culture

Up until I was about 10 or so, dance for me was tap and tutus, toe shoes and the Rockettes, and the New York City Ballet twirling through George Balanchine’s version of The Nutcracker. It was the pretty white teacher in my Staten Island, N.Y. dance studio teaching me how to pirouette and the chorus…

A new Sundance channel documentary, In Prison My Whole Life, unrevealingly retreads the case against Philadelphia-based Black Panther-cum-revolutionary radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was arrested (and later convicted and sentenced to death) on Dec. 9, 1981 for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. That date coincides with British-born filmmaker William Francome’s birthday. The…

People are beginning to notice that President-elect Obama and his still-forming circle of advisers are a very different kind of people in power—different from those we have known in recent political history. Whereas, the Bush administration—and Reagan before him—seemed to bask in a beer-drinking, next-door neighbor image, Obama has assembled a team of highly educated…

What do you do when life becomes so distressing and coping mechanisms begin to fail? Teenagers in South Africa are experimenting with anti-retroviral drugs as a way to escape their realities. These drugs are designed to treat HIV/AIDS by boosting patients’ immune systems and suppress the virus. Across the country, teenagers—even those who do not…

For funk fans, there was no greater spectacle than the landing of the Mothership during Parliament-Funkadelic’s legendary 1976 P-Funk Earth Tour. Its outlandish amalgamation of sci-fi fantasy, Blaxploitation grit, glam rock, gospel furor and sweat-inducing funk helped propel Parliament-Funkadelic to the furthest reaches of creativity. The P-Funk Earth Tour became a new artistic bench mark…

“The one good thing about this jacked-up economy,” a friend wryly noted, “is I think they’re going to cancel the office holiday party..” Talk about your silver linings! It doesn’t matter whether you’re treated to a five-course dinner at a spiffy restaurant or Cheez Whiz on Ritz crackers—what happens at the office holiday party can…

The unemployment jumped to 6.7 percent in November, shedding 533,000 jobs. It’s the largest loss in one month since December 1974. And since January, nearly 2 million jobs have been cut. More than 10.3 million people are unemployed, according to the Labor Department. Companies are issuing pink slips, left and right. AT&T cut 12,000 jobs,…

So The Buzz knows that times are hard. Everybody’s strugglin’. November’s unemployment rate is the highest in 34 years. Even celebrities are feeling the drought. Scrapin’ to make a dollar. But. come on, an ode to McDonalds’ chicken nuggets? For real? Yep. Keith Sweat is helping Mickey D’s celebrate the 25th anniversary of the McNugget. Dreamin’…

There’s a distinctly authentic feel to Cadillac Records, from the fried catfish to the fried hair—gotta love the sight of Jeffrey Wright in that ‘do rag—and most of the time, from the grind of the guitars to the wail of the harmonicas, it makes for compelling entertainment. Beyoncé’s not bad, either. Still, there’s a certain…

I can’t pretend to understand why New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress would carry an illegal firearm or why he would go to a club where he felt a need to have a weapon. Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg last Friday at the New York nightclub Latin Quarter, and he has been…