LIFESTYLE
Lifestyle & Culture From Across The African Diaspora
Lara Downes Reflects On The Music Of Scott Joplin
Lara Downes, whose star currently shines in the world of classical music as one of its most innovative figures and most energetic activists, discusses the inspiration behind her latest work, Reflections: Scott Joplin Reconsidered. A modern reflection on Joplin’s musical legacy, we discuss the importance of cultural memory and how the music of Scott Joplin continues to speak to us all more than a century later.
Queen Mother’s: Chef Rock Harper Is Changing The Chicken Sandwich Game With History And Respect
Fast food is usually the last place anyone would look for a history lesson, a social conscience or a message of change. And maybe that’s the problem. In a world where fast food is often the only food available in our communities, is there any reason why it shouldn’t be a force for good, serving healthy food while encouraging community togetherness and mutual respect? Chef Rock Harper says no, and he’s proving his point with Queen Mother’s, his new Arlington, Virginia-based restaurant that’s aiming to change the way we see fried chicken, and a few other things as well.
Black America’s Voting Revolution
In the fall of 2020, the National Urban League partnered with BET to launch a new initiative — National Black Voter Day. The day, part of BET’s #ReclaimYourVote campaign, was focused on increasing Black voter turnout at the ballot box in the United States. Black voter turnout has been relatively high in the US for decades. Pew Research Center surveys that examine voting patterns over the past 20 years show that a majority of Black voters turn out each election cycle, with 67% of eligible Black voters participating in the 2012 election. That number was higher than any other racial or ethnic group that year. But in 2016, during the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Black voter turnout dipped by 10%, resulting in a 20-year low (higher still than the percentage of eligible Asian-Americans and Hispanic-Americans who voted that year, but slightly lower than the percentage of eligible white Americans).
West African Roots: A Closer Look At The Origins Of The Fiddle Leaf Fig
For most of us, it was around 2010 that today’s trendiest houseplant came onto the scene. The ficus lyrata, better known as the fiddle leaf fig started a revolution, quickly replacing the old, outdated palm tree of virtually every home and office of the 1990s. While the fiddle leaf fig has enjoyed soaring popularity over the past decade — even getting recognized by The New York Times as the go-to plant of top interior designers — its history is much longer and deeper than that. In fact, this stylishly modern plant is millions of years old and traces its roots to West Africa, specifically modern day Cameroon and Sierra Leone.
The Woman King Doesn't Tell The Whole Story, But Should It Have To?
History is a tricky beast to nail down. The result of a mixture that’s equal parts objective science, subjective perspective, political power, and good old fashioned belief, history is a feat, the attempt of which leaves scholars and students alike with the same inevitable paradox: on one hand, an unwilling acceptance of the fact that we will never be able to recount with complete accuracy or objectivity exactly what happened; and on the other hand a grim understanding of the consequences of getting it too wrong or worse yet, not trying at all.