🍿So happy to announce the release of BlackTalk, a film screening and criticism salon series curated by ME! ✨
Check out the four eps at or on the Slayzhon YouTube NOW! You may see some familiar faces… 👀
NO WORDS 😩🤣 A toddler seemed to wonder what she had gotten herself into as she stood in a room full of screaming kids on her first day of day care in Syracuse, New York.
I need all of y'all to go buy Cicely Tyson's memoir, from a Black bookstore.
I firmly believe she knew how much she was loved, but let's send her home with a best seller.
"If I roll my eyes every time another cis, white, twinkish, or straight-passing person is deemed courageous for being femme in public, give me a break. It ain’t always easy doing the work when others get gold stars just for showing up."
Cute flex. But what this really confirms is that he’s unequivocally responsible for what many perceive as poorly written, problematic, and colorist narratives centering Black women. Hate to see it!
As a Black queer someone who, when my body began to manifest aspects of my identity even I was unaware of was punched in the chest by Black men in my family and told to “man up,” Ellen can’t and doesn’t speak for me.
#KevinHart
I'm actually encouraged by all the conversation
#QueenandSlim
has kicked up about Black art, Black critics, and criticizing Black art. Our art deserves to have these complex and varying, fiery and fierce, mixed and messy conversations, too.
Billy Porter is the first gay man to grace the cover of
@Essence
. I had the honor of sharing (digital) space with him a few weeks ago.
My cover story with the national treasure
@theebillyporter
:
Yall let me know when we're ready to talk about Brian Tyree Henry showing us range, depth and TALENT...
Atlanta, If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, Lobby Hero, Crown Heights, White Boy Rick, This Is Us...
It's not lost on me that the start of
#PRIDE
coincides with these
#BlackLivesMatter
demonstrations. Because for those of us both Black and LGBTQ+, neither community has done what it needs to do to affirm our humanity.
None of us are free unless we're all free.
What makes me most happy is that Kimberly Elise is in this spread. GIVE HER HER THINGS, TOO!
Photo by Mickalene Thomas and Racquel Chevremont / T Magazine.
“There’s a unique pressure that those of us who are Black, queer, and visible often shoulder, just by the very nature of our existence.”
I spoke to
@LilNasX
just days after his BET Awards performance for an
@outmagazine
cover.
Story:
In her memoir, Ms. Tyson says that Tyler Perry -- having learned that she made pennies for "Sounder" and "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" among other roles -- always doubled/tripled her rate as a way of honoring her gifts to the world. RIP, queen.
The
#AMAs
are honoring Taylor Swift as "Artist of the Decade" when Beyoncé is sitting RIGHT THERE.
(It's, allegedly, because she's won more AMAs this decade than anyone else and that sounds about white.)
Thrilled to announce that LA-based journalist Tre'vell Anderson (
@TrevellAnderson
) is joining Xtra as a regular contributor covering film and TV. Look out for their first piece on Friday. In the meantime, check out more of Tre'vell's work here:
André Leon Talley was one of my first possibility models.
I was introduced to his brilliance as a judge on ANTM. Long before I decided to become a journalist, his example paved a way for me. It let me know that I, too, could be a journalist — just as I am. 🧵
I remember covering Michael Brown/Ferguson-related uprisings across Los Angeles. On one occasion, I got trapped with a group of (peaceful) demonstrators cornered by police. My non-Black colleagues were allowed to cross the police line by showing their credentials. I was not.
we ask reporters, especially reporters of color, to walk towards horror and trauma everyday and there's very little discussion on the long term effects of that. in addition to everything else, newsrooms need to prioritize the mental health of their employees.
Back in my day, when you bought a book, the cashier would automatically give you a bookmark.
That don’t happen with online orders. And here I am using a chopstick instead.
I know y’all feel like the Oscars race is pretty decided, but icon Alfre Woodard gives the best performance of her career in “Clemency,” in theaters Dec. 27.
Winston Duke, Lady Gaga, Sterling K Brown, Jonathan M Chu, Nisha Ganatra, David E Talbert, PJ Raval, Matt Tyrnauer, Alana Mayo, Ellene Miles, Adele, Kris Bowers, Terence Nance, Desiree Akhavan, Gillian Flynn, Chinonye Chukwu among 842 ppl invited to become
@TheAcademy
members.
For our beauty issue, I interviewed
@ABerkofsky
about how she uses her camera to capture the beauty of Black and brown bodies on
@insecurehbo
and beyond.
@outmagazine
And now that I think about it... keep Melissa as Ursula and make sure we don't ignore the racial element of this. I want us to engage with the idea that a white woman wants to steal the voice of a Black woman. Biiittchhhhh, the think pieces write themselves lol
Tre’vell Anderson (
@TrevellAnderson
) joins us as Editor at Large, building upon their ongoing project to centre those in the margins, especially Black queer and trans voices. Based in L.A., Tre'vell is a writer, editor and podcaster, and serves as the president of
@NABJLAOfficial
Oscars voting begins today. I hope the Academy puts all the other award shows in rice and recognizes some "unconventional" talents this year:
Brian Tyree Henry
Crazy Rich Asians
Widows
Steven Yeun
Blindspotting
Sorry To Bother You
to name a few.
There's something to be said about these artists not giving us albums and instead giving us experiences and other non-music content — Rihanna w all things Fenty; Frank Ocean with the mag, the radio station and now this, via
@MikelleStreet
@outmagazine
:
Still thinking about
@LovecraftHBO
playing Dorinda Clark-Cole’s “Take It Back” while Leti shatters those car windows.
And Shirley Caesar’s “Satan We’re Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down” while they cast out that white man's spirit.
The genius!
#LovecraftCountry
🗣️ My debut book, “WE SEE EACH OTHER: A BLACK, TRANS JOURNEY THROUGH TV AND FILM,” is available for preorder wherever you get slayworthy books! 😚
It comes out in about three months, on May 9. Super thankful to
@angelicaross
who provides the foreword.
Niecy Nash-Betts on thanking herself at the Emmys: “I’m the only one who knows how much it cost me. I’m the only one who knows how many nights I cried because I couldn’t be seen for a certain type of role.”
Part of me feels like while this moment calls for Black folks to photograph and be on mainstream magazine covers... it also calls for Black folks to write the articles?
I love how we are applauding Black celebrities for talking to Black press on red carpets...
But as long as their publicity teams are primarily white folks, this will continue. So, hire a Black publicist and then come back to me about how much you support Black media.