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Review: Dael Orlandersmith's Lady in Denmark Bears the Strange Fruit of Billie Holiday's Legacy
When Dael Orlandersmith said she wanted to write a play about a Danish white woman who loved Billie Holiday, people balked. Why would a black female playwright who has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her meditations on race, colorism and culture want to … well, write outside of her race? “I said, ‘Why can’t…
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Right On! A Cultural Classic Makes Its Comeback
Every so often, those of us of a certain age at The Root will mention Right On! magazine—and inevitably, someone much younger will say, “What’s that?” But if you were a black child coming of age between the early ’70s to the mid-’90s, Right On! was likely a cultural touchstone, covering the African American entertainment…
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'A Life Defined by Fear': Tina Turner Details Even More Abuse from Ike Turner in New Memoir
Most of us remember the brutality brought to life on screen in the 1993 Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It, which chronicled the entertainer’s rise to fame under the thumb and almost constant threat of abusive ex-husband and Svengali Ike Turner. The film was named for Tina’s blockbuster hit single of…
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Capture the Crown: Who Designed Cicely Tyson's Famous Hat for Aretha Franklin's Funeral?
At five feet, three inches, 93-year-old acting legend Cicely Tyson may be a petite woman, but her presence has always been larger than life—as was the hat she wore to pay tribute to friend Aretha Franklin last Friday. The ruffled and wide-brimmed black straw picture hat was instantly iconic, turning heads among viewers both at…
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Pretty, Funny: Comedian Janelle James Ain’t No Joke
Fun fact: The first time I saw comedian Janelle James perform, while sitting in the audience of a 2015 taping of Wyatt Cenac’s comedy showcase, “Night Train,” I knew she was someone I wanted to know. The woman was strumming my pain and singing my life, hilariously lamenting the state of once-epic breasts and proposing…
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Phylicia Rashad Proves She's Still an Iconic Black Mom in Drake's 'In My Feelings' Video
It’s no understatement to say that Drake knows how to leverage a viral moment—or give shine where it’s deserved. After social media star Shiggy caused the “In My Feelings” challenge to become an international phenomenon, Drake did him one better, making Shiggy one of the hilarious cameos in his official video, which premiered on Thursday…
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Dapper in Dior, Married in Marchesa: How Pusha T and His Bride Tied the Knot in Classic Style
It’s not every day that one of the most savage lyricists in hip-hop gets sweet and sentimental, but that’s what happened on Saturday evening when Terrence Thornton—better known as Pusha T—married longtime girlfriend Virginia Joy Williams at the historic Cavalier Hotel in their hometown of Virginia Beach, Va. The couple, who have been together over…
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Tribeca Film Festival 2018: First-Time Feature Filmmaker Nia DaCosta Wins for Little Woods
There were dozens of incredible films, events, awards and celebrity sightings at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, but here’s one to really watch: On Thursday, writer and director Nia DaCosta took home the Nora Ephron Award at the festival’s juried awards ceremony for her first feature film, Little Woods. Starring Tessa Thompson and Lily…
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The Trouble With Jimmy Fallon
All in all, he wasn’t a bad choice to host the Golden Globes. He had the requisite clever and colorful opening number, an affable demeanor and the ability to improvise. He even started off strong with some postelection shade—though it didn’t erase our memory of his pre-election playfulness with the now-PEOTUS. And it certainly couldn’t…
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We Are All Insecure
Eight weeks ago, The Root published an article I wrote, titled, “Is Insecure Preying on Black Women’s Insecurities?” It was a simple question, based on an honest concern I’d had while previewing the show prior to its debut on HBO: As viewers—and, at times, voyeurs—of Insecure, what was our intended takeaway? Was there a deliberate…
