movie
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Review: The Birth of a Nation Isn't Strong Enough to Shake Director's Past
Editor’s note: This review contains spoilers. The Birth of a Nation reminded me of Old Man Harris. He was a bluesman in the Mississippi Delta before he became the director of the men’s chorus at my childhood church. He claimed that he’d played with the likes of B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf before…
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No, Zendaya in Spider-Man: Homecoming Is Not the Progress We’re Looking For
Zendaya Coleman is everything that anybody black, brown or biracial could look for in an admirable tween pop star. She’s talented; her Disney Channel show, K.C. Undercover, is a campy mashup of The Proud Family and The Famous Jett Jackson; and most importantly, Zendaya is unmistakably, irrevocably and proudly black as hell—and don’t you dare…
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Michael Jackson Died 7 Years Ago and His Legacy Still Eludes Us; Maybe That's How He Wanted It
Seven years after his death, Michael Jackson continues to elude and astonish us. But we now know this was how he intended it. Spike Lee’s recent documentary about Jackson’s early years features a letter Jackson wrote in 1979, at age 21. He had just released Off the Wall and was on the Destiny tour with…
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I Don't Know Where The Movie 'DOPE' Came From, But I'm Excited As Hell About It!
‘Round here, we love us some Black movies. The Blacker the movie, the greater the likelihood that I will spend copious amounts of money time on Netflix sifting through films featuring pantheon Black-movie savants like Clifton Powell, Vivica Fox, and Essence Atkins. Thing is, most of those movies suck. There’s a reason you haven’t heard of most…
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Sample Literacy Test: Would You Have Been Able To Vote?
The movie Selma is coming to theaters in a few months and the cracker jack marketing team behind the movie decided to drop the bomb on the masses early. As part of the promo for the movie, they crafted a literacy test, complete wtih questions that were used to bar some Black folks from voting in…