culture

More than a decade after their solo debuts, Eric Benet and Kenny Lattimore have managed to survive a recording industry hopelessly invested in the whims of young listeners and the apparent pursuit of ringtone sales. Years before “grown and sexy” became a marketing scheme to sell music to 30-somethings, Benet and Lattimore both made music…

They buried Norman Whitfield on Saturday. He died in Los Angeles of complications from diabetes on Sept. 16. He was 68 years old. The name of the dear departed and the fact of his passing generated scant attention in today’s breathless mediascape. But in a year already crowded with mourning, this was another huge loss…

Peripheral artery disease or PAD is probably the most common and dangerous medical condition you’ve never heard of. Although it affects as many as 8 million Americans and increases the risk of deadly—and better-known—diseases like heart attack and stroke, most of us have no idea what it is. But knowing the signs and symptoms of…

An original member of the Supremes, Mary Wilson has been performing since she was 14 years old. Since the group disbanded in 1977, she’s established herself as a solo performer, an author and an advocate for humanitarian causes, In 2003, she was named a Cultural Ambassador for a Department of State program to improve international…

From skin-privilege arguments, girlfriends greasing dry scalps, 1970s street games and more, race is inarguably the thread connecting all the films in Spike Lee’s 20-year-plus career. This month, the famed Cinémathèque Française is running a Spike Lee retrospective in Paris, topped with Lee’s appearance at a preview screening of his latest, Miracle at St. Anna,…

From April to September, it is pretty easy to see what creates a good baseball team. While wins and losses fluctuate over the course of the 162-game marathon, teams with good on-base percentages (yes, teams down with OBP) have the best offenses and teams whose pitching staffs minimize walks and home runs have the best…

Once in a dry season I wrote an essay about my experiences with interracial dating that was published in the New York Times. To say the essay generated a little heat would be like saying certain Wall Street types took a little off the top. Although the vast majority of the 300-plus e-mails I received (not…