Gloria Oladipo

Like many of us, Suzan-Lori Parks thought the Covid shutdown would last a few weeks.
The Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, writer, musician, and all around multi-hyphenate, was on the set of Genius: Aretha, a season in National Geographic’s anthology series that focused on the life of singer Aretha Franklin.
“They said, ‘[It’ll be] a couple of weeks, you know, go home, put your feet up right. We’ll be back,’” said Parks to the Guardian.
From Bad Cinderella to Life of Pi: the biggest Broadway...

The professor who is a leading voice on critical race theory has warned that the rightwing battle against racial justice education not only threatens US democracy, but encourages a revival of segregationist values and policies.

James Ijames’s Fat Ham dances on the bones of Hamlet. Make no mistake, Fat Ham is not a sequel to Hamlet. It is not “Hamlet with Black people”.

Fat Ham uses the silhouette of Shakespeare’s masterwork to birth something new, a vicious critique of masculinity and violence infused with a much-needed hilarity. Juicy (Marcel Spears), a Black queer man, is visited by his father’s ghost Pap (Billy Eugene Jones). Akin to Hamlet, Juicy is tasked with avenging his father’s death and killing his uncle.
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The theme of this year’s anti-abortion March for Life centers on being “pro-woman,” touted as an opportunity to celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment’s passage, which granted white women voting rights.
In a video promoting this year’s march, March for Life honors women’s suffrage movement leaders Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul for “[birthing] the 19th Amendment” and for speaking out against abortion as “the ultimate exploitation of women.” But by valorizing the women’s suffrage move...

Ari Lennox, Teyana Taylor, and Blue Ivy Carter (yes, Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s 8-year-old child) have been the recent targets of online bullies: All three have faced misogynoir-fueled harassment, largely driven by people on social media, that specifically focuses on their looks. Earlier this month, a viral tweet compared Lennox and Taylor to rottweilers, while two journalists tweeted disparaging comments about Carter’s appearance, implying that she’ll soon need plastic surgery to correct the genes ...

Lent, as a religious practice, is a time of sacrifice. This year, that sacrifice feels compounded as we witness the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Lent is typically seen as a time to give up luxuries and tune into what Christ had to forgo when he spent 40 days in the desert — though, often, that intention has gotten lost. There is a hyper-focus on what we will restrict, what we will not do, or how we will discipline ourselves. And the season’s focus tends to center on food.

As the world rushes to buy hospital masks and latex gloves, my OCD has made me feel like I am in on some kind of secret: the true cost of fear and panic.
TW/CW: this article mentions suicidal ideation
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These past few weeks have been surreal for me. As someone who has a serious (once debilitating) case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), I can only describe watching the world panic over the Coronavirus as…strange.
I watch people who I swear have never used a bar of soap le...

Fashion should say something and be of service to someone. It should engage in a dialogue about the way our world works and how we must do better.
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I don’t understand the point of fashion week.
I went to London Fashion Week for the first time. It was my adolescent dream realized, to be the cool girl with the exclusive passes, making her way into fashion week shows that her Black ass didn’t “belong” at. I was geeked and brought along my dear friend and associate, Amber, who ac...

Among the different symbols of white feminism, we see common themes of selfishness, co-option, and faux allyship emerge.
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Throughout history, white women have used a variety of symbols to define their “feminism” and commitment to dismantling the patriarchy and other violent systems. Here are seven of those symbols that white feminists have used to seem more productive than they actually are:
The Suffragette Sash
The Suffragette Sash—a green, white and purpl...

What a key message for all of us to hear. Weight gain is not inherently a sign of sickness, and can in fact be part of our healing.

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Oh, BoJack Horseman—how much will I miss you! The final series contained so many poignant, well-expressed moments: BoJack’s reckoning with death, the idea of what it means to be “changed”, and allowing us to follow along on the beautiful ...

During Black Maternal Health Week, Rewire.News is joining the national conversation on Black maternal health and sharing stories from the frontlines of the reproductive justice movement.

With COVID-19 disproportionately impacting Black people in the United States, the pandemic will weaken the already fraught infrastructure of reproductive and maternal health care for Black communities. But Black women have always led the fight for reproductive justice—centering the needs of society’s most mar...

In Erika Sánchez’s New York Times bestselling novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, 15-year-old Julia Reyes navigates grief, young adulthood, and the intense expectations of her Mexican immigrant parents. Now brought to life on the stage at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, Julia’s story expands its reach and empowers a team of Latinx artists to show the power and necessity of these narratives — challenging the history of white protagonists in theater in the process.
“I felt like I wante...

Black film in 2019 has been a rollercoaster ride: We’ve been treated to an array of films that aim to capture Black experiences, from Jordan Peele’s horror film Us to Lena Waithe and Melina Matsoukas’s ride-and-die romance film Queen & Slim. We’ve revisited the Rudy Gay’s complex life in the Eddie Murphy-led My Name Is Dolemite; followed Black women on journeys to find themselves in What Men Want, Little, and Juanita; and were treated to haunting films, like See You Yesterday and Atlantics, t...

In the United States, Black people, both perpetrators and victims, are rarely depicted without bias in the news media: No matter the circumstance, we’re portrayed as menacing and criminal; our personal information, including our names, our professions, and our family histories are openly shared, encouraging others to pass judgement. Personal photos—usually highlighting what’s perceived as “criminal” behavior—are publicized, and we’re still more likely to have our mugshots and arrest records p...