The Man Who Patented Disney Magic
Lanny Smoot has spent decades turning science fiction into stagecraft—from a floating fortune-teller to a real retractable lightsaber—and quietly reshaping what “immersion”
The Hill We Keep Climbing
A new children’s biography arrives as “The Hill We Climb” remains a civic text, a mirror held close, and a reading lesson.
“Are We Going to Do Something About It?”
The question engraved beneath Barbara Rose Johns’ statue is the same one her classmates faced in 1951—and one the country still dodges.
The Check Is Coming. The Damage Already Cashed
Inside Michigan’s Flint water settlement—why it took years to reach families, how fees and liens reshape “justice,” and what a majority-Black city is being asked to accept
Before Fashion Looked to Africa, Africa Tailored Itself
La SAPE’s century-old system of elegance predates the global runway.
When Trane Lowered the Volume
The making of “John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman,” the record that taught a generation to hear restraint as power.
Where Black Art Lives, Again
The Studio Museum returns to Harlem with a new building, an expanded vision, and a renewed commitment to the community that has always shaped it.
Who Gets to See Themselves in a Holiday Classic?
Black Broadway Tulsa’s all-Black cast premiere asks that question—without changing a single line of the script.
Black-Owned Bakeries: Where The Sweet Things Are
Across six Black-owned bakeries—in Chicago, Dallas, Harlem, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Prince George’s County, Maryland—these businesses sell pleasure, but they run on discip
What You’re Allowed to Say About Who You Are
After affirmative action’s fall, applicants learned to translate identity into “character.” Now Washington wants to audit the translation.