October 20, 2009

Real Talk, TV/Film

Good Hair: Between a Rock & a Hard Place

good-hair

I’ve had a press & curl, box braids, a relaxer, a texturizer, an afro, Bantu-knots and now I’m rocking long cornrows– $20 synthetic hair in the back and real afro-kinky hair for bangs. I know about Black hair– the good, the bad and the ugly. My hair has been two inches short and about 10 inches at its longest.  I cut it, tease it, straighten it, extend it and twist it. For me hair is Read more...

September 3, 2009

Grooves, Real Talk

Roxanne Shante Caught The Vapors

Last week on our Facebook page I posted this really amazing story about Roxanne Shante earning her Ph.D and how she so cleverly had her record label pay for her entire academic ride. It was impressive. Redemptive even. I was thrilled to hear that one of my favorite female rappers had the foresight to include in her contract a provision for her educational expenses. Homegirl had juiced the music industry and had her doctorate in Read more...

August 22, 2009

Grooves, Videos

Marsha Ambrosius– Cool Chick, Hot Flo

ma_red

Okay I think it’s high time we stop fronting with these politically correct music critiques. Both the music industry and artists alike are suffering from disingenuously wack music reviews, not to say how this kind of criticism has rendered music journalism damn near irrelevant. So real talk. I know most fans of Floetry have love for both Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart– The Songstress and The Floacist respectively, but we all know that Marsha was Read more...

July 28, 2009

Real Talk

theHotness 2.0!

andthensome_475w

I have come to believe… that what is important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” –Audre Lorde

Rebooted. Re-ignited. Revised and Re-visioned. After a sorely needed hiatus and also some much needed retooling, theHotness is back, baby!

On March 31, 2000 I launched theHotness in the form of an e-newsletter that “celebrated the creativity, ingenuity and straight-up flava of women of color.” Read more...

July 24, 2009

Best Of, Lifestyle, Real Talk

I Am Not My Hair!

sol_coif

I guess it was yesterday or maybe Wednesday when singer, Solange Knowles was snapped by paparazzi rocking a very short-cropped coif. And before this young mama could get back home, the Web was a’buzz about her buzzed cut. Of course the haters had their Yaki Platinums in a knot over the do saying she and others are allegedly biting “the bald look” of Kanye’s ex Amber Rose. And those were the sweet comments. Other Read more...

July 9, 2009

Grooves, Real Talk, Videos

They Won’t Go When I Go – MJ RIP

jax_star

Off of Fulfillingness’ First Finale, “They Won’t Go When I Go” is, for me, one of Stevie Wonder’s best and most moving songs. Hearing it sung at MJ’s Memorial was nothing short of pure genius. Following “I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” (which ironically was featured in Poetic Justice with a young, grieving Janet Jackson), with this here song singing: No more lying friends/ Wanting tragic ends/ Though they do pretend/ They Read more...

July 1, 2009

The Goods

THE GOODS: MAC’s Naked Honey

macnakedscent

There’s something just so sweet and pure when it comes to homegrrrls and honey. A sticky ole love affair that just can’t be denied. There’s Erykah Badu riffing in that funky sweet southern drawl, “You got that honey/ You running from me/ You really turn me on.” And there’s The Secret Life of Bees that featured Queen Latifah running the business of “Black Madonna Honey” using her product to wax metaphorically about justice, honesty and Read more...

June 25, 2009

Lifestyle

So Sneaky Freaky

sneaks

I love rocking high heels and wedges and especially love kickin up snow in my pumpkin orange platform boots, but really I’m a sneaker freak at heart. Living in NYC I’ve been blessed to have access to some of the best sneaker spots in the world. Not like I’ve ever paid more than $100 for a pair of kicks, but it’s so nice to try on the classic, crazy expensive limited edition joints every now Read more...

June 3, 2009

Pad

Kerry Washington’s New Green-House

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kitchen_after

Apparently Kerry Washington, the actress who bored us in She Hate Me, charmed us in Ray and then unhinged us with her portrayal of Kay Amin in Last King of Scotland was experiencing a décor dilemma. It would seem (if we are to believe all that’s fit to print in O and we kinda do), the Bronx born activist did not know how to fuse her desire to live an eco-friendly existence with having Read more...

May 27, 2009

Real Talk

I am Sonia Sotomayor!

Sotomayor

Okay well I’m not really Sonia Sotomayor, but I can identify with the 54-year old judge who is poised to become the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic justice and only its third woman.  Firstly, she’s a Boriquena from the Bronx (my hometown) who went to Cardinal Spelman H.S. Supported solely by the wages of her single mom she went on to attend Princeton and then Yale Law where she served as Editor of their Law Read more...