Faced with inadequate US healthcare, Black women fly to South Korea: ‘It could save your life’ Black women who feel minimized or dismissed in the US are traveling thousands of miles for South Korea’s patient-first approach www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

'50 years after Labelle’s ‘Chameleon’ album closed one of music’s most daring transformations, Patti Labelle and Nona Hendryx revisit the album’s creation and initial reception.' -- Sope Soetan www.essence.com/music/labell...

‘I’ve been doing music all my life’: Thando Zide gets ready for her Soirée debut and sharing new music www.news24.com/drum/celebs/...

"On July 17, both Syd and Lacy will release their third solo albums — Lacy’s “Oh Yeah?”, which features SZA and Erykah Badu, and Syd’s “Beard” — continuing to push, gently and sometimes with a sly wink, against the boundaries of modern soul." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/17/a...

Richard Pryor’s Daughter on His Radical Legacy: Interview with Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor Historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor discusses her new memoir, the history of the N-word, and why her father used comedy to confront racism. jacobin.com/2026/07/rich...

"Everyone is struggling to get off their phones and pay attention, but some are struggling more than others. The ability to focus is a class issue, and the attention span is undergoing a class divide." -- Xochitl Gonzalez www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

ICE agents don’t just kill. They kill with impunity. | Renée Graham www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/o...

'If you’ve been to Los Angeles, chances are you’ve seen the work of Paul R. Williams—a Black architect ahead of his time. As exhibits at the Getty, LACMA and USC’s Fisher Museum of Art celebrate his work, his family, friends and fans reflect on his influence.' www.vanityfair.com/story/paul-r...

Filmmaker Julie Dash Talks Shooting in the Midst of Construction Sites and Tsunamis Pioneering filmmaker Julie Dash, the AIR Festival's keynote speaker this year sat down with curator Daniel Merritt for a sprawling conversation about her polychrome life in film. www.culturedmag.com/article/2026...

Moms of Black Babies More Likely to Be Flagged to Police Over Alleged Pregnancy Drug Use Child welfare referred Black parents to law enforcement 14,000 times in 7 years, despite no findings of abuse or neglect. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/07/16/n...

"There was something visually arresting about the cover art to 'Up—Up and Away'— five “Negroes in a Hot Air Balloon” while cities like Newark and Detroit were going up in flames in the midst of Black protests against police brutality and demands for Civil Rights." medium.com/p/e82064d35172

Herb Alpert's "Rise" was so popular that "General Hospital" used the song as background music when Luke raped Laura. To this day, I still think of it as "Laura's rape theme."

"I look back with nostalgia to the days when Alpert and Mangione were minor pop royalty. It’s almost impossible to think of a tune like “Rise” finding its way into mainstream life today." Feels So Good: In defense of instrumental pop | Nate Wooley thebaffler.com/latest/feels...

‘With Every Breath I Take’ Review: Cécile McLorin Salvant Sings With Strings The distinctive jazz vocalist teams with the Metropole Orkest and arranger Darcy James Argue on an album of expressively rendered ballads. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Woody Shaw Wednesday Love: For The One You Can't Have · Woody Shaw Song Of Songs (1973) www.youtube.com/watch?v=REvB...

“We have no choice but to address the challenges created by these massive facilities,” New York governor Kathy Hochul said. The executive order will pause construction for one year. www.wired.com/story/new-yo...

"The influence of Ivorian slang–and North and West African dialects more broadly–on French is due in part to artists like Didi B and Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, whose hit “Djadja” (“liar” in the Malian language Bambara) has over 1 billion views on YouTube." www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa...

Here’s a rare one from our late great brotha Tate that seldom gets mentioned. As expected it’s enlightening in surprising ways.

Family pulls $1M scholarship fund from NC university, citing anti-DEI policy www.newsobserver.com/news/local/e...

'When districts shutter facilities to save money, studies have found they tend to close schools that serve minority students. The closure of a rural Bladen County school highlights the community impact.' www.theassemblync.com/news/educati...

Three iterations of Genius: Greg Tate, the #Flyboy Collection.

In this episode of “Settle In,” Elizabeth Pryor sits down with Geoff Bennett to talk about her new book, “Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axu5...

"The story isn’t that AI is leading to mass unemployment; it’s that AI is being used as a cover for the gigification of work." jacobin.com/2026/07/ai-g...

“in Jackson, Miss., the financially most harmed are Black women, specifically Black mothers, and that is because of the policies and the systems that we have put in place that make it virtually impossible for them to earn at the same level as their counterparts.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

"The feminist case for rebranding menopause has long been clear. American health care largely treats every woman as if she were either prepregnant, pregnant or invisible." —Tressie McMillan Cottom www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/o...

The Freedom to Be Woke | David Cole A court ruling striking down Florida’s Stop WOKE Act is both a major affirmation of academic freedom and a window into the free-speech debates dividing the right. www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

Tracee Ellis Ross Is Back in New York City, Living a Dream Come True The actress and entrepreneur got an apartment in the city for the summer while she makes her Broadway debut in “Every Brilliant Thing.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/n...

Creative Conversations: Lisa B. Thompson. "The Beginning of Creativity" | Musiqology TV with Guthrie Ramsey The beginnings of playwright Lisa B. Thompson's creative journey as an artist/scholar. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnMw...

This Afro-Brazilian Photographer Preserves the History of Black Resistance in Bahia Lázaro Roberto and the Zumví Archive weave memory and identity. hammerandhope.org/article/afro...

The Griffeys hope their legacy can be used as a force to attract interest in Black American players With his father at his side, Ken Griffey Jr., is focused on the formula that assures Black players will be seen by scouts, teams, GMs and eventually fan bases. share.inquirer.com/HoYNKn

"The Quiet Storm, hosted by Vaughn Harper and Hal Jackson’s (another early founder) Sunday Morning Classics functioned as models for archival practice and intentional curation at a critical juncture, as Black music culture transitioned from analog to digital culture." medium.com/@tnimixtape/...

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Geri Allen Vernon Reid, Kassa Overall, Farah Jasmine Griffin and more artists and writers share their favorites from this pianist who connected jazz music’s past and future www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/a...

The Death of Renee Good Has Yet to Be Properly Investigated | Quinta Jurecic Six months after she and Alex Pretti were shot on the streets of Minneapolis, little has come of the probes into their killings. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

George E. Johnson, Who Built a Black Hair-Care Empire, Dies at 99 Mr. Johnson’s hair product company, a longtime sponsor of “Soul Train,” was the first Black-owned company listed on a major American stock exchange. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/b...

'Distributed backups, cyber resilience, and a half-million records are preserving Palestinian history beyond any single building or border.' www.wired.com/story/how-pa...

Texas mother was turned away by two different emergency rooms when she sought treatment for a miscarriage seven weeks into her pregnancy. Even as she developed a fever, writhed in pain, and suffered massive bleeding—she was refused care. www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-...

Moving Back Home Used to Be a Sign of Failure. Now It Shows Financial Savvy. Nearly half of American adults under 30, pinched by the high cost of housing, are living with a parent. It can be an adjustment for both. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/re...

“[Support is] coming to us with lots of love, from people who help, who stand in solidarity with the Cuban reality.”—Jorge González Núñez, president of the Movimiento Estudiantil Cristiano de Cuba As U.S. Blockade Squeezes Cuba, Christians Push Solidarity Over Sanctions sojo.net/sojoshare/Nj...

'Jesmyn Ward’s new essay collection touches on familiar topics from her fiction: coastal Mississippi, poverty, the ravages of racism, and the power of storytelling.' lareviewofbooks.org/article/witn...

“We Want You to Leave Home”: Crystal Sanders on Black Southerners and “Segregation Scholarships” www.publicbooks.org/we-want-you-...

"Akil’s debut novel expands her storytelling from television’s exterior gaze into the interior, intricate psychology of Black womanhood, where image, trauma, and self-reckoning collapse into a single narrative space." www.forbes.com/sites/domini...

"For a generation or two of Americans, at least, their most concrete connection to Ray Charles’ music are not the songs he recorded in the 1950s...Rather it is his soulful, and ultimately definitive, rendition of “America the Beautiful”..." medium.com/@tnimixtape/...

"Jaylen Brown is no ordinary superstar athlete. He used his fame and fortune to rally Boston around the idea of a Black Wall Street. Will the city ever see a player like him again?" www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/02/b...

"And I'm thankful to whoever made it all possible For me to be with you while I lived And spare you the grief if I passed on before you And I don't think I'd live if you died before me..." www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRV5...

Dr. Heather Burton on HBCUs, the Black Church & the Divine Nine | Student Success in Historically Black Spaces | #TheWriteShade with @alpha1906.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtWw...

I did not expect to be addicted to this show. Watching interviews with the book author (woman from Zimbabwe now living in S Africa) and producers (sisters from S Africa) gives me a whole new appreciation for South African culture.

Power, pleasure and patriarchy: why The Polygamist on Netflix is captivating viewers | Grace Khunou theconversation.com/power-pleasu...

Album Review: Clef Notes — Quantum Leap, Vol. 1 by Wyclef Jean Wyclef narrates a Haiti-to-Brooklyn life with the years thrown deliberately out of order, and plays connective tissue between Rapsody, Lil Wayne, Andra Day, and a gospel choir www.shatterthestandards.com/p/album-revi...

“The American Revolution Was Hardly an Anti-Colonial Movement”: UCLA Historian Robin D. G. Kelley www.democracynow.org/2026/7/2/rob...

This is a great story made possible through genealogical and historical records research and the heart of a community in North Carolina.