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28 Days of Black Joy: To the Unforgettable Natalie Cole…With an Everlasting Love
“Bwown Natalie, Mommy!” In the limited repertoire of language I possessed at 2 years old—mostly comprised of pint-sized commands—my mother claims this was the most frequent refrain as she buckled me into the backseat of her Buick back in 1977. Like many children that age, I already knew my colors—even if I couldn’t properly pronounce…
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Rashida Jones, Naomi Wadler and. Rep. Ayanna Pressley Kick Off Inaugural Black Girl Freedom Week
February is a month to celebrate Black History—and to make a push on advocacy for Black girls. The Black Girl Freedom Fund launched in September 2020 to do just that, with a mission to raise $1 billion to invest in Black girls and young women over the next 10 years. Launched by Dr. Monique W.…
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Real Hot Girl Hair: Mielle Organics Announces Megan Thee Stallion as Its First Global Ambassador
Every stallion needs a fabulous mane, and hip-hop’s hot girl Megan Thee Stallion is no exception. The H-Town hottie may be best known for her growing body-ody-ody-ody of hits and epic wig game—but underneath it all, she’s been on a natural hair journey, announcing in December that she and stylist Kellon Derryck were on a…
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Mary Wilson, Co-Founding Member of The Supremes, Dies at 76
She was a Motown legend, bestselling author, music activist, former U.S. cultural ambassador and co-founding member of The Supremes—of which she was dubbed “the sexy one.” Entertainer Mary Wilson, best known as the longest-running member of the group she made famous alongside Diana Ross and Florence Ballard (and later, Cindy Birdsong) died on Monday night…
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'That Ideology of Colorism Affects All of Us': The Root Presents It's Lit! Talks Prose, Passing and the Power of Black Women With Brit Bennett
There’s a reason Black women call each other “sister.” Even if we bear no blood relation or resemblance—and despite our broad variances in color, economic and educational access and life experience—there is an innate knowing between Black women—of what it is to be a Black woman. Writer Brit Bennett has a deep understanding of this…
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Capping Off a Winning Week, Amanda Gorman's First 3 Books Have Preemptively Garnered a Million First Prints
Ask any author or publisher, and they’ll tell you that garnering enough demand for reprints of any book is a very good sign. With that in mind, a million prints ordered prior to publication is a very rare indication of a predicted hit. After her performance at last Wednesday’s inauguration, Amanda Gorman’s publisher Penguin Random…
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Focusing on a Fairer Shopping Experience, Sephora Unveils a New Action Plan Against Racial Profiling
As corporations scrambled last June to make statements of accountability in support of racial justice, Sephora immediately responded with substantive action, becoming the first major retailer to sign Aurora James’ 15 Percent Pledge, a commitment to allocate at least 15 percent of its product offerings to Black vendors. The following month on #BlackoutDay2020, it released…
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'This Is Not a Fight That Is Over': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Has a Word About Anti-Racism With Kenrya Rankin
Remember that time a huge swath of Americans convinced themselves the country was “post-racial” following the election of our first Black president, Barack Obama? Well, if the much-needed formation of the Black Lives Matter movement, a countless four years of Donald Trump, and 2020’s uprisings for racial justice didn’t convince them otherwise, last week’s full-scale…
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A New Era for a Modern Museum: The Guggenheim Names Naomi Beckwith Its New Deputy Director and Chief Curator
For 84 years, New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has represented the vanguard of modern art, an early champion of artists today, its nautilus shell-inspired structure houses artworks from generations of the world’s most visionary and experimental artists. Yet like many fine arts museums, for decades, the Guggenheim’s iconic spiral of galleries have proved a…
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'Suddenly, You See the Story More Clearly': The Root Presents: It's Lit Talks Transcendent Writing With Yaa Gyasi
“I always say, writing a first novel, you feel like you’re writing in the dark, unsure of whether or not your book will ever see the light of day,” says author Yaa Gyasi, who has written not one but two bestsellers since 2016, when her debut novel Homegoing was published by Penguin Random House. An…
