Rep. Ayanna Pressley, whose hair twists have been an inspiration to young girls and part of her personal identity and political brand, said Thursday that she has gone bald due to the autoimmune condition alopecia. The freshman Massachusetts Democrat made a touching video for The Root, the African American-focused website, in which she revealed her bald […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Cicely Tyson savors life, new OWN series at 95
Cicely Tyson doesn’t quibble with those who marvel at her long life and career, now in its eighth decade. The acclaimed actress said she doesn’t take her staying power for granted. “You know how old I am,” a smiling Tyson, 95, told a TV critics meeting Thursday. “Who in the world lives this long?” Tyson, […]
Posted inNews
Mayor, Office of Cultural Affairs to host Atlanta Children’s Memorial Portraits exhibition at City Hall
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Atlanta Children’s Memorial Taskforce will unveil selected artworks from the Atlanta Children’s Memorial Portraits gallery during an opening reception at the Atlanta City Hall on Thursday, Jan. 16, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. In addition, the winning portrait artist, Dwayne Mitchell, will be introduced. […]
Posted inFeatured Stories
‘Impartial Justice’? What to watch in Trump’s Senate trial
The impeachment of President Donald Trump is the Senate’s challenge now. Directed by the Constitution, House officials and prosecutors somberly carried the articles through the dimly lit Capitol to the Senate on Wednesday evening, triggering a trial unlike any since President Bill Clinton’s in 1999. He was acquitted. Look Thursday for a series of striking […]
Posted inElection Central
Watchdog: White House violated law in freezing Ukraine aid
The White House violated federal law in withholding security assistance to Ukraine, an action at the center of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, a federal watchdog agency said Thursday. The Government Accountability Office said in a report that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law in holding up the aid, which Congress passed less than […]
Posted inFeatured Stories
Georgia elections chief wants law changed for US Senate race
Georgia’s top elections official is seeking a last-minute change to state law to ensure he’s authorized to set the deadline for candidates to sign up to challenge newly appointed Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler in the November election. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wants to hold candidate qualifying for Loeffler’s Senate seat during the first […]
Posted inElection Central
Democrats disclose new documents ahead of impeachment trial
House Democrats have released documents they obtained from a close associate of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, including a handwritten note that mentions asking Ukraine’s president to investigate “the Biden case.” The documents, obtained from Lev Parnas as part of the impeachment investigation, show Parnas communicating with Giuliani before the removal of Marie Yovanovitch, who […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Issa Rae: Movie academy ‘needs to do better’ on diversity
Issa Rae’s quick comment after five men were announced as Oscar nominees for best director was spur of the moment, but for many captured the lack of diversity among this year’s nominees. “We were told to banter for five seconds as the teleprompter loaded, so that was my banter,” Rae told a TV critics meeting […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Whitney Houston, Notorious B.I.G. lead field into rock hall
Posthumous inductees Whitney Houston and The Notorious B.I.G. will lead a new class into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined by Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails, and T-Rex. The gospel-trained Houston, whose soaring voice transformed the Dolly Parton cover “I Will Always Love You” into a gigantic hit, was one […]
Posted inArts and Culture
New book shares early stories written by Zora Neale Hurston
Sixty years after her death, the story of Zora Neale Hurston is still not fully told. The fiction writer-anthropologist-folklorist died in a segregated Florida hospital in January 1960, so forgotten and impoverished that her work was out of print and her grave left unmarked. Starting in the 1970s, when Alice Walker helped revive interest in […]
Posted inSpiritually Speaking
Washington: ‘How strange do you think you are?’
You know God has a history of using people in the strangest ways. Or is it that He uses the strangest people to carry out His divine will? After all, isn’t it The Bible which lets us know that those who feel quite strange about it, are chosen by God to carry out heavenly tasks […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Why NBC’s ‘New Amsterdam’’ is worth a gander
In thinking of popular medical dramas with fictionalized characters such as “Greys Anatomy,” “The Good Doctor,” or even the comedic “Scrubs,” none of them are based on true stories. However, NBC’s “New Amsterdam” is inspired by truth and more. The premise of “New Amsterdam” is based on Dr. Eric Manheimer’s book “Twelve Patients: Life and […]
Posted inElection Central
Booker ends presidential bid after polling, money struggles
Democrat Cory Booker dropped out of the presidential race Monday, ending a campaign whose message of unity and love failed to resonate in a political era marked by chaos and anxiety. His departure now leaves a field that was once the most diverse in history with just one remaining African American candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. […]
Posted inArts and Culture
‘Just Mercy’ rakes in over $10 million at box office
Going up against a lot of competition, a movie about a Montgomery-based lawyer working to get a man off death row, is holding its own. “Just Mercy,” a movie about the Equal Justice Initiative’s Bryan Stevenson and his work to get Walter McMillian off Alabama’s death row, was released nationwide this past Friday and tied for fourth […]
Posted inElection Central
Trump use of doctored Pelosi-Schumer photo draws Muslim ire
President Donald Trump circulated a fake image on Monday depicting congressional Democrats’ top-ranked leaders in traditional Muslim attire in front of the Iranian flag, drawing criticism that he was promoting Islamophobic tropes. The manipulated photo retweeted by Trump showed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in Muslim garb with the caption: […]