culture
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Empire Recap: What a Long, Strange Trip
It’s the dramatic two-hour finale of Empire, with appearances by Patti LaBelle, Rita Ora, Snoop Dogg and Juicy J. Actually, it’s a one-hour finale filled with an extra 60 minutes of flashbacks and filler. Take a drink whenever you see Lucious’ do-rag, Bunkie’s shooting or the infamous trash-can scene. Let’s go. One week away from…
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Same-Sex Marriage Is Happening. It’s Time for Christians to Recognize It as the Right Thing
As a Christian, I still can’t quite reconcile the notion of same-sex marriage with my faith. And as an attorney, I’m somewhat concerned that after same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land, there will be cases where clergy may be pressured—even sued—to force them to allow same-sex weddings in their churches. But I also…
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Empire: Meet the Woman Who Puts Some of Those Words in Cookie’s Mouth
Now that television has entered the era of Empire, claims that black-cast dramas don’t succeed no longer carry any weight. Since its Jan. 7 bow, viewers for the campy hip-hop-tinged drama have steadily increased, to nearly 15 million an episode. And black viewers reportedly account for 64 percent of Empire’s total audience. Behind the scenes,…
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Being Mary Jane Recap: Drink, Pray, Let Go
A couple of musical notes before getting into the nitty-gritty of the episode that made this writer shed a tear. An Erykah Badu compilation is always a good idea, but especially as the soundtrack to Mary Jane’s piecing her life back together. David’s “final” voice mail followed by M.J.’s sad solo dance to Nicki Minaj’s…
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The Top 5 Most Profound (or Outrageous) Quotes From Azealia Banks’ Playboy Interview
Until recently I hadn’t paid much attention to Azealia Banks. I knew her better as the girl who was always beefing on Twitter than as an emcee. But then, in December, the Harlem rapper did a completely politically incorrect interview with New York City radio station Hot 97, where she went off about race, racism and cultural…
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Spelman College Co-Valedictorian Twins Continue to Aim High After Graduation
After making history two years ago as the first twin co-valedictorians at Spelman College, Kirstie and Kristie Bronner continue to break new ground as they build careers as youth pastors at Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral in Austell, Ga. Located in the outskirts of Atlanta, the church is pastored by their father, Bishop Dale…
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Jesse Jackson: Access to Technology Is the Goal of Our Next Big Movement
Fresh off the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., the Rev. Jesse Jackson brought his message of going “beyond the bridge” to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Jackson said that while the 1965 march was a major moment in the struggle to get…
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A New Plane? Fight Tickets? Have Some Pride and Stop Online Panhandling
Unless he was offering direct flights to and from heaven, there was no way in hell Creflo Dollar was going to successfully raise $65 million for a new Gulfstream G650 jet via his own website. Despite that harsh reality, the Rev. Dollar Dollar Bills, Y’all pulled his campaign only because the online commotion that his outrageous request…
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‘Free From Their Chains,’ Says the Marvin Gaye Estate. But What About All Those Samples Robin Thicke Already Cleared?
Soul singer Johnnie Taylor recorded a disco hit in 1976 called “Disco Lady.” Another artist of the era liked the song so much that he felt compelled to compose his own version. It was constructed as an answer, so to speak, to Taylor’s smash hit. And the other artist’s rendition also had listeners crooning about a…
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#BlackLivesMatter Founders: Please Stop Co-opting Our Hashtag
The founders of #BlackLivesMatter are grateful that their message has been picked up by so many people as a rallying cry, but they want other groups that use the essence of the name, such as #MuslimLivesMatter and #LatinoLivesMatter, to find their own slogans. At a South by Southwest panel discussion, “What #BlackLivesMatter Teaches Us About…