Lupita attends a high-profile press event or Hollywood award show and delivers a heartfelt and inspiring speech that goes viral. Excerpts (or full videos) are embedded in blogs like this one, and snippets are used for memes circulated on Twitter, in discussion forums and eventually become inspirational quotes. This time, the event is Glamour magazine’s “Women of the Year” awards, and once again Lupita showed up and showed us what true beauty is.
Here’s a link to the full video, with an introduction from one of her early mentors.
Hollywood might be slow to catch on to Lupita’s perfections, but magazine editors really like her. Of course, one notable exception to that is Vanity Fair. Greydon Carter, the editor in chief there, is the beholder through which the magazine’s faithful readers see celebrity life, and he seems to have a general aversion to acknowledging Black beauty front and center too often, lest anyone get any radical ideas about what represents female attractiveness. Well, nevermind all that. Lupita has already had Vogue and Glamour.
And I’d much rather watch a video of hers, because she’s usually up to something intelligent and commendable, than see a creation of plastic surgery and hyper-contouring — and mother who ought to be ashamed of herself — be so desperate for attention that she drops her clothes for a little bit of paper.
Those of you naturalistas, particularly women with naturally curly and coily hair longer than a short afro are probably familiar with the travails of co-washing and detangling your tresses. Women who are unfamiliar with the natural hair game (like WaterLily76) might be wondering ‘What’s the big deal? It’s only hair.’ But we know the process can actually take hours to complete. Densely cropped and tightly curled Black hair has to be handled very delicately to avoid ripping, but all of that extra care can result in hours eaten up during the process. Hence, alerting all your friends that your are off limits on Wednesday or Thursday evening because it’s a “hair evening.”
It sounds horribly daunting, and I feel badly for those of you who are on hair growth challenges. I simply lack the patience or interest to make a decided effort to grow my hair longer than four inches. Luckily, brilliant natural hair vlogger Whitney White, who posts on YouTube under the handle “Naptural85,” shared a technique for co-washing and detangling natural hair in 25 minutes. It might sound incredible, but she pulls it off, and she posted a video (below) documenting the process.
The vlog is cropping up all over the Web, thanks to her various social media outlets. Other vloggers are making response videos to adapt her technique to their hair types and to profusely thank her for revolutionizing their hair care regimes.
This all sounds very revolutionary, but I will probably never get the full benefit of Naptual85’s development. Unlike a lot of other women who wear natural hair, I have no particular length goals, and I’m not in the least bit motivated to document my hair journey, such as it is. In any case, if I had the kind of hair that grew quickly and retained length easily, I would try all kinds of different hair cuts. Bob cuts, pixie cuts, bog ‘fros, page boys — well, maybe not the page boy. You get my point, though, right? I wouldn’t maintain the same side part twist out that I see every where. I would have to change it up.
Well, Naptural85 has certainly changed things up for naturalistas everywhere. She gets our thanks!
Newspaper journalists occasionally say the business of their profession is “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” The quote supposedly comes from the late social activist “Mother” Mary Jones. Protestors in Ferguson, Missouri peacefully took over a few minutes of a performance of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to remind the comfortable classes that Black lives matter. Check out the flash mob’s beautiful message from his story from The Grio.
And here is a direct link to the video. One particularly heartless soul can be heard supposedly calling Michael Brown a criminal. We’re supposed to be an advanced, civil society. How ironic that for decades now that civility has been falling apart at the hands of our armed militia.
In my mind, the message is slightly different: Black male lives matter. That facts is getting lost in our society; the lives of Black men are being treated with casual disregard, and anyone who doubts it simply needs to observe the laxity involved in protecting the life of our Black male president.
Will tensions between law enforcement officers and Black citizens ever pass in this country? It’s hard to tell, as entertainment news Web sites and blogs continue to buzz following an incident between Hollywood actress Daniele Watts (Django Unchained), her boyfriend Brian James Lucas, and the Studio City, Calif., police department. Watts, who is Black, was apparently engaged in foreplay or all-out sex while sitting in a parked car with her white boyfriend. When the story first broke, Watts claimed that police unlawfully asked for her ID, and when she refused, they detained her on charges of prostitution.
After more details of the incident emerged, it sounds like Ms. Watts and her boyfriend were at leastmaking out, which alarmed someone in one of the nearby office buildings, who approached their car and asked them to refrain from the distracting behavior. They didn’t refrain, at least not to the satisfaction of the onlookers, who called the police and demanded that they show up and do something. After the police arrived, one of the officers asked the boyfriend for ID, which he submitted, but Ms. Watts refused, interpreting the police’s actions as facist and racist.
Now a fuller story about the incident has emerged, including a recording of the officer’s interaction with Watts. She comes across as a bratty Daddy’s Girl who needlessly escalated an embarrassing incident into a verbal confrontation with police. At this point, I must confess to being utterly shocked, because I rarely ever hear of up-and-coming actresses being overly dramatic and milking situations for public attention!
You know what the awful irony is? Right now police forces in three cities around the country — Ferguson, Mo., New York City and Newark, N.J., are under either grand jury investigations for civil rights violations; media scrutiny over aggressive policing; and federal investigations over civil rights violations.
We should all be keeping these incidents in mind when we interact with police. Fascism and brutality are real problems in American urban police forces right now, and as we grapple with those issues the last thing we need are distractions of two granolas who simply chose to be sloppy about their love lives.
So while browsing the Web, I became reacquainted with Joanna, a Nigerian natural hair and fashion vlogger under the channel name JoStylin. A while ago she stopped blogging, because she said she felt she had exhausted the topics she was interested in covering about natural hair care.
But she’s back now, married to her boyfriend, and living in a beautiful town called Alanya. They have an apartment in what looks like an upscale neighborhood with fashionable shops and unique restaurants, all within a leisurely walking distance to the beach. It’s exactly where a young couple pre-children should live!
Anyway, here is an update from Joanna. I was salivating over their lunches at the restaurant — right on the beach, of course. What a life. Keep those blogs coming, JoStylin’.
Nicely done, Eve! Nicely done. The rapper and actress from Philadelphia married longtime boyfriend Maximillion Cooper over the weekend. You know Eve as a Grammy-winning rapper, and as Shelley Williams from the UPN TV sitcom “Eve,” and two of the first “Barbershop” movies.
The celebrations were in Ibiza, Spain, and the two shared a few photos of the ceremony and post-nuptial parting on Instagram and E!, like the photo above. So we know who Eve is, but what about this Maximillion guy? ABCNews has the details on Maximillion:
1. He’s a Designer
Born in Staffordshire, England, Cooper studied fashion at London’s prestigious Central St. Martins College of Art and Design. As the founder and brains behind the Gumball 3000 brand, he splits his time between New York and London. Creativity runs in his family. He’s the son of an abstract artist and musician.
2. He’s a Former Race Car Driver
In 1999, he launched the Gumball 3000, an annual British 3,000-mile international motor rally which takes place on public roads, with a different route each year. For the Gumball 3000′s 15th anniversary, drivers traversed 13 countries and 3000 miles in just seven days. Putting his love of racing together with his fashion skills, Cooper built Gumball from an underground rally into a global lifestyle brand.
3. He Met Eve at the Gumball 3000
Eve met Cooper at his annual racing event when she participated for the first time four years ago. She’s been back every year since and has been officially dubbed the “First Lady of Gumball,” according to the Gumball 3000 website. When they began dating in 2010, it was the first biracial relationship for both of them. “I’ve never been the type of person to discriminate,” Eve told Chelsea Handler in June. “But I honestly have to say I never thought I’d be with a white guy ever. But it just happened. It’s amazing. I’m the first black girl he’s ever been with too.”
4. He’s Been Married Before
While this will be Eve’s first marriage, Cooper was previously married to his former business partner Julie Brangstrup, and has four children, ages 4 to 10.
5. Cooper and Eve Have Talked More Children
At first Eve wasn’t sure about becoming a stepmom, the star of “Barbershop” and her own sitcom “Eve” told Sister 2 Sister magazine this past May. “I was like, ‘I’m not sure this is what I want to be my life.’ You know? But honestly, it’s been three years now and we’ve gone on vacations together, and they’re the sweetest kids.” She and Cooper have even discussed adding more kids to the mix. “We talk about having kids. We talk about marriage,” she told the magazine. “The kids are excited. They want a brown baby sister.”
The gifted and mesmerizing Audra McDonald made Tony Award history on June 8, 2014. She became the first performer — ever — to win six Tonys in competitive categories, and she has won in every performing category in both plays and musicals. The honor caps off a history-making winning streak for McDonald. Last year, she made history as the first Black woman to win five Tony Awards. Is it safe to call this immensely gifted woman the Queen of Musical Theater, yet? Around here she is, and if you try to argue otherwise, I’ll smash you over your head with your own Strat!
The 2014 Tony was the fruit of her first nomination in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play. She also won the 2014 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play, so it’s been a banner year on the stage for her.
I’ve followed her career for the last few years and have been bowled over. Few people combine gorgeous looks with a commanding stage and screen presence, but she does! She’s on fire, and given the way she carries herself as an actress, singer and human being, I don’t think her light will dim anytime soon.
Here’s a quick sampling of why Audra is arguably, the reigning demigoddess of the stage:
And yet another example of why her star is still soaring …
I just started watching “Swirlr,” a Web reality show that explores what happens when young and hip L.A. singles cross the color and culture lines to find a date. The show is hosted by Christelyn Karazin, co-author of “Swirling: How to Date, Mate, and Relate Mixing Race, Culture and Creed,” and Jordan Harbinger, co-founder of The Art of Charm, a relationship and lifestyle coaching service.
(Karazin is actually the founder and organizer of “No Wedding, No Womb,” an initiative to drive down the rate of out-of-wedlock births among African-Americans. I think very highly of that effort.)
Check out the sneak peek:
The series teaser got off to a good start with more than 100k views, but episode viewership dropped off significantly after that. It is not clear why, but viewer response to some of the early episodes suggest that Black women are chasing White men out of desperation. (That’s another reason for me to stay away. YT audiences are sometimes a special breed of obnoxious. I think they must practice their putdowns before the post them or something.)
I’ve never been one to encourage other Black women to ‘date out.’ The dating process itself is so fraught with potential for mishaps and heartbreak that I think it’s better to think twice before dating out, I really do. I think it’s worth asking yourself if you are familiar with how the guy’s culture works, and I think it’s important to know that if something goes terribly wrong that affects Black people, he will be sympathetic and open-minded enough to listen to your feelings about it. But some random White guy who is just generally enamored with Black women or curious? No ma’am. Also, what if a Black woman builds up all these expectations about dating outside her race only to discover that the guy has major deal-breaking flaws. Like being obtuse and clueless when she wants to talk about something affecting Blacks in particular?
Curiosity isn’t what sustains a relationship long after the initial attraction wears off. You need to connect with the other person on a deeper level to keep firing that romance. Maybe you are both committed Christians or Muslims. Or maybe you’ll endear yourself to him after being a trooper on a 5-mile hike up a mountain or organizing that family get together, and even if he walks in on you in the bathroom while your hair is up in Curl Formers and you’re waiting for your facial mask to set, he won’t bat an eye. (As for what he’s doing at your place at an hour when you’re in Curl Formers and your clay mask … I don’t judge.)
In my view, any Black woman thinking of dating interracially should at least have white (or other) friends or acquaintances before taking the plunge. That way, she’ll go into it with the right frame of mind: This guy is a real person, someone’s son, brother and friend, and not just a dating experiment. Also, dating can be a minefield on any good day, and a dating relationship should be a nurturing and healthy one, not one that pushes you out of your comfort zone. You heard me: If you’ve never been comfortable with the idea of dating out, why work up the backbone or the stomach or do it now? You’ll want the experience to be pleasant for both of you, right? Imagine sitting across from a white guy who proclaims an attraction for his own kind, has no track record for dating Black women, and doesn’t know what to expect. But hey, he’ll give it a whirl with you? Does that sound like the start to a solid relationship? Just ask Kurt, he’s in episode 1.
Look, in dating find something you are comfortable with while going into it. And if you already have friendly white (or other) co-workers, friends from the gym, church, or around the neighborhood, and one of them asks you out one day, then go for it. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting time indulging a curiosity in the superficial game of dating, and maybe missing out on the opportunity to form a deep and long-term connection with someone you can call your own. But that’s just me.
The Annual fashion extravaganza is probably still in full swing at the Met in New York City. As usual, the stars came out in their finest and in the case of Lupita Nyong’o, their most daring. While I don’t think she quite hit the nail on the head with her ensemble, I do think the green flatters her complexion very much, I like the choice of a short hemline, and I love the shoes. I just think the bejeweled netting and the feathers were confusing, and the headband was too big. Her makeup could have been a touch more interesting, too, but I guess her stylist was already very busy with the outfit! Still, it is growing on me.
Here’s a sampling of who wore what to the most purely fashionable event of the year. Who was your favorite?
There she is, Miss Africa (yes, the whole continent), Miss Worls, Miss Everything.
The intelligent, beautiful and talented Lupita Nyong’o has just been named People has named the actress and documentary film maker 2014’s Most Beautiful. We can certainly understand what they see in her!
Beauty, brains and heart? No problem.
Congratulations to Ms. Nyong’o for not only taking the world by storm, but being so poised, intelligent and inspiring along the way. This honor says a lot about our acceptance of and comfort with dark-skinned beauty, despite everything around us: the constant onslaught of images reinforcing some people’s preferences for light-skinned beauty, and even a self-loathing so profound that skin lightening and bleaching is so rampant in Africa and the Caribbean.
Africa has been making strides for some years now in the areas of economic resurgence and cultural influence. We’ve had many heroes emerge from that vast and fascinating continent, and Lupita is just the latest in a long line of authors, activists, musicians, economists … the list goes on … who have impressed us and shaped our world. Now Hollywood has its own piece of Africa, and I’m glad she is being treasured.
The nasty, treasonous folks at Black gossip blogs gleefully rub their hands together at the prospect of Lupita’s career faltering once America’s dark-skin fetish fades away. But that will not happen. Sorry. As this worldly woman, who also claims Mexican citizenship, is too special and inspiring to fall into the background.
I usually skip People magazine, the forebear of the degradation of popular American journalism. We certainly have them to thank for the mind-killing gossip rags flooding the newsstands today and keeping the awful Kardashians relevant. But a stopped clock is right twice a day, the saying goes. And they had the sense to catch Lupita right on time.
Pop of Color 