"This dance ain't for everybody; only the sexy people." -- "Push It," Salt 'N Peppa Hasn't it been too long? How long has it been since April 7, 2001? How long since we were at war? Are we at   

Monica Williams is a divorced, college-educated mother of five trained as a paralegal. Her skin is blacker than a thousand midnights. Against its blackdrop her teeth are smiled surprises. She's go  

This do in remembrance of him. Just in time for Black History Month, Cincinnati pays homage (and penance) to Gregory Beauchamp -- gay, black, proud and bashed to death on New Year's Eve on his way t  

Heroes are at home. Randy is my aesthetic yardstick, my operative, deputized spy and intellectual paramour. Peerless in his frustration, anger, rage and truth-telling with the chocolatey center, h  

This is war. God and Satan in an ancient grudge scrap in a Celebrity Death Match for R. Kelly's soul. God keeps losing. R&B deejays make jokes ("some brothas just freaky like dat") and open the pho  

"Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated." --The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Lemme holla at you today, my people, 'cause even though we're face down in these tripped-out times  

Namesakes are fallin' out in the aisles. The Arts Consortium of Cincinnati dodged a bullet when it changed the name of its Dr. Martin Luther King Day Breakfast, assuaging itself for holding the eve  

"Hey faggot, better run, run, run 'cause Daddy's home/ Daddy's sweet little boy just a little too sweet/ and every night the man showed the faggot what a real man should be." -- "Leviticus: Faggot,  

The grounds are rocky where my intellect turns somersaults. It's a conspiracy of time and place that I navigate this malaise. It's an emotional/spiritual/professional End-of-the-Year Clearance Sale  

EDITOR'S NOTE: Kathy was too busy to write a new letter to Santa Claus, so she sent last year's instead. A version of this column first ran in the issue of Dec. 20-26, 2001. Dear Santa, Can you pl  

They handed out fleece-lined jackets. Grady Cook got one. We gathered in the basement of the Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church Dec. 14 for the annual dinner of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the  

Cincinnati is the southern-most northern city. Yet, in our uppity northern ways, we make fun of all things southern. But they've made visible strides since sprayin' niggers with hoses was a sport.  

Oh, those party conversations. It was said wistfully, as in passing. Still it carried heft. Whooomp! Like a steaming sack of hot do-do it splattered down. The affluent black woman at the holiday g  

I'm a lapsed Christian. Then so is my pastor. The Rev. Freddie T. Piphus has been disengaged from leadership at Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church (LHMBC). And it disturbs me to say so. The  

I use humor. I use it to diffuse the stereotype of the angry black bitch and to stunt my hate-filled, presumptuous and bigoted growth. I guffaw to keep from screaming. Seth wanted to rub my head.