culture
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OK, It Might Be Time to Forgive Chrisette Michele
I’ll preface this article with a full admission that I was never a diehard Chrisette Michele fan. Like many in the culture, I noted her as an undisputed vocalist who could sing sing, resting comfortably at the table with other current singers who sang sang. You know, the unofficial Award Show Tribute Collective founded by…
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Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin' ta F' Wit? The Creators of Shaolin Jazz Disagree
To call the Wu-Tang Clan one of the most influential musical acts of all-time isn’t hyperbole. When they burst onto the scene in 1993 as a gritty and grimey Staten Island, N.Y., counterpoint to the Dr. Dre-helmed polish of Los Angeles G-funk, music shifted, too. In the decades since, the Wu footprint has shown up…
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Ailey, Ascending: Alvin Ailey’s Company Celebrates 60 Years of Dance with a New Work Honoring Its Founder
How do you celebrate six decades of groundbreaking dance? If you’re the legendary Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, you stage a yearlong anniversary celebration titled “Ailey Ascending,” with a star-studded gala and new ballet as its centerpiece. Launching its five-week holiday season in New York City on Wednesday, Nov. 28, the company, founded by choreographer…
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We're Being Too Hard on Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith
Racism is so embedded in Southern culture that Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith truly believes that she’s not racist; that her comment about being front row at lynching were not racist; that wanting to suppress the liberal vote is not necessarily racist or posing in Confederate artifacts is racist. Wait, what? On Tuesday, the same day…
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Jemele Hill and ESPN Get It Over With: Report
Jemele Hill, a black woman who remained so while on television, had a rough go of it at ESPN in the fallout of calling Donald Trump, a sho nuff white supremacist, just that. She’s reportedly set to completely sever ties with the company at the beginning of September. Hill’s commentary is just too direct for…
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Come Through, Comic-Con! How Celebs Turned Up for the World's Best Known Comic Convention
In case you didn’t get the memo, Comic-Con isn’t just for cosplay—or even just for comics. Celebs and fans of all types of pop-cultural phenomenons descended on the convention’s West Coast event in San Diego, Ca. from July 19-22 to attend panels, rubs elbows with their faves, and, or course, dress up to celebrate all…
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Joe Jackson, Controversial Patriarch of a Musical Dynasty, Has Died at 89
Joseph Walter Jackson, who aspired to be a musician himself, instead became the mastermind behind the most successful musical family in pop history, attracting much controversy along the way. He died Wednesday morning in Los Angeles, according to TMZ. He was 89. Family sources told TMZ that Jackson died of cancer. He was surrounded by…
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GQ Asks: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Yeezy?
“I’m not wearing the sneakers, I’m not wearing the clothes, I’m not listening to the music. I’m definitely taking a step back—indefinitely,” said DJ and former Yeezy enthusiast Jerome Baker III to GQ, when asked how Kanye West’s recent antics affected his feelings about the Yeezy merchandise he owns. For months now (or years, for…
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All Black People Are Victims of Police Brutality
Editor’s note: This week, The Root will examine the many facets of law enforcement and its effects on the black community with our weeklong series Unprotected, Underserved: The Policing of Black America. He was 23 years old. He needed their protection. He needed their service. So he called the police. They shot him. He is paralyzed.…