THIS ARTICLE HAS LIGHT SPOILERS, BUT SPOILERS NONETHELESS.

Another Easter, another trip to the overflow room at church. What’s the overflow room at church? It’s the room you are herded into when you don’t get there early enough to sit in the main sanctuary with the rest of the saints. Some churches, like mine, have several.

If you know like I know, bow your heads.

Currently, I am navigating a depressive episode. While I have access to the resources (therapy, medicine, communal support) to ensure my wellness, living with depression can be difficult. The triggers come fast, and when it hits, all you can do is ride the wave. But while I was talking to one of my best friends this…

Please forgive me, for I have sinned.

As many of us who grew up in the church community are aware, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. He may not come when you want him, but he’s always right on time. Great and mighty is our ... well, you get the point.

This week at VSB, we’re running a series called Albums That Changed My Life in which different writers let you in on the music that helped shape and mold them into the people they are today. We’re kicking things off with Lawrence Ware, for whom Jodeci’s Forever My Lady album changed the game.

On Wednesday morning I had the pleasure of being a returning guest on the WDET radio show Detroit Today With Stephen Henderson, who was here in Washington, D.C., recording from NPR headquarters. I was there to talk about the article I wrote a few months ago about my frayed relationship with my mother because of her…

Black people are made perpetual victims of confirmation bias.

If you were to ask me to list my top five greatest R&B or soul singers of all time, the list would would at different times include any of the following people: Donny Hathaway (he’d always be in the top five as a personal favorite but because he is one of two people whose voice ever made me cry), Phyllis Hyman (the…

I came to actively watch the show Greenleaf on accident. I was tip-toeing in my Jordan's (more like Chuck's but whatevs) through Netflix and saw that the first season was available. I knew it was an OWN show but I kind of thought it was a reality show about a family in a megachurch. I was out on that but boredom beset…

Easter—or, as the “woke” Christians call it, Resurrection Sunday—is one of my favorite holidays. Not because of the deep, symbolic weight of the day, but because of the fashion.

Any self-respecting churchgoer knows Easter Sunday is basically the Beyoncé of Sundays. Ushers in formation, hats on hats on hats, and Church Mothers wishing a nigga would sit in their pew; it’s a big deal, and rightfully so. Jesus was dead, chilled for a second, said hell nah, Xmen’d a stone, waved bye to his haters…

Congregation of St. Panama Jackson the United Methodist Baptist Pentecostal AME Church of God in Christ Episcopal Primitive Missionary Baptist Down By The Riverside Holiness Church, please bow your heads:

Blackness in America is an all encompassing state and experience that encapsulates a collective history and heritage. With that history and heritage comes a common wisdom, but counter to that common wisdom are mysteries.