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#HereWeAre: Is It the ‘Year of the Woman’ (Again), or Are We Just Marketable (Again)?
In March of 1993, I was a high school senior, soon to enter the predominantly (but not exclusively) female enclave of Sarah Lawrence College. Coincidentally, that year, the Academy Awards themed their ceremony “Oscar Celebrates Women and the Movies,” putting their own spin on what the media was calling “the Year of the Woman,” which…
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She Got That Glow: Taraji P. Henson Slays on the Oscars Red Carpet…Again
It must be tiring to be Taraji P. Henson. Seriously, the woman so regularly kills it on the red carpet, we’re ready to nickname her Buffy the Couture Slayer. At last night’s Academy Awards, she certainly lived up to the moniker, putting her own slightly gothic spin on the goddess-inspired trend that threatened to take…
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She Got That Glow: How Zendaya Served Simply Stunning Glamour at the Oscars
We’re going to be honest about something: We don’t really know where Zendaya came from. I mean, we know she’s an Oakland, Calif., native, and a child model-turned-Disney starlet. We know she appeared on Dancing With the Stars before scoring the coveted role of M.J. in the latest installment of the Spider-Man franchise. We even…
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We Love Us: #BlackExcellence Met #BlackElegance at the 2018 Oscars
While there were no big upsets like last year’s last-minute turnover of the award for best picture, the Oscars also weren’t so white this year, as proved by the red carpet of the 90th Academy Awards Sunday night in Hollywood, Calif. Indeed, we made history Sunday night: Mary J. Blige was the first person in…
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All the Stars: The Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards Made Oscar Week Much More Beautiful
Just when we were longing for last year’s heavily melanated Oscars red carpet, the 11th Annual Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards luncheon reminds us that our next surprise win may be much sooner than we think … and we can’t wait. The delightful and dynamic assemblage of some of our best and brightest female…
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‘I Am Mirroring Women’: Viola Davis Gets Real in Porter Edit
It’s Oscar weekend 2018, so it’s no surprise that we’ve been seeing a lot of Viola Davis. The three-time Academy Award nominee, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 2016’s Fences‚ is a regular on the awards circuit and is often called the “black Meryl Streep”—to which she rightly responds, “[then] pay me what…
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The Great Motivator: Tonya Lewis Lee Is One Multifaceted Mama
Tonya Lewis Lee wants me to take my vitamins. Specifically, she wants me to take her vitamins, which is why a month’s supply of multivitamins from her company, Movita Organics, sits on my desk. The glass bottle boasts that they are made with organic fruit, vegetables and herbs, whole-food vitamins and minerals, and are gluten-free,…
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Dressing the Onion: Whitney Mero and the Comfortable Couture of Onion Cut & Sewn
Walking into Onion Cut & Sewn’s East Harlem studio is walking into a world of very pretty possibilities. A spectrum of vibrant fabrics are stacked to the ceiling, while dress forms stand half-draped in fabric, soon to join the rack of garments hanging along one full wall. In a corner beneath dozens of spools of…
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Before There Was Wakanda: Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o Will Take Us Back in Time With The Woman King
We know, we know: You’re exhausted by the seemingly never-ending references to Black Panther and the Dora Milaje and black excellence and … this is your cue to exit stage left. You know, to someplace that’s not The Root. For the rest of you, we heard some Women’s History Month news Thursday night that has…
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Knowing Your Place: Why Amandla Stenberg Bowed Out of Auditioning for Black Panther
In the weeks since Black Panther premiered, much has been made of the revelatory experience of seeing such a melanin-rich cast on-screen. Specifically, while the fictional world of Wakanda gave us a glimpse at what black civilization might have been like without European colonization, it also represented a world in which the systemic rape that…
