culture

I’m from the South, where it’s considered an abomination to show up to someone else’s home empty-handed—no matter how small the occasion. Southern folks will bring a pie when they stop by your house to borrow a cup of sugar. Given the time, money and effort that people invest in hosting Thanksgiving dinner, it is a…

I have never known black people to go crazy over store-bought pie. Store-bought pie is the sort of thing that I’ve only understood to be permissible on a weekday when you don’t feel like cooking but you really want to get into your feelings and sweets (with Sade playing in the background). Like, more often…

In a bizarre case that began with a dispute over a $225,000 watch, singer Sean Kingston claims that his jeweler kidnapped him last week from a downtown Los Angeles parking lot, drove him to a secluded area and threw him out of the car, according to TMZ. The incident began recently after Kingston bought a…

Kylie Jenner took to social media Saturday to respond to rumors about a breakup with rapper Tyga. “Everyone needs to chill,” the 18-year-old reality-television star posted on Snapchat with a photo of her cuddled up with Tyga, whose signature tattoos were visible, the Daily Mail reports. Rumors took off Thursday amid claims that Kylie had…

The movement in this country to treat fathers as equal participants in the parental team is not new. Yet our culture continually projects the view of fathers as secondary or peripheral parents. The phraseology of the “maternal-child” health care system ignores the father’s relevance to the family. The lack of baby-changing tables in men’s bathrooms…

Editor’s note: The story was first published by Univision. Despite his rugged looks, this is the man to whom all players on the Miami Marlins baseball team entrust their necks. The former gang member says that “his art” saved his life. His childhood years in a modest barrio changed life for Hugo Tandrón, better known…

They were lawyers, feminists, Christians, transgender women, domestic workers, militants, favela dwellers, politicians, students and many more. Despite their differences in beliefs, education and income, on Wednesday they came together behind the one thing they had in common: being a black woman in Brazil. On that day, more than 10,000 black women from all over…

The first time sommelier DLynn Proctor fell head over heels for wine, it wasn’t when he was drinking it. Instead, it was while watching a somm, as they are typically called, in action, blind-tasting a deep, rich Italian red wine called Brunello. “I had never seen anything like it,” he said. “It was almost mystical…

I’ve just returned home from a 10-day trip to Brazil. It is worth the mandatory (and exhaustive) visa process to go. Brazil was glorious. It’s everything it looks like in the best photos, but 10 times better in person. The folks who are headed there for the Olympics next year are in for a treat.…

This week’s episode of Scandal brought us the end of Olitz, the beginning of Mellie as a national hero and a fresh start for Papa Pope.  Olitz-erated It’s Christmastime at the White House, and Olivia Pope is wearing holiday red (as opposed to her usual muted tones), hosting White House tours and encouraging America to eat healthily.…