The FADER Weekend Reading List
On wigmakers, taking care of plants, and trademarking “Black Girl Magic.”
What To Do When You're Bad At Taking Care Of Plants
Dayna Evans, The Cut
If you are like me and Dayna Evans, then letting plants die is one of your fortes. "I’ve been on the lam for the past ten years, a fugitive from plant justice, fleeing crime scenes that have amounted to at least 20 murders, maybe more," she wrote. So after her boyfriend gifted her some succulents, she decided to give it another try. This is her story.
The Fire Last Time
Mark Binelli, New Republic
In 1970s Detroit, the city's police force was supposed to be cleaning up the city. Instead, they harassed and murdered black men and women on its streets. A harrowing, not too unfamiliar history.
How To Get Your Music Posted On Websites
Naomi Zeichner and Rahim Wright, The FADER
An extremely useful step-by-step guide to how to pitch music to publications, in the effort of transparency, and "so that everyone involved might better understand why premieres exist, who they benefit, and what some paths to success look like."
Last Of New York’s Master Wigmakers
Annie Correal, The New York Times
The retirement of OG wigmaker Nicholas Piazza "may appear to be yet another case of an antiquated craft disappearing from New York, one artisan at a time. But wigs are far from being swept into the past," wrote Correal in this piece on N.Y.C.'s wig frenzy. "The demand, it turns out, hasn’t been as high as it is now since the wig craze of the late 1960s and early ’70s, when Mr. Piazza and his fellow wigmakers entered the field. Wigs are part of the boom in the human hair trade that began with extensions."
On Charlie Murphy, The Sidekick Who Became A Star
Rembert Browne, The FADER
An enduring fixture on Chappelle’s Show, veteran film and TV actor Charlie Murphy was as real as they came. RIP Charlie Murphy.
Who Gets To Own Black Girl Magic?
Clover Hope, Jezebel
Capitalizing on POC culture is a familiar narrative, so it's not exactly shocking that folks are trying to own "Black Girl Magic." Clover Hope explains: "What’s happening between Essence and Bond is a standard dispute. What elevates it beyond that is the significant, collective use of 'Black Girl Magic' over the past two years. And what complicates it is that a woman who claims to be the originator of the 'Black Girl Magic' social media campaign feels excluded from the conversation while others capitalize on the movement."