February

Dear friends,

We’re proud to share our first-ever Black History Month edition of Miscellaneous — Athletics’ no-frills round-up of the cultural items that inspire us each month. Black History Month, originally conceived as a single week of observance in the late 1920s by historian Carter G. Woodson, expanded in the late 1970s into a federally-recognized month honoring the intellectual, political, social, and creative achievements of African Americans throughout history. 

From Mississippi-born writer Kiese Laymon’s endlessly-inventive 2018 memoir of personal transformation, Heavy, to Aretha Franklin’s stirring 1972 live gospel record, Amazing Grace, we hope you find plenty of reasons for hope, inspiration, and fortitude in the list below.

Stay tuned for more editions of Miscellaneous in the coming months.

Interested in contributing? Send us an email!

The Lower East Side @ International Center of Photography

Karyn Olivier @ ICA Philadelphia

Collecting New York’s Stories @ Museum of the City of New York

Black Heroines film series @ MoMA

Queen and Slim @ Cinema Village

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

Heavy — Kiese Laymon

Making Our Way Home — Blair Imani

The 1619 Project — The New York Times

Fred McDowell: The Lomax Recordings (1959)

Amazing Grace — Aretha Franklin (1972)

Suite for Max Brown — Jeff Parker (2020)

“Mother dear, may I go downtown

Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a Freedom March today?”

— From “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall (1968)

In Solidarity,

Athletics

Header Image by Julie Mehretu