black writers
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 2: Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
Publisher Synopsis: Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried. When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 1: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Today is the first day of Black History Month, the annual celebration in these here United States of America where schools make kids learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Sprinkle in a few facts about a black person being the first person to do this or that, and before you know it,…
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OWN Debuts Trailer for Tarell Alvin McCraney's David Makes Man, Which Was the Best Pitch Oprah Ever Heard
Imagine pitching your passion project to a room filled with already-intimidating network executives and Oprah walks in, unexpectedly. Nigga, what?! That’s what acclaimed scribe Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight) experienced as he shuffled to gather his thoughts—and himself—together. But, in the same vein, he let it all hang out, which ultimately became the beauty of the…
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Once You See Jordan Peele's Us Trailer, You'll Never Hear 'I Got 5 On It' The Same Way Again
Jordan Peele’s mind is something else, ya’ll. It was the afternoon of December 18, 2018 when a select few journalists convened at the Universal Studios lot to watch the trailer for one of the most anticipated follow-up feature films ever: Peele’s new horror flick, Us. As provided to Entertainment Weekly: The story is set in…
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Michelle Obama's Memoir Is Becoming an Instant Bestseller
Well, we can’t say we didn’t see this coming: Only four days after its Nov. 13 release, Penguin Random House announced on Friday that our forever first lady Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, sold more than 725,000 units in all formats and editions in the United States and Canada on the first day of its publication…
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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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In Memoriam: For Colored Girls Who Grew Up on Ntozake Shange
If you were a colored girl lucky enough (or “enuf,” as she might write) to grow up on the words and work of playwright, performer and author Ntozake Shange, learning of her death at age 70 on Saturday no doubt left you aching. One of the original conjurers of what we now know as “black…
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Telling Untold Stories: Playwright and Performer Dael Orlandersmith Gets Under Our Skin
A community in the aftermath of unrest. The painful legacy of abuse, as experienced by black boys and men. The intimately insidious effects of colorism. The remembrance of a life lived and love lost, inspired by a chance encounter with a famously tragic jazz singer. Playwright and actor Dael Orlandersmith’s particular skill is to tell…