Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. She moved to New York City in 1950 to pursue a career as a writer. In 1959, her play, “A Raisin in the Sun” debuted on Broadway. It was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.
The play received the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play of the Year, making Hansberry the youngest playwright and the fifth woman to receive that award. Her only other play to be produced on Broadway was “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” (1965).
After her death, her ex-husband completed several of her unfinished manuscripts, including “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” (1969) and “Les Blancs” (1994). The Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco, California in named in her honor. Her biography, “They Found a Way: Lorraine Hansberry,” was published in 1978.
A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Here are some quotes:
A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
I look at you and I see the final triumph of stupidity in the world!
Beneatha to Walter, Act III
There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he's been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning — because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.
Mama, Act III
Eventually it comes to you: the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.
Today in history... May 19, 1925, Malcolm Little/Malcolm X/El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the 4th of 7 children to Earl Little and Louise Norton.
Of course, I'm sure we all know of Spike Lee's 1992 epic film based on the life of the man - a film that will rest among the nation’s treasures in the world’s largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings; just over a year ago, it was inducted for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
And by the way, it's now officially on Blu-ray, finally released in that format earlier this year. So you can pick up a copy if you haven't yet. I have!
I'm not aware of any film events around the country that are scheduled to take place today to honor his birth (although it doesn't mean there aren't any). I recall last year, the Brecht Forum here in NYC screened Orlando Bagwell's 2 1/2 hour 1994 documentary Malcolm X: Make It Plain, narrated by Alfre Woodard - a film that paints a comprehensive portrait of Malcolm X - hustler, visionary, husband and father, dynamic orator and, after spending time in prison, Minister Malcolm, the fiery, eloquent spokesman for the Nation of Islam; and finally as El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, internationally recognized leader and advocate for oppressed peoples - loved and despised, revered and feared... until he was assassinated at the young age of 39.
The entire 2 1/2 hour film is on YouTube, split up into several parts, so you can watch it all there if you haven't already.
Denitia Odigie (pronounced Deh-NEE-sha Oh-DEE-Jee) is an American Soul artist. Fans of r&b, pop, soul, and blues are drawn to the gravity that Denitia's music creates. By 2009, Denitia had released 4 independent EPs on her own, experimenting in psychedelic folk, country, lo-fi, grunge, and soul. It was that year that she signed a publishing deal with Weston Boys Entertainment, home of Jace Everett (True Blood theme song) . Reviewers called her first release on the WB imprint "tasteful pop music: the product of a modern ear and a world-wise iTunes library…” “…a delicious musical impression of a revived old soul."
2010 saw Denitia releasing her debut full-length album, Vitality, on the Weston Boys label. From psych-soul tunes like "Tightrope" to the horn-laden whisper of "Lover" to the dreamy, swimming "Sold", Vitality was a summation of the many colors and genres of surrounding her sound. Dreamy, digital, modern. A review in Deli Magazine: “From start to finish, this record is in a constant state of grooving; relaxed or raunchy; sweet or sultry. Few artists can actually accomplish creating a record that not only grooves, but relaxes, from start to finish… fresh and classic at the same time.”
2011 signaled a return to lo-fi soundscapes and brought Dream Suite, an EP of acoustic sketches, a sweet, starry-eyed pack of love songs. Crafted live with only Farfisa organ, voice, acoustic & electric guitars, a lush, yet minimalist playground is built for her simple, soulful melodies. Songs for Sunsets was released in early 2012. A live project, Songs includes 6-piece band arrangements of two new songs and two re-spins from Dream Suite. Okayplayer, tastemaking music blog co-founded by Questlove, hails "Relatively unknown and super-talented, strummer-songwriter Denitia Odigie just appeared out of nowhere on our musical radar, like a flock of swans in airplane formation…."
Denitia is currently enjoying South Brooklyn life, working on her second full-length album and preparing for another European tour in the spring.
This contest, is named in honour of Peter Hinchcliffe, who was instrumental in the founding of the magazine and has made an impact in the lives of many students in his longstanding role as lecturer at St. Jerome’s University.
The $1000 top prize will be awarded for a work of short fiction by a Canadian (citizen or resident) writer who has not yet published a first novel or short story collection. Though there is only one top prize, all submissions will be considered for paid publication ($250) in the magazine. All submissions will be judged blind.
Entry fee: $40 per submission. Each submission includes a one-year Canadian subscription (or subscription extension) to The New Quarterly
Eligiblity: Submissions must be previously unpublished. Entrants must be Canadian or currently residing in Canada. Writers must be in the early stages. We define a writer in the early stages as someone who has not yet published a first story collection or novel.
There is no word limit. Entrants anonymity will be carefully preserved throughout the judging process; please ensure that your name does not appear on your document. Decisions will be made by August 31; finalists will be notified by email.
Hysteria 2012 is a competition open to women only, of any nationality and writing in English, for stories of up to 2,000 words and poetry of up to 15 lines on almost any theme related to women. We will accept entries which have been previously published.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
You may write about ANY SUBJECT in ANY GENRE except erotica or horror. We are NOT looking for stories about Hysterectomy, we are looking for works that appeal to our website visitors.
Ten winners in each category will be published in Hysteria 2012, an anthology of works to be sold on behalf of the Hysterectomy Association in our normal on-line outlets. Entries are to be made through the Hysterectomy Association website.
The competition is being sponsored by Crystal Clear Books, a new publisher of women’s health books and women’s fiction.
The competition closes at 11.59pm on 31st August 2012. Entries for both categories cost £5 each.
PRIZES FOR BOTH COMPETITIONS
One overall winner will be awarded First Prize in each category with a prize of £400 plus publication in Hysteria 2012. Nine other authors and poets will each win publication in Hysteria 2012.
(Note: any student currently enrolled at an institution of higher learning anywhere in the world is eligible to participate in the Olympic Values Essay Competition, organized by Worldwide Support for Development, World Faith Development Dialogue and Georgetown University.)
Worldwide Support for Development (WSD), World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) and Georgetown University are co-supporting an online essay competition on Olympic Values in today’s world. The competition is designed to spark a global online conversation in advance of the Olympic Values Symposium to be convened in London by Lord Colin Moynihan, Chair of the British Olympic Association (BOA), from June 29-July 1, 2012.
The awards (three in all) include two stays in London – three days at the Olympic Values Symposium and three days during the London Olympic Games, with travel and accommodation costs covered.
Any student currently enrolled at an institution of higher learning anywhere in the world is eligible to participate in the Olympic Values Essay Competition. Consideration of essays will begin immediately and submissions will be accepted through May 31, 2012.
Interested students should send an email to olympicvalues@gmail.com that includes the following English language materials: a curriculum vitae; a 125-150 word biography; and a 400 – 500 word essay that addresses their interpretation of the meaning of Olympic Values for the 21st Century and outlines a creative way to realize them in the years ahead through sport, education, culture, or other public initiatives.
A Joint Committee chaired by Georgetown faculty and Lord Moynihan will lead a three-step selection process. Good essays will be posted as blogs online; Skype or phone interviews will be conducted with a narrower group of finalists; and it is anticipated that awards will be announced by June 11, 2012.
By submitting an email with an essay, participants consent to it being posted as a blog online. Selected students must meet all conditions of participation to take part in the Olympic Values Symposium and attend the London Olympic Games.
Return to this page starting June 1 to read and comment on the essays and participate in a global conversation about the meaning and impact of Olympic Values in today’s world.
A brilliant, satirical indie flick about the future of dead-end jobs
Last week marked the debut of Jim Munroe's latest indie flick, Ghosts with Shit Jobs, at the Sci-Fi London Film Festival. It played to a rapturous, sold-out crowd, and for good reason: As one of the festival organizers said, it's rare to see really smart, biting science fiction satire these days. Made for a budget of $5,000 by a group of filmmakers in Canada, written by Munroe (Infest Wisely), this movie is a weird, sad look at digital drudgery in Toronto after the economy collapses.
Ghosts with Shit Jobs is a mockumentary made by a Chinese film crew about those "poor people" over in Toronto and how they manage to survive despite their horrific working conditions. With pitch-perfect condescension and cluelessness, our intrepid documentarians reveal what it means to be human spam, a robot breeder, mutant spider silk gatherer, and something a lot worse.
The documentary trope will immediately remind you of the worst kind of sensationalist reporting today in the West about the horrors of working conditions in China. While those horrors are quite real, Munroe's flick suggests they're made worse by armchair commentary coming from rich people across the sea tut-tutting over how amazing it is that "those people over there" are happy to kill themselves working ten-hour days. The documentary investigates four "shit jobs" done by people called "ghosts" — Cantonese slang for white people.
We meet two brothers whose parents lost everything when "the cloud was repossessed." Now they live in a tent on a Toronto roof, spending their days gathering spiderwebs left over from an invasion by giant, mutant spiders. They trade the apparently valuable webs for water, and the more foolish of the two brothers dreams of the day when he'll scale the CN Tower to find the spiderweb motherlode. Then we enter a posh, empty office full of people sitting on pillows on the bare floors, staring into space and tapping invisible keyboards. Into their midst walks the human spammer, a woman who takes temp jobs so that she can drop keywords and brand names into conversations with wealthy people (the more the make, the more she gets paid). She carefully cultivates relationships with rich people just so she can take them places where brand names will come up naturally.
And then there's the couple stuck in a low-end robotics job, building realistic baby robots for Chinese kids. They're saving their money so the wife in the couple can go to an Asian robotics show and demo the battlebots she's been perfecting in between taking care of dozens of screaming, pooping, barfing baby robots. Finally, there's the most tragic of our shit job workers. The digital janitor works on the future version of The Wayback Machine, a perfect copy of the real world recorded by surveillance equipment over the past decades, that's being turned into an immersive virtual reality simulation. Our janitor's job is to go in and paint over all brand names to avoid IP litigation. Though all the hours he spends in the simulation are causing his brain to bleed, he begs his boss to override the 8-hour-day restrictions so he can work just a little more overtime. The truly sad part, as he explains to the documentary crew, is that he's having to paint over some of his favorite childhood memories of the toys he owned (showing the toys could constitute infringement).
As we get to know these people, the film balances neatly between its often goofy satirical tone and the characters' unsettlingly plausible responses to a world where they have few good choices. As Munroe said during a Q&A after the movie premiere in London, his future isn't necessarily supposed to be an accurate prediction of tomorrow's geopolitics. It's just picking up on current economic trends, taking them to an extreme, and showing us how regular people might be affected. Despite the humor of the mutant spiders, baby robots, and spammer-on-spammer catfights, we do feel our characters' pain deeply. And their hope, too, even in the face of humiliations and setbacks.
Eventually, the documentarians decide to give us a special treat by bringing all the people they've profiled together. And that's when we finally see the raw desperation our characters feel, and their sadness. This movie will leave you emotionally shaken, your brain teeming with weird new ideas about how the future might really look.
If you like thoughtful, poignant satire, you need to watch Ghosts with Shit Jobs now. It's playing at film festivals currently, and Munroe is also making it available as a digital download. Find out more on the official website, where you can also watch a ton of clips.
It suddenly struck me how "post-racial" we could say the show is, in that Olivia Pope's race/skin color is really of no real bearing on the series' various narrative threads. It just is; we see her, we know she's a black woman, but it's not *announced*. Other than the visual reminder (can't wash it off, as the saying goes), you actually almost forget that she IS black; and that's also a credit to how connected and engaged you are as a viewer of the series, with all the various parts in this assembly line working well together to keep you occupied otherwise.
Whether all of that's a good thing or bad thing I'll let you all decide for yourselves.
It's obviously significant if only because, for one of the very rare few instances in television history, America gets to see a black woman in this capacity, and with her skin color being almost akin to a prop. Now, who knows, showrunner/creator/producer Shonda Rhimes just might intro a scenario next season in which Olivia's race is indeed pivotal to a specific episode, or a narrative thread that stretches across multiple episodes. Or maybe not.
Would you want her to do that?
And by the way, I'd say the same thing about Chief Of Staff Cyrus Beene's sexuality; he's gay, and we are told that, but, like Olivia being black, Rhimes doesn't *announce* it; it just is... you know... life... a sea of diverse, complex human beings.
We assume that the series takes place in the present-day; I don't know if at any point, it's dated - I can't immediately recall; my point being that Rhimes paints a portrait of a world - a USA specifically - in which matters of race and sexual orientation are of little concern to the people who populate this universe. And so it's not improbable that one wonders if this is a representation of an America as it exists today, or is it a futuristic one, minus all the CGI :)
Or an America as Rhimes would like it to be.
But I can only assume the controversy that must have surrounded the appointing of Cyrus - a seemingly openly gay man - as White House Chief Of Staff; especially with the pairing of a Vice President who's from the so-called Bible Belt, who espouses conservative, Christian values... or is all that just BS as well, and she's just as power-hungry and unscrupulous as the others, willing to do whatever is necessary to reach her ultimate goal of becoming President of the USA?
But, yes, it's a wrap for season 1 of Scandal, a show that apparently has a huge chunk of black America hooked - likely primarily female. Out of mere curiosity, how many of you dudes have kept up with the series? Also, how many of you women have not, and maybe don't care for it enough to do so? Not that every black woman is somehow obligated to watch it by the way because it stars a black woman; just asking...
A number of questions were answered (the most crucial being who really had Amanda Tanner killed); and of course, as you'd expect with any season finale, a cliffhanger - who is Quinn Perkins?
So who IS Quinn Perkins? And looking back on the previous 6 episodes, where any hints given at any time that might help answer that question? I can't immediately think of any.
In response to that question when asked by TV Guide, Rhimes herself obviously wouldn't give anything away, except to say:
I think you're going to find the answer very interesting. I'm still deciding [when we'll reveal it].
Obviously Olivia knows; she knows everything, and she did hire Quinn, so it's no surprise. Given the resistance to finger-printing her, and Olivia's knack for picking employees with *questionable* pasts, I think we can safely say Quinn falls right in-line with the others. So what you've got here is a kind of rag-tag team of smart people with problems, and Olivia is like their mother, which you could say makes sense, given her own shady past - having an affair with the Prez. One big happy family :)
Also noteworthy was the First Lady finally showing us who she really is. But I think we all (certainly I) suspected she had an agenda all her own early on. Specifically, in a previous talkback session, I said that their marriage is reminiscent of what people said about Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage - that it's essentially like a business partnership. Both have/had their political ambitions, and are/were simply working together like business partners to see those objectives through - even in light of Bill's 3 or 4 affairs, including the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which likely inspired the Amanda Tanner fiasco in Scandal.
Olivia's reaction when the First Lady *revealed* herself to her was hilarious; you could see the look of absolute surprise on her face, kind of like, "I don't know who this woman is."
But it's really no surprise that the First Lady is just as sheisty as several of the other characters on the show. It's a dog eat dog world out there; every man for himself. A sad commentary on the state of things (and not just within the political realm) we could say.
And now that we know Cyrus is the mastermind behind Amanda Tanner's death, looking ahead to next season, will others eventually learn the truth, and will whomever does, play a significant role in season 2?
Talking to TV Guide again, Rhimes had this to say in response:
The answer to both of those questions is yes. There's a level of power that Cyrus is playing with at this moment that allows him to distance himself from the actual acts of doing certain things, and possibly gives him a little bit of leeway in his mind. He really does think that he is doing what's best for the country. I absolutely believe Cyrus has a line that he won't cross. Cyrus is a patriot who really loves his country and really believes in the presidency. In a weird way, that's his flaw. His patriotism has taken him to some dark places.
Well, yeah. Like murder.
And what about Billy Chambers? Given what we saw towards the end of the episode, as he got on the elevator with Charlie, and later we see Charlie at Cyrus' house asking for the rest of his payment for taking out Amanda Tanner, because he needed to leave town ASAP, are we to assume that Charlie finished the job Huck assigned to him - to kill Billy Chambers?
Rhimes wouldn't answer that obviously.
And with Olivia handing in her White House badge/pass as she walked out of the compounds, does that imply she's done with that specific circle of people, and that entire narrative thread won't be continued next season?
Rhimes' reply:
We'll see. I think it's important to keep her within that world in some capacity, but she burned a very important bridge. More than just walking away from him, she forced him to do something that he wasn't willing to do. He actually got the courage to walk away from his life, and she threw him back in. While she may be willing to come back in, he may not be willing to let her in.
And so does this open the door for a new romance for Olivia?
Rhimes's response:
There is [the possibility of a new romance]. I was just talking about that today. There's a prospect of one. I don't know that we're going to get to it early in the second season, but there's definitely a prospect of one. I think that we call her a political nun and she has no personal life and we all know why she has no personal life. But I think that she reached a crossroads at the end of the finale. She handed in her White House badge. She was walking away. I think we might come upon her trying to get her own little bit of normal at this moment.
And might this new prospect be a black man?
Rhimes' reply:
[...]
Just kidding; that question wasn't asked; but I know a lot of you were thinking it. If I ever get an opportunity to interview Rhimes about the show between now and next season, I'll be sure to ask her that question for you all :)
But I won't be surprised if Rhimes hooks her up with the copper, David. They *dance* well together I think, and it won't be shocking to learn that they had a little something going on at one point, back in the day.
The TV Guide interview is quite thorough, so if you'd like your season 2 expectations potentially spoiled, I'd suggest you read it; if not, stay away. Not that Rhimes gives much away, but I think she hints at enough, and does answer a few of the questions head-on.
She talks about whether we can expect a major through-line next season as we had with the Amanda Tanner thread this season, and also the potential real-life scandals she might be considering as fodder for next season's episodes.
And by the way, this should make you fans of the show happy - she reveals that ABC ordered 13 episodes for season 2. So expect double the fun.
“Scandal,” the new ABC series created by Shonda Rhimes and starring Kerry Washington, is the first network TV drama with a black female lead character since 1974. That was the year of “Get Christie Love!,” a blaxploitation-inflected crime series starring Teresa Graves—best known for the catchphrase “You’re under arrest, sugar.” If you want to have your sensibilities shaken up, check out the top clip on YouTube: while undercover as a street hooker, Love is solicited by a customer. When she rejects him, he sneers, “Nigger.” Strutting away, she tosses off a comeback: “Nigger-lover!”
Thirty-eight years have passed, but, in certain ways, little has changed. Shonda Rhimes, who created “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice,” is still the sole prominent black female showrunner in television. (The most powerful black male showrunner is Tyler Perry, on TBS.) Although the heroine of “Scandal,” Olivia Pope, would never go in for Christie Love’s salty back talk, the two do share some qualities: they are incorruptible superprofessionals, worshipped and desired by everyone around them. Pope, once the President’s most trusted aide and, for a while, his secret mistress, is now the biggest fixer in Washington. (Her career is based on that of a real person: Judy Smith, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and deputy press secretary in George H. W. Bush’s White House.) In other political narratives, the fixer might be a cynical alcoholic, or a gleeful player like Gloria Allred. Not Pope. She’s the BlackBerry-wielding flack as avenging angel. Her employees, each of whom she’s rescued from rock bottom, describe themselves as “gladiators in suits”; they say that their boss “wears the white hat.” Despite, or perhaps because of, these dollops of praise, Pope comes off as a bit of a buzzkill, all glares and Sorkinesque lectures, eyes welling with righteousness.
It’s a shame, because the series started surprisingly well. Like House, and Bones, and Monk, Pope is a fetishized genius of intuition—she has a “gut” that tells her who is lying and the brass to blackmail her way to justice. With its split screens, booming seventies R. & B. soundtrack, and Washington herself in heels (the actress is so beautiful that she’s practically a special effect), “Scandal” felt, at first, like a goofy thrill ride. But, five episodes in, I’ve lost faith. Pope’s team of scandal-handlers is so blah I remember them by nicknames: Expository McBeal, Fast Talker, Torture Geek, Nice Suits, and Desmond from “Lost.” Their weekly cases (a closeted soldier, a date rape, a plane crash) begin brightly enough, then chip, like cheap paint, turning corny and manipulative.
The show’s best character in the early episodes was Amanda Tanner (played with poignant instability by Liza Weil), a White House staffer who claimed to be pregnant by the President. Pope was hired to shut Tanner up, but she ended up taking her on as a client; it looked as though we were about to trace the emergence of a nouveau Lewinsky (or maybe of a mistress-solidarity movement). Instead, in the fifth episode, Tanner was whacked, transforming the show into a locked-Oval Office mystery—an idea that sounds fun, and would be, if the suspects weren’t such venal cartoons. As Tanner’s body was dragged from a lake, Washington made her face of dimpled torment, but, by that point, like the captain of the Costa Concordia, I had jumped ship.
In this overheated context, Olivia Pope’s ethnicity is a non-issue; the show never refers to it. This places “Scandal” in contrast to “The Good Wife,” another network procedural, but one that is set in an Obama-haunted Chicago, and quite explicit about racial politics, as well as about institutional racism and white guilt. This year, “The Good Wife” featured a fascinating plot in which the scandal-tainted state’s attorney Peter Florrick (Chris Noth) fired several black staffers but retained his white deputy, Cary (Matt Czuchry), because, consciously or unconsciously, he felt closer to him; it was the first time I’d seen such subtle biases explored onscreen. Rhimes takes a more swashbuckling approach, which has its own pleasures: in “Scandal,” the President is a Republican who fights to pass the DREAM act and has a gay chief of staff. His Vice-President is female, a fundamentalist Christian and Tea Party loyalist. Rhimes has been obsessed with the mistress’s point of view in every show she’s written, but maybe in D.C. that obsession makes sense. (If you’re having an affair with the President, rather than with McDreamy, it actually is a big deal.) Yet, while Rhimes cuts and pastes freely from the modern electoral playbook, she has built a world in which not only does Obama not exist but neither do his race-baiting opponents. Like Cary, Pope’s an insider, “one of us”: her exceptional presence both overrides and renders invisible any racial tensions—so far, at any rate. (To its credit, “Scandal” at least gives its President a party affiliation, unlike HBO’s coy “Veep.”)
It’s possible that “Scandal” ’s post-racial fantasy will feel refreshing, for black viewers and non-black ones, in varying ways. It removes the weight of both race and racism: Pope is never referred to as the “first black” anything, and though she attracts powerful white men (and no black ones), they would never spit epithets, like Christie Love’s john, when she rejects them. And yet there’s no way to discuss the show without acknowledging this tactical peculiarity, especially as “Scandal” arrives at a time when TV is embroiled in a debate about diversity, much of it targeting “Girls,” the HBO comedy, which, aside from its female showrunner, has more in common with “Louie” or “Bored to Death” than with “Scandal.” Almost none of the hand-wringing writeups on the subject have talked about “Scandal,” since it’s the type of show the TV digerati don’t care about: it’s network, it’s formulaic, and it fits squarely in the feminine junk drawer, with “Grey’s Anatomy,” chick lit, and women’s magazines, where few consumers go looking for artistry or deep meaning.
Still, the discussion has got a lot wrong. It is true that TV is run by white men (as are, of course, the publications that print the pieces bemoaning that fact). It’s also true that sitcoms, specifically, have a history of featuring white ensembles that are often, as with “Seinfeld,” based on the creators’ friends. Yet current casting is not so monolithic, and it varies from cable to network, from sick-joke satire to earnest heart-tugger. Nearly all modern sitcoms include at least one character of color: “Happy Endings,” “Modern Family,” “The Office,” “New Girl,” “Up All Night,” “2 Broke Girls,” “Community,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Archer,” “Parks and Recreation,” “30 Rock,” “Whitney,” “Are You There, Chelsea?,” “Don’t Trust the B—in Apt 23,” and “Suburgatory” among them. Some of these ensembles click gorgeously, as in “Happy Endings,” with its sharp, funny interracial marriage. Others are blandly homeopathic—offering up a drop of color to ward off criticism—or employ gross stereotypes, like “2 Broke Girls.” What’s lacking in current TV isn’t black characters but all-black ensembles on channels other than BET or TBS—sitcoms like the eighties’ and nineties’ “A Different World” and “Living Single” and “The Cosby Show,” or like the edgier array of seventies series, including “Good Times,” in which black characters were able to fill every role: joker, princess, villain, nerd.
Part of the reason for this may be commercial: in today’s splintered TV market, audiences didn’t bite on “Undercovers” (last year’s spy drama about a married black couple) or HBO’s “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” (a sweet, languorous series set in Botswana). And surely one reason that viewers took so long to catch on to HBO’s “The Wire” was all those black male faces. The solution is not so easy as “Can’t her best friend be black?”—a question that is posed in a blunt, funny scene on “The L.A. Complex,” the new Canadian-made CW series about aspiring Hollywood entertainers. An aging white actress, informed that the “best friend” role she wanted to try out for would be cast black to “really reflect reality,” blurts out, “I mean, who has a black best friend, right? Like, in real life, if you’re trying to be all authentic?” She turns to the room full of unsmiling black actresses and asks, “Do any of you have a white best friend? No? Right.” (“The L.A. Complex” makes its own breakthrough in the next episode: a hot kiss between two black men.)
Of course, black and white are not the only colors of diversity. In recent years, there’s been a startling, largely unheralded boom of South Asian characters, thanks to writers and actors such as “The Office” ’s Mindy Kaling, “Parks and Recreation” ’s Aziz Ansari, and “Community” ’s Danny Pudi, along with characters on “Smash,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Whitney,” and “The Good Wife.” (At times I’ve wondered if this isn’t a psychic workaround: is brown safer than black?) Workplace procedurals—whose settings lend themselves to color-blind casting—have been comparatively diverse since the nineteen-eighties. Although George Clooney got all the press, the deepest and most original character in the début season of “ER” was Eriq La Salle’s repressed Dr. Peter Benton, the first idiosyncratic (and, significantly, the first flawed) black man I remember seeing on TV.
Shonda Rhimes’s melodramas may not be my cup of tea, but they have been havens for racial variety. On “Grey’s Anatomy,” Sandra Oh’s Cristina Yang stands out like Peter Benton: not because she is Asian but because she is Yang—a prickly egotist, not always likable, but with a mordant wit that makes her lovable nonetheless. Olivia Pope’s greatest character defect is her sexual history with the President, but that just suggests she’s a woman worth risking the White House for. It’s a regrettably big deal that a black woman plays the heroine of “Scandal,” and not the heroine’s best friend—and, for that reason alone, I’d wish for the show to succeed. (Far lamer cop shows hit the jackpot each year; a bad show that makes money can set more of a precedent than a good one.) But, so far, Pope has shown no wit, no looseness, no eccentricity. The more people praise her, the more exceptional she becomes—and the less human. ♦
Actress Kerry Washington (L) and Co-Executive Producer Judy Smith speak during the 'Scandal' panel during the ABC portion of the 2012 Winter TCA Tour held at The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa on January 10, 2012 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Who is Judy Smith?
Long before ABC's new hit series Scandal made it to network television this season, those of us who have lived and worked in Washington, D.C. for the past two decades have admired and respected Judy Smith.
A native Washingtonian, Judy is a true pioneer for women, and an outright trailblazer for black women. She is a consummate professional, and a perfectionist when it comes to her craft. Like her or not, there is noone better to have in your corner when you are in political hot water, an unfavorable media spotlight, or in legal trouble.
Known as a professional "fixer," or in more formal terms as a "Crisis Management Expert," Judy Smith is a unique black woman who didn't just redefine the rules for women in power -- she also defined them as the first of her kind. Her resume is impressive, ranging from her academic credentials as an attorney to her client list. Smith was the first black female Special Assistant to the President and Deputy White House Press Secretary for President George H. W. Bush. She has also managed crisis situations for Fortune 500 corporations (such as BP after the Gulf disaster), Supreme Court nominees (as in Justice Clarence Thomas), plus world figures, celebrities, and even a former White House intern (remember Monica Lewinsky?).
What did all these disparate figures have in common? They were all in need of a savvy media spokesperson who could help them handle the heat of a national or international media firestorm. Judy Smith was their go-to woman.
When asked how she would describe herself, Smith offered this: "I think I am down to earth, hard working, someone who cares a lot about my work and about what I do for those I serve." You'll notice in her answer that she focuses keenly on "the work." She takes her work ethic seriously -- very -- and she will tell you that work is a big part of her life.
A fact that is not widely known about Smith, however, is that she is married with two adult children. She is fiercely private and does not discuss her family, but she is the original "work/life balance" queen. Smith was doing it long before those of us in Generation X and beyond made it a term of art. If that isn't enough, she holds a black belt in karate, too. Smith also loves to travel, and acquires a lot of frequent flier miles to do so through her various activities.
We asked her how she balances it all: raising her family, and a marriage, with a very high profile, high risk career. "I think with anybody who has a lot of things going on in their life, you become great at multi-tasking," Smith said. "You try to balance both work and life like everyone. Multi-tasking is key. You do the best that you can every day. It is important to have people around you that support you, like your family and friends. That makes all the difference."
On being a master of crisis management
Next we asked Judy a series of questions to help us get to better know the woman who inspired the Scandal series that has just been renewed by ABC for a full second season. The lead character played by Kerry Washington is based on her.
Sophia A. Nelson: How did you get into the arena of crisis management and what exactly is it?
Judy Smith: I have been doing this work for 20 years at Smith & Company, which is my firm. We represent corporations, associations and individuals. A part of what we do in crisis management is working on crises and problems that are both big and small. Along the way in that process, we get to help [clients] with brand and reputation management.
Simply put, crisis management is dealing strategically with a problem, issue or crisis. We help provide strategy, and figure out how to solve that problem. You see some of it in the show. Each person -- when they are faced with a crisis -- has to decide where they want to end up, what is the end game. We help them to do that.
I think this is an important point: a lot of times when we are in a crisis -- and there's a problem or there's an error and you've made a mistake -- one of the things we think is key, is to admit that mistake early. It is also important to understand that so many people we might see on TV or hear about on the radio -- they are high profile, but we fail to see their humanity. The truth is, they are people just like you and me. We all make mistakes, we all falter, but we as people should be mindful that there are second chances on the other side of crisis and those chances can present great opportunity.
Creator and Executive Producer Shonda Rhimes, actress Kerry Washington and Co-Executive Producer Judy Smith speak during the 'Scandal' panel during the ABC portion of the 2012 Winter TCA Tour held at The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa on January 10, 2012 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
How do you feel about this show that is based on your life? Why do women love it, and black women even more so, as is evidenced on Thursday nights when you get on Twitter? Sisters love this show and tweet about it non-stop the entire hour.
I think that the connection is really a reflection of who we are as black women. Kerry plays a strong, intelligent, savvy woman who is incredibly good at what she does, yet she is also vulnerable and compassionate, which is something we don't often see about us as black women.
On Smith's relationship to presidents
To add context, we asked Judy about Olivia, the character Kerry Washington plays on Scandal-- and Kerry's onscreen relationship with Tony Goldywyn's fictional character of the president in that world. Judy confirmed that she herself did not have an affair with a president (she chuckled when asked that question), but she reaffirmed that the way Shonda Rhimes writes is to make her characters just as unpredictable as Olivia -- like real people. It is a way to keep us viewers on the edge of our seats, gasping as we often do (sometimes on Twitter) as we watch Kerry's portrayal of Olivia step outside of the zones usually reserved for black women on television. Here's what Smith had to say.
Sophia Nelson: How have you defined and redefined your life over the past twenty years or so?
Judy Smith: In terms of defining my life or career path, it for me has just been about the work -- hard work -- because work speaks for itself. But in terms of answering your question, I have been able to do different things, redefine [myself] if you will, as a result of the crisis work that I do. I got to take my 20 years of experience and put it in a book, Good self, Bad Self, which helps people to navigate crisis in their everyday lives.
I have gained so much knowledge and experience dealing with my clients, that it has allowed me to use that knowledge to create... first a book, [and] now this TV show. That is a journey I don't think I ever really imagined 20 years ago. So understand my point: my 20 years of crisis work that has now inspired a new TV show is simply an expansion of the kinds of things that I was already doing.
My advice to young women coming up is to do what you do; do it well and master it! Be your own best crisis manager. I also want to stress that while relationships matter in how we succeed in life, it is never a replacement for doing good, hard work.
What is it like working with Shonda Rhimes, the great television writer and producer?
I met Shonda through her producing partner Betsy, and what was slated as a fifteen minute introductory meeting turned into a two hour discussion. It turned out to be a really nice, wonderful conversation. It was great. And here we are. What I like about Shonda is that she works with complex characters. They are not black and white, they are not in the proverbial "box." Her characters have nuances, they are layered. The characters in shows like Scandalconnect with us, because we as people can relate to them. We are layered, we are complex.
Shonda has a gift for taking the dramatic in our lives, the fast pace of our lives, and making it connect with the viewing audience. And Kerry [Washington] is just amazing. She is a good actress, she is very smart. We've spent a lot of time together and she totally gets and understands what I do as a crisis manager. She then brings that to life on the screen in a vibrant way that connects. What is also great is that I have become friends with Shonda, Betsy, and Kerry. A powerful, down to earth group of women. I am really pleased with the show, and excited about season number two in 2013.
See and hear what happens when a handful of musicians from Berlin set up studio in Nairobi – and the Kenyans come visiting a couple of months later, in the cold German winter. featuring Just a Band, Gebrüder Teichmann, Ukoo Flani, Jahcoozi, Nazizi, Modeselektor, Radi, Mr. Abbas, Michel Ongaro, Maasai Mbili art Centre and many more.
The documentary trope will immediately remind you of the worst kind of sensationalist reporting today in the West about the horrors of working conditions in China. While those horrors are quite real, Munroe's flick suggests they're made worse by armchair commentary coming from rich people across the sea tut-tutting over how amazing it is that "those people over there" are happy to kill themselves working ten-hour days. The documentary investigates four "shit jobs" done by people called "ghosts" — Cantonese slang for white people.
As we get to know these people, the film balances neatly between its often goofy satirical tone and the characters' unsettlingly plausible responses to a world where they have few good choices. As Munroe said during a Q&A after the movie premiere in London, his future isn't necessarily supposed to be an accurate prediction of tomorrow's geopolitics. It's just picking up on current economic trends, taking them to an extreme, and showing us how regular people might be affected. Despite the humor of the mutant spiders, baby robots, and spammer-on-spammer catfights, we do feel our characters' pain deeply. And their hope, too, even in the face of humiliations and setbacks.
