culture
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Empire Is Back, but Do We Still Care?
It’s been three months since the midseason finale of Empire, which returns Wednesday. The show’s sophomore season hasn’t lived up to the juicy, sudsy, must-watch fun of the first season. The storytelling was rushed, the music wasn’t as good, there was too much weak stunt casting and a focus on dull, new characters. (Sorry, Laura.)…
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The People v. O.J. Simpson Recap: Mark Fuhrman Caught on Tape
Laura Hart McKinney, an aspiring screenwriter living in North Carolina, is watching A Current Affair’s recap of the O.J. Simpson trial when her phone rings. It’s an O.J. investigator, wondering if she will give him copies of an interview she did with Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman. McKinney doesn’t want to help O.J. and…
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The Mint App Is Like That Penny-Pinching Aunt Who Doesn’t Let You Have Any Fun
New Year’s Day 2016 came around just a little under three months ago, and with it, yours truly had, yet again, created a set of seemingly attainable goals for the subsequent 365 days in a feeble attempt to become a fully actualized adult. Some of the list has been fairly simple to execute—for example, I’ve…
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After Violent Attack, India Must Address Anti-Black Racism
The Indian census has not included “race” as a category since the early 1950s. Race might be a “biological fiction” according to geneticists, but the world over, it is a social reality. Racism is a topic Indians have been discussing fervently following the reprehensible attack on a Tanzanian woman by a mob that beat and…
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200 of Silicon Valley’s Diverse Executives and Influencers Meet to Highlight Inclusion-Driven Innovation
Culture Shift Labs, founded by Andrea Hoffman, an authority on inclusion-driven innovation, collaborated with Denmark West, a partner at Connectivity Capital Partners, to bring together 200 senior executives, venture capitalists, innovators and accomplished entrepreneurs of color in California’s Silicon Valley for two days of collaborating, deal making and fostering of game-changing growth. With Google as…
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Soul on Ice: A Black Man Goes to His 1st Hockey Game
Having just moved from Los Angeles to New York, I was more than lucky to have avoided my first truly harsh winter in 10 years. However, and I’m not sure of the internal machinations that fed this feeling, dodging the biting cold and fierce wind of winter left me a smidge unfulfilled. Empty. Hollow as…
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Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy of A Different World Reunite On-Screen
These days, the throwback is de rigueur on television, and it’s no different with the Disney Channel’s K.C. Undercover, which will soon reunite A Different World’s Dwayne Wayne with his paramour Whitley Gilbert, according to TVLine.com. K.C. Undercover, now in its second season, stars the darling Zendaya as K.C. Cooper, a high school student training to follow…
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An Opera for a Jazz Virtuoso: The Apollo Theater Honors Charlie Parker
The rich, buttery tenor of Lawrence Brownlee soars as if it’s on wings in the opening aria “Birdland.” He is channeling bebop genius Charlie Parker, whose life is at the center of the opera Charlie Parker’s Yardbird—co-produced by the Apollo Theater and Opera Philadelphia. It is set in New York City’s iconic Birdland jazz club…
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How Race, Economics Affect Treatment of Adult Sickle Cell Anemia
When Janoi Burgess was a child, he thought doctor appointments were fun. “I used to love it because they had a section where you could play games,” said Burgess, who was born with sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder. “They were really nice and friendly.” But when he turned 21, the South Florida resident…
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As a Playwright, Danai Gurira Gives Voice to African Women
The Walking Dead fans have known her as badass Michonne since she joined the AMC show’s third season in 2012, but Danai Gurira was an important, emerging playwright even prior to her television stardom. Although born in the U.S. to parents from then-Rhodesia, Gurira returned to the new nation of Zimbabwe at a young age.…