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https://blackgirlnerds.com/season-2-of-harlem-trailer-is-available-now/

Today, Prime Video released the official trailer of the highly anticipated second season of Harlem. The second season will consist of eight episodes, with two episodes premiering every week, starting February 3 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
 
From writer Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip), in Season Two, after blowing up her career and disrupting her love life, Camille (Meagan Good) has to figure out how to put the pieces back together; Tye (Jerrie Johnson) considers her future; Quinn (Grace Byers) goes on a journey of self-discovery; and Angie’s (Shoniqua Shandai) career takes a promising turn.

Harlem Season Two is produced by Amazon Studios and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Paper Kite Productions. In addition to creator, writer, and executive producer Tracy Oliver, Paper Kite’s Amy Poehler (Russian Doll) and Kim Lessing (Moxie) serve as executive producers, alongside 3 Arts’ Dave Becky (True Story), Britt Matt (First Wives Club), Scott King (Difficult People), Linda Mendoza (Survival of the Thickest), and 13-time Grammy Award winner Pharrell Williams (Hidden Figures) and Mimi Valdés (Roxanne Roxanne) from i am OTHER.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/queenie-godmother-of-harlem-shines-a-light-on-an-unsung-heroine/

Looking for a graphic novel that shines light on an unsung heroine of Black Harlem? Queenie: Godmother of Harlem is the perfect pick and has thoughtful facts throughout. 

In the intro for Hachette’s Queenie: Godmother of Harlem, the latest graphic novel from Elizabeth Colomba and Aurelie Levy, there’s a section about the megascope. The current form of megascope is featured in The Witcher and it also exists as a publishing house that focuses primarily on speculative works of science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism that feature people of color. It was named after a fictional device invented by the legendary W.E.B. Du Bois that can peer through time and space. 

It’s a fantastic house that showcases the innovation and creativity of peoples of the diaspora. Legends are created from old wives tales and shape our history in new and exciting ways. Queenie: Godmother of Harlem sheds light on a different type of hero for the Black community. The intro by Columba and Levy says “Freedom has a price, freedom is priceless. History depends on whose version is told. Here is ours.”

Then begins the story of Stephanie St. Clair, a Martinique native who ran numbers in Harlem. The mafia and other organizations thought she was an easy target, but the tale of St. Clair shows she’s not so easily overtaken. Over 152 intricately illustrated pages, St. Clair’s or Queenie’s story is told in loving detail. 

There’s even a glossary and list of historical figures in the book that were lost to history. Colomba is a painter living in Harlem. She’s also of Martinican descent and was born and raised in France. She has collaborated with Tom Ford and Baz Luhrmann, and her panels have a fashion forward quality to them. Levy is a French writer and filmmaker. She was born and raised in Paris and met Columba at UCLA where the two would form a creative collaboration. 

The novel starts with Queenie — at times respectfully known as “Miss St. Clair” — getting out of prison in 1933. To celebrate her night out, they go to a party of Black American painter Charles Alston. There she talks about promoting the likes of Thelonius Monk and being in cahoots with Lucky Luciano.  

It’s interesting to see a narrative around a renaissance figure who was considered an anti-hero of the time. During her generation, Queenie was dedicated to bettering, educating, and uplifting her community, and the support for this endeavor came from illegal activity. Interestingly enough, the practice itself is akin to crowdfunding we see today; the real infraction came in keeping others hands out of the pot. 

In March 2022, The Outfit was released featuring a Chicago based madame with a similar story. Portrayed by Nikki Amuka-Bird, Madame Violet LaFontaine ran a numbers game in Chicago and was prosperous for years until white mafia came in. Underestimating the Black woman who ran the outfit, the mafia ended up having a much tougher time ousting them. They took more hits than anticipated due to her smart strategy and loyal allies. 

In that narrative, LaFontaine walked so Queenie could run. After prohibition ended, the mafia was no longer making as much running illegal liquor and decided to pivot to numbers. What they weren’t prepared for was a) there already was a successful numbers game and b) the head of that game was a Black woman in Harlem. For years Queenie resisted the mafia’s interests and control and spoke out against corrupt police. She was known for placing ads in the local papers that informed the Black community of their rights. She was a precursor to Bumpy Johnson who was her enforcer originally. He was also at the forefront of most of the violence while Queenie was the brains behind the operations. 

In the graphic novel we begin with her release from a prison stay and experience her life through flashbacks and meaningful interactions. As a graphic novel, the book has something minimalist about the presentation that allows the subject to be the star. Colomba’s illustrations are reminiscent of the old school Chick tracts with detailed shading and lines but with a pared-down style that works even in black and white. 

The story is portrayed interestingly, but there is a bit of disjointedness with the flow. Scenes turn on a dime and suddenly end. There are flashbacks that are introduced and then dropped without forging the connection completely to the main narrative. That said, for a project that is as educational as this, it’s extremely entertaining. Queenie’s cunning, prowess, and ruthlessness in the face of her enemies is shown beautifully — and so is her humor. 

There is a brutality, and its origins are portrayed beautifully through flashbacks, but in the same vein there is fierce loyalty and a determination to better her community. Sadly (or luckily depending on how you look at it), Queenie died with little fanfare. It wasn’t reported in any newspapers, and the news broke in waves over the years. On one hand, it’s nice she was able to live the rest of her life in wealth and prosperity, on the other hand it was one more Black hero that the community didn’t have access to. It’s one of the many reasons this collection is so important. 

Queenie: Godmother of Harlem will come out January 17, 2023, and will be available at all major booksellers. 

https://blackgirlnerds.com/review-amcs-immortal-universe-expands-with-anne-rices-mayfair-witches/

AMC expands the cinematic universe of late author Anne Rice, officially called the Immortal Universe, with an episodic adaptation of the 1990s novel trilogy Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Written and created by Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford, both known for Showtime’s Masters of Sex, the supernatural drama follows the titular Mayfair family’s 300-year legacy of powerful, oft-doomed women. The eight-episode first season primarily focuses on The Witching Hour, the first novel in the trilogy, which is over 1,000 pages or 50+ hours on audiobook. 

“The Witching Hour,” the aptly named first episode, introduces us to Dr. Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario), a successful neurosurgeon working in San Francisco. She’s good at what she does and deeply cares about her patients. However, the doctor in charge still questions her abilities. When people start collapsing and/or dying around her, Rowan thinks there’s something seriously wrong with her. 

After the tragic passing of her adoptive mother Ellie (Erica Gimpel), Rowan looks into her biological family, whom Ellie kept a secret. With all the weird and terrifying things she’s experienced and seemingly caused, she goes to her birthplace of Louisiana to search for her mother, discovering that she’s inherited the wealth of being a Mayfair, which comes with supernatural abilities.

She’s also in the early days of realizing a man is penetrating her mind. Lasher (Jack Huston) is a seductive shape-shifting demon who dresses well and has a penchant for tempting Mayfair women. In the first five episodes available to screen, we don’t learn much about his character other than his dark influence and devil-on-your-shoulder behavior. 

Meanwhile, the secret society of paranormal researchers, as seen in Queen of the Damned and the rest of Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles series, the Talamasca has kept tabs on the unexplained events surrounding Rowan. Ciprien Grieve (Tongayi Chirisa) enters Rowan’s life as her newly appointed Talamascan protector, stalking her until they have an intense confrontation in San Fran. 

Ciprien, an original character created for the series as a composite of the novel’s Michael Curry and Aaron Lightner, is an interesting character with a generous amount of screen time. I’d watch a series just following him investigating the dark history of the Mayfair clan.

As Rowan’s protector/observer, he’s empathetic and determined to keep her safe — and it doesn’t hurt that he’s attractive and has the most soothing voice. Although their first meeting is chaotic, when she gets to NOLA, they form more of a bond despite her guarded personality. Naturally, he becomes her love interest, and things get messy. 

Rowan is a hard character to pin down at first but grows with each episode, which is largely due to the captivating Daddario. But while Rowan struggles to understand who she is, the audience is just as uncertain. Though she’s confident in her knowledge and abilities as a doctor, she’s also noticeably anxious, fidgety, and frazzled. She’s fiercely independent, a bit hardened at times, and emotionally unavailable to anything more than a casual hookup. 

There’s a big shift between bluish and clinical San Francisco and the warm, golden-hued New Orleans. Ironically, the city that celebrates death as a joyous gathering and not a bleak day of somber mourning has much more life to it. In one episode, we see a New Orleans ritual funeral procession, essentially a parade of music, dancing, and high spirits. The makeup, costumes, and details are all fascinating. Easily my favorite scene in all five episodes. 

Even Rowan opens up more when she’s in the city, though her mind alternates between confused, disoriented, uneasy, or in shock. To be fair, she has a lot going on and her family is a lot. She meets her manipulative great aunt Carlotta Mayfair (Beth Grant), who kept Rowan’s mother, Deirdre Mayfair (Annabeth Gish), in a drug-induced daze for years. Rowan doesn’t take a liking to her great uncle Cortland Mayfair (Harry Hamlin) either. However, the family patriarch with a taste for luxury and influence is much more pleasant than Carlotta, though hiding something. 

The series also briefly takes us back to the 17th century when women work as healers and midwives in the town of Donnelaith, Scotland, who I presume are Mayfair ancestors. However, the series has yet to establish the relation between the two timelines more than halfway into the season, though it does deepen the series’ overarching theme: female oppression in a male-dominated world afraid of powerful women, particularly healers and doctors. 

Like its main character, the tone of Mayfair Witches seems uncertain of itself. It gets off to a slow start but becomes a more intriguing story with each episode. With its impressive cast, lively (and spooky) New Orleans setting, and intriguing story, I’d say it’s a worthy addition to the “Immortal Universe.” 

Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches premieres on January 8, 2022, on AMC and AMC+. The companion documentary All of Them Witches premiered on December 21 (“Winter Solstice”) on AMC, and began streaming on January 2. 

https://blacknerdproblems.com/how-to-dismantle-a-technocracy-talking-with-rob-guillory-and-sam-lotfi-about-mosely/

Back in October 2022, we had the fortune of getting to provide an exclusive announcement about the latest series from Boom! Studios by Rob Guillory and Sam Lofti: Mosely. Our titular character is an elderly janitor armed with an indestructible hammer and a fire in his belly ready to take down all of the 2075 Tech Gods. And now, we have had the fortunate to sit down and get some more insight into the series and creative process.

Talking with Rob Guillory, writer of Mosely

BlackNerdProblems: I personally have been a big fan of yours ever since I picked up the Smorgasbord Edition of Chew. What has the transition been like going from being a comic artist on Chew, to being the writer/artist on Farmhand, and now being just the writer for Mosley?

Rob Guillory: It’s been educational, that’s for sure. Even back when I was on Chew, I was noodling with scripts with the intention of making the jump to writing down the road. Farmhand was the natural next step for me, taking on both ends of the creative process. And I probably learned more from that experience than anything else I’ve done. Obviously, doing everything myself gives me maximum freedom creatively, but there’s something special about sharing the load with a collaborator. So that’s where Mosely came in. It’s the one thing I hadn’t done, writing for another artist, and it’s been far more enjoyable than I imagined. So, in short, I love all three creative methods, and I’ll definitely do all three again down the road.

BNP: What was impetus for penning a story about an anti-technological janitor rebelling against the technological gods?

Rob: Having kids, probably. Navigating the many pitfalls of tech just wasn’t something I’d ever considered until our first child started reaching for our phones. Now our oldest is 11 and teaching him to responsibly use these devices is still a hard slog. So Mosely came out of my frustration with the state of things, that I have to constantly contend with this damn black mirror that’s always trying to drop things into my kids’ minds I’d rather protect them from. Mosely is what I’d like to do with my kids’ tech on certain days, what I’d like to do to all tech after a bad scroll on the Internet.

BNP: Your stories have a semi-satirical/cartoony bent to them while still managing to have a hard edge when it comes to commentating on society. How do you manage to transition between these modalities while still being tonally consistent?

Rob: It’s just how I think. It’s not something I deliberately set out to do. My influences have always been somewhere between Looney Toons, Mad TV, and the Twilight Zone, so my work tends to come out that way. I love the expressiveness of cartoons, and more often than not I think life is pretty cartoonish on its own. My work just turns it up to 11, I think. I always set out to make the kind of work that I’d enjoy reading.

Talking with Sam Lotfi, artist of Mosely

BNP: Your credits include a wide variety of genres ranging from horror, fantasy, noir, and science fiction with Mosely. How do you manage navigating these genres that have very different conventions and visual cues?

Sam Lotfi: I enjoy all the genres you mentioned, and the art should not only tell the story visually, but make the reader feel something about the story. I like the creative challenge of making subtle changes to my art to best suit whatever genre I’m working in. I look for those different conventions and do my best to bring my own take to them; hopefully, it feels genuine and pulls the reader into the story.

BNP: Related to the above, what genre has proven the most time-consuming?

Sam:  It would have to be science fiction because in order to make it feel like a believable world you need to invest time into designing all the important elements of that world before diving in.  I also like to make sure I leave room for spontaneous creativity on the page, so I don’t design everything in advance, just the key elements and I let that inform whatever I do spontaneously on the page.

BNP: Your website has some fantastic pencils/inks illustrations. Do you prefer working with physical medium or utilize it alongside digital art tools?

Sam:  For comics, I like to do layouts digitally since that’s where the most changes take place, but once that’s done, I prefer to scale them up to 11×17 and print them out in light blue so that I can pencil and ink traditionally.  Digital tools are amazing these days and I use both depending on the project, but I still love the tactile feel of paper and ink and all the happy or not so happy accidents that happen on the page while creating something.

Double Trouble with The Duo

BNP: Favorite Panel from the first issue?

Rob: There’s an “Alas, Poor Yorick” moment early on in the issue that Sam handles beautifully, where Mosely is silently regarding this broken robot in a janitor’s closet. It’s a very small touch amid a ton of great moments in issue one, but that one sings for me. It’s perfect. No dialogue at all, but it says so much.

Sam:  Page 7 panel 7 – We get a glimpse into Mosely’s current life and a sense of how he wants to change things.  Mosely is literally stepping out of his office/janitor’s closet and leaving all that mess behind, but symbolically it speaks volumes; especially when we see where the story takes him later on.  I love injecting subtle symbolic character or story cues whenever I can and even if it goes unnoticed, it doesn’t really matter, because hopefully it still gives the reader a feeling or sense of something when they see it.

BNP: What is the most challenging part of writing Mosely? What is the most enjoyable?

Rob: The challenge was distilling this huge futuristic world into just five issues. I think we settled on just the right amount of backstory, leaving just the right amount of mystery. And the most enjoyable part was writing Mosely himself, obviously. He’s such a lovable jerk.

Sam: I’m more of a fantasy/horror guy, so I’d say the technical design of the world and robots is probably the most challenging part for me.  The most enjoyable however, is whenever I get to draw Mosely smashing stuff with that big hammer or when he gets pummeled by enemies, both are fun to draw. 

BNP: What do you hope your readers will feel after reading the first issue of Mosely?

Rob: Satisfied, but hungry for more. I want every issue to feel fulfilling to the reader. No fluff, just good story.

Sam:  I hope they’re drawn into the world and feel they can relate to Mosely and hopefully want to see more!

BNP: What would your chosen implement be for dismantling a future technocracy?

Rob: Solar flare, if I can arrange it.

Sam:  I’ll be honest, I’m not the most tech savvy person, so I tend to get a little impatient when tech doesn’t work as it’s supposed to.  There’s a reason I designed a giant fist into the already huge hammer, so yeah, definitely Mosely’s hammer!

Thanks again to Rob and Sam for taking time to talk.

Grab your copy of the first issue of Mosely at your local comic shop, Boom! Studios website, or Amazon when it comes out January 4th.

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The post How to Dismantle a Technocracy: Talking with Rob Guillory and Sam Lotfi about ‘Mosely’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.