Image zoom | Credit: Elliott Ashby
A new walking tour of New York City is shedding light on an important moment in history that isn t taught very much in schools.
In honor of Black History Month, The Shed art center is offering a self-guided online audio tour and accompanying short film called
Fighting Dark, which features narration by artist Kamau Ware and tells the story of New York City s 1863 race riots. The tour focuses on the city s history of racial violence as well as the power of Black resilience.
The tour itself showcases 11 sites in both Manhattan and Brooklyn that were significant to the riots. People who are in the New York City area can take themselves on a walking tour of the sites, or anyone can enjoy the tour from home. The tour covers the 100 years between the riots of 1863 and the May 1963 Children s Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama. Events and
U.S. Edition
In August 2020, a mob burst into my home in Philadelphia, screaming transphobic slurs and beating me senseless with their fists, feet and weapons until my bones broke.
My goddaughters were frozen in horror as they witnessed my attack from only a few feet away.
The attackers reveled in the violence, intensifying their assault as they hit me over and over. They seemed crazed in their bloodlust while calling me a “tranny” and a “man.”
I lost consciousness.
I am grateful to have made it out alive.
I know that life for a trans woman of color is often a horror story. It is a horror rife with deep disparities existing within every social matrix in life, from housing and food security to employment and health care. We are often forced to live in hostile transphobic communities that openly resent our very existence. We are harassed and harmed, making every corner we turn a dark and dangerous one. Rest assured, whatever a Black trans woman may know about suffering