Author: Amena Brown, Copyright: c.2026, Publisher: Tiny Rep Books, SRP: $30.00, Page Count: 320 pages

Some things can really make you cross.

People telling you your business, for instance. People asking questions they have no reason to know the answers to. Folks who criticize your hair or clothes or life. These things would set anyone off; they’d be the last straw for anybody. As in the new book, “Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl” by Amena Brown, some folks just cross the line.

In a way, it’s a matter of grammar.

Depending on how you say it, “Black Girl is a noun and a verb,” says Brown. A Black Girl can be a Black Girl… and she can Black Girl. Brown herself has done it “in six countries.”

Growing up in North Carolina, she Black Girled her hair her entire life. Her grandma made her sit for box braids when she was small, telling Brown that she was “tenderheaded.” Later, Brown had relaxed hair until she “went broke” and couldn’t afford the process anymore. That was when she got acquainted with her natural hair – although she returned to box braids at least once, and loved them all over again.

As the child of a strict Pentecostal mother, Brown was a “late bloomer.” She didn’t drink alcohol until she was in her twenties. She was chaste while dating and a better church girl than a party girl. After she left the church, she began experimenting with wine first, then cocktails. She learned to cook, reasoning that the path to finding love started in a kitchen, one that happened to be her grandmother’s. And yes, love did eventually come in the form of a red-headed White man who was her friend before he became her boyfriend — and before he became her mother-sanctioned, grandma-approved husband.

Overall, says Brown, there is no single right method for doing this.

“There are so many ways to Black Girl, which means the way you Black Girl is beautiful, and the way I Black Girl is beautiful too.”

Looking for a collection of addictive, can’t-read-just-one essays that’ll make you laugh but that also feel like author Amena Brown is peeking at your life? Want a book that speaks to every corner of your existence?

Yeah, then you want “Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl.”

You know how it is when you spot something so profound, so right, that you just have to call your friends and read it out loud to them? That’s what you’ll find here: truth told with humor that’s also oozing with warmth. Add honesty that’s smart and bold and practically begging for a “Heck, YES!” and you’ve got your new favorite book.

The essays here are short enough to read in a few minutes, but compelling enough to make you want more, so give yourself room.

This is a book for twenty- and thirty-somethings, but also for their mothers and grandmas who can handle respectful irreverence and surefooted playfulness. Can men enjoy “Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl”? Sure, but it’s more for women, cross your heart.

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Eric Murphy’s latest exhibition, “Oakland City of Stars: From the Archives,” on view through Aug. 31, offers more than a visual tribute to Oakland; it presents history and a global connection rooted in the city’s cultural legacy.

Curated by Veda Silva at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO), the mixed-media solo show builds on Murphy’s evolving “Oakland All-Stars” series, highlighting figures rooted in community history.

Murphy’s artistic journey is grounded in a lifelong passion for storytelling through visuals. Beginning as a child sketching celebrities, he later expanded into collage, blending illustration with found imagery and photography.

His formal training at Laney College sharpened his photography skills, while his early career as a fashion photographer exposed him to broader creative networks. At the same time, his decade-long work with Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland expanded his artistic journey.

These experiences converge in “City of Stars,” where Murphy combines photography, digital collage, and graphic design into distinctive portraits. Each subject is embedded within a stylized map of Oakland, marked by district lines, and layered with visual references tied to their personal and cultural narratives.

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Presented in a ‘playing card’ format, the works replace traditional suits with the City of Oakland logo, while multilingual elements and hand-painted details deepen the storytelling. The result is a series that feels both archival and contemporary, an artistic documentation of Oakland’s influence across generations.

The exhibit’s opening reception was also Murphy’s birthday celebration. “I’m celebrating my birthday, Oakland history, cultural ties, and art.”

About 50 guests attended the exhibit, including Joyce Gordon of Joyce Gordon Gallery, entertainer Zina Escovedo, and activists Alan Banks and Inez Banks. “We loaned one of our pieces to the exhibit,” said Alan Banks proudly.

Murphy credits much of his inspiration to his deep interest in Oakland history and its global intersections. Murphy also created a line of Oakland International language shirts. The concept originated in 2012 during a cultural exchange exhibition he managed between Oakland and its sister city, Fukuoka, Japan, celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Working with artists such as Emmy Award-winner James Gayles and photographer Hiroko To, Murphy began exploring language as a bridge between cultures. After studying Japanese at Laney College, he became fascinated with how “Oakland” could be expressed across languages.

That curiosity evolved into a design series beginning in 2019 with “Oakland” translated into Japanese as “Okurando.” From there, Murphy collaborated with community members and translators to create versions in multiple languages. By incorporating archival materials, cultural symbols, and historical references, Murphy transformed each shirt into a narrative artifact rather than a simple translation.

“Each design allowed me to show how rich our history is and how connected Oakland is to the world,” said Murphy.

This same philosophy drives the “Oakland All-Stars” series. Inspired by a moment of pride watching actor Shemar Moore acknowledge his Oakland roots on national television, Murphy began researching other successful people connected to the city. The series now includes former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, actress Zendaya, and the late comedian Paul Mooney, among others linked to Oakland.

“I am proud to feature Oakland in my artwork,” said Murphy. “Oakland is a special place, and art is a great way of showing the world what we are about.”

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Belonging to the Entire Universe: Leslie Barlow’s New Mural Reimagines Community and Cosmos

Callisto Martinez reports on visual artist Leslie Barlow’s new mural, “Belonging to the Entire Universe,” a 66-by-33-foot installation unveiled at the McKnight Foundation’s Minneapolis headquarters. Named for a quote from astronaut Mae Jemison, the piece weaves constellations, textiles from Barlow’s travels to Tanzania, and native plants into what she calls an “artistic roadmap” for sustained community care, painted in part during the height of Operation Metro Surge.

Growing up, visual artist Leslie Barlow wanted to be an astronaut. Now, her mural Belonging to the Entire Universe, titled in reference to a quote from astronaut Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to travel into space, brings Barlow’s vision of a future universe to downtown Minneapolis.

Unveiled on June 12, the 66-by-33-foot installation faces the U.S. Bank Stadium and is displayed on the Minneapolis headquarters of the McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based foundation dedicated to advancing climate solutions, combatting housing instability and confronting other issues impacting Minnesotans.

“What I would love people to take away from it is this reminder of our relationship to the land, to each other, to our ancestors’ lineage, and then, of course, as the title says, to the entire universe,” said Barlow, a 2025 McKnight Visual Artist Fellow.

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Barlow has long admired Jemison, enough to dress up as her for Halloween a few years ago, but the piece was not titled after Jemison until it was already finished. Barlow’s initial inspiration for the piece came directly from McKnight’s mission to “advance a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and [the] planet thrive.”

“With the words ‘just,’ ‘creative,’ and ‘abundant,’ I was thinking of something that showed a large amount of space, something that was really colorful and vibrant, definitely something that had plant life and spoke to the environment and the planet, so that’s where the cosmic imagery came in,” Barlow said. “I wanted it to feel like it flowed between different images to encompass people and [the] planet.”

Barlow’s piece began with digital sketches that she presented to a committee of McKnight staff and board members, who gave feedback on the design and unanimously selected her from a pool of applicants.

Barlow began rendering her drafts into a 7-foot-wide and 3.5-foot-tall oil painting in February, when Operation Metro Surge was in full force.

“It was actually very difficult for me to start painting because of the way that we were pulled toward mutual aid and on-the-ground efforts,” Barlow said. “It was a very dark time where so many of us were grieving and a lot of people were scared, rightly so, and still are. But at that time, I was also wanting to create an image that felt really hopeful and felt like another world was possible.”

Barlow describes the painting as an “artistic roadmap” that considers “if these aren’t just moments that our communities come together, but we are continually caring for each other and supporting each other, what society could look like.”

Constellations, textiles, native plants and the cosmic reconstruction of the Mississippi River function as “visual moments that could allude to multiple narratives, deeper meanings,” according to Barlow.

Much of the mural’s plant life was photographed outside the McKnight headquarters. The floral details grew out of McKnight’s photo library, inspired by the foundation’s work with local farmers of color.

Similarly, the textiles embedded within the mural “allude to a quilting of ideas, or histories, or stories” together, Barlow explained. Their designs primarily draw from Barlow’s personal collection, which she has grown since she began working with textiles in 2016.

“The textile that’s the biggest, which looks almost like DNA, which I really love, is both organic and geometric in shape,” Barlow said. “Those pieces, I actually purchased from Tanzania on my very first trip to the African continent. … That trip was very meaningful for me as a Black person, and so I wanted that one to be central in the space.”

While grounded in the local landscape, the symbols also draw from Afrofuturism and Indigenous futurisms. Barlow sees Afrofuturism and Black and Indigenous solidarity as parts of herself that she brought to the piece, given their significance in her work outside visual art. In 2023, she founded ConFluence, a two-day sci-fi convention in Northeast Minneapolis that centers Black people, Indigenous people and people of color.

Though the symbolism is personal for Barlow, she encourages viewers to form their own interpretations and connections to their own lives. The central image of three women from different generations standing together, each wearing a matching turquoise motif in a different way, was also created with this hope in mind.

“I wanted people to be able to see themselves in these people,” Barlow explained. “They are painted as individuals, but they are also kind of symbols.”

For Tonya Allen, president of the McKnight Foundation, each viewer’s personal connection with Belonging to the Entire Universe also encourages connection with others.

“This mural is both a reflection and a call,” Allen said. “Rooted in the history, cultures, and landscapes that shape Minnesota, Leslie’s work honors what has shaped us while inviting us to imagine what’s possible. It reminds us that a more just and hopeful future is something we must create together.”

Belonging to the Entire Universe is the inaugural installation in McKnight’s public art series, which will feature a different piece every three years. It is displayed at the McKnight Foundation’s Minneapolis headquarters, located at 921 Washington Ave. S.

For more information, visit https://www.mcknight.org/news-ideas/mcknight-unveils-new-public-mural-by-leslie-barlow-launching-rotating-public-art-series/.

Callisto Martinez is a recent Macalester graduate and contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. They welcome reader responses at martinezcallisto@gmail.com.

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Callisto Martinez

Callisto Martinez is a recent Macalester graduate and contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. More by Callisto Martinez

Based on reporting by Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

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