new orleans
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Awkward Black Guy: I’m Not Nigerian But I Played One for a Whole Weekend
“You’re totally Nigerian,” Nkechi Nneji said, holding her hands out in a frame like she was sizing up my face for a photo. “And you’ve got an Igbo head!” This was uttered to me in a vaguely complimentary way by my friend, Nkechi (pronounced EN-KAY-Chee), as she and fellow Nigerian Omarosa (yes, that Omarosa), tried…
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That 'In My Feelings' Cameo from NOLA Bounce Legend Big Freedia? She Was the One Who Set That Up
It can be said Big Freedia, the iconic, bounce music artist whose signature delivery has popped up on songs from the music industry’s biggest names, does far more than represent New Orleans. She embodies it. So it’s a bit of a surprise to find out that Big Freedia was the one who had to reach…
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Colorism and the Legacy of Plaçage: The House That Will Not Stand Revisits a History Still Relevant Today
Seven women, a segregated society, and an age-old means of survival. That’s the pretext behind the play The House That Will Not Stand, now in production at the New York Theatre Workshop in New York City. Written in 2014 by Marcus Gardley (whose credits include Showtime’s The Chi) and inspired by The House of Bernarda…
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Trump Effect: Spokesman for GOP Senate Hopeful Called Memphis, New Orleans and Baltimore 'Shitholes'
Remember when Donald Trump referred to black countries as “shitholes” and then tried to lie and say he didn’t say it and then Omarosa got kicked out of the White House and confirmed that he said it? Well, it looks like the deplorable GOP leaf doesn’t fall far from the decrepit GOP tree as a…
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New Orleans Shooting Leaves 3 dead, 7 injured
Three people are dead and seven are injured after two suspects fired into a crowd in New Orleans’ Central City neighborhood Saturday night. ABC News is reporting that 10 people were struck by gunfire around 8:35 p.m. local time. Two men and one woman were pronounced dead at the scene; the woman was hit several…
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10 Observations From My First Essence Festival, the ‘Super Bowl for Black Women’
1. At some point during the two-hour layover at O’Hare International Airport on my trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans last weekend, a supernatural force compelled me to glance up from my laptop and scan the gate around me. There was a shift in the space-time continuum that the universe was attempting to alert me…
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Trial Finally Set for White Man Accused of Shooting at 3 Black Men After Hurricane Katrina
A trial date has finally been set for a 55-year-old white man who was charged with shooting at three black men in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Authorities claim that Roland Bourgeois Jr. shot at three black men, wounding one, after he and others discussed protecting the Algiers neighborhood in New Orleans after Hurricane…
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Flipping the Narrative: Movement to Publicly Honor Black Journalists and Newspapers Grows
This weekend, two trailblazing black newspapers were honored in New Orleans’ French Quarter with a new bronze plaque that heralds their achievements and their contributions to America’s black press and, by extension, black life. L’Union and la Tribune de la Nouvelle-Orleans (the New Orleans Tribune) circulated among a vast national readership during the Civil War…
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Sweet Baby Beysus! Beyoncé Went and Bought Another Church
There are far too many to count, those who worship at the altar of Ms. Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter. But given that, it’s only fitting that this generation’s, er, Michael Jackson would just go ahead and get herself a church. So, yeah, that’s what she did. TMZ reports that Beyoncé recently purchased a 7,500-square-foot, 100-year-old…
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That’s Dr. Chano to You: Chance the Rapper Praises the Great Name of Beyoncé in Dillard Commencement Speech
Chancelor Jonathan Bennett, known to most as Chance the Rapper or Lil Chano, gave a rousing commencement address to the graduates of Dillard University in New Orleans on Saturday, a not ahistorical speech, charging the graduates to strive to surpass those who came before them. “The highest form of respect that we can pay to…