Tennis, Black Excellence and Serena Williams

In her beautifully thoughtful article about Serena Williams for the New York Times, poet and playwright Claudia Rankine profiles the already legendary tennis player and all that she represents. Explaining how Williams is oftentimes reduced to her physicality, beauty, race, behavior or manners, Rankine shows readers how much expectation and pressure is put on Williams, and how she simply refuses to be anything but herself. …

Kinfolk Brooklyn’s ‘I Know You Know’ Exhibition

A group art show contrasting ambiguity and identity

There are countless ways to propose a dialogue on the vast notion of identity. With “I Know You Know,” a new group art exhibition at Brooklyn’s Kinfolk, ambiguity stands as the entry point for discussion. Characters are referenced, and even investigated, but interpretation is left solely to the viewer. While as a concept this may feel familiar, the selections of paintings, photographs and knit-work lend …

Sampa the Great: The Great Mixtape

For “The Great Mixtape,” poet and vocalist Sampa the Great sings and rhymes with a political conscience, dragging words out slowly or stuttering them out rapid fire over producer Godriguez’s jazzy beats. Exploring hip-hop, R&B and spoken word with experimental flourishes, the mixtape shows off music as a “soul language,” as Sampa puts it. Mos Def and Lauryn Hill’s influences are clear, as is her …