The Stars of ‘Bel-Air’ on Black Excellence and Representing for the Culture

January 18, 2023January 19, 2023 Elijah Isaiah Johnson

A cloudy evening over The Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena did nothing to hide the high spirits inside The Tap Room — the resort’s cocktail bar and lounge — where the cast of NBC/Peacock’s NAACP award-nominated series Bel-Air came both to cool down and celebrate, post red carpet, after a long day of photos and interviews just an hour earlier.

Books, Interview

Ibi Zoboi on Writing a Biographical Constellation of Octavia Butler

February 16, 2022February 17, 2022 Shannon Gibney

Award-winning author Ibi Zoboi has penned a “biographical constellation” of the late, great Black feminist sci-fi writer Octavia Butler. Called Star Child (Dutton, January 2022), the book contains poems, short essays, and actual fragments of Butler’s own writing and musings.

Horror, Movies

‘Candyman’ and the Importance of On-Screen Black Positivity

September 5, 2021September 4, 2021 Adonis Gonzalez

So it’s August 24, 2021. Well, obviously not today, unless I finally caught a time traveler in the act, but that was the day I saw Candyman in theaters. Which for the sake of this article, is a very important date.

Animation, Movies, Sports2 Comments

‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ Puts Black Joy on Full Display

July 16, 2021July 16, 2021 Jamal Michel

The reviews for LeBron James’ and SpringHill Entertainment’s Space Jam: A New Legacy are rolling in and they paint a considerably dismal picture of the imagination critics go to the movies with today. For some context, Steven Spielberg’s 2018 IP extravaganza Ready Player One sits with a decent aggregate rating of 72% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, particularly because of the way the film sets up its action sequences and because it is a Spielberg flick. A New Legacy, however, is already down to 32% from critics and that’s mainly because there are “too many IPs,” and the film doesn’t make algorithms function the way they should in the real world.