Trump shamed with Father’s Day protest for tearing apart immigrant families

I’d explode. I’d be a stick of walking dynamite. I’d want to kill until he was in my arms again. I never felt murderous rage until I realized my child co

As With Stephon Clark And Saheed Vassell, America Is A Danger To My Newborn Son

Published in The Huffington Post, Opinion April 8, 2018 A day after my son was born, Stephon Clark was killed by police. I try hard to not see his death as a prophecy for my child. He’s an infant. He stares at me with a bottomless love and hunger. I just want him to grow …

If Roseanne Barr was Puerto Rico

Published in They Indypendent June 4, 2018 If Roseanne Barr died 4,645 times, death upon death; if she were lost like screams in a hurricane; like an old man, legs swollen fat, his last pill days ago; like a worker, head split by a falling tree; like a dead baby, milky eyes seeing the afterlife; …

From Stephon Clark to Voter Suppression, the Attack on Black America Intensifies

It's hard to watch. Guns aimed at the dark. Loud yells. Loud salvo. Night drizzle in the tactical lights. Cops mistook his cell phone for a gun. I know already, he's dead. I finished watching the video of Stephon Clark's murder. Days later, White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders labeled it a "local matter."

We Need The Revolutionary Black God That James Cone Saw

In the fires of a burning city, James Cone saw the face of God. He was a young theologian transfixed by newsreels of the 1967 Detroit uprising. For five days, Black people fought soldiers as buildings burned in the night. Two years later, his Black Theology & Black Power hit bookstores; God, he said was on the side of the protesters. Cone died last month. Although mourned by many, his legacy is in question. Millennials have left behind the church in the internet age. What role does Cone’s theology have now? What can we do with a faith that once linked us to our ancestors?

Can’t Beat Hate with Hate

“Now I’m afraid,” she said. “I wasn’t before. Too privileged to feel fear.” The protest at Trump Tower was loud, so we, leaned in to each other as if whispering secrets. Another war chant rose from the people at the barricades. “After seeing the car hit the marchers. Kill that girl,” her eyes fixed on …

Black Masks, Rainbow Bodies

"Black Masks, Rainbow Bodies: Race and Psychedelics" Psychedelics is a "white thing". It is a common idea. Many people of color view "tripping" as an effete practice of the privileged that the oppressed cannot afford. The sentiment is mirrored by the near invisibility of race as a topic in official, often all white, psychedelic conferences. Against white silence and black suspicion, more youth of color, some affluent and integrated are experimenting with psychotropics. Using literature, history and personal testimony, we can map how psychedelics have been interpreted by Black America.

Trapped in a Burning House: A Review of “I Am Not Your Negro”

"It's not a question of what happens to the Negro," Baldwin said in an early [episode] of "The Dick Cavett Show." Eyebrows arched, he looked at Cavett, "The real question is what's going to happen to this country." The film cuts to cops arresting Black Lives Matters activists. Peck edits Baldwin speaking in the past, alongside today's protests throughout I Am Not Your Negro. It drives the overall theme that our nation is again at a turning point. The US will rise or fall to the degree it heeds Baldwin's warning. The film commands: Look beyond the self-serving stereotypes of Black people or collapse from the weight of your hypocrisy.

Interview in Very Ape Podcast

Check out Episode 29: Unleash Your Carnival Potential with Nicholas Powers, on the Very Ape Podcast.

Pain is Pain

"You’re not listening to me.” He gripped the steering wheel. “What the hell am I not hearing?” I stared at my friend Terrence, who stared at the road as we drove in silence. He blurted, “White guys feel like they’re always wrong. I’m white. Listen to me. I know. We’re being yelled at by everyone.” …