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The Health of Our Communities Begins With Black Women: Planned Parenthood’s Alexis McGill Johnson, Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, and EHE Health's Joy Altimare Join The Root Institute
If this August has confirmed nothing else, it’s that where women gather, there is power; power often underestimated and underutilized, but capable of transforming the world. We saw it 100 years ago this week with the passage of the 19th Amendment, which enabled (white) women to vote after a decades-long suffrage movement. Forty-five years later,…
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It's Time to Have a Crucial Conversation About Our Communal Health With Planned Parenthood’s Alexis McGill Johnson, EHE Health's Joy Altimare and Dr. Joia Crear-Perry
“If you want to feed a person, you pay a man,” says Joy Altimare of EHE Health, one the sponsors of our first-ever Root Institute. “But if you want to feed a village or a community, you make sure a woman is actually enabled to take care of herself and her children.” The direct links…
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'We Have Got to Make Sure We Are Flexing, Showing Our Power': Cory Booker Gets Political About Wealth Building in a Crisis at The Root Institute
For Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) our economic plight is a political issue. With us living in a time where “it is harder to build wealth in this generation [than] in the past” Booker, during an interview with The Root Institute, added that we have to put pressure on our government and politicians to implement laws…
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'We Don't Talk About This at Home': Taraji P. Henson Gets Real About Our Mental Health at The Root Institute
In 2005, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder while staying at UCLA’s medical center in Los Angeles for several weeks over Christmas. Back then, to me, the severity of my diagnosis was already scary, but what was even scarier? Feeling I was alone. “We don’t talk about this at home,” said actress Taraji P. Henson…
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Taraji P. Henson Talks Mental Health, While Cory Booker Takes on the Health of Our Finances at The Root Institute
It’s week three of The Root Institute, meaning it’s time to talk about the health of our minds and our finances featuring actress Taraji P. Henson and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). Both are joining me, The Root’s Editor-in-Chief Danielle Belton, for separate chats on issues crucial to our community—from erasing the stigma of mental illness…
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'Joy Is at the Forefront of Our Culture': Chloe and Maud Arnold, Phil Augusta Jackson and Michael Harriot Talk Black Joy During Times of Crisis
You know what doesn’t get enough love and attention right now? Black joy. So what are we going to do about it? Well, at The Root Institute, we decided to have a whole conversation around Black joy, especially as it relates to the current times we’re in. Panama Jackson—it me—was joined by choreographers Chloe and…
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'How Will Art Sit in Other People's Hearts?': Aloe Blacc, Arisha Hatch and Kierna Mayo Break Down How Art Transforms Our Lives at The Root Institute
Art is the cornerstone of most societies. The art often reflects the times the artist lived in and/or the systems in place at that particular time. To that end, art can be used in a transformative manner to effect change or as a piece of propaganda to sell a message or a viewpoint to masses.…
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Chloe and Maud Arnold, Phil Augusta Jackson and Michael Harriot Talk Black Joy at The Root Institute
What is Black joy? Is it a superhero? Is it a way of life? Is it under attack? The answer to all of those questions is both yes and…hmmm? Thankfully, to address and discuss the idea of Black joy, what it means on an individual basis as well as for the community—especially during times of…
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Aloe Blacc, Arisha Hatch and Kierna Mayo Discuss The Transformative Nature of Art at The Root Institute
Presumably, ever since art has existed, there have been conversations about what art actually means. And over time, the most effective ways to use art—protest, social change, allegory, etc.—became as essential to the conversation. In the Black community, where all art is under a microscope, those conversations of interpretation and use are central; no movie,…
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'Billie Holiday Is Probably One of Our First Civil Rights Leaders': Lee Daniels Discusses His Upcoming Biopic at The Root Institute
It’s been nearly 50 years since the debut of Lady Sings the Blues, which was a huge inspiration for writer-director-producer Lee Daniels—so much so, that he is now directing his own biographical drama about the iconic Billie Holiday, The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Through her art—especially her stirring song, “Strange Fruit”—Holiday became pivotal in…