As we close out another season of Conversations with Beloved & Kindred, we wanted to make sure you get a chance to view the latest episode, just in case you missed it!!
For our final feature in examining Blackness and horror we talked about the 2016 film The Girl With All The Gifts!! With this film, we get an opportunity to discuss what it means when you really listen to what children have to say and power that they possess literally and figuratively!
Once again do not just take my word for it check out our commentary and see for yourself!
A few months back I got a chance to meet this amazing Black feminist scholar Dr. Jaimee Swift and her research, personality, and grind truly impressed me. During this encounter, she shared an upcoming event that I had to make sure to share with you!! I’m all about sharing the wealth with the masses. Check out the event below:
2nd Defend Black Women March
Honoring Marielle Franco: Celebrating the Power of Black Feminisms in Latin America & The Caribbean
July 29-31, 2022–Malcolm X Park (Meridian Hill Park)
HEADSHOTS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: SARA GÓMEZ, MARIELLE FRANCO, NANNY OF THE MAROONS, ANDAYE, OLUWATOYIN SALAU, MAMA TINGO, MARY JONES, bell hooks, and NEHANDA ABIODUN. THEIR HEADSHOTS ARE IN BLACK AND WHITE AND THEY ARE CONNECTED BY A COLORFUL MURAL BACKGROUND. Photo Credit: Black Women Radicals/Defend Black Women March
I’m Back!! I know missed you all a couple of weeks, had to take a little vacay, but I’m ready to drop some goodies for you!! Don’t you just love that we can get some film and television newness with the snap of a finger! Well let’s see what we got this week for you!!
Check them out below:
Loot (Streaming on Apple TV+ June 24th)
Season 4-Westworld (Streaming on HBO Max June 26th)
Season 2-Only Murders in the Building (Streaming on Hulu June 28th)
Black Bird (Streaming on Apple TV+ July 8th)
Persuasion (Streaming on Netflix July 15th)
Power Book III: Raising Kanan (Streaming on STARZ August 14th)
On last month, I had the opportunity to present a paper on “#BlackGamersMatter: Gaming and the Black Imaginary” at the Beyond the Page-“Present Encounters: Digital Humanities Meet Afrofuturism” at Temple University (Philadelphia, PA).
Dr. Gipson presenting at the Present Encounters: Digital Humanities Meet Afrofuturism (Temple University)
And if you are interested in checking out the full symposium see the following videos below:
Part 1: Welcome remarks by Joseph P. Lucia, dean of Temple University Libraries; Keynote Address by Dr. Reynaldo Anderson, associate professor of Africology and African American Studies: “Afrofuturism: The Second Race for Theory,” See here
Part 2: Discussion with curator, art director, illustrator Eric Battle, and illustrators Damali Beatty and Nilé Livingston for the Black Lives Always Mattered!: Hidden African American Philadelphia of the Twentieth Century original graphic novel, See here
Part 3: Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio project presentations in the Scholars Studio Innovation Lab, See here
Part 4: “Virtual Blockson” presentation with Jasmine Lelis Clark, See here
Have you ever just looked at an image or a still shot of something and became overwhelmingly excited and stunned at the same time?? Well those are my exact emotions when I saw the image below:
For even more of the above emotions check out the Empire Exclusive picture, see here!!
The image above is from the upcoming film, “The Woman King.” It is inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey (now known as present-day Benin), which was one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its story follows Nanisca (Viola Davis), General of the all-female military unit (for additional context the women who inspired Black Panther’s Dora Milaje), and Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), an ambitious recruit, who as a team “fought enemies who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.”
Davis debuted the trailer for the film at this year’s CinemaCon in April.
Hook … Line … and Sinker … I’m sold!! To see Viola Davis in a “kick-ass” role (literally and figuratively), as well as see the history of a group of Black women warriors unfold on the Hollywood screen is music to my ears! Now that is “Representation Matters” in action!!
“The Woman King” was co-written by Dana Stevens and Gina Prince Bythewood who also serves as the director. The film is also produced under Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon’s company, JuVee Productions (along with . Not only is the film on point behind the camera but it also includes a dynamic cast, which includes Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and John Boyega. According to Prince-Bythewood, “we were intentional of creating an ensemble of the dopest actors of this moment from all over the diaspora.” AND the musical score will be coming from the legendary Terence Blanchard. I’m already on the edge of my seat waiting for this one to hit theaters!!
“The Woman King” is set to be exclusively in theaters on September 16, 2022.
Tune in on this Thursday May 12th at 3 pm/ET as Dr. Robinson and I continue our discussion n Blackness and horror with a discussion on the 1997 film, Eve’s Bayou!!
This discussion explores the 1997 film Eve’s Bayou. Actress Kasi Lemmons made an auspicious debut as a writer and director with this delicately handled, wrenchingly emotional drama, hailed by critic Roger Ebert as one of the best films of 1997. Eve’s Bayou begins with ominous narration: “The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old.” From that point the story moves backward in time and memory to Louisiana in 1962, when a young girl named Eve (Jurnee Smollett) witnesses a shocking act on the part of her womanizing father (Samuel L. Jackson). But what really happened? And can Eve be certain about what she saw when there is more than one interpretation of the facts? Less a mystery than a study of deeply rooted emotions rising to the surface to affect an entire family, the film has the quality of classic Southern literature, with layers of memory unfolding to reveal a carefully guarded truth.
Just in case you want to refresh your memory of the movie, check out the trailer below:
So this past weekend I had the pleasure of being featured in two news outlets VCU News and USA Today!!
For VCU News, I was interviewed about one of my Spring courses, “Say Her Name: Humanizing the Black Female Voice in Television.” I got a chance to surprise my students with one of the actress [Cherokee Hall who plays “Extra Extra”] from the STARZ television series “P-Valley”.
Check out some of the story here:
It’s important to Gipson that the course engages with what’s happening in the world. The representation of Black female actors and the characters they take on has always been essential to the success of television as a medium,” she said.
However, Hollywood is not quick to showcase, celebrate, and even hire them. Television has made strides, but it has been inconsistent and slow moving,” she said, adding that many of the women whose work the course studies are breaking barriers and re-setting television culture. I want students to see how television and film are a way to tackle issues and problems.
Now for the USA Today article, I switch gears and offer some social commentary on the Dave Chappelle incident and whether America can still handle a joke!!
Here are a few of my thoughts below:
But the combustible cultural moment we are living in — one roiled by political discord and pandemic restrictions — certainly is testing that joke and let joke philosophy, says Grace Gipson, assistant professor in the department of African American studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
I feel like in his day Richard Pryor took things to an extreme maybe even greater than what we see today, but no one was bum rushing the stage, says Gipson. Today, it seems like people are free to show their anger beyond heckling.
On this past Tuesday morning, I got to sit down again and talk with my friends over at Let It Be Known w/Stacy Brown and Black Press USA TV discussing the topics of “Black Women’s hair,” “Respectability Politics vs. Defending Black Women,” and the recent #TheSlap incident!!
Lot’s of great commentary and perspectives were shared!
Tune in below:
And let me make sure I give a shout out to my fellow panelist Carrington York (a School of Journalism graduating senior at Howard University)!!
Black Future Feminist 