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https://blackgirlnerds.com/5-summer-reads-by-black-women-authors/

Summer is almost officially upon us, and I’m excited because that’s when I get to indulge in some good books. I love reading, and put together a list of books by Black women authors that you’ll love and are worthy of reading more than once. This list is a mix of new books and books I’ve read before that I believe will be perfect for your summer travel, vacations, and much-needed relaxation time.

The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett

Desiree and Stella are twins who can’t wait to get out of Mallard, LA — a small, Black town they’ve grown up in. At sixteen, they finally run away. One chooses Black, and the other chooses white. The sisters ultimately lose touch with one another. One comes back to town with a Black daughter, while the other lives across the country, passing for white while hiding her past. This book reminded me of Imitation of Life and Passing.

After finishing this book, I missed the journey that Bennett takes you on with the lives of the women. We see how two generations diverge and then come back together later on. The themes are interesting to me — race, gender norms, identity, motherhood, loneliness, colorism — however, I wish the characters jumped off the page a bit more. This book will be made into a television series on HBO by our favorite awkward Black girl Issa Rae. So, we can look forward to seeing how the story and characters are interpreted on screen.

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

If you enjoy warm but honest depictions of characters — especially heroines — you should read this book for that alone. Then there’s the examination of generational curses. How the way we’re raised can lift us up or put us on our backs as we grow and move through the world. Eva and Shane’s backstories, the issues they coped with as a result, and the choices they made regarding the children in their lives and their own futures, were all so significant to me.

It’s a love story. It’s beautiful, messy, and heartbreaking. Yes, just like a good love story should be. It also explores topics of masculinity, race, addiction, and writing. This book’s rights have also been purchased for us to see it on-screen, which is very cool. I love that so many Black women authors are getting these incredible opportunities.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

The story is about two girls — Camino and Yahaira — one in the Dominican Republic and one in New York City. They have never met or known of each other’s existence. But when their father is killed in a plane crash on his way to visit Camino, they find each other within their grief. The story is moving and filled with grief, loss, and family secrets. All of this came together in verse.

What I loved most about the book, besides Acevedo’s ability to write moving free verse, is that it brings attention to tragedies that happen all the time. Some are noticed, when they are newsworthy and saturated in politics – terrorism, school shootings, for example – but some are left to be grieved only by those directly affected. The rest of the world goes on as normal, never seeing the pain inflicted on a community.

You Made a Fool of Death By Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

This story centers on Feyi Adekola, an artist who has decided to start dating again after the death of her husband. There are a series of events that lead to her falling for a man that has also lost his wife. Going into this, I knew it was going to be a heavy read, but I believe this book struck a balance of heavy, heartfelt moments with steamy, sexy moments. My only issue is that I felt like the main romance between Feyi and Alim felt a little bit rushed. But the beautiful writing and the eventual chemistry we see between them made up for that. I hope that Emezi has plans to write more romances in the future because I absolutely ate this one up. So, so good.

Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis

I believe it’s safe to say that Viola Davis is one of the best actresses of our generation. She’s phenomenal and her Instagram posts are the best. The first half of the book is A LOT. It is about Davis’ childhood which is heartbreaking (domestic violence and sexual abuse). The book reads like a conversation with Davis; one where she is telling you all of this terrible trauma but in a very passive way; almost as if she’s in denial about it. It’s trauma story after trauma story, and it’s so uncomfortable to read. Once you’re out of the first half of the book, your anxiety calms down. There weren’t as many behind-the-scenes stories about Davis’s movie roles as I expected, and the last third of the book skipped past her accomplishments very quickly post-2005. That was the least compelling aspect because it felt like a rapid listing of cool events, not deeper introspection. Society has so many labels of what is normal and beautiful. I love that Viola Davis bares her soul to let us know it is okay to be yourself and that you can overcome challenges and obstacles.

Check out more book recommendations here.

https://nerdist.com/article/the-boys-season-3-episode-4-real-world-stupidity-satire-homelander/

The Boys stands among television’s best because it excels in so many ways. It seamlessly combines character-driven stories, insightful social commentary, and wildly entertaining, wildly inappropriate humor. A single episode can feature intimate scenes between family, meaningful explorations of corporate malfeasance, and a room full of exploding heads. But episode four of season three, “Glorious Five Year Plan,” highlighted how the show can also combine all those elements to create perfect moments of stupidity. Because even on a series that requires building massive realistic genitalia, The Boys most unbelievably dumb moments come directly from the real world.

Homelander is literally the most powerful man in the world. He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. If—as he threatened he would last episode—he ever decides to take over the world nothing can stop him. He doesn’t have to carry the nuclear football with him. He is a nuclear weapon.

That’s why his latest appearance on the Vought News Network’s The Cameron Coleman Hour was patently ludicrous. Homelander’s company, the most powerful in the world, has its very own propaganda news network. He was a guest being “interviewed” by a corporate shill whose only job is to make the superhero look good. And why was Homelander there? To address legitimate criticism of something terrifying he said on live television. He wasn’t taking responsibility, however. Nor was he fairly addressing his critics. He was claiming he’s a target of unfounded “lies peddled by the mainstream media.” And who is actually behind these “attacks” on him? Rich and powerful “people you’ve never heard” who “operate in the shadows,” of course. It’s those unnamed, secret people—who are “everywhere”—that actually pull “the strings” of power. They’re always trying to silence an invulnerable god with laser eyes. Naturally.

That scene’s lack of shame would seem too over-the-top if not for the fact it plays out in the real world every day. Politicians and the uber-wealthy, those with actual power, do the same thing all the time. They use “news networks,” whose real purpose is to operate as a wing of the party, to amplify their endless list of grievances. Those stations let powerful people get their message, even the most heinous, out to millions of people unchallenged and unquestioned. Like Homelander, they’re so deplorable they’ll go on TV and deny what they’ve done even when there is tape of them doing it.

And it’s not enough to lie and never take accountability; they act like victims. You can have all the power in the world, get everything you ever wanted, and still sell yourself as the aggrieved underdog. All with a straight face. Forget fictional superheroes. No one does fake victimhood like real politicians.

But while that absurdity plays out every day on basic cable, the episode’s most embarrassing moment parodied one of the singular most ill-conceived moments in advertising history. A-Train’s exploitation of social justice movements to sell a drink really did happen.

In 2017, Pepsi quickly pulled a commercial starring Kendall Jenner. If you’ve never seen the infamous Pepsi ad, which appropriated the Black Lives Matter movement, congratulations. You have truly lived a better, less annoyed life than the rest of us. (Especially if you’ve never watched the full version.) But that also means you didn’t get to appreciate just how accurate A-Train’s version was. They’re the same commercial. Except for his super speed, The Boys didn’t need to exaggerate a single aspect of the ad. The fictional version might actually be less mortifying.

How someone ever came up with the ad’s concept—let alone pitched it, got it approved, found people willing to film it, and then got it on to television—-remains one of mankind’s greatest mysteries. The Pepsi ad was so obviously asinine and offensive that even within the world of The Boys, the parody stood out. A Wolverine-like supe murdering people with superhero sex toys? Sure, totally believable. But thinking you can pass off a reality star bridging the gap between protestors and the police by handing a cop a can of soda without anyone knowing how craven that is? No, that would be too much. Or it would be if we hadn’t already seen it.

(At least we now have A-Train’s commercial to go along with Beck Bennett’s pitch-perfect SNL sketch about it. We both want to never think about that Pepsi ad again while also making fun of it forever.)

People often say “we live in the dumbest timeline,” and The Boys certainly doesn’t disprove that. But that’s why we love when the show uses real events for humor. It’s a lot easier to laugh at things when it happens in a fictional world and not our own. And it’s not like we can’t still appreciate when the series invents its own absurd moments. Like when a blonde-haired racist sociopath tried ingratiating himself with a Mexican-American by serving him a taco bowl.

Could you imagine if someone were stupid enough to do that?! We can’t either! That’s why we’re laughing at the idea right now instead of staring off into nothingness while wondering how long humanity can survive.

Only The Boys can make a fictional buffoon incapable of genuine human empathy funny. But that’s why Homelander is both the show’s best villain and its best idiot. He’s too stupid to know why that is offensive and embarrassing. He’s also the last person we’d want to see become the most powerful person in the real world.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Real Life Is Never Too Ridiculous For THE BOYS appeared first on Nerdist.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/abbott-elementary-gives-happy-news-for-season-2/

ABC’s Abbott Elementary has quickly become a critical and audience darling. Created and written by comedian Quinta Brunson who also plays Janine Teagues, the show follows a documentary crew while they film the lives of teachers and students at the eponymous school. The show also stars Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Chris Perfetti, and Lisa Ann Walter. 

BGN attended a special panel where the cast talked about what makes the show special and what we can expect next year. Tyler Perfetti is currently starring in King James at the Steppenwolf Theater and was unable to attend the panel. Eccentric janitor William Stanford Davis took his place. 

Abbott Elementary is a character-driven sitcom that uses the popular documentary-style seen in The Office and Parks and Rec. The advantage, according to Brunson, is that you see the small moments that often get mixed when the subjects don’t know the camera is on them. Lisa Ann Walter, who plays Melissa Schemmenti, had this to say about the beauty of the smaller performances: 

“Sometimes, it’s just the tiniest little thing. Like when Chris [Perfetti who plays Jacob] thinks Barbara [Sheryl Lee Ralph] will retire and his reaction to it is to almost burst into tears. Just a moment when he realizes it and then walks — you think, that’s gorgeous! And each one of you has a moment like that.”

Brunson went on to add Walter to the mix. 

“Lisa has these moments in talking heads — which I don’t get to see when I’m on set – where the character is written very hard, or the line was written with a hard voice in mind. She makes a different choice of a soft, quiet voice that shows you how much Melissa Schemmenti loves her kids.”

The cast has a true affinity for each other and respect that spans from season veterans like Tyler James Williams and Sheryl Lee Ralph to newcomers like comedian Janelle James. 

“Janelle just makes me funnier!” Brunson effuses about James, who plays the wayward Principal Ava. They have a special relationship that is probably more rejection than bonding. But Brunson’s character is constantly made better by Ava, and every now and again, the sentiment is returned. 

“It’s a real blessing to work with people who make you better in every way. It’s a real pleasure.” Brunson continued with a big smile on her face. 

Season 2 is coming up, and Brunson has hinted that we’ll now see more of the home lives of our teachers. At the end of the last season, we saw Janine break up with her long-time boyfriend, Tariq (Zack Fox), an aspiring rapper who takes a job in New York City. 

We also learn of Jacob’s boyfriend Zach (Larry Owens) and see a relationship start to form between Greg (Tyler James Williams) and Barbara’s daughter Taylor (Iyana Halley) — possibly to Janine’s dismay. It will be a welcome change to see more into the inner lives of the teaching staff, especially the notoriously private Lisa Schemmenti. 

“You know, behind closed doors, they are crazy! And Barbara has a little tick tick boom in her!” Lee Ralph said excitedly on the carpet. Brunson also admitted that she was most excited to take the audience to Melissa’s house. 

As for the budding yet stalled romance between Janine and Gregory, Brunson stayed coy. But Williams revealed he’s been told about what will happen, and he’s very excited not only to see how it plays out but how audiences will react. 

Brunson has an indefatigable optimism while staying rooted which is a hard vibe to pull off. 

The panel moderator, Rebecca Ford, senior awards correspondent at Vanity Fair, made the observation of Brunson, “I have never seen anybody be the head of the show, the lead, a writer, and by the end of the season, everyone still loves that person. The cast and crew would run through a brick wall for her which is just a testament to her character.”

Whenever dealing with the press, there is an element where the cast has to turn themselves “on” to promote their shows. Watching the cast, most of whom were relatively new to TV, you could tell there was a passion and enthusiasm not just for the show, but for the message of giving a voice to teachers whose lives are spent trying to make our youth better. 

Brunson originally came up with the idea because her mom was a teacher and she saw the obstacles and successes she had. She cared about her students despite uncooperative parents, decreased funding, safety concerns, and more. Brunson wanted to make the show as an ode to her mom and to all of the teachers out there who only want to help. In doing so, she’s created a funny, heartfelt sitcom that is as engaging as it is thought-provoking. 

Abbott Elementary will return for the 2022-2023 school year. In the meantime, you can catch up on episodes through Hulu.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/felicia-d-henderson-talks-netflix-series-first-kill-and-the-importance-of-representation/

Felicia D. Henderson has established herself as a television producer-writer-director and creative genius for the last few decades. She’s a leading Black female showrunner writing and producing some of our favorite shows such as Marvel’s The Punisher, Sister, Sister, Moesha, Family Matters, Soul Food, Empire, and a long list of others.

BGN had the pleasure of speaking with Henderson via phone to discuss her latest work as head writer of First Kill, a new YA vampire-versus-vampire-hunter drama premiering June 10, 2022, on Netflix. She also drops major gems about the importance of Black storytelling and opening doors for the next generation of Black creators.

Over the last few decades, you have shown us that the Black family, Black women, and Black storytelling are not just entertaining but are vital to the culture and have longevity. Can you speak more about what this has meant to you throughout your career?

Even before I knew I was going to be a writer, I knew that whatever space I was in, I wanted to be elevating and have a concern for how we are looked at and arrive in the space. I work really hard and reach back to pull others in so that we can continue to grow. I started with such strong Black women mentors — Sarah Finney-Johnson and Vida Spears. They sort of grabbed me by the collar because I was a wild one always sharing my opinions when people didn’t ask. My dad also raised me to believe you don’t bow down to anyone and your space needs to be exactly what you want it to be. No one is better than you. So, I brought all of that with me to my first job on my sitcom Family Matters. Being that way has always given me a strong sense of self and made me not shy at all about pulling others up — people who look like me, as well as other underrepresented groups. You look around and see that the world needs to include us, so it’s always been important to me to try and do that.

As one of the first Black women to run a drama series — Soul Food — you paved the way for others such as Mara Brock Akil, Shonda Rhimes, and Issa Rae. When we talk about opening doors, is there any pressure or level of responsibility that you feel?

I don’t feel the pressure at all because it’s a joy. I do feel a level of responsibility, but it is a joy. I’m hard on folks because if you’re coming through the door behind me, you’ve got to show and prove. Everyone is not ready for the opportunity, and everyone cannot be taught. But when I find the ones who want to be taught and work as hard as I do, then it is joyful. I feel blessed by it.

Let’s talk about First Kill, which has some unique dynamics going on. There is a Black family against a white family, issues of classism, and the two main characters are both queer. Why was this particular representation important for the series?

Truly, the biggest reason I said yes to this job is because representation matters. Yes, it is the sweet spot of everything I love doing creatively. I love writing about family. I love the YA space and all the messiness of teenage years that I remember all too well. From a personal point of view, I care about representation. I know that it matters.

I love the idea of writing about strong, adult women, which we have in the two mothers. I love writing about Juliette and Calliope in terms of that time when you have to figure out who you are and the moment of separation from who your parents say you have to be.

For me, I know that my first job is to entertain and I love entertaining. If I can be subversive in this story about vampires and vampire hunters, that is a stand-in for intolerance, the need for acceptance, and the need for people to mind their own business, then my personal meets my professional. There’s no better place to be.

The representation of three-dimensional Blackness; representation of a Black family in this genre space is something we do not see. Also, the representation of queerness in a story that’s not just about their queerness or just a coming-out story. One of the things that attracted me to this was the normalizing acceptance in both of their families of who these girls are.

The mothers, very strongly, have the responsibility of keeping their families together. With the legacy vampires, it’s a matriarchy. From that point of view, she has an ultimate responsibility that she is next in line to be the most powerful woman in the entire legacy family of vampires. From a historical point of view, Black mothers, because of the legacy of slavery, had to be at the forefront of taking care of their families. To bring that in and be able to say what it means to be a Black mother but wrap it into mythology, it doesn’t get any better than that.

A stand-out moment, in Episode 3, was the Black family barbecuing and playing dominoes in the back yard. It is so symbolic and such a staple for the Black family. It was a whole vibe!

You just made my day! That’s why it’s important that we’re in the room. If you don’t have us in the room, then our experiences as a people are not in the room. You can’t bring that kind of specificity to characters without that experience. Yet, we weren’t only dependent on me for that. I made sure that the writers looked like and came from life experiences like the ones we would be depicting. So, I’m so glad you were feeling that. The goal was to lean into how these families were different — culturally, racially, ethnically — and show those differences should be celebrated.

What would you like to see with the next generation of Black women creators?

Because there’s so much need for content, what I see now are people rising through the ranks really quickly without the benefit of the experience that makes you successful when you get there. Instead of slowing down and making sure these people get a chance to actually go sit on a set, they’re missing out on the opportunity to learn the process, even though they are in the big chair. For the next generation, I wonder what kinds of programs and processes will be put in place to make sure that they’re ready and don’t fail.

With it being Pride Month, what are your thoughts about WNBA Superstar Brittney Griner as she is still being held in a prison in Russia?

I want to see our president, who is in that office because Black women got behind him, do everything he can to bring that Black woman home who is being wrongfully detained. We need to bring Brittney home.

First Kill begins streaming on Netflix June 10, 2022.