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NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 It started a couple of years ago when Juliana Pache was doing a crossword puzzle and got stuck.<\/p>\n
She was unfamiliar with the reference that the clue made. It made her think about what a crossword puzzle would look like if the clues and answers included more of some subjects that she WAS familiar with, thanks to her own identity and interests \u2014 Black history and Black popular culture.<\/p>\n
When she couldn\u2019t find such a thing, Pache decided to do it herself. In January 2023, she created blackcrossword.com, a site that offers a free mini-crossword puzzle every day. And Tuesday marked the release of her first book, \u201cBlack Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Celebrating the African Diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good moment for it, nearly 111 years after the first crossword appeared in a New York newspaper. Recent years have seen an increasing amount of conversation around representation in crossword puzzles, from who\u2019s constructing them to what words can be used for answers and how the clues are framed. There\u2019s been a push to expand the idea of the kinds of \u201ccommon knowledge\u201d players would have to fill them out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had never made a crossword puzzle before,\u201d Pache, 32, said with a laugh. \u201cBut I was like, I can figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she did.<\/p>\n
Each puzzle on Pache\u2019s site includes at least a few clues and answers connecting to Black culture. The tagline on the site: \u201cIf you know, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book is brimming with the kinds of puzzles that she estimates about 2,200 people play daily on her site \u2014 squares made up of five lines, each with five spaces. She aims for at least three of the clues to be references to aspects of Black cultures from around the world.<\/p>\n
Pache, a native of the New York City borough of Queens with family ties to Cuba and the Dominican Republic, had a couple of goals in mind when she started. Primarily, she wanted to create something that Black people would enjoy.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m \u201cmaking it with Black people in mind,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then if anyone else enjoys it, they learn things from it, that\u2019s a bonus but it\u2019s not my focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also trying to show the diversity in Black communities and cultures with the clues and words she uses, and to encourage people from different parts of the African diaspora to learn about each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to make it challenging, not just for people who might be interested in Black culture, but people within Black culture who might be interested in other regions,\u201d she said. \u201cPart of my mission with this is to highlight Black people from all over, Black culture from all over. And I think \u2026 that keeps us learning about each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
While on the surface if might just seem like a game, the knowledge base required for crosswords does say something about what kind of knowledge is considered \u201cgeneral\u201d and \u201cuniversal\u201d and what isn\u2019t, said Michelle Pera-McGhee, a data journalist at The Pudding, a site that focuses on data-driven stories.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Pera-McGhee undertook a data project analyzing crossword puzzles through the decades from a handful of the most well-known media outlets. The project assessed clues and answers that used the names of real people to determine a breakdown along gender and race categories.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, the data indicated that for the most part, men were disproportionately more likely than women to be featured, as well as white people compared to racial and ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s \u201cinteresting because it\u2019s supposed to be easy,\u201d Pera-McGhee said. \u201cYou want \u2026 ideally to reference things that people, everybody knows about because everyone learns about them in school or whatever. \u2026 What are the things that we decide we all should know?\u201d<\/p>\n
There are efforts to make crosswords more accessible and representative, including the recently started fellowship for puzzle constructors from underrepresented groups at The New York Times, among the most high-profile crossword puzzles around. Puzzle creators have made puzzles aimed at LGBTQ+ communities, at women, using a wider array of references as Pache is doing.<\/p>\n
Bottom line, \u201cit is really cool to see our culture reflected in this medium,\u201d Pache said.<\/p>\n
And, Pera-McGhee said, it can be cool to learn new things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of enriching to have things in the puzzle that you don\u2019t know about,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that the experience of not knowing is bad. It\u2019s just that it should maybe be spread out along with the experience of knowing. Both are kind of good in the crossword-solving experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n