culture

Venus Williams leaves very little to the imagination in ESPN the Magazine’s sixth annual Body Issue, hitting newsstands July 11. Williams didn’t quite know what she was getting into when she agreed to pose for the issue. “It didn’t dawn on me until right when I walked on set that I would have to be…

Malia Obama may have interned as a production assistant, but her parents want her and younger sister Sasha to experience minimum wage work in the future. In an interview with Parade magazine, Michelle Obama told the magazine, “I think every kid needs to get a taste of what it’s like to do that real hard…

Nigeria closed its investigation of the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls on Friday, with little progress made in recovering the girls, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants from their secondary school in northeast Borno state during exams April 14, according to Reuters. Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Sabo submitted the final report, which noted that the…

It was a summer box office weekend of sequels, and Think Like a Man Too led the pack with a solid $30 million, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The top three films were all follow-ups that moved into the big box office summer arena after the surprise-hit originals were released during the spring, according to New…

Imagine going to the barbershop to get a tight fade and coming out with a clean bill of health. Thanks to an $8.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to Cedars-Sinai, that could soon be a reality. Some 20 Los Angeles black barbershop employees will be trained to check patrons for…

Jeremy Ray Meeks—aka #prisonbae, as he is known on Twitter—was arrested on June 18 along with four other men during a gang sweep. Meeks was sent to California’s San Joaquin County Jail. Last week his mug shot was posted on a police department’s Facebook page. The women of the Internets went nuts. On Friday Meeks…

Former Baylor star Isaiah Austin was projected to be a late first-round pick in the NBA draft later this week, but a routine physical at a scheduled combine revealed a serious medical condition that has halted his pursuit of a career playing professional basketball. According to ESPN, early test results showed that Austin had an…

After my father died, I no longer recognized myself. From 2006 to 2012 I lived with an anxiety disorder, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Some nights I would lie in bed awake, thinking, until the sun came up. Panic attacks gripped my body like bear hugs, and I couldn’t control them. I didn’t discuss it…

The wrongful convictions of five black and Latino men who have become known as the Central Park Five represent a pattern of racial inequity in the nation’s criminal justice system that is almost as old as the country itself. So great is the problem that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced plans to tackle the…