A lot of people want to heal our communities in the aftermath of the events in Charlottesville. I am here to counter such narratives. This is not the time for healing. Now is the time to double down on admittedly painful efforts for change instead of feelings. Trying to heal a community without changing its…
My new ebook, Prince and Little Weird Black Boy Gods, is out! This collection of essays, what-ifs and tidbits contains everything writer and critic Scott Woods has publicly written and published about Prince, as well as a stack of new material written specifically for this edition. A fun, sometimes biting history with Prince from a…
This is the transcript of a speech I gave on August 6, 2017 as a keynote speaker for the close of the first-ever Columbus International Black Film Festival created by Cristyn Steward. ========= Thank you for having me. I want to thank Cristyn for inviting me to speak today, but as I do so I’d…
There were so many actors of color in the 2016 horror film The Watcher that I felt compelled to investigate it halfway through to see if its creative or production teams were black (answer: nope and definitely not). Despite being a horror movie junkie, The Watcher is not my normal smack. This is the kind…
Lately I’ve been trying to fill the Prince-sized whole in my life. I’ve made various mixes, creating killer could-have-been albums. I’ve latched on to new artists hoping to catch a fire in some profound reconfiguration of noises I hadn’t heard before. I’ve tried listening to the worst of his bootlegs in an attempt to draw…
(“Judith and Holofernes” (detail) by Kehinde Wiley, 2012; photo by the author) To my fellow Columbus black creatives, For a while now, but especially in the wake of yet another police acquittal, we have needed to come to a decision about this city. We have a particular relationship with Columbus when it comes to…
Gentrification is all the rage right now. There are new (and really good) books being released on the subject, neighborhood groups have formed to address it, and it’s a hot button topic for just about any news week, which is saying a lot considering current presidential antics. And yet, in an odd and karmic twist,…
I was commissioned to write an essay commemorating the one year anniversary of Prince’s death for Legacy.com, which I am linking here so they can get their props. Check it out. It’s pretty good, if I say so myself (through a few tears). In short, I still miss my old friend.
If you are of a certain age or have a predilection for old cartoons, you will recall the old G.I. Joe show from the mid-80s. The primary antagonists were COBRA, a well-heeled terrorist organization led by the asthmatic and mirror-faced Cobra Commander. If you stuck with this political caprice for a season, you will also…
Here is something I need people to start applying to “Our Current Moment”: math. I need people to start applying math very specifically to some of the mainstream art you’re holding up as a response to President Trump and his many flaws, and I need you to start doing this because your timelines – and…
So how do you want to do this? Straight, like all of the white reviews on Rotten Tomatoes? Funny, to keep from crying? Tell you what: I’ll meet you, whoever you are, halfway: I’ll do four reviews for the four most likely affected parties in proximity to Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, Get Out, which you…
A lot of words can be ascribed to James Baldwin, but the one that sticks the landing is “prophet.” James Baldwin told us Trump was coming. He did not do so directly, of course. By the time Baldwin died in 1987 Trump was two years into yet another lawsuit, this time for forcing tenants out…
