haroldmichaelharvey

[haroldmichaelharvey]

Reading the Epstein Estate Files as Choreography

The Curvature of Secrecy Photo by Anna Pavlova on Pexels.com There’s a curvature to secrecy—an elegant bend in the archive where power hides its face behind birthday wishes and hand-drawn silhouettes. In the newly released files from the Epstein Estate, we find not just names and numbers, but a choreography of concealment: gestures disguised as gifts, intimacy weaponized as insulation. Among…

[haroldmichaelharvey]

“Born Killers”?

The Rhetoric That Wounds Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV on Pexels.com Last week, the President of the United States stood in the Oval Office and said of young Black men in Washington, D.C.: “They’re going to be criminals — they were born to be criminals, frankly.” The words were not a slip. They were deliberate. And they echo a long, violent history of rhetoric used to criminalize Black birth, Black…

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Hoax Versus Reality: The Epstein Case and the Cost of Indifference

Examining the Impact of Real-World Consequences in the Face of Political Evasion Photo by Gustavo Fring on Pexels.com Introduction In a world awash with information, the line between hoax and reality is often blurred. Rumors, conspiracies, and fabrications coexist alongside genuine tragedies and historic events, sometimes clouding our collective understanding and undermining the gravity of…

[haroldmichaelharvey]

The Case for Permanent Copyrights

Protecting Creators for Eternity Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com Copyright law was initially designed to strike a balance between rewarding creators for their work and allowing the public to use those works in the long term freely. However, in an age where creative output is more valuable than ever—both culturally and economically—the expiration of copyrights can undermine the very people who…

[haroldmichaelharvey]

The Work Beneath the Work

Labor Day 2025 Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com Before the cookouts and campaign slogans, there was labor. Not just the kind that builds bridges and balances budgets—but the type that stitches memory into the seams of our society. This Labor Day, I’m reflecting on the work beneath the work. The kind done in silence, in archives, in ancestral whispers. The kind that doesn’t clock out. Labor Day…

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Safe at Home

A Game That Refuses to Forget C. J. Stewart, former Chicago Cub Outfielder and founder of L.E.A.D. “In the age of erasure, Safe at Home is a refusal.” On a cloudy August morning at Georgia Tech’s Russ Chandler Stadium, the 11th Annual Safe at Home baseball game unfolded—not just as a sporting event, but as a living metaphor for what it means to hold space for Black youth in a nation…

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The Whitewashing of American History

From Policy to Pancakes Photo from the internet In the age of algorithmic memory and curated nostalgia, the battle over American history is no longer confined to textbooks or monuments. It’s playing out in policy briefs, restaurant logos, and the very language of civic belonging. The Trump administration’s recent maneuvers—paired with the cultural firestorm surrounding Cracker Barrel’s…

[haroldmichaelharvey]

The Macon Legacy

A National Call to Action Fifty-one years ago, in 1974, the city of Macon, Georgia, redrew its district lines—not to suppress, but to uplift. That redistricting made way for the election, a year later, of the “Macon Fantasy Five,” the first five Black members of the Macon City Council. They were Willie C. Hill, Vernon Colbert, Julius Vinson, Delores Brooks, and Rev. Eddie D. Smith, Sr. It was a…

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The Scholar My Mother Never Forgot

A Tribute to Dr. Osiefield Anderson Dr. Osiefield Anderson, photo Alice Devine, Tallahassee Democrat, 2021 I knew of Dr. Osiefield Anderson long before I ever met him. He was my mother’s best friend in college, and her admiration for him was unwavering. She spoke of his brilliance often—how he could make numbers sing, how his mind moved with precision and grace. I heard Anderson’s name in my…

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When the Barrel Is on Trial

Supporting Uncle Nearest Through the Storm Photo from the internet. In the world of spirits, few brands have carried the weight of history quite like Uncle Nearest. Born from the legacy of Nathan “Nearest” Green—the formerly enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to distill whiskey—the brand has become a beacon of Black excellence, cultural reclamation, and entrepreneurial vision. So when news…

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Promises, Pivots, and Power Play: Unpacking Trump’s Russia-Ukraine War Rhetoric

From “Day One” Resolution to Listening Tours with Putin—What Changed? Photo by Ron Bird on Pexels.com In the fraught theater of international relations, words are weapons, and presidential promises are often the first shots fired. Nowhere has this been more evident than in former President Donald Trump’s approach to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war—a conflict that has reshaped Europe’s borders,…

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We the People, Stolen in Plain Sight

An essay in Curtis Mayfield’s time Photo by Talha Ahmed on Pexels.com Curtis Mayfield didn’t write anthems—he wrote indictments, love letters, cautionary tales. He summoned brass and bass to sketch the contours of a democracy that refused to hear its drumline. This essay riffs off Mayfield’s enduring question—“We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue”—to argue that the republic is not merely in…

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From Armies of the Night to Armies of the State

A Tale of Two Washingtons Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels.com In 1967, Norman Mailer stood outside the Pentagon, half-participant, half-provocateur, chronicling the anti-war protest that would become The Armies of the Night. He cast himself as both historian and character, capturing the surreal theater of dissent in a city where symbolism and state power collide. Mailer divides the…

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From Tuskegee to Texas:

The Long Shadow of Gomillion v. Lightfoot Dr. Charles G. Gomillion, Tuskegee Institute Professor and Administrator from 1928 to 1970., Photo Tuskegee Archives In 1960, the Supreme Court ruled that a map could be unconstitutional if its sole purpose were to silence Black voters. Charles Gomillion, a professor at Tuskegee Institute, had watched as Alabama’s legislature redrew the city’s…

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From MAGA Maneuvers to Memory’s Recruits

Don Lemon’s HOT TOPICS, rooted in rhythm, resistance, and the archival pulse of Black civic legacy. Photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com “In the offbeat, truth finds its breath. And in the silence between notes, memory resists erasure.” The syncopation of history is not accidental; it’s survival. When the dominant beat insists on forgetting, we counter with rhythm, with memory, and with…

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The Redaction Heard Round the Archive

Trump, Epstein, and a Shadow Over History (From L) Political commentator Rogan O’Handley, aka DC Draino, TikToker Chaya Raichik, commentator Liz Wheeler, and US conservative activist Scott Presler carry binders bearing the seal of the US Justice Department reading “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” as they walk out of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 27, 2025. The Trump…

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Obama, Rice, Comey Syncopated Scandals

A Score in Four Movements Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels.com 🎙️ Voice Memo Prelude (Pair with ambient jazz: brushed snares, soft Rhodes, archival murmurs) “You’re listening to a syncopated truth. Not the kind declared in headlines or carved into stone… But the kind that lives between beats in the silences, the suspensions, the moments they hope you overlook. This week, the criminal referral of…