This date celebrates the origin of the African Grove Theater in 1821. Both ship stewards, William Alexander Brown and James Hewlett, founded the theater. James Hewlett, a frequent guest of the African Grove and a theater enthusiast, inspired Brown to incorporate theatrical works into the Grove’s repertoire and by 1821, Brown had created the African Theatre. Hiring Black performers, the African Company put on “possibly the first professional African-American theatre productio

Black media outlets have historically functioned as the primary architects of the Black theatrical canon, serving as critics, archivists, and promoters when mainstream white institutions ignored or caricatured Black life. From the abolitionist era to the present, these outlets ensured that Black stories were not just "told," but told with the nuance of the "insider’s gaze." On March 16, 1827, the Freedom’s Journal newspaper was founded. It was the first Black-owned and ope

All Hands on Deck: The Systemic Erasure of the American Voter On the 4th of July, we are often asked to celebrate a version of America that exists more in theory than in practice. As we navigate a landscape where voter disenfranchisement is actively celebrated by its supporters, we must reimagine what liberty truly looks like. The reality is that we are witnessing a “silent coup”— not through a single event, but through the steady criminalization of the polling place. The