culture
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Scandal Recap: Jake, Who’s Your Daddy?
Some of my favorite Scandal episodes are the ones in which we dig into the back stories of the characters and find out how they came to be the sick, sordid individuals they are now—like when we found out that Cyrus Beene was once married to a woman, or that Huck had a wife and…
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Earth Day 2016: 5 Black Communities That Are Fighting Environmental Threats
In America, communities in the most polluted environments are often poor and/or made up of people of color, with race being the dominant factor. A report published by PLOS One in 2014 indicates that nonwhite Americans breathe in almost 40 percent more polluted air than white Americans. The issue isn’t just the air we…
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32 Photos of Prince We Love
To say that Prince Rogers Nelson was a musical genius would be a gross understatement. Prince was incomparable. A legend. A cultural icon. And the world lost him on Thursday morning. As we mourn the passing of one of the greatest performers of our time, we also honor and respect his legacy. Here is The Root’s…
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A Transformative Artist Known as Prince
Prince Rogers Nelson, a man who transcended musical genre and defied definition, was found dead in his Paisley Park complex in Minnesota on Thursday. He was 57. Irreplaceably unique, Prince was a flamboyant, innovative artist whose songs were as varied and layered as his beguiling persona, which captivated audiences and music critics alike for nearly…
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5 Greatest Prince Performances
When it comes to greatest performances, Prince owns the throne. His live shows became mythical; even if you’d seen him in concert before, you always felt like you missed out the next time you heard about one of his secret shows. And his TV performances were always among the most-talked-about moments of whatever show he…
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Empire Recap: Mother’s Day
How is that Lucious hasn’t been shot? Empire has enough suspects for a “Who Shot Lucious?” storyline. That’s just one of the questions I had for last night’s Empire episode, “Time Shall Unfold.” Rhonda and Andre have moved out of the mansion because there are too many bad memories since Rhonda tumbled down those stairs…
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Zoe Saldana Speaks Out About Nina
Just days before Nina hits theaters in a limited release, Zoe Saldana joined Nina producer Stuart Parr and Al Schackman—musical director for the iconic Nina Simone from 1957 until her death in 2003—for an intimate post-screening conversation Tuesday in Atlanta, where she is filming Guardians of the Galaxy 2. The conversation, led by television news executive…
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Watch: What Is Afrofuturism?
Afrofuturism is not black sci-fi. It’s not black fantasy. It’s not an easily definable artistic genre but, rather, a sweeping, cultural aesthetic that examines issues around black representation, the black future and black agency using music, novels, visual media, history and myth to create something else entirely. The Root’s new four-part Web series on Afrofuturism…
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Meditation: Healing From the Inside Out
We close our minority-health video series with meditation—a practice that is dependent on calmness and concentration. Joshua Bee Alafia was introduced to meditation as a teenager. He went on to try many forms of meditation until 2006, when he found Vipassana—a practice originally taught by Buddha. He has since become a meditation instructor at the Brooklyn Zen…