-
Nelsan Ellis, True Blood’s Lafayette, Dies at 39
Nelsan Ellis, who played the outspoken and gay short-order cook Lafayette Reynolds on HBO’s True Blood, has died after complications due to heart failure. He was 39. According to the Hollywood Reporter, his manager, Emily Gerson Saines, delivered the news. “He was a great talent, and his words and presence will be forever missed,” she…
-
Black Music Month Playlist No. 5: We Made America Great in the 1st Place
Editor’s note: Every Friday for the month of June, aka African-American Music Appreciation Month, aka Black Music Month, we created a Spotify playlist based on the news of the week. Check out the stories behind playlist No. 1, playlist No. 2, playlist No. 3 and playlist No. 4. How fortuitous that the end of Black…
-
Black Music Month Playlist No. 4: Damn! Damn! Damn!
Editor’s note: Every Friday for the month of June, aka African-American Music Appreciation Month, aka Black Music Month, we’ll be creating a Spotify playlist based on the news of the week. Check out the stories behind playlist No. 1, playlist No. 2 and playlist No. 3. Real talk: This week was fucked up. There were…
-
Black Music Month Playlist No. 3: All Eyez on Me
Editor’s note: Every Friday for the month of June, aka African-American Music Appreciation Month, aka Black Music Month, we’ll be creating a Spotify playlist based on the news of the week. Check out the stories behind playlist No. 1 and playlist No. 2. This week began with Bill Cosby’s legal team delivering a six-minute defense…
-
Black Music Month Playlist No. 2: Cosby Ain’t the God We Made Him
Editor’s note: Every Friday for the month of June, aka African-American Music Appreciation Month, aka Black Music Month, we’ll be creating a Spotify playlist based on the news of the week. Check out the story behind last week’s playlist here. Talk about trials and tribulations. I don’t think the country has seen this much testifying…
-
Black Music Month Playlist No. 1: You Haven’t Done Nothin’
To paraphrase Bruno Mars, American music is black music. When you consider that black people had a hand in creating or influencing just about every music genre—rock, pop, blues, R&B and even country—Bruno ain’t wrong. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared June to be Black Music Month in order to recognize the contributions that black…
-
Prince Estate Sues to Block ‘Unauthorized’ Release of New Songs
If you were planning to drop a few bills on that new Prince EP, you might want to hold up a minute. The Prince estate has filed a lawsuit to block the release of the new six-song EP called Deliverance, which is slated for release on Friday, the one-year anniversary of Prince’s death. The estate…
-
Forget That White Lady’s Emmett Till Painting; These Black Artists Are Truly Representing at the Whitney Biennial
At this year’s Whitney Biennial, the award for the most discussed and divisive piece of art easily goes to white artist Dana Schutz’s painting of the dead body of Emmett Till called Open Casket. The painting has provoked protests and sparked debates about white exploitation of black trauma, freedom of expression and censorship. As a…
-
7 Times Harriet Tubman Was a Badass Superhero
Harriet Tubman is having a moment. Right now she is the “it” girl of history. No longer relegated to the pages of schoolbooks during Black History Month, the freedom-fighting, self-liberating she-warrior and “conductor” on the Underground Railroad is getting the recognition she so richly deserves. Last year the Treasury Department announced that Tubman would replace…
-
Watch: SNL’s Skit About Drugs That Sound Like Black Names Is Just Dumb, Racist Trash
Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer made her debut as host of Saturday Night Live last night. I’ll confess I missed it because I had better things to do on a Saturday night. But then this dumb-ass skit of Spencer playing a woman who’s suing a drug company because they stole the names of her family…
