Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick sparked a national conversation about police brutality against Black and Brown people when he took a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His memoir, The Perilous Fight, is out this week from Legacy Lit. Below is an excerpt about the books that changed his life and helped inspire him to speak
Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—and a Love Letter to a Way of Life by Nyle DiMarco, Robert Siebert [My Perfectly Imperfect Body] by Debbie Tung A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib A Promised Land by Barack Obama Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey
Halloween is the second highest-grossing event in all of America. It is believed that all the ghosts and spirits roam around us in either human forms or their true forms on Halloween, and that’s why the dress-up activities were introduced. Some think it is true and others think it’s just a pile of BS tied
Vampires have survived countless changes in popular culture. They have been terrifying monsters, tragic outsiders, elegant aristocrats, action villains, romantic antiheroes, and even comic characters. Every generation seems to reinvent them, yet their essential appeal remains remarkably consistent. Their adaptability has made vampires one of horror’s most enduring creations. It has also allowed them to
Awards season is upon us, and all week long, the National Book Award judges will be releasing their 2026 longlists across five categories. These are among the most prestigious honors bestowed upon books in a given year. The National Book Award began in 1936 by the American Booksellers Association, took a break during World War
Nia Long received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame surrounded by her family, including sons Massai and Kez, and colleagues Larenz Tate, Bill Bellamy, Mike Epps, and Terrence Howard. For the occasion, Long wore a $2,400 Khaite Ria Linen-Blend Maxi Dress in ivory, featuring draped cap sleeves and a chunky gold chain necklace,
Love Radioby Ebony LaDelle In this dual-perspective love story, LaDelle offers a narrative in which the main characters deal with PTSD, anxiety, and parentification. Both teens feel the weight of their parents’ expectations heavy on their shoulders, and each one deals with past situations that have left them shielding parts of their truth. The way
AREA closed out another electric season with its Spring/Summer 2027 runway show, and the brand’s signature maximalism was on full display. Think sculptural fringe in molded plastic tubing, liquid metal wrapped bodies, and hand-cut mirrored paillettes that moved like water with every step. Standouts included a striking orange-and-white checkerboard fringe mini dress built from interlocking
Neither New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft nor the rapper Macklemore have any business being the center of a serious national conversation, but somehow, here we are. This week, venue owners for Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour — including, most prominently, Kraft — ordered his promoter to fire the rapper, who was an opening act. Why?
Duncan Sheik, the singer behind the 1996 hit single “Barely Breathing” and Tony Award-winning composer of Spring Awakening, is currently in critical condition. The artist’s social media account posted a statement on Wednesday about his health. “We would like to share an update with Duncan’s fans and the public. Duncan is currently receiving medical care
Elijah Blue Allman, the son of Cher and the late Allman Brothers frontman Gregg Allman, has been indicted on a felony criminal mischief charge in New Hampshire after allegedly breaking into a woman’s home in March and smoking a cigarette on her couch while she hid in a closet. The indictment, obtained by Rolling Stone,
Hours after Macklemore challenged Robert Kraft “to match” his $1 million donation to organizations supporting Palestinians, the billionaire New England Patriots owner responded. Earlier in the week, Kraft allegedly led a pressure campaign to force the Seattle rapper off Ed Sheeran’s The Loop Tour, igniting a firestorm of backlash from artists and fans accusing Kraft
The Heartbreakers have never formally reunited in full since Tom Petty’s death in 2017. That changed Wednesday night in Nashville during the Americana Honors & Awards show when the band — Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Stan Lynch, and Ron Blair — backed up Chris Stapleton for a performance of classic Petty songs. First, Stapleton tackled
“We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!” exclaims former silent film star Norma Desmond, played by actual silent star Gloria Swanson, in Billy Wilder’sSunset Boulevard(1950). Even though silent films did clutter the screen with dialogue cards when necessary, and sometimes when not, the basic truth of the line can be proven by two of the
Award-winning filmmaker Robert W. Filion has officially unveiled the haunting key art poster for his highly anticipated supernatural horror anthology, Echoes from the Void, celebrating its worldwide release on Amazon Prime. The poster captures the psychological dread of the film, which follows a psychiatrist interviewing a mysterious prisoner. As their sessions progress, the line between
Tickets are now on sale for LAIKA’sWildwood, the studio’s epic new stop-motion fantasy opening exclusively in theatres October 23. To mark the occasion, LAIKA today debuted the film’s final trailer. The trailer showcases LAIKA’s signature handcrafted filmmaking and offers the biggest look yet at Prue McKeel’s journey into the hidden world of Wildwood and the
MAHAL EMPIRE UNLEASHES INDIE SCI-FI HORROR ‘ALIEN STORM’ ON BLU-RAY AND DVD Following its successful digital rollout, the tense survival thriller lands on physical media today, alongside ongoing digital availability to rent or buy on Amazon and Apple. Mahal Empire Productions is thrilled to announce that their highly anticipated sci-fi action-horror feature, Alien Storm, is
Though she is known as a country music icon, Dolly Parton was a central presence at the 2026 Americana Awards and Honors Wednesday at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Parton, who died on Aug. 25, received the Lifetime Achievement Award via a pre-taped video message, and there were few dry eyes in the house as
Macklemore said he will donate $1 million to organizations supporting Palestinians, and encouraged Robert Kraft “to match” after the billionaire New England Patriots owner allegedly led a pressure campaign to force the Seattle rapper off of Ed Sheeran’s tour. In a statement shared Wednesday — after two days of coverage about not only Macklemore’s ouster,
For the two nights he made it through as an opener on Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour, Macklemore used his position in front of an audience of thousands to advocate for Palestinians living in Gaza, where the death toll has surpassed 73,000 as Israeli military operations continue despite an alleged ceasefire, according to the Associated Press.
Madonna has been present at the MTV Video Music Awards in some form or fashion since she performed “Like a Virgin” at the very first show in 1984. Generations of new pop starlets have referenced her most iconic looks on the red carpet, or paid homage to her infamous Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera kisses
Last night, I closed out NYFW as the red carpet host for Emerge NYFW’s fashion show, toasting to the powerhouse Dionne Williams on 15 years of Emerge NYFW. Dionne always assembles fashion industry icons for her events, so I was honored to get the chance to interview FUBU’s J. Alexander Martin, the icon Karl Kani,
NYFW might be about the runways, but the parties are where fashion, music and culture collide—and ESSENCE Fashion House brought all three. Held at Jean’s in New York City, the celebration drew a fashionable crowd including Coi Leray, Daniel Kaluuya, Leon Thomas, Claressa Shields, Key Glock, Sydney Colson, Brandon Blackwood, Bernard James, Tia Adeola, Fe
ALKEBULAN III: The Water Remembers Matt B Vitae Records 21 August 2026 The two objects that define the Middle Passage are a door and a body of water. Matt B has built his third and final ALKEBULAN album around both. It opens with “At the End of the Door”, which is not a metaphor: he
In a year teeming with excellent, as well as excellently marketed, films (anyone heard of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, or Project Hail Mary?), the start of the fall festival season marks the transition from manageably overwhelming to outright insane levels of hype. The notorious awards season is around the corner, and the larger the number
Listening to Lost Pieces, I realized that I am done with the stock-in-trade of the record reviewer: genre. Jazz is how Youn Sun Nah is usually categorized. Yet, from her debut singing with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, she has inhabited more styles with her clear, quietly powerful voice than it would be sensible to list
Philadelphia’s Cold Court’s EP (^_^) /, or “hands up”, is a thrilling kitchen sink of influences that pulls off the challenging task of creating something that sounds fresh and unique. The city of brotherly love has a deep bench of talent right now, and Cold Court seemingly came out of nowhere to become one of
The configuration of bass, drums, and piano is an all-too common one in the world of jazz music, but when those instruments are somewhat turned on their heads, the results can be unique and often stunning. That’s certainly the case with Enneads. Their self-titled debut features Zach Layton on an unusual 17-string electric bass and
Sheep in the Box Hirokazu Koreeda Neon | Picturehouse 24 July 2026 (US) | 14 August 2026 (Edinburgh) Sci-fi fantasy Sheep in the Box follows Otone (Haruka Ayase) and Kensuke (Daigo Yamamoto), a grieving couple who lost their seven-year-old son, Kakeru (Kuwaki Rimu), in an accident and, two years later, still cannot move on. Director
From poetry to music to acting to filmmaking, Saul Williams doesn’t stay in one lane. You may recall seeing him last year in Ryan Coogler’s Oscar-winning smash Sinners, his directorial effort Neptune Frost, or in his debut feature, the Cannes and Sundance Audience Award-winning Slam. Maybe you encountered him through his guest features on songs