unless you’ve been hiding out in a hyperbaric chamber for the past couple of months, you know who Ice Spice is. The queen of New York drill has been the focal point, for better or worse, of a great deal of attention online, primarily for her uber-catchy, male-deriding hit “Munch...
A selection of songs that I’ve been listening to recently by Black artists “Satellites” – Rayvn Lenae: I’ve waited for years (!!!) for Rayvn Lenae to release a full-length project, and in May of this year, my prayers were answered. Following up on 2018’s magnetic Crush EP, Hypnos is an ethereal vibe, a dense, lovelorn project that will transport you to a higher level of existence. With...
Music, community, and Beyoncé meet at the Phoenix Concert Theatre The Beyhive, Beyoncé’s stans (for all of those who have been living under a rock), recently had a dance party in celebration of Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, and wow, did it ever give us ENERGY! (Energy is the title of the fifth song off the album, for those of you who missed that pun). Released this past July...
Red Veil – Christianah Adeyemi: Red Veil embodies what it means to be Black living in the present age. There are many limitations Blacks face in the society and behaviours that we have to conform to just because we are perceived differently. This experience of having to be less of yourself is similar to a veil covering our faces and stopping us from being who we really are. However, our...
We as Black women are blessed with an adorning power. We are strong, because by being Black we are forced everyday to go to war with the ideas about our identities that introduce themselves and proclaim who we are as Black women before a word or formality ever escapes our lips. Our skin speaks. We ask it to let our lips do the talking, but it cannot. Its position, coated in histories of...
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the Toronto Star in August 2020. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author, Anthony Morgan. Anthony is a lawyer and the Manager of the City of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism (CABR) Unit. The CABR Unit is responsible for the implementation of the Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism. Overpoliced and...
Rediscovering Janet Jackson’s 1997 release in a post-Timberlake apology world As someone born in 1998, I was far too young to have any vivid memories of the 2004 Super Bowl (yes, Tom Brady and the Patriots won that one too), the halftime wardrobe malfunction, or the immediate panic that it sparked. However, the subsequent cultural framings of the event have lasted throughout my childhood, and...
A Non-Exhaustive List of 2020’s Best Projects from Black Artists Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas A heart-wrenching tour de force, the third studio album from UK singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas is easily her best. This self-titled project is a concept album about the culmination of a long-term relationship and documents Lianne’s efforts to grapple with feelings of loneliness, sadness...