Marc Lamont Hill explores the history behind the litany of recent police killings. Check out the New York Times review of Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond in the article Understanding Recent Deaths at the Hands of the Police.

The Los Angeles Times catches up with Teju Cole to chat literary criticism, visual culture, and exploratory journeys in his new release Known and Strange Things—a collection of essays. Check it out at Teju Cole on knowns, unknowns and ‘Known and Strange Things’

As President Obama kicks off his farewell tour, bringing eight years in the White House to a close, novelists Tobias Wolff, Akhil Sharma, Attica Locke, Hari Kunzru, and Jayne Anne Phillips reflect on his legacy. Learn more about his legacy at The Obama years: novelists assess his legacy.

Frederick McKissack, Jr. reflects on growing up surrounded by award-winning Black authors in his call for more multicultural children’s literature for all. Learn more about his call at Lack of black children’s books are still a problem.

In the middle of a gentrifying Harlem, an art collective is fighting to save a very special brownstone on 127th. Langston Hughes' Harlem Home May Get Its Own Renaissance — As An Art Center checks in with Renee Watson to get an update on the fight to save Langston Hughes’ former home.