​SELECTED ESSAYS

The Enduring Power of “Scenes of Subjection”

The New Yorker | October 17, 2022
​
Saidiya Hartman’s unrelenting exploration of slavery and freedom in the United States first appeared in 1997, during the last period of spoiled “race relations” in the twentieth century. Twenty-five years later, it has lost none of its relevance.

Who’s Left Out of the Learning Loss Debate

The New Yorker | October 12, 2022

Critics of school closures undermine the two groups who could do the most to help students recover—parents and teachers.

Hell Yes, We Are Subversive”

The New York Review of Books | September 22, 2022
​
For all her influence as an activist, intellectual, and writer, Angela Davis has not always been taken as seriously as her peers. Why not?

The Crossroads: Interview with Willa Glickman

The New York Review of Books | October 15, 2022
​
“Do we continue to place the vast majority of our hopes, expectations, time, and commitment in conventional politics that produce outcomes insufficient for the crises confronting our society and species?”

Abortion Is About Freedom,
Not Just Privacy

The New York Times | July 6, 2022
​
The right to abortion is an affirmation that women and girls have the right to control their own destiny.

How Black Feminists Defined Abortion Rights

The New Yorker | February 22, 2022
​
As liberation movements bloomed, they offered a vision of reproductive justice that was about equality, not just “choice.”

How Do We Change America?

The New Yorker | April 6, 2021
​
The quest to transform this country cannot be limited to challenging its brutal police alone.

The End of Black Politics

The New York Times | June 13, 2020
​
Black leaders regularly fail to rise to the challenges that confront young people.

Until Black Women Are Free,
​None Of Us Will Be Free

The New Yorker | July 20, 2020

Barbara Smith and the Black feminist visionaries of the Combahee River Collective.

FEATURED VIDEOS

Where Do We Go From Here?
​November 6, 2020

We Must Rethink Our Society, from Policing
to the Supreme Court
​September 29, 2020

Race for Profit: How Banks & Real Estate Biz Undermined Black Homeowners
October 22, 2019

What We Can Learn From the Black Feminists of the Combahee River Collective​
​January 22, 2018​

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective
​January 22, 2018​

​Keynote Address at Hampshire College Commencement
May 20, 2017
​

In conversation with Naomi Klein
at Seattle's Neptune Theatre
​June 22, 2017

​Fighting Racism in Trump's America
​at Socialism 2017
July 8, 2017

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation TEDx Baltimore
February 2, 2016