THIS revolution will not be televised.

Welcome to our little corner of Substack called, BlackStack!

Blackstack

and

Jacquie Verbal

Jun 19, 2024

127

Allow me to introduce myself before we get into the first post. My name is

Jacquie Verbal

. I organized this community because I longed for a space where we could navigate in our authentic blackness and felt that others might be too. I posted and said I wanted to cultivate the #BlackStack of Substack and like the good fashion of people we are, y’all showed up!

It’s no coincidence that you landed on this side of Substack so while you are here, make yourself comfortable and at home. I’m not saying that we are the new Black Panthers but I am saying we are writers, thinkers, and hella genius. There is no telling what we will cultivate in this space but it’s for us and us only. History has shown us time and time again that when they know what we are doing, it gets destroyed. This space is our safe hub, our underground music hub, our underground railroad to free ourselves.

…sorry I can get carried away call me little Miss Malcolm X. But if y’all want to talk about it just say the word and it can go down in the DM threads.

What is #BlackStack?

It’s a corner of Substack just for Black writers and readers. We see communities built for all POC and felt we needed a space specifically for Black folk. We need a safe space to share our stories without having to watch our slang or dim to make others comfortable.

We also recognize that this platform will not willingly push our work so we will use the knowledge of working with algorithms to make sure our Black writers’ work lands on the timeline of Black readers.

All are welcome to follow but only Black writers and readers are invited to subscribe, join online events, and participate in writing our Sunday Service Announcements newsletter.

There's something about the smoothness of our sunkissed skin and the way our hair grows towards the sun it's hard to understand why we are rejected yet the standard of beauty - we are never accepted as people robbed of our culture

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
Toni Morrison

The same goes for spaces.

…and sometimes, we need varied spaces to cater to the different facets of our identities, allowing us to express and nurture each aspect in its own right.

We envision cultivating a space that feels like your neighborhood block party, filled with the smells of a home-cooked meal, your favorite old-school songs in the background, and the talents of your neighborhood artists spread amongst the brick walls.

A space that provides cultural affirmation, identity, and, most importantly, community.

A space to let your hair down and call “home”.

that first bite of the hotdog with that baked bean juice on the bread, or to vibe with a vinyl taking you back to the original Saturday morning cleaning playlist

Community Writing Sessions

I want to keep all community-related things on Sunday since Black culture is rooted in community gathers on weekends and church on Sundays. Community writing sessions are hosted virtually on First Sundays. You are always welcome to work on your projects during this time, but if you are joining with nothing to work on we will have prompts for you to reflect on from the Sunday Dinner: Soul Food series newsletter.

Here is where the community pulls together, I need facilitators and weekly byline writers for the newsletter. If you have projects that you want to promote or a piece you want to share let us know so we can add it to the newsletter. Below is a poll to help us set a timeframe for our first community writing session. Feel free to use the comment section to express interest in how you want to contribute. Y’all already been showing out so I am excited to see the first community writing session!

tell your friends to pull up.

We don’t want to make this first post too long or put our foot in our mouths. Although this was an idea that was brought to life the key component is community, and we couldn’t have brought it to life without y’all. So this is not to be Jacquie and Bri’s thing, it’s a Black community hub for us and as we grow it’s because of us as a community. With that being said we will regularly have polls at the end of our post to make sure everyone is being heard and seen. If you want to help just let us know how you want to help and boom, you helping. Any suggestions with solutions are always welcome but keep in mind the goal is for this to be a community effort to grow and expand. So once you subscribe, recommend us on your publication and tell your friends to pull up.