Thanks to Daddy, I’m Every Woman!
This Father’s Day was my fourth without my dad and to use Oprah’s phrase– What I know for sure— is that Daddy’s Girls never get over the loss of our fathers. I am always so full on Father’s Day. Not sad like that first Father’s Day when I decided to buy flowers to place on my dad’s gravesite. The woman behind the counter was busy helping one woman with her arrangement. She looked up Read more...
Fashion Industry’s Problem With Black Girls
UPDATE (06.21.11): Vogue Italia Editor-in-Chief, Franca Sozzani, responds to recent claims that the Fashion Industry is racist. The title of her post, which was published yesterday, “Why It Is So Hard To Scout For Black Models?” never really gets answered. Instead Sozzani minimizes the allegations of racism by saying that the media has an unfortunate need to be controversial: “I feel sorry for being a journalist. I do understand that few of us do this Read more...
Blue Note Jazz Festival Puts Ladies First
Seeing the line-up for the first ever Blue Note Jazz Festival totally blew my wig back. It features a Who’s Who list of artists that have been instrumental in making the jazz club legendary. The Blue Note has been home to not just jazz phenoms, but also to young artists that span soul, hiphop, funk and rock, so it’s no surprise that the festival features a fantastic range of talent. What is so delightfully surprising Read more...
Kara Walker’s Dust Jackets for the Niggerati
theHotness presents…
An Art Walk & Talk
for
KARA WALKER’S
Dust Jackets for the Niggerati–and Supporting Dissertations,
Drawings Submitted Ruefully by Dr. Kara E. Walker
hosted by
Nicole Moore
Founder & Editor, theHotness.com
&
Dexter Wimberly
Director of Communications, Museum for African Art
When:
TODAY – Saturday, June 11, 2011
3:00pm – 5:00pm
Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
530 West 22nd St., NYC
* Afterwards we will continue the conversation over drinks *
@ The Read more...
Rihanna’s “Man Down”
Reading actress Gabrielle Union’s tweets this morning about her attempt to kill her rapist at the tender age of 19 bought Rihanna’s video for “Man Down” right back to center and in living color for me. Please don’t let the beautiful rural Jamaican backdrop, pulsating beats, or Riri’s rude gyal rumpapapums fool ya, “Man Down” is about rape and more specifically, the very real and possible psychological fallout from such a crime. Rihanna, I feel, Read more...
Ledisi’s “Pieces Of Me”
“People just don’t know what I’m about/ They haven’t seen what’s there behind my smile/ There’s so much more I’m showing now,” sings Ledisi on her new single Pieces Of Me from her forthcoming album of the same name. Last night at the Samsung Experience in the Time Warner Center Ledisi sang “Pieces” with a conviction that made her lean hard on the mic stand towards the audience all awhile her eyes remaining wide open. Read more...
When Mother’s Day is Anything But Happy
I know Mother’s Day just passed and most of us were caught up in festivities of merriment with our moms and/ or our children. There were brunches and beautiful bunches of flowers and boxes of gooey chocolates all happily served-up in celebration of mothers. All day long though I couldn’t stop thinking about Lashanda Armstrong, the 25-year old single mom who, exactly a month ago today, drove her mini-van down a boat ramp Read more...
Celebrating bin Laden’s Murder?
After listening to countless reports on CNN last night and reading endless tweets about how “Obama killed Osama” I feel very conflicted. I’m not sad that bin Laden is dead, but I’m not celebrating either. My spirit is so very far from celebrating. Jubilant shouts of “USA, USA, USA” will surely morph right back into tea-partiers calling President Obama a “n*gger monkey” by week’s end. Now that the US Special Forces have dropped Osama’s Read more...
Happy 11th– Still Jill Scott Hot!
Yesterday, March 31st marked 11 years of Hotness… theHotness that is. As I sit here contemplating the future of this here blog, I suddenly remembered the beginning and what it felt like creating the very first issue of theHotness. The evening that I closed that issue and it was finally ready to “go out into the world” I felt exhilarated. I was filled with anxiety, stress, pride and eagerness. Because of my job Read more...
What is theHotness?
It never fails. I give someone my business card and I get an, “Ooohh, what’s theHotness” and, usually if it’s a dude, a raised eyebrow and a wink will accompany this sentence. Um no. Sorry, wrong kind of hotness, sir. I’m not running a Heidi Fleiss den of sex and scandal. “It’s a dotcom… we celebrate the brains, backbone and beauty of brown girls,” I respond. I hate to do it, but I always Read more...