culture

I knew maybe three things about Kenya when my plane landed in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in late February: The traffic was awful in Nairobi; it was a “party city,” with the good times rolling as late—or, er, as early—as 9 a.m.; and in 2013, the city’s most upscale mall, Westgate, suffered a four-day…

On this season’s Being Mary Jane, the hope for a mature, adult relationship came in the form of Sheldon, a sexy and smart lawyer played by the tall and handsomely sun-kissed Gary Dourdan. Through Sheldon, professional women like Mary Jane rediscovered, albeit very briefly, the art of courtship: late-night phone conversations neither one of you…

New photos of an apparently frail and ill Mumia Abu-Jamal, with visibly darkened, hardened skin as a result of complications from diabetes, were released Tuesday morning via email by his supporters, friends and family. They are continuing to maintain a vigil outside State Correctional Institution Mahanoy, the Pennsylvania prison where the 60-year-old former Black Panther…

The music, opening scene and skyline made you feel as if you were back in the ’80s, about to watch Axel Foley take down the gang responsible for the “alphabet crimes.” When you saw the Porsche and realized that its occupants weren’t Taggart and Rosewood but Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, and you saw that…

For most families, Easter festivities may have concluded on Sunday as they tossed out the eggs and retired their Sunday best back to their closets, but in Washington, D.C., celebration was still in order on Easter Monday. Beyond Sunday’s church ceremonies, bunnies and delightfully colorful eggs, for many families in D.C., the “Easter panda” is…

“Have you ever been found guilty of a felony?” For too many people, that question is the difference between living a life of dignity and living a life of shame and bitterness. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe made a bold move Friday and signed an executive order to “ban the box.” Through this statewide initiative, state…

Toni Morrison is, inarguably, the greatest living writer of our time. She has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award. She is also the last American to have won the Nobel Prize. Her books have been canonized as classics…

Last month the campus of University of Maryland at College Park was rocked when an inflammatory email sent by Kappa Sigma Fraternity member A.J. Hurwitz became public. In the email, Hurwitz used racial slurs to refer to African-American and Asian women, urging the fraternity to exclude them from parties. He also urged fraternity members to…

When news breaks — whether it is deemed “ratchet” or “racist” — black Twitter is on the case. In recent years, African American social media users have taken advantage of platforms like Twitter and Instagram, turning them into a megaphone. While many reduce black Twitter to a haven for jokes about reality shows, it’s actually…