Donnell Alexander

Brought to Mexico in chains, Gaspar Yanga and his followers staged a bloody rebellion

Gaspar Yanga, “San Lorenzo de los Negros,” detail from a mural at the Palacio Municipal de Xalapa, Veracruz. (NYU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies)

Not keeping up with technology is an excellent path to becoming a slave.

The animated doc short. Audio narrative co-produced with Neille Ilel.

Donnell Alexander is a journalist, author, and storyteller known for his wide array of expertise, with particular focus on cannabis, hip hop, and sports.

A series on fairness in the cannabis industry. First place, Depth Reporting; California Newspaper Publishers Association.

“Cleopatra was known for her beautiful, long, luxurious pubic hair, which she proudly wore brushed and oiled, and she was known to admire — and display — her pubic hair in the shiny marble floors and the light, diaphanous gowns of the time.”

Hearing the name New Edition is likely to conjure a lot of thoughts. Bobby Brown, those sweet dance moves, and the recent BET biopic to name but a few. Usually not too high on that list is the fact that they’re from Boston, but New Edition’s Boston roots run deep. So when they filmed a music video in Los Angeles with the Lakers during the height of the 1980s Celtics/Lakers rivalry, it was quite a shock to their hometown supporters. Find out how it happened, and how an assist...

Ghetto Celebrity named one of the San Francisco Chronicle's Best Books of 2003.

“We outside!” Chance the Rapper exclaims into his microphone. The sky is near black at maybe seven minutes after 8 p.m. in Downtown Los Angeles. Third weeknight of October. Chance had been and would be again, soon, rhyming his way through a song. The Chicago MC had been in the midst of vocalizing about his heart and his God and the shifting tides of life.
Chano—as more ardent fans might call him—stood on top of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s roof while he did his thing.
It’s our inside-out ...

When it comes to hosting a full spectrum Juneteenth celebration, here's how to lessen tensions over “contact highs” at a gathering filled with older generations' who lived through the anti-pot D.A.R.E. propaganda Reagan Era.

Cannabis journalist, Donnell Alexander joins Madison in dynamic conversation around this cultural moment in psychedelics, spirituality, and the cannabis industry.

Alexander is a journalistic storyteller based in Los Angelos and a Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center for Health Journalism where he’s reporting on fairness in cannabis. He has contributed to and been featured in TIME, NPR, Rolling Stone, Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, Leafly, and KCRW.

How did we land here, with millions all-in on not knowing settled U.S. history?

Malcolm Shabazz Hoover is rattling off his vegetable varieties to two potential customers from a local restaurant.

“It’s called Brassica juncea, a west African mustard green,” Hoover says to Marissa Lorette and Ian Watson, co-owners of BeesWing, a local restaurant looking to work with Black businesses. He picks some from the ground and offers it to them. “Taste it.”

“It’s sweet and spicy,” Watson says, looking pleased and happily confused, and Black Futures Farm bags another client.

Adam Craig Hill left Rockaway, New Jersey, to become a famous writer in California. He wound up a polarizing and infamously fallible county supervisor in San Luis Obispo. Through it all, Hill’s big personality and addiction to shortcuts put him on an unpaved road to the Dead Poets Society.

At his Shell Beach home two Augusts ago, the Fresno State English Department product took his own life — months after winning election to a fourth term. SLO is a place that Oprah once called “the Happiest P...