Summer is indisputably a season tailor-made for black joy. ’Tis the season of cookouts, stoop-sitting, rooftop bars, music and food festivals, block parties, hand fans, summer jams and all-white affairs (“Diner en Blanc,” if you’re bougie).

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly ... and R. Kelly will likely be a predator for the rest of his life. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, new allegations surfaced Monday that couldn’t be more fitting or less shocking about the man who calls himself “The Pied Piper of R&B.”

What I thought when I met my dad was, “Oh, I’m free to love now.” But it’s like, how are you gonna do it? ... You’ve never done this before; no one informed you how to do this. You don’t even have the tools to do it …

Look, I apologize, often womanized
Took for my child to be born
To see through a woman’s eyes …

“If [Serena] played the men’s circuit, she’d be, like, 700 in the world.” —John McEnroe

It’s a wet, frigid and very late night on an Atlanta music-video set, and the crew is feeling it. Specifically, Hollywood wunderkind Ryan Coogler is concerned about the artist, instructing him to zip up his coat.

“I don’t take coffee; I take tea, my dear. Some extra rice, please, on the side...”

Why would they vote against their own self-interests? This was the question many of us asked—in anger, horror and complete confusion—after the election of the least competent president in recorded history (thus far).

Black America, we have our first Bachelorette! She’s gorgeous, highly accomplished, decidedly brown-skinned and likely pissing off a huge swath of Trump voters (woot, woot!). But spoiler alert (among several): If you’re expecting a season full of scenic montages glorifying black love, she’s also likely to disappoint…

I have a confession: Apparently, I need Jesus—or so I’ve been told.

Come again? In a recent interview with Marie Claire, singer Janelle Monáe discussed her ideas when it comes to participating in resistance. I’m not going to lie: As a hot-blooded, fully grown and liberated woman who is in both her sexual prime and a happily grown-and-sexy relationship, reading this quote from one of …

It was the “hell hath no fury” moment many women have had … and even more wish they’d had. A good, old-fashioned read for an utter and complete filth-of-a-no-count man and his side hustle—broadcast for the salacious awe and delight of anyone active on black Twitter.

Mesha Campbell. Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow. JoJo Striker. Keke Collier. Chyna Gibson. Ciara McElveen. Jaquarrius Holland. Their names and faces lit up my laptop in a macabre montage. In the first few months of 2017, seven transgender women have been murdered—four within a single week, and most of them black.

Many moons ago, fresh off an unexpected achievement and gaining a toehold in both the music industry and the fun, freewheeling network that was once Twitter, I decided to celebrate my unlikely success with the social media tagline, “Just your average Grammy-nominated goddess next door ... may I borrow some sugar?”

Amber, I think I owe you an apology.

Editor’s note: During Black History Month, the focus is usually on historical figures who loomed larger than life, paving the way for the progress we experience today. But black history isn’t just about telling stories of our past. History is being made every day and has been made throughout our lives; it’s not just…

They came. They saw. They marched. Did you?

On Tuesday night, along with millions of Americans and millions more abroad, I watched our exiting commander in chief, Barack Hussein Obama, give his farewell presidential address.