Two Icons …. Two Amazing People …. Two people who changed the game!! I will forever be inspired!! #NichelleNichols #BillRussell #StarTrek #Uhura #Celtics #TheGOAT #Activist #BlackExcellence #RestInParadise🙏🏾
The ancestors are gaining some heavy hitters!!
Mixing it up for you this week! Plenty of options to choose from drama to horror with a splash of 80s nostalgia. Check them out below:
Surface (Streaming on Apple TV+ July 29th)
Paper Girls (Streaming on Amazon Prime July 29th)
Wedding Season (Streaming on Netflix August 4th)
Smile (In theaters September 30th)
See How They Run (In theaters September 30th)
Matilda (Streaming on Netflix December 2nd)
You ready for some new television and film?? Well you know I got you covered!! Check them out below:
Season 5-Grown-ish (Streaming on Freeform and Hulu July 20th)
Limited Documentary Series-The Last Movie Stars (Streaming on HBO Max July 21st)
Honor Society (Streaming on Paramount+ July 29th)
Honk for Jesus. Save your Soul. (In theaters and Streaming on Peacock September 2nd)
The Woman King (In theaters September 16th)
The School for Good & Evil (Streaming on Netflix September 2022)
Amsterdam (In theaters November 2022)
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.
To see the full feature and article, click here!!
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
Cookbooks
Resource Guides
Getting you ready for some summer film and television viewing!! It’s definitely going to be a HOT one! Check out the trailer below and see for yourself:
Spiderhead (Streaming on Netflix June 17th)
The Lake (Streaming on Prime Video June 17th)
Season 3-The Umbrella Academy (Streaming on Netflix June 22)
Season 2-Only Murders in the Building (Streaming on Hulu June 28th)
The Terminal List (Streaming on Prime Video July 1st)
She-Hulk (Streaming on Disney+ August 17th)
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.
Joan Tupponce-VCU News
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.
Marco della Cava & Maria Puente USA TODAY
To read the full articles, check out the following links: VCU News and USA Today !!
Last week was a doozy and I missed you all next week, but I got you covered! Never fail, check out this weeks new alerts below:
9 Bullets (In theaters April 15th)
Outer Range (Streaming on Prime Video April 15th)
Season 2-Russian Doll (Streaming on Netflix April 20th)
Captive Audience (Streaming on Hulu April 21st)
The Baby (Streaming on HBO Max April 24th)
Season 2-Gentleman Jack (Streaming on HBO Max April 25th)
The Time has changed, the Weather is getting warmer, and I got more tv and film newness just for you!! Looks like these next few month are going to continue to bring us the hotness!!
Check out some of the new things dropping in theaters and on your streaming networks!!
Season 2-Woke (Streaming on Hulu April 8th)
Outer Range (Streaming on Prime Video April 15th)
Season 6-Better Call Saul (Streaming on AMC/AMC+ April 18th)
We Own This City (Streaming on HBO April 25th)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Streaming on Disney+ May 25th)
The Boys (Streaming on Prime Video June 3rd)
Elvis (In theaters June 24th)
Black Future Feminist 