April 26, 2012

The Goods

Brass: A Recessionista’s New Gold

Gold, referred to as “tears of the Sun” by the Incas, is perhaps the oldest metal known to us earthlings and I just love this precious metal like no other. It’s shimmer. It’s depth. It’s richness. It all makes that part of my gut that’s connected to beauty and spirit just razzle dazzle with a rush of excitement. Oh and then there’s its connection to Ancient Egypt and Nubia where gold was considered the skin Read more...

April 23, 2012

Best Of, Grooves

Bahamadia, Hip Hop & Me

Next Wednesday, May 2nd, I have the honor of moderating “Nice With Hers”— a conversation (plus fab intro by ebony.com’s Jamilah Lemieux) with Karen Good, Kierna Mayo, and dream hampton — some of the fearless female journalists who wrote the narrative of how the world came to know hip hop, culture, fashion, and itself at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, USA. I’m thrilled, nervous and totally consumed with what Read more...

April 19, 2012

theHigh-5

The 5 Women That Should’ve Been in Vanity Fair

As usual another magazine comes out with their “Hottest,” “Sexiest” and “Best Of” Issue featuring the flavors of the month in popular culture. And of course, the panorama of pale faces is yet another reminder that people of color are a second, if not third, thought in mainstream media’s eyes. So when I saw the Vanity Fair TV Issue, and did not see one brown face on the cover I wasn’t outraged or even surprised. Read more...

April 13, 2012

Art, Fly-aspora

Mona Lisa Ain’t Never Looked This Good!

It’s Friday. Flyaspora Friday here at theHotness and we thought we’d titillate your senses with a little fine art. I love these two portraits because they reappropriate what is considered classical, high art and dips them low in a point a view and representation that goes against the grain yet supports the woman I see in the mirror every day. Awol Erizku’s “Girl With A Bamboo Earring” reimagines Johannes Vermeer’s famous “Girl with a Pearl Read more...

April 10, 2012

The Goods

My Birthday Wish List 2012

Celebrating my birthday, as an adult, has become a mixed bag affair. Sometimes I think as we mature, the birthday partying and whooping it up gets a bit tired. We’re not kids anymore and all that fussing about birthday cake ain’t grown-n-sexy unless you’re talking about blowing out the kind of candles Rihanna sings about in her current hit. But it is the day on which we were born and not to go all Chucky Read more...

April 5, 2012

Art, Fly-aspora

Elizabeth Catlett: Liberation Through Art

“Base what you’re doing on something constructive that has to do with all of us (African-Americans/ Black folk) and not just on money and buying things.” -Elizabeth Catlett Mora

“Art is only important to the extent that it aids in the liberation of our people.” –Elizabeth Catlett Mora

April 29, 2011. It was a beautiful spring Friday and I was at Columbia University attending “Towards An Intellectual History of Black Women”– this no nonsense, spectacular Read more...