C. Shardae Jobson

If you’re not already an ardent beauty lover you may not realize it, but fragrance is having a moment, with 2021’s first quarter marked by a 45% increase in sales. As it happens, so are Black consumers who, according to a September 2021 Forbes report, “represent $151 million [spent on women’s fragrances, out] of a $679 million industry.” Black perfumers are also making waves in the fragrance space — despite the number of them remaining disappointingly low compared to the rest of the predomina...

You don't watch "Murder, Mystery, and Makeup" for the looks that Bailey Sarian creates. That's not to say they're not fierce, because they are. Whether it's a silver, glittery cut crease or expertly winged eye shadow, her viewers do love to see her go from no makeup to full glam in every episode of the series. But what they're really tuning in for are the aberrant, heartbreaking, and morbid stories of true crime and urban legends as relayed by Sarian while she applies a full face of glamorous...

With Boston’s major moment extended through July, a longer look at the impact of an iconic exhibition
Last year, Mattel released a beautiful $50 Barbie doll in a bespoke suit covered with his recognizable figures and skulls. His iconic artwork was also on Herschel backpacks, months before the release of a $795 “Empire” bag from Coach. And more affordable ways to wear his art can be found at superstores, where you can get a dinosaur tee for $20. Then there’s Yusaku Maezawa, who in 2017 paid $1...

“Knowing Storage Space was going to happen and be presented in locations not designed for artwork display gives artists and communities our power back and a chance to do intriguing work.”
When most of us think of the word “storage,” we likely imagine some kind of designated area for the items we cherish or at least need from time to time. But for Rudolf Lingens, artist and founder of the secretive Imaginary Collective, there are much more prominent demarcation lines at play.
“Storages are, in...

The inspiration behind Julia Lattimer’s Allston Living Room Read is storied and personal.
Storied, in that it joins the lineage of movements and organizations before it that were created to provide regeneration and a comforting space for communities and culture. Think of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in Manhattan, or Boston’s own Combahee River Collective, whose black feminist and black lesbian members built an alternative to the white feminist movement.
Personal, in that after having read at fell...

The resurgence of vinyl has been a homecoming for those that remember spinning a 45 or 33 ½ record in their day. For today’s youth, the media-labeled “Generation Z,” it’s another realization that even listening to music was a simpler and more thoughtful event.
“The return of vinyl makes sense because things go in cycles. Even if there is a little sna...

Located in the outskirts of Dedham—an Arcadian river, pizza shop, and 7-Eleven are its neighbors—Rob Walsh’s record store, Cheap Thrills Music, is home to a massive collection of tunes that includes everything from 1970s rock and soul, to iconic movie soundtracks of the 1980s, to ’50s and ’60s lounge and garage jam. Their specialty: used analog vinyl.
In racks, bins, and crates and on tall shelves, customers are greeted with the exciting near-certainty that they’ll find some gems to ogle over...

Catching up with Frugal Bookstore ahead of this weekend’s Juneteenth Book Fair
Frugal Bookstore feels like a neighborhood bookstore should. Whether up the ramp and with a choice of either going to the right where the memoirs reside, or to the left to the picture-book section, no matter where your interests or curiosity of text may take you, for such a small space, Frugal is impressively prepared.
Located in Nubian Square, a recognized center of Black culture in Roxbury, there is an emphasis on work by Black a...

Saturday’s Black Calling music festival sent a message to Brookline: the revolution will be televised, humanized, and also next door.

And as that afternoon’s temperature skyrocketed into the 90s, the fest’s white flag, that stated the phrase "WAKE UP!" with a power fist next to it, was also still managing to wave up and down by the occasional breezes that swung by Brookline High School's Cypress Field, where Calling was held.

Organized by the activist group Wake Up Brookline!, the day was a ...

V V Brown’s sophomore album, Lollipops & Politics is still a whole two months away from hitting US shelves, but the UK vocalist is hard at work promoting the record, whose first single, "Children," was released last September. According to Brown, who has performed on Letterman, Ellen, and who, at 5’11," has modeled professionally, says Politics is a stylistic leap from her debut record, Traveling Like the Light. Whereas that effort borrowed from ’60s girl-group sass, the new record is more sy...

Patrick Stump rose to fame as the soulful lead singer of the successful punk rock band Fall Out Boy. But while on an “indefinite hiatus” from the band (rumors of their breakup have been unsubstantiated), Stump went ahead and recorded a solo album called Soul Punk. Apparently, he took the solo part literally, since Stump wrote, performed and produced it all by himself. On the record, Stump bathes his songs in synth, recalling ‘80s new wave, but there are, as the title suggests, elements here o...

There were still a few more hours to go until the May 31 Black Lives Matter march, but over in Brookline Village, Nick Packard, 34, was already demonstrating.
So were Emerson students Maxwell Currie, Dominic "Nick" Chambers-salce and Ian Costello, all 21 years old, who stood in solidarity on Coolidge Corner’s MBTA Green Line platform.
At the time, worldwide protests ⁠— which sought to end racial profiling and to demand justice for Black men, women and children murdered at the hands of police ...

Though her next milestone birthday will arrive in 2021, acclaimed 88-year-old novelist Toni Morrison is receiving many bouquets now thanks to the Timothy Greenfield-Sanders film Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. Alongside Una Great Movie, it also kickstarted the 21st Annual Roxbury International Film Festival (June 19-29) on opening night at the Museum of Fine Arts.
Following those screenings, RoxFilm will host films including Wheels, Power to Heal: Medicare and The Civil Rights Revolution, Sol...

Brookline High School junior Richard Desir got up from his seat and steadily walked to the podium. His stunned reaction was overpowered by the cheerful applause from the audience. He expressed gratitude but was still noticeably locked in a state of surprise.
Moments prior, he had been announced as Brookline’s Youth of the Year by BHS senior and last year’s honoree Sabrina Zhou and awards founder R. Harvey Bravman, during the Ninth Annual Brookline Youth Awards.
It was after the ceremony, held...

Jessica Pressler is an American journalist who currently works as a contributing editor at New York Magazine. Her article “The Hustlers at Scores”, originally published in 2015, is the source material for the new film Hustlers (2019), written for the screen and directed by Lorene Scafaria. The true-crime narrative concerns a small group of former strippers, including and led by Samantha Barbash and Roselyn Keo, who embezzled thousands of dollars from finance professionals in New York City ami...