Danyel Smith
i tell stories 🔆 NYTM. 3X author. creator/host, Black Girl Songbook pod. vintage VIBE + Billboard. film consultant. ESPN. Rock Hall. MacDowell + Yaddo
danyelsmithwriter.com
shinebrighthq.substack.com
- !!!
- this is too much! but going with Etta because we're both from California. also i listen to this probably too much www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY_2...
- QUICKTIME ON THE SKY!!!! @mumzzzthewurd.blacksky.app @catchinzzzs.bsky.social @veryghetto.yaps.fyi @astoldbynai.blacksky.app @slickriqtharuler.bsky.social Nina Simone or Etta James?
- Silk to the Sonic
- impossible. but going with Sly because I am from Oakland
- a tough one but Holland
- Earvin
- Off The Wall
- those subject lines get real thuggish when your credit card expires and you haven't given them the new info yet
- Before Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio makes Super Bowl history, I'm talking halftime shows tonight with Usher, Jermaine Dupri and Maurice Garland on Apple Music 1 🎙️ 1AM PT — stream live free or catch it anytime with a sub music.apple.com/us/station/u...
- Reposted by Danyel SmithThe number of people currently in ICE custody is now over 73,000, the most in history.
- a song.
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- Reposted by Danyel SmithNo masks on cops. No masks on cops. No masks on cops. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
- yes! Oakland girls fo-evah
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- ANTI turns 10 today. Rihanna has been a constant across my thinking, writing, editing, magazine-making, podcasting, and newslettering for years. I was leading VIBE Vixen when we created this issue ('07?) and was fortunate to be in the room for the shoot. We say “what a time” a lot—but truly, it was
- ANTI turns 10 today. Rihanna’s been a constant in my thinking / writing / editing / magazine-making / podcasting for years. the energy is lush, genius, complex, collaborative, eternal open.spotify.com/episode/1CEv...
- ANTI turns 10 today. Rihanna’s been a constant in my thinking / writing / editing / magazine-making for years, and she pops up in my newsletter more than almost anyone shinebrighthq.substack.com/p/rihanna-an...
- ANTI turns 10 today. Rihanna’s been a constant in my thinking / writing / editing / magazine-making for years, and she pops up in my newsletter more than almost anyone shinebrighthq.substack.com/p/rihanna-te....
- i will take decent journalism news wherever i can: www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...
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- happy celestial birthday to Ms. Jean Knight — shinebrighthq.substack.com/p/the-fall-g...
- [🤗 🤩] Taylor Townsend has advanced to the Australian quarterfinals in both women’s and mixed doubles shinebrighthq.substack.com/p/tay-townse...
- Alicia has been giving us grace, talent, and zero apologies since day one. Happy birthday to her. Resurfacing her Black Girl Songbook episode to celebrate open.spotify.com/episode/5FIE...
- From Hell's Kitchen to everywhere — the piano, the braids, the voice that made you feel seen. Happy birthday to Alicia Keys. And in her honor, we're resurfacing her episode of My Black Girl Songbook pod open.spotify.com/episode/5FIE...
- today’s work. it has me thinking — greatness is rarely polite
- i used to like watching joakim noah play.
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- Reposted by Danyel SmithDemonstrators as far as the eye can see. Current status of the march in Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota for Ice Out of Minnesota. They are turning onto 3rd Street from 5th Avenue.
- I’m almost never not thinking about Black women who make music. This edition moves between Sister Sledge, EPMD, and the quiet confidence of cultural survival. New Shine Bright HQ is live substack.com/home/post/p-...
- What does it mean to write your life without armor? Rachel Eliza Griffiths on Black women's friendships, becoming Sir Salman Rushdie's fifth wife, and the stories we finally tell. My piece on her elegant, juicy memoir, The Flower Bearers: 🎁 link www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/b...
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- Back in The New York Times Book Review after a while away. I wrote about The Flower Bearers by Rachel Eliza Griffiths — a book that trusts its own voice, without armor. 🎁 link below for anyone curious www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/b...
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- to be read
- resurfacing because yesterday was Natalia’s birthday shinebrighthq.substack.com/p/kobes-daug...
- this walk is an evolution of the "Crazy in Love" strut, no? anyhoo, happy anniversary to a song I love so much I used it to open the Whitney Houston/Dionne Warwick/Leontyne Price chapter in my Shine Bright: A Very Personal HIstoy of Black Women in Pop
- this celtics game is stressing me out
- hello from coastal Central #California shinebrighthq.substack.com/p/strange-fr...
- currently reading archive.vanityfair.com/article/2006...
- that fresh air today tho. a blessing
- Heat back in LA. Strawberries ripening. Farmworkers in bandanas and ball caps, listening to #PesoPluma and #Pac, keeping everyone fed. Strange fruit doesn’t need a calendar open.substack.com/pub/shinebri...
- half dozen or so years ago
- i detest this kind of mess
- this is a good game — MIN vs HOU
- Resurfacing this on Aaliyah’s birthday: Black Girl Songbook Season 2 opener — her childhood, my VIBE years covering her, and a rare sit-down with legendary choreographer Fatima Robinson. Timeless artist. Timeless podcast episode open.spotify.com/episode/08pu...
- out here newslettering open.substack.com/pub/shinebri...
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- Hell is empty, is what I heard. And all the devils are here. Regardless of variety, it doesn’t have to be 1939 for strange fruit to be in season open.substack.com/pub/shinebri...
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- your new edition of SHINE BRIGHT HQ newsletter is here open.substack.com/pub/shinebri...
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- On this day in 1990, Gang Starr released Step in the Arena. Still sounds like purpose. Still sounds like standards. One of the greatest albums ever made. Made me a fan for life.
- The Shine Bright audiobook is narrated by me—because this history is personal. You’ll hear the pauses, the passion, the weight of memory, and the joy of Black women in pop told the way it was lived www.audible.com/pd/Shine-Bri...
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- it's where music memory, reporting, and lived experience overlap. i write it when I have something to say shinebrighthq.substack.com
