Malcolm X

One Night in Miami

Colorblind and I'm Not Rappaport, Two Plays Dealing With Race Relations

In Mayor's Race, Jan Perry Vows to Speak Truth To Union Power

Now that the election is over, it's finally time to focus on the race for L.A. mayor. What? Too soon? Well, tell that to Councilwoman Jan Perry, who kicked off her campaign with a speech in which she vowed to speak truth to the powerful public employee unions at City Hall."The truth is that we ... More >>

10 Questions for W. Kamau Bell, Star of His New Show Totally Biased on FX, Exec Produced by Chris Rock

Taking Physics Class 
with Professor GZA

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] See also: Our review of Wu-Tang Clan's January 21, 2012 show at Club Nokia The Wu-Tang Clan once said if we picked up their double album, Wu-Tang Foreve ... More >>

Fela! at the Ahmanson Reviewed

The life of a Nigerian Afrobeat legend

Up From the Streets: A Scene From Occupy L.A.

Luigi VenturaDito Montiel and Aqeela Sherrills at Occupy L.A.​Woodrow Coleman came all the way from Long Beach to see the Arab Spring bloom in downtown L.A. The African-American septuagenarian with deep-set brown eyes and a woolly white tangle of beard sports a well-worn baseball cap that sug ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: A Time Change and Curtis Mayfield

​KCRW BROADCAST #131 for Saturday, September 10 Fanatics! I'm writing to you from Port Au Prince, Haiti. I have been here for about a week now and tomorrow will be flying back to Los Angeles, getting a few hours of sleep, and then coming into the studio at our new time of 8 pm to do the show ... More >>

Oran Z's Black Facts and Wax Museum: A Brutally-Honest African-American History Collection in Baldwin Hills

Christopher J. LynchWax figures of Barack and Michelle Obama​ Oran Z began his quest for a wax head of Barack Obama even before the president took office. The creator and proprietor of the Pan African Black Facts and Wax Museum in South Los Angeles met resistance from his supplier, who wanted ... More >>

The Madlib Mystique

An exclusive interview with underground hip-hop's most elusive producer

Rage Against the Machine DVD To be Released

Rage Against the Machine DVD To be Released

Last Night: Presidential Comic Book Debate Drink at Golden Apple

LAFF 2008: Hell to the Yeah

I guess LAFF doesn’t want me to talk about how the premieres go, since my tickets for them have ended up being in overflow houses far away from the actual red carpet and celebrities, so if you want to know what Guillermo del Toro may or may not have said to introduce HELLBOY II, I can’t help ... More >>

LAFF Honors Recently Deceased Moviemaking Greats

Gone but not forgotten

MBW and MLK Get Greywashed

It's a fact of life for street artists that their work is going to get covered up, torn down, painted over, or if you're Man One, billed for tens of thousands of dollars by Gloria Molina to be sandlbasted off walls. Your adversaries may be fellow painters, the weather, construction workers, or mun ... More >>

Roger Guenveur Smith

The improvised gesture

Anarchy in the U.K.

The Wachowskis prosecute their Vendetta

Fugee-L.A.

Fugees at Hollywood & Vine, February 6, Kanye West at Avalon, February 6

The Trials of Mandla Dube

During a mysterious psychotic episode, a South African filmmaker threatened to kill his children. Did our justice system protect his family over the next year — or simply destroy it?

Free James Frey!

In defense of the post-truth memoir

Taiko en Español

Maceo Hernandez, demon drummer of East L.A.

Lessons From the Ruins

Time to look within the community for solutions to our problems

Yellow Peril

When hate is more than skin deep

Act Two

Minus Ossie, Ruby Dee Picks Up the Pace

Truth, Reconciliation — and Lots of Speeches

John Boorman’s In My Country

Breathing While Black

Confessions of a 'post-Negro'

Shovin’ It

Democrats, Hardballers and Class Warriors

Sexy Beasts

Larry Clark, John Waters and Bruce Hainley on their big, big . . . books

Jan Gable: Power Source

E. Raymond Brown, Ghetto Fabulist

First-time author and South Los Angeles native

Crenshaw by Any Other Name

Death of a Bondsman

Remembering Celes King

Free Radical

Country maverick Steve Earle vs. the Nashville machine

Before the Fall

Showtime in Gotham

Reach for the Sun

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, April 27-28

Protest: Rat Trap

TRIBES: Kittens and Puppies and Birds, Oh My

12 Art Moments

When He Was King

Michael Mann’s Ali; plus, Gosford Park and Kate & Leopold

Peace of Me

The Last Astronauts

The return of the Butthole Surfers

Revolutionary Acts

Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck

The King of Compton

Mayor Omar Bradley and his reign of chaos

Hard Knocks

Downset’s American prayer

Burning Man

Getting in Touch with One's Inner Churl

Writing Will Set You Free

A black man in Dachau

Renaissance Man

Spike Lee, an American artist

The Big Sleep

Eulogies for heads of state and underground artists, pop icons and ’60s revolutionaries

Style Counsel

The way we wore

Heavy Duty

A new black theater arrives in Inglewood