Portfolio:
Source: Jamaica Kalika
Journalism:
Women's History Month: How Dr. Allison Morgan Bryant gets it done as Chief of Staff
Inside the office of Allison Morgan Bryant, PhD, you will find glimpses of Howard’s past, present, and future. A manifest representation of what can be for Howard’s Black women, Bryant reflected on the University’s role in the woman she is today, and the innerworkings of being the right-hand woman to President Frederick.
Howard University Celebrates Toni Morrison on What Would’ve Been Her 92nd Birthday
“Morrison makes it clear what Howard makes possible, how it attracts the best. Morrison says very clear that Oberlin (College) was 30 minutes from her home in terms of a liberal arts school or college...but she wanted to go to this Black space of intellectual power,” says Dana A. Williams, PhD, a professor of African American literature in the Department of English and Dean of the Graduate School.
Jadrian Tarver lives like a main character in a Black musical. When you think of opera, his mind has gone to gospel. Baroque for you, jazz for Jadrian. He laughs that magical Disney laugh like he’s emptying himself with each chuckle. He referenced Whitney Houston as a “vocal Bible.”
Adrian Development Hosts Second ‘NY Meets DC Fashion’ Weekend
To close the summer, NY Fashion Meets DC geared up for their second fashion show, highlighting local designers and their ability to display creativity and artistic tastes. This is their first show since 2019. “It was a lot of work, but with everyone that came and helped to assist us, it was pretty good and I appreciate that,” said Adrian Kennedy, the founder of NY Fashion Meets DC. “When you think about people, creativity and what they have to add and distribute, this is for people to show a different perspective of how they can connect with their community and show their creativity.”
‘It keeps me alive’: Iraqi refugee Fadya Hakare prepares for amateur boxing debut
Born April 10, 1997, Hakare grew up in a small village in Mosul, Iraq. Now as an Iraqi refugee, she’s preparing for her amateur boxing debut Saturday.
Review: Amine dazzles Knitting Factory in his Best Tour Ever concert
Aminé’ is the father of a particular sound – West Coast rap style – that adores women and talks about getting paper with the homies in the same breath. It’s an effortless balance, a vibe that shook up hip hop and is now the standard. With the help of his DJ, MadisonLST, Aminé’s authenticity and talent dazzled in his March 24 show at Knitting Factory, a stop on his the Best Tour Ever tour.
A ‘melting pot of influence’: Black Violin draws from music styles ranging from classical to hip-hop
When Kev Marcus, one half of the Grammy-nominated duo Black Violin, reflects on the journey of how they've risen, he always cites his ability to be anew. A Black man with the build of an American linebacker, his innate desires to play the viola and violin soothe his inner world but cause friction in the outer.
At Sola Salon Studios, hairstylist Kameishi “Meme” Williams, business owner of The Sanctuary Beauty and Wellness, is dancing with herself to early 2000s R&B on a typical Wednesday.
Food Review: The power of the Dominator: Gonzaga guard Dominick Harris teams up with Cascadia for NIL that benefits charities
Cascadia Public House owner Jordan Smith and Gonzaga guard Dominick Harris share similar aspects of values. Smith: An extroverted business owner, sporting a grounded relief that his restaurant is thriving after the gloom and uncertainty of the pandemic. Harris: A nimble, budding 21-year-old about to begin his junior year on one of the nation’s prominent college basketball teams.
blaQplight Spotlight: MPB Room Live
During the stay-at-home orders of 2020, Caleb Parker, 29, and Greg M. Cromwell, 32, decided to build something timeless and vast: Maryland Park Bicycles, a virtual and in-person music platform that features up and coming artists around the DMV area. After a successful first season, MPB Room Live, Cromwell and Parker are providing boundless opportunity after centering passion, music and community.
“Now we’re telling people we don’t have the capacity and there’s too many people here,” Parker said. “The whole cul-de-sac is filled with cars to the point where neighbors are complaining and we’ve got to get wristbands and security. We’ve got an operation here.”
Chicken-n-Mo, the oldest Black restaurant in downtown Spokane, celebrates 30 years of business
With outstanding service and Southern hospitality, Chicken-N-Mo has survived two economic crises, price hikes on meat, sky-high inflation and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Bob Hemphill said they’ve only weathered the storm because he’s never changed his life philosophy of focusing on end results.
Vortia, the first rare books librarian in a decade, will assist with the center’s preservation process of their rare books collection for Howard students and beyond.
Women’s History at Howard: The Department of Public Safety’s Women in Leadership
The praise reflects the Department of Public Safety’s leadership and commitment to ensuring the safety of campus, where six of the nine administrative roles are held by women. For Women’s History Month, the Department of Public Safety’s six, female leaders discussed their roles and how their womanhood is embedded in their leadership.
Howard’s School of Divinity administration reflects on achievement and transformation
The School of Divinity’s history begins long before the end of the Civil War. A congregation of pastors and other religious leaders came together to decide on how to serve the spiritual needs of African Americans in the 1850s.
Antoinette Nwandu’s play “Pass Over” had me nervous. Does it walk the thin line of egregious circumstance yet meaningful substance? While written with all audiences in mind, does it lose its Black authenticity with that responsibility?
Pulitzer-winning poet Jericho Brown to read at Gonzaga on Wednesday
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jericho Brown remembers a time where he took public gatherings and community events for granted, before the pandemic snatched away poetry seminars, readings and other in-person events. “I didn’t know how much I needed it until it was gone,” Brown said Tuesday.
Yes, Black History Month is a celebration, but it still pulls Black people to answer a gritty question about their livelihood beyond resilience: How does one build an identity, home, in a world that is unapologetically, and actively, anti-Black in policy, action and culture?
Not only is the exhibit artistic and genius, it is emotional. Not only is it emotional, it is the truth. Any experience of womanhood is littered with misogynistic ideologies, but, for Black women, oppression intersects with race. This is without mentioning other marginalized groups such as the poor, LGBTQ+, disabled, nonbinary, trans and Black women.
But, after all, the wretchedness of oppression and its artistic, literary depictions are honest. All Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, the artists interpreted in the exhibit, even Chaka Khan and Nina Simone, all they did was capture Black womanhood in its most authentic form. Poindexter-Canton and Jackson are just following suit.
blaQplight Spotlight: SpitYoTruthTV
In February, artist StevenX debuted his very first curation with two close artists that reflect the DMV’s authenticity back to itself.
Award-Winning Stories of the Indigenous Tribes of the Pacific Northwest
DE SMET, IDAHO – On the back of his 2011 Majestic E-450 off-white RV, Duane Garvais Lawrence had “MMIW” written on top of the back window in red ink. Below it, 77 names of Native women were neatly written.
“We have about 30 more names to add onto this list today,” he said, referring to new names delivered to him by tribes in Washington and Idaho. They are the names of murdered and missing Indigenous woman from across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. “We’ll add them after the run today.”
George Wright Drive changes to Whistalks Way, honoring female warrior Whist-alks: ‘We finally got it done’
More than 100 people gathered outside of Spokane Fall Community College Friday to honor the change of George Wright Drive to Whistalks Way. The fight to rename the road began with the late activist Debbie Abrahamson of the Spokane Tribe in 1975. Friday afternoon and 46 years later, over 25 Native tribes were able to see a generational victory.
For many artists, the art-making process is spiritual. One must mentally and firmly grasp onto sparks of creativity and deliver it into the physical with care and precision, a meticulous intentionality. Some ideas blossom quickly and take decades. For other people, like architect and artist Shawn Brigman, creating art is an early, swift concept.
7 tribes break ground on wellness center in eastern WA
Nez Perce member Liz Arthur-Attao woke up Friday to a regular spring afternoon: 48 degrees and spotty sunlight. Wind brought a chill. The ground was soft and fertile. It was the perfect weather for The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations to host its groundbreaking ceremony on a wellness center in Spokane Valley, Washington, extending a mission of healing youth through practices grounded in Indigenous values.
‘No More Stolen Sisters’: Indigenous artists curate Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women exhibit during Women’s History Month
In celebration of Women's History Month, Gonzaga University's Urban Arts Center is hosting the exhibition "No More Stolen Sisters" to raise awareness for the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women campaign primarily in the Pacific Northwest region.
Local Indigenous people reflect on the legacy of Thanksgiving as the holiday turns 400
In fall 1620, Pilgrims moved onto land occupied by the Wampanoag people in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. A year later tribal members and Pilgrims gathered on a day that is now recognized as Thanksgiving. It was an event that foreshadowed the history of colonization between tribes and settlers, and changed the direction of American history.
Sasha LaPointe balances Indigenous traditions and the modern world in her memoir ‘Red Paint’
She can navigate the salmon songs of her Upper Skagit and Nooksack ancestors and recite the lines to Bikini Kill’s debut album. The journey to this harmonious duality is explained, deepened, in her latest book, “Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk.” It’s a peaceful walk that embodies nostalgia, heartbreak and pride – growing pains of LaPointe’s experience as an Indigenous woman as she heals throughout her life.
Nonfiction:
Judge Cameron Dezen Hammon on Party Favors as a 2022 Best of the Land Contest Winner:
“Party Favors” is a voice-thick coming-of-self story about a young Black college student negotiating her identity between cliques and subcultures. A party (not a kick back) she doesn’t want to be at erupts in near-violence and the narrator is forced to face the disintegration of freshman-year friendships past their sell-by date, as well her own growing sexual and emotional maturity. At times, “Party Favors” leans toward the psychic force of Kiese Laymon’s "Heavy," and the musicality of Junot Diaz’s "This Is How You Lose Her." This writer is one to watch."
Instagram is nonfiction. Electronic, perhaps. Think subconscious bookscraping. Thumbing backward jumpstarts time machines to pre-epiphany moments, rearranging wool exactly how it covered your eyes during photos. Reminisce on moments you’ve enjoyed. Even moments you pretended existed. Maybe moments that never did.