culture

Havana: If President Barack Obama comes here sometime next year, as he has hinted he will, he’ll be under great pressure to meet with Cubans who are widely seen in anti-Castro circles within the United States as the legitimate voices of dissent inside this communist nation. In fact, Obama has already made such meetings a…

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, people of color were outnumbered by green characters, and the only important woman wound up a love slave. The latest sequel in the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, released in the U.S. Friday, is light-years ahead in terms of cultural realism, and…

Maybe it’s because Madison Avenue is in New York City, which, theoretically at least, is a place where December bristles with the chilly arrival of winter, and thus images of Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer have dominated our vision of the Christmas holiday. Yet Christmas is celebrated all over the world, though…

So let’s get a couple things out of the way first: 1.  Steve Harvey has too many jobs. Steve Harvey is the host of The Steve Harvey Morning Show. And Family Feud. And Steve Harvey the talk show. That’s three full-time jobs. Plus dozens of panels, talks and seminars. And, I’m assuming, a couple hundred…

Throughout 2015, reproductive-rights issues have made headlines, and the news has mostly been bad. From deceptive videos intended to discredit Planned Parenthood to more clinic closures and the recent shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, legislators and anti-abortion extremists are unrelenting in their efforts to push abortion out of reach. While there has…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, when people are encouraged immensely to boost their calorie intake, credit card debt and alcohol levels (so long as they’re not driving; we frown upon that). It’s also the period in which each of us can do a little inventory—namely in the form of New Year’s resolutions—and…

Dear Drs. Lewis and Gail Wyatt:  I am a 31-year-old housewife with a 2-year-old son (from a previous relationship). I married my husband essentially because he was kind, supportive and had the potential to be a good father. He was wise, unselfish and patient. However, I never loved him or enjoyed sex with him. I…

Toward the end of his life in 1972, African-American artist Norman Lewis wrote an eye-catching pitch to a New York gallerist: “I have read that you have not stopped discovering talent and helping artists. Your valuable assistance is needed—I have talent … ” That Lewis felt the need to be “discovered” so late in his…

Calling it “the best assist I’ve ever recorded in my life,” Cleveland Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert helped fiancee Teyana Taylor deliver their baby girl earlier this week in the bathroom of their home, according to his Instagram account. Iman Tayla Shumpert Jr. was born Wednesday at 6:42 a.m. after Taylor went into labor before her mid-January due…

Twelve years before I released my debut album from prison, I was a baggy-jeaned middle schooler, rapping about how to get there. In the early 2000s, hip-hop was still under the spell of hypermasculine gangsta rap, and I emulated its heroes. Unfortunately, the “zero tolerance,” heavily policed Los Angeles school district only reinforced my narrative.…