lena waithe
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The Breakthrough: Vanity Fair Breathes New Life with Lena Waithe on the Cover
If you’re a follower of Hollywood, politics and society—or a journalist who covers all three—you’re likely familiar with Vanity Fair. Though first published from 1913 to 1936, the magazine as we know it today has been in print since 1983 and until recently was under the editorial direction of Graydon Carter, who took the helm…
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All the Stars: The Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards Made Oscar Week Much More Beautiful
Just when we were longing for last year’s heavily melanated Oscars red carpet, the 11th Annual Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards luncheon reminds us that our next surprise win may be much sooner than we think … and we can’t wait. The delightful and dynamic assemblage of some of our best and brightest female…
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Judge of Characters: Inequality for All, Especially in Hollywood
While many people may have heard Mo’Nique’s “cries” about the gender and color bias in Hollywood and rolled their eyes, there were others of us who wholeheartedly agreed with her. Inequality reigns supreme in Hollywood. It’s the reason Jessica Chastain helped Octavia Spencer negotiate a higher salary. It’s the reason a very white Scarlett Johansson…
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Watch: The Chi Brings Black Joy, Says Actress Tiffany Boone
Actress Tiffany Boone gets satisfaction from showing the humanity of Chicagoans. “I think people think of Chicago as a super-dangerous place. These are human beings. Nobody wants to kill someone just to kill someone,” the up-and-coming actress told The Root. Boone plays Jerrika, a natural-hair beauty from the “right” side of the tracks, in Lena…
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Lena Waithe Asks Twitter to Weigh In on Netflix’s Step Sisters … and They Tell Her
We here at The Root have already weighed in on Step Sisters, the Netflix movie in which a black woman teaches white coeds how to step, the African-American cultural tradition where one’s body is used as an instrument. Frankly, many were looking at the flick with the side eye because … more cultural appropriation. But…
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What The Chi Gets Right (and Wrong) About Chicago
Chicagoans are protective of their city, and for good reason. Over the past few years, the City of the Big Shoulders has been the go-to dog whistle for Republicans and what-about-black-on-black-crime enthusiasts alike. The city’s spot on America’s Wheel of Sensationalism has dominated the larger national media gaze as the premier symbol of the black…
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Lena Waithe’s The Chi Expertly Gives the People of Chicago Humanity and Backstories
The Chi is the type of TV show Chicago deserves. If you leave it to the media, the limited picture that’s painted of Chicago turns anyone who’s never been there away from ever coming to Chi-town because of the seemingly limitless examples of violence that plague the city. But we can’t allow the media to…
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10 Reasons I’m Most Likely Going to Watch Netflix’s Step Sisters
On Jan. 19, Netflix is going to set Twitter afire with the release of its original film Step Sisters. I remember when Drumline: A New Beat (effectively Drumline 2) came out on VH1 (and was terrible), black folks had a field day tearing it to shreds. But this shit right here? This shit right here,…
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Meet the Kids of Showtime’s The Chi Series in Rules of the South Side Webisodes
As Showtime gears up for its long-awaited premiere of the Lena Waithe executive-produced series The Chi, the network is offering a sneak peak at some of the characters you’ll grow to love on the series. The Chi is a coming-of-age story centering on a group of Chicago South Side residents who become linked by coincidence.…
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Dapper: Fashioning a Queer Aesthetic of Black Womanhood
“Ain’t I a woman?” Black feminist pioneer Sojourner Truth famously asked that question of an all-white audience of abolitionists and suffragettes in 1861, to point out the erasure of black women from the social “protections” of womanhood. A century and a half later, black women, from Misty Copeland and Serena Williams to first lady Michelle…