Next month’s National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., features a play called Knock Me a Kiss. It dramatizes a black wedding of the early 20th century — the 1928 marriage of Harlem Renaissance poet laureate Countee Cullen and Nina Yolande Du Bois, the daughter of W.E.B. Despite a lavish event — she had 16…

In 1996, many wondered whether the AIDS epidemic was finally over. That year, thanks to the breakthrough in medication used to treat HIV, for the first time in the history of the pandemic, deaths from the disease dropped dramatically. At that watershed moment, AIDS changed from a death sentence to a manageable illness. Of course,…

For years, African Americans visiting New York made sure to take a trip to the epicenter of the city’s black history — Harlem. But in the past decade, as the uptown community has undergone a dramatic revitalization, New York’s best-kept secret has exploded in popularity. Now tourists from around the world visit the sites of…

Over the past few weeks, Amy Chua, author of the polarizing new parenting memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, has clawed her way to the top of best-seller lists. And the backlash has been in hot pursuit as thousands of angry journalists, bloggers and parents have decried her take-no-prisoners parenting strategies, calling her abusive,…

Years ago, when scientists predicted that someday you would be able to take a pill once a day to keep from contracting HIV, that idea sounded more Orwellian than real. But the future is now. The results of a large, international clinical trial published online this morning in the New England Journal of Medicine found…

This article originally ran under the name “The ‘Other’ Sheila Johnson” on BlackAIDS.org. Don’t call Sheila Johnson a billionaire. “I hate that,” she says. Technically, Johnson, the BET co-founder-turned-philanthropist, is worth only $400 million, according to last year’s Forbes list of America’s richest black folks. Recently she put $500,000 of that fortune where her heart…

Happiness has become a hot topic. In the last several years, dozens of books about how to be happy have hit the market, including The Happiness Project (an Oprah fave) and a re-issue of The Art of Happiness by no less an authority than the Dalai Lama. Now, Dr. Ian Smith has turned his attention…

For a quarter century, Susan L. Taylor was editor-in-chief and later editorial director of Essence magazine. Over the years, her name and face became synonymous with African-American female strength, beauty and grace. In her monthly column, “In the Spirit,” her message to millions of black women was simple: “Love yourself.” Even after she left the…