This past weekend, I along with 60 NYU graduate students visited The Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama. During our time in Montgomery, we saw the Equal Justice Initiative offices, visited the Legacy Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and previewed the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. This trip was part of a course I'm currently in titled Narrative Strategies for Racial Justice and Equality, led by Bryan Stevenson (EJI).

Dean Majd began using a 35mm camera to challenge notions of gender normativity and gender-expression by photographing the everyday intimacy of his group of male friends in New York City. His photos liberate our thoughts grounded in heteronormative perceptions, enabling us to accept the nuances of male identity, friendship, and intimacy.

Chaos, noise, and clutter have taken a strong hold over our existence and our broader perception of the world. We might close our eyes every so often, hoping to visually access calm, ease, and liberation. It’s an innate human condition to want to tap into a state of equilibrium and balance from within, but can we ever achieve consistent tranquility? Perhaps not. Yet, a glimpse into the aesthetically mesmerizing world of Ismail Zaidy will awaken your senses and nudge you closer to a state of peace, even if for a moment. From the richness of the colours to the softness of various traditional textiles that fluidly merge within his compositions, Zaidy’s images take on a symbolic form, communicating to the viewer what he may not find possible with words.

Ming Smith’s photograph, Pharaoh Sanders at The Bottom Line (1977) captures both a meaningful image of a musician in his element and the essence of jazz itself.

In 2004, an unfortunate night in basketball known as the “Malice at the Palace” became a sports media spectacle. I reflect on the “Malice at the Palace” event as I engage with scholarship by James Lull, Noam Chomsky, Adorno and Horkheimer, and Reece Peck to explore the power of media in perpetuating hegemonic ideologies.

My passion for the topic of identity led me to co-founding BraveGrl in 2020. BraveGrl is a non-profit organization that brings together racialized women of diverse backgrounds to feel empowered in their unique identity. Below you'll find a brief compilation of some of the content I created for BraveGrl, along with the story of how this community came to life.