Had Gwendolyn Brooks and Lorraine Hansberry ever met, they would have had much to discuss. Both Chicago natives, whose insightful, moving works captured the reality of being a Black woman in mid-century America, Brooks and Hansberry also shared

Gwendolyn Brooks’s second volume of poetry is a coming-of-age narrative that charts the rites of passage in a young Black woman’s life: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Annie Allen is among the most lyrical, formally proficient, yet challenging…

Sandra Jackson-Opoku, Artist CV

ADI MAGAZINE is a new US-based literary journal rehumanizing policy.

This is the moment I recall, a memory blurred by nostalgia and the steep ascent of time. I was tired and happy. It took three days of travel to be there. The caress of sun on my face was blossoming into a smolder. I accepted this pain as the price of…

I am Coming Home. My mother will be screaming in an almost dirty dress. The crack is gone. So a Man will be in the house. I must watch myself. I must not dare to sleep. —Gwendolyn Brooks 1. “So who?” people say when she tells them who she is.…

Novelist Sandra Jackson-Opoku carried a stack of her books to the balcony outside her apartment, where we sat at a table facing Nichols Park. Describing herself, she said, “I’m a Chicago writer, born and raised, but I write about the world.” It is…

(The following is excerpted from a novel-in-progress set in the 18th century on Saint-Louis Island, Senegal) Crouching to meet the boy at his own height, Augustin Moreau smelt of saltwater and sweat, rum and pipe tobacco. His face was lean and…

Prairie Winds, bulletin of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Fall 2020 Scroll down to page 12 for novel excerpt, "Schwerner"

excerpt from a novel-in-progress To fling my arms wide In the face of the sun, Dance! Whirl! Whirl! Till the quick day is done. Rest at pale evening… A tall, slim tree… Night coming tenderly Black like me. — Langston Hughes, from “Dream…

The bid-whist-playing, gin-drinking, chit’lin-cooking, barbecuing, party-loving Pattersons. That was Mama’s family–loud, boisterous and slightly disreputable. Miss Jonita declared them “country,” though the Pattersons had been established in Chicago…

“It is the power of her imagination that allows her to be at once aware of her position in the world, but not complacent in accepting it.” – Manuel Muñoz on Maud Martha It was with great satisfaction and sighs of admiration that Quraysh Ali Lansana…

The fact that London has a distinctive Black presence should come as a surprise to no one. After all, we’re in the midst of a latter day British invasion. There’s supermodel Naomi Campbell, actors Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, and that…

Quebec city’s recent 400th anniversary celebration was quite a spectacle — Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, treasures from the Louvre, and even the occasional nod to diversity like the multicultural rap show, Hip hop tout en couleurs (Hip hop in all…