The Delight and Terror of Loving Black Men

image by Jessica Felicio

There are so many Black men I love. My dad. My brother. Cousins and nephews. Friends and colleagues. Ancestors. Artists and philosophers I’ve never met but whose contributions are inimitable, indisputable (Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Coltrane, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). The tone and shades of my love are varied. Sometimes it’s the thicker-than-mud, essential love of family, and sometimes it’s the disciplined love…