The artists featured in The Black Index--Dennis Delgado, Alicia Henry, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Titus Kaphar, Whitfield Lovell, and Lava Thomas--build upon the tradition of Black self-representation as an antidote to colonialist images. Their translations of photography challenge the medium's long-assumed qualities of objectivity, legibility, and identification. Using drawing, sculpture, and digital technology to transform the recorded image, these artists question our reliance on photography as a privileged source for documentary objectivity and historical understanding. The works featured here offer an alternative practice--a Black index. In the hands of these six artists, the index still serves as a finding aid for information about Black subjects, but it also challenges viewers' desire for classification and, instead, redirects them toward alternative information.

This fascinating history of one school innovation recounts the painstaking labours of those willing to help at-risk youth succeed in our complex society. Harold Wechsler examines the middle college movement by focusing on a quarter-century of growth at the first Middle College. Started in 1974 at LaGuardia Community College in New York, this successful alternative school has since been widely replicated and adapted throughout the country. Anyone interested in the processes of educational reform will find this captivating story and Wechsler’s in-depth policy analysis to be essential reading.