A digital magazine centered in the radical spirit of resistance and hope across the Black diaspora.
Black Life Everywhere
Black Life Everywhere (BLE) works with creators to preserve and present nuanced representations that are expressive of Black life. We see music, film, animation, photography, poetry, interviews and writing as integral to how we communicate and tell stories. For us, these varying forms of expression are legitimate and necessary instruments to produce freedom dreaming that moves us towards Black liberation. BLE seeks to amplify Black creative voices that center the lives, histories, and well being of the Black communities we engage.
Our goal is to show the nuance, beauty, challenges, and joy that constitute Black Life Everywhere, today.
Black Life Everywhere: Atlanta Week 3
Spoken Word Artist Chris P.
Christopher “Chris P” Charles is a songwriter, creative, poet, and spoken artist. Georgia raised, he has a passion for writing and performing, fueling his creativity for more than a decade. The poem, Sometimes is about facts getting lost in translation. It delineates the tensions between falling in love with the “idea” of someone instead of meeting the standard of unconditional love. Sometimes, in the personal and within the political, we tend to get lost in the infatuation stage.
Black Life Everywhere: Atlanta Week 2
Photography by Angela Hill
Angela Hill is a masterful storyteller, weaving compelling narratives through her camera lens to capture life’s profound depth and complexity. Hailing from Columbus, Georgia, Hill’s photographic journey is driven by a deep-seated passion for preserving moments that resonate deeply. Her dedication to working with non-profit organizations allows her to document historical events that might otherwise remain unseen, ensuring these crucial stories are told.
Hill shares “Through my photography I’m most passionate about understanding the complex human condition of Black people in Atlanta who are at the center of political struggle. Here are a series of my images that I want to spotlight. These images are about knowing and being aware that Black people have a divine unlimited source of power and joy within us. I’m most passionate about sharing that message and being light and love through my cultural organizing work”.
The opening image—created for the organization Sister Song, during Black Breastfeeding Week—showcases the beauty and reality of breastfeeding. Hill notes that these images are important for two main reasons: they highlight Black individuals engaging in everyday activities, which is crucial, and they support programming for Black Breastfeeding Week while normalizing and celebrating the natural and nurturing act of breastfeeding within the Black community.
Black Life Everywhere: Atlanta Week 1
Introducing Penelope French the gypsy soul healer. The Soul Empress, continues on the deep legacy of music that is connected to Black struggle in America! Melanin is the first of many expressive jams that are genre bending yet so full of soul to represent the Black Life Atlanta Cohort. More music coming soon.
Black Life Everywhere: Atlanta
Launches on Juneteeth 2024
On Juneteenth 2024, co-creators of Black Life Everywhere, Amber Butts and Jonathan Lykes, spoke with local Atlanta co-editors about the exciting launch of BLE: Atlanta and what is to come for the second edition of the digital magazine.
Introducing
Atlanta Co-Editors
Devin Barrington-Ward
Devin Barrington-Ward is the Founder and Managing Director of Black Futurist Group (BFG), an Atlanta based social justice innovation firm using public policy, community organizing, media engagement, and political education as tools to build reimagined, equitable, and liberated Black futures in our lifetime. BFG does this work out of a belief that Black life is valuable, precious, and worth protecting. BFG works with those standing at the intersections of varying cultural, ethnic, sexual, and gender identities across various communities to build, preserve, improve, and advance reimagined Black futures.
Penelope French
Penelope French is the Executive Director of Neighbor, a local Atlanta Healing Justice Organization that has chosen a pathway to liberation through art, organizing, restorative training programs, and spiritual activism. Neighbor is rooted in the spiritual/conscious liberation of Black people across the diaspora as a pathway to dismantling harmful government systems. Penelope is inspired to create healing systems that are life giving to black people and those who have been oppressed using an abolitionist framework.
The Black Life Everywhere Team welcomes Devin Barrington-Ward and Penelope French as our local co-editors for our BLE: Atlanta, our second edition in our local digital magazine series.
