tells

9Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BOOKS

Ayana Mathis Tells The Story Of The Children Of The Great Migration Through The Trials Of One Unforgettable Family

The newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection. The arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction. A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family. In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world...

What A Revolt’s Archives Tells Us About Reckoning With Slavery And Who Owns The Past

2Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

What A Revolt’s Archives Tells Us About Reckoning With Slavery And Who Owns The Past

The consequences of 400 years of the Atlantic slave trade are still felt today. Untangling the power structures and systemic racism that came with slavery is ongoing, with police brutality, memorials to slave owners and reparations forming part of the discussion. Statue of the Berbice slave revolt leader Kofi in Georgetown, Guyana. David Stanley - Flickr/WikiMedia, CC BY-SA But as the United Nations marks Dec. 2 as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, a practice it notes “is not merely a historic relic,” modern society also has to reckon with another question: Who has access to the records about slavery’s past? I was struck by this question recently as I gave a Zoom talk in Guyana on my new book Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast about ...

A New Model Tells Astronomers Where To Look For More Exoplanets Using 4 Simple Variables – They Are Still Out There

3Apr

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SCIENCE, VIDEO REELS

A New Model Tells Astronomers Where To Look For More Exoplanets Using 4 Simple Variables – They Are Still Out There

Only 12 light years from Earth, Tau Ceti is the closest single star similar to the Sun and an all-time favorite in sci-fi stories. Habitable worlds orbiting Tau Ceti were destinations of fictional starships like “The Expanse”‘s Nauvoo and “Barbarella”’s vessel. “Star Trek”’s Captain Picard also frequented an exotic bar in the system. Now, thanks to a new approach to analyzing nearby planetary systems, we have a deeper understanding of the actual worlds that orbit Tau Ceti and many other nearby stars. Exoplanets – worlds around other stars – have long been staples of science fiction but remained mostly inaccessible to scientific investigations. This all changed over the past decade, when NASA’s Kepler and TESS exoplanet hunter space telescopes added thousands of new planets to the previous...

History tells us trying to stop diseases like COVID-19 at the border is a failed strategy

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

History tells us trying to stop diseases like COVID-19 at the border is a failed strategy

To explain why the coronavirus pandemic is much worse in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, commentators have blamed the federal government’s mismanaged response and the lack of leadership from the Trump White House. Others have pointed to our culture of individualism, the decentralized nature of our public health, and our polarized politics. All valid explanations, but there’s another reason, much older, for the failed response: our approach to fighting infectious disease, inherited from the 19th century, has become overly focused on keeping disease out of the country through border controls. As a professor of medical sociology, I’ve studied the response to infectious disease and public health policy. In my new book, “Diseased States,” I examine how the early experience of outbr...

3Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Damon Young Tells His Story in “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker”

I think that we should all know by now that trying to do or alter our behavior in a way to appease Whites is useless. Damon Young’s is the voice many Black people probably hear in their heads. The one that finds humor in the most-distressing situations. The one that has the perfect, witty clapback to some ridiculous statement. And the one that is thoughtful to the point of overthinking. I think this because every time I read one of his posts on Very Smart Brothas—a blog he cofounded about relationships, pop culture, and race—I excitedly exclaim, “Oh my God, I was thinking the exact same thing!” And based on the plethora of comments at the end of each blog post, I know I’m not the only one. Reading his recently published memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker, how...