Derrick R. Brooms

Bringing Black Studies to Black People Dr. Adam Banks flies from the Bay Area to Cleveland most weekends to teach. Black studies in a neighborhood cafe.

'On weekends, Stanford University professor Adam Banks flies from the California campus to Cleveland, on a mission to teach a college-level African American studies class to the Black community — for free.'
wordinblack.com/2025/02/brin...

Congrats!!!

Excited about an “accept with minor revisions” we received this week for a paper a brilliant grad student is leading.

Also excited for this essay I co-wrote w a dope colleague.

Look forward to moving the paper along and getting the essay out.

How Frankie Beverly’s ‘Before I Let Go’ Became a Cookout Anthem How the R&B hit ‘Before I Let Go’ became an enduring anthem.

For our annual @nytimes.com “The Lives They Lived” issue, I wrote about how Frankie Beverly created the song that became the Black cookout anthem. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Opioids are killing older Black men in D.C. at some of the highest rates in the country Black men in their mid-fifties to mid-seventies accounted for nearly 38% of the city’s opioid fatalities in 2022, while only making up about 4% of D.C.’s total population.

"Black men born between 1951 and 1970 accounted for nearly 38% of the city’s opioid fatalities in 2022, while only making up about 4% of D.C.’s total population. This disparity is worse than in any other jurisdiction in the data analysis."

@51st.news

51st.news/opioid-overd...

Brown faces $46 million budget deficit Brown University, one of the nation’s wealthiest institutions, is facing a $46 million structural deficit, prompting efforts to limit growth in hiring and doctoral programs.

In the news…

WOOSAH!!!!

Celebrating the life and legacy of the incomparable Nikki Giovanni... May you rest in peace and power. We appreciate you and we send Love to you, your family, and your Loved ones.

“i hope i die
warmed
by the life that i tried
to live”
― Nikki Giovanni, The Collected Poetry, 1968-1998

Black Student Enrollment at Harvard Law Drops by More Than Half After a Supreme Court decision ended race-based admissions, some law schools saw a decline in Black and Hispanic students entering this fall. Harvard appeared to have the steepest drop.

“Harvard Law enrolled 19 first-year Black students, or 3.4 percent of the class, the lowest number since the 1960s, according to the data from the American Bar Association.”

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/u...

we climb
to higher ridges
to gain better perspectives
clouds are settling in
perhaps there's a storm
or maybe the clouds
are playing their game
defying gravity
maybe i can hide
in the shadows
listening to the birds
wrap me in their songs
like blankets
creating new horizons...