Black Excellence within the Black Experience of TV and Film
After eight seasons, The Chi has officially wrapped its run, closing the book on the longest-running Black drama in premium cable history. Since premiering on Showtime in 2018, Lena Waithe’s love letter to Chicago’s South Side quietly built one of the most significant runs in television, launching young actors into stardom, welcoming legends back to the […]
Joy Sunday just landed her first Emmy nomination. Her performance as Agent Jodie Plumb in HBO’s DTF St. Louis put her in scenes opposite Jason Bateman and Richard Jenkins, and she didn’t just keep pace, she commanded them. That’s 13 nominations for the show total, and one that belongs solely to her. She’s been a […]
There are people who go viral and there are people who go viral with a purpose. Lynae Vanee has always been the latter. The Atlanta-born poet, educator and cultural voice — a Spelman College graduate with a master’s in African American Studies from Boston University — built her platform through the viral Instagram series Parking […]
Creative to Know: Stan Lathan, the director/producer who shaped Black television and stand-up comedy For more than half a century, Stan Lathan has been the steady hand behind some of the most defining moments in Black entertainment — and he’s done it almost entirely out of the spotlight. He was in the room when public […]
The full 78th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations are here and Salli Richardson Whitfield has earned two directing nominations in the same year, for The Gilded Age and Task, while Colman Domingo scored two nominations of his own, for Euphoria as a guest actor in drama and The Four Seasons as supporting actor in comedy. But […]
Before franchise filmmaking took over the summer, one man had a different kind of hold on Hollywood’s hottest holiday weekend. For over a decade, July 4th belonged to Will Smith. But before the holiday dominance, there was a different kind of proving ground. In 1995, Smith first defied Hollywood’s expectations alongside Martin Lawrence in Bad […]
Nobody saw this coming. Not even them. Since landing on Netflix on June 12, The Polygamist has quietly become one of the streamer’s most explosive global hits, reaching No. 2 worldwide and No. 1 in 16 countries, with top 10 placement in 63 countries including the United States. Based on Zimbabwean author Sue Nyathi’s novel, […]
As an EP and director, DeMane Davis has spent her career building shows and stories that mean something, and Brilliant Minds was exactly that. A network show that tackled mental health with care, nuance, and a cast that gave everything. When the cancellation came, she still showed up for the finale, for the fans, and […]
Raphael Thomas didn’t choose the safe road, he just kept choosing the right one. A full-ride graphic design student at St. John University who quietly built a career dancing alongside Kelly Rowland, Sevyn Streeter, and more before most people knew his name. He didn’t make the Chris Brown tour that first time. He made something […]
Prior to Blaxploitation dominating the cultural conversation in the early to mid 1970s, there exists a rich and wide-ranging body of work spanning silent films, all-Black musicals, independent dramas, and mainstream Hollywood pictures that fought for dignity, complexity, and truth on screen. As a fan of older Black cinema, I am constantly discovering films worth […]