Music, Performance, and Sound
Letter from the Editors, with Carina del Valle Schorske, This Woman’s Work: A Listening Session, Aster(ix)
D’Angelo’s Music is Imbued with the Influence of Black Women, The Guardian
Liner Notes for Annie & The Caldwells, Can’t Lose My Soul, Luaka Bop
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is a Genre Explosion, Pop Pantheon
Unpacking Cowboy Carter, Oxford American
Black Country: A Love Letter and Living Archive, Oxford American
About Her Voice: A Conversation on Mariah Carey, Oxford American
How Usher Arrived at the Super Bowl, New York Times Popcast
Can Usher Turn America On Again (to R&B)?, The New York Times Magazine
Ballads: Southern Music Issue Vol. 25, Liner Notes for Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway and Amanda Shires, Oxford American
Country Roots: Southern Music Issue Vol. 24, Liner Notes for Flock of Dimes, Lesley Riddle, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Oxford American
Up South: The Great Migration of Southern Sound, Southern Music Issue Vol. 23 Production; Liner Notes for Mary Lou Williams, Betty Davis, and Aretha Franklin, Oxford American
A Rhythm Nation: Introduction to the Great Migration of Southern Sound, Oxford American
Up Above My Head: Introduction to the Greatest Hits Edition, Oxford American
Interview with Brittany Howard for the Greatest Hits Music Edition, Oxford American
Songs in the Key of Life, Bookforum
On The Meaning of Soul, with Emily Lordi and DJ Lynnée Denise, Oxford American
On the No Tears Suite, with Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals, Oxford American
Welcome to Hive: Introduction to Women in Music Essay Series, Longreads
Homecoming: The Live Album Review, Pitchfork
Joan Morgan, Hip-hop Feminism, and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, The Paris Review
Play Another Slow Jam, This Time Make It Sweet, Longreads
The History of Sibling Acts in Pop, Longreads
Michael, Aretha, Beyoncé, and the Black Press, Longreads
Twelve Longreads for Aretha Franklin, Longreads
Why Beyoncé Placed HBCUs at the Center of American Life, Longreads
Sweet Love, Medium
Film and Visual Art
Killer of Sheep: Everyday Blues, Criterion Collection
Elegy: Dawoud Bey Makes the Past Visible in the Present, Oxford American
Mudbound: Friendship, Motherhood, and Redemptive Softness, Criterion Collection
Medicine for Melancholy: Love in a Hopeless Place, Criterion Collection
Looking at Cicely Tyson, Criterion Collection
Claudine: A Happy Home, Criterion Collection
love jones: Sweet Home Chicago, Criterion Collection
At MoMA, a Hidden History of Black Intimacy on Film, The New Yorker
A Quest That’s Just Begun: How Kathleen Collins Broke New Ground, Lapham’s Quarterly
On Blackface, Bert Williams, and Excellence, Longreads
Mothers, Daughters, Lovers: On the Groundbreaking Art of Kathleen Collins, Literary Hub
On Peter Vack, UTP Mag
Books and Literary Culture
How Toni Morrison Blurred the Lines Between Being a Writer and an Editor, The Guardian
On Fish Tales: A Forgotten Novel of Raw Longing and Erotic Freedom, The Paris Review
How a Tradition Forged in Slavery Persists Today, The Atlantic
A Book that Puts the Life Back into Biography, The Atlantic
A Novel That Shows the Dark Side of Utopia, The Atlantic
A Clear Eyed Look at the Early Obama Years, The Atlantic
Spirit Run: A 6,000 Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land, The New York Times
The Rescuer, The American Scholar
The Yellow House, Bookforum
American Harvest, Bookforum
In Her Own Time: Why We’re Still Looking for Lorraine Hansberry, The Point
Toni Morrison: 1931–2019, Longreads
People Can Become Houses: with Sarah Broom on The Yellow House, Longreads
The Precarity of Everything: with Reniqua Allen on It Was All A Dream, Longreads
An Inclusive Guide to Lingerie and a New Take on Self-Care, with Cora Harrington on In Intimate Detail, Longreads
With Saeed Jones on Prelude to Bruise, Mosaic
The Mastery and Magic of Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Longreads
Essays, Reportage, and Public Life
Life in North Memphis and the Women Who Taught Me to Read, Literary Hub
Blooms, Greens, and Portals, Oxford American
A Belief in Birds, Oxford American
To the West, Oxford American
We Are Ever New, Oxford American
When American Media Was (Briefly) Diverse, Longreads
Faith and Reproductive Justice Are Not in Opposition, Longreads
A Frustrating Year of Reporting on Black Maternal Health, Longreads
‘This Story Cannot Be Told Unless We Start from the Beginning’: A Conversation with Minnijean Brown Trickey and Crystal C. Mercer, Oxford American
Can Tami Sawyer Win Big in the Black South?, Zora