Media, Lately (May Edition)
What I've been reading, watching and listening to since the top of March
I enjoyed doing a round up of some of the things I’d been sitting with in March, and it seems like readers did, too, so here’s a new edition. This will not be a complete list, nor will it offer reviews; do with that information what you will.
BOOKS
Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest, Hanif Abdurraqib
I’ve already written about this one, go check it out.
Onyx & Beyond, Amber McBride
I love anything to do with flying/flight, anything that requires a little belief in the fantastic, so this was a heart book for me. I don’t do a whole lot of poetry or novels in verse but Amber brings the heat every time, so she’s an auto-buy author for me.
City Summer, Country Summer, Kiese Laymon and Alexis Franklin
This one reminds me of every story my dad has every told me about his cousins from Maryland/DC area coming to visit him in Wakefield, VA in the summers. The art was absolutely lush, stunning. I got it from the library but it was so beautiful I think I need a copy for my collection.
Harlem Rhapsody, Victoria Christopher Murray
I’ve been a long time lover of Jessie Redmon Fauset, so I knew I was going to be into Harlem Rhapsody. I came away from the book with a lot of feelings, very few that had anything to actually do with the text, and more about what Fauset might have been experiencing as a Black woman in that time period navigating race, class, gender in spaces where her desires were tied up with career advancement and her own ambitions for her work. I think Murray does a really smart job of illustrating that complicated web without passing judgment. It would have been very easy to have a particular stance on Fauset’s choices and let that color the work, but Murray resists that impulse, showcasing just how crucial Fauset’s work in cultural and literary/artistic industries was—while being true to the story of her romantic life.
Oathbound, Tracy Deonn
Y’all know I’m BreeHive; I’ll never get too far from my roots, lol. Kudos to Tracy for another thrilling installment in the Legendborn Cycle.
Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library, Carole Boston Weatherford & Eric Velasquez
I definitely have a thing for biographical picture books now, and I think I’ve mentioned before that Carole Boston Weatherford is the OG. I love this book and I want it for my office. It’s a good one for slightly older kids as there’s quite a lot of text; I tried it with my neighbors and the 6 year old was absolutely not into it but the 9 year old had a little bit more attention to spare. :) But it’s a fabulous one to have in your collection.
COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS
Brooms, Jasmine Walls & Teo DuVall
So Fast & Furious, but make it Southern, and 1930s, and they’re racing brooms. Girls. Queer & trans girls. Black girls, Indigenous girls, Asian girls, Latine girls. The art’s great. Story’s tight. You really can’t ask for anything better than this, imho.
Exceptional X-Men, Eve L. Ewing & Carmen Carnero
I had a stack of these waiting for me, I was a couple months behind, so I caught up on this run!
Storm, Murewa Adoyele & Lucas Werneck
I was also behind on this run, so I was wading through it. But also, all this “Storm’s about to die” business is really weighing on my heart, I don’t know if I have it in me to continue with that. I’m enjoying, and the art’s fab! I’m also enjoying the character cameos we’ve been getting. It’s definitely fun, but I’m stressed every time I start a new issue!
MUSIC
Aquemini, Outkast (1998)
Before I really had language for favorite groups, I knew I loved Outkast’s music. Some of my earliest music memories are of dancing to the singles from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below from when I was in elementary school. I had “a real down to Mars girl” written on the back of my notebooks in middle school. But I’d never intentionally listened to their older albums from top to bottom. Delighted to discover that I think Aquemini is basically faultless.
The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest (1991)
I listened to ATCQ’s first three albums before going into Go Ahead In The Rain, but this was the album that stuck with me the most.
Jupiter, NAO (2025)*
I am actually obsessed with “Light Years.” It plays on a loop in my head. I am, if nothing else, a very committed Lover Girl.
FILM
Sinners (2025)
I won’t hold you—I’m really only talking to my close friends about this movie at the moment. I have a lot of thoughts, just none I’m prepared to commit to the internet yet.
I’m also loving all the silly cultural production we’re getting around the film. The TikToks have been immaculate.
One of Them Days (2024)
Very fun! It’s a tight 90ish minutes and reminiscent of the iconic Black 1990s comedies. We need more of those. (I still giggle to myself when I remember the “Why he gotta be homeless?” “Have you been to his home?” exchange.)
TV
Paradise (Hulu)
My dad and I love anything that’s a little dystopian/thriller/sci-fi, and Paradise does deliver on the dystopian and thriller vibes. It was great to watch it together. I, of course, also love Sterling K. Brown in basically anything he’s in. I was surprised I didn’t have more thoughts when I finished that one, but…I can’t anticipate what’ll turn the tap on any more.
Survival of the Thickest, season 2 (Netflix)
IDK, I love an impulsive and wildly creative Crash Out. Sue me.
ESSAYS
Imani Perry, “Letter From Home,” Bitter Southerner (April 9, 2025)
I always think we should write more love letters. This essay is going in my evidence folder for why you could never make me hate snail mail.
Melina Moe, “There Is No Point in My Being Other Than Honest with You: On Toni Morrison’s Rejection Letters,” LitHub (March 26, 2024)
I have said on other occasions that I reread this essay often. I read it again in March, and this time, wrote the author because I figured she should know that this essay lives in my head rent free.
PODCAST
Paper Trail
This monthly podcast led by Laekan Zea Kemp, Candace Buford, Diana Rodriguez Wallach, and Hien Nguyen, is one of my favorites as a relatively new author. If you want Big Sibling realness on all the things they tell you not to talk about in the publishing industry, especially how it effects folks of color, this is absolutely the show for you. I’d been listening since it started, and am enjoying that they’ve started to invite a new guest host every month, including folks like Jill Tew, Laura Taylor Namey and Dhonielle Clayton for even more perspectives.
The episode I mulled over a lot recently was when Laura Taylor Namey was chatting about all things Hollywood for writers. (Absolutely not in my reality right now, but it was still fascinating.)
In the coming months, I’m looking forward to reading Meredith D. Clark’s We Tried to Tell You, Aaron Aceves’ YA novel This Is Why They Hate Us, and Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling. I’ve already started Kiese Laymon’s Long Division and I hope to reread the Claudia Tate edited Black Women Writers at Work. The James Gunn Superman will be out in early July, but given my obsession with Clark, that will probably be its own post. The same is true of the Ironheart show, which will be out next month.1 I really want to invest in the second Milestone Compendium because I have been loving those recently.
So much to consume, so little time!
Once again, if any magazine editors are reading this and want to commission a piece on Riri Williams in advance of the show airing: I AM YOUR GIRL! Here is my favorite essay I have written in part on Riri; the podcast episode where I wax poetic about her; my dissertation where the entire second chapter is about her.