culture

I am a fan of Kanye West.* I love his music and like to have discussions about his cultural relevance, and I look forward to hearing new music from the Louis Vuitton Don with the best of them. Aside from the many leather-bound books that adorn my home, I have physical copies of all his…

Spring is on the horizon, and festival season is much closer than you may think. This year, festivalgoers can catch some of the best acts in hip-hop, R&B and jazz at one of hundreds of festivals happening across the country. With new festivals popping up every year and so many options to choose from, we’ve…

Born in Nigeria in 1984, author Helen Oyeyemi has lived in the United Kingdom since age 4. Oyeyemi made a name for herself as a writer early on—winning the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award and a 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and being named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in 2013. Oyeyemi, who wrote her…

Sherrell Dorsey is a social-impact storyteller who started coding at the age of 14 and now speaks and writes frequently on the intersections of sustainability, technology and digital inclusion. Follow her on Twitter.

Who is Ryan Coogler? And who is Michael B. Jordan? Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan are the young director-actor duo most famous for creating the harrowing and amazing (and amazingly shut out for Oscar consideration) Fruitvale Station. They also worked together on Creed—a critically acclaimed movie with a black director, a black star and…

President Barack Obama’s recently announced initiative Computer Science for All is a call from the highest office that computer science education is important for the future of the nation. CS education is important for all children in the modern era, for sure, but it is essential for students of color, especially black and Hispanic students…

For some black people, slavery is not a popular subject matter for television and film, and many have openly expressed this view on Twitter and Facebook. The running joke is that black actors get nominated for awards only when they are playing slaves or other subservient characters. So the new WGN America series, Underground, about…

Marcia Clark is in a different courtroom. Lest we forget, while prosecuting O.J. Simpson for a double murder, she’s also in the midst of a custody battle with her ex-husband for her two children, who her husband says spend all their time with babysitters. Clark is also “very late” for work. Yikes!  Today’s witness? Denise…

Detroit native Shaka Senghor is a rare voice in the fight against mass incarceration and extreme violence in many black communities. The onetime drug dealer, who was shot at age 17 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for second-degree murder at age 19 with one child and another on the way, has used every…

In his role as Christopher Darden, Sterling K. Brown has been one of the unexpected delights of FX’s captivating hit The People v. O.J. Simpson. Previously, the St. Louis native and Stanford alum, who shaved his head to portray Marcia Clark’s partner in prosecution, was best-known as Roland Burton on Army Wives, Det. Cal Beecher on…