black women
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Ladies First: Black Lightning Is a Superhero Story That Doesn’t Strike Us Down
(Warning: Spoilers abound below.) “Strange Fruit” echoing in the background of the show’s opening minutes. A young black woman narrating. References to Fannie Lou Hamer and Harriet Tubman. Mentions of SZA and Solange. Testosterone might power Black Lightning, the superhero, but a healthy dose of estrogen helps drive Black Lightning, the series. In the series,…
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Calling Professional Black Girls Everywhere! Ready for a Road Trip?
“Professional Black Girl is, like, my favorite thing that I didn’t plan to do.” Dr. Yaba Blay is talking about her self-produced sleeper-hit video series, Professional Black Girl, which quietly rocked our worlds when it debuted in fall 2016. The 14-episode first season was an exploration of what Blay calls “black-girl culture”—in all its regular,…
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Dressing Coretta: We Honor the Woman Who Helped Mold a Movement as Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Revisits Selma
In the 50th year since his assassination in 1968, much has and will be said about Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader and icon whose legacy of nonviolent resistance inspired the world—while compelling some to distort and dilute his message of activism. But Coretta Scott King, the great woman consistently behind and beside…
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For Colored Girls in Their 30s and 40s Who Feel Like Life May Have Passed Them By
In the predawn quiet before the world reanimated itself, my phone lit up, announcing an incoming call from a friend I absolutely love. She’s an early riser like me, so we have high-energy conversations at obnoxious hours of the morning when everyone else is still asleep. But I was on deadline this particular day, so…
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Remembering a Pioneer: Civil Rights Attorney and Activist Frankie Muse Freeman Dies at 101
She was a fearless fighter for our freedom, and one of the first of her kind: She was Frankie Muse Freeman, a brilliant civil rights attorney, activist and icon. She died Friday, Jan. 12, at the age of 101. Born in segregated Virginia in 1916, Freeman was raised in a college-educated family, ultimately attending Hampton…
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Serena Williams’ Doctors (Finally) Listened to Her and Saved Her Life. My Mom Wasn’t As Lucky
Even when removing race from the equation—you can’t and you shouldn’t, but let’s try for a moment anyway—Serena Williams’ story about having to convince her doctors that something life-threatening was potentially happening to her is absurd. You’d think that, if medical professionals would trust any opinion on something not feeling quite right, it would be…
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The Re-Emergence of the Turbante: A Brazilian Fashion Statement With a Deeply Political History
Just four years ago, Monica Almeida, 34, an Afro-Brazilian woman living in Rio de Janeiro, didn’t identify as a black woman. “When I was an adolescent, I believed in the myth of the mulata (mixed-raced woman). It wasn’t until I was 30 years old and I had already experienced so much racism, read tons of…
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New Growth: Chicago Med’s Yaya DaCosta Talks Growing Up #TeamNatural and the Beauty of the ‘Big Chop’
You know, this is this woman’s hair, not a continuation of the girl that you thought you knew. Actress and model Yaya DaCosta is talking about her cropped locks, an unexpected move for the woman who first captured our attention in 2004 as the outspoken Afrocentric beauty on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model.…
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Defying Gravity: 5 Pole Dancing Athletes Debunk Stereotypes—and Dare You to Try Something New
Ballet dancer Misty Copeland once said: “You can do anything you want, even if you are being told negative things. Stay strong and find motivation.” Two years ago, I applied this same perspective to pole dancing. I transitioned from joking about having two left feet to signing up for a pole dancing course; I left…
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CNN Debuts American Woman Documentary Series … Which Has the Same Name, Theme and Aesthetic as a Series Already Created by a Black Woman
On Wednesday afternoon, I received a text message from creative director and photographer Sarah Huny Young linking me to a new CNN documentary series called American Woman. Created by Brooke Baldwin and displayed as a digital interactive, it features trailblazing women who have “shattered glass ceilings, whether in music, fashion or film,” and includes Ava…