Black Power Without Black Women Is Weak
“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman, the most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” – Malcolm X
When most people think about Malcolm X they immediately think of Black manhood leading to associations of Black power tied exclusively to the work of Black men. This is most likely a case of people not knowing that our own Black shining Read more...
“GIRLHOOD” Screening & Discussion in Harlem!
This Saturday, March 28th, in partnership with Imagenation Cinema Foundation, theHotness.com is hosting the 7:30pm screening of the critically acclaimed film Girlhood. Please join me as I moderate a post discussion with panelists Yvette Russell (former ESSENCE Entertainment Editor & current Director of Programs for READ Alliance), Shawanna Bell (Program Coordinator at Young Life), and Genesis Mullen (Young Life member) along with girls from the Harlem chapter of Young Life for Read more...
Standing On The Corner of Self-Realization & Joy
“You meet all kinds of people that help put life in perspective and turn the horror into some kind of lesson or avenue of awakening that lives with you all your days.” -Ruby Dee
“Stand still inside yourself and know who you are.” -Dr. Maya Angelou
If you’ve seen me walk you know I walk hard and in typical New Yorker form, I rarely stand still. Exactly a month ago, after just leaving my office Read more...
Hot Grrrls Cool Music w/ IMANI UZURI at Ginny’s
If Paulo Coelho’s best-selling, uber-iconic, The Alchemist, had a soundtrack, “The Gypsy Diaries” would be it! On “The Gypsy Diaries,” Imani Uzuri’s sophomore solo CD, it feels as though Imani just ripped pages from her personal journal and set them on fire through testimony and song. Her music, including her first album “Her Holy Water,” is largely about self-discovery and how losing yourself via travel– especially for a sister that appreciates sand between her Read more...
Hope, Rage & Breath: Time To Trouble The Water
Read more...“It is the Zimmerman mindset that must be found guilty—far more than the man himself. It is a mindset that views black men and boys as nothing but a threat, good for nothing, up to no good no matter who they are or what they are doing. It is the Zimmerman mindset that has birthed a penal system unprecedented in world history, and relegated millions to a permanent undercaste. Trayvon, you will not be forgotten.
Being An Awkward Hot Grrrl: A Day in the Life
Did you watch Ava Duvernay’s Venus Vs. last night on ESPN? I was most blown away by Venus’s confidence. 23 years old, 6’1″ and those white and green beads and those long, gangly legs. When she said, “I’m tall, I’m Black and everything is different about me and those are the facts,” I knew EXACTLY where she was coming from and EXACTLY where she was heading. She was on the precipice of not giving a Read more...
Uptown Grrrl Soiree Recap
Shola Lynch captured the energy, attitude and theme of last Saturday’s Uptown Grrrl Soiree best in her speech when she said, “In order for us to succeed, Black women must support other Black women.” The room erupted in a roar of applause. Folks may have rolled through to Harlem Haberdashery for the gift bags or the open Svedka bar, but at that moment everyone in the tony boutique realized it was all about the power Read more...
Scratch & Kiss
“The art of living (and loving) is more like wrestling than dancing, insofar as it stands ready against the accidental and unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.” – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
When I think of love I think of a force that is all consuming. Beyond all our natural and unnatural senses, LOVE at its best (and worst) strips us, whips us, rocks, knocks and locks us in a powerful space that defines and Read more...
Pam Grier – Funny, Fly & Foxy
Yesterday, for the second time in my life, I had the wonderful privilege of seeing and speaking to actress, icon and Black super heroine– Pam Grier, who was in Harlem promoting her new book: Foxy: My Life in Three Acts. I first met Ms. Grier two years ago at the Black Girls Rock Awards gala at Lincoln Center. She was humble, outgoing, gracious and bad to the bone. Our chat was brief, but her Read more...
Tamar-kali: Afro-Punk’s Pink Side
Tamar-kali describes her music as “Hardcore Geechee Goddess Warrior Soul.” I simply think it’s bad-ass. Featured in Afro-Punk, James Spooner’s marvelous documentary about Black folk who punk-rock and up jumped the boogie to another level via Fishbone, Betty Davis and Bad Brains, Tamar-kali quickly became a face of a movement she’d fronted locally in NYC for over 15 years in bands like Song of Seven and Funkface.
What I love so much about Read more...