Tangela Serls

Tangela Serls talks about the experience she had through the 4pt0 Schools Essentials Fellowship. She also discusses two influential books, Michelle Obama's "Becoming" and Stacey Abram's "Minority Leader."

“we need a god who bleeds now
whose wounds are not the end of anything”
Poetry has a way of changing the world. These changes may not be monumental or immediate, but the written word bestows an unspoken power to those who wield it. Ntozake Shange, born Paulette Williams in 1948, was a woman who fearlessly bore that power.
Best known for her choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, Ntozake made a name for herself when she emerged as a playwright and po...

Ground-breaking activist, Barbara Smith, and her twin sister Beverly, were born in 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio. They were children of the Great Migration and have family roots in my home state, Georgia. When I first learned about the concept of “coming to voice” it was in large part because of being exposed to works by Barbara Smith and other Black feminists.
Barbara Smith is one of the founders of the Combahee River Collective and has been an important voice in the development of modern intersec...

Tangela Serls discusses the connection between sisterhood, friendship, and spirituality by referencing some of her personal experiences as well as her academic pursuits.

Dr. Tangela Serls discusses her experience in education, beginning with childhood influences and continuing to a recent opportunity with the 4pt0 Schools Essentials Fellowship.

The following is a continuation of the paraphrased introduction from Tangela Serls’ “The Spirit of Friendship: Girlfriends in Contemporary African American Literature.” This part discusses the role Delta Sigma Theta had in her friendships and spirituality, as well as an example of why she began studying girlfriend relationships.
From left to right: Anastasia Boone, Tiffany Baskerville-Powell, Jocelyn Hyman, Me, Kimberly Tanner, Melissa West, Shinece Hampton
Not Pictured: Nicole Cleggs-Burn
In...

When thinking of South Africa’s apartheid — a caste system that favored white Europeans over black South Africans — one name typically comes to mind: Nelson Mandela. Although Nelson devoted his life to ending the racial hierarchy, he was not alone in his fight. Many South Africans joined in the cause, and none more so than his wife, Winnie Mandela. In honor of Ms. Winnie’s legacy, I wanted to take a moment to highlight a few aspects of her life.