On her third album, the French-Malian singer artfully slides between lingo and genres—Afrobeats, zouk, R&B—to create a far-reaching pop experience about life, love, and freedom
90 Day Fiancé Is Everyone’s Guilty Pleasure. But Is It Exploiting Immigrants?
The wildly popular TLC television franchise captivates audiences by showcasing couples in love. It also mimics harmful tropes.
POP SMOKE LIVES AGAIN IN BROOKLYN
Months after his untimely death, the music of Brooklyn’s beloved drill phenom soundtracks his city’s unrest.
Pop Smoke’s very New York rise
The NYC drill firebrand has the whole city behind him, and he’s just getting started.
Meet Shenseea, the Singer Who’s Causing a Stir in the Dancehall Community
The dancehall singer has had her fair share of controversy but is learning and growing into one of Jamaica’s most popular stars.
Reckoning With Slavery In France
The insult to injury, lies in the audacity of any of the press within France – one of the pre-eminent colonizers of the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa – making distinctions in the harms that were historically imposed upon Black people, while simultaneously imposing a cultural norm of rejecting to acknowledge the nuances of race altogether.
The Diaspora Wars of ‘She’s Gotta Have It’
Engaging in the labor of storytelling is not a tradition of exclusivity; it’s one of exchange and collaboration, as long as all parties arriving at the table have entered into a safe space of mutual respect and understanding. It’s a loss for us all when a new piece of Black work fails to understand that framework.
Representation vs. Exploitation? Halima Aden’s ‘Sports Illustrated’ Hijab And Burkini Spread Sparks Debate Around Racial Capitalism
Can the impact of representation supersede the corporatization of identity?
An Examination of Aunty: Documentarian Laylah Amatullah Barrayn on the Historical Weight of the Word
The term “aunty” as a titular framework for the collection is equal parts reverence, exploration, and reclamation of the word, drawing through-lines on how the perception of African women has shifted in tandem with the storytellers in charge.
A Neverending Quest for Sovereignty
Originally published for VerySmartBrothas ‘ America In Black Series. I often jokingly tell people that I grew up in a household made up of three (occasionally four, depending on what station in life my father was in at the time) distinct American dreams—one for each flag or passport represented: Comoros, Canada and the United States. […]