In the summer of 2020, AphroChic spoke with Janelle Jones on Instagram Live about Black Women's Equal Pay Day, economics, and racial inequality. Janelle is the first African American woman to serve as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and is currently the chief economist for Service Employees International Union. Here we present the edited conversation from two years ago in honor of Black Women's Equal Pay Day 2022, which takes place this year on September 21st. Black women are paid 58 cents for every dollar paid to white men and this day symbolically denotes how far into the year Black women must work to be paid what men were paid the previous year. 

It is a tale of two sisters. One, the Rada Loa, Erzulie Fréda Dahomey, is the goddess of love, beauty, jewelry, dancing, and flowers. The other is Erzulie Dantor, most senior of the Petro Loa and goddess of motherhood, credited as the spiritual inspiration to Haiti’s famed revolution. Opposites in nature and rivals for the love of Ogun, the two are traditionally depicted as enemies. But for his SS20 collection, Haitian-born designer Prajjé Oscar Jean-Baptiste, painted a different story. 

Tobago is beautiful. With lush rainforests, towering mountains and endless beaches, it is beautiful in a way rivaled only by those few places equally fortunate to be located somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. It’s easy to believe that when Christopher Columbus first set foot on the island in the last years of the 15th century, that the beauty of the place was the first thing he noticed.

There is an old saying that goes: when white people get a cold, Black people get the flu. And unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak has proved this to be true. More than 100,000 Americans have lost their lives due to COVID-19. And 40 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits in the last 10 weeks as they continue to lose work hours or lose their jobs altogether, affecting their wages and access to health care.

The summer of 2020 marks an incredible moment in history, seeing the birth of one of the largest civil rights movements the world has ever known. After years of what seemed like an endless cycle of Black death and white apathy, something new has happened. Cries of support for Black lives have begun to come from places that were once deathly silent as the terrifying immunity with which the police could kill Black people was proven over and over, one video at at time. The outrage of a community used to suffering alone has been felt by others and together they are beginning to stand up, not in one city or one nation, but all over the world.

Whether you’re looking to be an expert home gardener growing your own salads and herbs, or just a capable plant parent able to keep things green for as long as possible, the world of plants has become one of the biggest home trends of 2020. Sustainable, affordable, and with big benefits for health and wellness, plant life is attracting a growing number of homeowners — especially millennials — who are looking to breathe new life into their spaces. And with so many of us only able to watch the seasons change through our windows, who wouldn’t love to bring a bit of the outdoors in? Growing along with the trend, a whole new crop of brands have sprung up, ready to help you not only find the perfect plants for your home, but care for them as well. We sat down with Evann E. Webb, the woman who runs social media for the Detroit-based brand Bloomscape to discuss all things plants and wellness.

On a nondescript stretch of Broadway in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, stands a print shop empty of customers or seemingly anything to sell. It is a miracle establishment, not unlike the neighborhood it sits in. You wonder how it has survived Amazon and gentrification, and you wonder for how much longer.

One of the more interesting functions that my family house has served over the years has been that of a refuge for members of my family as they made the transition from one stage of life to another. My Uncle Allen — my grandmother’s brother — lived there for several months after leaving the Air Force. My uncle Rodney did, too, having served in the Air Force as well. Other family members came and went for a multitude of reasons. More than once the change in circumstances came after a fire had claimed another home. For me, the house was my first home. I lived there for a year before my parents moved first into an apartment, then into the house that I grew up in.

The world of Pan-Africanism in the 1960s was very different from the one into which the Trinidadian lawyer Henry Sylvester Williams first introduced the term in 1900. Not only had 60 years passed, but with them two World Wars that had depleted the empires of Europe, loosening the stranglehold they once held on much of the rest of the world. But the impact of time wasn’t felt by Europe alone. Pan-Africanism had made its share of strides in that time as well.

Kingston born and Brooklyn-based, artist Paul Suepat is a student of contrasts. Focused constantly on the nebulous space between ambiguity and definition, his art moves between sculpture and painting, whimsical figures and strong abstract shapes, specific emotions and imaginative contexts. His home too is a class in the power of opposites. Here, trend-forward rooms defined by bright splashes of color sit beside (or beneath) spaces where restrained motifs speak more of the past than the future. And everywhere there is art. Art that Paul creates and art that he admires; pieces gifted from fellow creatives and pieces left from his massive installations for public works and private galleries. The effect is magical, and each room, no matter how different, feels like somewhere that deserves further exploration.