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Unmaking Mary J.: Hairstylist Lawrence Davis Talks Dressing Down the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul for Mudbound
On Sunday night, Mary J. Blige will attend the 90th Academy Awards not as a guest, presenter or simply a performer, but as a dual nominee for best supporting actress and best original song for Dee Rees’ gripping post-World War II drama, Mudbound. It’s a remarkable first-time feat for a first-time nominee; no other person…
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In the Spirit: Stars Celebrate at the Independent Spirit Awards
Tonight, cinephiles everywhere will gather in front of their television screens to watch the biggest stars and biggest films of the year vie for the biggest prizes in cinema at the 90th Academy Awards. (If you haven’t already, join The Glow Up Facebook group to participate in a live red-carpet roundup with us at 6:45…
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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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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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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…
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Lord, Save Us From Iggy Azalea
Here at The Root, we are regularly delighted, in the middle of an otherwise droll news day, to have some new music and visuals dropped upon us, as happened last week with Janelle Monáe’s double fantasy, or weeks before, when “All the Stars” further stoked our anticipation for Black Panther. And then there are drops…
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Going Once, Going Twice, It’s Beyoncé!
Here’s a treat just in time for Women’s History Month—and #ThrowbackThursday, come to think of it. Do you call yourself a true Beyoncé stan? Do you think you know the entire trajectory of the megastar from her being a child of destiny to being Queen of the Beyhive, including the details of her pre-Lemonade cornrow…
