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REBEL WRITES
It's my pencil and I write what I want to.
REBEL WRITES
The seeming status-quo--that being subjective--is of no importance for the Rebel (who) Writes.
This is not a space wherein personal or societal concerns dictate individual thought patterns. Over here, one's ideas, ideals and opinions are freely expressed, unabashedly and without apology.
While we are not looking to offend anyone, if you find yourself offended, do not stop there--dig deeper--there is more to unpack.
We intend to spark thinking way outside of the proverbial box and beyond typical words and feelings.
Besides, as Benjamin Franklin Williams said, "Fuck the feelin', keep dealin'."
Enter at your own risk. Welcome.
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Taking Attendance at History’s Breaking Point: Jelani Cobb and the America We Refuse to Forget
Photo Source: News.columbia.edu . By Llerraj Esuod Jelani Cobb stands at history’s breaking point, taking attendance. His new book, Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here , is less memoir than mirror, forcing America to confront the decade it tried to forget. “The real thread that unites the book is democracy and its challenges,” he says. “And the subtitle of the book is Notes on How We Got Here. And that’s like the perennial question. How did we get here?” Rele
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 202 min read
Miami’s Own Dr. Edda Fields-Black Wins Pulitzer for Reclaiming Harriet Tubman’s Untold Battle
Photo Source: Auburnpub.com By Llerraj Esuod Starting Where History Left Off History is often written by those who arrive late. Dr. Edda Fields-Black started where most accounts end, on the banks of South Carolina’s Combahee River, where Harriet Tubman led one of the boldest Civil War operations. Reclaiming the Combahee Story In Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War , Fields-Black, a Brownsville native and professor at Carne
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 202 min read
Fabienne Josaphat on Haiti, History, and the Power of Fiction
Photo Source: Fabienne Josaphat By Llerraj Esuod Storytelling as Inheritance When novelist Fabienne Josaphat discusses storytelling, it feels more like an inheritance than an interview. “I grew up in a family of avid readers,” she says. “My grandfather nurtured me with oral storytelling, so I was constantly immersed in stories.” That immersion became her compass. By college, Josaphat knew writing was her calling. “I realized I was not just a writer, but a Haitian writer,” sh
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 202 min read
Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death and the Power of Becoming
Photo Source: By Llerraj Esuod Summoning New Worlds Nnedi Okorafor writes as if summoning whole worlds, each daring readers to confront their own. When she speaks of Who Fears Death , she describes not a single story but an evolving worldview. Set in a post-apocalyptic Africa torn by the Nuru’s domination of the Okeke, the novel explores devastation and rebirth. Onyesonwu, a girl born of rape, marked for suffering, yet gifted with sorcery and the power to alter her fate, sta
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 202 min read
David Banner with a Brush
Photo Source: Kenneth "The Art Monster" Hunt By Llerraj Esuod Lighting the Fuse Kenneth “The Art Monster” Hunt paints as if lighting a fuse — each stroke a spark. The Chester, Pennsylvania native, equal parts street visionary and fine-art architect, arrives at Art Basel 2025 with Monsters in Miami , a collection bursting with motion and meaning. Every piece vibrates with memory, pulsing with the truth that creativity and power often share the same heartbeat. Alchemy on the
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 202 min read
Miami MoCAAD Turns Ten and Overtown Still Sings
Historic Overtown’s business district was once the cultural and economic heart of Black Miami. Source: Overtownmusicfestival.com By Llerraj Esuod A Horn, a Prayer, and an Echo in Overtown Imagine standing on Northwest Second Avenue as a trombone cries into the humid air. William Bilal’s imagined solo of Al Jarreau’s “Black and Blues” rises like a prayer — a wail in beautiful pain that asks the same question Mahalia Jackson once sang: How I Got Over? That question still wa
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 203 min read
Cornelius Tulloch Rebuilds What Miami Seems to Forget
Photo Credit: Cornelius Tulloch Porch Passages: Creole Collage By Llerraj Esuod The Porch as Ancestry and Architecture For generations, the front porch in Black culture has been a threshold and a sanctuary, a legacy reaching back to West Africa before ships departed from the Point of No Return. Across centuries and continents, porches have been places where people gather, share stories, and mark transitions, a space where survival meets spirit and community becomes visibl
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 203 min read
Roy Wood Jr. Speaks Truth with a Smile
Source: Getty Images By Llerraj Esuod Finding His Voice The stage lights are low, the mic stand wobbles, and Roy Wood Jr. leans in with his signature half-smile that warns something sharp is coming. The laugh that follows isn’t just loud—it’s loaded, each joke honed to cut clean and land with purpose. Before he became a correspondent on The Daily Show and host of CNN’s Have I Got News for You , his voice took shape at Florida A&M University (FAMU), where raw observation
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 194 min read
From 30–26 to Redemption: Scott’s Howard Bison Target FAMU
Source: Hubison.com By Llerraj Esuod The score still hangs in the air like humidity: 30–26. That was the final tally on the LED display in Atlanta on December 16, 2023, when Florida A&M University (FAMU) edged Howard University (HU) at a neutral-site showdown. For the Bison, it was a game that slipped away late—a loss that has lived in the weight room, film sessions, and locker room ever since. Now, the Bison step onto a different stage: the 2025 Orange Blossom
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 193 min read
Florida A&M Targets Howard in the 2025 Orange Blossom Classic
Source: On3 and Rivals Network By Llerraj Esuod No Warning. All Bite. The Florida A&M University (FAMU) Rattlers arrive in Miami Gardens with unfinished business. In 2023, they swept the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) title and the Celebration Bowl, claiming the national championship for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In 2024, under first-year head coach James Colzie III, the Rattlers finished 7–5 overall and 5–3 in the SWAC, ending the year w
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 194 min read
Kendra Bulluck-Majors: Bringing the Orange Blossom Classic Back Where It Belongs
Source: Orange Blossom Classic By Llerraj Esuod A Rivalry Steeped in Color and Sound The Marching 100’s brass pierces the air as Rattler orange and green mingle with Bison blue in the stands of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. The Orange Blossom Classic (OBC), first played in 1933 when Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Howard University faced off, returns for another chapter in its history. Kendra Bulluck-Majors grew up hearing her father describe the Classic as a cham
Llerraj Esuod
Nov 194 min read
Miami Native Dr. Edda Fields‑Black Wins Pulitzer in History for Book About Harriet Tubman’s Fight for Freedom Through Military Service
Photo courtesy of Dr. Edda Fields-Black By Llerraj Esuod In a place where “Candy Ladies” sell pickled sausages and neon‑red boiled eggs from glass jars, fruit‑flavored frozen cups in Styrofoam, and Cherry Clans and Boston Baked Beans to wide‑eyed children, survival is an art form. Conch fritters, barbecued ribs, and fried fish sandwiches fuel weary but determined adults trying to stretch one day into two and make a dollar out of fifteen cents. And yet, from these stitched‑t
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 303 min read
Why Chris Paul’s Most Powerful Assist Might Be a Film
Photo courtesy of Chris Paul By Llerraj Esuod From the Court to the Culture This summer, NBA legend Chris Paul heads to Miami Beach for...
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 303 min read
Eye Now See
Photo courtsey of Univer soul Light By Llerraj Esuod Author’s Note Some loves tattoo their mark into the architecture of memory—etched...
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 304 min read
‘Love Jones’ Revisited
Photo courtesy of Theodore Witcher's cult classic Love Jones By Llerraj Esuod Lines That Linger Darius Lovehall: “I really dig you,...
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 304 min read
Keisha Rae Witherspoon’s T: A Cinematic Altar of Memory
Photo courtesy of Keisha Rae Witherspoon By Llerraj Esuod “To be absent from the body…” —2 Corinthians 5:8 A Grief Made Visible Beneath...
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 303 min read
New Edition: Roxbury's Renaissance
Photo courtesy of musicconnection.com By Llerraj Esuod A Gold Standard in R&B Legacy For R&B boy bands, New Edition remains the gold...
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 304 min read
Kendra Bulluck-Major: Empowering , Breaking Barriers and Creating Legacy
Photo courtesy of Kendra Bulluck-Majors By Llerraj Esuod A Tour-de-Force Kendra Bulluck-Major is a tour de force who identifies her most...
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 303 min read
The Spiritual Force Behind Harriet Tubman's Journey
Photo courtesy of Tiyamiles.com By Llerraj Esuod From Wild Girls to Night Flyer In her book Wild Girls , acclaimed historian Tiya Miles...
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 302 min read
John Lewis: A Life of Courage, Conviction and Hope for America's Progress
Photo courtesy of Simon and Schuster By Llerraj Esuod The Remarkable Journey of a Civil Rights Hero David Greenberg’s powerful biography, John Lewis: A Life , chronicles the often noiseless yet remarkable journey of one of America’s most enduring civil rights heroes. The book serves as a petition for Lewis’ beatification, framing him as a moral compass whose virtues and advocacy have shaped American civic consciousness. A Champion for Justice Greenberg masterfully portrays
Llerraj Esuod
Jun 303 min read
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