If one were to do a search using only the word “soul,” there is a strong possibility that the searcher in question might encounter instructions to “see Aretha Franklin.” Her ethereal essence, in equal measures cultural and spiritual, only begins to define the everlasting contributions of this nation’s dearly departed music royalty, otherwise known as…

Would it be proper to describe Mad Men as ”cool”? Well, yes and no, but before answering that question, let’s ponder the often misunderstood properties of cool. Cool has a history, believe it or not. It is the lack of historical knowledge about cool’s origins that has allowed for the rampant and unfettered exploitation of…

The name of the late playwright August Wilson rings like a bell in literary and dramatic circles. Wilson, however, remains an unknown quantity in the world of Hollywood. This giant of the stage and master of dramatic prose has been a non-entity on the silver screen. Why, one might ask, has the work of the…

On the eve of the Academy Awards and on the heels of the utterly disappointing announcement that Marlon Wayans will play Richard Pryor in an upcoming biopic, I am here to make the case that Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III should receive a posthumous lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts…

When Hattie McDaniel, the first African American ever nominated for an Academy Award, arrived at the Ambassador Hotel for the 1940 ceremony, she was seated at a table on the extreme periphery of the auditorium. McDaniel had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress based on her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind (1939).…

When word spread recently that the venerable magazines Ebony and Jet were up for sale, a palpable sense of depression could be felt throughout some segments of black America. This sense of depression would generally reside among those born before 1960, or at least those whose sympathies lie with the pre-‘60 crowd. For a certain…