Author: Irma McClaurin

Irma McClaurin is an award-winning columnist, poet, activist, anthropologist and consultant. She served as editor of Transforming Anthropology for seven years and was tenured in anthropology at the University of Florida and the University of Minnesota. An academic entrepreneur, her leadership roles include the deputy provost at Fisk University (2002-2004); the first Mott distinguished chair of women's studies and founder of the Africana women’s studies program at Bennett College (2004); program officer at the Ford Foundation for Education and Scholarship (2005-2007); associate vice president and founding executive director of the University of Minnesota’s first Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center (2007-2010); president of Shaw University from 2010-2011; senior faculty at the Federal Executive Institute (2013-2014); and chief diversity officer at Teach For America (2014-2016). Her book, JustSpeak: Reflections on Race, Culture and Politics in America, is forthcoming in 2022.

Rest in Power: Nikki Giovanni, the Angel of Black Poetry

Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr.—poet, writer, feminist and civil rights activist and educator—has died. Born June 7, 1943 , Giovanni was the author of more than 25 books and subject of the award-winning 2023 documentary Going to Mars.

A poem written in her honor:

“Nikki Giovanni,

Black poetic angel extraordinaire

who wrote to us

and for us;

gave us Black folk,

and the world,

a legacy of words

that exuded courage:

words of truthtelling

words of Black magic

words of inspiration

words of your life

words of your vision

words of love

for us,

your global Black community.”

A Black Mother Weeps for America

They are not insurgents. They are not enemy combatants. They are not hostile enemy forces. They are not terrorists. They are our Black sons. And I beg you, America, to stop killing them in their own backyards, in the streets outside of nightclubs, on the phone talking to their girlfriends, and a few blocks from […]

The Charleston Nine

Reprinted with permission from Insight News Even as the flowers fade, the hurt and pain of the atrocities that occurred here in Charleston, South Carolina on that bloody June Wednesday are very much alive. It is joined with the mixed emotions of those visiting the Mother Emanuel AME Church, which has now become a living […]