©opyright
Aliyah Curry
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Debra Stone
Deesha Philyaw
Kobena Ampofo
Leanne Francis
Nyasha Oliver
Phillip M. Campbell
Yasmeen Tajiddin
©ontents
i Poetry “Love, Foretold in Black and Bold”
by Phillip M. Campbell
ii Flash “Scents“
by Aliyah Curry
iii Flash “8:59 at Accra Central”
by Kobena Ampofo
iv Poetry “anti-capitalist poem“
by Yasmeen Tajiddin
v Essay “What does it mean to be Black in Asia?“
by Nyasha Oliver
vi Memoir “The Sign in the Restaurant Window“
by Debra Stone
vii Poetry “who I carry“
by Leanne Francis
iix Interview “We are so old death begins here”:
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo in Conversation
with Leanne Francis
ix Script “Welcome to the 15-year reunion of The
Only Black People in Memoirs Written by White People“
by Deesha Philyaw
EDITOR’S NOTE
“Scents”
by Aliyah Curry
No one around her noticed, but she would think while staring at someone telling her about their day, “if I take my clothes off right now, I would smell exactly like him.”
© Photograph: CORBIS
“8:59 at Accra Central”
by Kobena Ampofo
I had first believed there was one God in three, as I was told, only to find many ancestral lineages masquerading under a single holy trench coat.
© Photograph: Shutterstock
“What does it mean to be Black in Asia?”
by Nyasha Oliver
No matter how genuine, Black people—and other foreigners living in Asia—are slotted into three categories. I have been slotted into the second many times.
© Photograph: Nyasha Oliver
“The Sign in the Restaurant Window”
by Debra Stone
Growing up I never doubted how the world worked. We were three among the hordes of chocolate-colored children in 1960s northside Minneapolis.
© Photograph: William Underwood
“We’re so old death begins here”: Ayanna Lloyd Banwo in Conversation
with Leanne Francis
“I’m not a climate change activist. I’m just a black Caribbean woman who knows this can’t be the way.”
© Photograph: Antonio Olmos
“The Only Black People in Memoirs Written By White People“
by Deesha Philyaw
“Welcome, everyone, to The Only Black People in Memoirs Written by White People Reunion! I’m Jerica Bryant, your reunion founder and co-chair.”
© Photograph: Jared Wickerham