On his new CD, Be Good (Motema Music), Gregory Porter brings his amazing voice -- a warm, throaty tenor that immediately draws you in -- to the forefront. In less than two years, Porter has gained significant momentum leading up to this sophomore release, the follow-up...

Irish actor Liam Neeson has been carving out a niche in his last few films as a tough-guy-with-a-heart and it seems to be working well for him (most powerfully in 2008's Taken). Is Neeson becoming the new Harrison Ford? Like that Hollywood icon, he has mastered the ability to serve...

Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh's new film, the spy thriller Haywire, excites with lots of great action sequences that overwhelm an often confusing storyline. Mixed martial arts fighter and American Gladiators participant Gina Carano is featured in her first starring role as Mallory Kane, a highly-skilled covert ops specialist who...

How does a young woman allow a complete stranger access to her inner thoughts, giving him full sway over her feelings and actions? An interesting question brought vividly to life in the buzzed-about indie film Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight), writer-director Sean Durkin's brooding debut feature. Elizabeth Olsen (making...

Over the last twenty years, soul siren Lalah Hathaway has continued carving out a prominent space in the constantly shifting music business. Daughter of the legendary soul singer-songwriter Donny Hathaway, she has gained a loyal audience of her own, traveling the paths of R&B and jazz at her...

Politics is everywhere -- we have witnessed ongoing partisan mud-slinging in Washington, resulting in a near shutdown of our federal government, the increasingly ugly run-up to the 2012 presidential race, and the frenzied media cycle following whether New Jersey governor Chris Christie would jump into the 2012 race.

The timing...

Where has the summer gone so quickly?

September has arrived and so have the thick, glossy fashion monthlies, with their largest issues of the year. Chock full of fall trends and, more important to their bottom lines, fall advertisements, the Vogues, Elles, Marie Claires and the like, are competing for...

In The Hot Box (Atria Books), wildly successful erotic novelist Zane -- a New York Times bestselling author, screenwriter and publisher of her own book imprint, Strebor -- crafts a funny, sexy tale that shapes up as the perfect summer beach read. It has several elements to make you laugh...

There has been a lot of talk about The Help, the screen adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's runaway No. 1 New York Times best-selling debut novel. The book takes place in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, the cradle of some of the most virulent racial episodes of the civil rights era, including the...

There is obvious truth in the fact that opposites attract. But while a wedding often celebrates the bringing together of two kindred spirits, sometimes those around them mix like oil and water.

Jumping The Broom (Stage 6 Films/TriStar/Sony Pictures), explores the sparks that fly when two very different African-American families...

Is the long-discussed divide between gospel music with a traditional sound versus that with a more contemporary spin still valid? Does it really matter as long as the messages of praise, struggle and uplift are present?

For gospel/R&B stars Mary Mary, their spirit-filled messages are always clear. Although Something Big...

Since the 2007 break up of neo-soul duo Floetry, speculation has steadily grown as to the musical direction each member would take. Singer-songwriter-producer Marsha Ambrosius spreads her soulful wings and expands her creative comfort zone on her debut solo joint, the aptly titled Late Nights & Early Mornings (J Records).

To research and report on the history of hip-hop -- from its modest New York beginnings in the 1970s at parties in uptown Bronx recreation centers and parks, to its impact on mainstream marketing, advertising and global culture -- is a huge undertaking. In Dan Charnas' exhaustively researched The Big...

Brit chanteuse Adele has resurfaced with her highly anticipated new album, 21 (XL Recordings/Columbia). The new record follows her surprisingly successful debut, 19, for which she won two Grammy Awards (including Best New Artist) in 2009. Surprising, you ask? In a stilted music industry where recording artists are over-packaged and...

With Somewhere, her fourth feature film, writer/director Sofia Coppola seems to be a filmmaker who doesn't fancy rushing the story along. She gives her story and its characters their own time to develop, sometimes to lethargic effect -- the first part of this film is like watching paint dry. She...

In the fractured music industry, it is getting harder and harder to "break" a new recording artist. Musicians are struggling to find new and different ways to stand apart from the pack; especially since the old, tried-and-true record company methods don't seem to be working. Into this challenging abyss comes...

The road from hell back to creativity and peace of mind is a difficult one, indeed. On his new album, Second Chance (Geffen), his long-awaited return to the music scene after sixteen years, R&B/pop legend El DeBarge has made the journey with his considerable gifts as a singer and songwriter...

I don't usually pick up the supermarket gossip rags -- In Touch, Us Weekly, Life & Style, the Star, and the like. They all seem to be covering the same celebrities in the same ways, and it just doesn't appeal to me. I think these types of magazines and websites,...

One of this season's buzz books, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (Riverhead), the debut story collection from Danielle Evans, proves that innovative short fiction is not dead. Evans, who teaches literature at American University in Washington, D.C., has an uncanny ability to take the reader right into the...

The 14th annual Urbanworld Film Festival, backed by presenting sponsor BET Networks and founding sponsor HBO, wrapped in New York City this past weekend. UWFF is widely known as the largest U.S. film festival showcasing films from around the world with a multicultural bent -- over 70 films screened in...