• 4 Questions With Robin Thicke

    R&B crooner Robin Thicke knows how to grab headlines. The artist’s candor about his very active sex life with his wife, actress Paula Patton, spiced up the Web in December 2011, when he opened up to Essence.com. And in February the 35-year-old soul singer jumped back into the spotlight after getting caught lighting up a…

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  • TED Comes to Harlem

    Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to reflect the change in venue from the Apollo Theater to Riverside Church, located at 490 Riverside Drive in Harlem. On March 27 TED, a global collection of conferences, and its program TEDx, which lets organizations and groups independently organize their own TED events, is headed to Riverside…

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  • Public Schools Constrain Blacks, Author Says

    Lisa Delpit’s latest book, “Multiplication Is for White People”: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children, is another installment in the author’s crusade to expose the systemic issues with America’s public education system, and their effects on a growing achievement gap between whites and minorities. More than a critique, Delpit’s book uses classroom stories and analysis…

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  • Living While Obama: A Solar Salute

    President Obama speaks at the nation’s biggest farm of solar panels, the Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s Copper Mountain facility in Nevada. The stop was a part of the president’s four-state trip to promote his renewable-energy policies.

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  • A New Book Takes a Fresh Look at Black Culture

    Poet Kevin Young switches to prose with his latest work, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness, a slick and witty critique of just what constitutes blackness in the mainstream. While the title pays homage to the popular Jay-Z-and-Beatles mashup album, the book takes a critical look at how mass media and popular culture…

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  • Gospel Duo Stars in New Reality Show

    Gospel pair Mary Mary are back in the spotlight, this time with their entire family, in an upcoming We tv reality show. The cameras follow three-time Grammy Award winners Erica and Tina Campbell as they deal with fame and family on the heels of the release of their sixth studio album, Something Big. From Erica’s…

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  • Book Examines America's Changing Demographics

    Anti-racist activist and author Tim Wise is back with another no-holds-barred take on race and America’s changing demographics in Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority. Written in the form of letters addressed to white America, Wise unabashedly examines the anxieties faced by the country’s dwindling majority as multiculturalism begins to define a new…

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  • Living While Obama: First Lady Dazzles at State Dinner

    Michelle Obama impressed state-dinner guests on Wednesday, wearing a subtly ruched blue Marchesa gown with Tom Binns pearls while waiting with the president for the arrival of United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife, Samantha, on the White House’s North Portico. Guests dined on bison Wellington and enjoyed performances by John Legend and…

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  • Does ‘Mad Men’ Handle Race Right?

    AMC’s popular TV series Mad Men returns this Month with its fifth season; and, the show’s commitment to staying true to the 1960s era is one of its most lauded features. But, Mad Men’s dedication to evoking the ‘60s goes beyond persistent smoking, daytime drinking and gratuitous adultery. According to Slate’s Tanner Colby, the show…

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  • Soul Food's First Family Returns to TV

    On the heels of a lineup revival, Oprah’s OWN network plans to premiere 10 new episodes of the 2011 family documentary TV show Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s. The series follows the dynamic goings-on of well-known St. Louis, Mo., soul food restaurant Sweetie Pie’s, owned and operated by Miss Robbie Montgomery, a former backup singer for…

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