culture

Akeem Monsalvatge, Derrick Dunkley and Edward Byam were big fans of the heist movie The Town. They were so inspired by Ben Affleck’s film about a group of Boston townies who wear masks to pull off big-time robberies that the three Queens, N.Y., men attempted to live out the movie in real life — but…

In January, Kyra Davis released her erotica series, Just One Night, exclusively as e-books through Simon & Schuster’s digital imprint. Much as the Fifty Shades erotica series did last year, Davis’ trilogy (which features The Stranger, Exposed and Binding Agreement) has garnered a cultlike following. But that quiet success may soon go mainstream, according to…

Adam Jones, an All-Star outfielder for the Baltimore Orioles, revealed that a fan in the stands threw a banana at him during his team’s game against the San Francisco Giants, ESPN reports. Jones did not say anything about the incident in postgame interviews; rather, he took to Twitter. “I want to thank whatever slapd—- threw that…

(The Root) — By the time August Wilson passed away in 2005, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright had completed a profound body of work that has left an indelible mark on black culture, American literature and Broadway. Now, in a historic event, his series of 10 plays, each chronicling a decade of the African-American experience during…

(The Root) — In 1999, journalist Gwen Ifill, then a congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, told the New York Times that she was “part terrified, part excited as you always are when you try something new.” She was talking about her new post as moderator of PBS’ Washington Week in Review. Now nearly…

A crowd attending a rodeo show at the Missouri State Fair this weekend whooped and hollered as the announcer called for a clown wearing an Obama mask “to get gored,” according to the Raw Story. “I felt like I was at a Klan rally,” Missouri State Fair goer Perry Beam told Raw Story, his outrage…

If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, would he tweet and post on Facebook? Robert M. Franklin, former president of Morehouse College, where King was an alum, raises the question at CNN as the nation prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a…

In a piece at the Guardian that explores why the president is losing his footing among some voters of color, statistician Harry J. Enten says Barack Obama’s falling approval rating has more to do with the economy than racism. Moreover, Obama is also seeing his numbers drop among minorities. Gallup with its large sample sizes…

Arguing that diversity is “critical for good journalism,” Farai Chideya, at her blog, Farai.com, writes an open letter congratulating new Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on his acquisition and stressing the importance of a heterogeneous staff. As I outlined in a recent article for The Nation magazine, staffing and editorial diversity is critical for good journalism, and…

The Washington Post is reporting that former Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty and Laurene Powell Jobs are dating after meeting two years ago at a Houston education conference. The two reportedly connected over a shared interest in school reform, the report says. Last year, the former D.C. mayor scored a plum job with Andreessen Horowitz, one…