culture

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.…

My boyfriend planned a surprise birthday celebration for me lasting over the course of three days. The first night, only two of the 10 friends that RSVP’d showed up. On my actual birthday, none of my friends showed up. On the last day, four of my friends showed up. Everyone else in attendance was a…

1.  Infants are what would happen to an adult if you made it super tiny and then gave it a liter of Jack Daniels. The tiny part I knew already, but the drunken part is something I’ve discovered in the last couple of weeks. Because you treat infants the same way you’d treat a friend…