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Jussie Smollett Charged With Felony by Chicago Police Department [Updated]
The Empire has fallen! Or, more like, the Jussie Smollett disaster that is reading like a Lee Daniels script continues to give us enough plot turns to make us sick. Chicago police, who are not the most credible outfit because of this, this, this, this, and this (that last one stretching back more than 50…
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Harlem’s Blackness Is Triumphant. When It Comes to Blackest City, There Is No Competition
There are very few words synonymous with blackness. “Harlem” fits that bill. Harlem is a place, yes, but it is also an idea; it is an exhortation. It is our very own Oz. In fact, Harlem, unlike most things in America that signify blackness—“inner city,” “urban,” “welfare”—is triumphant. It represents the very best of us,…
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Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Jermaine Dupri Talk Super Bowl LIII, While the Mothers of the Movement Walk From Participating in the Festivities
On yet another cold winter day in New York City, high above the West Side Highway, a small group of luminaries representing the ATL descended on Manhattan to talk Super Bowl LIII. Among them: Kate Atwood, Executive Director of ChooseATL; Dan Corso, Super Bowl LIII Host Committee Board of Directors and President of Atlanta Sports…
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Dear Black Boy: You Can Fly Even If You Can’t Run, Shoot or Dribble, Says Martellus Bennett
More than two years out, many of us still can’t stomach the sickening shooting deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling by police. That senseless carnage, caught on video for all to see, sent millions reeling and many into action. Some marched, some knelt, some prayed, wept and/or raged on social media. Some, like NFL…
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Stacey Abrams Exemplifies the Kwanzaa Principle of Imani—Consciously Moving Forward Against Forces Seen and Unseen
The last day of Kwanzaa is represented by the principle of Imani, or faith—the essence of what has gotten us through when there seemed no way out. Black people, in general, are a spiritual people. But we are also a people of faith, which is not necessarily attached to formal religion. In the words of…
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Kuumba & Chill: Netflix’s Doyenne Jasmyn Lawson Is Out Here Doing It for the Culture
As we continue on our Kwanzaa trek this year, today we celebrate Kuumba, or creativity, a place where—let’s be frank—black folks excel. From Black Twitter to music of practically every genre; from comedy to cooking; from politics to fashion, we are nothing if not creative. Kuumba is defined as: “To do always as much as…
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Kwanzaa Queens With That Nia Heat: BMMA Founders Manifest Purpose in Saving Black Mamas’ Lives
As we continue to celebrate the African American cultural holiday of Kwanzaa, today brings us to Nia, or “Purpose,” defined as: “To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.” And two black women (it’s always black women isn’t it?), in their…
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Kwanzaa Shout: Richelieu Dennis, the ‘Essence’ of Cooperative Economics
Today—Dec. 29—the Kwanzaa principle celebrated is Ujamaa, or “cooperative economics,” and there was very little debate as to who personified the “essence” of this concept, simply defined as such: To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together. Richelieu Dennis, founder of the and CEO of Sundial…
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The Women of GirlTrek, in Their Literal Movement for Black Women, Radiate Collective Work and Responsibility
The Kwanzaa principle for today, Dec. 28, is Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility. Ujima means building and maintaining our community together and making our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems while solving them together. Vanessa Garrison and Morgan Dixon, the founders of GirlTrek, embody the principles of collective work and responsibility. Their eight-year-old outfit organizes black…
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Habari Gani?! Kujichagulia! Marshawn ‘Spark the Blunt’ Lynch Goes Beast Mode for Self-Determination
For each day of Kwanzaa, the African-American cultural holiday that eschews the typical commercialism of the holiday season, we will be highlighting a person or persons from the past year who exemplifies the principle of the day. Kwanzaa was created in 1966 to uplift a sense of community through the principles of unity, self-determination, collective…
