Welcome to the New Black Renaissance

Beyoncé’s return performance just happened to be the headlining set that she had to skip out on last year due to her pregnancy with her twins, Rumi and Sir. The world anticipated what she would do, but we KNEW that we wouldn't be disappointed. Beyoncé came and sat back down on her throne with a performance that broke all types of records and earned accolades galore. And while we ALL thoroughly enjoyed Beychella, I feel as though Black people enjoyed it much, MUCH more. “Coachella, thank y’all for letting me be the first Black woman to headline Coachella. Ain’t that bout a bitch!” The first Black woman to headline Coachella. That’s a crazy concept to me. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival inaugural weekend was back in 1999. While there may not have been scores of Black women who could be deemed headliners in the past 19 years, I know Janet Jackson should have had the honor at least once. Beyoncé took this platform and this lifetime chance and let loose on one of ...

I take pleasure in being, what I like to call, a Cultural Consultant for the African American race. I believe that my values are deeply rooted in notions that are mainly objective so I can understand when my melanin-less friends ask me about certain topics dealing with race – I live in a judgment-free zone and I’m fair, sometimes to a fault. The topic of my latest conversation was cultural appropriation. My friend Wendy is a cosmetology student, so she’s learning about all hair types and the differences in hair routines. We bond over our knowledge of natural hair.  She was confused about whether fashion head-scarfs were an accessory that only Black people should wear. My answer was a skeptical no. But I needed more info on the situation. One of her fellow colleagues of Hispanic descent wore a fashion head-wrap over her hair one day and was met with contempt from a Caucasian woman. “Why are you wearing that?” she was asked. And after she tried to explain the concept of a protec...

“They were hard-edged, soft-centered, brutally demanding, and easily pleases, these women of Brewster place. They came, they went, grew up and grew old beyond their years. Like an ebony phoenix, each in her own time and with her own season had a story.” I’d rather be reading The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor than going grocery shopping. The Women of Brewster Place weaves the tale of seven women and the circumstances that led them to the community dubbed Brewster Place. Brewster Place was a housing development that was destined to be an unfortunate place since the people linked to its creation are all corrupt. Despite the secrecy surrounding its development, Brewster Place is the end destination for these women. Mattie Michael, Etta Mae Johnson, Lucielia “Ciel” Turner, Melanie “Kiswana” Browne, Cora Lee, Lorraine, and Theresa’s lives are explored in short stories that chronicle the ups and downs many women of color face. The life history of Brewster Place comes to re...

Olivia Pope and Annalise Keating have represented strength, grace, intelligence, and power for the combined 11 seasons that they’ve shared the ABC network. They gave women an opportunity to have a stance in two worlds that are generally demanded by men. But they gave black women hope . It’s not often that black women are represented on television as high-powered with influence and intellect that propels them to succeed in their every endeavor. We are the angry black woman, a stereotype that leaked into media after we were branded with it during our everyday lives. And although the idea of a black woman being the chief of staff to two presidents and a black woman being a law professor while practicing law and rarely losing cases doesn’t seem ordinary by the standards of many in this nation, Kerry Washington and Viola Davis make you believe that it’s possible. So, in Scandal’s final season and at the peak of How to Get Away with Murder’s success, we finally get TWO crossover episode...

“I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to whites as well as to the blacks. It makes the white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched.” I’d rather be reading Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs instead of going to the gym. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiography by a young mother and fugitive slave published in 1861 by L. Maria Child, who edited the book for its author, Harriet Ann Jacobs. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent. The book documents Jacobs' life as a slave and how she gained freedom for herself and for her children. What differs with this narrative from many other fiction or non-fiction accounts of slavery is that this book gives a look at how this dismal institution affected the enslaved but also others involved directly and indirectly. We know that slavery hardens and desensitizes white men, and make...

With the record-breaking release of The Black Panther, comic book fans and the rest of the Black population have come to theaters to witness the first movie about an African hero who is also the leader of the African kingdom, Wakanda. The movie has strong feminist overtones and depicts the Dora Milaje – T’Challa’s corps of female warriors –  as equal to men. They can share the same knowledge and opportunity as their men counterparts; they are the Black Panther’s bodyguard for crying out loud! It’s representation that is important to see and recognize. Although the creation and reception of the movie have been an epic feat, there is still more progress to be made. There are too many black superheroines that are unknown to the commercial world (think about how many people didn’t know about T’Challa before this movie’s debut) and it would be awesome if we could get an opportunity to experience them in the same way that we’ve now experienced Okoye, Nakia, and Shuri. Wonder Woman...

I jumped at the opportunity to take a trip to Washington D.C. I knew that I needed to see the National Museum of African American History and Culture. My friends who had traveled to the nation's capital arrived before the museum's opening date and those who visited previously made it seem as though it was my rite to experience it. The museum took me on an emotional journey through a time that I didn’t know affected me so strongly. It's the most beautiful structure that I’ve ever seen; its magnitude is breathtaking. The one thing that I noticed immediately was the pattern on surrounding of the building; it was odd but familiar. This thin screen or "scrim" perforated by geometrical patterns is based on historic iron grilles found in African-American communities in Charleston, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African Amer...