International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. This year’s 2023 theme is about how we can #EmbraceEquity!!
How will you forge women’s equality and #EmbraceEquity? Check out some available resources and things you can do to celebrate!!
Challenge gender stereotypes, call out discrimination, draw attention to bias, and seek out inclusion
See the Google Doodle for the day…The vignettes within each “GOOGLE” letter highlight just a few of the many areas in which women around the world support each other to progress and improve each other’s quality of life. In honor of women across the globe who are supporting each other across all aspects of life — Happy International Women’s Day!
We are about half-way through February and trailers keep coming in!! This past Sunday during Super Bowl definitely dropped a few treats for us. Check out some of them below:
Final Season-Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Streaming on Hulu February 15th)
Luther: The Fallen Sun (Streaming on Netflix March 10th)
AIR (In theaters April 5th)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (In theaters May 5th)
Happy Valentine’s Day to all my BFF Family and Friends!! As a way of sharing my appreciation, here is a music playlist as well as film list to get you in the spirit!! Enjoy!!
Here is a playlist I created called “Black Love Through Music” on Spotify
And if you need a few suggestions of what to watch while cozied up on the couch, hanging out with that special someone, or with your crew check out this list of films to watch:
Claudine (1974)
Hav Plenty (1997)
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)
Brown Sugar (2002)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Rafiki (2018)
Naz & Maalik (2015)
Purple Rain (1984)
Carmen Jones (1954)
The Photograph (2020)
Breakin’ All The Rules (2004)
Nothing But A Man (1964)
Sylvie’s Love (2020)
Poetic Justice (1993)
Jason’s Lyric (1994)
Moonlight (2016)
Beyond the Lights (2014)
Really Love (2020)
I Will Follow (2010)
I Think I Love My Wife (2007)
Love Jones (1997)
Just a little something to get you in the mood for today and even for the rest of the week and month!! Happy V-Day!! Enjoy and Spread the Love!!
So much goodness, I had to share! Check out this weeks “HOT Topics”!!
On this coming Super Bowl Sunday history will be made through Autumn Lockwood!! Feb. 12 Philadelphia Eagles assistant performance coach Autumn Lockwood will stand on the sidelines as the first Black woman to coach in the event’s history.
Eagles assistant coach Autumn Lockwood will be the first Black woman to coach in a Super Bowl.
For all my gamers, check out this Humble Gaming Bundle! Humble has created a bundle of games by Black creators as well games featuring Black lead characters. By purchasing this bundle you are helping to support a new generation of game developers and tech talent.
The gaming bundle includes Mafia III and Shadow Man, along with the work of Black developers like Interabang Entertainment’s Jay & Silent Bob: Mall Brawl, Strange Scaffold’s An Airport for Aliens Currently Run By Dogs, and much more. Making a purchase will also help support Gameheads, an organization that “envisions a world where low income youth and youth of color are equipped to thrive and succeed in any field they choose, including the tech and video game industries.” To make a purchase see here!
If you want to know more about how Humble is celebrating Black History Month, check them out on their blog.
Also, in honor of Black History Month-AMC Theaters is doing a $5 Movie Ticket special for select films and participating theaters. Some of the films include:
Till (February 3-9)
The Woman King (February 17-23)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (February 24-March 2)
As noted by AMC Theaters, “AMC Theaters is giving moviegoers the opportunity to revisit some of the most recent biographical dramas, military epics, and dramatic action movies created by or starring outstanding Black filmmakers and actors.”The offer begins on Feb. 3 and ends on March 2, with each film being shown in theaters for $5 for one week only.
Need to up your wine game, check out this list of Black-owned Wine Brands that you can purchase online:
Theopolis Vineyards: “Theopolis Vineyards is a small lot vineyard and hand-crafted winery located in California’s prestigious Yorkville Highlands of the Anderson Valley.”
Kai-Simone: “Bringing elegance and sophistication to the rustic Texas Hill Country, Kai-Simone promises a wonderful experience for everyone who visits.”
Edelheiss : “By the cultivation of traditional, precious materials, the team at Edelheiss works closely and cooperatively with well respected local winegrowers and suppliers to ensure that it makes the most of its long-term relationships.”
Flo: “FLO represents the journey through which we discover those things in life that fulfill us and make each experience a little better; for the love of life, self, happiness, passion, joy…love itself.”
Publishing Company to offer free Black History e-books!!Haymarket Books will offer 40% off of books centered around the Black Liberation struggle and the following e-books for free to download: “From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation” by Keeanga Yamahtta, which explores why the Black Lives Matter movement is necessary; “Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice,” edited by Jesse Hagopian and Denisha Jones, which details how the Black Lives Matter movement has challenged institutional racism; and “1919” by Eve L. Ewing, a collection of poems depicting the Chicago race riots of 1919.
Image Credit: Haymarket Books
Viola Davis is now a part of the EGOT club!! At the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, Davis would secure her status with a Grammy Award for the audiobook recording of her memoir, Finding Me. The exclusive [E]mmy-[G]rammy-[O]scar-[T]ony winner list only has 18 names on it. Viola is the fourth Black artist to accomplish the feat, following in the footsteps of Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend, and Jennifer Hudson. Davis’ previous awards are Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2017 for Fences, an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2015 for How to Get Away With Murder and two Tonys, one for Featured Actress in a Play in 2001 for King Hedley II and for Lead Actress in a Play in 2010 for Fences.
Can we just say Marvel is not playing any games!! Wasting no time pulling the fans into theaters and updating their streaming services!! This week’s trailer alerts are dedicated to all the upcoming Marvel television series and films!! Check them out below:
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Streaming on the Disney Channel February 10th) [Now I’m super siked about this one!!]
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (In theaters February 17th)
Season 2-What If…? (Streaming on Disney+ Early 2023)
Secret Invasion (Streaming Spring 2023 on Disney+)
Guardians of the Galaxy-Vol. 3 (In theaters May 5th)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (In theaters June 2nd)
The Marvels (In theaters July 28th)
Season 2-Loki (Streaming on Disney+ Summer 2023)
Kraven the Hunter (In theaters October 6th)
X-Men ’97 (Streaming on Disney + Fall 2023)
While there are no trailers just yet for these next few we do have a time period for when to be on the lookout!!
With all the conversations and reactions surrounding the teaser trailer of the upcoming spring film “The Little Mermaid” myself and another colleague of mine Bethan Jones decided to put digital pen to paper and share some of our thoughts. The piece is titled, “Part of Your World”: Fairy Tales, Race, #BlackGirlMagic, and The Little Mermaid.”
Here are a few excerpts…
In 2016 Disney announced a live-action adaptation of its 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale, the animation earned critical acclaim, took $84 million at the domestic box office during its initial release, and won two Academy Awards (for Best Original Score and Best Original Song). Given Disney’s recent foray into creating live-action adaptations of some of its most successful animated films, it’s no surprise that The Little Mermaid was added to the list. Yet controversy rose when Black actress Halle Bailey was announced as Ariel in July 2019. Among the critiques was the argument that the adaptation should be as close to the original as possible, and the original featured a white mermaid; that if a Black character was re-cast as white in a remake there would be uproar; and while representation in all forms is important it shouldn’t override the history of the characters…
We even provided some history and background into the significance and importance of Black mermaids.
While the original fairy tale from Hans Christian Andersen does describe Ariel’s character as “her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea” this does not mean that there were no mermaids who were of color. In fact, water spirits and Black mermaids existed even before Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale. It is important to note the global history of mermaids and water spirits due to the fact that the existence of Black characters in fantasy, magical realism, and science-fiction is often non-existent. If we think about this from an Afrofuturistic lens, these early Western tales did not see Black characters as even being a part of these narratives. The waters have always been seen as a sacred space literally and figuratively within African folklore. Housed within many African traditions, the water serves as a bridge between otherworlds, life and the afterlife. And the sea deity Mami Wata or La Sirene (which translates as Mother Water or Mother of Water) serves as the beginnings of many African mythical tales.
Time is truly flying by! I feel like we just started the month of January, and here we are half way through the month! But with each day and week that passes more trailers are being released! Check out some new ones below:
Season 2-Harlem (Streaming February 3 on Amazon Prime Video)
Not Dead Yet (Streaming February 8 on ABC)
Somebody I Used To Know (Streaming February 10 on Amazon Prime Video)
Your Place Or Mine (Streaming February 10 on Netflix)
Black Future Feminist 