Ebony Tomatoes Collective is a literary and arts magazine for personal and political liberation—by a Black, intersectional collective.
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Featured Writing
Fresh new pieces, hand-picked by our editors
The Village
goodnight mom i love you
Brooklyn-based writer Lilura Chacez is pulling on our heartstrings in this poem exploring the loss of a mother. Chacez paints the softest images—from the garden growing nurse plants to a grandma plaiting hair—that rescue the speaker’s memories from time.
By Lilura Chacez
The Village
An illuminating ethnography written by Angolan writer and budding economist Noémia Rocha. This nonfiction piece unpacks the intersections of culture, migration, and identity through the lens of African hair braiding salons. This compilation of essays examines the significance of hair braiding within the African immigrant community in New York, and the evolving role of hair salons as cultural and economic spaces.
By Noémia Rocha
The Self
A creative nonfiction story by writer, editor, and 2025 Brooklyn Poets Fellow JoliAmour Dubose-Morris. When Joli attempts to purchase a rare creature off of Craigslist, she is confronted by fragments of her past: high school boyfriends, nudes from the vault, and even Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple. After journeying through the pervasive trauma and sexualization faced by Black femmes, Joli comes face-to-face with what lies beneath the surface of her psyche. This piece was originally published in our latest issue, Perennial Song.
By JoliAmour DuBose-Morris
Cover art by Ava Anglin
The Village
The stories across the Black Diaspora
to mama
The Selfto mamaBy Atarah Israel butchered pumpkin seedsand rosebud-coated tongues,you plant apologies and nothingelse on my doorstep. it is summerand meaning has escaped me:those fickle clouds and their shapeless ideologies,their abstract tendrils envelope me...
You and I in Technicolor
The SelfYou and I in Technicolor By Cadence Beck Ivory fingers on redbone skin, your eyes were dead and filled with the sins of your daddy’s daddy long before I thought that someone might help things by keeping cans of light beer in the fridge for you. By keeping...
A Conversation with Saffy Osei about Deeper: A Collection of Offerings
The VillageA Conversation with Saffy Osei on Deeper: A Collection of OfferingsBy Sophie Koutsoftas My first introduction to Saffy Osei as a writer was their piece Love Letter to Saffy written for Issue 18 of Ebony Tomatoes Collective. Simply put, Love Letter to Saffy...
Meet Pucker Up! The punk band for bad bitches
The VillageMeet Pucker Up! The punk band for bad bitchesBy Ava Pauline Emilione When Pucker Up! was still in the works, Shug and Demi—the band’s lead singer and bassist respectively—sipped on drinks at The Bog, a beloved local bar in their hometown, Scranton,...
Gndr
The SelfGndrBy Phaïssa Grenaëlle Verdilus “How do you identify”? I unhinge my mouth to answer but no sound comes out “How do you identify”? I identify as fire NO. Not like the fading flicker of a lighter But like a hell mouth where parents, strangers, and politicians...
Marbles
The SelfMarblesBy Mon Misir CW: Self-harm, purging Grace Martin, at eight years old, held the world record for filling her mouth with marbles. Only, her name wasn’t Grace Martin then. She was Kaysha Williams. Her parents wanted her to have a fierce knowledge of her...
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