CHILL December January

FITNESS, TRAVEL, SEX, HEALTH, TECH & MUSIC

ISSUE 4

The Breakfast Club host is driving the conversation about Black men and anxiety

FETTY LUCIANO ON TOUR ARE DATING APPS RACIST? HOW TO STAY FIT OVER THE HOLIDAYS

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What is BIKTARVY®?

BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about BIKTARVY? BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects: ` Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection.

If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking BIKTARVY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health.

Who should not take BIKTARVY? Do not take BIKTARVY if you take: ` dofetilide ` rifampin ` any other medicines to treat HIV-1

What are the other possible side effects of BIKTARVY? Serious side effects of BIKTARVY may also include: ` Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY. ` Kidney problems, including kidney failure.

Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys.

If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY. ` Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. ` Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (5%), and headache (5%). Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking BIKTARVY? ` All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. ` All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements. BIKTARVY and other medicines may affect each other. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all of your other medicines. ` If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY. ` If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important warnings, on the following page.

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B

Get HIV support by downloading a free app at MyDailyCharge.com

KEEP PUSHING. Because HIV doesn’t change who you are.

BIKTARVY is a 1-pill, once-a-day complete HIV-1 treatment for adults who are either new to treatment or whose healthcare provider determines they can replace their current HIV-1 medicines with BIKTARVY.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

BIKTARVY.COM

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IMPORTANT FACTS This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY® and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

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IN THIS ISSUE/FEATURES

50

COURTESY DEF JAM (50); ALEX D. ROGERS (32)

32 ON THE COVER

FEATURES

BEDROOM STYLE

40 UNDER PRESSURE Charlamagne Tha God, the provocative radio host of The Breakfast Club talks mental health, monogamy, Kanye West, and his new book, I’m Shook.

50 BACK TO SCHOOL A hungry bunch of Def Jam artists like Fetty Luciano and Beau Young Prince took their Undisputed Tour to HBCUs.

21 FASHION BY THE FIREPLACE Cozy p to yo r boo in these nighttime o t ts for him and her (or him and him).

ON THE COVER AND ABOVE CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, PHOTO BY SWIRL FILMS

54 5 BLACK GUYS WALK INTO SILICON VALLEY And change the hell out of the industry.

32 PAJAMA PARTY Who says PJs are only for little boys These e sexy new styles say otherwise.

55 LATINX GOES TECH The third annual Latinx Tech Summit hopes to bring more Latinos to technology.

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 CHILL

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IN THIS ISSUE/DEPARTMENTS LIT LIST

10 Broooklyn NineNine Star Terry Crews talks to about #MeToo

56

12 Positive Empire Finally, a storyline about HIV we like.

14 Ain’t That America? Childish Gambino’s music gets a global makeover.

SEX & HEALTH

15 Swipe Wrong?

The pitfalls of dating apps and racism.

16 Crotch Crickets Learn how to avoid them and other STIs.

63 52

FITNESS

17 DIY Gym You don’t need machines. Just imagination.

ENTREPRENEUR

20 Have a Bash Meet the King of West Hollywood nightlife.

SPORTS

28 Leading on the Field Five great Black barrier breakers.

30 Tiger Time All eyes are on Tiger Woods, again.

GROOMING

34 Science of Skin CBD, charcoal masks, and magic ‘shrooms to feel oh so good.

MUSIC

36 EDM For All Adam Davenport is breaking molds.

52 Second Act Tito Montana went from prison to the studio.

ENTERTAINMENT

62 Cold Reading Bundle up with some dope reading.

63 Lessons In Latinx John Leguizamo’s oneman play provides a history lesson.

TRAVEL

56 Oaktown 510 It’s more than just Raider Nation, but Oakland does love their crew.

SNEAKERS

38 Who Need Boots When your kicks can endure winter?

GIFT GUIDE

46 Ho, Ho, Ho! The dopest holiday gifts.

4

58 7 Fitness Trips Log lifting, Thai ghting, and a Flinstones-worthy gym.

CODE SWITCH

60 #LivingWhileBlack In America, being Black is now a crime. Why?

38

FOOD 64 Family Recipes A culinary chef traces the roots of Southern cuisine.

TEMESCAL SQUARE (56); NETFLIX (63); COURTESY TITO MONTANA (52); NIKE (38)

31 Stepping Up These Latino ballers made baseball great.

CHILL DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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C H I L L . U S • # C H I L L • @ C H I L LT H E M A G

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What tech can’t you live without?

Here’s what the Chill team had to say. Tell us @ChillTheMag

Joe Valentino Paige Popdan

,

Diane Anderson-Minshall Gerald Garth

he ike running app is 100

rom workout ideas to hairspiration, Pinterest is my secret escape. ber and Lyft. o even think about how we lived without these ride sharing apps makes my head spin.

Michael Luong, Tevy Khou Mayra Urrutia Kevin Bissada , Laura Villela , Joel Shoemaker , Stuart Brockington , Adam Goldberg, Ezra Alvarez , Stewart Nacht , Tiffany Kesden Michael Tighe , Greg Brossia Michael Lombardo

Can t live without lack, but my guiltiest pleasure is the et ix app pre-downloads come in handy on the M A.

iPhone, ChromeCast, Quell. titcher app for listening to Fresh Air / Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Comixology for comics.

I listen to Spotify all the time! or me it s my iPhone and my P app. I m big on stats and standings and updates in real time.

It s like Game of Thrones: I have sparrows V R H R . ews, news, news, gossip!

Spotify! Commuting in Los Angeles traffic is real.

Amazon contributes to my basic survival.

Brandon Grant, Jamie Tredwell , Andrew Park, Eric James, Michael Riggio , John O’Malley Casey Noble , Daniel Reynolds , .

Ian Martella Argus Galindo Kirk Pacheco Heidi Medina John Lewis ireless bluetooth headphones. I never have to worry about the cords tangling or getting caught on a dumbbell at the gym.

PRIDE MEDIA

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Bernard Rook Eric Bui Antiouse Boardraye ADVERTISING & SUBSCRIPTIONS . .

N ,N (212) 242-8100 (212) 242-8338 (212) 242-8338 LOS ANGELES EDITORIAL (310) 806-4288 (310) 806-4268 chill@pridemedia.com SOUTHWEST EDITORIAL OFFICES . lorida A e. Hemet, A chill@pridemedia.com

I couldn t live without my Apple atch. I use it for my iCal, the weather, health activity, texting, emails, and music. But e ually I couldn t live without Photo Vault App, to conceal adult photos and videos.

NEED SUBSCRIPTION HELP? f yo ha e any estions or problems with yo r maga ine deli ery, please email o r department at chillsubscriptions@pridemedia.com Chill

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by Here blishing All rights reser ed. rinted in the

FITNESS, TRAVEL, SEX, HEALTH, TECH & FUN

ISSUE 4

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, AND TWITTER AND ONLINE AT CHILL.US

CHILLthemag CHILLthemag CHILLthemag

6

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD IS SHOOK

The Breakfast Club host is driving the conversation about men and mental health

CATCH US ONLINE AT WWW.CHILL.US

nc. nc. nc.

A.

ALL PRODUCTS COURTESY MAKER; SHUT TERSTOCK (ALL OTHERS)

Raine Bascos Dimitri Moise James Brown III Thomas Freeman Jacob Anderson-Minshall David Artavia, Savas Abadsidis Desirée Guerrero Michael A. Gonzales Leleita McKill, Josh Drake Donald Padgett , Dave Johnson Christopher Harrity

CHILL DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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What The TECH? BY: KENNETH COURTNEY JR.

MOBI AND OUT IN TECH MAKE A CASE FOR LGBTQ REPRESENTATION IN THE TECH WORLD!

It can be expected that when considering a career, most look for roles and opportunities that they not only enjoy, but with companies where they can see themselves and relate with others who are like them as well.

“The thought of working in the tech world, is not appealing for a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community for many reasons. The tech industry has not been known for much diversity, in sexual orientation or race. While the tech industry is positioned to be forward thinking, there is a huge gap in representation and people feeling okay to be themselves,” notes DaShawn Usher, Founder and Executive Director of Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative (MOBI).

MOBI, widely known for their work to create inclusive spaces for queer men of color through their MOBItalks with LGBTQ influencers and MOBIfest, have partnered with Out In Tech (OIT) to promote LGBTQ representation in the tech world. In the last few months, they have cooperated on a panel event centered around community-building, as well as a QTPOC social at Dropbox.

“MOBI welcomed the OIT partnership because Dr we want to see ourselves in the tech world. OIT has been incredibly supportive of MOBI to ensure the community we serve are in these spaces,” Usher said.

Both organizations realize that not only has technology shaped countless aspects of public and social life, but its influence on the LGBTQ community has also been monumental. Popular gay dating apps can be used to meet other queer people where that might otherwise be challenging, or even dangerous. These platforms can foster an online community for people to connect, similarly to popular social networks that is use daily. dail Aside from dating apps, tech companies have played a major part in the equal rights movement for queer people. Still, even with a perfect rating on the Human Rights Watch Equality Index, a lot of tech giants still see a lack of LGBTQ+ representation.

"There is a lack of LGBTQ+ representation in the tech industry, and an equally shocking underrepresentation of people of color. Out in Tech shares MOBI's vision that community events help foster personal and professional growth. When hundreds of QTPOC are able to network and support each other, magic happens," says Out in Tech Program Director, Gary Goldman.

In an effort to combat this reality, MOBI and OIT are working together to curate events with leading tech partners to introduce the community to the tech world and ensure awareness and visibility of the opportunities that exist in the tech industry.

Out in Tech's QTPOC Summer Social at Dropbox NYC in partnership with Chappy & MOBI! Photos By: Ken Pao Studio

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To learn more about upcoming events for both MOBI and OIT visit: www.mobi-nyc.com and www.outintech.com

11/9/18 11:09 AM

ED LETTER

ONE CHILL YEAR For many of us, this is the time of year to look back and take stock while also looking forward to the year to come. We’re doing just that. What a year it’s been! After all, 2018 saw the launch of Chill, the first print and digital brand of its kind, a single spot for men from a variety of backgrounds to share ideas without the baggage of definitions. We even garnered Folio’s Eddie Award for Best Magazine Launch of 2018 (and best editorial team). Our team has worked hard to give voice to men of color at all our intersections—cultural, racial, sexual, and economic—while providing coverage on the latest health, fitness, grooming, streetwear, sneakers, entertainment, pop culture, sex and relationships, technology, and travel news.

In our premiere issue, we unpacked Black men and barbershop culture. Our second issue focused on music, and we took a listen to everything from hip-hopclassical to post-punk-alternative. Our third issue concentrated on fitness, engaging new options for staying fit and celebrating body diversity, showing it’s possible to be fit at any size. All in all, it’s been a pretty chill year.

Now we’re wrapping up 2018 the best way possible, with our first Chill Holiday Gift Guide. We also have an exclusive interview with Charlemagne tha God about his new book Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me. Among our other coverage this issue is a look at the Black and Latino men who made sports history as well as our take on Latin History for Morons, John Leguizamo’s Tony-nominated one-man show (the actor took home a Special Tony Award this year for his body of work), which is now a Netflix special.

As we look to the new year, we’re happy to say that this is only the beginning.

We’re becoming available in more locations, and our website, Chill.us, will continue to showcase diverse voices and information you need as a modern, urban man.

We are committed to telling our stories authentically and unapologetically, and we are excited about what 2019 has to bring.

Let’s give it up for more Chill!

GERALD GARTH Editor in Chief

MAN UP ABOUT #METOO Chill fashion editor ames rown s tho ght-pro oking new lm dares men to ask how they na igate consent in their own li es.

8

White Flags explores the n ances of sex al boundaries many men fail to see.

HOPETON STEWART (GARTH); COURTESY JAMES BROWN III (WHITE FL AGS)

ne s ort fi m e ec ti e prod ced Chill’s fas ion editor ames ro n o is also an actor starring in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on road a adds a m c needed ma e component to t e con ersation aro nd t e e oo mo ement at mi ions of omen are se a assa ted c ear means a ot of men aren t recogni ing or accepting omen s ac of consent ite ags e p ores at can fee i e rr o ndaries et een consent and assa t in toda s e er e o ing or d of se and dating t c ts g s no s ac in its message of acco nta i it r ope is t at e er ie er of t is itnesses t e misinterpretation of signa s o e er s t e and after ards sits it it eig ing t eir o n c oices past present and f t re sa s ro n t ma so nd and fee i e a feminist fi m for omen t it s most important a dience is men s edding ig t on compromising sit ations t at man men a e n no ing p t t eir partners in e fi m as ritten a nette en e i son Black Panther, The Resident o stars a ongside ean atric iggins from off road a s A Clockwork Orange o g ite ags ac no edges t e fact t at na igating romance re ations ips and se can e con o ted and conf sing it a so ma es c ear t at insensiti e and especia crimina actions of men to ard omen m st e eradicated s a ne ood sp iggs and ite agsfi m CHILL DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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SHOULD HIV PREVENTION MATTER TO ME? I AM LIVING WITH HIV.

I AM HIV NEGATIVE.

YES! PREVENTION MATTERS.

UNBC4027 11/16

See how we can all help stop the virus in our bodies and communities. Talk to a healthcare provider.

And find out more at HelpStopTheVirus.com

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LIT

LIST

BEHIND

ENEMY LINES

TERRY CREWS TELLS US WHY MORE MEN DON’T LEND THEIR VOICES AND EXPERIENCE TO THE #METOO MOVEMENT—BUT SHOULD.

n powerful testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this past June, actor Terry Crews (star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine) spoke to the importance of protecting survivors of sexual assault by sharing his own experiences. As a child, Crews said he watched his mother suffer assault at the hands of his father. He also told the committee of his own sexual assault in 2016, with the goal of encouraging nationwide implementation of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act. Signed by President Barack Obama in 2016, the law enshrines additional rights and protections for sexual assault complainants (including around how rape kits are processed).

“I am a survivor of both domestic violence and sexual violence,” Crews tells Chill. “Like many who have been victimized, you realize instantly that you are behind enemy lines. That’s the phrase I use, because the questions that you get—the arguments of ‘Why didn’t you say this?’ or ‘Why didn’t you do that?’—and constantly being blamed for what happened to you, for what you are a victim of.”

Crews has been a rare male voice in the #MeToo movement, making a strong statement in his presence and coming forward as a survivor. For many men, doing so is exceedingly uncomfortable and goes beyond just the stress associated with disclosing about experiencing violence or sexual assault. In addition, they are forced to address the many layers that these experiences often bring up for men: including confronting issues around sexuality, strength, and perceptions of masculinity.

For centuries, there has been a societal expectation— especially among men of color—that we are to be protectors.

We are told only the strong survive. To be (or appear) weak must be avoided at all cost.

Sexual assault is more often about power than it is about sex, and taking that power from a man, asserting the right to touch him without consent, and making him a victim, can all be very emasculating.

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TAYLOR JEWELL /INVISION/AP

BY GERALD GARTH

CHILL DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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When men do divulge about being put in vulnerable situations, such as getting touched or groped inappropriately, being overtaken, or forced into sexual acts not associated with their sexual orientation, they are often ridiculed for “letting it happen.”

Crews directly addressed this kind of response on Twitter making his actions clear: “Why didn’t you say something? I did. Why didn’t you push him off? I did. Why didn’t you cuss him out? I did. Why didn’t you tell the police? I did. Why didn’t you press charges? I did. Why did you just let it happen? I didn’t. Why didn’t you beat him up? (Sigh)” Crews says his experience has helped him “understand and empathize with those who have remained silent. I know how hard it is to come forward. I know the shame associated with assault.”

In September, at the Breaking the Silence Awards celebration, Crews presented Tarana Burke with the 2018 Recy Taylor Vanguard Award.

Burke is credited as founder of the #MeToo movement and has built and sustained a platform for people to share their experiences of sexual assault and heal collectively. The annual awards are put on by the I Love Me Foundation, a national organization providing education and advocacy to and for survivors of sexual and domestic violence.

Coming forward to address sexual violence and assault, Crews says, is a little like “digging a tunnel with a spoon.” Referencing Shawshank Redemption, the phrase suggests the long and difficult process ahead—but potential for eventual success.

“My experience has been like an episode of Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone,” Crews says. “There were things that I thought I knew that I did not. There were friends that I thought I had that proved they were not. There were enemies that turned out to be friends.”

So how do we change things? By intentionally creating safe spaces for men to speak about their experiences without fear of judgment. By addressing toxic masculinity and reshifting our ways of thinking that men for many years have upheld.

“As I shared my story, I was told over and over that this was not abuse,” Crews told the Congressional committee. “This was just a joke. This was just horseplay.

But I can say one man’s horseplay is another man’s humiliation.”

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Actor-singer ssie mollett, from the ox series, Empire.

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

T H AN N

A TA N H A T EMPIRE T N.

TH N T

,

BY DAVID ARTAVIA

The fth season of ox s Empire is getting deeper than st m sic, fashion, and family drama. ssie mollet s character amal learns that ai the man he s in an intimate relationship with is H -positi e. As mollet told The New York Times, Empire writers had been planning an H storyline since the show la nched in , b t the timing was ne er ite right. Now, mollett hopes his character s relationship with ai played by Toby nw mere will help eradicate stigma and normali e the realities of li ing with H today.

Thanks to modern medicines, people li ing with H no longer need to look at the ir s as the death sentence it once was at the height of the A crisis in the s and early s. Now, H -positi e people li e long and healthy li es, and with treatment can s ppress their iral loads the amo nt of ir s in their blood to s ch low le els that they become ndetectable. hen H is no longer detected in someone s blood test, they cannot transmit the ir s to sex al partners. ther shows incl ding Looking, Transparent, How to Get Away with Murder, and Pose ha e also tackled H in their plots. Empire, like Pose, has a cast of predominantly people of color, a comm nity that is most at-risk when it comes to new H diagnoses. y seeing ai as a pro d lack man li ing with H who is fearless and abo e all, healthy perhaps a diences will begin to npl g themsel es from the stigmati ing rhetoric that H e als death.

VICTORIA WILL /INVISION/AP

LIT

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TAKE P r EP TO N"F@ J @J NI PREVENT HIV JK@P@!N CDP PrEP is a safe, daily pill that reduces your risk of HIV infection. PrEP will not interfere with your hormone therapy.

Use condoms to protect against other sexually transmitted infections.

PrEP-Plus-1_rip.indd 1 18745 DH NYC Be Prep Ready Chill.indd 1

PrEP is available regardless of your ability to pay. Talk to your doctor or visit nyc.gov/health and search “PrEP.”

8/4/18 12:34 PM 9/12/18 10:09 AM

LIST

“This Is America” Goes Global THE WORLD TAKES ON DONALD GLOVER’S VISION.

BY JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL

This past May, in less than 30 days, the powerful “This Is America” video from Donald Glover (as Childish Gambino) was watched more than 215 million times on YouTube. Presenting a dark perspective on America today, it features indelible images of gun violence and references to racial profiling. The video became a planet-wide phenomenon, inspiring musicians around the globe to incorporate their own compelling imagery and lyrics about their country’s issues into stunning new versions of the music video. Here are some of the best:

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“This is Barbados” f cial This is America a an emix by abari rowne incl des lyrics abo t disease, sewage in the streets, and a go ernment that always betray s.

“This is Africa (Ghana)” by eddi addresses economic iss es, incl ding rising nemployment, inflation, and fra d.

“This is India” by Aditya atwase feat. mkar ripal. ost of this ideo isn t in nglish, b t what is hits hard with the statement that in ndia, e blame girls for rapes.

“Chinese Gambino: This is Malaysia” by in im.

A lighter to ch, this parody foc ses on alaysian food and c lt ral di ersity.

“This is Nigeria” by al draws attention to a lack of electricity, widespread criminality, and corr pt politicians.

“This is Sierra Leone” by is crammed f ll of iolent imagery robbery, m rder, and disease. And it calls o t fake religion and lying politicians.

“This is South Africa” by o islash highlights iolence against women and shares newspaper headlines, incl ding one from , proclaiming women killed in days in A.

“This is Uganda” by Ay an n calls o t low wages that p sh people to commit crimes st to s r i e.

YOUTUBE (ALL)

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SEX & DATING

I AM NOT YOUR BIG BLACK STALLION

Have dating apps allowed us to discriminate against potential partners based on perceived imperfections?

SHUT TERSTOCK

BY GERALD GARTH

WITH DOZENS OF dating apps out there, most of us are getting used to finding sex with the swipe of a finger (hello, Grindr and Tinder), or looking for more permanent partners on sites like Match, PlentyofFish, and OKCupid. The proliferation of sites like Geek2Geek prove that there’s a platform for those of all persuasions and professions, but with this kind of infinite accessibility comes a whole new avenue of discrimination.

According to a recent study by Cornell University, dating apps that allow users to filter by race—and those using algorithms that typically pair up people of the same race—reinforce racial divisions and biases.

The study reports that other researchers have estimated a third of new marriages (and 60 percent of same-sex relationships) started online. In fact, Tinder says it’s facilitated 20 billion connections.

With filtering mechanisms also allowing us to narrow options by height, weight, body type, even HIV status, online platforms have opened a new door for blatant discrimination. Fatphobia, racism, classism, femphobia, misogyny, and ageism are now cloaked as “preferences.” So, at a time when many efforts are being made to celebrate diversity, where do dating apps fall?

The Cornell researchers write, “Sexual preferences are historically and culturally contingent… While culture does not instill desire in us, it so profoundly shapes the focus of our desires that preferences in romantic partners cannot be understood as simply a matter of individual and idiosyncratic choice. In this sense, sexual preferences might exhibit bias if they reflect prevailing representations of desirable partners—and if these representations demean, denigrate, or fetishize members of particular racial groups.”

That last point is a good one. Not only do we have to deal with deliberate exclusion, but men of color are also often reduced to conquests and curiosities. The intersections of representing different communities at once also play a big part in the online dating experience. For example, to be Black is one experience but to be a farmer is a whole other kind. But, to be a Black farmer looking for love online is a new kind of experience (shout out to the 3,500 Black men on FarmersOnly).

As for my own experience as a Black man online, I’ve seen a little bit of everything. First, there’s the direct objectification, which I call

the “slot machine.” This is when you embody the outputs of someone’s filters. Basically, you’re the result of a few checked boxes and a premium subscription. The lead-in will probably be just that. How romantic.

Next, there’s the “golden calf.” This is when a pursuer is inexplicably overtaken with you as a thing (and not a person). They are prepared to do anything—drive across town, clear their calendar, pay for dinner. In this case, I recommend taking a look at context. Sometimes people call it interest when, in fact, it’s a fetish. (Not to be confused with “speed racer,” the admirer who, after only one or a few exchanges, is already calling you “pooh bear” and pitching baby names from the combination of yours.)

Then, there’s what I call “sum of the parts.” You get a request for snapshots of only certain parts of you (you know which ones). A decision of interest is made sight unseen… well, sort of. If you call someone on this, they are liable to fall back on the old fashion “it’s just a preference.”

The Cornell researchers are hoping their report, “Debiasing Desire: Addressing Bias and Discrimination on Intimate Platforms,” will push dating apps to make changes. As Jevan Hutson, a coauthor on the study, told reporters, “Serendipity is lost when people are able to filter other people out. Dating platforms have the opportunity to disrupt particular social structures, but you lose those benefits when you have design features that allow you to remove people who are different than you.”

They recommend discouraging discrimination by offering descriptive categories other than race and ethnicity, posting inclusive community messages, and creating algorithms that don’t discriminate.

Still, admittedly, if we want to change this environment we have to change our own actions, too. Be mindful of how you talk and text with people, whether you’re just looking for a hookup or seeking a long-term relationship. Of course, we all have specific things that get us hot, which is fine, but we can’t discover new or surprising turn-ons (or partners) when we’re filtering everything else out. And remember, it is not a compliment to be deemed some distorted pick of the litter based on your fantasy of their body, just like it’s not okay to hurtfully name folks as less desirable.

Keep your feedback and preferences to yourself unless you’re asked by someone else to share.

When in doubt, be quiet and keep swiping.

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SEX

&

DATING

NO MORE CROTCH CRICKETS* STIs are at an all-time high. Find out how to prevent them.

BY GERALD GARTH

GET EDUCATED Knowing what’s what among sexually transmitted infections is a great first step

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in being in charge of your sexual health. Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, pubic lice, and HIV each have different symptoms but many of the same risk factors.

BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE Ask questions and speak up, whether you are speaking with your doctor or your sexual partners. Being in the know can help make sure you’re connecting to the right type of testing and care. And tell the doc whether the sex you’re having includes anal, oral, or vaginal sex, because each area needs to be tested properly. Oral and anal gonorrhea and oral and ocular (in the eyes) syphilis are all on the rise.

USE CONDOMS Using condoms offers protection from most STIs, though they can’t provide total protection against herpes and HPV, because both can be spread through skin to skin contact rather than merely intercourse.

CONSIDER PREP Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, when taken as approved by the FDA, is a treatment that makes it nearly impossible for you to acquire HIV, even if you have sex with someone who is HIV-positive.

Meanwhile if someone with HIV is on treatment and has an undetectable viral load, they can’t transmit HIV to you (or anyone else). Those who haven’t been tested and therefore don’t know they are living with HIV are those most likely to transmit the virus to others.

CUT BACK ON PARTNERS Abstinence is a safe but an unreasonable goal for most. But you can lower your risk by reducing the number of sexual partners you have. And make agreements that if either of you is nonmonogamous, you’ll will inform the other if you have sex with someone else.

That way you both can make educated

and empowered decisions about testing, prevention, or treatment of STIs. MAKE A VISIT TO THE CLINIC TOGETHER Before having sex with a new partner, be sure that both of you get tested. Testing together routinely can also be great for building intimacy. Now days you can even do couples testing in the comfort of your own home through online sites like mylabbox.com.

GET VACCINATED Though chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are still curable with antibiotics, some vaccinations for virus-based STIs are available and recommended. In particular, the HPV vaccine is a must, because the virus has long-term health impacts and few symptoms. Talk to your doc or a clinic worker about what might be right for you.

GET TREATED PROMPTLY Antibiotic resistant strains are on the rise. Defend against developing resistance by starting treatment as soon as possible and taking all the medication you are prescribed. Many STIs are curable. HIV may not yet be one of them, but prompt and steady treatment can still prevent symptoms and make it so you can’t transmit the virus to anyone else. *Did ya know: crotch crickets is slang for crabs (aka pubic lice)?

SHUT TERSTOCK

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that sexually-transmitted infections are still on the rise with a record-breaking 2.3 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis last year alone. That number has been increasing sharply since 2013, and experts say it shows little sign of slowing down.

In 2017, there were a reported 1.7 million new cases of chlamydia among men and women. For men, the number of gonorrhea diagnoses increased by nearly 20 percent from the previous year.

Men also accounted for 88 percent of all primary and secondary syphilis cases.

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are particularly at risk, making up about 68 percent of all STI cases where the gender of the sex partner is known.

Though most of these STIs cause few symptoms, if left untreated they can lead to chronic pain, infertility, early dementia, and death. And if you have one STI, you’re more likely to acquire HIV down the line.

The CDC recommends that anyone who’s sexually active should talk to their health care provider about STI screenings. Sometimes, health messaging seems to place responsibility for testing and treatment primarily on women and gay men, but the CDC screening recommendations apply to everyone who is sexually active—regardless of your gender or that of your sex mate’s— especially if you have any symptoms of an STI. Many healthcare advocates are pushing for STI testing to become a part of routine screenings, to eliminate stigma and increase testing rates.

Taking steps to prioritize one’s own care is always important—and empowering. Experts believe more efforts should be directed toward preventative methods. Here are a few expert-endorsed tips:

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FITNESS

NO

GYM?

NO PROBLEM!

These simple exercises will keep you in shape while you’re on the road.

SHUT TERSTOCK

BY DONALD PADGETT

Traveling can ruin a workout routine. From fast food to days or weeks without a gym, it’s easy to lose muscle and add pounds in a short period of time. That’s why it’s vital to know flexible exercises that require no weights or special gear. Did you know that in less than 30 minutes, you can work out your core, legs, arms, chest, and shoulders? You can also mix things up so that muscle confusion provides steady results. Pound out as many as you can, or do slow sets of five, to get the ultimate burn without having to leave your hotel room.

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FIT NESS

LUNGES nges are great for yo r gl tes, ads, hamstrings, and more. Stand with your feet at a normal hip-width stance.

Take a big step forward with your left leg while keeping your right foot on the floor, then slowly shift yo r body forward ntil yo r right knee to ches the floor. e erse the process to ret rn to a standing position, then repeat with yo r other leg. Take your time and listen to your body to avoid injury.

CRUNCHES o e them or hate them, cr nches are the ltimate in no pain, no gain training. ie flat on yo r back with yo r knees bent and hands behind yo r head, then c rl yo r sho lders towards your pelvis and hold until you scream for mercy.

No need to go more than a few inches off the ground to get results. And you’re cheating if you don’t tighten your stomach m scles from start to nish.

SQUATS You don’t need a cage or a spotter to get the most out of s ats. tand with yo r feet e en with yo r sho lders and toes slightly t rned o t. ee e yo r abs, bend yo r knees, and slowly lower yo r body, keeping yo r eyes looking forward and feet flat on the floor. o down slowly, hold for e seconds, then ret rn slowly to a standing position. oing slow and holding will prod ce a s rprising b rn.

SHUT TERSTOCK (ALL, BOTH PAGES)

LEG LIFTS There are many ariations to this basic core exercise. ie flat on yo r back with yo r hands and arms on the floor, then slowly raise yo r legs and hold them in place for e to seconds or longer. Also, try arying the height of yo r legs, raising one leg at a time, or lifting yo r sho lders slightly off the ground (but don’t go more than an inch or two).

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FIT NESS

MILITARY PUSH-UPS We all crave those bulging biceps but our triceps deserve a little love as well, and military push-ups are just the answer for both. Assume the standard push-up position but with the hands placed beneath the shoulders and elbows pressed against the body. Go slowly up and down to get the best results. Use a knees-on-ground starting position instead of your toes if you need to make things easier.

WIDE-STANCE PUSH-UPS You don’t need a weight bench or machine to work those pecs. Keep your feet together in the standard position but move your hands to a wider stance. Don’t go too far and listen to your shoulders. If they make you question whether your hands are too far apart, then your hands are too far apart.

DIAMOND PUSH-UPS Here’s another exercise to strengthen those triceps. Get into the standard push-up position, but with your hands together and yo r th mbs and index ngers to ching to form a diamond. Beginners should start on your knees before mo ing to a more dif c lt toes-on-the-gro nd position.

DECLINE PUSHUPS Here’s a good way to work your upper pecs without an incline bench. Assume your preferred pushup position but with your feet raised on a chair, bed, or even a wall. Be certain to make sure yo r feet are rmly in place on a stable object before you start in order to prevent injury.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBER PUSH-UPS Mountain Climbers are the granddaddy of the full-body pushup that will test your mental fortitude along with nearly every part of your body. Perform a standard push-up, but after returning to the starting position, bring your left knee to your chest while keeping your right leg extended. Then return your left leg to an extended position and bring your right knee to your chest. Extend your right leg back to the standard push-up position and yo e st completed yo r rst Mountain Climber. Take your time and mind your back to avoid injury.

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THE KING OF WEST HOLLYWOOD

Promoter, host, and actor Brandon Anthony has brought new vitality to L.A.’s nightlife.

BY GERALD GARTH

BRANDON ANTHONY, FOUNDER and CEO of Brandon Anthony’s Socialite House (B.A.S.H.)—and curator of Summer B.A.S.H. and Los Angeles Urban Pride—has become the new face and voice of the L.A. social scene. Hailing from New Orleans, the promoter and emcee now stands as a force in the City of Angeles and beyond.

Anthony and his company have brought premier talent and brand activation to venues across the country, but particularly to the heart of West Hollywood, Calif. Known for its nightlife and social happenings, from cool bars to hot danace clubs, the city has long held the promise of a good time. Yet, the entrepreneur recognized the demand for more programming that celebrates the urban experience.

“There was a need for it, there was a market,” he says. “There was a niche for Black gay men. I get gratification in putting us in spaces that we might not normally be welcomed or invited.”

Many know Anthony from B.A.S.H. (@bashlaevents), but in fact he got his start on stage as a trained actor. “I worked summer stock theater in L.A.,” he recalls. “I moved to L.A. after graduation in 2009, planning on staying a year.” But, he says he “fell in love” with the city.

Having made entry into the nightlife and promotion scene to support his work as an actor, Anthony soon ended up crafting a life planning events.

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He teamed up with a friend to host a party at a club and it was successful.

“Second party—complete opposite,” he recalls. That didn’t stop him, though. “We kept trying and trying. Soon we switched venues. A friend of mine wanted to host a party at a well-known club in West Hollywood during L.A. Pride. We thought it would be a win-win since people would already be out for the event. So, we did it, and it was great. About a month later, the owners called us back and said they were thinking about doing a weekly event at the club, and they wanted it to be big. At the first party, there were 1,500 people. That’s when we thought, yeah, this could be big. And just like that it’s been boom, boom, boom.”

Since then, the B.A.S.H. empire has only gotten bigger, with more events, venues, and big-name talent. While the actor and promoter has been hailed as the King of West Hollywood by some, his brand has begun to touch all over the country. He is program coordinator for Las Vegas PRIDE and works with Tempted 2 Touch in Las Vegas, as well as putting on events over Memorial Day weekend in D.C. and Labor Day weekend in Atlanta.

“Because I also emcee and promote and host, events like to work with me.

They get more bang for their buck,” he says. “They get a package deal.”

As a theater and film actor, Anthony knows all about stage presence.

Known for his bold, yet charismatic aura and unmistakable swagger, he creates a signature experience known to bring out the crowds and keep them jumping.But there’s more to the man than the lights and the mic.

“Me on stage is really just me acting like I’m a rapper in my head, but it works out,” he laughs. “And it helps my brand. People began to know me for creating a good time, and people began to look forward to coming to L.A. just for that. It’s funny when people see me outside, they think I’m just hyped up all the time. Brandon Anthony the man is completely chill.”

Suave, charismatic, and attractive, he embodies the urban gentleman with Southern roots—an influence he says he’ll never lose. As he approaches his 10-year mark in Los Angeles, he says the South has been calling him. “I feel like I’ve done everything there is to do in L.A. I haven’t reached the peak of my success, but I feel like I have accomplished enough to where financial stability alone isn’t the most important thing anymore.”

Anthony is working on his bicoastal status now, looking to expand his footprint to Atlanta as soon as summer 2020. “My ultimate goal is to have my own club and to executive produce films. L.A. has taught me to always think about what’s next. I do think I will end up back in L.A., but I think I could do some great things in Atlanta.”

And like many Southern men, Anthony upholds faith and family, citing his grandmother and God as his greatest influences and inspirations. For him, family is key. “That’s another reason I want to move back. I want to raise children in the South. I want two boys, and I want them to have that Southern hospitality, to raise them as Southern gentlemen.”

Along with his values, Anthony keeps a pretty strong sense of balance.

“I work and go home. It’s amazing to me that I’m able to do what I do for business and my personal life has nothing to do with my business. But, don’t get me wrong, there are times when I am completely alone, because my friends are equally as busy. And I don’t mind.”

With his sense of unapologetic authenticity and self-assuredness, Anthony has been a part of redefining the face of Black manhood, and understanding how coming into one’s own is a journey.

“It’s all a work in progress. I don’t let the good things people say go too much to my head,” he says. “I make sure, as best I can, to not let the bad things get to me. But it’s a gift and a curse. I have the Cardi B Syndrome: I say whatever the fuck I want to say, I don’t give a fuck where I am, or who’s listening. I’m gonna be me and let people be themselves.

Being successful is a job to focus on itself. Whatever you want to do, do it fearlessly. And don’t care what anybody says. Everybody’s got a mouth.

Let them talk.”

Another secret to Anthony’s success is his willingness to collaborate: “My goal is to build a team to operate. I always try to work with other people, but no matter how nice you are, some people just don’t want to. I have a mission, and you’re gonna either work with me or you’re not, because I’m gonna be here.”

He also encourages other entrepreneurs to walk in their truth as well.

“Never give up,” he advises. “There is power in consistency. Have that confidence and never give up on what you want to do or be. Just do you and honestly don’t give a fuck what anyone says. At all. Period.”

COURTESY BRANDON ANTHONY

ENTREPRENEUR

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STREET

ST YLE

TRIED AND TRUE Flannel PJ’s are the most reliable, dependable, trustworthy, and classic of all garments in the loungewear world.

You can never go wrong with a flannel pajama pant, but when that’s the case, how can you stand out by making this choice? J.Crew’s answer to that question is using great patterns, colors, and t to update this safe option, as modeled here by Rafael Inga.

Flannel pajamas are up there with the blue blazer, the little black dress, jeans and a T-shirt, and Chuck Taylor’s, when it comes to musthaves that will never go out of style.

Flannel pajama pant in gray plaid by J.Crew, hand-knit throw by Hania New York

Written and Styled by JAMES BROWN III @jamesbrowniii Photography by CYRUS GOLESTAN @cyrusgoles Makeup by STEVE SCHEPIS @steve_schepis Assistant Stylists: ADEOLA ROLE @adeolarole and MARINA JERKOVIC

BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE

COZY UP NEXT TO THE FIRE WITH THE GIRL (OR GUY) OF YOUR DREAMS AND LOUNGE IN STYLE.

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n the next few weeks, the stockings will be unstuffed, gifts unwrapped, champagne bottles uncorked, resolutions unraveled, and “Auld Lang Syne” sung ad nauseam to ring in 2019. Hopefully you lived it up this holiday season, because soon it’s time to hunker down and brace yourselves for winter. Three questions come to mind when considering the next three months of cold: Where will you be hibernating?

Who will you be cuddling up with for body heat? And lastly, but most importantly, what will you be wearing as you snuggle by the fire?

Should you choose comfort and functionality, we’ve got some great brands doling out stylish classic pajamas for those insomnia-induced sleepless nights. But should you choose carnal and fashionable, we’ve got you covered there, too—for those sleepless nights induced by sexier outside forces. Either way it’s encouraged to have an opinion when it comes to sleepwear, whether you slumber in flannel pants, a silk robe, jersey knit shorts, or sexy lingerie.

So come cozy up with some of the hottest loungewear looks this winter.

QUETZAL GREEN Twenty bucks says most of you have never heard of the color quetzal green, but you will be seeing it all over the stores this winter. It’s a deep elegant blue-green hue that suggests empowerment and riches (pictured here in the robe). This jeweltone color looks intensely beautiful when paired with black. It was chosen as one of Pantone’s Fall/Winter 2018-2019 colors because it also expresses our need for individuality, ingenuity, and creativity. Here’s hoping you’re expressing those ideas in the bedroom as well.

Soft Kimono and Teal Temptation 3-piece bra set both by Yandy, Donela satin pumps by Nina Shoes; silk robe by Palmiers du Mal, Jersey pajama pants in stripe by J.Crew

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STREET

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MASTERS OF THE HOUSE In 2018, we’ve all but done away with the idea of having a “Master of the House,” but if we hadn’t, there could certainly be two in one household. Two rulers of the roost, equal in their love for each other, opposite in their love for fashionable sleepwear. ne nds comfort in a classic pair of . rew cotton boxers, no effort, b t all the pay off. The other, a bit more daring and caring, chooses a casual yacht pattern jersey knit short set by Gelato Pique. Luckily both styles are en Vogue.

HOMME yacht pattern Henry neck pullover and HOMME yacht pattern half pants both by Gelato Pique, charcoal Merino wool crew socks by Timberland; stretch bold striped boxers by J.Crew

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PEEKABOO You see her, and she’ll want to be seen in this getup. She can have a modest but sexy long silk black robe, but put a little surprise underneath. A pop of color bra set will go a long way when the time comes to reel in a playmate. Fellas, you’ll win extra points if you lay this out for your lady, so take this pointer and run with it. You’ll thank us.

Long satin and chiffon robe, black and red bra set, and lace top thigh high stockings all

by Yandy, Donela satin pumps by Nina Shoes; Gray jersey pajama pants by J.Crew

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NETFLIX & CHILL Netflix and chill has been at the forefront of pop culture colloquialism longer than dabbing and flossing. lease stop dabbing and flossing This popular millennial phrase has managed to infl ence the world of fashion and found its way onto the printing presses of silk fabrics for loungewear. CJW has built a brand on witty prints and gorgeous patterns, and one of their most successful and topical is this Netflix and hill line of sleepwear. Don’t feel like wearing pants? Wear this cozy and hip silk sleep shirt by CJW instead, modeled by Jessica Ilia Castro.

SECRETS ARE NO FUN? Here’s a little secret: Patterns are fun and mixing them is even more exciting. So you can be comfortable and rock a jersey knit Henley shorts set and a night shirt—just be a bit more daring with the choice. Gelato Pique loves a pattern as much as CJW and created casual and cute men’s loungewear with a bit of flare. o there s a little secret that won’t hurt anyone.

Netflix and Chill 2.0 sleep shirt by CJW, Shoegoals Cushion Giant by CJW; HOMME yacht pattern Henry neck pullover and half pants both by Gelato Pique, charcoal Merino wool crew socks by Timberland

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THE SINGLE LIFE Live your best single life, and live it like a king, just like the original Playboy Hugh Hefner would. The late, great Hefner—who was rarely seen without his smoking jacket or silk robe—once said, “Men’s magazines in the period immediately after World War II were almost all outdoor-oriented. They were connected to some extent in the male bonding that came out of war… And what I tried to create was a magazine for the indoor guy but focused speci cally on the single life in other words, the period of bachelorhood before you settle down.” Why not lounge around in a silk smoking jacket like bachelor Hef? Palmiers du Mal is designing versatile jackets that can be worn as robes, smoking jackets, kimonos, or user’s choice—all with the intention of elevating your “It Guy” status.

Silk robe by Palmiers du Mal, Jersey pajama pants in stripe by J.Crew

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STREET

ST YLE

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL When it comes to sleepwear, many would rather be less fussy and wear one item, a long shirt, or a pair of pants. But give pieces a chance. Separates are very popular this season and for good reason.

A well-placed satin short with a camisole, topped off with a silk robe, is a great combination for lounging around the apartment on a Sunday or slipping into after a long day’s work.

Off-white ethnic lace gown, hearts satin camisole, hearts satin shorts all by Gelato Pique; Clarity ivory satin heels

by Nina Shoes

WE CAN DO IT osie The i eter, the iconic g re of the strong female worker is an image that was adopted in the 1980s from the little seen World War II propaganda era and used to promote feminism, self-empowerment, and campaign promotion.

These ideals are nally stretching into the work force, social norms of home life, education, and sexuality. Women can express themselves fully in 2019. The designers at Yandy say they are truly looking to “empower women to accept their sensuality in its physical, mental, emotional, and healthful facets; to normalize the conversation about sexy pleasures and sensual experiences of every body; and to establish the role of lingerie in the cultural narrative and each woman’s personal story.” Be your most powerful self while wearing some seriously sexy swag!

Long satin and chiffon robe, black and red bra set, and Lace-top thighhigh stockings all by Yandy, Donela satin pumps by Nina Shoes

WHERE TO BUY: gelatopique.us hanianewyork.com jcrew.com ninashoes.com palmiersdumal.com shopcjw.com timberland.com yandy.com

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BREAKING BARRIERS YOU MAY NOT RECOGNIZE THEIR NAMES, BUT THESE FIVE BLACK CHAMPIONS PAVED THE WAY FOR TODAY’S ATHLETES OF COLOR. B Y D O N A L D PA D G E T T

FRANK ROBINSON: MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL’S FIRST AFRICANAMERICAN MANAGER Frank Robinson was one of the greatest hitters in baseball while playing in an era of dominant pitchers like Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson. He was awarded Most Valuable Player honors in both the National and American Leagues, won the rare Triple Crown (most hits, most runs batted in, and most home runs in a single season), and was a key member of two World Series championship teams. When Robinson retired, only Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays had more home runs than his 586. He played in three decades, from 1956 to 1976, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1982.

Perhaps his most important achievement came when the Cleveland Indians made him the team’s player-manager in 1975 and thereby the first Black manager in Major League Baseball. True to form, Robinson hit a homerun in his first at bat in this historic role (the team finished fourth in the American League East that year). Robinson

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went on to become full-time manager for Cleveland, as well as the San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles, and original Washington Nationals (which later became the Montreal Expos). Unfortunately, his record as a manager paled in comparison to that as a player. From 1975 to his retirement in 2006, Robinson managed 2,245 games but won only 1,065 of them. In 2005 and 2006, he was voted the worst manager in baseball by players in Sports Illustrated polls. Regardless of his managerial win-loss record, Robinson’s efforts paved the way for future managers of color.

ALTHEA GIBSON: FIRST BLACK TENNIS PLAYER TO WIN WIMBLEDON Althea Gibson, a true Jill-ofall-trades, was a professional golfer and tennis player, as well as an accomplished singer, musician, actress, administrator, and activist. She was a fearsome and ferocious athlete who many believe could hold her own if competing against today’s tennis stars. Gibson was the first Black athlete, male or female, to win at Wimbledon. She retired with six Grand Slam tournament singles wins, six Grand Slam doubles wins, and four Grand Slam mixed doubles wins. Her greatest year was 1957, when she held both the singles and doubles

CRAIG MITCHELLDYER/ AP PHOTO (JAMES); CHRIS CARLSON/ AP PHOTO (ROBINSON); MART Y LEDERHANDLER/AP PHOTO (GIBSON)

Tiger Woods. Serena Williams. LeBron James. These successful athletes are household names. Each reached the pinnacle of their respective sport and has been judged on the merits of their achievements rather than the color of their skin. But things haven’t always been this simple for athletes of color.

Pioneering athletes fought against overt, institutional prejudices that denied them a place on the field or court. Most people know that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, but how many people know who made the same breakthroughs in basketball, hockey, tennis, or golf ? These heroes deserve our recognition because their efforts have paved the way for the stars of today.

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SPORTS

HAROLD P. MATOSIAN/AP PHOTO (SIFFORD); ACHARLES KRUP/AP PHOTO (O’REE); PAUL SANCYA /AP PHOTO (LLOYD)

titles in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments. After her retirement, Gibson played in the Ladies Professional Golf Association, recorded an album as a singer, and later held multiple state and local government positions in New Jersey ranging from the state’s athletic commissioner to the head of the East Orange Department of Recreation.

Sadly though, Gibson suffered the injustices of her era as much as Jackie Robinson. She was not allowed to stay in many hotels or play in tournaments at certain establishments because of Jim Crow laws.

Because of these barriers, and the generally low prize winnings of the time, Gibson dealt with financial difficulties throughout her life. To this day, Gibson is still regarded as perhaps the greatest and most influential female athlete in history.

CHARLIE SIFFORD: FIRST BLACK PGA GOLFER Tiger Woods wasn’t the first Black man on the pro golf tour. That honor goes to Charlie Sifford who broke the color barrier in 1954.

Sifford never placed higher than a tie for 32nd in one of the four major tournaments, but he did notch two PGA Tour victories and more than a dozen other wins in non-sanctioned events. Sifford became the first Black winner of a fully-sanctioned PGA Tour event with his victory at the 1967 Greater Hartford Open, and followed it with a win at the Los Angeles Open in 1969.

Exclusive golf clubs of this period were upholders of racism and exclusion. People of color were only permitted on the course as servants and employees, never as club members or players. When Sifford did finally break the barrier, he suffered horrendous abuse from members of these clubs and the public. It has been well documented that some of the most prestigious of the golf tournaments changed their rules just to prevent Sifford from playing. Legend has it that when he was leading the 1963 Canadian Open, a notice was posted on the clubhouse bulletin board stating that a victory there would no longer guarantee an invite to the famed Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga. Whether this is true or not, no Black golfer would play in the Masters until Lee Elder received an invitation in 1972.

Sifford garnered plenty of recognition and accolades later in life.

He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004. President Barack Obama awarded Sifford the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, the highest civilian honor in the U.S.

WILLIE O’REE: FIRST BLACK PROFESSIONAL NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYER Canada is known for hockey, and one of the sport’s most significant players is also one of the country’s least known. Willie O’Ree is recognized not so much for his achievements on the ice, but for breaking the NHL color barrier.

In the minor leagues, O’Ree twice won scoring titles in the Western Hockey League. He spent most of his time playing for the WHL Los Angeles Blades and the San Diego Gulls. While many players advance from the minor leagues to the majors, O’Ree took a more circuitous route. He played two games in the NHL in 1958, went back to the minors, then returned to play 43 games for the Boston Bruins in 1961. After that, he played exclusively in the minor leagues.

Like elsewhere in pro sports at the time, he was subjected to consistent racist abuse from fans—especially, O’Ree has said, in the United States.

Perhaps as a result, there wouldn’t be another Black player in the NHL until over a decade later, in 1974. O’Ree was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in November.

EARL LLOYD: FIRST BLACK ATHLETE TO PLAY IN THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION The NBA was in its infancy in 1951, and it looked a lot different than it does today. There were only 11 teams, and arenas were small.

There was no three-point shot or 24-second clock. And prior to that year, the NBA was mainly white. But that changed with the drafting of Black players Chuck Cooper, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, and Earl Lloyd. Both Cooper and Clifton were drafted higher than Lloyd, but scheduling gave Lloyd the distinction of being the first Black athlete to play in an NBA game when the Washington Capitals took on the Rochester Royals on October 31, 1951. Lloyd only played seven games before being drafted to fight in the Korean War. When he returned, the Capitols had folded, but he was picked up by Syracuse Nationals, the forerunners of today’s Philadelphia 76ers, and played six seasons before finishing out his career with the Detroit Pistons.

Lloyd’s impact remains to this day. Like others breaking the color barrier, he suffered racial prejudice. Lloyd was refused service at hotels and restaurants and was the subject of racial epithets hurled from the stands. Most of his teammates were generally accepting of him, as they had played on integrated teams in college. After he retired from playing, Lloyd went on to coach. He became the league’s first Black assistant coach in 1968 and their second Black head coach, both times with the Detroit Pistons. For his historic efforts and achievements, Lloyd was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.

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OUT OF THE WOODS A LOOK-BACK AT LEGENDARY GOLFER TIGER WOODS’S CAREER-MAKING VICTORY AT THE 2008 U.S. OPEN. B Y D O N A L D PA D G E T T he U.S Open aims to be the most difficult of the four majors in golf. It is as much a test of the golfer’s mental fortitude as it is his ability to play the game: the rough is cut higher, the fairways are deliberately narrow, and the greens are fast and unpredictable.

The simplest of errors can yield devastating results. Where other tournaments can be won with scores of double-digits under par, at the U.S. Open an even par scorecard is often enough to net a victory.

For the amateur duffer watching at home, there is no small degree of satisfaction watching professional golfers break under the strain. A ball landing inches off the fairway can easily result in a triple bogey or worse, quickly sending a player from contention to an early exit. It is, quite simply, the toughest test in the game. You need to be at your physical and mental best to even have a chance to win.

Unless, of course, you’re Tiger Woods.

Two months before the 2008 U.S. Open at the famed Torrey Pines South Course in La Jolla, Calif., Woods underwent a third arthroscopic surgery on his ailing knee. The doctors repaired damaged cartilage but left untouched the ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) suffered the year before during the 2007 British Open. Woods then suffered a double stress fracture in his left leg during the rehabilitation process. When told he needed to call it quits for the rest of the season, his response was classic Tiger: Not only was he going to play in the upcoming U.S. Open, he was going to win.

Rocco Mediate was an amiable professional golfer who was well-liked among his peers but mostly unknown to the public. In the 23 years since turning pro in 1985, he had notched a mere six wins. His swing was smooth but unorthodox, more akin to what you’d see from a senior citizen on a public course than a professional golfer in the most difficult of the four majors. The jovial 45-year-old was the 158th ranked player when he teed off in the 2008 U.S. Open, and even wore his player ID badge under his sweater just in case he wasn’t recognized by the course personnel. Few expected him to make the cut and nobody—except perhaps Mediate himself—gave him a chance at winning.

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After the first round, Woods was playing poorly and tied for 19th place. Mediate was one stroke behind the leader, and continued to play well while Woods dropped even further back. He was in obvious pain and limping. Many observers wondered if he’d even finish the round. Woods started his back nine with a tee shot that sailed wide right, rolling just off a cart path. With his steel-spiked shoes on the concrete path, he swung and hit a ball that landed on the green and gave him a good chance at birdie. In the process, though, his shoe slipped and there was a noticeable crunching sound in his leg. Woods was clearly suffering, but as he walked to the green he had an epiphany. He had just endured the excruciating pain of this new injury, and still hit a shot that good. It was as if a switch had been flipped. He realized he would not only play through the pain, but that he could also win.

He went on to birdie four of the next five holes. By the end of the round, he and Mediate were tied for second place—but Woods then opened the third round by dropping three strokes on the first two holes. At the 13th hole, he was in trouble again. He sliced his tee shot wide right and was looking at a difficult recovery just to make par.

Instead, he hit what looked to be a perfect shot into the hole on the fly. Unfortunately for Woods, though, the ball bounced out and kept rolling to the back of the green. He was now facing a long downhill putt that broke to the left some 10 feet from the hole. If the ball did not go in the hole, it would roll another 30 feet off the

CHARLIE RIEDEL /AP PHOTO

Tiger Woods celebrates his win, alongside competitor Rocco Mediate, at the 2008 U.S. Open following an 18hole playoff round.

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AP PHOTO (CLEMENTE, ALOU); MIKE GROLL /AP PHOTO (MARICHAL); AL BEHRMAN/AP PHOTO (CONCEPCION); EDUARDO VERDUGO/AP PHOTO (VALENZUEL A)

SPORTS green. But this was Tiger, so he simply sunk the putt for an eagle. He followed this with a chip-in from the rough for birdie on the 17th, and he capped off the day with another long putt for eagle on the final hole.

By the end of the round, Woods had the lead while Mediate sat two strokes back in third place. In the 13 previous major tournaments where he was tied or better going into the final round, Woods had come away with the win. But as he approached the final hole on the final Sunday of the 2008 U.S. Open, he had dropped to one back of Mediate, who was already in the clubhouse watching the play on television. Woods was clearly in pain, wincing and doubling over as his tee shot went left into a fairway bunker. His next shot went wide right into the rough. With water in front of the green and a bunker on the right, there was only a small window in which he could safely land the ball. Woods responded with the required shot, which he then sank for a birdie. Woods and Mediate were tied for the lead at the end of regulation.

Most other tournaments would send players to a sudden death playoff, with the first golfer to win a hole awarded the victory. But the U.S. Open never makes anything that simple. Both golfers would have to survive an 18-hole playoff the following day to decide the winner, and even that wasn’t enough as they were tied again after the playoff. Only then did they go to a sudden death format and it was on the 91st hole of the tournament that Mediate finally cracked. Woods won the hole and the 2008 U.S. Open with a par putt.

It was the crowning moment of Wood’s storied career. He was at the top of his game and it appeared he was on his way to smashing Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors. Sadly, though, this would prove to be the last of his majors’ victories to date. Since that win, Woods has undergone multiple surgeries on his knees and back, including ACL reconstruction and spinal fusion. Even more difficult, perhaps, was the very public disintegration of his personal life.

It’s been a long road back for Woods, but at age 42 he finally appears to have recovered physically and mentally.

He seems at peace with himself for the first time in a long time. His game is wiser now and he’s content to stay within his abilities and settle for pars, instead of always taking a riskier route. He appears more relaxed—but that dominant aura that makes others wilt under pressure is strong as ever.

With his two-stroke win at the season finale Tour Championship, Woods now has 80 tournament victories and is just two off the record 82 held by Sam Snead. He still sits at 14 majors, trailing only the legendary Jack Nicklaus (who won 18). Will he catch or surpass the Golden Bear for the one record he seeks above all others?

The odds are against him, but those five days at Torrey Pines where he conquered not only the game’s toughest test, but also bypassed the accepted laws of medical science prove one should never count Woods out.

These

WHO STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE

e players helped make baseball tr ly an all-American game

ROBERTO CLEMENTE This list could begin and end with Roberto Clemente.

Born in Puerto Rico, he burst into the baseball world with a vengeance in 1955 and never looked back. He played his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and finished with 3,000 hits, 240 home runs, and a .317 batting average.

He was the first celebrity Latino player of the Major Leagues and is generally considered among baseball’s greatest players. In 1973, his life was cut short at the age of 38 when he was killed in a plane crash delivering aid to victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua.

JUAN MARICHAL Juan Marichal may be remembered most for his high leg kick pitching delivery and taking a baseball bat to an opposing player in a bench-clearing brawl. But this Dominican native amassed more wins than any other pitcher in the 1960s and is still only one of two pitchers in the modern era to have more than one 25-win season (he and Sandy Koufax each had three). Marichal had exceptional control despite his intimidating presence, striking out 2,303 batters while only walking 709.

MATTY ALOU In addition to membership in one of baseball’s most celebrated families, Matty Alou is also remembered as a great hitter in a time of great pitching. A native of the Dominican Republic, he was an expert at getting on base. Never known for his power, Alou only had 31 home runs in his career, but he batted .307, making him a threat to getting on base whenever he stepped up to the plate. Alou’s brothers Felipe

and Jesus also played in the majors, including a stint with the San Francisco Giants where the trio became the first three siblings to play together in a game and bat in the same inning.

DAVE CONCEPCION If you’ve ever seen an infielder intentionally bounce a long throw to first base, you can thank Dave Concepcion. This Venezuelan native was a key component of the famed Big Red Machine of the 1970s Cincinnati Reds where he helped the team win back-to-back World Series titles. He was an exceptional fielder and hitter, playing winter ball in Venezuela to improve his game. Always a smart player, Concepcion realized he could use the new artificial surface to his benefit on long throws by bouncing the ball to first, and spent countless hours perfecting the practice.

FERNANDO VALENZUELA Almost singlehandedly, Fernando Valenzuela washed away the bad blood that existed between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Latinx community over the construction of Dodger stadium, using eminent domain. “Fernandomania” swept the southland in the 1980s when 20-year-old Valenzuela took the mound and won his first eight starts, including five by shutout. He was the only player to win both the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards simultaneously. During his career, he pitched a no-hitter and had 10 career home runs. His humble origins in the small village of Navojoa in northern Mexico endeared him to his fans. While his popularity was especially important to the Latinx community, Valenzuela was key to building a bridge between the Latinx and white communities, much like Roberto Clemente before him. —DP

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STREET ST YLE

Real Men Wear Pajamas

BY DESIRÉE GUERRERO

Yes, pajama parties went out of style in fourth grade, but there’s something super cool about the modern but classic looking silk, satin, or cotton PJs that you gotta dig. For one, you got room to move in ‘em. And if you live with roommates or your parents and sibs (no shade, dude) it’s nice to know you won’t accidentally run into someone naked on the way to the bathroom.

Classic PJs will never steer you wrong. And you’ve got options now: choose a lively print, stripes, or an elegant solid. Undo a couple of buttons at the top to show off those pecs, skip the shirt altogether, or layer over a fitted tank. No matter your style, you can find a PJ set that’ll unleash your sexy beast. Bonus: they’re comfy AF and someone will always be willing to take them off you.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX D. ROGERS @alexdrogersstudio STYLING BY TROI ANTHONI @kingtroi GROOMING BY MAKAYLA WEBB @maquillage_makayla MODELED BY IVAN, MATTHEW, ALIOU, ROWAN, AND AKARI OF ST. CLAIRE MODELS @demantistclaire DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 CHILL

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GROOMING

LOOKIN’ SHARP IT’S TIME TO LOOK AS GOOD AS YOU FEEL AND BE AS HEALTHY AS YOU LOOK. GET A JUMP START WITH THESE SICK PRODUCTS.

BY DAVID ARTAVIA

ot all products are alike. In fact, every single one offers a different kind of experience.

Whether it has to do with scent, texture, or results, it can take time to find the highest quality product that’s tailor-made to fit your specific style. Having your own personal tastes is your prerogative as a man. But with so many options out there, it can be hard for guys to narrow down the right supplies for them.

These days, grooming and home health has become its own science, employing proven solutions to age-old problems and providing easily accessible results you can be confident in. A man’s health is central to who he is and how he expresses his look and style. Why not combine both worlds to live a life of boldness and freedom, making confident choices and embracing rich colors, luxurious sensations, and delicious aromas? Check out some of our favorite items for grooming and overall health, just in time for the holidays.

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WHAT SWAMP CROTCH? Groom your junk like the royal jewels they are with premium products available by Tame the Beast skincare, including Nutt Butter, a multipurpose lotion for your junk that packs a nice eucalyptus tingle. There’s also an edible version (yep!) with food-grade ingredients like peppermint oil and vanilla extract that will make your candy cane even more enticing. (Nutt Butter $19, getbeast.com)

WINTER RITUAL The European Zen bath and body brand, Rituals, launched a new collection called The Ritual of Yalda, inspired by the ancient Persian festival of the same name. Warm hearts and keep skin glowing all winter long with this luxurious Yalda Limited Edition Gift Set, which includes shower gel, body cream, a bath bomb, and a candle, all made with soothing pomegranate and refreshing watermelon essences—both known for their antioxidant properties. ($65, rituals.com)

THAT GLOW, THO We love The Good Chemist’s Youth Boost Serum, which is made of scienti cally pro en elements, including vegan and cruelty-free peptides, antioxidant fruit extracts, and hydration. The company can help you choose the right routine for your skin, and it donates $1 from every purchase to support STEM education programs for young girls. ($65, thegoodchemist.com)

OUR SUNSCREEN There’s now a sunscreen made speci cally for those with melaninrich skin that won’t leave white residue as it dries. Fragrance free, it is made with all-natural ingredients like carrot seed oil, jojoba oil, almond oil, avocado, and Shea butter, while providing SPF 30 and UVA protection. ($19, blackgirlsunscreen.com)

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GROOMING HEALTH

BEARD FIT FOR A KING It’s time to tame those whiskers with King Beard & Company’s Beard Butter, a whipped, light weight mix of Shea and cocoa butter you can add to your daily regimen to tame, nourish, and shape your beard while providing a charismatic scent notes of mango, cocoa, and anilla . And of course, it’s 100 percent organic. ($14, kingbeardco.com

GOOD FACE Be Pure Beauty’s Love + Charcoal Masque is a deep-cleansing facial mask that will help clarify your complexion by extracting dirt and debris while also nourishing and restoring your skin’s natural resilience with Cupuacu butter and Alpine Rose. Approved by global cosmetic certi er cocert. , bep rebea ty.com

SMOOTHER SKIN Honey Belle’s 4-Pack Loofah Soap is made with coconut oil and glycerin soap around a natural, unbleached sea sponge.

These soaps will keep your skin clean, refreshed, and moisturized. Chose the Refresh & Relax pack, featuring soaps scented with sandalwood and patchouli, Eucalyptus and peppermint, green tea and cucumber, and charcoal and bamboo. , honeybelleshop.com

MAGIC ‘SHROOMS Finnish company Four Sigmatic makes beverages infused with nutrient-rich superfoods (particularly ario s kinds of m shrooms .

Try the Dark Roast Mushroom Coffee with chaga and lion’s mane mushrooms, or the Mushroom Mocha Mix with chaga and cacao. They also make coffee pods for your machine. ($10 and up, fo rsigmatic.com

NO MORE CHAFING Marathoners know the Body Glide chafe bar is the best way to prevent blisters from forming. (It’ll also help your body glide across another without any ncomfortable cha ng.

Body Glide’s formula makes it easy to apply for all-day protection from skin-to-skin r bbing, cha ng from clothing, or pinching and friction from shoes, protective gear, and other irritants.

The . o si e ts perfectly inside r nning belts or armbands, and is TSA-friendly so take it on the slopes or to gyms this winter. and p, bodyglide.com .

BITES OF ENERGY Everyone from business moguls, athletes, and celebrities have written about the importance of a healthy morning routine. Take it up a notch with nutrientdense ENERGYbits, 100 percent organically-grown, protein-rich spirulina algae. Add a few spirulina algae tablets to your breakfast and you’ll be adding more than 40 vitamins and minerals, omega-3 oils, essential amino acids, and a powerful dose of antioxidants. That’ll prepare you to take on the day with gusto! ($120 for , tablets, energybits.com THE PERFECT BEER This limited release hazy pale ale from Harpoon Brewery offers a thirst quenching, replacement for your go-to after-the-gym relaxation elixir. Brewed with a blend of buckwheat, chia seeds, and Mediterranean Sea salt, the ale is just 120 calories per pint and provides electrolytes and other refreshing nutrients. (prices ary, harpoonbrewery.com

CBD IS MODERN AF Know your CBD from your THC! Medterra’s CBD oil is 100 percent free of THC (the part of cannabis that makes yo high , and its a ailable in all states. The bene ts of CBD oil are endless—from better sleep, to better skin, to decreased anxiety, and pain relief. Squeeze a drop or two of the Medterra tincture on your tongue or rub some of the pain cream on your aching muscles. You’ll thank us in the morning. and p, medterracbd.com

STRONGER MUSCLE iotech company Tesseract is de ning the impacts of performance and muscle formation with TetraCuminQR, a musculoskeletal support enhancer designed to maximize the bioavailability of curcumin in the body.

Found in turmeric, curcumin helps to maintain a healthy inflammatory response, which relie es m scle ache and speeds p m scle reco ery. , tessmed.com DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 CHILL

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JUST ADD COLOR

MULTI-HYPHENATED ARTIST ADAM DAVENPORT IS BRINGING BLACK VISIBILITY INTO SOME OF THE MOST WHITEWASHED WORLDS, INCLUDING OPERA AND EDM.

BY DIMITRI MOISE

Was there a moment that inspired your journey toward performing?

Dance music has been part of the soundtrack to my own selfacceptance. Janet Jackson’s albums Rhythm Nation and The Velvet Rope were monumental in my journey as a young gay Black man growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago in the ’90s. As she sang about homophobia, bigotry, racism, AIDS, and self-love on pop-dance tracks, I was blown away to learn that the genre could be used to say something powerful. Jackson was a voice for someone like me who felt disenfranchised and marginalized in an era where it was not as easy to be so courageous and transparent about who you are. I was a lonely kid who survived bullying and conversion therapy, so her music not only inspired me, but connected with me on a gut level. So while my peers played outside on the weekends, I often played the piano and sat in my room writing song lyrics, imagining one day becoming a recording artist in my own right.

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ANDREW FOORD

New York City-based electric dance artist, playwright, actor, and author Adam Davenport is climbing his way to the top of multiple worlds, including some where people of color are notably absent.

With humble beginnings in Harvey, Ill. (one of the poorest suburbs in America), the artist set his dreams high and has already achieved many of them. He graduated from Yale University and, at 27, became the youngest member in the playwright/directors unit of New York City’s famed Actors Studio. After pursuing screenwriting and directing in Los Angeles, he decided he wanted a change of pace, so he moved to New York and made his stage debut in the opera adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities. From there, he went on to perform in numerous other opera and theater productions.

Davenport continues to make history.

In 2017, according to music writer Judith Davis, he became the first Black producer to chart eponymously on the Billboard 200 for Electronic Dance Music (EDM). His debut single “My Return Address Is You” (featuring Beyoncé kin Shanica Knowles) spent 10 weeks on the Billboard Dance Club charts.

Now, the introspective and thoughtprovoking artist discusses his life and the future of Black power in music, film, and EDM.

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MUSIC When did your acting journey take flight?

My first audition was in New York City at the age of 31. For the previous decade I had been pursuing a career as a writer-slash-director.

After working as a screenwriter in my 20s and developing material for numerous production companies, my soul needed a change of scene from the Hollywood maze, so I packed everything into two suitcases and moved to N.Y.C. It was on the stage where I discovered that I am perhaps drawn to quirky, off beat, and eccentric characters. Acting has allowed me to become comfortable with my own personal weirdness and it’s come through some of the more interesting work I’ve done to date.

When I walk into those audition rooms, I might be perceived as one way because I am fit and have consistently invested my time in the gym over the last five years, but I’m much more interested in being a character actor than a leading man type.

What inspired you to pursue a career in EDM? I ultimately want to use electronic dance music as a narrative tool.

Just as Lin-Manuel Miranda used hip-hop beautifully to advance storytelling on the stage, I have my own story called Weekend Warriors that I’d like to tell on the stage with electronic dance music.

I’m willing to do everything myself—write the book, produce the music, DJ the live set, act in it—and so right now I’m at the stage of developing my voice in the genre. I’ll release a concept album or EP of Weekend Warriors before I mount a full production.

Being the first African-American EDM producer to chart on Billboard is a big deal.

It’s interesting that EDM has been dominated by largely straight white DJs [and] producers from Europe, and yet the godfather of house music—to which electronic dance music is indebted—happens to be a gay Black man, also from Chicago, named Frankie Knuckles.

Frankie passed away in 2014, but I’d like to think that his spirit is blessing my efforts.

Any successful project is the product of successful collaboration, and I had fantastic collaborators on my first single. I cowrote “My Return Address Is You” with Leslie Mills, an Emmy-nominated singersongwriter from Nashville. I wanted the vocal arrangement to have a bit of nostalgia, a sort of throwback to the tight harmonies of a Fleetwood Mac song or ’80s ballad. I needed an amazing vocalist who could deliver that and I got that in spades in Shanica Knowles. Her voice is intimate and raw. Her phrasing reminds me of Alanis Morissette or Florence Welch in its ability to communicate feeling directly to the listener. She [Knowles] nailed all of the vocal harmonies—and there are a ton of vocals—in one two-hour studio session.

Tell us about the writing process of that single.

I wrote the lyrics on the subway in 15 minutes. I was inspired by the feelings I had after a romance from my first summer in N.Y.C. ended.

Our time together was short but I had love for him right away, and he’s had a long-term impact on me as he gave permission to my dreams.

When I told him I wanted to start making dance music and acting, he said that he saw that happening for me. He is also an artist and professional in the industry who’s made his own mark, so I believed his belief in me, if that makes sense. As the track went into production and then took on a life of its own, it felt like it had cosmically become a document of the love we shared—as brief as it was.

What do you hope for the future of your industry and EDM as a whole?

I’d like to see EDM become a more diverse space. One thing I love about the genre is that many have called EDM the “music of the millennial generation” in the same way that alternative music was in the ’90s or rock was for my parents growing up in the ’60s. And so if electronic dance music is truly the music of our generation, I’d like to see that reflected in the diversity of its artists. EDM has become such a huge business and it would be fantastic if that commercial success could be shared by artists who aren’t solely straight white men, frankly.

I’d like to see a Black Calvin Harris, a Latinx David Guetta, a transgender Ellie Goulding. The labels need to develop and give opportunities to artists in this space who don’t all look and sound the same. And I say that with no disrespect to the artists who are at the forefront of the genre now, as so many of them are phenomenal musicians. But let’s get some color into the roster so it’s looking less homogenous. For instance, I’d like to see more attention given to Black Coffee—South Africa’s biggest DJ. His collaboration with Guetta on “Drive” is a step in the right direction.

What other projects do you have going on?

I turned in a proposal for my graphic novel Tar Baby, which blends sci-fi [and] horror, film noir, and African-American folklore against the backdrop of the heroin epidemic in West Virginia. I originally wrote it as a screenplay with playwright John Budge with the intention of directing it as my first feature and the first installment in a three-part franchise, and I’m introducing the [project] as a graphic novel. Marvel illustrator James Rodriguez did the artwork. For the film, I’ve cast a transgender actress as my lead, Mya Taylor, who won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female in Tangerine and made history as the first transgender actor to win [at the annual award show].

I’m also working with a start-up on a new music app called Shoudout. My new single “Change the World” is a cover of the Eric Clapton song from the ’90s. It’s the first track where I use my own vocals. I’m also finishing up an original track that was written for me by producer Sean Greiner and songwriter Gail Grossman.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

For the time being, I try to focus on living in the present moment and maximizing ways for my creative efforts to also satisfy my immediate needs like taking care of myself as an adult in N.Y.C. But I do hope that in five years I am happy, able to continue supporting myself as a full-time creative, and can share that life abundantly with another person. I do believe I have met that individual. We are living together now and so I hope we are five years deeper into that love that we already share.

What do you wish to inspire in others?

Each success of mine largely came out of getting obscenely focused and setting out to accomplish something that others said I couldn’t do or didn’t support me in doing. I’ve met a bit of negativity and naysaying from people who were once close to me when I told them I was going to start acting after age 30: “You’re starting too old, it’ll never happen.” That kind of feedback comes from that person’s own insecurities, self-doubt, and failures. They’re not living your life. It’s never too late to start living your life.

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PRETTY FLY FOR A WINTER GUY IF YOU COULD WEAR SNEAKERS INSTEAD OF BOOTS THIS SEASON, WHY WOULDN’T YOU?

BY THOMAS FREEMAN

Too many of us hang up our sneakers when it gets cold, opting for snow or rain boots. But on days without heavy precipitation, why not reclaim the sneaker with weatherproof options from Converse, Karl Lagerfeld, Air Jordan, and Moncler? A bit of residual snow stands no chance against these winter-ready kicks.

2 Moncler 1952 Jericho

Moncler, the purveyor of enviable o twear, has created the de niti e après-ski sneaker in the Jericho.

The slip-on upper is a mix of honeycomb knit, Lycra, and suede that leaves a sporty yet urbane impression. A rugged sole, made of Vibram rubber, helps to overcome the elements. ($440, store.moncler.com)

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SNEA KER

ALERT

Converse Chuck Taylor All Star Waterproof Leather High Top Boot The classic basketball shoe, dating back to , is of cially strapped p for winter in premium nubuck leather. That’s leather that has been roughed up to look like suede while still retaining its durability and waterproo ng capability. , nike.com

Karl Lagerfeld Paris Men’s Nubuck Leather High Top Sneakers

Karl Lagerfeld gave the ultimate coldweather sneaker, the black high-top, a Parisian upgrade for his eponymous line.

It evokes a dress shoe in all black leather and boots with a side zip closure. A molded memory-foam insole is a cozy, luxurious bonus. ($225, bloomingdales.com)

Air Jordan 9 Retro NRG

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF MAKER

The s hip-hop infl ence is hard to miss on this teal, grey, pink, yellow, and purple model. Still, these sneaker boots offer so much more, namely water-resistance, in a dual leather and suede upper. Zoom Air units are built into the heel for ridiculously plush cushioning. ($225, nike.com)

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COURTESY SWIRL FILMS

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THE CHARLAMAGNE CODE From survivor’s guilt to rape culture and straight privilege, Charlamagne tha God is willing to tackle any topic.

But healing his own mental health issues might be the bravest thing he’s ever done.

BY DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL

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PHOTO CREDIT

or a guy who used to sling dope as a kid in Moncks Corner, S.C., you would think Charlamagne tha God, now 40, would have no problem getting high. But sitting on a bed at the SLS, a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, Charlamagne was having a meltdown, and he was sure it was the weed.

Damn, I’m about to OD on weed, and my wife hates me for not making her squirt, he thought. He and his wife, Jessica Gadsden, smoked a joint of Green Crack—or Blue Dream or some other Los Angeles chronic someone gave him to calm his anxiety—and now he was “curled up in the fetal position like Smokey in the chicken coop in Friday.”

Charlamagne was on a book tour for his first New York Times bestseller, Black Privilege: Opportunity Comes to Those Who Create It. His thoughts were spiraling from worry over his book tour falling apart (even though hundreds of people were showing up at bookstores to see him) to the fears of an apocalyptic earthquake hitting California, or a white supremacist letting “the mayonnaise fly by shooting up the Black Privilege tour stop in Burbank,” to the concern about whether he could still make his partner of two decades orgasm—and, if he couldn’t, would that lead to divorce?

This is the mind of Charlamagne tha God on non-stop anxiety. As his panic attack unfolds, his wife asks if he’s going to run out of the room naked, pulling a Martin Lawrence in the streets of L.A. What’s surprising is not that Charlamagne (nee Lenard Larry McKelvey) has anxiety, PTSD, and panic attacks; but CHILL DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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that he’s one of the few male celebrities (especially among men of color) who is willing to admit it and talk publicly about his struggles with mental health. He does more than that in his new book, Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me. The cohost of iHeartRadio’s wildly popular nationally syndicated radio show, The Breakfast Club, Charlamagne is one of the more compelling media personalities out there, a guy who helps drive national conversations around race, politics, hip-hop, and gender.

He does so despite the risk of making very public flubs (case in point: a comment about transgender women that went bad quickly, a mistake he admits he learned from).

Charlamagne, who is also cohost of the popular podcast Brilliant Idiots and an executive producer with his own production company, CThaGod World, got his break as a media personality and social media influencer appearing on The Wendy Williams Experience on VH1, MTV’s Guy Code, and MTV2’s The Week in Jams.

We recently caught up with Charlamagne to talk about mental health, sex, religion, learning from his mistakes, and how white allies should really introduce themselves.

As a nod to your book, I wanted to start by saying: I’m Diane. I am not a white devil. (I’m actually mixed race, but white passing.)

I really appreciate that [Laughs]. My name is Lenard and I’m not homophobic.

Shook One is really about mental health and anxiety and fear and PTSD—and how Black men aren’t allowed to talk about those things. Would it have been easier for you if you could have had these conversations earlier?

I think it would have been easier if that was the behavior that was taught to me. The behavior that was taught to me was, “Be as tough as possible, be as hard as possible.” When you grow up in a certain environment, you know, you can’t come off as, for lack of a better term, pussy or soft. You had to be tough. You had to be gangster.

Like, I couldn’t be Donald Glover. I had to be Tupac.

I passed a Little League practice the other day and the coach was yelling, “Do you want to be a girl?” and “Don’t be a pussy.”

That’s such an interesting thing. Now that I’m older, I process these things a little different. It’s like subconsciously you’re actually kind of making it like women are inferior… like you’re putting that in guys’ heads as well. Like women aren’t capable of doing anything. Like women are just inferior creatures.

COURTESY SWIRL FILMS

Exactly. It’s interesting that your generation is confronting that and trying to change it.

Very true. We got to be able to confront it, though, without being judged for it. Because I can honestly say that I’ve definitely learned a lot of BS growing up, and it’s a lot of BS I’m unlearning now.

Because we’re all prisoners of our own privilege. Men are prisoners of their own privilege. They can exist as men without worrying about what women actually go through. Straight men are prisoners of their straightness, they don’t have to worry about the issues that the LGBT community go through. But we’re all in America together. We all got to start thinking about each other.

Do you think that there’s becoming more of an environment where men can talk openly about #MeToo and physical or emotional abuse?

It depends who you are, and it depends, honestly, who is going

to choose to weaponize your words against you. I’ve been trying to have conversations about rape culture for the past four years, because that was a new term to me, hearing the term “rape culture” and then listening to women tell me what rape culture is, and then reading articles like in Teen Vogue… where they have headlines that says, “Drunk Sex Rape.” And me and my male cohosts on my podcast are trying to process this information and talking about old situations that now when we think about them, we’re like, “Okay that may have been a little sketchy.” The first time me and my wife were together, we were stupid drunk… I started the conversation off by specifically saying, “Men have to realize that a lot of the things that we used to do back in the day could be considered rape or rape culture.” And then… they had headlines saying “Charlamagne tha God admits the first time he had sex with his wife it was rape!” That was not what I was trying to say at all. I think this next generation of kids needs to know what’s right etiquette and what’s wrong etiquette… I think that there is a lot of blurred lines. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with us as men having those conversations. I think men are really just scared, man. Like it’s the same thing, when you try to get a white person to have an open conversation about race. They don’t want to say the wrong thing because they don’t want to be looked at as racist. I’m just the type of person—man, I’ve got to live my truth.… if therapy’s dug something up that I feel like I need to talk about, I’ve got to talk about it.

One of the tenets of Shook One is personal evolution, but we don’t really give people the space to make some transformations. Do you feel like your words are constantly monitored and judged?

Oh, 100 percent. [People] will try to weaponize your words against you just because of the climate that we’re in. We’re in the climate of #MeToo and Time’s Up and… I think that sometimes they’re just weaponizing the words against you. They’re taking you out of context on purpose. They position it in a way on social media where they got me sounding crazy. I do long form interviews and… people take 10 or 15 seconds on purpose. The world is out of context right now. Everything is out of context.

Can you talk about the transphobic episode with Lil Duval on The Breakfast Club?

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to go to therapy, because of friends of mine that have more significant anxiety than I do.

Guy friends that are actually on medication for it. When they started talking to me about it and going to therapy… that’s what gave me the confidence to do it.… realizing like damn, I’ve got actual friends who go through this.

Is it hard to talk about Black men and mental health issues right now without that conversation being turned around to Kanye West?

Nah, not really. I think it’s just hard to talk about mental health issues in general, because truth be told, when I first started writing this book, I wasn’t writing it with the intention of writing a book about mental health. I didn’t know anxiety was considered a mental health issue... [but] it’s the number one mental health issue in America. When I started going to therapy, my therapist started letting me know I’ve got PTSD… and trauma from past situations. I just felt like therapy has been so good for me over the past year, I just wanted to share all my experiences.

You’ve gone “from the trap to the cul de sac,” in part propelled by fear and anxiety.

People think that just because you’ve got money, that your stress just automatically goes away, which is complete BS. If anything, I think it increases my anxiety because a lot of times I feel like I’m not deserving of the things that I have acquired. I don’t have a skill set. I didn’t go to college.

My mom made 30 grand a year as a freaking’ school teacher her whole life. You know what I mean? And then when you’re the only Black person living in the cul de sac, you think that’s what you want, until it’s 2016 and its election time and you see all the Trump signs everywhere. It’s like My God, where am I? Or when your daughter is the only black person in the school full of white people… You know, is she really getting a fair shake in this school? Next year, I’m putting her in one of the most diverse schools in New Jersey simply because of their emphasis is on diversity. And honestly that’s how we all need to be looking at the world. The world is not old and white and male anymore. We’ve got to really start structuring the world for everybody.

When you talk privately with other men, do they confess some of the same crippling anxiety or PTSD you’ve had?

A million percent. That’s one of the reasons that I started

You write that “keeping it real” is a lie told to young Black men by people jealous of their potential.

Absolutely, because keeping it real is honestly doing what I’m

You learned a lot afterwards about the alarmingly high murder rates trans women face.

I had no idea until after that interview. You see how the transgender rights are really being suppressed and marginalized in a real way. I can honestly tell you up until three years ago I never even understood what the trans community was about.

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COURTESY SWIRL FILMS; JOHNATHAN MANNION (OPPOSITE PAGE)

Yeah. I wish that I would’ve just edited that whole situation out altogether because it was just a bunch of people who got hurt from that. The LGBT community got hurt, and it just wasn’t necessary. But I understand that intention doesn’t matter, it’s about impact, and that comment just impacted people in a very negative way. I get why everybody was upset.

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doing right now. Keeping it real is keeping it real with myself and who I am at 40 years old. Keeping it real is me telling y’all, “Look, I go to therapy.” Keeping it real is me telling y’all, “Look, I deal with anxiety.” Keeping it real is telling y’all, “I don’t want to hang out in the hood.” That’s not what I want to do. And by the way, most of the time when people say they’re keeping it real, it’s actually, keeping it criminal. That’s what they really want you to do, you know what I’m saying? They want you to keep it criminal. I don’t got time for that.

You once equated getting a lot of pussy with being a real man but you realize being faithful is like working out, it just makes you feel better.

How do other men respond when you talk about that? Because there’s not a lot of bragging about monogamy in our world.

I think it’s changed a lot.… the young guys are like, very happy being with one woman and having monogamous relationships. I think a lot of the older guys are starting to do that too. I don’t know if it’s because of like the Jay-Z-Beyoncé effect or… [if ] we’ve found other ways to feed our fragile egos. A lot of times, you know, guys just want to sleep with a bunch of different women simply because it feeds their ego... [But] when you actually start doing what it is you want to do in life, and you’re being the father that you need to be and the husband that you need to be, and you’re focusing on the aspects of your life that matter, like mentally, spiritually, emotionally, even physically, I think that that does enough for your ego. Who am I proving anything to by sleeping with a whole bunch of different women? I’ve got other things that I can brag about.

Do you think Kanye is eradicating the stigma around mental health or is his public exposure making things worse?

That’s a great question. I think it goes both ways.… He was rapping about it and in a lot of his interviews he was talking about it…

But when I saw him in the White House, he said that he got misdiagnosed with bipolar, something from sleep deprivation, and that’s why he’s not on his medication no more, and I just felt like, You know what? He really needs to figure out what’s really going on. But I do think when he was… just openly talking about it, he was doing a lot to eradicate the stigma.

And I think on the other side, we got to do a better job of whether or not we take people serious when they say they have mental health issues. We can’t hear somebody say they have mental health issues but then all we do is clown them, and kick their back in, and say that they’re crazy, and say that they’re out of their mind and they’ve lost it. We can’t do that.

Yeah. And that’s actually what’s happened with Kanye.

100 percent—all because of his political views. By the way, he might have those political views because he’s going through something.

You know what I mean? So why are we looking at them? By the way, I think all Trump supporters are mentally ill, but why are we focusing on that so much? Once a person tells you they’re mentally ill, and they’re not on their medication, we shouldn’t even be paying them any attention anymore. We should be getting them help.

And anybody who has a family member who’s bipolar will tell you they often go off their meds and say they were misdiagnosed.

Exactly. Everybody I know that suffers from mental health or bipolar or being manic and being on their meds to deal with it, they all say the exact same thing. They can look at Kanye and say, “Okay, I know what he’s going through.” So all I’m doing is praying that the brother can get real help.

You’re from Moncks Corner, South Carolina, but you did your ancestry and traced your DNA, your roots, back to the Mende, Balanta, and Mandinka peoples in Africa? I love that those groups all underscore resistance to colonization and to slavery.

The Mandinka were one of the richest civilizations on Earth at the time. Have you been able to go visit these places?

I’ve never been to Africa before in my life, but I definitely want to go. I have so many people requesting that I come out there, I have a lot of friends in South Africa, especially in Nigeria, and I’m definitely going. You know, being from Charleston, like being born in Charleston where the slave ships actually came into the ports directly from West Africa, that’s a hell of a connection. And they’re opening up the International African-American Museum in Charleston on the port that everybody came through. Yeah, I’m definitely going.

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SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST. DON’T FORGET TO BUY YOURSELF SOMETHING, TOO.

SHUT TERSTOCK

BY CHILL EDITORS

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BIG BALLER BELTS

These Major League leather ShowBelts by Nokona are a great gift for sports fanatics. Customize team colors, numbers, names, or a personalized message—and even choose leathers, thread, edge paint, buckles, and more. ($100 and up, showbelts.com)

HIPHOP HOLIDAYS

MANLINESS IN A CRATE

Gift yourself a wooden Man Crate and receive a curated bundle of manly fare for grooming, sports, cooking—or survival. In preparation for another two years under Trump, we recommend the Zombie Annihilation Crate. ($39 and up, mancrates.com)

Urban Legends reissued classic hiphop must-haves on vinyl including Eric B and Rakim: The Complete Collection limited edition box set, EPMD’s 30th anniversary reissues of Strictly Business and Unfinished Business on bright blue and yellow vinyl, and a special 20th anniversary reissue of the Friday: Original Soundtrack with a limited edition cover with an animated smoking joint. Dope gifts for fans young and old. ($30 and up, shop.urbanlegends.com)

Razor’s sleek and stylish Electric Skateboards are a fun way to accelerate their navigation of the concrete jungle. ($180 and up, razor.com)

MOSHI’S AVANTI AIR WIRELESS ON-EAR HEADPHONES,

WEARABLE WINGMAN

The waterproof, wearable compact speaker TicHome Mini Splash Proof Smart Speaker has up to six hours of battery life and a builtin Google Assistant that makes everything easier. Strap it to your bike or move it from room to room, commanding streaming on every device. ($99, mobvoi.com)

HANDY HUEVOS

Wiz Khalifa uses Egg Weights to increase power, endurance, core strength, and speed. Designed to conform to your body’s natural motion they grip comfortably and are perfect for beefing up shadow boxing or trail running workouts. ($25 and up, eggweights.com)

allow them to share tunes with nearby homies. ($200, moshi.com)

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY MAKERS

STAY ON BEAT

We’re diggin’ the new Soul Electronics Emotion Superior High Performance True Wireless Earphone designed for the active student lifestyle, with built-in microphone and six hours of playtime. ($50, soulelectronics.com)

SMOOTH AF

NATURAL STYLE

Gillette’s Limited-Edition Razor Gift Packs are great gifts for those who prefer a smooth shave. ($20, walmart.com)

Treehut’s Bali-inspired wooden watches in Zebrawood and Maple Burl are particularly sleek and styling. ($95, treehut.co)

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HOT HATS

Tenth Street Hats offers a plethora of stylish and sophisticated lids— like this Tribeca Straw Fedora by Brooklyn Hats ($72, tenthstreethats.com)

EDUCATED BROTHA

Love street tacos but hate the tedious task of warming up the tortillas? NUNI’S 6-SLOT TORTILLA TOASTER leaves you mucho mas time to mingle. ($99, nunitoaster.com)

That intellectual activist on your list will dig the Unemployed Philosophers Guild James Baldwin Secular Saint Candle. “Saints” Harriet Tubman and Frida Kahlo are perfect for socially conscious sistas. ($14, amazon.com)

DON’T BE A GRINCH

Cozy conversation-starting Laetly All-Natural Wool Scarves include the What’s Kraken ‘80s print and the humorous but helpful Phone, Keys, Wallet design. ($68 and up, laetly.com)

BROADCAST NEWS

Get the Tablo DUAL 64GB DVR so they can record and stream local broadcast television programming to their devices. ($220, tablotv.com)

THE WORLD IS YOURS

GET YOUR GRILL ON

The Cuisinart Chef ’s Style Stainless Tabletop Grill combines power with portability and is perfect for tailgating and apartment balconies. ($200, cuisinart.com)

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WICKED WHEELS

Once they strap a pair of Razor Turbo Jetts electric heel wheels to their sneaks, they’ll never miss the subway again, zipping down the block at up to 10 mph, for up to 30 minutes. The DLX model lights up. ($130, razor.com)

STYLIN’ SACK

A modern twist to the classic flap backpack, the Topo Y-Pack easily fits all their personal items and a large laptop. ($79, topdesigns.com)

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY MAKERS

BIG BOY BAR

They’ll entertain like they’re grown with Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams’s Bar Tool Set, a four-tool set with stylish stand. ($120, mgbwhome.com)

Whether you’re trying to lay your mac down to a cute Cuban honey down the block, or casually converse with locals while traveling abroad, the Two-Way Live Conversation Speaking Translator is your new best bud.

Speak in natural conversation style, and it immediately translates into up to 12 languages without a WiFi connection. ($350, hamacher.com)

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GYM TO-GO

Celeb trainer Kit Rich helped sculpt Jennifer Lawrence’s bod, and now packs a complete workout in KICHGO, a 2-pound bag with lightweight aids for Pilates, Circuit Training, HIIT, Tabata, and Yoga routines. ($65, kichgo.com)

BROWN IS BEAUTIFUL

She’ll love Nalgona Positive Shop’s message T-shirts on colonialization, body positivity, and indigenous pride on Etsy. ($27, bit.ly/MsgTs)

REUNITE WITH MORPHEUS

The Matrix trilogy is getting a new release on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital HD. Introduce Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity to a new audience. ($42 and up, wbshop.com)

TOASTY

Give Gap’s boss Warmest Vest to the DeRay Mckesson in your fam. ($50, gap.com)

MONKEY BUSINESS

The 50th anniversary Blu-ray edition of Planet of the Apes, a treatise on civil rights, will prepare the kids for when civilization crumbles. ($11, amazon.com)

POT LUCK

Share a higher power with Canndescent’s limited edition Five-Effect Pre-Roll Flight Gift Box, which includes virgin cannabis flower, organic hempwick, rolling papers, crutches, and matches. (Varies, canndescent.com)

B-BALL CALENDAR

A slam-dunk way to test their knowledge of greatest plays and record-breaking feats: Hoops: 365 Days of Basketball Triv-ia! Page-ADay Calendar 2019. ($15, workman.com)

MERLIN ROLLIE BUBBLER For the ganja lover, this compact bubbler incorporates a recycling water filtration system, enabling smooth, fullbodied hits. ($37, mjarsenal.com)

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY MAKERS

BREATHING JEWELS

Folks fight anxiety with Komuso Design’s The Shift necklace which helps them slow their breathing.

Exhale and relax. ($85 and up, komusodesign.com)

PUSSY RIOT

Show ‘em your solidarity with “The Future is Feline” T-shirt and support American Humane Association’s care for cats. ($25, thefutureisfeline.com)

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SCHOOL DAZE Sure Coachella was hot with Kendrick and Queen Bey, but this HBCU concert tour is as exciting as the desert rager. We asked Fetty Luciano, Beau Young Prince, and Bobby Sessions about their Undisputed Tour.

BY DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL

This summer, Def Jam’s groundbreaking Undisputed Tour introduced a blazing hot roster of next-gen hip-hop stars like Beau Young Prince, Bobby Sessions, Casanova, DaniLeigh, Fetty Luciano, and YK Osiris. The fifth annual DTLR | VILLA and Levi-sponsored tour of historically Black colleges and universities kicked off at Morgan State University in Baltimore in October. Stops followed at schools in Atlanta; Orlando; Washington, D.C.; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Petersburg, Virginia. This year’s Undisputed Tour concerts (dtlrvilla.com/hbcutour) featured a live broadcast via DTLR Radio, Levi’s pop-up customization stations (think personalized trucker jackets), and Def Jam artist meet and greets. We caught up with three guys on the tour in between sets.

I love that you were a “Southside kid with a Northside education” and can now combine both worlds where most people can’t. Does that help you on tour?

Absolutely. I feel like I approach every crowd I am in front of with the sense that I can find common ground between the fans and create a vibe that mostly everyone in the crowd can feel. This comes from my experiences in life having a variety of people around me and growing up in different climates. I know how to reach people.

Your musical background is much broader than a lot of artists. How has that helped your art?

In a variety of ways, my musical background has helped further my art. The biggest example is how I structure my songs.

I have a classical and jazz background, and can read and compose music, so when I am writing a song or producing, I often have

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different moods and sections in my songs reminiscent of movements in a classical or jazz piece. I think jazz has the biggest influence on me because of the way you can improve with the art form. A lot of that can be found in my music. Experimental.

able to open for the likes of Ms. Lauryn Hill. I grew up on her Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album so moments like those are cherished, especially to be selected by her team to open in my hometown of D.C. Priceless.

You were a hit at SXSW. Is the experience of playing there different than playing other venues?

Only different in the sense that it is a festival-style performance.

I love SXSW because you can always reach new people that may or may not have heard about you, and some of the crowds and venues there are simply amazing. I look forward to going back.

Who else would you love to perform with?

People like Travis Scott, Andre 3000 if he ever tours again, Lil Wayne, Kendrick, and many more.

What’s the best part about playing HBCUs? The best part about playing HBCUs is the cultural experience I am gaining while visiting each campus. Every stop has been filled with history, fun, and has been a wonderful experience because I get to see how each campus gets down. I love touring colleges but HBCUs have a different energy to them.

I love “Half and Half Tea.” What’s your favorite song of your own?

Currently my favorite song is “Kill Moe!” It’s like “Half and Half Tea” reloaded!

You opened for Lauryn Hill recently. What was that like?

Legendary. A goal to check off the list. I am honored to have been

ALL COURTESY DEF JAM

BEAU YOUNG PRINCE Though Beau Young Prince was born and raised in one of the roughest ‘hoods in southeast Washington, D.C, he went on to attend one of the highest ranking private schools in the northern part of the nation’s capital. That experience gave him the ability to code switch between two worlds. Trained in classical and jazz, Prince also soaked up a wide range of influences from his family’s eclectic playlist and exposure to D.C.’s legendary go-go scene, which blended funk, rhythm and blues, and early hip-hop.

As a teen, Prince performed every chance he could, signing up for open mics, going head to head with other artists in epic rap battles, and competing in local talent shows. After college, Prince hit it big when, in 2016, his song “Half & Half Tea” hit a million streams and landed on the U.S. 50 Viral Spotify chart, and Spotify’s Most Necessary playlist. His critically acclaimed album Until Then was followed by his Sunset Blvd EP that helped him sign with Def Jam. He’s performed three years in a row at the SXSW Music Fesitval.

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FETTY LUCIANO When 23-year old Fetty Luciano (born Remy Marshall) was paroled after three years in prison, he went straight to a recording studio. The MC from Brooklyn’s notorious street gang GS9 hoped to revive interest in the postprison return of fellow GS9 crew members, rappers Bobby Shmurda and Rowdy Rebel. (Luciano is Rebel’s younger brother). Luciano’s solo career began in earnest in January 2018, when his anthem for hustlers, “Shmoney Calling,” debuted (its set over beats by Dondre Dennis and Dougie da God). Video cameos followed with artists like French Montana, Chinx, and 6ix9ine. Luciano’s new mixtape, Story to Tell, was released on Def Jam earlier this fall and showcases the musician’s ability to morph from one style to another.

Your releases so far show you can adapt to different styles, including using auto-tune. How do you define your own work?

Painful and diverse. Painful because of everything I’ve been through coming up and diverse because I can switch it up and give everyone something to listen to, even the ladies.

How important has GS9 been in your life?

GS9 is my family.

What’s your favorite song of your own and why?

My favorite song of mine would definitely be “Used to Be” because people always compare me to my brother, and I made that song to tell the world and send a message that I’m my own man and I can stand on my own two feet by myself.

Do you have any favorites to play when you’re on campuses?

My favorite track I love to perform on campus is “Going 90” because I mention I’m headed to the colleges to fuck up the stages. I made that song not even realizing I would be on college stages [and] given the opportunity to perform.

I didn’t tell a lot of people when I first saw the documentary. I needed to prove that it worked for myself before recommending it to somebody else. The Secret is not solely responsible for my success. [It] inspired me to study manifestation on a deeper level.

What’s the best part about playing HBCUs? Do you have any favorites to play?

Being able to connect with the next generation always feels good. I don’t have any favorites HBCUs. All of them have been great experiences. It’s an honor to step foot on college campuses again and connect with my people. My music career started at the University of North Texas. I wouldn’t have started rapping professionally if I didn’t go to college.

BOBBY SESSIONS Raised in a predominantly Black, low-to-lower middle-income neighborhood southeast of Dallas, Bobby Sessions was more of a poet than a rapper—until the first time he paired some rhymes with a beat while in college. Once he started performing, he quickly attracted the attention of Def Jam. Sessions released his debut with the lablel, RVLTN (Chapter 1): The Divided States of AmeriKKKa, this summer and Chapter 2: The Art Of Resistance could drop before the end of the year. In 2018, Sessions also recorded the title song for the hit film The Hate You Give.

Tell me about making the music video for “The Hate You Give.”

It was a great experience. This was an opportunity to create something that will live forever. We’re very grateful that everyone showed up and I’m happy about the final product.

The documentary, The Secret, played a role in your success. Did you tell people about that at the time?

How has Dallas influenced your art?

Dallas is home. Learning how to freestyle from studying DSR— Dirty South Rydaz—and absorbing the neo-soul sound of Erykah Badu molded my foundation as an artist.

During college, you first penned a poem over a beat. How did that change your work? What was that experience?

It was a difficult transition. Took several years to figure out the balance between rhythm and poetry. College is a great environment to figure out what you want to be. I discovered that I wanted to be a great rapper.

What’s your favorite song of your own and why?

“Black Neighborhood” featuring Killer Mike is my favorite song.

It’s very artistic. As a fan, it’s the song that I most enjoy to hear from my catalog. I wrote that record several years ago. I feel it will hold value forever.

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BY RAH MAN M OOR E

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COURTESY TITO MONTANA (BOTH)

TITO MONTANA MAY BE THE HARDEST WORKING ARTIST IN HIP-HOP WHO YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF. HE GOT THAT WORK ETHIC WHEN WE WERE BOTH IN PRISON.

The first thing that comes to mind when running into hip-hop entrepreneur Tito Montana on the streets of Poughkeepsie, New York—a town we both hail from— are questions about his frequent world travels, which he documents on social media. Seeing pics of Montana in different countries, like Zanzibar, has an impact on me. The two of us have come a long way since those years we both were in lockup.

Montana and I met when we were inmates in 2006, housed in the same unit at the Dutchess County Jail. Our first interaction was bonding over one of my favorite Jay-Z verses in the song “Why We Die,” off of Busta Rhymes’s Anarchy EP. We met up again in 2008 when I got out of the box at the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y., where we were both incarcerated on drug charges.

Montana says the productive and hectic pace of his schedule—which involves juggling his music career, family life, and traveling—stems from his time in prison.

“What you see with me is actually the manifestation of my thoughts while I was incarcerated,” he says. “It’s why everything I do now I intend to be impactful—that’s my sole purpose. I wanted to be a better father, so while I was [in prison] I took parenting classes. I didn’t look at it like, ‘Yeah, I’ll get there when I get there,’ knowing in the meantime, I want to be a better father. I’ve done things from jail that still had me active. I did homework over the phone—as opposed to just calling my baby’s mom or a girl and just try to shoot the shit. It was like I was actively planning what I needed to do when I got out, and I’m still striving to be a better father. I just want to be better a man.”

Before we met, Montana was making money on the streets. He says he spent it on “buying $2,000 outfits head to toe.

Shoes, jacket, jeans, and kicks. All that just to go and impress people.” Still, Montana began making moves and when the opportunity came (and the money was there), he took a trip.

“To me, there’s no other form of really experiencing the world like travel,” he says. “Most of the kids we came up with, they don’t know anything but the public housing we grew up in. People can buy material things all day. You can buy a car. You can buy 20 cars. You can buy a bigger car. But that car is only going to

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get you to where you are going, and if you have a limited scope of the world, then that’s nowhere.”

But that’s not saying Montana doesn’t like nice things, too. During the time since leaving prison, he’s realized the “true impact and the true leverage in life is to be able to venture out and be an explorer… I’m not the first person to visit those places, but from the community of people who I came up with who never venture out, I am the first.”

He adds, “I’d rather be the first at something like that than [do] the same thing over and over and hoping it gets me somewhere—like buying Jordans. I had the hook up back in the day, so I used to have the newest Jordans way before they came out. That was exclusive to me. I don’t have that hook up no more. I don’t have the desire for Jordans, because what does it look like [if] I’m just getting them when everybody got ‘em the same day? I even tell my own son that. I’m like, ‘Listen, the key to buying Jordans is don’t wear them when you buy them. Wear them when they’re old.’”

Montana admits he owes his trip to Zanzibar to his best friend from high school—the now-famous chef Roblé Ali. And he’s not through: “My traveling goal right now is all seven continents. I got four. I need three more then I’m good.”

Things really popped off for Montana last year when he dropped his Dave East collaboration, “Must Be Crazy.” While the powerful song stands alone, it exploded when combined with the animated music video. That really got the ball rolling in earnest for this lover of amazingly told stories. Hype Beast’s Jerry Doby said of the video, “‘Must Be Crazy’ could be considered a no-holds-barred criticism of, well… criticizing the wrong *ish. I’d venture to say this was one of the more in-your-face videos of 2017.” Dick Gregory, an idol of Montana’s, also appears as a caricature in the video.

Montana’s lifelong dream of being in music was realized while serving his time in prison. He wanted to make a transition and not leave incarceration to end up back on the streets. After going through A&R at a bunch of big labels, he ended up deciding to go independent with Final Score Entertainment. For the artist, the pro of being an independent artist is the

freedom. The con is having to figure out the finances to do it.

“The reason why I can make the music that I make is ‘cause I don’t have a boss, I don’t have to answer to nobody,” he proclaims. “What a lot of people don’t know about me is I get the times that I’m in. I’m not one of those people that’s slow. But my music is my legacy. It’s what I’m leaving behind, so my music reflects that—what I want my kids to look up to.

I don’t use drugs. I can’t rap about lean [aka codeine cough syrup]. I came up in an era where taking a picture with a gun was off limits. It was like, my principles and morals don’t allow me to fully engage with the times, so I’m forced to just do it my way.”

The creator finds the question of what he and his music are about to be vexing.

“I mean, that’s a tough question,” he says, “only because with music, each song is just a piece of who you are. So there’s really no one song that can embody that.

But if I had to take a record, I would take ‘Must Be Crazy’ minus the Dave East verse. And I would use that as my story as far as telling you who I am. You know I came up on the other side—dope fiends, homicides, I’m telling that story with that... That’s just me venting on a record... What I’m doing musically is leaving my story behind.”

Montana’s still reflecting on the death of Aaliyah, something that even years later still impacts his life.

“I was on a plane coming from Atlanta,” he remembers. “She and I were flying at

the same time, so I connected all that to my life, in that moment. And I remember when she passed, like, the pain. Two ways [pagers] was poppin’. I remember getting alerts. ‘R&B singer,’ they didn’t say who it was at first. Then one of my boys hit me up from Connecticut, who was in Atlanta with me, he was like, ‘Yo, Carl Thomas was just up here and he said Aaliyah died tonight in a plane crash.’ And I just remember all the news coming in and they was like, ‘Seven people died with her.’ But we only knew Aaliyah, right? And at that moment I realized, I’m like, ‘Damn, like nobody—like it didn’t even matter.’ Like those other people didn’t even matter, but to me they mattered. Like, who were the seven people? It made me realize what was important to people. All these other people died, but all we know is Aaliyah.”

That was when Montana says he fully realized the importance of leaving a legacy, whether it’s big or small. He received another one of those ah-ha moments when his mother passed.

“I don’t have videos of my mother for my kids. I don’t have nothing to show them from that. My kids will be able to do that. My grandkids will have that. You see what I’m saying? And they will see their grandfather was striving for something— it’ll be part of my legacy. That’s what my music is for: me.”

RAHMAN MOORE is a New York-based independent lmmaker who writes abo t the intersections of politics and pop c lt re for The Good Men Project.

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Meet five Black entrepreneurs changing the world of technology.

BY DIMITRI MOISE

CHRISTOPHER LAFAYETTE @onelafayette Christopher Lafayette is the founder of The Armada, a Silicon Valley technology hub integrating tech, training services, and communication strategies to help budding companies develop. BIT describes Lafayette as “A firm believer in the societal and technological accelerated benefit of diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley and beyond.” He sees himself as an explorer of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, who is interested in artificial intelligence, telepresence, and disruptive media.

JARED ARMS @jaredarms After losing nearly a dozen close friends to gun violence, Arms learned to code in order to build an app to centralize obituaries of those who died by in shootings. At 23, Arms used those same skills to found the technology platform Kylar.io (the company’s name is also its web address). One of his initiatives teaches African-American kids the fundamentals needed to excel in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) careers—as a way of preventing gun violence. While building skills is important to keeping kids out of harm’s way, so too is finding healthy ways to deal with stress and anxiety or exposure to childhood trauma. The therapy program Kylar.io for Trauma pairs individuals with licensed clinical social workers who can help them cope with mental health issues.

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CHRISTIAN BISHOP @christianbishop Christian Bishop found a way to combine his passions—gaming, esports, and technology—by creating GG Media Network (ggmedianetwork.com), a global esports and gaming production company based in Los Angeles. Bishop is also the brains behind 4Cast, a weekly first of its kind esports and gaming news show that launched in 2017. Bishop serves on a number of boards and takes part in community organizations to help sustain inclusive environments for gamers everywhere. He was also executive producer on the film Huntsville and is known for his work on reality TV, specifically ABC’s The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise.

COURTESY CHRISTOPHER L AFAYET TE (L AFAYET TE); BITCON (ARMS); CAROLINE TRAN (BISHOP)

BLACK MEN CAN TECH

Blacks in Technology is the largest community and media organization focused on Black men and women in the technology industry.

With a motto of “Stomping the Divide,” BIT is determined to reduce the disparity of Blacks in technology by providing resources, networking, and guidance, challenging its members to become leaders in tech innovation. According to a recent Brookings report, while Blacks make up 11.9 percent of all workers, they represent only 7.9 percent of those employed in computer- and mathrelated fields.

BIT successfully launched its inaugural Black in Tech Conference (BITCon) this fall as part of their effort to combat those disparities. Over the three-day interactive conference in Minneapolis-St. Paul, leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs gathered together to discuss how to increase visibility of men and women of color in the tech industry. The conference featured a wide array of keynote speakers from all over the country, and we’re highlighting five of the most impressive:

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COURTESY MCKEEVER CONWELL (CONWELL) AND GREG GREENLEE (GREENLEE); SHUT TERSTOCK (BUSINESSMAN)

MCKEEVER CONWELL @macconwell By age 19, McKeever Conwell, a computer science major at Morgan State University, was already working for the Department of Defense with top security clearance. From there, he founded his first tech startup, Given.to, to distribute digital content.

Following its success, he sold the company and launched another venture, RedBerry, which was accepted into a tech accelerator program in Philadelphia. Conwell was recently brought on by TEDCO to join their Builder Fund, investing in Maryland-based startups. He and his businesses have been featured on HuffPost Live, BET, CNN, and in publications like Black Enterprise and The Washington Post.

GREG GREENLEE @BIT_greggreenle Greg Greenlee is the founder of Blacks in Technology (blacksintechnology.net) and BITCon. With over 15 years of experience in the information-technology field, he’s now using his knowledge, connections, and smarts to combat the disparity of Blacks in tech fields and bring together Black entrepreneurs from all over the country to network, strategize, and increase visibility.

GETTING TECHNICAL An annual summit helps create opportunities for Latinx in tech.

BY DESIRÉE GUERRERO On December 1, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) holds their third annual Latinx Tech Summit in Austin, Texas. The event is the premier professional convention for Latinx-American tech experts, scholars, designers, innovators, and business leaders.

In partnership with Capital Factory and the organization Prospanica Texas, the full day summit (latinxtechsummit.org), brings together the best and brightest in the field of technology, creating a space for like-minded Latinx-American professionals to network.

This year includes unique presentations, like “Pecha Kucha Latinx.” Pecha kucha means “chit-chat” in Japanese—perfectly describing these casual yet fast-paced presentations of 20 slides, with 20 seconds per slide. The challenge is to tell a compelling story or convey an idea very quickly.

Increasing support for Latinx people in tech is critical, since (like Black folks), Latinx are under-represented in tech fields. A 2018 Brookings report found that while Hispanics had gained ground since 2002 (when they represented only 5.5 percent of the workers in computer and mathematical occupations), they remained significantly underrepresented.

Hispanics make up 16.7 percent of all workers in the U.S., but only 6.8 percent of tech workers.

LULAC, founded in 1929, is the oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the

country. Created during an era when LatinxAmericans were denied the most basic civil and human rights despite enormous contributions to American society, LULAC’s mission is to “advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health, and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States.”

Though the longstanding institution hasn’t been without its share of controversy.

Last summer, the election of Dallas attorney and activist Domingo Garcia as LULAC’s new president suggested an attempt by the 90-year-old organization to rebrand itself as more relevant to younger Latinx people. Not to mention, to recover from the blow dealt by the former president Roger Rocha, when he pledged LULAC’s full support to President Donald Trump’s controversial efforts to reduce legal immigration and increase border security—an act Rocha later admitted was “the worst mistake of my life.”

Garcia, the organization’s new leader, says he hopes his commitment to pro-immigrant policies will restore the people’s confidence in LULAC. “We’re at a crucial point in history when Latinos are under attack,” Garcia told Dallas News after his election in July 2018. “People wanted a national voice that would speak for them in a strong and uniting manner.”

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TODAY, OAKLAND IS THRILLING ENOUGH TO BRAG ABOUT ON THE ‘GRAM.

Named for the oak trees on the grassy plain, Oakland, Calif., is more than its foggy mornings and sunny afternoons. Founded in 1873 on the east side of the San Francisco Bay, Oakland boasts a mild, Mediterranean-type climate with warm sunny summers and cool winters. It’s also one of the birthplaces of West coast rap, with both the hyphy scene and ratchet movement taking root there.

A blend of cultures, Oakland is one of the most ethnically diverse major cities in the country. It became home to refugees from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Many African-Americans also made Oakland home during the Great Migration (around World War II), as they gained high-paying jobs in ports and the defense industry. Some of the sickest musicians and performers are either Oakland-born and bred, or lived there for formative periods including Tupac Shakur, Kehlani, Too Short, Zendaya, and actors Daveed Diggs (Blackish), Shemar Moore (S.W.A.T.) and Mahershala Ali (who’s killing it in Green Book right now).

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COURTESY VISIT OAKL AND

BY GERALD GARTH

11/7/18 10:41 AM

COURTESY BET TI ONO/FACEBOOK (GALLERY); TEMESCAL SQUARE (BARBERSHOP); VISIT OAKL AND (ALL OTHERS)

The New Oakland (clockwise from top left): Murals are a sign of the city’s vibrant street art scene that includes a Mural Festival; a sign inside the retro cool Temescal Alley Barber Shop; at Betti Ono for the opening of photographer Kierra Johnson’s SIGNIFY; Oakland’s First Fridays performer. Opposite page: Local Johnny 5 kicks it at First Fridays.

Only 12 minutes from San Francisco on the east side of the nearly 8-mile-long Bay Bridge, Oakland has a unique energy and appeal. The city is home to many attractions, such as Jack London Square, which has a statue of the Call of the Wild writer, who frequented the area. Nearby, Old Oakland features restored Victorian architecture and not-so-bougie boutiques. Close to Chinatown, the Oakland Museum of California (museumca.org) covers state history, nature, and art. Travel uptown and you’ll see the art deco Fox and Paramount theaters, restaurants, bars, and galleries.

The Black arts scene has always been major in Oakland, too, including both homegrown talent and national and international performers who appear in venues around town. The city is full of amazing art exhibits and hybrid galleries that double as retail popups, barbershops, or bars like Betti Ono (bettiono.com).

Located in the Black Arts Movement and Business District, Betti Ono is an

experimentally-minded space for art, culture, and community. Dedicated to amplifying the work and voices of underrepresented artists, this gallery values art-making as a form and function of activism, self-determination, community transformation, and cultural resilience.

Even the streets of Oakland, with colorful graffitti and gorgeous murals, reflect the city’s diversity and wealth of local talent, creativity, and innovation.

Oakland’s First Fridays, an immersive art and culture experience where street performers meet DJs, dancers, and chefs, gives a home to underrepresented artists from around the city.

The city offers a cutting-edge art and music scene, hip international dining experiences, and world-class sports teams. And, if there’s one thing to know about O-Town, it’s that they love their sports teams.

Sports lovers, take the Oracle Arena Public Tour (oraclearena.com/tours).

Fans can discover the home of Golden

State Warriors legends Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and other athletic stars. Walk the same path as the players take to enter the court on game day, take a photo outside the Warriors locker room, and a peek inside the visitor’s locker room. Or, for even more of an experience, view the arena from a lavish theater box and get inside a luxury suite.

Another must for sport enthusiasts is the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Public Tour (coliseum.com) through the home of two pro sports teams—Oakland Raiders and the Oakland Athletics. Fans can explore the stadium and walk in the footsteps of sports greats on the field, in the Raiders’ locker room, or to A’s dugout.

But no trip to Oakland is complete without tasting a little local flavor. Like everything else in the city, the wine scene is a little different than in other towns.

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Bring on the 510

Home of the A’s and West Coast rap, Oakland is a popping hub for sports, music, and cuisine.

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CLAREMONT CLUB & SPA A California landmark and icon nestled in the Oakland Hills, the newly restored urban resort offers breathtaking views, unmatched culinary experiences, and luxury galore. With amenities like eucalyptus steam rooms, saline whirlpools, and a , s are-foot tness center, Claremont is a must for business and leisure travelers alike. (fairmont.com/claremont-berkeley) ROSENBLUM CELLARS It started in a warehouse near the docks but today visitors to San Francisco often take the ferry ride across the Bay just to do a tasting at Rosenblum Cellars. The urban winery boasts a tasting room in Oakland’s Jack London Square and a wide variety of Californiasourced zinfandels. (rosenblumcellars.com) TEMESCAL ALLEYS Two delightful pedestrian alleys in North Oakland offer a curated selection of locally owned and operated artisan shops, barbershops, and cafes. The charming Temescal Alleys play host to numerous events and artisanal, hand-crafted ice creams, apparel, and jewelry. (temescalalleys.com) YOSHI’S Named after founder Yoshie Akiba, the sushi bar and restaurant has built itself into one of the world’s most respected jazz venues. With a reputation as the Bay Area’s premier location for great Japanese food and live jazz, Yoshi’s marries state-of-the-art sound, cuisine, and talent. In December, you can catch R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné! and in January, famed Cuban pianist Chuchito Valdés. (yoshis.com) —GG

FAIRMONT HOTELS AND RESORTS (CL AREMONT); COURTESY YOSHI’S (YOSHI’S) COURTESY VISIT OAKL AND (MURAL); COURTESY TEMESCALSQUARE (TEMESCAL); COURTESY ROSENBLUM (ROSENMBLUM)

close to California’s wine country doesn’t hurt either as grapes are sourced from all over the state. Head out on Oakland’s Urban Wine Trail, stopping along the way to shop, eat, and explore all that the city has to offer. Most of the trail is walkable, and easily accessible by the ferry, BART (the Bay’s rail and subway system), the free Broadway shuttle, and Amtrak.

On the Oakland Ale Trail, learn about the many local breweries and other craft beer destinations. Rooted in the spirit of the city’s earliest manufacturers, the new breed of artisanal brewers is developing unusual flavor and style combinations. Explore the 12 tasting rooms of the city’s breweries, all offering a unique drinking experience.

But with great drinks comes great food, and Oakland has a flavor for all tastes. For relaxed street fare, stop by Bakesale Betty (bakesalebetty.com). With its rustic outdoor seating on the tree-lined avenue, this gem offers the best fried chicken sandwiches packed with homemade spicy coleslaw, and tasty baked goods. Hurry over before they sell out for the day.

If it’s a sports bar scene you’re looking for, hit up Mad Oak Bar ‘n’ Yard (madoakbar.com). With its cool outdoor patio and rooftop deck, the neighborhood tavern offers 40 beers on draft as well as a full bar with a rotating pop-up kitchen with food for every mood. Similarly, the hot spot plays music from rock and hip-hop, to country and reggae. No matter what you’re feeling, Mad Oak makes it happen.

For an authentic Oakland experience, stop in to Chop Bar (oaklandchopbar.com). According to its website, “A chop bar, in West African parlance, is a roadside bar/restaurant that also serves as a gathering place for the community.” This one offers a wide range of menu options, including a half-dozen Northern California wines by the glass and carafe that are bought by the keg from the wineries and served through a tap system that keeps them fresh and affordable. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, brunch and everything in between, you’ll always find something at Chop Bar. And when it’s time to recharge, do it in one of Oakland’s beautiful hotels. The Waterfront Hotel, minutes away from all the happenings of the city, creates an experience with modern nautical charm, cozy fireplaces, and bayside balcony views. From sun up to sundown, the Waterfront is itself a destination.

From sports to arts to dining and more, the city of Oakland is thriving and a buzz with creativity and innovation. If you want to get up, get up with Oaktown.

DRAKE’S DEALERSHIP The young ones may be happy to just down a 40, but we suggest you try Drake’s Brewery. Opened in 1989, Drake’s has earned an excellent rep and a rabid fan base for their West Coast style ales and popular beer garden. The downtown Oakland spot offers some excellent food, too, combining locally-sourced, farm fresh, and seasonal ingredients (drinkdrakes.com).

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TR AVEL

MOVES ON A AT N These seven killer destinations will help yo get yo r six-pack back.

BY CHILL EDITORS

THOMAS FROSCHAUER/INSTAGRAM (THIAL AND); COURTESY TULUM JUNGLE GYM (TULUM ); COURTESY WILDFITNESS (ZANZIBAR); @FABOCIRK/INSTAGRAM (EXTREME HOTEL); @MIKEPERLONGO/INSTAGRAM (DAY BREAKER); CL AY TON LEMAN/INSTAGRAM (BLOOMINGTON); COURTESY HOTEL DEL CORONADO (MERMAIDS)

Sometimes a dude has to skip town for some ‘laxing, but that doesn’t mean he has to lose his fitness game in the process. Sure you can chill in the sun or hit up local bars, but let travel be your best excuse to up your fitness game. The experts at TravelPirates.com (a free travel search website and app with the largest travel community on Facebook with 10 million likes), offered up tips on where to stay active while exploring the world on a budget.

FIGHTER’S STREET Soi Taied in Phuket, Thailand Maybe you’ve heard of this Thai island before, but did you know Phuket is a wellestablished tness destination rom England to Brazil, guys around the globe have traveled to Soi Taied to start their own gyms and to worko t where some of the most world-renowned athletes come to train. oi Taied aka ighters treet is to mixed martial arts what odeo ri e is to shoppers. xperience A training and ay Thai, and then practice yo r new skills in a ght or two with other tra elers. f yo want something a little easier, don’t freak. The street also offers cross training, yoga, and a ton of tattoo spots. There s a little bit of something for e eryone. Also, check o t Tony s esta rant Tony esta rant h ket.com for cheap and clean eats that help yo co nt calories as yo try to slim down.

Many training spots have their own accommodations, so nd yo r gym rst. tigerm aythai.com accommodations

A REAL LIFE FLINTSTONES GYM Tulum Jungle Gym in Tulum, Mexico o back in time to at rday morning cartoons with this Flintstones-inspired gym in exico s i iera aya region.

Ninety percent of the worko t gear is made o t of wood and stone think tree st mps for box mps, stone d mbbells, lifting rocks from a wooden p lley, and a wooden ngle gym. No need for dress code here all of yo r hea y lifting and s atting is done right on the beach. hoose from classes like booty boot camp, beach body boot camp, and the e er-pop lar ngle gym circ it. tay a few days to snorkel, eat, and look at scantily clad bodies in the s n and yo e got a nice little getaway. t l m nglegym.com LOG LIFTING AND SAND DUNE RUNNING Wildfitness Zanzibar in Zanzibar, Tanzania Think the To gh dder is hard Head to an ibar, Tan ania to get in to ch with nat re and get in shape on a whole other le el. ith their ild tness package, yo ll get toned arms and abs lifting logs and legs yo can show off next s mmer by mastering sand d ne r nning. The theory behind ild tness is that thro gh eating wild food, li ing wild, and mo ing like a wild animal, yo ll de elop a more mindf l approach to healthy li ing. The program also gi es yo tips on mo ement and n trition to take with yo when yo head back home. wild tness.com CIRCUS SKILLS eXtreme Hotel in the Dominican Republic emember the performers from ingling ros. irc s Try o t yo r fa orite ro tines from back then to ha e the greatest snapback of yo r life. rom flying on a trape e, ggling, to dropping on the silks, yo ll be well- ersed in circ s acts by the time yo fly back home. f yo want to p the ante, yo can e en pair these classes with yoga sessions. ackages incl de nlimited circ s classes, yoga, an organic breakfast and dinner at their farm-to-table resta rant, and se en nights at the ecofriendly beachfront hotel. o can also take to rs of the island ia horseback and do some kites r ng while yo re at it. extremehotels.com DAYBREAKER Dance Party and Yoga in the U.S., Europe, and Japan nstead of hitting the gym rst thing in the morning, try this on for si e one ho r of hot yoga, followed by two ho rs of dance ibes sans alcohol, all before yo head to work. ill p on cold brew coffee, healthy ices, free breakfast bites, and eedlip drinks distilled non-alcoholic spirits . ake h ndreds of new best friends at this daytime ra e, e en before yo r act al day begins. aybreaker is in ma or cities all o er the . . and rope, incl ding A stin, os Angeles, New ork ity, . ., aris, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. t s also feat red on college camp ses, and enco rages sobriety amongst its attendees. daybreaker.com ROCK CLIMBING Climb a 65-Foot Former Grain Silo in Bloomington, Ill. Take yo r rock climbing skills to the next le el by tackling a foot old grain silo at pper imits loomington ym. The silo is right next to a set of train tracks, so yo get a really ind strial feel completely different from the padding yo see at yo r local rock climbing gym. pper imits also feat res an o tdoor bo lder and a -foot o tdoor wall, both of which yo can also scale. pperlimits.com bloomington MERMAID FITNESS Not Your Grandmother’s Water Aerobics Class in Coronado, Calif. ardio, strength training, and core combine for this increasingly pop lar water worko t. ed by an instr ctor, yo ll don a mermaid tail and perform a ariety of exercises, ranging from dolphin kicks to cr nches. e prepared to work all of yo r m scles, witho t e en breaking a sweat. Then stay the weekend at the seaside Hotel del oronado near an iego, alif. so yo can rest p and pamper yo rself. hoteldel.com DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 CHILL

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FEAR OF THE BLACK BODY

BY GAR MCVEY-RUSSELL

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IN 1959, MILES Davis dropped Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album of all time. That same year, he continued to suffer racist abuse. During a gig at a New York City nightclub, Davis stepped outside for a smoke and to escort a friend to a taxi. A police officer reportedly came up and told the musician to “move along.” Davis explained that he was simply taking a break. The officer clearly didn’t recognize the young jazz master—or didn’t care. He jabbed Davis in the stomach with his baton.

Other police joined in to beat Davis before they finally arrested him. Some speculate that Davis caught the officer’s attention because the friend he was escorting to the taxi was a white woman.

Only four years earlier, Emmett Till had paid the ultimate price when a white woman claimed the 14 yearold whistled at her. Last year, that same woman finally admitted to lying about the incident.

Many whites on all sides of the political spectrum want to confine such ugly, blatant racism to the past, or to a world they believe no longer exists. Some have even tried to replace #BlackLivesMatters with #AllLivesMatters, calling the former exclusionary. After all, Jim Crow no longer exists, right? Wrong.

We may have erased the laws, but clearly not the attitudes behind them. White America still maintains

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CODE SWITCH

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an outsized fear of Blacks in general, and of Black men in particular. James Baldwin’s call for white people to engage in soul searching about their attitudes towards Black folks (right)—which gained new relevance in 2016 when the statement was included in Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro about the late Black gay writer, poet, and social critic—has yet to happen in any universal way.

If anything, over the past several years a portion of American society has doubled down on their animosity toward Blacks. In this digital age, Jim Crow has morphed into hashtags. #BBQBecky and #PermitPatty are colorful names that mock racist pedants, but the actions they describe represent an escalation of white people empowered to use the police as a weapon against Blacks when Blacks “step out of line.” (Or simply appear in public spaces that certain whites, emboldened by Trump, now claim exclusive dominion over.)

Harsher examples include a woman in liberal Santa Monica, Calif., who called the police because she saw a “large black man” breaking into a neighbor’s house. It turned out to be famous actor Ving Rhames accessing his own home. More tragically, in Dallas, an offduty police officer walked into Botham Shem Jean’s home and shot him dead, allegedly mistaking his apartment for her own and his “large silhouette” for an intruder. Jean was reportedly watching football in his living room.

I call this the era of #LivingWhileBlack, where our mere existence can get us into trouble. We can’t hang in Starbucks. We can’t

What white people have to do is try to find out in their hearts why it was necessary for them to have a n***er in the first place.

Because I am not a n***er.

I’m a man.

—JAMES BALDWIN barbecue in a public park. We can’t sell bottled water. We can’t take naps in dorm common rooms. We can’t exist peacefully in our own homes. In spaces public and private, Black lives are highly regulated. Jim Crow now has superpowers. And the justifications for this treatment remain the same: “large Black man.” The myth of the Big Scary Black Man lives on. Of course, at this point Black women and even children are too often viewed as threats as well, proving just how overblown this fear of Black people is.

How did we get here? American society failed. It allowed its racist id to take over. We elected and reelected a Black man president.

For eight years, a Black family lived in the White House. And some people lost their shit.

They saw Barack Obama—young, handsome, intelligent, highly educated—as the ultimate Big Scary Black Man, an existential threat. For non-college educated, blue collar white men in particular, he represented everything they were

not and exposed their fears that people of color are ascendant (“taking over America”).

To counter that threat, far too many white people in the country happily voted for Donald J. Trump, a man who has done his utmost to delegitimize President Obama by questioning everything about him—from his degrees to his citizenship. Not viewing Blacks as Americans is an old saw, while putting “America first” is all about keeping white men in power. “Make America Great Again” simply harkens back to a time when Black disenfranchisement was a given. Unleashing Trump has uncorked a torrent of hate speech, actions, and crimes against Black and brown people, women, Muslims, and the LGBTQ community. Outsized fear of Blacks helped to bring an unstable bigot to the pinnacle of power. That’s failure.

Fifty years after Baldwin’s statement, his words continue to ring true. Too many white people still need a “n***er.” Few realize it. Fewer acknowledge it. And fewer still challenge it. Too many, on the left and the right, blame the attacks against Black people on Black people. That’s how racism works.

Black people aren’t perfect, but we shouldn’t have to be perfect to receive respect and due process under the law. Or to simply be allowed to be in public spheres without fearing attack or arrest.

As my mother once exclaimed while talking about some racial inequity of the day, “We must have the right to be human beings!” Outsized fear continues to deprive us of that right.

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COLD READING

Why go outside on frigid days and early nights? Instead, curl up with a good book.

These thought-provokers and inspirational works will get your brain sparking just in time for winter.

Those Who Give a Damn: A Manual for Making a Difference by Duvalier J. Malone is part autobiography and part primer for activists.

The Black gay author, political columnist, motivational speaker, community activist, and of global cons lting rm alier Malone Enterprises, had humble beginnings in Harriston, Miss., where his father’s mental health issues led to the family’s abandonment. Young Malone struggled, but found inspiration in radio broadcasts by Charles Evers. A seminal moment occurred when the teen won an essay contest on making positive change and earned a trip to the nation’s capital. Give a Damn provides tools and examples to help others rise above oppression and obstacles to reach their goals and make a difference for all of us. (CreateSpace)

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison follows a young Chicano living in Washington State trying to realize the American dream. Mike Munoz, an aspiring landscape artist, is just a few years out of high school when he loses his job as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew. The novel is a hilarious, honest, and uplifting story of a young man seeking to discover himself and rise above the crazy characters and situations that populate his life. Evison has penned a funny and sharp commentary on the distinctions between racial and socioeconomic classes, two serious subjects that become grand entertainment in his capable hands. (Algonquin)—DP

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by the famed comedian and blogger Samantha Irby is a smart, edgy, hilarious, and unabashedly raunchy collection of essays on everyday hassles like growing older, being single, or having a new job that screws up your television viewing schedule.

She writes about the tragicomedy of combining a romantic vacation with a pilgrimage to Nashville to scatter the ashes of her estranged father. By drawing on real experiences through her own self-effacing humor, Irby turns her darkly comedic essays into an art form. She also reveals how the right attitude can make growth and adulthood as laughable as it is frustrating and infuriating. (Vintage Books)—DP

Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity by Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a collection of scenes depicting fugitive Black women and girls str ggling to nd freedom from gendered racism and violence. Inspired by Hortense Spillers, this is a poetic work that offers an alternative approach to Black feminist literary criticism, the study of historical writings, and digesting the works of leading Black feminist thinkers. This unusual approach will alter your perceptions of poetry and reveal how words can change, inform, and inspire. Spill opens new portals of possibility for art as activism. (Duke University Press)—DP

Murder in The News: An Inside Look at How Television Covers Crime by Robert H. Jordan, Jr. examines the news industry’s “if it bleeds, it leads” approach and how media outlets decide where to send their limited resources. Why does one story become breaking news while others are ignored? How is social media reshaping news reporting? Jordan provides answers and shares some of the more gruesome cases he personally covered, including the infamous serial killers Richard Speck, Jeffery Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy. (Promethus Books)–DP

Ali on Ali by legendary boxer Muhammad Ali’s daughter Hana Ali sets out to explain her father’s life philosophy through some of his most memorable statements. For example, speaking about Vietnam, he once said, “My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud… They never called me n***er, they never lynched me… they didn’t rob me of my nationality, [or] rape and kill my mother and father.” Illustrated by 80 photos of “the Greatest” and peppered with quotes about Ali from celebs like Maya Angelou and Barack Obama, it’s an inspirational addition to Ali cannon. (Workman)

—DONALD PADGETT

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ENTERTAINMENT

Stage and screen actor John Leguizamo (left) won a Tony Award for his body of work as a playwright and performer. His latest one-man show, Latin History For Morons, can now be streamed on Netflix.

LATIN HISTORY FOR MORONS

JOHN LEGUIZAMO returns to the stage to school us on Latin history in his new Netflix special.

Legendary Latino star of stage and screen John Leguizamo gets to educate a new bunch of idiots now that his Tony Award-nominated one-man show is on Netflix. In Latin History for Morons—which saw sold-out runs at the prestigious Public Theater in New York City and at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, Calif.—the unconventional performer attempts to teach his son about the many great (but unsung) Latinx historical figures in what he calls “the age of Pitbull.”

Many know Leguizamo from his unique and versatile film roles—like Latina drag queen Chi-Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, or

physically disabled French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge—but his electric one-man stage shows are how this incredible talent got his start.

Frustrated by the roles offered to him in Hollywood, which often involved playing Latino thugs or drug dealers, Leguizamo turned to the stage early in his career, where he blasted stereotypes through a myriad of male and female Latinx characters—all played by him. While early efforts like Mambo Mouth and Spic-o-Rama garnered Leguizamo attention (and led to TV specials), it was the groundbreaking, gut-wrenchingly honest autobiographical Freak in 1998 that set his career on fire. In 2018, Leguizamo received a special Tony Award for his body of work as a playwright and solo artist.

Now he’s back where he seems most at home: the stage, specifically the one at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, N.J., where HBO filmed another of Leguizamo’s one man-shows, Ghetto Klown, in 2011. Here, Leguizamo films the Netflix special, Latin History for Morons, in which he asks, “But yo, what happened in the 3,000 years between our great indigenous civilizations—and us. How did we become so God damned nonexistent? [Because] if you don’t see yourself represented outside of yourself, you feel fucking invisible.”

From ancient Mayans to Montezuma to Menudo, Leguizamo entertainingly attempts to cover it all—channeling real-life heroes like Frida Kahlo and Poncho Villa and lesser known Latinx cowboys, Civil War fighters, and Hollywood actors. In the process, he also uncovers unexpected and provocative truths around the relationship between the Latin and Western worlds. But as he unveils the parade of injustices that the Latinx people have endured under brutal rulers stretching through time from the Incans to Trump, some viewers may wish Leguizamo wasn’t always so quick with a joke. We’d like to see Latin History’s caring dad show a little (justifiable) frustration, too.

—DESIRÉE GUERRERO

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FOOD

FAMILY TREE

A culinary historian uncovers the racially-tinged history of Southern cuisine in a telling memoir.

BY DAVID ARTAVIA

food, history, and activism led Michael W. Twitty, a self-taught culinary historian—and Howard University dropout— on a quest to discover the complex backstory of Southern cuisine.

In his award-winning book, The Cooking Gene (HarperCollins), Twitty examines traditional favorites like barbecue, soul food, and fried chicken to ask a very serious question: Who, exactly, created Southern food?

Twitty planted a seed to the answer when he famously called out disgraced celebrity chef Paula Deen in an open letter, amid the controversy over the Food Network star using the N-word behind closed doors. In the letter, which went viral after he posted it on his site Afroculinaria.com, Twitty schooled Deen by tracing the cuisine she became known for back to its African roots.

Large, gay, Black, and Jewish—“four time blessed” as he told The Washington Post—Twitty continues to share his knowledge by traveling to numerous plantations across America to do cooking demonstrations and lecture about the surprisingly emotional and racist impact Southern food has had on American culture. Part memoir, part private investigation, and part history, The Cooking Gene travels hundreds of years through the South while tracing Twitty’s own genealogy back to the African nation of Ghana.

In the book, Twitty writes that he once “hated soul food and I didn’t really like being Black.” As a teen, an uncle took him on a pilgrimage to Alabama, where he learned that Richard Henry Bellamy, a white captain in the army of the Confederate States of America, was his presumed great-great-great-grandfather. Numerous African-Americans today can say they are also descended from white slave owners, whether conceived through violent rape or secret affairs.

“I don’t know how to feel about William,” Twitty admits in the book. “Forty-six enslaved black people building, cooking, milking, digging, picking, gardening, raising his livestock, and waiting on his family hand and foot made [his success] possible.”

While readers travel with Twitty on a journey through his bloodline, the book is truly a historical account (peppered with recipes) about the healing power of Southern food. The writer goes a step further by sifting through stories, ancient recipes, historical documents, even Southern synagogues, to discover that the cuisine has always brought people together—even, at times, the enslaved and their oppressors. As Twitty documents, food has always been a balm that’s healed the broken and comforted the weary in America.

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DEAR HIV, ’ WE DIDN T GIVE UP. XOXO, SCIENCE There is no cure, but science is still in the battle against HIV. Today’s HIV treatments may help you get to undetectable. That means the amount of virus is so low it can’t be measured in lab tests. Ask your healthcare provider about HIV and treatment options.

Learn about an HIV-1 treatment option at

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XOXOSCIENCE.COM, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. © 2018 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. UNBC5531 05/18

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