During an era where there were no Black lawyers in the nation, imagine bing a black defendant. We’ve all seen or at least heard of the American classic, To Kill a Mocking Bird, where Atticus Finch heroically stands up for the rights of an unjustly accused Black man against an angry town to a white […]
Blue skies topple As clouds shift into shadow hunters, Robing the sun’s reflection of the blood moon. Winds breath a stale stench of Deferred Dreams. As fog lingers in the arms of natures weave, Senescence slowly envelope youth as a snail dries out. Fleeting sanity into nothingness up empty pages. Wandering. Purposely seeking freedom in […]
Ever since the tragic death of Tragic death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, with every birthday that passes I take the time to reflect on the grieving families of those whose lost loved ones to the violent actions of state forces. On Martin’s birthday, just a day before mine, he would have been turning the […]
Representation is an important aspect of the society that one is apart of. If a person within a society feels misrepresented, it’s their duty to offer an alternative form of representation for themselves and others like them. Prior to the 17th century there were no Black news outlets in the United States. Meaning that although […]
Yesterday the Apple Promenade building was torn down, when I initially saw the video clip on Shelf Life’s Instagram page @shelf_life_stories, my heart dropped. Although I knew that the day was coming and that this was the day that the project had been preparing for initially inspiring activists to collect stories. Even then I couldn’t […]
This year’s national theme for Black History Month is “African Americans in Times of War”. The nation is called to reflect on Blacks contribution to American war on this year’s 100th anniversary of World War 1 (WW1). WW1 was fought in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The […]
FebruaryBlack History Month Series Why Do this This is my second year of Sawari’s Black History Month series. The series includes daily articles, poetry and other forms of writing recognizing important figures and themes surrounding Black history. I like to take advantage of these few weeks of the year as a time for education and […]
One of my incarcerated companions wrote me and included a picture of himself with his ‘old earth’. I sat confused looking for the meaning while starting at the photo of him and his mother, I’d never heard the phrase before. After a few moments, it finally hit me, the womb of our mother is where […]
With February’s end, I fear the end of our pursuit of the knowledge, characters and milestones within our culture. During February we embrace the opportunity to bask in our history, posting the stories of our leaders and sharing the legacies of our ancestors across countless platforms. Whether that be through social media like twitter tributes […]
Why go to an HBCU? During the time that I’ve been researching and writing for the Black History Month series I’ve started to think more seriously about graduate school. After receiving my bachelors degree from the University of Washington I thought about graduate school but opted to focus on my salon to allow me the […]