He served the people, both in the church and as a state senator, and he was tragically killed in his own church during a shooting Wednesday that also took the lives of six women and two other men. He was South Carolina pastor and state Sen. Clementa C. Pinckney, one of the victims of a…

First, let’s get this out of the way. Dope is a good movie. It is enjoyable, watchable and sweet. But it is also so sweet that if it were a drink, it would be a hipster, artisan rum punch drowning in simple syrup. And it ties up so neatly—despite all of its early wit and…

If you’ve become enamored in recent weeks with the work of Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and, by association, her husband, City Councilman Nick Mosby, since the indictments of six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, then you’re about to see a little bit more of them both. But not in the…

Michelle Obama with an Afro? Michelle Obama with an Afro! It could happen! And celebrity stylist Johnny Wright—the stylist to the first lady—is the man who would make that happen if it did. Wright, who says Michelle Obama has been completely natural for years now (he straightens her hair with a flat iron), says it is…

The long waits. The double-booking. The general “unprofessionalism.” The cost. I had a lot of reasons to give up on hair salons, specifically black ones, more than 10 years ago. In the early years of the recession, there was story after story of black salons struggling as more and more black women moved away from…

In late 2005 I was hospitalized over the Christmas holiday at a facility in Los Angeles. I went by choice, willingly submitting myself for observation, medication, therapy and testing like a good guinea pig. I needed to go, after all. I had been misdiagnosed, and finally, by staying for almost a month, I would get…

In 2003, Baltimore activist Hassan Giordano and several of his friends formed the Youth Empowerment Movement, an umbrella organization for several of Baltimore’s youth-oriented nonprofits to join. The group had an immediate impact, creating Baltimore’s Youth Commission, which in turn went on to successfully fight to keep recreational centers open; got the minimum age for…

North Charles Street in Baltimore has the names of the dead upon it, written in chalk, going on for several blocks. The names are starting to fade, under wear and rain, but death is permanent, and the permanence of those dead men, women and children, printed in yellows, pinks and blues, is on the minds…

It’s hard to find hope in a tragedy. And Freddie Gray’s death and the subsequent unrest are incredible tragedies. But out of that tough narrative, something else interesting has emerged. Black women (and their fierce hair) are running things. Never before with any news story in recent memory have I seen so many black women…

Your kids’ hair. They don’t want you to comb it. They never want you to comb it. Maybe they won’t sit still. Maybe they’re tender-headed and the combing hurts. Maybe they’ll just mess it right back up two seconds after you went through all that work. Maybe they’re babies. Babies are the ultimate in not…