Akila Worksongs

10/16/2025

We're honoring our indigenous brothers and sisters by recommending "LAKOTA NATION vs UNITED STATES." Be prepared to be inspired and infuriated at the same time: https://www.lakotanationvsus.movie/.

10/16/2025

Fam,

This summer, as some of you may know, there was much chatter online about Black family reunions and how they are on the decline because "Mama and 'dem are dying off and the younger generations are just not into keeping the traditions going."

All this chatter and no sources. I kept looking for someone in the "chattersphere" to cite the sources for newfound "research." No one could point to where this assertion came from. So sad! People just be talking online, creating clickbait, and too many of us are okay with repeating whatever sounds intriguing. That's also sad... and dangerous.

Leave it to EBONY.com to do a deep dive.

The editors and journalists over there recently published an article [https://www.ebony.com/black-family-reunions-decline-or-evolving-ideas/] that essentially said, "Wayment! We can't find anything to back up this narrative. And as for me and my family, we over here Black Family Reunioning it out!"

This article is a perfect segue to tomorrow's virtual film screening of Lee and Liza's Family Tree, the fifth installment of the BYRON HURT FILM SERIES & FUNDRAISER!

The documentary, which aired in 2023 on PBS NOVA, does an excellent job of answering a few questions that Byron recently put forth:
🎯 How many of you love family gatherings?
🎯 How many of you want to organize a reunion for your family but don't know where to begin?
🎯 Do you want to learn more about your family's ancestry but are unsure of how to conduct genealogical research?
🎯 Are you currently on a journey of discovery using family ancestry research tools, but you've hit roadblocks?
🎯 Are you curious to know if the science of ancestry genetic testing kits helps?

So, please join me and fellow Black family reunion lovers for this FREE virtual screening of Lee and Liza's Family Tree (there's a community discussion to follow as well).

Millions of people enjoyed this insightful work when it first aired on PBS NOVA, and we want to make sure you see it too! Help spread the word!

---- WATCH ----
Lee and Liza's Family Tree
A BYRON HURT Film
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16
7:00 pm ET!
A Virtual Screening on GATHR
FREE Tickets HERE: https://gathr.com/events/b54f6ed7/lee-and-liza-s-family-tree-screening

Lee and Liza's Family Tree Screening

09/26/2025

⭐️ Cover Reveal ⭐️

Collected in one astonishing volume, Toni Morrison’s explorations of the American literary canon. LANGUAGE AS LIBERATION is coming 2.3.26 💙 With an introduction by Claudia Brodsky.

📖 Design by Janet Hansen

(posted by her publisher)
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09/26/2025

The building pictured here is United Sound Systems (U.S.S.), a recording studio established in the 1930s on Second Avenue in Detroit’s Cass Corridor. It is recognized as one of the first independent recording studios in the United States.

Over the decades, the studio was used by artists across genres. John Lee Ho**er recorded early blues tracks here, Parliament-Funkadelic created funk records, and Aretha Franklin recorded selections that highlighted her vocal range. Other sessions included jazz, rock, and soul musicians throughout the mid-20th century.

Because it operated independently rather than under a record label, United Sound Systems served a wide range of performers and projects. The recordings made there are part of Detroit’s broader influence on American music.

Today, the building remains a historic site connected to that legacy.

PC: HistoricDetroit.org

09/26/2025

09/26/2025

Author, feminist, critic, activist and scholar bell hooks was born in 1952. Born Gloria Jean Watkins to working-class parents in 1952, hooks grew up in the segregated city of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Her interest in poetry began at a young age as she recited the likes of Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning for her church community. hooks received her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and was only 19 when she began working on the draft for her first book, “Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism.”

In her book, “Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work,” hooks writes, “Writing is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic. The root understanding of the word ecstasy— 'to stand outside'—comes to me in those moments when I am immersed so deeply in the act of thinking and writing that everything else, even flesh, falls away.” Her most notable works, including, “Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom” and “All About Love: New Visions”, influenced generations of feminists, educators and artists to approach their work with love and purposefulness.

Her published works were diverse and ranged from scholarly books to films to children’s books and more. hooks, who passed away in 2021 is remembered as a force in feminist theory and in cultural criticism and continues to inspire a multitude of Black and women writers.



📸 Courtesy of Karjean Levine/Getty Images.

09/26/2025

So glad that this exists!!

Congratulations to Associate Professor LaShawn Harris on the publication of her new book, Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City.

Drawing from her own experience as a childhood neighbor of Eleanor Bumpurs, Dr. Harris weaves together eyewitness accounts, legal documents, civil rights pamphlets, and more to tell the powerful story of a beloved Black grandmother whose 1984 death sparked a movement against racist policing and systemic neglect.

We’re proud to celebrate this important work from Dr. Harris. Stay tuned for a more detailed exploration of the book soon!

09/26/2025

⛸️✨ Harlem Ice ✨⛸️

Join us for a special screening of Harlem Ice, a five-part documentary series directed by Samantha Knowles. The series follows the coaches and girls of Figure Skating in Harlem as they train, compete, and take their place on a global stage — breaking barriers and inspiring the next generation.

📅 Oct 22, 2025 | 7 PM
📍 BAM, 30 Lafayette Ave
🎟 Tickets: $25 | $15 with code ReelSisters25 (thru 10/10)

Experience the joy, determination, and artistry of young women of color carving out their space in the world of figure skating.
🔗 Tickets: www.reelsisters.org

09/26/2025

September 22 is the first official day of Fall! 🍂 Enjoy the start of the season in Brooklyn’s Backyard and plan your next autumnal visit: prospectpark.org/visit
c. Laura Fantini

09/26/2025

There's a reason you haven't heard of the groundbreaking Black actor Canada Lee.

Lee performed extensively on stage and in several films in the 1940s and early 1950s. He starred as Bigger Thomas in Orson Welles’ production of Native Son by Richard Wright, winning the prestigious Critics Award for best performance in 1941. Offscreen, Lee championed civil rights and spoke out against racial segregation, devoting time to supporting progressive organizations.

And then he was blacklisted by the Hollywood film industry.

Bankrupted by the lack of work and struggling with a number of health issues, Lee sadly passed away two days before he was scheduled to appear before HUAC, at the age of 45. He was one of a number of creatives who were pushed to premature death by political persecution during this time.

Learn more about the writers, actors, and performers whose lives were forever changed by visiting Blacklisted: An American Story, on view at The New York Historical through November 2.

📷 Editta Sherman, Canada Lee, undated. Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, The New York Historical, Gift of Kenneth Sherman