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Watch: Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry’s Emmy Mixtape
The first black actor Brian Tyree Henry saw on television was Jasmine Guy, in A Different World. Henry was absolutely enamored. Decades later, the idea that Henry might be the first black actor some children are seeing on television means the world to him. “Representation is really key, because I don’t think I’d be anywhere near…
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Watch: The Making of Auntie Maxine
Some might say that Maxine Waters’ career in politics was a prophecy. In high school, Waters was named most likely to be the speaker of the House of Representatives. The rest is history. Politically, she got her start in 1976 with the California Assembly. There, she led a seven-year fight for legislation that would remove…
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Watch: 13-Year-Old AileyCamp Student Is Moved by the Love of Dance
Christian Herrera started dancing when he was 4 years old. He said he knew that he would be a dancer when he did his first split at his grandmother’s house. Now, at age 13, Christian is a second-year student at AileyCamp, a summer enrichment program for dancers that focuses on personal development, with 10 national…
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Watch: Let’s Talk About Stretch Marks
They’re on our butts, arms, thighs and breasts. You name it. Stretch marks are discolored, white, red or dark brown and are caused by hormonal changes, genetics or rapid weight gain or loss. Eighty percent of women of color have stretch marks—so let’s talk about them for a minute. Check out the video above to…
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Watch: The Natural-Hair Movement Keeps on Growing
For centuries, black women have been measured by a white standard of beauty. Lighter skin was preferred to dark skin, willowy figures preferred to curves, straight hair preferred to curly hair; and the list goes on. “I was born in Senegal, and relaxing your hair is, like, as normal as waking up and brushing your…
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Watch: ‘Yo Soy Afro-Latina’
If there is one thing that Sammy Sosa, an Afro-Latino man, and his skin-bleaching fiasco has taught us, it’s to be proud of who you are. The term “Afro-Latino” (or the gender-neutral “Afro-Latinx”) is used to refer to African descendants from Latin America. For many growing up, being black and Latinx was not always beautiful.…
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Watch: Sneak Peek of Array’s The House on Coco Road
In the 1980s, San Francisco Bay Area native Damani Baker and his family migrated to the Caribbean to join the Grenada Revolution. The move wasn’t his decision; he was a child at the time. Rather, Baker’s mother, Fannie Haughton, made the bold decision that, decades later, would be the basis of his documentary. The House…
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Watch: A Brief History of Jazz by Some of the Genre’s Freshest Faces
So, what, exactly, is jazz? We know it’s black music, we know that many of the artists of the genre are political. But how does one define an art form so heavily based on improvisation and live instrumentation? Better question: Is jazz dead? The Root asked three fresh faces in jazz to school us on…
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Watch: The Cast of Power on the Meaning of Loyalty
Loyalty. It’s not something to be bought or sold. In life, one could only wish to find a tribe of loyal people. Hopefully, this is the case more often than not. But are the characters on Power loyal? I mean, really. Folks are being betrayed left and right: murder, infidelity, the works. C’mon, son. I…
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Watch: Michelle Wilson, a Black Woman Who Owns the Narrative on a Broadway Stage
A black woman owning the narrative on a Broadway stage is an act of power. As an actress, Michelle Wilson commands the stage. She is the co-lead of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat, by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, which focuses on racial realities and economic tough times. For her performance, Wilson has been…
