New York Avenue

Criticism

Moral Ecologies by Malik Wilson

October 2026

In Moral Ecologies, Malik Wilson captures an interesting salable moment in African American culture, and American and world culture writ large. He notes that a tidy refusal - to be bought or sold - tells down from a kind of omni-American refusal to play along, or even play nice. He notes that this twin-headed, Scylla-Charybdis inheritance produces both austerity and lush possibility, and that, when properly rendered and in collaboration, it produces the cosmology of remarkable creations that have defined this country and shaped the world. 

Biography/Criticism

Saafir Rabb by Malik Wilson

November 2026

In Saafir Rabb, Malik Wilson gives a capsule portrait of one of Takoma's greatest influences. Saafir Rabb's restless, unslakeable curiosity, mindful focus and vision, and ability to hold principled lines speaks to the social, financial, civic, political, and spiritual realities that animate all people. His ability to pitch himself, to place himself as sort of a remnant of the best of all worlds tells tales that every man, every woman can learn from. Part biography, part cartography, part autopsy of influence, Saafir Rabb is a portrait of beauty in motion, manhood in time. 

Biography/Criticism

Yusef Kassim by Malik Wilson

December 2026

In Yusef Kassim, Malik Wilson tells the snapshot-tale of his friend Yusef Kassim, a kind of last, strange escapee from the cauldrons of our people and our culture. Yusef's story is in some ways the tale of a late civilization, bordering on decadence, but still possessing the fundamental principles that allow some to survive and thrive. What Malik Wilson has elsewhere called "the soldiers who snaked through" is drawn into unusual prominence, in the tale of a man, a last kind of sui generis of a people, perhaps not long for this world. 

Takoma’s business drive, its elan, and even its stubbornness – its conviction to ride things out, regardless, was honed in the fires of days and weeks with Mr. Saafir Rabb, who, besides his other many accomplishments, has been very loyal to our founder, Malik’s family. It is to this latter gesture that we are most excited to share Saafir with so many more of you. 

For more than three years, every three weeks or so, Malik spent one full day in the cockpit as it were, sitting with Saafir, ingesting all he could see and hear and understand. To hear Malik tell it, it was a master class: 

“I’ll never really be able to put into words what that experience did for me. It skinnied me, forced me to stand on what I truly know, and nothing else. It dropped out the notion of canned understanding and the need to be in a room and inwardly acknowledge that one knows nothing. My time with Saafir revealed the complex machinations and considerations that go into all important human interactions – whether on the street or in the boardroom – particularly when trade is involved, and the multilevel and multivalent web of intents, intentions, ethics, morality, gamesmanship, respect – and most shockingly of all beauty – that create true narratives. I learned from Saafir a healthy respect and admiration for, and curiosity towards, the world of trade as almost a natural phenomenon, an awe that has never left me, an awe largely curated by sitting at his table. I feel very blessed to have been able to sit courtside as it were, and see someone like him, at the height of his powers, do his thing, day in and day out.” 

Suffice to say, Takoma has been heavily influenced by Mr. Saafir Rabb. Thus we are proud to announce three very special events we’ll hope you’ll join us for. 

The first is a conversation with Saafir and our founder, Malik, on November 25th. You won’t want to miss this wide-ranging, deeply personal interaction between these two men, and you’ll gain richly by being able to delve more deeply into Saafir’s poetics of understanding, spiritual outlook, and cultural, political, and moral sensibilities. 

The second is the making of a small biography/monoscript, BWI, available to the public. on December 15th. The result of a series of 6 interviews done with Saafir over the course of 6 months, they are a window into the rich worlds he hearkens from. BWI provides clues to the personality of the man we have come to know, and has lessons for how the sweetness of youth must be both converted and preserved, sealed tightly and opened up widely. 

Concurrently, Saafir will be the first contributor to 12 Lessons, 12 Principles, in which he will contribute to our understanding of how and why business works, and how it does not. 

Yusef Kassim has been a critical support to Takoma and an advisor of the most important rank. A college schoolmate of our founder, Malik Wilson, and hailing from Washington, D.C., Yusef has accomplished that all-too-rare thing – a kind of dignity in the boardroom and at the street level that remains uncompromised. 

Yusef’s melding of principles from different places is not simply a professional accomplishment, it is a personal, moral, and spiritual success of the highest order. First detailed by Malik in an article for The Daily Pennsylvanian more than 30 years ago, the knitting together of wildly different strands into one coherent whole is why Yusef has influenced us so much. 

This fall, we have the distinct pleasure of hearing directly from Yusef himself in a wide-ranging discussion with Malik on many key topics – how to preserve what is culturally good and wall off the rest, how to ‘climb the ladder', wherever and however that should be, and how to make sense of the challenges, traumas, and lessons of the past. 

Concurrently, Yusef will be the second contributor to 12 Lessons, 12 Principles, in which he will contribute to our understanding of how and why business works, and how it does not.