Juliana Pache was doing a crossword puzzle a couple years ago when there was a reference the clue made that she was unfamiliar with.
This made her think about what a crossword puzzle would look like if the clues and answers were more closely aligned with subjects she was familiar with, such as Black history and Black pop culture.
She couldn’t find those topics, so decided to do it herself and created blackcrossword.com, writes Deepti Hajela for AP News.
The site offers a free mini-crossword puzzle each day.
“I had never made a crossword puzzle before,” Pache said. “But I was like, I can figure it out.”
Each puzzle on the site includes at least a few clues and answers connected to Black culture.
Pache’s goal was to create something that Black people would enjoy.
I’m “making it with Black people in mind,” she said. “And then if anyone else enjoys it, they learn things from it, that’s a bonus but it’s not my focus.”
The site also allows Pache to show the diversity in Black communities and cultures through the clues and words she uses in the puzzles.
She, herself, is a Temple University alumna, and native of Queens, New York, with family ties to Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Read more about Juliana Pache and her blackcrossword.com site in AP News.
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