Choosing to Remember Black Women Were at the Oscars…

I'm choosing to remember my black sisters who pepped up the long-criticized stale show and it was noticeable. Black women can lead, we can follow and we can uplift others with unmatched grace and poise.

Celebrating Gwendolyn Brooks on World Book Day

Gwendolyn Brooks was the very first real famous writer (the gods!) I helped organize a special event for. My ad hoc University of Chicago "sorority" for women of color on campus was blessed enough to get Ms. Brooks as the first guest speaker we ever booked, to launch our name and mission on campus. What a launch it was!

Justice for Jelani Day

For a young black man in central Illinois plains to just go missing from his university didn't even make sense and almost didn't make any national noise. His mother changed that.

Halle Won November, maybe the year

Way to make everybody feel bad when the #1 trending movie over the gluttonous, lazy Thanksgiving Weekend shows us a 50something sister doing crossfit.

“Passing,” or your wknd and Nov. 10 sorted

I was so excited at the first impression I got for this book's film adaptation on its way. I'm an English major/major book nerd, so yes, the great Nella Larsen's Passing is a novel to define my college days. If you were a woman with melanin and not going into medicine or science as a career, you loved Passing. It was your Dynasty and Real Housewives franchise, yet so aged and psychologically impressive it was totally okay to call this soap opera a favorite novel. Oh, the drama..

Appreciating Miss Long

Heard it's Nia Long Appreciation Day. I'm here for it. Here are some of my favorite interviews and appearances from her. Stream a Nia Long film tonight to show how powerful black women are and have always been for the arts and entertainment.

Cicely, Titan of American Literature: 13 Classics She Brought to Life

No other screen persona served the general public more as a constant reminder of the stubborn, healthy and diverse black literary world which defied sentencing to invisibility and dismissal as just a trend. Cicely Tyson achieved this while diversifying in roles by other writers from all backgrounds, regions and genres… Please enjoy and share this catalog of Ms. Tyson’s greatest roles drawn from great, classic American literature I hope you seek out soon.