Hollywood funnyman and director Tyler Perry’s upcoming movie Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds offers up the typical concoction of laughs, romance and melodrama that has come to characterize the Madea director’s film style. Featuring blockbuster regulars Thandie Newton and Gabrielle Union, Good Deeds follows the life of a well-to-do businessman, played by Perry, whose unexpected stroke…

British R&B sensation Estelle is back with a new album, All of Me, featuring the Rick Ross-backed inaugural single “Break My Heart.” The midtempo banger has already hit the charts, reaching No. 33 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Estelle’s latest keeps true to her offbeat yet timeless style, which combines a set of soul-driven…

Earning accolades at film festivals from Chicago to Atlanta, All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert offers a compelling look at a fascinating black artist, whose larger-than-life personality peeks through his elaborate autobiographical paintings depicting a segregated American South. Rembert, who is in his 60s, appears in the film discussing the harsh civil…

Join The Root as Rebecca Walker — the author of the newly released book Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness — and panelists including regular The Root contributor Helena Andrews sit down to discuss how black became cool, this Friday, Feb. 17, at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C. at an event hosted by…

The highly praised, Nancy Buirski-directed documentary The Loving Story will make its television debut this Valentine’s Day on HBO. The documentary details the lives of the high-profile interracial couple Mildred and Richard Loving, whose marriage was the subject the landmark Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which outlawed state laws targeting interracial marriage. Coupling the…

Director Daniel Falconer unravels the complex story of Detroit’s downfall in the new documentary Deforce. Falconer delves into the Motor City’s corrupt political system and its impact on the city’s fall from grace. Of the many struggles the once-glamorous Motown faces, Falconer examines how race and racism have left a seemingly indelible mark on Michigan’s…

Soundtrack for a Revolution, a 2009 documentary based on several stories of the civil rights movement, garnered high praise shortly after its release, even gaining an Oscar nod for best documentary film in 2010. More than two years after the release of Soundtrack for a Revolution — which stars household names like John Legend, Wyclef…

During a media blitz for his book Transparent, gay CNN anchor Don Lemon candidly opened up about the homophobia he has experienced in the black community. “It’s quite different for an African-American male,” he told the New York Times in May 2011. “It’s about the worst thing you can be in black culture.” It wasn’t…