NEWARK, NJ–Corinne Bailey Rae is a time traveler. A cosmonaut. A historian of the future past. And this benevolent explorer wants her fans to see what she has seen. Her latest album, Black Rainbows, a 45-minute transmission released September 15, invites the listener on an immersive, sonic voyage traversing the American South, Ethiopia, and the great expanse of outer space as Bailey Rae surveys what was and what will be of Black existence.

Photography cannot only capture an image but also a sound. Public Square Amplified's photojournalist, Brian Branch-Price, displays his adeptness in depicting gospel music through his signature black-and-white medium. Through his photos, he gives us a glimpse of the rhythms that tie family to music and God.

Photo essays can be counter-narratives to affirm our shared humanity in racialized spaces designed to erase it. And Public Square Amplified's photojournalist, Brian Branch-Price, makes it look sublime. As always, his choice of the black-and-white medium delivers a beautiful portrait of a Black female rancher.

Tammy Harris comes from generations of harvesters. In the mid-twentieth century, her grandparents traversed the highways during the terror-filled Jim Crow era of racialized laws from New Jersey to Florida to harvest potatoes and other produce.

On a summer day in August, When Black Women Gather (WBWG), an international organization, took a cross-section of Black women from N.J. to learn how to shoot.

"It was a long-awaited adventure originally planned for Mother's Day, pre-pandemic,” said the founder of the organization, Helen Higgenbotham.

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Mark Kearney pulls weeds to make room for the eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, beans, squash and melons that will grow on the three-acre urban oasis he manages.

Kearney, who was formerly incarcerated, says he feels alchemy working the land on the Newark-based Hawthorne Avenue Farm.

You can’t watch Kenya Moncur-Whitaker’s portrayal of Walter Lee Younger in a recent production of A Raisin in the Sun and not feel something. Sitting in the audience and hearing his vision of a bright future for his son – a future filled with hope and abundant resources–connects with any parent or person who has faced the same circumstances.

In a world of overconsumption and indulgence in manufactured social media pictorials, photojournalism reminds us of the power of images that force us to wrestle with our shared human story that often suffers distraction by the filtered selfie. Why is photojournalism so powerful? A large part of the answer may rest in research by neuroscientists that one-quarter of our brain is visual perception. This is how photojournalists have the power to deconstruct barriers of entry that may exist in the written narrative—they can capture moments that affirm our shared humanity.

Julio C. Roman grew up in the Newark of the 1990s, a treacherous and unmerciful city riddled with gang violence, narcotics, a continuing HIV/AIDS epidemic, and intense living conditions in the assisted housing communities like the Stella Right’s Projects where Roman resided. Feeling alone, misunderstood, and fearful of the hate crimes so frequently aimed at himself and others like him, Roman took it upon himself to create a community of love, safety, and understanding in an often-unloving world.

If you are not familiar with the artist, Jerry Gant was a multi-disciplined visual artist, teacher, mentor, and activist. In the '80s, at the start of his career, you could find him in New York City tagging buildings along with the likes of Jean Michael Basquiat. Over the years, he created work that reflected many of the particulars of his own life as a Black male growing up in Newark and was motivated by a profound and genuine desire to truly know and understand the human condition. For Jerry, life and art were inextricably linked.

Terence Blanchard broke paradigms Monday night at the Metropolitan Opera house. Fire Shut Up In My Bones shook the shingles off the rooftop and opened up a skylight: and the long list of ancestors of that very stage dropped in and hoovered ever so close over the spectacle of a symphony resplendent in all the grace and elegance that perfect solitude seeks.

Curator and historian Noelle Lorraine Williams seeks to educate and remind Newark residents of their history—one filled with striving and rebellion. Her recent exhibition, Black Power! 19th Century, on display at the Newark Public Library from July 9 through Sept.1, revisits Black activism in Newark. In an interview with Public Square, Williams discussed the exhibit and her plans to reach others beyond Newark through her art and research.