Black History Year

Today, we’re sifting through the Black History Year rolodex to bring you the spiritual and cultural thinking that imperialism has continuously attempted to kill. Check out the full interviews from today's highlighted guests: Escaping the Plantation with Dr. Christena Cleveland Still Alive and Still Fighting with Robert Lee Johnson The Power of Black Cooperative Economics with Dr. Jessica Gordon-Ne...

Today’s History Story: Black Love Non-Monogamy Dianne Stewart is back to talk about Black love. We’re continuing the conversation about Deconstructing Black Love so that we can rebuild and reconnect with spirituality, heritage, and how we love ourselves and each other outside of white supremacy. In that interview, we learned a lot about love, particularly how as African descended people, love is m...

White supremacist erasure and whitewashing of Black disabled people’s voices and stories has happened for centuries now—and for centuries, too, ableists have abused our disabled ancestors. This violent erasure bleeds into our present--including in our own community. To give us more insight, we'll be talking to Anita Cameron. As a Black, disabled person, Anita has dedicated almost 40 years to commu...

Written and narrated by award-winning author and Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, “History is US” is a 6-part audio documentary produced and developed by C13Originals that asks questions about who we are as a nation, and what race might reveal about our current crisis. Through the voices of distinguished historians and scholars, this limited serie...

Today's History Story: A Black Holiday Tradition The Black struggle is real. But life isn’t all oppression. Our culture, our community, our Blackness is something to celebrate, and many of our ancestors celebrated through traditions and holidays that you might not know exist. Today's guest, Dr. Keith Mayes, will school us on the empowering history of the holidays we created. Dr. Keith Mayes is an...

Today's History Story: Black Barber Shops The Black barbershop is a cultural institution. It's a place where you can get much more than a haircut. You get community. You get jokes. You might get politicized. And you will get the straight talk that we often hold back when navigating a larger public that's committed to white supremacist systems. What we don't often talk about when thinking of the ba...

White supremacy has systematically broken the heart of Black America. Its toxic presence has, for generations, harmed our self-concept and even how we view each other. History tells another story, though. Today’s guest is going to help us get to the heart of the matter. Dr. Dianne Stewart is a  professor of religion and African American studies at Emory University.  Inspired by her research and te...

Today's Historic Story: Ray Charles vs. Elvis Every time we hop on Twitter, Instagram, or any other social platform, we’re running into brands who use insidious tactics to get into our pockets. From "Black" CGI influencers to brands that align themselves as Black allies when they just want Black dollars, it's all digital anti-Blackness and it's causing more harm than we may know. Leading today's c...

Today's Historic Story: Nearest Green No matter what laws change or how much progress they want us to believe we’re making, racism only evolves and makes it even more necessary for us to get creative in the fight for our liberation. That means, we’ve got to take back our stories. We do that toay with Dr. David Ikard. He is a professor of African American and Diaspora studies at Vanderbilt Universi...

Today's Historic Story: The True Story of Candyman They say urban legends aren’t real. That they’re only cautionary tales to keep unruly children at bay, but there are elements underlying these stories that are far more terrifying than any monster or ghoul. The biggest horror? How we as Black people have learned to fear ourselves. We sit down with Dr. Kinitra Brooks to guide this conversation. Bey...

LaToya is the perfect person to navigate this conversation. She is the founder and co-director of the Collective Steps Project, an organization holistically empowering Black women and girls. By providing resources, workshops, and other forms of community support, the collective encourages women to do what they’re so often told not to do, and that’s advocate for themselves. They’re working to advan...

There's a target on our back. We're not talking about individual bull's eyes. We're talking about one big, red dot aimed at us collectively by a litany of systemic and political predators blocking us from our stolen freedom. Alone, the target will engulf us, but what happens if we face down our enemy together? What happens if we look our oppressors in the face as one? This week we sit down with Ha...

For four seasons – that’s right, four seasons – we’ve learned histories hidden from us, challenged the systemic structures built to subjugate us, and asked those critical questions that can push us towards Black liberation. In season five, those conversations can’t stop–won’t stop!–as we continue using history building toward liberated Black futures. That’s why we're talking about the exploitative...

We’re bringing you something special this week. We’re introducing a new podcast produced by Pineapple Street Studios. It's called Love Thy Neighbor .  Hosted by journalist Collier Meyerson, this five-episode series is about two communities in the New York City neighborhood of Crown Heights: the Caribbean-American community and the Lubavitch Jewish community.  It’s a story about immigration; white...

What’s up fam, thanks for tuning into another episode of Black History Year. On this show, we connect you to the history, thinkers, and activists who are left out of mainstream conversations. But this week, we’re switching it up. Instead of our usual show, we’re sharing an episode of PushBlack’s newest podcast, Building Black Dollars ! It’s no secret that the economic system is rigged against us a...

There's a myth going around. The myth that Black revolutionaries of past are no longer living or have retired from the fight for liberation. But this isn't the truth, as today's guest proves. A best-selling author and former Black Panther who served as a leading member of the party’s Compton branch, we're having a conversation with Robert Lee Johnson about the Black Panther's impact, the continued...

There is nothing like Black music. From jazz to hip hop, our music's cultural contribution touches every corner of the world. And yet, Black artists are consistently underpaid, overlooked, and exploited. Today, law professor Dr. Funmi Arewa takes us into the world of music to understand the legal rights of creators, how they've been exploited, and what we as consumers can do about it. BHY is produ...

To love your community and your family, you've got to love yourself. And a lot of that begins with taking care of your health. Today, herbalist Afya Ibomu discusses the importance of taking care of your whole self -- mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically -- in order to experience and share authentic Black love. BHY is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media...

Education has always mattered to Black people. Our enslaved ancestors risked their lives to learn what white oppressors withheld. Because those oppressors understood the important role knowledge of ones history, one's world, and oneself plays in Black liberation. Hundreds of years have gone by, and throughout them all, white supremacy has continued the work of suppressing Black education. So what...

There have been innumerable attempts to silence the voices of our ancestors, especially the stories of enslaved Black women. While we hear about the realities they faced of sexual violence and exploitation, there’s a layer not readily discussed. And in that hidden layer are the many ways Black women resisted enslavement while navigating within it. This episode we sit down with Dr. Heather Finch, p...

You've likely heard them before. "Don't get too dark." Or "You look good, have you lost weight?" And even, "Be quiet -- that's not ladylike." These phrases might seem inconsequential, but embedded deep within are messages of anti-Blackness. And they're messages that the most impressionable of us especially internalize: our children. Today we'll unpack three problematic phrases -- and their implici...

It's not news that white folks in power have manipulated and weaponized the interests of Black people to their benefit. It's why oftentimes we see Black folks electing other Black folks into office. But all skin folk ain't kinfolk. It's why knowing the motives and actions of those Black people we elected into office is so important. It's why we have to hold our people accountable. Today Dr. Albert...

Contrary to what you might think, many of us are living on plantations in present-day. While the plantations many of us occupy look vastly different than our forebearers', white supremacy continues to trap us within violent systems -- and the mental health consequences in our community are resounding. But we don't have to remain disconnected from our needs, dignity, and freedom. Today's guest Dr....

For centuries, white historians’ have attempted to erase and whitewash Black history. Despite their best efforts, it can’t be erased. Today, we're talking with Debora Heard to help us reclaim and recover the history many have attempted to falsify. A Ph. D. Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, she’s dedicated much time to provide African-descended people with access, opportunity,...

Black women don’t often get their roses in the history books, relegated instead into background roles. But for us to achieve liberation as a people, we must understand the need for collective action to achieve liberation. Dr. Ashley Farmer can attest to this need. An accomplished historian and author of the pioneering book “Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era,” Dr. Ashley Farm...