Men Are Trash’ Meme Swamps Twitter

Excerpt from The Afro Newspaper

Twitter’s brought up a lot of conversations in the past, but if you were on the social media platform this past weekend, your timeline may have been flooded with tweets that circulated around one key phrase: “Men Are Trash.”

It all started on May 5 when Kelsey Joie, a YouTube hair vlogger and massive tweeter who had just moved from Missouri to Dallas, made a post about her shirts emblazoned with the phrase “Men are Trash” were available for purchase. It wasn’t her first time, according to Joie, who originally released the same T-shirt in Feb. “Of course there were people mad, like, ‘Man this some bulls*** lol,’” Jolie tells the AFRO. “But they weren’t seriously pissed off. It didn’t really get that big and I only sold a few shirts…So I kind of left it alone.”

How All Things Go Grew a Nerdy Music Blog Into One of D.C.'s Biggest Festivals

Fall is here. And with it, the usual staples; cool temperatures, bronzing leaves, and pumpkin-spiced everything. But in recent years in D.C., a new fall staple has emerged: All Things Go's Fall Classic, a music festival that boasts a diverse lineup of artists and bands that range from national headliners—like Tove Lo, Future Islands, and Kygo—to fresh local talent. And this Saturday, it kicks off its third iteration—its biggest yet.

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As an HBCU grad, the president made me feel undefeated

Photo - Brent Lewis (The Undefeated)

On Tuesday, during An Undefeated Conversation with The President Obama: Sports, Race and Achievement at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, the 44th president tackled a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from his political career to the athletes who inspired him. Compared with the several times I’ve seen President Barack Obama talk in previous forums, this one stood out far more because he provided a message that made an impact on me: never being defeated.

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With Redemption, D∆WN Takes R&B and EDM To The Next Level

The next time you go to a dance party, you might hear D∆WN getting played. Her music will have you jamming to synthy beats and illustrious vocal game. This third addition to the Danity Kane singer formerly known as Dawn Richard’s catalog takes another step further into her blending of dance music and R&B, and she almost does it to perfection. Her previous projects showed proof of the singer experimenting with her voice and production as she shifted to an electronic dance vibe. However, Redemption pushes things to the next level with a genre-bending sound that could keep both lovers of EDM and R&B fans interested.

The album kicks off with a slowly opened intro, a magical tune grabbed from a futuristic fairy tale to grab your attention. But things begin to change as it soon fades out to enter a tribal element. It unofficially foreshadows what you’ll encounter throughout the project – a mixture of soft vocals and lyrics embodied in powerful production. It really mirrors production from electronic artists like Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, and maybe Lion Babe. But D∆WN’s voice brings everything to another level.

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How Atlanta Captured the Black Millennial Experience

Last night’s season finale of Atlanta didn’t try to leave us with a major cliffhanger or crazy ass plot twist that would reel us in for Season 2 (which has already been confirmed). However, the latest episode ended with a humbling moment that mirrors one thing that we can all relate to: progress. Earn’s been through a lot this season. There was a point where no one believed in him, and the only thing he had going was a dead-end airport gig where he was already getting beaten out by an older black woman in the first episode. But, after a season of events that included being in jail, getting Paper Boi on TV, and trying to get paid by shady promoters at a nightclub, Earn has finally “earned” trust from his cousin and his baby mother, while also becoming friends with Darius. The young rap manager has moved up from where he was in the series premiere, and with his progression came an incredible cast of colorful characters that, in some way, mirrored the everyday struggles of young black millennials.

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Episode 9 of Atlanta Explores Juneteenth, Love & War

Earn was in a tough situation on Atlanta last night. Instead of helping Van at a party hosted by her bougie friend, Monique, he broke out of character to say what he really thinks. “This is wack, this party is dumb, she is dumb, this is such a weird place,” he said as he left the mansion in hilarious (yet embarrassing) fashion, and possibly shattering any chance Van making professional connections with the people she met at the party. The latest episode of Atlanta began by exploring race identity, and then settled on the complicated relationship between Earn and Van, and how they understand each other.

Van asked Earn to pretend to be her husband at this party, even though he slept with another woman the night before. The incident has already created a layer of tension so thick you’d need an axe to cut it, but Van needed to go so she can network with the right people. The party is a Juneteenth affair hosted by Van’s fairly new friend Monique and her thinks-he’s-super-down white husband Craig. It’s not like it’s a bad thing for a white person to understand our history, but this dude does exactly what Earn later accused him of doing when he stormed out of the mansion: stunting on black culture. He tried to dap-up Earn, talk to him about visiting Africa, and explained the idea of cultural appropriation. But even with all of the black guests, black art, and even a black choir that sings Negro spirituals, Craig clearly doesn’t “understand” Monique. However, the house and stable income are more than enough reasons for her to marry him.

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