Join us today at 6:00 pm PT / 9:00 pm ET on Instagram live, Black Girl Nerds host Ryanne Bennett interviews Quvenzhané Wallis, Shinelle Azoroh and Jordan Rice of the Apple TV+ series Swagger.
Quvenzhané Wallis is an Academy Award-nominated actress whose talents and command of the screen go beyond her young age. Originally from Houma, Louisiana, Quvenzhané got her big break at the age of five when she auditioned for the lead role in Beasts of the Southern Wild, where she beat out over four thousand other candidates and went on to make history.
In Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Quvenzhané’s portrayal of Hushpuppy, a young girl growing up in the flood-plagued bayous of Louisiana, was hailed by critics as a career-defining performance and one of the best by a young actor to date. It is no surprise then, when the film received an array of Oscar nominations, that Quvenzhané became the youngest actress to ever receive a nomination when she was nominated for Best Actress, all while at the age of nine.
In 2019, She made her television debut with a reoccurring role on ABC’s hit show Blackish as Kyra. A relative who moves in with the family. Along with her impressive credentials and awards, Quvenzhané has received praise for her acting skills from the likes of The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Variety amongst many others. When she is not wowing audiences across the world on the big screen, Quvenzhané is enjoying a normal life back in Louisiana, where she enjoys reading, dancing, cheerleading, basketball, volleyball, and music.
Shinelle Azoroh is an American actress, director, and producer. Ms. Azoroh began her career after graduating with her Masters of Fine Arts in acting from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, CA. She made her television debut in the movie Betty & Coretta, where she starred as Malcolm X’s daughter opposite Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige.
On television, Ms. Azoroh has made guest appearances on such popular series as Magnum PI, Code Black, and Night Shift. She created and starred in the popular YouTube series “Roxie Wolfgang”. Feature films include Nostalgia with Jon Hamm and Ellen Burstyn, Blumhouse’s film Don’t Let Go and the Oscar-nominated short “Dekalb Elementary”.
Jordan Rice is an actress, filmmaker, and content creator from Atlanta, GA. At age 11, she made audiences hold their breath in her film debut as the last little girl on the screen during the church bombing scene in Ava DuVernay’s Selma. Some of her other notable film/TV work includes the character Esme (DC Universe’s “Doom Patrol”), and recently her role as Jackie Carson in the Apple TV+ Series, Swagger, directed by Reggie “Rock” Bythewood and produced by Kevin Durant. She has trained in theatre for 10 years with the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, and she has studied acting for screen for the past 7 years. Rice has used her talents both in front of and behind the camera to be a tool of social justice for women and people of color.
Her creative work has garnered her recognition as a 2020 YoungArts Theatre Finalist and Winner and a 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts Semifinalist. Rice is thrilled to continue developing her artistry and expanding the artistic space for more artists of color in the future.
As always, you can catch the conversation live or the replay on BGN’s Instagram page @blackgirlnerds.
Initially, Witch Beam’s new puzzle game, Unpacking, seems like an odd choice of subject matter. Moving into a house in a new location is a chore. Gameplay built around furnishing a home is the kind of material that Animal Crossing and those of its genre already seem to have on lock. Furthermore, the home and the objects placed within it aren’t even chosen by the player. So, what’s the draw?
The draw, surprisingly, is that hidden in Unpacking’s 2D pastel pixel art is a narrative version of the suitcase from Resident Evil 4. That installment of the franchise featured a distinct upgradeable storage system, where maximizing the space within the suitcase became a game unto itself. The player could fit only as much as the interior grid of the case would allow.
In Unpacking, the metaphor of the suitcase has become a series of rooms, each inhabited by an unseen protagonist at different stages of her life. Starting out, the player decorates a child’s room by placing toys, games, and other items on shelves and any available non-floor space. The game encourages play with intuitive controls that let you rotate or activate each item.
This healthy lack of tutorialization allows the player to explore their capabilities, limited only by the rooms they’re working in. A click opens each box, and in succession new keepsakes are drawn out until the empty box disappears with a satisfying pop. The unpacked pieces can be rotated to fit a space or stacked if of a similar type.
The only major restraint against progression is that improperly placed items will be highlighted along with the room they should be moved to. While this can become an irritating hindrance, it weirdly influences gameplay by turning Unpacking into a quiet psychological profile. The way players choose to furnish these spaces tells as much of a story as the pieces themselves.
Are you the type to pack with a plan, or toss stuff wherever it fits? As you play, the games challenges will shift you between these types. At times, you’ll be piecing together sets of items from boxes scattered across in multiple rooms. It’s an incredibly relatable consequence of hitting that moment of ‘fuck it, I’m putting these things wherever they fit.’
Despite the game never speaking a word it’s infused with character like this. The stuffed plush pig mascot survives from move to move, popping up as part of the bedroom set. A framed degree struggles for adequate display space once the character moves out of their college dorm — which feels like subtle commentary. That’s not even counting working around the existing furnishings of other roommates.
As a quick and relatively light experience, Unpacking is best taken in short sessions. Regardless, it holds surprising depth (and a lovely chiptune soundtrack). Curious players will find achievements for item placement and interactions. Witch Beam has brought a satisfying emotional connection to one of the most exhausting experiences of adulthood.
7.25 out of 10 Furnished Rooms
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The post ‘Unpacking’ Makes a House into a Home appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Afronerd Radio can now be heard LIVE courtesy of Apple Music/Itunes
The opening salvo for this week's show is simply......can Black men endure? Alas, another Black man who had an indelible cultural impact, passes from our mortal plane-musician/music journalist, Greg Tate. Let's just jump into it as we always do, shall we? Check out the latest installment of the Afronerd Radio "steam engine" better known as our Mid Week in Review airing this (and every) Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern on the BTalk 100 cyber-broadcasting platform. Join your "sensational" AFROnerdist hosts as they wax the night fantastic concerning these varied topics: the aforementioned and untimely death of journalist and Black Rock Coalition co-founder, Greg Tate. The crew discusses his career and cultural significance within the landscape of Black music; Dburt ponders the importance, underestimation, and failure to economically compensate the "black voice" in pop culture and media:
More thoughts about how the MCU will incorporate and address the canonical "mutant struggle" in forthcoming franchise films and streaming IPs; some folks are none too pleased concerning the race and gender tropes being shown in Amazon's new Harlem streaming series and this puts the writer, Tracy Oliver in the crosshairs:
This is absolut BS and would never happen in a barbershop. Just more effed up writing to make black men look like savages. #Harlem #HarlemOnPrime #amazonprime pic.twitter.com/IaerbNZupg
— JDogg (@JDiezelFitness) December 7, 2021
And lastly, if time constraints permit, we will try to squeeze in: She-Hulk's back to "retro" look showcased in Avengers #50; legendary comic creator, George Perez' grave health prognosis; Disney+'s Hawkeye show, episode 4 and Miles Morales' apparent use of hair texturizer has triggered some fans (no joke).
2018 || 2022 pic.twitter.com/8jtn860kBx
— best of miles morales (@comfortmorales) December 5, 2021
One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF
Call us LIVE at 508-645-0100. AFTER CLICKING ON THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK, GO DIRECTLY TO AFRONERD RADIO!!!
Also, Afronerd Radio's podcast format can be heard via BTalk 100 Pandora, Spotify and, IHeartRadio....more formats to follow!