During its 18-year history, Heart & Soul magazine has been dedicated to helping African American women stay fit physically and mentally but now with its recent acquisition by Brown Curry Detry Taylor & Associates, LLC, the publication is expanding its focus to include all women of color.

“When you look at the statistics and see the significant health disparities that exist between Caucasian women and women of color, you look for ways to close those health gaps,” President Clarence I. Brown says. “Women of color are disproportionately affected by a number of diseases and health conditions and many of those problems can be avoided or minimized through optimizing nutrition and regular physical activity. Heart & Soul will provide readers valuable information, expert advice and relevant resources that will help reduce the disparities and improve the lives of all women of color.”

The publication’s future appears to be in good hands. All of the principles of BCDT are media and marketing veterans with past ties to Heart & Soul.  Brown was responsible for daily management of the magazine when it was owned by BET; George E. Curry was editor of Emerge when Heart & Soul was part of the BET magazine group; and Patrick H. Detry and Pamela E. Taylor provided consulting services to Edwin Avent, the former owner.

Heart & Soul will be the only national publication that targets multicultural women ages 21 to 55 in the health, fitness, and wellness category which will give it a leg up on competition as women of color increasingly make up more of the U.S. population.

“We are excited about our acquisition of this important brand and readers will quickly notice a revamped, first-rate print edition and more engaging digital version of Heart & Soul,” says Brown. “We will focus on repositioning the brand back to fitness, health and wellness, and broadening the content, the audience, and the advertisers.”

Do you read Heart & Soul? What do you think about the magazine focusing on women of color in general rather than just African American women?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Ebony magazine has put together an interesting mix for it’s hot couples of 2012 feature. On one end you have political commentator Roland Martin and Jacquie Hood Martin, “The View” co-star Sheri Shepherd and her new hubby Lamar Sally, and singer Eric Benet and his wife Manuela Testolini, while on the other u have you have T.I. and Tiny, Keyshia Cole and NBA baller Daniel “Boobie” Gibson, and notorious “Basketball Wife” Evelyn Lozada and Ochocinco.

The six couples have a cute spread in the February issue where they share what attracted them to one another and how they make their relationships work. When the magazine asked Keyshia why she decided to give Daniel a chance, she said:

“I was kind of through with relationships. I didn’t feel like guys were mature enough. What made me gravitate toward Gib was his faith in God, more than anything. He seemed like a loving person. He talked a lot about his grandmother, who had passed away, and the things she instilled in him.”

What does Daniel love about Keyshia?

“She has morals and a big heart. Once we met things happened fast. I felt like she was perfect for me. I proposed to her on New Year’s Eve, right when the ball dropped. I got down on one knee at the same time.”

Chad and Evelyn also talk about what makes their relationship work (sorta). Evelyn said:

“You must be open. That’s something I had never done before. I didn’t want anyone telling him something about me. He doesn’t judge me on my past or anything.”

And what attracted Chad to Evelyn from the beginning?

“She was up-front and honest. I never had that before. I always [say to] people in early conversations, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ They always skip a story and try to come off squeaky clean. They tell me what they think I want to hear. She didn’t send her representative. She told me what she went through. She gave me A,B,C. She said, ‘Take it or leave it.’”

Check out pics of Keyshia Cole’s photo spread on Jae Ink Speaks.

What do you think about this list? Who do you consider hot couples of 2012?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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This formerly digital book is finally hitting the streets! Fashizblack Magazine will print its first hard copy issue ever. It will hit stands tomorrow, January 12, 2012.

Check out some of the magazines most popular covers at our sister site Styleblazer.com.

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I came to Kardashian hatred late. Actually, I don’t hate the girls, I’m just oversaturated and amazed by the fact that their empire seems to be growing exponentially with the disgust many people claim to have for them.

I remember the moment it hit me. I was in Sephora and two pre-teens came next to the Makeup Forever section where I was standing. One of the girls picked up a shade and said, “this is the one Kim Kardashian wears;” her words were like nails on a chalkboard. I literally wanted to take her in the corner and give her a book or something but then I remembered just because I’d never been the type to search out celebrity makeup trends didn’t mean the girl was in trouble, but I did have to ask myself why do we care about these girls so much?

If you’re wondering who “we” is, I am too. I know that there are young girls like the ones I encountered in Sephora who want to be beautiful like Kim and I know that Ryan Seacrest is going to ride the Kardashian train until every last replacement wheel falls off, but who is this we that makes these women marketable and profitable? Pre-teens and teens only have so much money, who’s paying for this?

As if they didn’t already have their hands in some of everything already, this week, two huge expansions to their reality TV takeover were announced. The first is a magazine that will be all about them, because c’mon, who else really matters? And the second is a deal with Matell to develop a line of Barbies. Now there has already been enough problems with Barbie and her effect on young girl’s self esteem that this should scream “bad idea” but everyone wants a shameless piece of the Kardashian pie. I don’t even want to think about how they’re going to design Kim’s body.

What’s scary is that you can almost imagine the girl’s adapting their lives to extend their “relevancy.” Kim gets a divorce, now we have to know what life’s like after. Kourtney is pregnant again, now we have to know how she handles being a mommy of two. My guess would be the same way 70 million other women do. I was feeling pretty good about the fact that the girls are approaching their mid-30s and Hollywood doesn’t care too much about women past that point, so I figured the reign was almost over. But now with the stepsisters getting older and becoming more front and center I feel like their 15 minutes is getting stretched to a good 30-45.

Just once I wish someone in their camp would speak up and say, “hey let’s try the Beyonce way of doing things.” And then they could disappear, actually do something, and then reemerge with a product, idea, anything that actually makes people respect the hustle.

Part of me feels bad because I don’t exactly know what it is that bothers me so much. I don’t look at Kim and automatically think Ray J sex tape, although occasionally my mind does recall that sordid fact and then I think of Montana Fishburne saying she is her role model, and then I think we’re all screwed. But it’s more so the fact that I look at her and I don’t see anything—anything by way of talent, I mean. Kris seems to be carefully orchestrating these girls’ lives and “careers” if you want to call it that. Every deal they make she seems to be there, which just makes them look like puppets. Yes, Kim’s raking in more money than imaginable off solely being nice to look at, but when it comes down to the bottom line I think it’s hard for a lot of people to respect that. You can say she’s genius for this whole wedding scam but some things like credibility and integrity just don’t have a price.

If these girls want to have their lane and be great at something so be it, but all they’re doing is dibbling their fingers in a whole lot of everything and doing a whole lot of nothing—but slapping their names on it and making us watch. I’ve seen that show before and I think I’m pretty much over it. What about you?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Explaining racism to people who’ve never had to deal with it must be like explaining the birthing process to a man. They’ll just never get it.

Eva Hoeke’s resignation from Jackie magazine following the Rihannagate situation earlier this week appeared to be an admission of wrongdoing on their part—but just to make sure no one would think such a ridiculous thing, the magazine’s publisher, Yves Gijrath,  has issued a statement of his own, saying quite the opposite. According to an interpretation, he said:

[T]here is nothing wrong in the magazine. [Hoeke] presented it as a joke, but it most certainly was not a joke. It was an interpretation [of a fashion style]. [...] She should have said: “we did not realize this interpretation is such a touchy subject. We never meant any harm and offer our sincere and upright apologies.” But because of all the fuss, Eva started to wiggle in all directions, and therefore we have come to the conclusion her credibility has been undermined.”

And while that seems like a step in the right apologetic direction, Gijrath followed the statement up by emphasizing that although the magazine had invited Rihanna to respond, it would not be printing a retraction.”We will not be silenced. People are totally off limits when calling both the magazine Jackie and Eva Hoeke racist. Jackie is even produced by an editorial staff that is of mixed origins.”

Is that sort of like saying, “I have black friends?” Would people be off limits if they called Jackie, Eva Hoeke, and Yves Gijrath ignorant?

I need for Gijrath to recognize that with his words he basically undid the sorry apology that Hoeke issued in the first place by saying it wasn’t her editorial judgment that got her fired, it was her refusal to stand by the magazine’s decision to publish racist and sexist terms. Perhaps he isn’t so concerned with how he’s skewed the image of black women in America by printing this article; and it’s evident he doesn’t care whether or not we feel disrespected by those words, but how have we come to the point that we’re not even deserving of an adequate apology?

In so many instances we hear apologies that we know were forced and don’t hold much weight, but the fact that the publisher doesn’t see fit to issue his own speaks to how unimportant he sees this issue. It’s not enough to say Hoeke should have offered her utmost sincere apologies, where are his?

Anyone with a tenth of a brain knows the history of the N-word, and even if you chose to ignore that for your own racist enjoyment, is it cool to refer to a woman as a B in a female magazine? I guess as long as she’s black, right?

Jackie continues to dig itself into an even deeper hole with this situation and unfortunately there is little we can do here in America as consumers. Hopefully those who receive the Dutch magazine and who initially expressed outrage at its poor word choice will vote with their feet and cancel their subscriptions, and maybe even advertisers will take a second look at how the magazine upheld its “integrity” among this scandal. This entire situation serves as a reminder of how far we still need to go—-not that we really needed one.

What do you think about the publisher’s words?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Well that didn’t take long. Eva Hoeke, editor-in-chief of Jackie, the controversial magazine that’s having a PR nightmare over the racist terms used in an article to describe Rihanna, has resigned. According to Necole Bitchie, the editor and the publisher felt her credibility were compromised by the incident, and in a statement on the publication’s Facebook page, she announced she is laying down her editorial responsibilities. Here’s what the statement says:

I realize that my first reaction on Twitter, where I indicated that it was a joke, was an incomplete description of what I, and also the author of the article referred. The term ‘n—a b—h’ h” has come over from America and we have only this to describe this particular style of clothes that we can try to interpret. Due to the enormous pressure from social media, I promised to do better regarding the language in future issues of Jackie and I have offered to rectify the situation.

I have now come to the conclusion that rectification is not the right solution. I regret that I have taken too quickly positions on an item in Jackie – which incidentally had no underlying racial motive. In the course of events I went with, the publisher came to the conclusion that, now that my credibility is affected, it’s better for all parties if I immediately lay down my duties as editor. After my eight years giving my heart and soul for Jackie, I realize that these errors – although not malicious intent – are a reason for leaving. “

What do you think about the editor resigning? Is it the right thing to do?

In a twitter lashing that only Rihanna is fit to dish out, the pop star nicely laid into Jackie editor-in-chief Eva Hoeke for dismissing the n****b**** term used to describe her as a “stupid joke.” Here’s what she tweeted:

@evajackie I hope u can read english, because your magazine is a poor representation of the evolution of human rights! I find you disrespectful, and rather desperate!! You ran out of legit, civilized information to print! There are 1000′s of Dutch girls who would love to be recognized for their contributions to your country, you could have given them an article. Instead, u paid to print one degrading an entire race! That’s your contribution to this world! To encourage segregation, to mislead the future leaders to act in the past! You put two words together,with the intent of abasement, that made no sense…”N**** B****”?!….

Well with all respect, on behalf of my race, here are my two words for you…F*** YOU!!!

Rihanna is known to check someone quickly on twitter so we all should have seen this one coming. What do you think of her response?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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The words Dutch magazine Jackie used to describe Rihanna in their latest issue make the pop star’s racist altercation in Portugal this weekend almost seem harmless.

In a very crass description of the singer’s image, the author of the article writes:

She has street cred, she has a ghetto a** and she has a golden throat. Rihanna, the good girl gone bad, is the ultimate n****b**** and displays that gladly, and for her that means: what’s on can come off. If that means she’ll be on stage half naked, then so be it. But Dutch winters aren’t like Jamaican ones, so pick a clothing style in which your daughter can resist minus ten. No to the big sunglasses and the pornheels, and yes to the tiger print, pink shizzle and everything that glitters. Now let’s hope she won’t beat anybody up at daycare.

Thankfully, readers were not shy about their disapproval of the article’s racial slur, and their reactions prompted the magazine’s editor-in-chief to issue an apology, writing on Facebook:

Dear readers,

First: thanks for all your responses. We are of course very fed up over this and especially very shocked. However I’m glad that we’re engaging in a dialogue on this page — not everybody does that. Thanks for this. Other than that I can be brief about this: this should have never happened.Period. While the author meant no harm — the title of the article was intended as a joke — it was a bad joke, to say the least. And that slipped through my, the editor-in-chief’s, fingers. Stupid, painful and sucks for all concerned. The author has been addressed on it, and now I can only ensure that these terms will no longer end up in the magazine. Furthermore I hope that you all believe there was absolutely no racist motive behind the choice of words. It was stupid, it was naive to think that this was an acceptable form of slang — you hear it all the time on tv and radio, then your idea of what is normal apparently shifts — but it was especially misguided: there was no malice behind it. We make our magazine with love, energy and enthusiasm, and it can sometimes happen that someone is out of line. And then you can only do one thing: apologize. And hope that others wish to accept it.

From the bottom of my heart I say it again: we never intended to offend anyone. And I mean that.

Regards,

Eva Hoeke

What a convenient slip. Regardless of what you think about Rihanna and her wild-child image, this article is beyond her. It speaks volumes to people’s attitudes about black women and their obliviousness to the inappropriateness of offensive language directed at us. The slang most likely slipped through the editor-in-chief’s fingers because it’s a term she has no problem applying to black women herself.

The article also exemplifies the reason black women police one another’s women’s images so much. Rihanna is not at fault for the racial slurs directed at her, but it’s a reminder of how black women are not allowed to be overly sexual or have a “bad girl” image without being racially and sexually targeted.

What do you think about the magazine publishing these words and backtracking? Do you think the editor-in-chief’s apology is sincere? Do you think this term is specific to Rihanna or perceptions of black women in general?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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In a recent interview with Pride magazine, actress Thandie Newton was quite vocal about her disappointment with not having graced the cover of Vogue magazine, along with many other black women for that matter.

According to The Belfast Telegraph, Thandie told the mag:

“Don’t get me started on black people being on the cover on big magazines. It’s so preposterous. I mean, I’ve been on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar four times; I’ve been on the cover of InStyle four times, but Vogue, not once.

“And people say to me, I mean literally, people have said to me, ‘What have you got against Vogue that you don’t want to be on their cover?’ And I just laugh.

“They [Vogue] don’t feel the need to represent because it doesn’t make any sense to them. It’s just baffling to me, but as usual America will dictate the ways things go and a magazine like Vogue will just follow America,” she said. “But it’s like, don’t you want to trail blaze?”

I hear you Thandie. A writer for Shadow and Act seems to think the “For Colored Girls” star is just throwing a typical celebrity rant, saying, “In my opinion, Newton should be satisfied with all that she’s been able to do so far, because there are many white actresses who haven’t even made the cover of Vogue, let alone a black one,” but I disagree.

Just because she’s been able to accomplish a lot doesn’t mean she should be content with not being able to do more. And if Vogue indeed does have an issue putting black women on their covers and in the pages of their issues, which many have claimed before, they need to be called out.

Should Thandie just be satisfied that she’s covered Harper’s Bazaar and InStyle or is she right about Vogue and their lack of black representation?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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After presenting Nicki Minaj on the cover of the U.S. version of Cosmopolitan magazine yesterday, today we’re showing off our girl Kelly Rowland on the magazine’s UK edition. The singer, who is a judge on the UK version of The X Factor, shows off her smoking body (time for me to get back in the gym), but also gets deep with the magazine about wanting to finally reconnect with her estranged father, Christopher Lovett. Lovett walked out of her life when she was a child and after having drama with her mother, was taken in by the Knowles family. According to the Daily Mail, Rowland’s father made it public that he wanted to get back in touch with her, but of course went the tabloid route. While she wasn’t feeling his methods, she does agree that she would like to have Lovett back in her life as well:

“He reached out to me saying he wanted to see me, but it’s unfortunate he did it so publicly. I want to meet him, and soon, I really do. I forgave him a long time ago. I haven’t seen my dad for almost 20 years. It’s nothing I want a pity party for. He left me and my mum, and I was angry. I wanted to be a daddy’s girl so bad. God damn The Cosby Show because that made me think “Why aren’t my family like that?” But this is not a perfect world.”

“I was too young for marriage. I remember my sister B [Beyonce] asked me one question: she said, ‘Well, you know what you want now, don’t you?’ and I was like ‘Yes’. It was so hard and embarrassing because everyone knew. I’d posed for the front cover of a magazine in my wedding dress and it was on sale! But sometimes you fall down and you learn from it.