January 20, 2019

Real Talk

Still Angry, But Tired of Marching!

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So when do we say enough of the marching and roll up our sleeves and start tackling the actual issues? And once we start tackling the issues and working to make change, why do we keep on marching year after year? I thought about these two questions a lot this past month leading up to yesterday’s #WomensMarch2019. In 2017, it felt absolutely necessary and urgent and cathartic to march the day after 45, with his Read more...

September 10, 2018

Best Of, Real Talk

Serena May Have Lost, But She’s Not Defeated!

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There is something about this image that had me staring at it all day yesterday and this morning too. This is Serena Williams after her blow-up, not meltdown, with umpire Carlos Ramos who accused her of cheating during yesterday’s match at the 2018 US Open final. This is Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, sitting in the wake of sexism and racism’s microaggressive fuckery. This image is heartbreaking. It’s sobering. It’s a reflection. Read more...

September 3, 2018

#MCM

Geoffrey Owens: An Actor Getting That Bag

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My spiritual mama, who’s a working Black actress in NYC, often says, “Nigga famous, nigga poor!” She usually utters this right after someone runs up to her excitedly hollering, “Hey, you’re the lady from the (blah, blah, blah) commercial!” She always responds and often with exasperation, “Yeah, that’s me.” Under her breath she’d say to me, “Everyone wants your autograph and picture, but little do they know you’re struggling just like them to get by.” Read more...

May 19, 2018

Lifestyle

Solange’s Black Punany Power

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So when men, particularly Black male artists, fly against the wind and do something out of the ordinary we take pause. We lament their confusing shortcomings (Kanye) and celebrate their high shots (Childish Gambino) for weeks, if not months and years (Outkast’s “Aquemini,” Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” & Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly”). But let a Black woman do some provocative, against the grain ish. Outside of Beyonce, American can’t seem to muster and Read more...

August 31, 2016

Real Talk

Nate Parker: When Black Power Meets Rape Culture

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Ah Nate Parker. This has been extremely challenging for me to process. I wasn’t so much disappointed by the news of his rape case as I was offended. Nate Parker has disappointed me in the past with other choices and comments he’s made, but not this. And his recent comments were almost more offending than the incident itself because it showed that 17 years later this dude had convinced himself that he had done nothing Read more...

November 23, 2015

Best Of, Real Talk

You Never Know! (It’s not always #BlackGirlJoy)

After a mountaintop experience with Carrie Mae Weems and my college bestie Kim last weekend in DC, I returned to NYC on Monday. That same night I had an awesome time at a cocktail mixer. I engaged with literary agents, editors and other writers and was feeling uber inspired as a creative and as a Black woman. Then I decided to take the bus back uptown to Harlem after the Writers & Wine event and Read more...

November 17, 2015

Art

Holding Hands With Carrie Mae Weems

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This past Sunday at about this exact hour, this happened at The National Museum for Women in the Arts at their #FreshTalk4Change Sunday supper:

I had the last question of the night. By now all the platters of grilled salmon were bare and everyone was munching on their dessert cookies. I had the last question of the night and I wanted to ask Carrie Mae Weems if her radicalism, her ‪#‎BlackGirlMagic‬ if you

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July 9, 2015

Lifestyle

Going On Vacay

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Taking a page from the textbooks of students and professors everywhere, theHotness is breaking for the summer. We’ll be back in September. Be fresh. Stay hot!

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June 12, 2015

Lifestyle

WoW Festival: Who Owns Our Bodies?

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This weekend, I will be one of 128 women to appear at the New York debut of ‪‎WOW‬– Women of the World Festival, an international event intended to celebrate women and spark progressive discussion of their rights. Held at the Apollo Theater in Harlem —and open to everyone—the event runs June 11-14 and includes keynotes by Iyanla Vanzant and Naomi Wolf, performances by Macy Gray, Jessica Care Moore, and Toshi Reagon, workshops on Read more...

June 5, 2015

Lifestyle, Real Talk

#CountMeOUT: Wangechi Mutu & Toshi Reagon

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“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” -Audre Lorde

theHotness celebrates and partners with Black queer women this month in our #CountMeOUT campaign that links African and African-American women– both queer and straight in conversations and hopefully in a movement that expands the ways in which we think about community, activism and sisterhood.

In launching #CountMeOUT, I will present a series of Read more...