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 this past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to be a featured contributor for a Juneteenth Reading List on VCU News!! I am always excited when I get to share a some resources and good reads/finds!!
The recommended reading list consists of various faculty on the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) campus. The list is meant to inform and celebrate the Juneteenth holiday. As noted by Elinor Frisa,
VCU News asked faculty, as well as staff from VCU Libraries, to suggest books that help readers understand and celebrate Juneteenth and all that it represents.
For my featured selection, I chose ‘We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy’ by Natalie Baszile.
Readers also get the opportunity to see the ways in which Black farmers use the land to discuss race relations, create identities, showcase the harvest as a healing tool and explain how it passed down through generations. I recommend this book as it is filled with rich history (past and present), it speaks to the importance of land ownership for Black Americans and it does not rely on one type of farming story. “We Are Each Other’s Harvest”is an inspiring book that informs, encourages and serves as a guide to the future legacy of Black American farmers.
As we prepare to celebrate the now federal holiday, Juneteenth, it is important that is not simply a day-off but a day of remembrance and liberation. And to get you in the spirit, I have compiled a few things to get you started!
Check it out below:
Film & Television/Podcasts
A Dream Delivered: The Lost Letters of Hawkins Wilson (Streaming on Paramount+ and PlutoTV)
‘Sound of Freedom: A Juneteenth Celebration’ (ABC/Hulu) Friday-June 17th at 8 pm/ET
‘Something in the Water Festival’ (Amazon Prime Video and Twitch) Friday-Sunday 3 pm/ET
‘After Jackie’ (History Channel) Saturday-June 18 at 8 pm/ET
‘Juneteenth: A Global Celebration’ (CNN) Sunday-June 19th at 8 pm/ET
‘Omitted : The Black Cowboy’ (ESPN 2) Sunday-June 19th at 2 pm/ET
Emergency (2022) [Amazon Prime Video]
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America- Episode #4-“Freedom” (2021) [Netflix]
Miss Juneteenth (2020)
Juneteenth Jamboree: A Place For Families (2016) [PBS]
President Joe Biden talks with Opal Lee after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Bill, Thursday, June 17, 2021, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Chandler West)
Summer is on the horizon and I am just getting you ready for the heat!! Got a nice mix of returning series, new films, and series premieres. Buckle up and get your remotes charged up and your popcorn ready!
Check out the new trailers below:
Season 3-The Boys (Streaming on Prime Video June 3rd)
Surviving Summer (Streaming on Netflix June 3rd)
Andor (Streaming on Disney+ June 3rd)
Beast (In theaters August 19th)
Three Thousand Years of Longing (In theaters August 31st)
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:
Black Future Feminist 