Many of us want love to be wrapped up in an attractive package with all the bells, whistles, hugs and kisses. I know I do. Father God, please let my mate be smart, kind, generous, a dreamer but a doer, mentally stable, financially free, an advocate and a consumer of therapy, and also, can he look like Idris Elba,…

OWN set up a pink carpet, as opposed to red, for the premiere of the network’s newest show, Love Is ___, on Monday. It’s a romantic dramedy that stars Will Catlett (Black Lightning) and Michele Weaver as Yasir and Nuri respectively, characters based on power couple Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil.

It’s the hot-button topic right now: interracial dating and love. Donald Glover faced criticism around the topic after the release of his viral hit, “This Is America.” The video screamed blackness and reminded everyone that all of the art Glover’s been providing lately is also saturated with black culture. So when…

Janet Jackson’s janet. could not have come out at a more critical time in my life. It was the summer of 1993 (the album was released 25 years ago today, May 18), and I was 11 years old going on 12, and puberty was having the time of its life in my body. Since this was still a few years before the internet would be…

We’re constantly celebrating black love on The Root. And we just so happened to be lucky enough to sit down separately with #BlackLoveGoals couple Denzel and Pauletta Washington as each of them promoted their latest work.

A list of real couples who are actual #RelationshipGoals:

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…

Valentine’s Day is Wednesday, and everyone is gearing up to show the one they love how special they are. I’ve seen conversations all across social media about what people will be giving their significant others, and I thought that now is as good a time as any to clear up a few misconceptions people may have about this…

Oh Ayantee, how I love thee.

(There are very, very light spoilers in this piece. None of them tell you much of about the plot of the show.)

To say that Nia Long is a national treasure is an understatement. Long has been a part of most of our  lives since at least the mid-’90s, when she played Beulah “Lisa” Wilkes on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and when a visionary Ice Cube saw fit to cast her in cult classic Friday.

I’ve been a watcher of the Love & Hip Hop franchise for years now. I dedicated real life space to the Hollywood cast, was marginally invested in the New York cast until the past few seasons thanks largely to the shenanigans of one Peter Pankey aka Peter Gunz, and Atlanta has had its fits and starts.

Lit. District Chapter #2: LOVE |Tuesday, March 1| Tap & Parlour

Sometime last year I went through a gut-wrenching breakup. Not because anybody cheated or invited me to therapy to let me know they were gay in front of 25 cameras and a boom mic or anything. Just a regular ole’ "I think we just broke up and I don't know how to function without my best friend so now I'm drunk in DR  a…

I remember the first time I heard a Phyllis Hyman song. This was in March 2006 at my boy Tim's condo. He'd turned his second bedroom into a makeshift studio and we did a lot of writing and producing in that room. At the time, he was the producer and I was just learning the basics of sampling and producing and had been…

(This part is going to be mad shorter. I've run out of steam and real talk, the last day was the wedding. And honestly, I'm only really tallying all of the drinking that was done, for historical purposes.)

(When we left our super hero, he had returned to his hotel room to go to sleep at 4am!)

I recently got back from Saginaw, Michigan, where I participated in (a brotha's name and signature is even on the marriage license) the nuptials of one of my best friends and his newly minted wife. And let me tell you, I had myself a good ole time. Which, let's be real, isn't exactly what you think of when you think…