Fashion Spiece

French Vanilla. Rocky Road. Chocolate. Peanut Butter. Cookie Dough. When senior copywriter Roger Hailes penned those nine words, alongside just two measures of music, he probably didn’t know how many lives would be changed as a result. For the past two months, one commercial has overtaken the advertising world through an incredible coming together of a classic tune, a powerhouse marketing campaign and, of course, the hip-hop capital of the world: Atlanta. In the commercial, a woman is minding her business in her kitchen, when a disembodied voice asks Tasha (the character) if she’s familiar with their product. Then, in jest, Tag Team shows up and the magic begins. For some, 1993’s “Whoomp! (There It is)” by Tag Team is most easily described as a one-hit wonder. If you want to look more closely at the selection, one could qualify it as a Jock Jam, too. If you’ve really been paying attention, you know it’s seen quite a few spins on t...

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Warning: While there are no spoilers for  The Falcon and the Winter Soldier here, there are a myriad from the Marvel films that came before it. If the details of  Avengers: Infinity War  or  Endgame  are a mystery to you, don’t worry. Because Marvel, home of the Scarlet Witch, X-Men and the Hulk, has taken on the patina of documentary.  As The Falcon and the Winter Soldier begins its six-episode arc on Disney+ Friday, the inhabitants of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are reeling. On April 27, 2018, Thanos, a supervillain with an exceptionally rough beard, snapped half of all life in the universe – including half of the Avengers – out of existence. (That kind of plot point can be hard on spinoffs.) Almost exactly a year later, the Hulk snapped everybody back. The Avengers reassembled and Thanos was defeated. But neither the world nor the Avengers are OK. The difference between then and now is us. Where once the MCU was a but...

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As the saying goes, you can tell more about a man not by what he does, but by what he gives. This week we lost a man who gave many of us a lot, National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) founding executive director Paul H. Brock. Brock is among the people credited with bringing together 44 men and women in 1975 to create the organization that now serves more than 3,000 members. His career of nearly 70 years included stops in radio and communications. As a former journalist who spent much of his career in political communications, Brock still saw the need for an organization that supported Black journalists. I cannot recall precisely the first time I met Brock; it must have been sometime in 2007. I worked on Capitol Hill and was a new NABJ board member. We clicked quickly. Our bond was over our love of all things politics, our beloved alma mater Howard University and, of course, all things media. We also both loved spicy Thai food and our long lunches over good conversati...

They’re not happening until April 25 this year — thanks, COVID-19 — but the Academy Awards have returned to some measure of homeostasis. They’re back to snubbing Spike Lee, but they’re not embarrassing themselves the way they did in the alabaster cringefest era of #OscarsSoWhite . While industry paean Mank led the nominations with 10, Judas and the Black Messiah (6) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (5) also received well-deserved plaudits, including a best actor nod for the late Chadwick Boseman , a best actress nomination for Viola Davis and supporting actor nominations for LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya. Judas also scored nods for best picture and best original screenplay, though, in a puzzling turn, its director, Shaka King, did not get a nomination for directing. Nomadland director Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color in the 93-year history of the Oscars to receive a nomination for best director. Other bright spots: Les...

* This article was originally published here