Hot Grrrls & Their Kool Kickstarters
With technology comes access and with access we can damn near make anything happen and that is the premise behind Kickstarter. Via Kickstarter, I’ve seen many of my friends put out the CD’s they’ve always dreamed of releasing but never could do before without a label deal or having saved stacks of cash. I’ve even know a couple of people make amazing documentaries via Kickstarter. It’s power to the people without delay… well 45 days, Read more...
Black Girls Deserve So Much More
“I speak here as a woman of Color who is not bent upon destruction, but upon survival. No woman is responsible for altering the psyche of her oppressor, even when that psyche is embodied in another woman.” –Audre Lorde
“The way I feel about life? It’s a struggle. You have to stop getting mad and get smart.” – Mamie Lee Melton Nichols
Sunday night as the Oscar’s came to a close someone at The Onion Read more...
FLYASPORA: QUEENS
Bawse. Sharp. Foine. Smart. Mahogany. Awkward. Classy. Regal. Erotic. Heard. Loud & Clear. Honey. Sho Nuff. Soft. Sexy. Hard. Foxy. Brown. These are Mickalene’s queens. Shoot, let’s keep it real, these are OUR Queens. Our mamas, our aunties, our sisters, our homegirls, our teachers, our grandmas. us. Crown high. Roots–deep & low. Bout it.
- “Rumble” (from the “Brawling Spitfire Wrestling” series); 2005
Brooklyn-based artist Mickalene Thomas is best known for her photographs and her elaborate Read more...
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...
Best of 2010 & 2011 on theHotness Tip
18 days into the new year and it’s already been a doozy. The first week I had to travel to South Carolina to attend the funeral of my ever charming, charismatic, and ambitious cousin, Michael. That same week another cousin suffered a mild stroke at the meager age of 42. On top of worry, grief, regret and frustration, I’ve been dealing with an awful case of writer’s block. I’ve been consumed with thoughts about the Read more...
10 Most Fascinating People of 2010
Like so many people across the globe, I tuned into Barbara Walter’s special last Thursday evening to see who would make her list of “The 10 Most Fascinating People” and like so many peeps I was pretty disappointed. I can see Mark Zuckerberg and Betty White and was pleased to see LeBron James on her list as well, but Jennifer Lopez and The Jersey Shore cast? Nuh-uh. And I don’t have to like something to Read more...
Yéle Haiti!
The word yéle is actually a Creole word, and the right way to say it is lee-lay. And yéle means to scream. So when I say yéle, it means I’m screaming for freedom. Freedom of the mind. –Wyclef Jean
I was feeling a lil lousy yesterday—tired of the stress of work, feeling overwhelmed and non-motivated, and then I read tweets by a man named Troy who lives in Port Au Prince. He talked of sleeping Read more...