culture
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Maybe It's Prayer or Hot Tea, but Mariah Carey Is Sounding Better Than She Has in Years
Toward the end of 2014, vicious and very hateful people worked quickly to spread isolated, unedited vocals of a Mariah Carey holiday performance that was not her best (to say the least). We know Mariah loves herself some Christmas, but unfortunately, when she performed “All I Want for Christmas Is You” during a Rockefeller Center…
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Black Iris Project: Telling African-American Stories Through Ballet
“Diversity doesn’t stop with people onstage,” says Jeremy McQueen, a dancer, choreographer and educator. “We need black stories in classical ballet. “Don Quixote, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty are great, but we need stories that will resonate in my spirit and reflect my cultural background.” McQueen has taken a big step toward that goal by launching…
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Report: Race Relations in US Are Still Bad
Almost eight years after the election of the nation’s first black president, a new study finds that the racial divide between whites and blacks in America is still at Grand Canyon levels—which proves that a racially harmonious country remains an elusive dream that even the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have had trouble envisioning.…
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Why Are People Hating on Birdman and Toni Braxton’s Relationship?
Whitney and Bobby. Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri. Flava Flav and Brigitte Nielsen. Lauren London and Lil Wayne. Ciara and Future. Eve and Maximillion Cooper. The list goes on and on, but the fact is that celebrity culture has long been rife with unlikely pairings—some seemingly out of nowhere, others seemingly out of convenience and…
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This Black Woman’s HIV Story Is a Warning for Everyone
June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. This day was created as an annual observance to promote HIV testing. The theme is “Doing It.” What does that mean? It means that this is a particularly important time for you to get involved and get tested because doing it could save your life. Want to know how…
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Can Serena Get Her Groove Back?
Serena Williams turns 35 in September, which is hard enough to believe by itself. But part of her birthday celebration could include capturing the modern record for major championships if she wins the U.S. Open earlier that month. Williams can tie Steffi Graf’s mark (22 majors) with a victory at Wimbledon, which begins Monday. Last…
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Everything You Wanted to Know About Church Music but Were Afraid to Ask
As we enter a new age in which traditional forms of music have meshed into an indistinguishable mosaic of sound and melody, the purest forms of music have seemingly fallen to the wayside. Everything with conventional notes and instrumentation is now called “jazz.” “Rock ’n’ roll” is now anything with a guitar riff. Any black…
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Michael Jackson Died 7 Years Ago and His Legacy Still Eludes Us; Maybe That's How He Wanted It
Seven years after his death, Michael Jackson continues to elude and astonish us. But we now know this was how he intended it. Spike Lee’s recent documentary about Jackson’s early years features a letter Jackson wrote in 1979, at age 21. He had just released Off the Wall and was on the Destiny tour with…
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Broken Bezels and Squashed Beef: The 10 Best and Worst BET Awards Moments
BET: So easy to make fun of, and yet black people still watch it. Thankfully, between the showings of Baby Boy and reruns of Eve, the network also gifts us with award shows. Beautiful, terrible, car-crash-quality-with-moments-of-spectacular-brilliance award shows. This Sunday, all of Twitter will be watching to see if BET delivers on its promise to…
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Black People in ‘the Land’ Share How the NBA Championship Really Affects the City
After the relocation of tax-based businesses and manufacturing companies in Cleveland, the city experienced a major loss in population, coupled with rampant unemployment. No one has been hit harder than the city’s black community, who make up 53 percent of the city’s population and reside in one of the most segregated cities in the country.…