– Jerry W. Ward, Jr. told us how Shakespeare lives on in FOX’s new show Empire.

– We previewed the upcoming HBW event Black Literary Suite: Black Writers with a Kansas Connection, kicking off on Wednesday, February 25, from 3 – 4:30 p.m., on the fourth floor of Watson Library.

– NPR Code Switch blogger and Tufts University professor of history Peniel E. Joseph put together a list of works that explore “the importance of radical black political self-determination in the face of state violence and institutional racism.”

– Rutgers professor of Women and Gender Studies and Africana Studies Brittney Cooper celebrates the life and work of Pauli Murray, who coined the term “Jane Crow” and helped break legal ground for women of color and queer folks in the middle decades of the last century.

– On February 18, Toni Morrison celebrated her 84th birthday. Audre Lorde would have been 81.

– Anne Moody, author of the memoir Coming of Age in Mississippi, passed away at the age of 74.