culture
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HBO’s Documentary King in the Wilderness Is a Chilling Portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final 18 Months on Earth
“Everything you thought you knew about Martin Luther King Jr. is wrong,” says Trey Ellis, producer of the upcoming HBO documentary on King’s final 18 months of life, titled King in the Wilderness. The title of the documentary, which premiered at Sundance, is fitting considering that the civil rights activist’s final chapter found him dealing with…
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Universal Music’s VP of Urban Catalog Andre Torres Talks New Editorial Platform, Urban Legends
Andre Torres is a vinyl and hip-hop head, who’s also a veteran of music journalism. With over two decades in the trenches, Torres, who founded Wax Poetics magazine and was also executive editor at the lyrics site Genius, is now vice president of the urban catalog at Universal Music Enterprises. And in his new role,…
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Tell Them We Are Rising Brings the 1st Documentary on Our Nation’s HBCUs to PBS
Filmmaker Stanley Nelson, who brought the story of a revolution to the screen with The Black Panthers: Vanguard of a Revolution, has once again encapsulated an enormous piece of black history with the first documentary that focuses on the history of our nation’s HBCUs. Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and…
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’90s Group Portrait Talks Comeback, Premieres New Single in Time for Valentine’s Day
In the early ’90s, R&B group Portrait held it down with the likes of Shai, Silk, SWV and Jodeci with their hit singles “Here We Go Again” and “Honey Dip,” as well as their soulful cover of the top Bee Gees hit “How Deep Is Your Love.” Now they are back, better than ever, with…
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Samba and Misogynoir: Will 2018 Be the Last Year of Blackface in Brazil’s Carnival?
The United States isn’t the only country with a bad case of “blackface.” Brazil has its own version of blackface, and it is most often on display during Carnival, when some revelers sometimes dress up as “Nega Maluca,” translated as “crazy black woman” in Portuguese. During this year’s Carnival in Brazil, blackface made an appearance…
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Celebrating the ‘Everyday Love’ in Your Life
The roses, chocolates and oversized teddy bears are all signs that Valentine’s Day is here. And for those of us who have aged out of the “Everyone at school passes out a Valentine to everybody” version—essentially, the “No Child Left Behind” of holidays—Valentine’s Day has become synonymous with celebrating the romance in our lives. The…
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The Wonder of Wakanda: How This Black Utopian Space Is a Game Changer for Artists and Audiences
On a rainy Friday afternoon in January, rivulets of black comic fans trickled through the halls of Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The occasion was the annual Black Comic Book Festival—an event that draws thousands of comic enthusiasts, creators, publishers and collectors. Black Panther tickets had just gone on sale days before,…
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Why I, a Survivor of Police Violence, Find Jeff Sessions’ Remarks So Disturbing
In 2012 I was shot five times by Pittsburgh police. Although I survived, I was paralyzed and, soon thereafter, charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest, charges that were thrown out three years later. Since that fateful incident, which began as a “routine” traffic stop, I’ve chosen to use my platform as an activist and…