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The Home of Celebrated Poet Lucille Clifton Will Become a Creative Haven in Baltimore
The opening lines of one of Lucille Clifton’s best-known poems read: “Won’t you celebrate with me, what I have shaped into a kind of life? I had no model.” In life, Clifton was a prolific poet and children’s book author who, after being brought to national attention by the likes of Langston Hughes and Ishmael…
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'We Could All Serve to Be Less Patient Black People': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Talks About Race With Ijeoma Oluo
Triumph amid tragedy is always bittersweet—a unique type of survivor’s guilt many of us have become all too familiar with in recent months, as we reconcile profound loss with the rare but very bright spots that have occurred during this incredibly devastating year. It’s a dichotomy bestselling author and 2017 and 2018 The Root 100…
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More Than 'the New Black': These Fashion Industry Veterans Are Building Coalitions to Sustain Black Talent
If you thought the recent surge in support for Black talent in the fashion industry was a result of the black boxes that peppered our timelines as part of #BlackoutTuesday in June, you haven’t been paying attention. The hashtag may have been trending, but the tidal wave of social responsibility and largely performative proclamations presented…
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Deana Lawson Is the 1st Photographer to Win the Guggenheim's Hugo Boss Prize
She was a member of the 2018 class of The Root 100, and now, photographer Deana Lawson is the winner of the Hugo Boss Prize 2020, the biennial award made possible by the luxury fashion label and administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation “to recognize significant achievement in contemporary art,” according to a release.…
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Feels Like Spring: Ivy Park's New Palette Takes Us From Lemonade to Emerald City
If, like me, you are currently gazing out of the window listlessly, trying to soak up whatever gray, rainy daylight you can as it gets a minute shorter every day, never fear. Beyoncé is here, ready to put our love back on top with an Ivy Park palette that is subversively spring-like—just what we need,…
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Op-Ed: Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka Reflects on What Feels Like 'Déjà Vu—In Tragic Vein'
I arrived home from external commitments just over a week ago to an extraordinary homecoming gift. It took the form of a movement—sometimes angry, sometimes entrancing, poignant, sometimes strident, certainly robust in expectations but always moving, visionary and organized. That movement demanded an end to [brutality] from state security agencies, focusing on a notorious unit…
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![Sole Food: The Black-on-Black Footwear Collab Between Pyer Moss and Brother Vellies Makes Its Debut [Updated]](https://www.theroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/jdr57l3kyowoeiuirzuk-1024x581.jpg)
Sole Food: The Black-on-Black Footwear Collab Between Pyer Moss and Brother Vellies Makes Its Debut [Updated]
In the lexicon of “boy-meets-girl” romances, there is one love rarely explored: our love of shoes (foot fetishes notwithstanding). We also love nothing more than a Black fashion moment, so the long-awaited release of the collaboration between two of our favorite labels—Brother Vellies and Pyer Moss—which walked the runway during Pyer Moss’ epic presentation at…
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From Politics to Polo: Valerie Jarrett Joins Ralph Lauren's Board of Directors
Valerie Jarrett was one of the most trusted advisers in President Obama’s administration, and in the years since, has lent her expertise as a board member of Ariel Investments, Lyft, the Kennedy Center, Time’s Up, and more, in addition to being Chair of the Board of When We All Vote, co-Chair of the United State…
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The Wounded Explaining the Wound: The Forced Sterilization of Women of Color Is No Small Matter
With things happening so fast in the world around us, the news cycle feels like a whirlwind moving from story to story overnight. Even reports as disturbing as allegations of mass hysterectomies in ICE detention camps disappeared from the national conversation as quickly as they came—though it could be argued that that aligns with a…
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Op-Ed: With Healthcare at Stake, Stacey Abrams Explains 'What the South Must Do'
When we vote, it may seem like we are voting for a candidate, but that is not entirely accurate. We are voting for the positions that the candidate supports and the types of policies they will enact based on those positions. This is true no matter where we live, and looking at this year’s election…
