Everything and Nothing at Once: A Black Man's Reimagined Soundtrack for the Future

Everything and Nothing at Once: A Black Man's Reimagined Soundtrack for the FutureFor readers of Kiese Laymons Heavy and Hanif Abdurraqibs A Little Devil in America,a beautiful, painful, and soaring tribute to everything that Black men are and can be Growing up in the Bronx, Jol Leon was taught that being soft, being vulnerable, could end your life. Shaped by a singular view of Black masculinity espoused by the media, family and friends, and society, he learned instead to care about the gold around his neck and the number of bills

such as commander-and-chief

but by night he and his accomplices steal coffee from the railway yard and smuggle it into the “ghost house

Will the two friends be able to overlook their distinct understandings of the flag

autoimmune diseases and more

their freedom

will become so racially mixed that racism will diminish

from the vanished beliefs of the Caribs and Arawaks to the Rastafarianism of today

Chris and the Ramsey research team surveyed over 10

author of Am I Alone Here) coming-of-age tale follows a young man who is forced to flee his homeland of Rwanda during the Civil War and make sense of his reality

Both young men awaken emotions Opal has never felt before

far from their homeland

for more and less are known about him than other famous men in 19th century American history