“Talents” is a space to showcase and learn about the work of emerging creatives in the fields of black fashion, photography, and fine arts. The second installment of the “Talents” series is by Jonathan M. Square, the author of the blog Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom. In this virtual classroom – that is also on Instagram and Tumblr – Jonathan explores the politics of fashion among people …

The Schomburg Center released the full stream of the event “Visually Speaking: The Timeless Art of Kamoinge” about the historic Kamoinge Workshop. The workshop was founded in 1963 with the aim of counteracting stereotypical media images of black Americans and the bias of mainstream institutions toward photographers of colour. The original group included James Ray Francis, Louis Draper, Herman Howard, Earl James and Calvin Mercer …

An interesting piece on Beyoncé’s Formation video by Dr. Nettrice Gaskins Renegade Futurism Beyonce and the secret society Trayvon Martin’s (Sandra Bland’s) birthday, Mardi Gras, Black History Month, Black Panthers’ 50th/Super Bowl’s 50th. Beyonce’s release for her latest song and music video, Formation, was strategically dropped today. Already, bloggers and critics are analyzing the video, so here I am taking …

Though Rosa Parks is best known for her role as a civil rights activist, the Alabama native also worked as a seamstress at the Montgomery Fair department store. She was on her way home from work Dec. 1, 1955, when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. At the time, …

Troubling Vision (2011) is a key text for studying blackness and black identity from the point of view of visual studies. I am compelled by Fleetwood’s analysis of the double bind of blackness as something that saturates the field of vision, “troubling it” while also remaining complicit to, and thus reproducing, normative framings of racial difference. At the core of her …

A couple of weeks ago, The Root published an article by Prof. Tanisha Ford (University of Massachusetts Amherst) about the costume design of Ava DuVernay’s Selma. I only found out about it yesterday and rushed to read it. It is a valuable bibliographic reference, as well as an example of academic research applied to journalism. I loved to read it. As a historian of fashion and the …