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Sign Up for The Root’s Day of Service
TODAY, 12pm: Join the washingtonpost.com Live Online discussion on GOING GREEN FOR THE INAUGURATION with The Root’s associate editor Natalie Hopkinson and Washington Parks & People founder Steve Coleman. In the days leading up to the inauguration of Barack Obama, Washington, D.C. will be transformed into one big, jubilant street festival. We at The Root have nothing…
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Mr. Obama's Washington
“I brushed the boots of Washington.” —-Langston Hughes in “Negro” On the day it became Mr. Obama’s Washington, steam still fogged the windows at Henry’s, a soul food staple not far from the White House. Go-go music still blasted from loud speakers at the corner of 7th and U. The U Street club Republic Gardens…
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The Inaugural Obama Cutout Gallery
Natalie Hopkinson is a Washington, D.C.-based author whose current projects deal with the arts, gender and public life. She is the author of Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. Follow her on Twitter. Obama’s cutout emissary was on hand at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to snap photos with guests at…
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The Root Day of Service
Natalie Hopkinson is a Washington, D.C.-based author whose current projects deal with the arts, gender and public life. She is the author of Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. Follow her on Twitter. PHOTOS BY AARON ROBERTS A detail from a painting of Marvin Gaye taken from inside the Riverside Center in Northeast…
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Boom, Bust, Repeat
We heard barking as we approached the four-bedroom bungalow on a tidy suburban cul-de-sac near West Palm Beach. A 30-ish white man with sandy brown hair opened the door. “Is there a dog?” my mom asked with her Caribbean lilt. He caged the dog. We stepped inside, and my mother delivered the grim news: She…
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Who is the Most Awkward White Man on Television?
Love The Roots. Hate the show. Is there a more awkward white man on television? Natalie Hopkinson is a Washington, D.C.-based author whose current projects deal with the arts, gender and public life. She is the author of Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. Follow her on Twitter.
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If We Ruled the (Literary) World
Natalie Hopkinson is a Washington, D.C.-based author whose current projects deal with the arts, gender and public life. She is the author of Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. Follow her on Twitter. If I ruled the literary world, the African-American fiction section of bookstores would smell like cookies. Every time someone entered the…
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Watching May 11, 2009
Is the end of Vibe near? http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3i3afff90a1a8b37533c27f21ab6947f86 Sex-starved Kenyan husband sues over boycott. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/05/09/kenya.sex.lawsuit/index.html DC rapper Wale gets catching buzz http://bossip.com/109911/wale-the-next-dope-mc/#more-109911 Any thoughts on Wanda Sykes performance at nerd prom? https://www.theroot.com/blogs/browntable/wanda-sykes-sorry-no-marion-barry-jokes Obama’s Fourth of July speech will be in Egypt http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050803843.html Women bullying women more at the workplace? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/business/10women.html?_r=1&em ‘The Wire’ Writer George Pelecanos’ latest…
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Why Mookie Did the Wrong Thing
When Do the Right Thing was released 20 years ago, a generation of black writers and intellectuals became instantly radicalized by Spike Lee and Public Enemy’s vision of black America. Their fist-pumping black nationalist slingshots, along with The Autobiography of Malcolm X, were the perfect antidote for the isolation and alienation many black youth felt…
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Do the Right Thing Party Kit
Yep, it’s been 20 years since we all headed to theaters to check out Do the Right Thing. Back then Spike Lee movies were Events, almost sacred rituals that united all corners of the black community. On June 30, 1989, whether you lived in a big city or small one, down South or in the…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
