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On Blackness and other wonders

ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

The Black Woman Commandments I Cannot Keep

“I love your hair. You did it yourself?” “Aww, thank you. I wish. I can’t cornrow.” “Wait, you’re a little Black girl and you don’t know how to cornrow?” Correction: I’m a whole 30-something Black woman who doesn’t know how to cornrow.

Adina Ferguson by Adina Ferguson
ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

The Black Woman Commandments I Cannot Keep

“I love your hair. You did it yourself?” “Aww, thank you. I wish. I can’t cornrow.” “Wait, you’re a little Black girl and you don’t know how to cornrow?” Correction: I’m a whole 30-something Black woman who doesn’t know how to cornrow.

Adina Ferguson by Adina Ferguson
Empowerment/ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

For We Humans Tend to Name Hurricanes

“Then [Noah] sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.” Genesis 8:7 As a child, I wanted to change my name. This desire was not particularly novel; children sometimes want to

Ravynn K. Stringfield by Ravynn K. Stringfield
ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

Scenes From The Stoop

Hair like strong twine, sweet like the harvest of a California grape vine, to stop the spread of your smile is the worst crime, voice melodic like summer wind chimes, spirit divine, little Black girl I love you all time. My mother,

Kiersten Adams by Kiersten Adams
ESSAYS/Family/On Blackness and other wonders

Like She Never Left

“My name is Tavonne Carson. I’m six years old.” If she hadn’t said my name, I wouldn’t have believed the little girl calling from the speakers of the old boom box was me. Steady and brilliant, that voice spoke to a part

tavonne s. carson by tavonne s. carson
Culture/ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

Honey, Turmeric, Lemon

The girl you ask to dinner will never show you her true face. Her deep, caramelized skin is carefully concealed beneath layers of formality and mistrust. She runs through her standard list of questions in her head as she is seated across

Briana Gwin by Briana Gwin
Culture/ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

the privilege of size

My story will be faithful to reality, or at least to my personal recollection of reality, which is the same thing. The events took place in the Fall of 2018 after a Michael and Janet Jackson themed lip-sync competition at Sidetracks in

Jasminum McMullen by Jasminum McMullen
Culture/ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

I Geek Out Over Art!

I guess I’ve been an art historian, informally I’d say I’ve always “geeked out over art,” since my teens in San Francisco. I didn’t know the official title of what it was I loved because I didn’t know that “art historian,” as

April Renee Lynch by April Renee Lynch
Culture/ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

The Language of Home

I hear my student say that word and I’m not surprised. I knew this student was going to say it because this student is clueless to the world; he knows only what he has been brought up to believe. He was raised

Icess Fernandez Rojas by Icess Fernandez Rojas
Family/FICTION | SHORT STORY/On Blackness and other wonders

“Adeaze”

“Good lord, girl. You swelling!” The girl looked down at her belly, then beyond it down to her shoes, at this she was secretly satisfied. She was not pregnant and in punishment for her tardiness, her body had begun to form pockets

Brianca Jay by Brianca Jay
FICTION | SHORT STORY/On Blackness and other wonders

“Graduation Day”

Shattering glass echoes in my ears, snapping my head up from my phone. Right across the street, the front window of Diaz’s Deli— the neighborhood bodega—lays in glistening shambles on the hot sidewalk. The store alarm blares out catching the attention of

Samantha Guzman by Samantha Guzman
ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

Black and White

Trina, I need you to stay inside for recess today. You are a little Black girl in a world that’s White. You are a first-grader. You can read. You are a leader. You know all of the sight words before I assign

Trina Williams by Trina Williams
ESSAYS/On Blackness and other wonders

The Dancer

It’s a typical spring morning – a slight chill, cloud cover, and the threat of rain. I can hear through my open window the calm before the storm. The birds are quiet this morning. Drivers making their way down the narrow street

.chisaraokwu. by .chisaraokwu.
ESSAYS/Family/On Blackness and other wonders

Tragic Mulatto

As a kid, I remember the subject of race coming up twice in our family. The first time was when my brother began checking out the white girls in his grade. The second was when I began checking boxes for race on

Hanna Bratton by Hanna Bratton

About midnight & indigo

midnight & indigo is an independent publisher of short stories and narrative essays by Black women writers. A subsidiary of midnight & indigo Publishing.

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midnight & indigo: Twenty-Two Speculative Stories by Black Women Writers

Latest Contributors

  • April Renee Lynch

    April Renee Lynch

    I Geek Out Over Art!
  • Briana Gwin

    Briana Gwin

    Honey, Turmeric, Lemon
  • Jasminum McMullen

    Jasminum McMullen

    the privilege of size
  • Icess Fernandez Rojas

    Icess Fernandez Rojas

    The Language of Home
  • Monique Lowe

    Monique Lowe

    “Attempts”

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midnight & indigo is an independent publisher of short stories and narrative essays by Black women writers. A subsidiary of midnight & indigo Publishing.

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Make Room for Me: A Review of Tressie McMillan Cottom’s “THICK: and Other Essays”

I came across THICK: and Other Essays when I discovered

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