bj the chicago kid
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The Hangover: We've Finally Recovered from The Root 100 Gala (and Gee, Did We Clean Up Nice)
What do you get when you put hundreds of well-dressed black folk, a great DJ, an open bar, and boundless black excellence into a trendy event space in New York City ? Well, if you’re me, you likely get a weeklong hangover, but you also get The Root 100 gala, our annual celebration of the…
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Black Music Month: Soul Music; We Make It, They Take It
Did you know that R&B was renamed as “rhythm & blues” from “race music” by Billboard magazine in 1949? The name change reflected upwardly mobile Negroes working diligently to change their social and economic statuses. But, of course, with growth and downright swag comes theft. R&B caught the ears of white audiences, and the rest…
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Before Erykah Badu Hosted the Soul Train Awards Sunday, She Threw a Vegan Dinner: Explained
Upon my receipt of an email containing an invitation to a soul vegan dinner hosted by Erykah Badu that required the donning of a kimono, an immediate response came to mind: Of course Badu wants me to eat vegan food dressed like Kinu from A Different World. Badu doesn’t strike me as a Popeye’s Tuesday two-piece-special…
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Soundtrack for Survival: 10 Songs to Help You Through a Trump Presidency
I was in the fourth grade when my white best friend told me a racist joke. “Why are black people so dark?” he asked a group of us at lunch, with a mischievous grin. I looked at him dumbfounded. I put down my milk box, wiped what had dribbled down from the corners of my…