When Jesse Hagopian first encountered Malcolm X, it wasn’t in a textbook or classroom lecture. It was through Spike Lee’s iconic 1992 film. “I realized I needed to learn more,” Hagopian, educator and director of the Teaching for Black Lives campaign at the Zinn Education Project, tells Word In Black. “Reading his autobiography in college was transformative — like it has been for so many. But it also left me feeling betrayed. Why hadn’t I learned about Malcolm in school?”

Celebrate Thurby night at the The Bluegrass Ball, a homegrown event featuring the very best performers from the Bluegrass region and beyond. Featuring Amythyst Kiah, Jecorey Arthur, Ben Sollee, and surprise guests. Patrons are encouraged to wear their finest Appalachian-chic to walk the bluegrass carpet, enjoy special, cocktails, cigar bar featuring local cigar maker Gary Smith, and dance under the spare parts chandelier. A portion of the proceeds will go to benefit Fund for the Arts.

Some of Ashley Jackson's earliest memories took place at church services she attended with her grandmother. The rising harp player leaned into those experiences for her sophomore album Take Me to The Water. Spirituals, and their coded messages of freedom for the enslaved, are at the heart of her arrangements of works by Alice Coltrane, Margaret Bonds and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.