culture
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We Are Charleston: The Mother Emanuel Church Shooting a Year Later
Forgiveness. It was the main thing that stuck out, and one of the few things outsiders didn’t understand about Charleston, S.C., last year. How could so many who’d lost so much forgive then-21-year-old Dylann Roof after he allegedly shot and killed nine African-American worshippers during Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church? Only five people survived…
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All You Need to Know to Get Ready to Binge-Watch the New Season of Orange Is the New Black
Finally, it’s time to get back to the ladies of Litchfield as Orange Is the New Black returns for a fourth season. It officially returns early Friday morning, but Netflix has been known to surprise by dropping episodes early. The last time we saw the inmates, a mixup enabled them to get free and frolic…
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Watch: Music Innovators King Dish Out Food for Thought
The group King stands tall among this generation’s wave of black musical innovators. “[Black music] is something that we provide to the whole world; it’s something that so much of our culture was founded on,” says Paris Strother, King’s pianist and producer. The trio first emerged in 2011 with their independently released EP, The Story.…
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Jackee Harry and Anita Baker Are Great on Twitter, but Tina Knowles Lawson Is Killing the ’Gram
Older black women are, by and large, my happy place. They often prove themselves to be incredibly honest, wonderfully hilarious and the very best of blackness. I have had an affinity for the group I describe as “black aunties” since I was a child who obsessed over his literal black aunties. However, it is often…
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50 Years Ago Stokely Carmichael Called for ‘Black Power,’ Galvanizing a Movement
Fifty years ago this Thursday, the call for “black power” by Stokely Carmichael in Greenwood, Miss., transformed the black freedom struggle. Frightening white citizens while transforming black identity, the black power movement’s call for radical political self-determination challenged liberal frameworks for racial equality in profound ways that continue to reverberate to this day. Black power…
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Black Aesthetic, White Supremacy: Steve Perry’s Tweet Needs Cutting More Than Black Boys’ Hair
Furious responses to educator Steve Perry’s tweet last week regarding Steve Harvey’s National Mentoring Camp for Young Men is a healthy sign that black people won’t accept self-loathing as a viable solution for underachievement. Perry, who founded the all-male Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., recently announced a partnership with hip-hip mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs…
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My Boyfriend and Best Friend Are Texting Each Other All the Time. Should I Be Worried?
I approached my boyfriend about why he’s always texting my best friend. He stated that they are “friends” and they connect well when talking and he or she will hit up each other. I told him that’s my friend, though; why does she always hit him up and barely talk to me now? He said…
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Empire’s Tasha Smith Knows a Thing or Two About Thriving in Hollywood and Surviving Shady Ex-Husbands
Tasha Smith is that rare actress who has been holding it down in the entertainment industry for quite a while now. The NAACP Image Award nominee—perhaps best known for her portrayal of Angela in Tyler Perry’s hit television show For Better or Worse—has been working as an actress for two decades. She has appeared in films—including Daddy’s…
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Celebrating Black Fatherhood With #7DaysOfBlackDads
Father’s Day is steadily approaching, and it’s a holiday that deserves to be celebrated boldly and proudly. Black fathers are often maligned (go ahead, Google “black father” and see what results you get) in the media, even though we see, experience and all know some amazing men who nurture, love and cherish their children. We want…