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A Forever Family
I was born a ward of the state in Maine, and I grew up in the foster care system. I was blessed to have been placed with families who cared for, supported and guided me, and to have been loved by incredible women who gave me the discipline and confidence to develop a successful career…
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Straight Outta Kyiv
When I first moved to the U.S. in August 1992 at age 11, I had no idea what hip-hop was other than the caricature playing on the TV set in my grandparents’ living room in Kyiv, Ukraine. Come to think of it, what I knew probably amounted to neither hip nor hop, much less hip-hop.…
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Tammi and Me
My cousin Stephanie gave me a picture of Tammi and me at about ages 4 and 5. In this tiny, black-and-white photo, our hands are clasped as we stand on the sidewalk in front of our home, smiling. We are two sisters in matching denim overalls; we look very “country” because we were! In the…
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‘Thurgood’ Hits Broadway
Like actor Laurence Fishburne, I was in elementary school when the Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court. Today, the Tony Award-winning actor is breathing new life into the late Justice’s words and his struggles in “Thurgood,” an inspirational one-man play in that has begun a limited 16-week run on Broadway. July will mark…
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We Voted Today, Finally. Guess for Whom?
It’s been a long six weeks since Clinton and Obama set their sights on Pennsylvania and finally, today is the day we can put all the speculation to rest and cast our votes. My husband and I, along with our two young children, Yannick and Olivia, arrived at the polls at 8:00 am this morning.…
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Good Luck Finding The Reality in Black Reality TV
The latest entry in the celebrity-driven, black family, reality TV phenomenon is Deion & Pilar: Prime Time Love, which debuted last week, oddly enough, on Oxygen, a channel better-known for Bad Girls Club. For those who don’t follow professional sports the celebrity in this series is Deion Sanders, who was a bona fide superstar in…
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A Peace of Gold
A lot of things recently turned 50. You might recall them. Madonna – yawn. The Dodgers – thank God they haven’t abandoned Los Angeles like another professional team, which shall remain nameless. The Grammy Awards – the crystal ball simply didn’t see rap and hip-hop coming and staying. Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat…
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Africa's Looming Catastrophe — Not Darfur, but Close
The biggest civil war in Africa’s history is looming, and the world naps. (The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof is awake, but groggy). The sad fact is that we, in the West, are only roused to Africa’s ills after the fact. I think we like it that way. Mourning failed states is a lot easier…
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Democrats, Down with the Oppressor?
In domestic politics during this 2008 election year, Democrats are positioning themselves as the party of the “underdog”, the poor and the dis-empowered, and paint the Republicans as the party of the wealthy and the power elite. I find this ironic given that in at least one aspect of the international arena the roles seem…
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Dr. King's Challenge
What would Dr. King say to us today? We have a tendency to sanitize his memory, to remember the Dr. King who fought the evil of state-mandated segregation, the Dr. King who marched on Washington in 1963, the Dr. King with whom all Americans say they (now) agree. But there was another Dr. King –…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
