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The Soul Cycle: The 2019 BET Soul Train Awards Served Equal Parts Nostalgia and Newness
You can always count on the Soul Train Awards—now known as the BET Soul Train Awards—to stir up nostalgia, and this year’s ceremony was no different. Taking place on Sunday night at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, 2019’s celebration was hosted by BFFs Tichina Arnold and Tisha Campbell, who set the “new-meets-nostalgia” tone with…
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Amid Criticism and Controversy, the Guggenheim Museum Hires Its First Black Full-Time Curator
Eighty years after its inception, New York City’s Guggenheim Museum has hired its first full-time black curator. Last week, Ashley James joined the famed museum as its new associate curator of contemporary art, after having been the assistant curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum, where the New York Times called her “a moving…
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Prince's Posthumous Memoir The Beautiful Ones Celebrates His Humanity. A Musical Event in New York City Will Celebrate Its Release
“I stayed in Minneapolis because Minneapolis made me. You have to give back.” — Prince Rogers Nelson, ‘The Beautiful Ones’ text As a kid coming of age in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minn. in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there were certain things I took for granted: the summers would be as hot as the winters…
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A New Race to Win: With a New Brand Sponsor, Alysia Montaño Is Ready to Change the Game for Women Athletes
“The marathon continues” may have been Nipsey Hussle’s signature line (may he rest in peace), but it is equally applicable to champion American middle-distance runner and fellow 2019 Root 100 honoree Alysia Montaño. One of the most decorated women in track and field, Montaño began shifting paradigms in the sport in 2014, when she competed…
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As Sexually Transmitted Diseases Continue a 5-Year Surge, So Do Racial Disparities in Infection Rates
When it comes to sexual health, it’s never been more crucial to know your status on any number of sexually transmitted diseases—including syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea—as the 2018 STD Surveillance Report indicated a five-year surge in rates of infection. But as if that news isn’t disconcerting enough, the National Association of County and City Health…
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In Response to 'Fast and Furious' Restrictions, Planned Parenthood Launches the Abortion Care Finder
As the fight to uphold Roe v. Wade wages on, this week, Planned Parenthood lobbed a virtual clapback at legislators and anti-abortion advocates seeking to roll back the reproductive rights granted in the landmark case. As reported by the New York Times, on Tuesday, the organization debuted an online tool called the Abortion Care Finder,…
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The Lady and Her Music: Lena Horne's Legacy Endures in the First Major Entertainment Award Named for a Woman of Color
In the history of Hollywood, there are few talents as multifaceted as actress, singer, dancer and legendary beauty Lena Horne. In her decadeslong career, the four-time Grammy-winner was known for her iconic renditions of songs like “Stormy Weather”—and her starring role in the 1943 film of the same name. Also honored with a Kennedy Center…
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So, What Exactly Does One Wear to a Slave Rebellion Reenactment, Anyway?
Last weekend, realizing of the vision of artist Dread Scott, hundreds of volunteers—in costume as 19th-century enslaved people—marched 26 miles to New Orleans’s French Quarter in a reenactment of the Louisiana Slave Rebellion. The rebellion, which occurred on Jan. 8, 1811, and was suppressed by white militia two days later, was the largest slave uprising…
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'We Have to Do More': Champion Ally Megan Rapinoe Thanked Kaepernick, Tarana Burke and Black Lives Matter in 'Woman of the Year' Speech
If you follow The Root on a regular basis, you know white women warrant a surprising amount of our coverage. This is not because this is a site for or about white women (quite to the contrary). It’s because some white women’s interactions with and responses to blackness have consistently proven dangerous to the people…
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Two New Studies Find Black and Brown Mothers Less Likely to Have Their Postpartum Pain Evaluated and Addressed
As the fight to lower the black maternal mortality rate continues, two new studies provide new evidence of stark contrasts in the way black and brown new mothers are treated postpartum, versus their white counterparts. Specifically, “Racial Disparities in Postpartum Pain Management” and “Racial and Ethnic Inequities in Postpartum Pain Evaluation and Management,” both published…
