culture

The importance of Valentine’s Day, like birthdays, graduations, Christmas and straight-A report cards, changes significantly as you get older. When you’re in elementary school, Valentine’s Day is an obligatory dropping of cheap paper cards into construction-paper boxes in front of everybody’s desk. In high school, perhaps an elaborate purchase of helium balloons that you have…

So, you’re alone this Valentine’s Day—again. Join the club. But what are you doing about it? If “single” isn’t your preferred relationship status, it’s time to stop hoping that love happens and make some changes—and some new connections. Here are 14 ways you can take back Valentine’s Day and take control of your love life.…

As twins, Kimberly Ketter and Shaun Rivers have been through just about everything together: first day of school, learning to drive, graduation. But there was one moment that altered the lives of the sisters from Richmond, Va. Ketter first suspected something was wrong in May 2009 when a routine climb up the stairs caused her…

It is no secret that “African-American women are the largest group of readers in the country,” states Dawn Davis, head of Simon & Schuster’s 37 Ink imprint. It is also no secret that the publishing world is very, very white, with books by black authors published at an abysmal low, never rising above 10 percent…

There’s a video clip from Steve Harvey’s talk show making the rounds on Facebook. It’s being used as Exhibit Z—because A through Y have already been done—about why so many women, black women in particular, are single. Sigh. Two sisters are sent on a double date with two nice, but somewhat dowdy-looking, men. Given the…

At some point during an international film festival, in response to an inquiry about whether a quite Caucasian jury would be able to evaluate and understand North African films, Meryl Streep decided to go full Hotep and inform us that “We’re all Africans, really.” That clink you hear is the sound of Lady Meryl officially falling…

It was the first semester of my freshman year in college. I met “David” while at one of the bars near campus. The people I went there with that night were all too young to drink, but David (who was a junior) made a point to buy shots for each of us. My friends and…

Scandal is back from winter break, and it’s operating in a post-apoc-Olitz-ic world where old alliances were destroyed and strange new ones are being formed out of the rubble. Olivia and Papa Pope: Remember when Olivia Pope tried to shoot and kill her dad? And then had him sent to prison? And then had him released…