Category: Articles & Blog
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The Songs I Loved: Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love”
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It took so long Still I believed Somehow the one that I needed Would find me eventually I lived in my imagination. There existed a universe filled with applause and standing ovations. And in 1990, one of those places I manifested that universe was in my aunt Janet’s basement. While…
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The Songs I Loved: Concrete Blonde’s “Joey”
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my life is a perpetual music soundtrack. i remember all of the moments – no matter how trivial or traumatic – in song. my friends often joke that whenever i say, “i love this song!”, they know a story will follow. and they’re correct. music and pop culture are usually…
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I Wanna Go Out Dancing: Celebrating Birthdays During A Pandemic
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Growing up, I’ve always considered music to be a huge part of my life. I used to sometimes joke about how I’d leave my current city and one day become a popular DJ in Miami or Atlanta. While my dreams of being a DJ haven’t clearly panned out into a…
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Hello Goodbye: Why Ugly Betty Is Still Beautiful
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10 years ago, on April 14, 2010, Ugly Betty’s final episode “Hello Goodbye” aired on ABC. “Ugly Betty” was a Mexican-American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta. The show revolved around the character Betty Suarez, who despite her lack of style, landed a job at a prestigious fashion magazine. The series was based…
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How To Survive A Plague Again: The Denver Principles
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About two week ago, I did the very rare thing of going live on Instagram. I asked my comrade and my good, good gurlfriend Abdul-Aliy Muhammad to join me as we discussed “How to Survive A Plague…Again.” For about an hour and a half, Abdul and I talked about what…
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This Playlist is Helping Me Survive a Plague…Again
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many of the important moments and even many of the not-so-important moments often times play out in my memory through music. for example, every time i hear “unbreakable” by alicia keys, i am reminded of the night i tested hiv positive. i was in the car with my best friend…
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HIV and COVID-19: White Supremacy Is The True Parallel
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“Any disease that is treated as a mystery and acutely enough feared will be felt to be morally, if not literally, contagious.” Susan Sontag, Illness As Metaphor In December of 2019, a virus emerged in Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei Province, located in China. This novel coronavirus was…
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Madonna’s “Vogue” Is A Whole Three Decades Old, Y’all!
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in 1990, madonna was arguably the most popular and consistent pop artist on the planet. at the time, she had already sold millions upon millions of records and amassed an astounding 17 consecutive top 10 singles. sixteen of the singles reached top 5 including 7 number ones on the billboard…
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When Stigma Goes Viral, We Lose. When Community Support Thrives, We F*ckin’ Win
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As history has shown as, stigma and misinformation always spreads faster. From phrases about COVID-19 such as “Chinese virus” and “Kung-Flu” to photos masked Disney Princess Mulan and of charts that calculate “cough counts”, COVID-19 is another public health epidemic that exposes the failures of our current systems and institutions.…
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Quick History of how AIDS Ended AYDS, The Diet Supplement
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last week social media was abuzz with the “reports” that corona, the beer that i drink when i have too many long islands, was experiencing a financial hit because of the onset of the covid-19 (coronavirus). i wouldn’t be surprised if there was a small segment of the US population…
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1990: Celebrating One of the Best Movie Songs of All Time: Kid ‘n Play’s “Funhouse.”
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today marks the 30th anniversary of theatrical release of “house party,” one of the seminal black movies of the 1990’s. starring hip-hop duo, kid ‘n play, tisha campbell, martin lawrence, aj johnson and the late great comedian robin harris (who died nine days after its release), “house party” centered on…
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That Time When The White House Press Room Erupted In Laughter About The Then Growing AIDS Epidemic
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a few days ago, i logged into this very account and saw that a mutual posted a meme that read, “900 people get coronavirus and the whole world wants to wear a surgical mask. 30 million people have AIDS but still nobody wants to wear a condom.” at first, i…