Commentary

You might not think of it but, the Blues, the most original contemporary Black music known the world over, is probably the most consequential original music artistry ever created and performed in all of history. Kind of crazy to say, but it’s true!

As our gem and gravity center, Black popular music culture used to be the place where we found answers and joy, a balm in our Gilead. A Stevie Wonder song, or a hip-hop anthem like “Headed for Self-Destruction” was a map. Aretha sang about “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.”

Bernice Johnson Reagon, a civil rights activist who co-founded The Freedom Singers and later started the African-American a capella vocal ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, passed on recently at the age of 81.

One question of interest in culture today is, how do we see ourselves? With all the speculation around pundits and polls and those seeking profits, it seems clear that we must ask ourselves what we can each do to commit to our own sense of worth by committing to uphold a just set of values.

I see culture as fluid and history as an expanding people map, moving through interaction and the creation of rituals and customs to mark a civilization’s expanding territories in time.

Cultural education, production and curation is critical at every level. And that extends to every level of cultural, social, spiritual, healthy, economic and political engagement of all communities at the serious strategy level.

In culture, the wars in fields, cities or in words matter. On the one hand, there is a need for culture to resonate, to project, to be in demand, like a hit or a new fashion statement or a local protest movement.

Dear Justice Thomas: I am writing you and not the other Supreme Court Justices who now form your “pack” [of conservatives] because they could never understand what it means to be Black in America, but I know you have before.

Black music culture, with all of our literature, scholarship, poetry, visual arts, paintings and dance, is a treasure of incrediblea value and human achievement at every level.

Caitlin Clark is considered the new face of the WNBA. Every one of her games has been sold out. The young woman is box office magic. But why?

On March 29, 2024, Beyoncé released “Cowboy Carter,” a 27-track recording that she claims is not a country genre record, but a new Beyoncé record just “rooted in country.” America is our country. Black music is our music, and country music is our music, too.

My friends in the Boston legal community were shocked when I announced I’d be retiring from what many of them considered a dream job: Judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts.