self-care
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Watch: The Women of Girls Trip Share Their Uplifting Mantras
In the heavily anticipated movie Girls Trip, one of the stars of the movie, Regina Hall, plays Ryan Pierce, a strong black woman who’s created a conception of her life as the one who “has it all.” We quickly learn that Ryan’s fantasy life is a fantasy even to her. Without spoiling anything (because you…
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Watch: How Did the Stars of The Birth of a Nation Practice Self-Care While Shooting This Intense Film?
Black trauma stems back as far back as slavery. Knowing that our ancestors were treated worse than animals—brutalized, dehumanized and demeaned—and that this terrible legacy of racism has carried on to our modern and “progressive” times is a painful truth that we must face every day. When movies like The Birth of a Nation are…
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On Kid Cudi And Trying To Save Your Own Life
I’m a Kid Cudi fan. In fact, to know me and speak to me about music, you will likely hear me say, at some point during our musical relationship, that Kid Cudi is the best accessory artist in music. In fact, I contend that ALL songs are made better by the addition of Kid Cudi or…
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On the Road to Self-Care, Exercising Is One Way to Stay Mentally and Physically Fit
If you’re anything like me, the events that have unfolded over the past 72 hours have been at best astonishing and at worst exhausting. Being black in America has always been a particularly tenuous game: Show your well-earned frustration to others and you could be branded as too sensitive. Keep your legitimate anger inside yourself…
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Ask Agatha: Reckless Flirting, Fronting On Black Twitter, And Wiping While Sitting
Before we dive into this week’s questions, I want to apologize to my constant reader[s] for my absence (hey Kas). You see what had happened was, I haven’t been getting any good questions and Damon never put out the call like I so sweetly asked because apparently he has a popular site to run and…
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Damon Young And Panama Jackson On "The Extraordinary Negroes" Podcast
Damon and Panama were invited to appear on The Extraordinary Negroes podcast, which is produced by Jay Connor and VSB’s own Alex Hardy. Listen as they riff on pop culture icons and their food analogies, gunshots, VSB’s world-domination aspirations, self-care, Steve Harvey’s suits, cucumber casserole, writing mentorship, the VSB comments section, Larry Wilmore, and more.
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How Being A Little Racist Sometimes Can Be A Form Of Self-Care For Black People, Explained
What is racism? According to Merriam-Webster, racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. This base belief has led to myriad race-based social constructs and dynamics. Here in America, for instance, it manifests as a structural/foundational racism that…
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Dancing The Blues Away: How Ballet Became My Therapy
A few weeks ago, I walked into Broadway Dance Center and bought a 10-class card, ending months of wanting and planning and needing to get back into dance, specifically ballet. I promised myself that I would dive back in when I landed in New York in July, and then life happened, but still I rise,…