Musings (A Student Blog)

Musings is a blog featuring the writings of Medgar Evers College students from the English department. On a regular basis, they contribute essays that address a variety of topics ranging from pop culture to Black literature. Please read and enjoy...leave a comment, too! We'd love to hear from you.

Capturing Black History Through a Lens

By Cinnamon Barrington | Chris Cook is a Brooklyn-based artist born in East Flatbush and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant. He began working in photography roughly ten years ago. Photography compelled him to engage with others and learn their stories. As...
Read More

Black History Month: The Importance of Young Black Creative Writers Finding Their Calling

By Keyshawn Jackson Allison | Attending the Theater and Film Black History Month event was an enlightening and inspirational experience. Prominent Black film and theater professionals Woodie King Jr., Carolyn Butts, and Mia Mask spoke at the event on February...
Read More

From Margin to Center: Sexual Bureaucracy and the Immolation of the Black Identity in Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other

By Tracey Squires. My eyes are not my own, My hands belong to my brothers and sisters, Who must carry my pain- And I theirs; For we are one in the eyes of that which is called holy, Every dark...
Read More

Politics of Pleasure: Silencing Sexuality in Black Feminist Literature

By Tracey Squires. My black body is a playground,     My arms, swings to swing on            My torso, a sloping slide for you to slide down, You leave your footprints in my sandbox. – (poem by the author) Chartering...
Read More

The Importance of Black Literature

By Malik Windsor | Black literature is the filling in the cavity of history, the tales of the disenfranchised and long-forgotten recreating truth in the world. Black literature is important because it widens the scope of how Black people have...
Read More

Facing Grief in Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

By Malik Windsor | Last weekend I returned to the movie theatres for the first time since the beginning of the 2020 pandemic to see Marvel’s newest installment of Black Panther. Overshadowed by the memory of the late Chadwick Boseman,...
Read More

Angels of Biafra and Brooklyn: On Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn

By Tracey Squires | Suffering’s song knows no home, it sings a deep and undefined refrain that speaks discordant lyrics to a despondent people. Suffering’s song is a low wail, a lost story told from a tongue made heavy with...
Read More

Twitter Trolls

By Malik Windsor | Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. It is a social networking service where users post and engage with messages described as “tweets.” Users can post, like, comment, “retweet” tweets,...
Read More

Tear in Our Social Fabric: Mahsa Amini’s Death in a Time of Roe vs. Wade

By Tracey Squires | Many die silently, their lives stolen by injustices; their stories are sutured wounds that have never asked to be closed. We hearken to this “many” rarely, and even less so if they are women. We hear their...
Read More

Fishing for Recognition

By Malik Windsor | I often hear people recite the phrases “I don’t care what you think” or “your opinion doesn’t matter;” as defense mechanisms we express when our peers’ opinions and beliefs are different from our own. In grade school,...
Read More

The Necessity of Black Literature

By Cassidy Ridgeway | In today’s ever-changing times, Black literature is a necessity for Black children and youth because it provides them with opportunities to increase their understanding of the world, sparks their inventiveness, and more importantly, allows them to...
Read More

The Overturning of Roe v. Wade

By Cassidy Ridgeway | For almost 50 years, Roe v. Wade has provided women in America with the safety and stability of knowing they are in charge of making decisions for their bodies and futures. The 1973 decision gave women...
Read More

Anyone Can Be Spider-Man

By D’Avian Johnson | I love Peter Parker. Not only is he the perfect hero, but he is also the most relatable one. He's the “everyday” man who goes through the same struggles every regular person goes through. He just...
Read More

Two Distant Strangers: A Movie Review

By Shamya Hill | In an industry that produces movies about vampires, werewolves, wizards, aliens riding bikes over the moon, and monsters, I think it is safe to say that art doesn’t imitate life except when it does. When movies...
Read More

Lori Madison Was a Human Being

By Adeola Adeniyi | Young and cocky Lori, played by the fantastic and underrated actress Emily Meade, rides down the escalator at the Port Authority bus terminal in season one of The Deuce. She is ready for big-league New York...
Read More

Ups and Downs

By Sashagale Moore | Which is more challenging, walking away from a dysfunctional relationship or staying? In my opinion, I believe that both options are equally difficult. Many women find it harder to leave a failed relationship because, as women,...
Read More

The Black Voice and its Place in Literature

By Sashagale Moore |  From the 18th century to the present day, Black literature has changed the world. The earlier Black writers were fearless, and we must remember them and honor their fearlessness because, before the 18th century, the idea...
Read More

Living the Spoken Word

By Shamya Hill |  When I think of Black Voices in literature, I think of my favorite spoken word artists such as Javon Johnson, Steven Willis, and Danez Smith performing pieces regarding being Black men in America. I remember stumbling...
Read More

Black Voices Remaining Afloat

By D’Avian Johnson |  I believe Black voices have always been drowned out, however literature is a powerful tool for allowing them to remain afloat in one way or another. This may be through the characters writers create, or the...
Read More

Long Division

By Adeola Adeniyi | One of my rules regarding books is if I’m at a library or bookstore and I see a black author on the back of a book cover, I automatically pick up the book and read the...
Read More

Contact Us

Center for Black Literature
at Medgar Evers College, CUNY (CBL)
1534 Bedford Avenue, 2nd Floor
Brooklyn, New York 11216

Main Phone: (718) 804-8883
Main Office: info@centerforblackliterature.org
PR Office: pr@centerforblackliterature.org

Donate to CBL Today!

To carry out our literary programs and special events, we depend on financial support from the public. Donations are welcome year-round. Click HERE to make a donation today. Thank you in advance!
...
The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College is supported in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We're Where You Are!

Get The Latest News!

Sign-up to receive news about our own programs and much more!

Please enter a valid email address.
Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. | Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY.

Scroll to Top