Last year, Gabrielle Union received the Fierce and Fearless Award at Essence magazine’s sixth annual Black Women in Hollywood pre-Oscars luncheon and gave a dope speech about her journey in Hollywood and learning to love herself and other black women. She opened up and shared the truth of her experience, her pain, her insecurity, […]
Tag: Black Women
On Black Men Showing Up for Black Women at the Scene of the Crime
Two nights ago I showed up to the Brecht Forum in Brooklyn ready to have a conversation about what we mean when we say “ally, privilege, and comrade.” I showed up to have that discussion after months of battle testing around these issues in my own crew. Over these months I’ve learned that it is […]
De-Tangling Racism: On White Women and Black Hair
Pictures from a new exhibit by photographer Endia Beal called “Can I Touch It?” showcase several white women, all corporate execs, who agreed to get a “Black hairstyle” and then have their portrait taken. Apparently, this very quotidian fixation with Black women’s bodies and Black women’s hair is now the stuff of art exhibits. This project […]
Somebody, Anybody? It’s Hard Out Here for a Sista
Trigger warning: Violent language “Somebody, anybody sing a Black girl song” Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow was Enuf Being a Black woman or girl in the United States has never been easy. That much […]
Blackgirl Blue(s)
The first time I decided I wanted to die it was because I felt the weight of so much sadness blues as deep as navy mixed with black I was too black to be happy Too black to be pretty Too black to be worth anything I convinced myself no one would care if I […]
(Why) Does It Matter?: Raven Symoné’s Quiet Coming Out
As a close-enough-to 80’s baby I knew Raven Symoné as adorable Olivia on The Cosby Show. She was like the new Rudy, a yellow skinned toddler beauty to share banter and cute humor with Cliff once his fictional offspring were too old to pull it off. By the time Symoné emerged the star of her […]
Happy Birthday Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson!
Guest Post by Reina Gossett A few months ago I took the PATH train to Hoboken with my artistic collaborator Sasha Wortzel to interview Randy Wicker for a film we are making about Sylvia Rivera. Randy is one of the few surviving members of Mattachine Society, an early queer radical organizing group in the US. […]
Love and Basketball: 5 Reasons You Should Be a Brittney Griner Fan
Brittney Griner is not the first female athlete to come out about her sexuality, nor is she the first black woman in the WNBA to do so. What she is, though, is the first black woman athlete of her caliber (she is compared to the late great Wilt Chamberlain) to come out on the front […]
Tyler Perry Hates Black Women: 5 Thoughts on The Haves and Have Nots
****Spoilers**** Welp. I watched the premiere of Tyler Perry’s latest train wreck on OWN last night for two reasons. A.) Morbid curiosity and B.) I didn’t wanna hear negroes’ mouths about how I didn’t give it a chance and was therefore uninformed and unqualified to speak on his show (despite the 12 or so […]
Corned Beef and Cabbage, Shrimp and Crabs: For Assata Shakur
ONE One would grow weary of the list of foods I generally refuse ingesting: I don’t eat beef or pork, peas or boiled peanuts, and, of course, a lot of things in between. Something about being able to decide what one wants on one’s tongue, what flavors one decides to savor, is something I hold […]