NBAF is a cultural compass and living archive. Explore what we’re reading, hearing, seeing, and creating below.
Best known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance, the celebrated poet and writer Langston Hughes believed in the power of art as resistance. What can we learn from his works today? Randal M. Jelks delivers this revelatory portrait of Hughes, tracing his journey from a child captivated by the wonder of Kansas City to cosmopolitan witness in Paris, New York, Mexico City, and Madrid. We encounter Hughes as a young man discovering the pulse of modern life in a world on the verge of exploding metaphorically and literally. His experiences informed his work and his thinking on art, democracy, and activism.
Langston Hughes is one of the few American writers who consistently wrote about democracy from a joyous perspective, and My America explores how his works speak to the political anxieties and crises we face today. Jelks deftly examines the themes in Hughes's work, including creative expression, communal dignity, class struggle, and human suffering and what they mean for our inner well-being as democratic persons and political participants.
Creative AF is our monthly nod to the culture-shapers, boundary-pushers, and vision-bearers whose work makes us pause, move, and think.
Jamaal Barber's artistic journey began with a fascination for aesthetic images and illustrations in children's books and comic books. After seeing a screen printing demo at a local art store, he started experimenting with printmaking, which became his primary focus. His work often addresses social issues, culture, and identity, particularly in relation to Blackness. Barber's art has been displayed at various galleries and shows, including the ZuCot Gallery and the Atlanta Print Biennial Show. He has also worked with notable institutions such as the New York Times and Emory University. Barber's approach to art is collaborative, often involving partnerships and community engagement, which he discusses in his podcast, Studio Noize. His work is a reflection of his personal experiences and the broader cultural context of Black life in America.
Jamal’s woodcuts and mixed-media prints illustrate the new Folio Society special edition of The Underground Railroad written by Colson Whitehead. Jamaal recently participated in the MTV/Smithsonian Channel art competition show The Exhibit. He has also worked for Twitter, the New York Times, Penguin Random House, Black Art in America, and Emory University.
The Ongoing Trip to Freedom at NURFC
For those drawn to places where history presses close and moral clarity feels unavoidable, Cincinnati, Ohio offers a powerful reckoning at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Sitting on the banks of the Ohio River, the literal boundary between slavery and freedom for thousands, the museum stands where courage, resistance, and hope once converged under cover of night.
Opened in 2004 with the help of preservationist and community organizer Carl B. Westmoreland, the Freedom Center tells the story of the Underground Railroad not as a distant legend, but as a living network of ordinary people who made extraordinary choices. Through immersive exhibitions, it traces the brutal realities of American slavery alongside the daring acts of self liberation by enslaved people and the interracial alliances that helped them escape. The narrative expands outward, connecting this history to global and contemporary struggles for freedom, human rights, and dignity.
At the heart of the museum is the preserved Slave Pen, an iron barred structure once used to confine enslaved people before being sold farther south. Encountering it is visceral and unsettling, a stark reminder that the path to freedom began in unimaginable cruelty. Surrounding galleries deepen the experience with artifacts, oral histories, multimedia installations, and interactive storytelling that center resistance rather than victimhood.
The Ohio River flows just beyond the glass walls, a quiet but constant presence. Once a dividing line between bondage and possibility, it now serves as a symbol of both risk and resolve. The Freedom Center insists that freedom has always been contested, costly, and unfinished.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is not simply a museum. It is a call to conscience. Like all true pilgrimage sites, it asks visitors to remember, to reckon, and to recognize their place in the ongoing struggle for justice. This is history that does not let you leave unchanged, and that is precisely its power.
📍 Cinninnati, OH
https://freedomcenter.org/
A sonic tribute to the enduring legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this playlist blends his most powerful words with music that echoes the spirit of justice, resistance, and hope. From gospel to hip hop, soul to spoken word, each track carries the weight and rhythm of a movement that continues to march forward.
