culture

Some of Janet Jackson’s fans in Salt Lake City and Denver will have to wait to see the star’s Unbreakable tour. She is under doctor’s orders to rest her vocal cords, she announced in a tweet on Friday. She was to perform in the cities on Saturday and Sunday as part of her first tour…

If ever there were two men known for their strong personalities and not holding back on their opinions, those would be film director Spike Lee and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. They are also known for being proud of their home towns, cities known for their rivalry. Lee, 58, is from New York City, and Emanuel,…

Traditionally, African Americans have been absent from the combat narratives of World War II, especially the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The collective story from military historians has long been that “the only black soldiers to land on D-Day had lent their muscle to labor units and other support work.” But this is not the case…

On Friday evening in New York City, a line of young people snaked down Lexington Avenue in Manhattan and then curled around 91st Street all the way down to Third Avenue; the crowd was brimming with anticipation and excitement. They were en route to see Usher at the 92nd Street Y, which might be the…

During a medical emergency he experienced last week while partying at a Nevada brothel, Lamar Odom reportedly suffered 12 strokes that affected his motor skills, TMZ reports. Although the strokes did not affect vital organs, sources tell TMZ that they have had an “impact on his ability to walk and talk.” The strokes were discovered…

Who is Beyoncé? Beyoncé is an introverted Houstonian known best for being allergic to seats—like, literally every seat she’s ever seen makes her sneeze—and for inventing “surfborting.” Surfborting? Yes. Surfborting. She’s the world’s first—and probably the world’s only—professional surfborter. Is she known for anything else? Well, for approximately 171 million Americans and 1.4 billion people…

Confession: I’d never heard of actress and singer Zendaya Coleman until last year, at which time she was already a Disney phenomenon. Forgive me, I don’t watch a lot of kid TV.  Anyway, she popped on my radar when she signed on to do the ultimately highly watched and highly criticized Aaliyah biopic, then signed…

Scandal’s writers were on fire during this week’s episode, which included some of the best one-liners and monologues of the whole series.  Here are nine highlights from last night’s episode: 1. High stakes. The Senate Judiciary Committee has decided to open a formal investigation into the relationship between Fitz Grant and Olivia Pope to determine whether Fitz committed…

Last weekend, I took my dad to see Sicario—Denis Villeneuve’s gripping and graphic (very, very, very graphic) depiction of the drug war. Now, while Sicario has done well at the box office, it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster—nor was it intended to be—so with that in mind, plus the fact that we went to a 10…