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Three years ago Fiyah Literary Magazine emerged into the speculative fiction field with a straight-forward premise: to publish speculative short stories, novellas, and poems by and about Black people of the African Diaspora.
They have had a startling start. In their first year, they won the World Fantasy Award in the non-pro category. Since then, cover to cover, Fiyah has shaken the white world of sci fi, fantasy, and horror, appearing on Must Read and Awards lists around the world. They’ve introduced us to fantastic writers and served as the entry point for readers who felt excluded from other stories.
Fiyah demonstrates what we, Black readers, already knew — exclusion of Black writers from mainstream outlets was not based on our merit but on racism and cultural imperialism. While other magazines and journals scramble to update their submissions guidelines and invite more Black authors, Fiyah continues to put out the fresh, new science fiction and fantasy that I love. Here at the beginning of their 4th year, it is time to revisit the latest issue, #13. Does it still bang? You know it does.
Fiyah Goes Theme-Free
Issue #13 isn’t centered around a theme. The themes that have been chosen in the past have set the tone not only for each issue, but for the direction of Fiyah in general. “Big Mama Nature” or “Ahistorical Blackness”, for example, introduce the reader to a whole new way of organizing sci-fi, fantasy, and horror around the wide variety of Black experiences, religions, and pasts. In this case, while there is no theme, two of the stories would easily have fit into an Ocean or Water Goddess issue. “All That The Storm Took” by Yah Yah Scholfield tells a post-Katrina tale of two sisters who sacrifice everything for the family home in the lower Ninth.
Scholfield is a young writer, 20 years old, who weaves a solid monster tale, where the monster is memory and death and the storm itself. It is magical and haunting. Soleil Knowles writes another water story, “Lusca”. I didn’t know that Lusca is the name of a sea monster that prowls the Caribbean, part mermaid, part octopus, all hunger. Knowles’ telling is very much about that hunger, and how it affects a young woman who’s mother is trying to separate her from the sea, to no avail. This is a perfect example of what’s possible in fantasy when all mythology is in play, not just re-treads of Greek or Irish myths. I enjoyed “Lusca” overall, but would have liked there to be more to it. The story gets lost in it’s own language, which is beautiful, but also as tangled as seaweed.
The third short story, “Roots on Ya” is similarly short, and reads like a personal family story. A rootworker is called to clean up a crossing spell cast on a romantic rival. LH Moore tells the story perfectly, filling it with the right balance of Virginia dialect to make the location stand out. This is a story about the culture of the time as much as it is about the heroic rootworker, who is outcast by the community while also being a sought after resource. I wish it were longer, however, and explored more of the growth of the characters. As it is, “Roots on Ya” is a snapshot of a moment, rather than an arc of development.
“The Transition of Osoosi”
By far the longest story in Fiyah Issue #13, “The Transition of Osoosi” is about a young revolutionary, Mal, trying to liberate his people in America. Mal is a Citizen American, a codified second-class of American category into which all Black and Native Americans are placed. They are are the mercy of True Americans, white people. This is, in many ways, our current reality dialed up to the maximum in the way of so much good cyberpunk. The story is filled with augmented reality, neural chips, and projected emotion webs. That technology layer is fascinating world-building.
Alongside that is a deeply human story of Mal, his sister, and his friends, as they all persevere under the ever-watching eyes of the country of their birth. Mal is trying to contact the government of United Africa, a Wakanda-like African country that is open to the possibility of supporting the fight for liberation. But the price for their support is high. This story casts United Africa as saviors surely, but also as problematic as any other organization that demands everything.
Gartrell pulls together a story that crosses both Native American history and West African mythology, giving room and strength to both. In doing so, it also has plenty of American pop culture thrown in, to make a narrative that felt representative of a multiracial American experience. And what does Mal “transition” into? Here a bit of West African cultural knowledge will serve you well. I enjoyed “The Transition of Osoosi” beginning to end and would gladly follow an entire novel of Mal’s adventures in the techno-dystopia. As it is, this short story is enough to hook me entirely.
Still On Fire
I continue to recommend Fiyah Literary Magazine to anyone who asks. Every story is unique, introducing characters and situations that feel intimately familiar as well as new ideas and mythologies that send me researching to Google.com. The variety of the diaspora is on display in these pages — and this display is making an impact on the mainstream. More literary magazines are updating their submissions guidelines and recruiting Black authors. But Fiyah remains the best.
Pick up Fiyah #13 direct from their website, https://www.fiyahlitmag.com/. A subscription is a great deal that will keep you full of the best Black Gods, Black Monsters, and Black Aliens all year long. See more of FIYAH online on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Happy New Year! FIYAH #13 is now available to download. https://t.co/2QoBZf7wUt pic.twitter.com/NofSbZ7s9Y
— FIYAH Literary Magazine (@fiyahlitmag) January 1, 2020
See more of our site’s other literature reviews here. Look for more reading material on our Bookstagram account on Instagram.
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The post New Year, New FIYAH: Fiyah Literary Magazine #13 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Three years ago Fiyah Literary Magazine emerged into the speculative fiction field with a straight-forward premise: to publish speculative short stories, novellas, and poems by and about Black people of the African Diaspora.
They have had a startling start. In their first year, they won the World Fantasy Award in the non-pro category. Since then, cover to cover, Fiyah has shaken the white world of sci fi, fantasy, and horror, appearing on Must Read and Awards lists around the world. They’ve introduced us to fantastic writers and served as the entry point for readers who felt excluded from other stories.
Fiyah demonstrates what we, Black readers, already knew — exclusion of Black writers from mainstream outlets was not based on our merit but on racism and cultural imperialism. While other magazines and journals scramble to update their submissions guidelines and invite more Black authors, Fiyah continues to put out the fresh, new science fiction and fantasy that I love. Here at the beginning of their 4th year, it is time to revisit the latest issue, #13. Does it still bang? You know it does.
Fiyah Goes Theme-Free
Issue #13 isn’t centered around a theme. The themes that have been chosen in the past have set the tone not only for each issue, but for the direction of Fiyah in general. “Big Mama Nature” or “Ahistorical Blackness”, for example, introduce the reader to a whole new way of organizing sci-fi, fantasy, and horror around the wide variety of Black experiences, religions, and pasts. In this case, while there is no theme, two of the stories would easily have fit into an Ocean or Water Goddess issue. “All That The Storm Took” by Yah Yah Scholfield tells a post-Katrina tale of two sisters who sacrifice everything for the family home in the lower Ninth.
Scholfield is a young writer, 20 years old, who weaves a solid monster tale, where the monster is memory and death and the storm itself. It is magical and haunting. Soleil Knowles writes another water story, “Lusca”. I didn’t know that Lusca is the name of a sea monster that prowls the Caribbean, part mermaid, part octopus, all hunger. Knowles’ telling is very much about that hunger, and how it affects a young woman who’s mother is trying to separate her from the sea, to no avail. This is a perfect example of what’s possible in fantasy when all mythology is in play, not just re-treads of Greek or Irish myths. I enjoyed “Lusca” overall, but would have liked there to be more to it. The story gets lost in it’s own language, which is beautiful, but also as tangled as seaweed.
The third short story, “Roots on Ya” is similarly short, and reads like a personal family story. A rootworker is called to clean up a crossing spell cast on a romantic rival. LH Moore tells the story perfectly, filling it with the right balance of Virginia dialect to make the location stand out. This is a story about the culture of the time as much as it is about the heroic rootworker, who is outcast by the community while also being a sought after resource. I wish it were longer, however, and explored more of the growth of the characters. As it is, “Roots on Ya” is a snapshot of a moment, rather than an arc of development.
“The Transition of Osoosi”
By far the longest story in Fiyah Issue #13, “The Transition of Osoosi” is about a young revolutionary, Mal, trying to liberate his people in America. Mal is a Citizen American, a codified second-class of American category into which all Black and Native Americans are placed. They are are the mercy of True Americans, white people. This is, in many ways, our current reality dialed up to the maximum in the way of so much good cyberpunk. The story is filled with augmented reality, neural chips, and projected emotion webs. That technology layer is fascinating world-building.
Alongside that is a deeply human story of Mal, his sister, and his friends, as they all persevere under the ever-watching eyes of the country of their birth. Mal is trying to contact the government of United Africa, a Wakanda-like African country that is open to the possibility of supporting the fight for liberation. But the price for their support is high. This story casts United Africa as saviors surely, but also as problematic as any other organization that demands everything.
Gartrell pulls together a story that crosses both Native American history and West African mythology, giving room and strength to both. In doing so, it also has plenty of American pop culture thrown in, to make a narrative that felt representative of a multiracial American experience. And what does Mal “transition” into? Here a bit of West African cultural knowledge will serve you well. I enjoyed “The Transition of Osoosi” beginning to end and would gladly follow an entire novel of Mal’s adventures in the techno-dystopia. As it is, this short story is enough to hook me entirely.
Still On Fire
I continue to recommend Fiyah Literary Magazine to anyone who asks. Every story is unique, introducing characters and situations that feel intimately familiar as well as new ideas and mythologies that send me researching to Google.com. The variety of the diaspora is on display in these pages — and this display is making an impact on the mainstream. More literary magazines are updating their submissions guidelines and recruiting Black authors. But Fiyah remains the best.
Pick up Fiyah #13 direct from their website, https://www.fiyahlitmag.com/. A subscription is a great deal that will keep you full of the best Black Gods, Black Monsters, and Black Aliens all year long. See more of FIYAH online on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Happy New Year! FIYAH #13 is now available to download. https://t.co/2QoBZf7wUt pic.twitter.com/NofSbZ7s9Y
— FIYAH Literary Magazine (@fiyahlitmag) January 1, 2020
See more of our site’s other literature reviews here. Look for more reading material on our Bookstagram account on Instagram.
Want to get Black Nerd Problems updates sent directly to you? Sign up here!
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
The post New Year, New FIYAH: Fiyah Literary Magazine #13 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Birds of Prey has finally hit our screens and we can’t get enough of the radical R-rated action romp. One of the highlights of the newest entry in the DCEU is its awesome action and stunt work. During our visit to London for the world premiere of the film, we sat down with the cast and director to break down how Birds of Prey became one of the most impressive superhero action movies we’ve ever seen.
With all the hype for the first female-led superhero team-up movie, it was easy to miss the fact that groundbreaking stunt person and helmer of the John Wick franchise Chad Stahelski was brought in as an uncredited second unit director on Birds of Prey. With Cathy Yan’s vibrant vision and Stahelski’s eye for bone-crunching practical action the film consistently surprises and delights with astonishing action, and the cast and director were quick to gush about the talents of Stahelski and 87Eleven the incredible stunt team behind the movie’s smash and grab brutality.
When we chatted to the film’s director Cathy Yan she explained that it had always been her intention to put action front and center in the film, luckily, it was something that producer and star Margot Robbie and writer Christina Hodson were fully in support of. Yan shot the movie in a unique fashion. The studio gave the creative team full reign over the film with no push to fit it into any particular rating. From what Yan told us, the crew hoped WB would allow for an R-rating. Looking at the first reviews and responses, that freedom and flexibility was a smart choice by Warner Bros. who recently saw huge success with another r-rated comic book movie and will likely be hoping that after the positive critical responses Birds of Prey will inspire a similar massive box office reaction.
Warner Bros.
The stars of the film were equally as excited about the intensive action training that Birds of Prey put them through. Robbie’s Harley Quinn is the heart of the movie and thus has some of the most outrageous action and biggest set pieces. The star of the film was clearly enthusiastic about the experience and the work of the stunt team who made the action sequences feel so real. She wasn’t alone; Jurnee Smollet-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Rosie Perez all eagerly spoke about how the tough regime and intense action training ended up feeling incredibly cathartic and empowering.
There’s plenty to love about Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn but the dedication to impressive, brutal, and ultimately fun practical action is something that truly makes the movie stand apart from other recent superhero offerings. As fans of stunt work and the people who make it happen it makes it even better that the cast and director spoke so highly of the team who made it all possible. Bring on the best stunt actor Oscar category; if it existed, Birds of Prey would be our top pick for the honor in 2021.
Header Image: Warner Bros.
The post How BIRDS OF PREY Went Full John Wick appeared first on Nerdist.
The challenge of Birds of Prey — DC’s newest hero film featuring antihero Harley Quinn — was to decouple its star from her iconic anchor. Since her first appearance in 1992 in Batman: The Animated Series (Fun Fact: Harley Quinn was not in a comic book until 1993), Harley has been the Joker’s partner in crime, sidekick and lover. The Joker’s stock has never been higher in pop culture on the heels of a financially successful solo film with 11 Academy Award nominations. It’s both prime time to highlight the characters around him but also a challenge to have them stand sufficiently on their own. In that specific challenge, I’m glad to say, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is successful.
Birds of Prey Ensemble Cast
While the Joker’s shadow looms over the first act of the film, a character more felt than seen, Birds of Prey pivots seamlessly into a place where you don’t expect his cameo, and neither do you want it. For this viewer, chalk that up as a win. Harley Quinn, played again by Margot Robbie, is fitting whether you enjoy this particular version of Harley or not. With the Joker’s absence, you would hope to fill that void with an ensemble of lesser-known characters, using the space to develop and shine. For that, unfortunately, expect to be disappointed: Birds of Prey makes the decision to skew the first two acts of the film almost entirely toward Harley Quinn, saving their inevitable team-up for the final act without meaningful development prior. The result is a ton of fun in the movie’s final ten minutes. With the thin, erratic structure of the first two acts and the fleeting backstories of Huntress, Black Canary, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain, you can only wish they had invested sooner.
Even if they had, it’s hard to imagine Birds of Prey having a heftier emotional weight given the failure of its villains, Black Mask and Victor Zsasz. Cartoon cutouts of mob bosses may very well fit the tone set in the film — one that plays on Looney Tune-type antics, like setting a beard on fire to have it burst into flames in a fight — but they fail at being interesting, compelling, or worthwhile antagonists. They aren’t heavy enough to make it feel like Harley Quinn has become a force of her own. Her character’s writing awkwardly toggles between being a self-aware mastermind (she planned many of the Joker’s best heists, and we’re reminded repeatedly that she has a Ph.D.) and a waif-y incompetent who often survives fatal encounters by sheer luck.
Action and Slapstick Combine
Where Birds of Prey excels most is its action, including what should become an iconic Harley Quinn break-in scene where Harley wields a glitter-bomb shotgun that captures the quintessence of the character. It all culminates in a team action scene that combines much of what you want to see, and is full of humor, if not much heart. Most of the laughs are anchored by Harley herself. Her love for a egg sandwich makes for a great running gag, and some of the biggest laughs come from an unexpected source in Crossbow Girl Huntress as she awkwardly practices being a badass (despite being, in fact, a bad ass already). Much of the other comedy and action is of the slapstick variety, best enjoyed when you lean into the silliness of what they’re trying to do. Admittedly, I failed to laugh at the antics of setting a beard on fire in an action move, but it’s hard not to smile at Harley whipping a baseball bat and having it return to her like it’s Captain America’s shield.
Birds of Prey avoids the easy bait of making its characters weirdly sexualized. Even in shorts and fishnets, Harley Quinn lands more as “quirky” than sexy, never with a camera angle panning up her legs or highlighting her ass as we saw in Suicide Squad. Instead, Quinn, Huntress, Canary, and Montoya are action stars in a beat-’em-up final sequence that features the martial arts you expect to see, with the added bonus of thoughtful touches like sharing hair ties.
Overall, is Birds of Prey fun? In its final scenes, absolutely; everything leading up to it, well, your mileage may vary dependent on how much you value its slapstick-y approach to humor and how much you want to see Harley compared to the rest of the Birds. For its ticket price, failed antagonist, and ultimately forgettable emotional arcs, I’d save this one for a plane. Birds of Prey will undoubtedly be a seized financial opportunity in an industry proving that B and C-list characters can bring in a strong box office. Birds of Prey brings fun action and doubles down on Harley Quinn, but with Huntress, Canary, Cain, and Montoya, its focus falls short of the expectation to see them emancipated together.
Find all of Jordan Calhoun’s Rotten Tomatoes-approved movie reviews at Jordan Calhoun at the Movies.
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The post Review: Harley Quinn and the Pips is Fun, and a Letdown appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.