culture

Following a night of losses in key categories at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards ceremony Sunday, 12 Years a Slave was named best film of 2013, according to the Wrap. Steve McQueen’s poignant drama garnered the last-minute triumph after Chiwetel Ejiofor won for best actor at the ceremony at London’s Royal…

Michael Dunn was strapped when he pulled into the gas station that night as Lil Reese’s “Beef” blared from the speakers of the red Dodge Durango already parked there. He let his lady know he wasn’t feeling the “thug music.” She left the car to get wine, and Dunn decided he was going to do…

It’s no secret that Michelle Obama is an outstanding first lady. Now there are poll numbers to prove it. The Chicago-native is ranked in the top five of first ladies, coming in fifth place, just ahead of Hillary Clinton, who is sixth, according to a survey of historians that was released Saturday, Reuters reports. Eleanor…

Michael Dunn was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, but a judge declared a mistrial late Saturday after the jury failed to reach an agreement on the charge. Dunn was found guilty on three counts of attempted murder and one for firing into an occupied vehicle. Florida State Attorney…

George Zimmerman wants a normal life. He makes the revelation during an interview with the Spanish-language station Univision, the Daily News reports. He says he lives in fear for his life after being acquitted last summer in the death of Trayvon Martin, but believes he did the right thing, according to a preview of an…

In 1999, Angelo B. Henderson became the only African-American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize for the Wall Street Journal. The following year, he was honored by Columbia University as one of the nation’s best reporters on race and ethnicity in America, the Detroit News reports. He was beloved by members of the National Association of…

Friends, I bring you great news. Contrary to what you might have assumed from the title of the play, Sizwe Banzi is in fact not dead after all, but very much alive and well in London. In extremely fine fettle, even. Not bad for a man reputed to have been dead for some 42 years,…

Black History Month is our time to highlight and reflect on those who have made significant contributions to the black community. These notable civil rights leaders changed the course of history through their activism. Some, like Martin Luther King Jr., are household names. Others, like Bayard Rustin, the organizer of the March on Washington, are…

Sunday would have been Jordan Davis’ 19th birthday. His mother, Lucia McBath, sent out this message on Twitter early on Saturday. “Tomorrow is my boy’s 19th birthday. I pray we will celebrate not only him but a just and righteous verdict.” But there was to be no verdict for Jordan, as the jury, made up…