"Single Ladies" Singles Out Everything Wrong With Black Drama

Not even casting Common as the mayor or strategically placed cameos by Eve and C-listers like Kim Porter , (Diddy’s baby mamma) could save the new VH1 series, Single Ladies, starring Stacey Dash, LisaRaye McCoy, Charity Shea and Lauren London (all actresses I like). I had high hopes for a much needed black dramatic series, one that would intelligently explore the ins and outs of black love while offering a more modern and realistic replication of black women (sans a token white character who I have no idea of how she fits in with the other leads being clearly twenty years younger). But unfortunately with a sub-par script and mediocre acting (by apparently anyone who answered the casting call) Single Ladies missed the mark. It left me not only longing to be entertained and wondering where they dug up Cam’ron, but feeling somewhat insulted. Apparently I wasn’t alone.

Twitter quickly tore this Queen Latifah produced “series” to shreds. One tweeter commented, “Did this show just imply that the only good black man available anywhere is snagged by a white woman?” I noticed that as well as Shea’s character, (the white girl) was the only one in a solid relationship with a black man (who she was cheating on!) Another tweeter @MyPolarO commented, “This writing is so corny!!!!! If my life was like this, I'd jump off the Olympic commemorative torch thingy in Centennial Park!” Damn, Viacom….

Here’s the thing, first of all if Single Ladies is supposed to be the chocolate covered version of Sex and the City, it’s EIGHT years too late. Because clearly there is some kind of emulation of that show with the women being presented as “vapid bed hoppers”, (again as per tweeter @MyPolarO)! Second of all consistently depicting single (black) women as being desperate, foolish, THIEVING and at times bitter, is also fare that maybe worked eight years ago. I would have liked to see an evolution of the female identity that includes being rooted in her strength and worth independent of a man’s presence or approval, and not in a way that suggests she’s cynical. And I would also like to see a show where the only white woman in the cast doesn’t have TWO black men drooling over her while the other brown beauties get nooch! (Yeah I said it!)

There are too many better writers out there (ahem!) who could have crafted a better representation of what it’s like to be a single black woman. How about starting with the creation of an actual character as opposed to a caricature? Single Ladies is full of clichéd obligatory stereotypes. Dash is the “good girl” who was hopelessly in love with a loser. McCoy (Keisha) is a “promiscuous b*tch” with high priced taste. And Shea, well Shea is the mandatory white girl (April) that seems to crop up in every other black project these days. (I have no issue with a multiracial cast, but if it’s a black show, let the leads be black. Is that so wrong? ) The black male characters also get a good dose of stereotyping as most are illustrated as domineering, cheating, arrogant jackasses. Thanks Viacom…

Yes there are pathetic black women and there are horrible black men, but there are also intelligent, self actualized, HAPPY single black women and endearing, sensitive and generous black men. And stories featuring a balance of those images can be just as entertaining.

Single Ladies is horrid. It’s the new scripted train wreck that I may keep watching because it’s like a really bad meal that you keep chewing through thinking/hoping it will get better, but never does; no matter how much Lawry’s you sprinkle…

I hope Single Ladies improves, though I doubt it will. And this is very disappointing because this could potentially be another example that TV executives will point to in order to say black shows don’t work. Correction: Bad black shows don’t work. But one thing is for sure about Single Ladies; I won’t take the series seriously until it does.

Did you see Single Ladies? What did you think?

photo courtesy VH1

The Oprah Winfrey Show-The End of an Era!!

The Oprah Winfrey Show is over. This is in fact monumental as Winfrey has embodied the definition of “Game Changer”. She revolutionized the talk show format and upped the ante for the genre with her style of grandeur, doing everything big! This is definitely the end of an era. Though The Oprah Winfrey Show started out twenty five years like most others in daytime television, the show and the woman have evolved into prolific and unparalleled entities.

Her “Live Your Best Life” brand of delivery elevated the chat show from a platform of discussion to one of revelation, with her signature “Aha Moments”. Winfrey contributed to a mass movement to raise consciousness and impart a spiritual perspective to her viewers. This intention wasn’t initially received well by everyone as Winfrey was consistently berated for trying to proselytize when she decided to switch up her presentation and enlighten the world. But I’m glad Winfrey stuck to her guns as I’ve definitely benefited from being a student in her global classroom.

Most of us can probably say we’ve been touched by Winfrey in some way; whether that includes being enlightened, entertained, inspired or emotionally charged. Check out my “Aha Moment” here. And tell me about yours!

Share your "Aha Moments" from The Oprah Winfrey Show!

Anna Maria Horsford-From "Amen" to "Craig's mom" and Beyond

 

I went to the BET Upfronts last month where the network presented its upcoming roster of shows and developments. Somehow in the midst of it all I wound up at the after party where I ran into several actors who will be featured on upcoming scripted BET shows including RonReaco Lee (who you may remember from Sister, Sister fame, and is now on BET’s Let’s Stay Together). Lee (who I hope to interview next), is too cute for his own good and was kind enough to introduce me to one of my favorite actresses, Anna Maria Horsford, who is largely recognized as Thelma Frye from the hilarious sitcom, Amen, and “Craig’s mom” in the classic movie, Friday. 

Horsford was not only nice enough to grant me an interview, but she called me and invited me to her Harlem digs to talk! After I got through jumping up and down in my little apartment, I made my way to “Harlem World”. We sat down for what was supposed to be an hour interview that turned out to be five hours of talking, laughing, crying (me, LOL!) and “spilling the tea”! Horsford revealed herself to be not only a talented actress, but the kind of woman who can be a friend, mom and soothsayer all rolled up into one! We talked about her career, life, love and Chaz Bono?

Horsford, a native New Yorker raised in Harlem, is what you call a working actor. This woman has maintained a consistent presence in television and film for three decades; impressive for any actor, but particularly for a black actor as we all know the pickings for roles for African Americans can be slim. We’ve seen her on hit shows like Entourage, Grey’s Anatomy, The Bernie Mac Show, Judging Amy, The Wayans Bros., and of course, Amen, among others. She’s also been in numerous films including the aforementioned Friday, last year’s Our Family Wedding, Minority Report, The Nutty Professor-The Klumps, Set if Off, and one of my favorites, One Fine Day. The list goes on.

She got her start in the New York Shakespeare Festival, but prior to that was always trying to find a way to express her creativity. As a little girl she had a lot of artistic energy; apparently more than her mother could stand! “I don’t know what I could have done to make my mother so upset with me, though I did like to play with knives and climb up ladders,” Horsford explained (while I cracked up). She went on to tell how she cut her brother’s hair when he was four. (Um, this may have been the straw that broke the back.) So Horford’s mother put her in an after-school program to give her daughter a creative outlet. “And that was the day I discovered myself,” Horsford explained. Having found her joy, she went on to attend the New York High School of Performing Arts, (now known as The Fiorello La Guardia High School of Music & Art And The Performing Arts-that’s right the Fame school!)

After graduating Horsford entered a Harlem based cultural arts program, HARYOU-Act . She entered the program in 1964 upon her sister’s recommendation. “I had just graduated and I said ‘Why did my parents let me go into performing arts?’ I resented them because I wasn’t qualified to do anything, majoring in acting. I couldn’t type that well,” Horsford recalls. She described the program that not only paid the participants, but featured training in acting, singing, dancing, journalism and more as, “The best of life.” The experience helped her realize that, “There is life for an artist.” Horsford also mentioned notables such as Kareem Abdul Jabar, and director Neema Barnette as being reflective of the kind of talent and success that came through the curriculum. After Horsford told me where she polished her acting skills I asked her if she ever struggled as an actress.

“It’s always a struggle! I still struggle!” Horsford explained. I was surprised to hear that because she’s worked so steadily over the years, but suspect she was being modest.

I wondered how Horsford has picked her roles because she’s typically played strong women, except for Thelma on Amen, who I felt developed her strength throughout the show. Horsford disagreed and felt that, “Thelma was always strong. She stayed home with her father after her mother died and made sure he was okay.” Horsford also believed that Thelma's relationship with her father provided a necessary image to the black community stating that above all, “Thelma was loved by her father.” Horsford went on to tell a story about an interview she’d done with a young black woman from Ms. Magazine while on Amen.

The writer didn’t want to interview the star, but when she finally conceded she asked the actress how she felt playing the “loser” on the show. (Wow!) Horsford offered her natural empathetic and insightful response and asked the woman, “Are you the loser in your family?” After a tearful confession, the young writer’s demeanor softened and they wound up having a great interview. And that is who Anna Maria Horsford is-truth. (I find it wise not to come into her presence if you’re not ready for authenticity!) She also demonstrated this authenticity and strength when she battled for the salary increase she was promised while on Amen.

Horsford got a call from a lawyer who asked her if she was serious about this fight, implying that she should be afraid of the consequences from going up against legendary talk show host Johnny Carson, who owned the sitcom. Horsford replied, “There’s one thing in life I’m afraid of.” The lawyer asked, “What’s that?” Horsford answered, “Being on the cover of the Enquirer without my hair done because those people in Harlem will talk about you like a dog. So I gotta go now. I got a hairdresser appointment.” Horsford got off the phone with the lawyer, went to get her hair done and subsequently won her battle for her salary increase-and many others in life.

After Horsford and I talked about everything from 80’s cult movie classics, to crazy relatives, to the ups and downs of love and life, she expressed the attitude she’s had toward acting and the feeling it’s given her. ”Every time I got a job I was lucky. I never said I have to do this, or I have to do that (regarding roles that may have earned her even more accolades)…Acting for me was a space where I felt alive and I was the most powerful person in the world.” Possessing a humility that comes with the gratitude of discovering one’s purpose as well as the individual power within that revelation may be the secret to Horsford’s success.

I was super excited to sit down with Horsford and again thank her for her graciousness. To see us talk more about her upcoming role on BET’s Reed Between the Lines, click here . The earrings Horsford is wearing in the photo and video are from her own jewelry line, AHM Collections! To see more of her artful pieces, click here .

Christina Norman Out of OWN-Was it Fair?

The saga continues at the OWN network. It debuted to great numbers, but after the curiosity with the channel wore off, the ratings have declined, and media veteran Christina Norman, who held the position as chief executive, has “exited” the channel. Some reports say she stepped down, and others say she was dismissed. I tweeted journalist Brian Stelter who wrote a piece on this shake up which you can read here, and he confirmed that she was in fact fired. (But I thought the term “dismissed” was a bit harsh and unfair.)

Winfrey made a statement in an email to the OWN staff stating "(Norman’s) hard work, passion and leadership were instrumental in getting OWN on the air.”… “Given all that we have to do, the OWN board felt it was necessary that we have a different kind of leadership in place for the next phase of OWN’s growth.” (And if you believe this there’s a nice shiny bridge I can sell you.)

I don’t believe this decision came solely from the board. Winfrey is the head of the Oprah Winfrey Network and all decisions including programming go through her. Norman did not create the programming. Her job was to execute it, as per Winfrey’s vision. Is it Norman’s fault that Winfrey’s vision isn’t attracting the numbers the channel had hoped? I don’t think so. I’m sorry Winfrey, but your channel is snooze-ville right now, and needs to be revamped. (Check out my thoughts on that here in a previous post.) I do not like the tone of this information that seems to scapegoat Norman (who was only on the job five months). You can’t build a network in five months.

I had a conversation with a few media colleagues that confirmed my suspicions that Norman’s “dismissal” quite possibly came down to a personality conflict. Word on the street says that allegedly Winfrey is surrounded by “yes men” (surprised?) and that basically, to make it plain, Norman is nobody’s puppet. Well yes when you have strong willed people working together it’s bound to get heated, but I feel Norman could have helped the channel turn around if given more time. Again, I think Winfrey needs to find a way to translate her “Living Your Best Life” brand to her channel in a way that is not only enlightening, but entertaining, and yes, again diverse. Just because Winfrey’s empire was built on the tastes of middle class white women does not mean they only want to watch themselves.

Though unfortunate, if Norman had to leave OWN, it may be better that she was in fact “dismissed” because at least then she probably got some nice walking away money. I do think the OWN channel has a bright future, but only if it makes some realistic changes that make sense to an audience who doesn’t want to sacrifice entertainment for enlightenment.

The blueprint that’s worked for The Oprah Winfrey Show hasn’t proved to work for an entire channel. So with that, Winfrey may need to be more flexible with her original plan. Because if we’ve learned anything over the past twenty five years of The Oprah Winfrey Show, sometimes you have to get out of your OWN way.

What do you think about this latest shake-up at OWN? Do you even care?

photo courtesy of NY Times

"Jumping the Broom" Needs to Leap a Little Farther

I went with six friends to see Jumping the Broom opening night. It was great to get together and not only support black film, but to support Arlene Gibbs, a talented sister who wrote the original screenplay. (Arlene is friends with one of the ladies who came out.) We took up almost an entire row at the theater!

Jumping the Broom is a movie about two families from two different worlds trying to become one. Sabrina, played by Paula Patton, comes to terms with the fact she has horrible judgment when it comes to men, prays to God for guidance and is led to her future husband, Jason, played by Laz Alonso. (Of course praying for a husband is made to look super easy in a T.D. Jakes film.)

The story continues to explore classism within the black community when Jason’s blue collar family meets Sabrina’s aristocratic relatives. The plot unfolds as Sabrina and Jason’s whirlwind romance begins to slowly unravel as the two fall out of the fantasy and into the reality of who each other really is, while their matriarchal families navigate their differences.

Jumping the Broom features a stellar cast including Loretta Divine, (Jason’s mother) Angela Basset, (Sabrina’s mother), Mike Epps, Tasha Smith, Meagan Good, and yes that fine Pooch Hall. (Ladies, there is plenty of eye candy in this film! There’s some for the guys too! I give Patton props for shooting this movie only three months after she had a baby. “WERK!”) It was also nice to see Gary Dourdan, (formerly of CSI) back on the screen, and watch Lil' Romeo, whose not so little anymore and tempting many grown women to “cougar up”!

Though entertaining, I did have some issues with the film. First we don’t really see Sabrina and Jason connect enough before they become engaged. They meet and then the film skips ahead five months. So we really don’t see why they feel so compelled to spend the rest of their lives together. And frankly, I did not find Alonso’s performance in the movie to be convincing. Secondly I thought it was a bit heavy handed when it came to revealing the class differences between the two families. Though Divine’s character had apparently been exposed to the “finer things” in life, the rest of her brood seemed overly impressed with Sabrina’s family’s trappings.

And though I completely respect T.D. Jakes’ message (and anyone’s choice) to save sex for marriage, I did not like the depiction/suggestion that the reason a woman’s love life is in shambles is because she engages in premarital sex, and the moment she makes a pact with God to refrain until she’s married, she will find her betrothed. (Her pact also included becoming more discerning about men, but down the line the film focused on her commitment to abstinence.) I’m tired of the double standard of women being depicted negatively for enjoying their sexuality where as men are rarely asked to answer to or defend theirs. But again, this movie was co-produced by T.D. Jakes, as well as Tracey Edmonds. And on a side note, Julie Bowen plays the wedding planner who acts as if she's NEVER seen or talked to black people by asking insipid cultural questions and being an overall nervous wreck! If she's so devoid of black cultural knowledge why was she coordinating a black wedding?

But I hope the buzz about Jumping the Broom can help prove to Hollywood that there are other versions of black life that don’t begin with “Tyler Perry presents”. No disrespect to Perry, but Hollywood needs to afford other storytellers the opportunity to illustrate the broad spectrum of our collective experience.

While I am not raving about Jumping the Broom, there are enjoyable moments, and I do think it’s worth seeing. It is definitely a step in the right direction back toward the “Love Jones” era of modern black films that provided a more diverse reflection of black life.

Did you see Jumping the Broom? If so what did you think?

Having an Unreasonable Faith!

There’s a lot going on in the world right now, from global troubles to personal challenges. Mother Nature’s had her way abroad with the devastating earthquakes in Japan, and right here in our own backyard where tornadoes have claimed the lives of 339 people in ravaged southern states. And as a country we’re still dealing with the ongoing recession and its rippling effects, including high rates of unemployment and a myriad of other financial burdens. On a more personal front, individuals are dealing with illness, broken families, broken dreams, loneliness, and a general sense of despair that can be subconsciously compounded exponentially in ways we may not realize, but are still affected by.

While writing this post I just learned, along with the rest of the world that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Many are celebrating, but celebration doesn’t come to mind for me. I sense times may get even more tense. I don’t know what exactly happened or what to believe about how Bin Laden was captured, but I do know this has a wide-ranging consequence. And all of this has led me to a necessary decision.

It’s time to be unreasonable. I’m talking about the idea of unreasonable faith; the kind of faith that makes you think to yourself, Am I crazy or naïve to think things will work out? Am I really tripping to BELIEVE that despite any tangible evidence, I will experience the materialization of my needs, my hopes, my dreams and my prayers? I was having a digital conversation with one of my Twitter buddies (@MyPolarO—follow her if you want to laugh, think, and then laugh some more!) about not losing faith (in dating, eeesh!) And I tweeted her, “Yes, it’s faith plus works, and sometimes faith just works.” And in the spirit of that, I have been in the process of adopting an unreasonable faith.

There are times when we must take action in our lives but there are also times, as AIDS activist Hydeia Broadbent tweeted that we can sit back and, “Enjoy the show because really, GOD is in control!” (And for the purposes of my post God/The Universe/A Higher Power/The Source are all interchangeable.) And after the work is done (or maybe if you haven’t done anything because you just don’t know where to start), let’s have unreasonable faith; an irrational trust that it can all fall into place.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve endured some taxing experiences. I’ve had those moments where in the midst of it all I wondered, how am I even standing? How do I even have half my mind right now? I think I was unknowingly tapping into a brand new level of my faith that transcended anything concrete or that was supposed to make sense. My subliminally divine trust kicked into overdrive without me having to call upon it, giving me a calm of which I could not articulate nor pinpoint the origin. This feeling of invisible assurance that this situation is temporary or this will be okay probably made me look and feel delusional; until I finally understood what unreasonable faith really is. It’s what happens when crazy circumstances leave you with no other choice but to invoke a crazy faith.

And after I became conscious of my unsubstantiated conviction, I maintained it with the help of friends, strangers, and resources, (including Cory Booker tweets!), that seemed to appear out of nowhere, coupled with spiritual focus and the decision to consistently avoid negative, discouraging forces. Life isn’t perfect, and I still feel highly discouraged at times, but overall I feel less burdened, less alone and more sure-footed on my journey. At times my path is lit, but at others I feel like MJ in the “Billie Jean” video where my steps only light up after my foot hits the ground. But thankfully I, like many laden by uncertainty, continue to put one foot in front of the other.

Folks, it’s time to be unreasonable. It’s time to be delusional and naïve about faith. It’s time to believe, unwaveringly without any proof that your needs, hopes, happiness and dreams will manifest. Having unreasonable faith is not about denying reality, but accepting it and then surpassing it, knowing that it’s all being worked out.

So whether you have work to do or you’re in a place where you can sit back and watch The Universe put all the pieces together, both situations may require an unreasonable faith.


Are you willing to be unreasonable?


photo courtesy of Shane Creech