Culture
The Best Jazz Albums of 2017 plus the best historical releases – Fred Kaplan / Slate
African Ancestry Inc.: Telling black folks where they’re from – Jason Reid / The Undefeated
It’s Time to Take Tiffany Haddish Seriously as an Oscar Contender – Ira Madison III / Daily Beast
As Confederate Statues Fall, What Should Replace Them? – Aviva Kemper / NYT
A Mixed-Race Royal Couple? It Wouldn’t Be the First – Monica Drake / NYT
Spike Lee: Why I Turned ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ Into a TV Series – Tim Grierson / Rolling Stone
Colin Kaepernick and the Legacy of the Negro National Anthem – Brent Staples / NYT
‘Mudbound’ Provides a Timely, Unflinching Portrait of America’s Racist Past – Ira Madison III / Daily Beast
James Baldwin and Richard Avedon’s divided states – Steven W. Thrasher / The Guardian
The Rope: The Forgotten History of Segregated Rock & Roll Concerts – Steve Knopper / Rolling Stone
A New ‘She’s Gotta Have It’: Spike Lee’s Feminist Breakthrough – Salamishah Tillet / NYT
Lupita Nyong’o is right: erasing her afro hair exposes the extent of prejudice – Yasmin Jones-Henry / The Guardian
Remembering Fats Domino, 1928–2017 – David Browne / Rolling Stone
Sade’s Quiet Storm of Cool – Jacob Bernstein / NYT
New short film explores colorism with pain, truth, and love – Kay Wicker / ThinkProgress
Black Superheroes Matter: Why a ‘Black Panther’ Movie Is Revolutionary – Tre Johnson / Rolling Stone
New Documentary Blends Civil Rights Murders With Hunt for Blues Icons – Andy Greene / Rolling Stone
Thelonious Monk’s Quiet, Slow Conquest of the World – David A. Graham / The Atlantic
R&B’s Changing Voice: How Hip-Hop Edged Grittier Singers Out of the Mainstream – Elias Light / Rolling Stone
The new Thurgood ‘Marshall’ movie is a thrilling What-Had-Happened-Was – Kelley L. Carter / The Undefeated
Spike Lee, Jordan Peele Team for ‘Black Klansman’ Thriller – Daniel Kreps / Rolling Stone
Dick Gregory, Comedian and Civil Rights Activist, Dead at 84 – Daniel Kreps / Rolling Stone
Kendrick Lamar: The Rolling Stone Interview: “The Greatest Rapper Alive” – Brian Hiatt / Rolling Stone
What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in Detroit – Aisha Harris / Slate
Whose Streets, Whose Stories : Who gets to make art out of black pain? Two very different new movies show why it matters – Dana Stevens / Slate
Rare, Unreleased Michael Jackson Album Goes Up for Auction – Elias Leight / Rolling Stone
