culture
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#2016TaughtMe: What Were the Biggest Lessons You Learned This Year?
2016 has been a very difficult year for many of us. There have been a number of high-profile deaths, destruction all around the world, and we’re losing the Obamas in the White House and gaining President-elect Donald Trump. What a bummer! But in the prolific words of India.Arie, “There’s a blessing in every lesson,” and…
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Ring in the New Year With These Flavors of the Diaspora
Here we are, at the last installment of the series bringing the African Diaspora to your holiday table. Where we started and where we end is a celebration of who we are as individuals and as a collective. I’ve learned a lot about my personal food history and how it is connected to other Pan-African cultures.…
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Watch: #Bye2016: A Hilarious Look at the Best and Worst Moments of the Year
What a year 2016 has been! It felt as if we were hearing about the death of some unarmed black person or a beloved celebrity every second. This was also the year that we begrudgingly voted in a new president, reluctantly saying goodbye to President Barack Obama and his lovely family. Despite the death and…
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Hotep Hoedown: How Umar Johnson Lost His Hotep Mind
It was a Hotep hoedown, or a Hotep smackdown—straight WWE-style—when Dr. Umar Johnson, aka the Prince of Pan-Africanism, waded deep in the petty waters and posted a full 45-minute video rant against former conscious comrade General Seti. Who knows how it all started? And truthfully, who cares, because Hotep logic and philosophy live outside the…
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Yasiin Bey, Formerly Known as Mos Def, Says Goodbye at the Apollo
He came onstage dropping rose petals and left it dropping tears. The artist yasiin bey (yes, all lowercase), formerly known as Mos Def, spent two evenings in December at the world-famous Apollo Theater in Harlem saying goodbye. After his final U.S. performances (he has three upcoming dates at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.), he…
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Gentrification and Food Deserts Got You Down? There’s an App for That
There are a number of social-justice movements, but urban-planning movements are starting to catch up. With that comes the next generation of “new urbanists” and creative designers of public spaces who are falling in love with big social terms like “equity” while scrambling to create technology that can visualize it. And if neighborhoods are the…
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The 2016 List of People We Don’t Mess With Anymore
Last year we debuted the list of people to whom black America gave the collective side eye. As 2016 winds to a close, once again we document the people we’ve disinvited from the cookout. Since the apostles got together to talk to Judas in December of the year 1, black people have used this month…
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The Top 10 Racists of 2016 Not Named Trump
“Sup with ya man’s?” I knew Kanye West had done something wrong. The text was from a frat brother I never hear from unless we are debating Ye’s music or behavior. “What did Ye do now?” I replied. He sent a link of Kanye walking into Trump Tower looking like Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man.…
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The Winners of 2016
Flatly, 2016 as a staff, record label and as a motherf—king crew has collectively sucked. Far too many people have died, and a spoiled, mango-colored racist man surrounded by a bunch of like-minded bigots and sycophants will soon make life hell for many who have survived. However, as draining as this year has felt for…
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5 Times George Michael Showed His ‘Blue-Eyed Soul’ to Black America
As 2016 continues to troll us with loss after loss (Muhammad Ali, Prince, Ron Glass, democracy, etc.), the news on Christmas Day that British singer George Michael died peacefully in his home at age 53 was saddening and yet strangely predictable. Michael’s greatest hits in the ’80s and ’90s made him a peer of Prince,…