Amaarae

Saturday Notes: KAWS, Amaarae, Gov. Wes Moore

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pledges "the most full assault on child poverty" in the state's history, while Saturday Notes also spotlights artist KAWS and Ghanaian pop star Amaarae.

Tiwa Savage

Friday Notes: Tiwa Savage, NASA, The Roots...

Friday Notes argues it's long overdue to give Tiwa Savage her flowers — a force who has consistently pushed the scales toward equity in the male-dominated Afrobeats landscape.

Sarkodie

Thursday Notes: Hip-Hop at Fifty, Defining race...

Hip-hop turns fifty this year — and Thursday Notes explores the genre's origins alongside the sobering math that a $100,000 salary in New York City is worth less than $36,000 after taxes and cost of living.

Lady Wray

Wednesday Notes: Black Americans and the dream of homeownership

The national Black-white homeownership gap is wider today than it was in 1970 — Wednesday Notes digs into how systemic barriers keep locking Black Americans out of America's primary wealth-building tool.

JAY-Z

Tuesday Notes: Race vs. Ethnicity, Just Blaze and Michael Jackson...

Some Black Americans want their enslaved ancestry recognized in census categories; some Jewish Americans want a distinct ethnic designation — Tuesday Notes digs into the government's rethinking of race and ethnicity.

Ruth Carter

Monday Notes: Mississippi Blues, The Oscars...

The Mississippi Delta is world-famous for the blues and integral to America's civil rights story — Monday Notes explores efforts to tell both histories together at the same cultural sites.

Burna Boy

Sunday Notes: Burna Boy, SVB, Air Jordan 1 "Palomino"

Sunday's roundup spans Burna Boy, the SVB banking collapse, and the Air Jordan 1 'Palomino' — with culture picks from Harlem fashion editor Aria Hughes.

Fred Perry

Saturday Notes: Telling Black Stories via film and TV, Joeboy's new video, Chloe Bailey as a producer and on TV...

Black and Latino directors are funding their own stories, Joeboy drops the riveting 'Body & Soul' video, and Chloe Bailey emerges as a producer and TV presence.

Kuukuwa Manful

Friday Notes

Kuukuwa Manful hopes her work reframes how we talk about and study architecture across Africa — Friday Notes opens with the Ghanaian architect's project on reclaiming the continent's architectural discourse.

Dinner Party (Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington)

Thursday Notes

Jordan Brand welcomes fresh summer colorways across its Air Jordan retro lineup for 2023 — Thursday Notes digs into the standout drops and what makes each one worth copping.

Aja Monet

Wednesday Notes

Lanny Smith founded Actively Black after concluding Nike and Adidas weren't doing enough for Black communities — Wednesday Notes explores his $30 million sportswear bet on racial equity.

Wayne Shorter

Tuesday Notes

Biographer Michelle Mercer recalls the many "isms" she learned from Wayne Shorter — the legendary saxophonist and composer who died March 2023 — in Tuesday Notes' tribute.