Divine Roots

SINNERS (2025) dir. Ryan Coogler

Birth of Oshun by Harmonia Rosales and Jonas Bang for Vogue Scandinavia, 2017

“To my knowledge, we hadn’t seen a Black family that was just presented as we are in life, as human beings,” Woodard said. “I get told in Belgium by white Belgians ‘I love Crooklyn, it reminds me of growing up.’ Which is what happens when you tell a story from a specific point of view, you don’t have to mention race. You didn’t get up this morning like ‘I’m a black woman that wants a cup of coffee.’ You just want a cup of coffee. It was us as we are. Just us being fabulous, complex, funny, delightful, and making ends meet. And seeing, even within that story, that we’re not monolithic...The specificity is what makes it universal. Diversity is not the point; showing reality is the point.”

The Bar Kays performing Son of Shaft | Feel It at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the Wattstax Festival on August 20, 1972.

“Pottery Dancers.”

In honor of her passing, here’s the full pdf of the autobiography of Assata Shakur, pictured here in Cuba with her daughter.

www.beau-gar.tumblr.com