Calling all of my movie buffs! The annual New York African Film Festival has begun in New York City, where promising and veteran filmmakers alike come together to show off their latest work. The festival, in its 18th year, will celebrate the richness of the African experience with 15 features and 16 short films. Running…

Chris Rock is back and better than ever. On April 11 he will be making his Broadway debut in The Motherf**ker With the Hat, a play about a couple that have been in love since the eighth grade, yet can’t seem to get it together. Rock plays the sponsor of one of the lovebirds after…

Fans who miss Sonja Sohn’s character on The Wire, Detective Kima Greggs, can catch her on ABC’s new medical drama, Body of Proof. The show follows the career of Dr. Megan Hunt (Dana Delaney), a neurosurgeon who is forced to change careers after a car accident renders her incapable of performing surgery. As a medical-mysteries…

Singer Mara Hruby recently released her debut recording, From Her Eyes, a collection of covers originally recorded by her favorite male artists. The 20-year-old singer, who describes her sultry sound as a “melodic melting pot,” reworks tracks from the Roots, Andre 3000, Mos Def, D’Angelo and Bob Marley. The genre-blending LP features Hruby’s effortless vocals over…

Kick off National Poetry Month and celebrate Maya Angelou’s 83rd birthday with Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration. This scrapbook of photos and poems — assembled by Angelou’s niece and archivist Rosa Johnson Butler, former Essence editor Marcia Ann Gillespie and scholar Richard A. Long — explores Angelou’s journey from an abusive childhood to a remarkable…

The famously private pop star — she divorced her first husband before the public even knew she was married — has opened finally opened up in her new autobiography. True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself is a fascinating inside look at the life of the five-time Grammy Award-winning artist. In the book,…

If you aren’t familiar with HeLa cells, you have to pick up Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, available in paperback now. The book tells the remarkable life story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her consent and later used as cell samples to research diseases like…

Based on the book of the same name, Desert Flower is at its core a story of courage and hope and one girl’s journey. The biopic examines the life of Waris Dirie (played by supermodel Liya Kebede), a Somalian woman who at the age of 13 fled her home before her impending marriage and ultimately…

In an effort to raise money for earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, recording artists from around the world have lent some of their hits to Songs for Japan, a new compilation album. The 38-song album, which features songs from the Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Ne-Yo and Adele, to name a few, inspires you…

In celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month, the Smithsonian is paying homage to a little-known, ethnically diverse all-female jazz ensemble called the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Founded in 1937, the group broke ground as they courageously toured the country — including the deeply segregated South — performing swing and jazz against the backdrop of some steep…