ordinary thoughts: the love edition
Buen día, and Happy Valentine's Day! Whether you’re booed up or single, a cynic or a hopeless romantic, one thing is for certain: none of us would be here without the culture-shifting, baby-making power that is Black love.
Black love stories come in many forms. Films and TV, albums and hit singles, books, and so much more. But some of our favorites are the ones that come from our own community. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, share a love story that’s moved you. Maybe it’s your parents, grandparents, friends, or something you read about. We’re all ears.
- Isaiah & Cybele
celebrating Black love
As fate would have it, the alluring month of February celebrates both Blackness & love, and fittingly so.
stories that have our attention
Black Love as a Historical Force
Black Love is everywhere. Tupac praised it as the “rose that grew from concrete”. Black Love does more than survive. It defined our world as much as the Enlightenment or Democracy or Jesus. It is an unstoppable force that broke Western slavery, smashed segregation and apartheid, rewrote Islam and Christianity, rewrote the U.S. Constitution and now challenges the prison industrial complex.
Who knew that a kiss was stronger than a gun? If you look at history or art or just look at life, you’ll see that love, the most natural instinct, becomes political when trapped by a system that chokes it for profit. Then love becomes dangerous. It saves us by destroying the world we believed could never change.
What We Lose When We Erase Black Queer History
To Margaret B. Wilkerson’s credit, her introduction in 9 Plays by Black Women does mention that a significant contribution of Black women playwrights was their willingness to include lesbian and homosexual relationships as a substainal part of Black women’s reality and therefore, a part of the creative retelling of our stories, even on the stage. However, Wilkerson refers to that contribution as “new” at the time her book was published in 1986, when in reality, Black lesbians are among the originators of the art form.
This is what every Black History/Futures Month is like for me as a Black queer woman who is still in the process of searching for myself. I am constantly stumbling upon slightly cracked doors that lead to Black queer life in the legacy of some of the most legendary Black innovators of our country’s history.
What Is Back Love Today?
To love, or be loved, while Black in the United States has always been tied to community, country and all the ways in which racism can infiltrate a love life: an unwanted third party to any Black love affair, one that refuses to move out no matter how often or how hard you try to evict it. Race, and the inheritance of racial bias, was a thread through nearly every story we read.
In large cities across the country, 81 percent of Black communities are more segregated than they were 30 years ago… 82 percent of new Black marriages were between two Black partners. Yet we weren’t looking solely for stories of intraracial romance and the submissions we received remind us that Black love is far from a monolithic concept. These essays tell of heterosexual partnerships, queer love, open relationships, missed connections and the kind of loving familial bonds that often prove to be among the most complex love stories of all.in other news...
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Markets
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Tech
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Sports
pa' la cultura
cultural trivia
In honor of Valentine’s Day, this one is for the lovers.
Question: According to Billboard, what's the top love song of all time?
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) - Whitney Houston
Because I Love You (Postman Song) - Stevie B
Crazy In Love - Beyoncé & Jay-Z
Endless Love - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
song of the week
Song of the Week is chosen from subscriber submissions, as we pay close attention to the latest exceptional output of music from artists who remain slightly under the radar.
Song of the Week:
I Love You – by Faith Evans
words of wisdom
bell hooks, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, 1994
Cultural Trivia Answer
The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is… *Drum roll please*
4. Endless Love - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
Disclaimer: Billboard’s list of “Top 50 Love Songs of All Time” is based on their Hot 100 hits from 1958-2024 with a form of the word “love” in the title. Check it out here.