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'Once You Get It, Give It Back': Georgia Teen Pays Tribute to Mom With Winning Google Doodle
If you found yourself clicking with curiosity on Tuesday morning’s “Google Doodle” simply because you couldn’t immediately identify the brown-skinned people in the illustration, you were in luck; today’s Google Doodle is the winner of the 11th annual “Doodle for Google” competition. Offered to students across America in different age groups, this year’s competition theme…
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Get You a Gayle: For the 1st Time in the History of O Magazine, Gayle Joins Oprah on the Cover
“We was girls together.” That’s the Toni Morrison quote I’ve often used in reference to my very best friend in the world, who has held that title since pretty much the day she and I met, at ages 18 and 19, respectively. The quote is from Sula, one of the many favorites we’ve shared over…
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Anime Lovers, Megan Thee Stallion Wants You to Have a 'Hot Girl Summer,' Too
Anime-loving blerds of the world, this one’s for you! In conjunction with the release of her highly anticipated single/summer anthem, “Hot Girl Summer,” the newly minted hip-hop goddess known as Megan Thee Stallion is also perched atop the digital cover of Paper magazine in a look so hot it’d make all of Comic-Con break into…
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‘Quiet As It’s Kept’: Artist Kara Walker Creates the New Yorker’s Cover Tribute to Toni Morrison
Anyone familiar with the work of Toni Morrison knew it was a force, as was the woman who wrote it. The visions Morrison rendered were both unflinching and tender, exposing the sometimes shameful truths of our natures and whispering them back to us like a lover’s secret. The same could be said of the work…
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Post-Presidential Flex: New Netflix Producers the Obamas Unsuccessfully Woo Will Smith, but May Have Sealed a Deal With Denzel
You win some, you lose some; that’s the lesson the Obamas are learning as newly minted producers for Netflix. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the dynamic duo has been moving full-throttle into their Hollywood hustle via their Higher Ground productions, already set to release the documentary American Factory, their first film on the streaming network,…
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'She's Your Queen to Be': KiKi Layne and Leslie Jones Are the Latest Talents Coming 2 America
Looks like one of our most beloved films is getting some fresh female energy for its reboot; according to the Hollywood Reporter, If Beale Street Could Talk’s KiKi Layne and Saturday Night Live’s Leslie Jones will be joining the cast of Coming 2 America! OK, so maybe we’re jumping the gun, as Jones is reportedly…
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True West: With a Reimagined Revival, a Classic Sam Shepard Play Reminds Us That We, Too, Are America
“It’s a very universal story. It’s a play about brothers,” says actor Namir Smallwood when asked about his role in True West, Sam Shepard’s classic play about toxic sibling rivalry, now in production at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. Despite the universally relatable theme, there is something distinctly different about this critically acclaimed revival; it’s the first…
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'I Don't Pay Attention to the Negativity': Halle Bailey Takes the High Road on Her Role in The Little Mermaid
We love Halle Bailey’s quick clapbacks as “Sky Forster” on Grown-ish, trading clever quips with older sister Chloe, who play her track star twin, “Jazz.” But as the newest—and newly envisioned—Disney princess to enter the reboot game, we seriously admire Bailey’s restraint when dealing with the onslaught of racists armchair critics who took issue with…
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Tiffany Haddish, Blair Underwood and More to Join Octavia Spencer in Netflix's Madam CJ Walker
Talk about “Strong Black Leads”! It looks like Netflix’s Madam C.J. Walker, co-produced and starring Octavia Spencer in the titular role, will have a star-studded cast. Our friends at Shadow & Act report that Tiffany Haddish, Blair Underwood, Carmen Ejogo, Garrett Morris and Kevin Carroll will all be appearing in the four-part limited series when…
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Jackie Aina Just Blew My Budget—and I'm Not Mad
Jackie. Or should I say “Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie…” You know those times when you’re trying to be a responsible adult and have your biweekly budget planned to the penny, including your social calendar and contingency savings? Well, consider this an emergency, because beauty influencer Jackie Aina just threw my budget off by $45 plus…
