Why we are changing our name to Andscape

As of March 1, what was once The Undefeated is now Andscape.

I want to share two facts and a hunch about this change.

Fact One: We did it for a reason that I think y’all will understand. We needed a name that stretched what we thought we should be into whatever we wanted to be. Over the last five years, we blew through the intersections of sports, race and culture into the myriad intersections of Black and Everything. We do a lot now. But we want to do more and we need a name that can grow with us.

Fact two: We’ve always been about that not-conventional, never-boring life, so we knew that besides illuminating the nuance and beauty of Black life, we needed a name that leaves behind dulled and dusty paradigms and creates space for new meanings. We’re not going to engage in conversations that measure our humanity as if it were in doubt.

Don’t get me wrong. There is work to be done and we’ll report on it. We’ll do it by turning a Black lens on anything and everything — from how Black people made an art out of changing their names to why South Carolina’s Dawn Staley needed to give pieces of her championship net to other Black female coaches.

And we wanted to give you, our readers, viewers, listeners, collaborators, friends and cousins a name that you could bring yourselves to and carve meaning out of with your own “Ands.” A person need not be Sherlock Holmes to see I’m Black, but they don’t know a damn thing about me unless they also know a lot about the Khumbu Icefall and Whitney Houston.

This is what Andscape means to me: AND is for the infinite ways we define Blackness, and SCAPE is for our inclusive, eclectic and deeply dimensional view of the world. I can’t wait to see what Andscape will mean to you and your Ands.

Hunch: The world is ready for that Black gaze. But it doesn’t much matter if the world is ready or not. ’Cause we’re doing it anyway. Welcome home.