Anita Baker in a white, two-piece tailored suit with shoulder pads in the jacket and a flaring skirt, singing “Sweet Love” at a standing microphone, her shoulders rocking back and forth. A live performance music video of that song always came on “Video Soul,” which I watched every chance I…

Like nearly every black girl who was in elementary school in the late 80s and early 90s, Whitney Houston was my everything. I cried to her ballads and ran to my mother’s closet, put on her high heeled boots, and ran back to the television to dance and sing into…