PARIS — With just over a month before the Paris Olympics, Louis Vuitton celebrated the beauty of humans and their skin in a star-studded menswear showcase at the headquarters of U.N. cultural agency UNESCO in Paris. Models wearing garb in all the hues of human flesh paraded around a giant globe on grass patterned in … Read more
NEW YORK — Black music traditions such as jazz are central to celebrations of Juneteenth, says civil rights lawyer and jazz pianist Bryan Stevenson. That’s why he and Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz artist Wynton Marsalis have debuted “Freedom, Justice and Hope,” a live performance album of historic jazz records created to protest racial injustice, in time … Read more
PIXLEY, Calif. — The stench of cow feces, urine and ammonia forces residents to keep windows and doors closed in parts of California’s farming country. Some people constantly run air purifiers at home to counter the smell and, they say, fight off air-related ailments. “We have a lot of health problems going around in this … Read more
HONOLULU — Ki‘inaniokalani Kahoʻohanohano longed for a deeper connection to her Native Hawaiian ancestors and culture as she prepared to give birth to her first child at home on the north shore of Maui in 2003. But generations of colonialist suppression had eroded many Hawaiian traditions, and it was hard to find information on how … Read more
MIAMI — Amari Cooper’s football jersey hangs in the Coconut Grove Sports Hall of Fame. So does Frank Gore’s, alongside tributes to Negro League baseball player Jim Colzie and football coach Traz Powell, whose name adorns perhaps the most revered high school football stadium in talent-rich South Florida. They represent West Coconut Grove when it … Read more
WARREN, Mich. — The lead singer of the Four Tops said a Detroit-area hospital restrained him and ordered a psychological exam after refusing to believe that he was part of the Motown music group. Alexander Morris, who is Black, filed a lawsuit Monday against Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren, alleging racial discrimination and other misconduct … Read more
ORLANDO, Fla. — A new attraction starring the first Black Disney princess is opening at the company’s U.S. theme park resorts, and some Disney followers see it as a fitting replacement to a former ride based on a movie that contained racist tropes. The new theme park attraction updates Tiana’s storyline from the 2009 animated … Read more
NEW YORK — Former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein and Netflix announced Tuesday they’ve settled the defamation lawsuit she filed four years ago over her portrayal in the streaming service’s miniseries about the five Black and Latino teenagers known as the now-exonerated Central Park Five. Fairstein had argued that the 2019 four-part series “When They See … Read more
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Parts of the north side of Montgomery are defined by what it has lost: restaurants, grocery stores and a convenient pharmacy, the latter of which closed five years ago. People who still live in the historically Black neighborhood of Newtown, like Sharon Harris, are frustrated. She goes to a different location of … Read more
NEW YORK — One of Idris Elba’s grandfathers fought in World War II, but he doesn’t know what he endured. No pictures or stories survive. “That part of my family’s history has been erased somewhat,” says Elba. That helped fuel the actor’s push to narrate and executive produce the four-part National Geographic docuseries “Erased: WW2’s … Read more
