“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.

I’m Only Watching Women Now

I'm blessed to be a woman in these times when so many women before me have resisted to overturn age discrimination and racist beauty standards that left so many of us out of range.

Black Girls in Paris, Harlem and more…

You'd be correct to expect this story of a young Renaissance woman's fantasy trip, to live like her iconic Black American idols, to be sexy and to weave in Josephine Baker. The novel's heroine goes to Paris in search of Baldwin and finds jazz, interracial love and the freelance hustler life...

Remembering Maria-Hélène Schneider…

46 years ago, a moving picture testified to sexual assault against a woman. It moved all around the world, in fact. Only, the world called it “art.” Not much has changed since. This most visible example of a public rape frames sexual assault’s most misunderstood and excused forms: coerced consent, false pretenses and pressure as permission. And people can still buy and sell this sexual assault on film to this day. Why?

At the Movies, Mammies Make Way for Mourners

This Black woman onscreen had to buy her freedom to agency and complexity for a high price. That price was her child's life. Such is depicted in a spate of films now depending upon a Black woman losing a child violently with no one held accountable.