April has been a busy month for film premieres, events and glam gatherings! From the opening of the late-August Wilson’s drama “Fences,” starring Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, to Whitney’s shaky comeback, we have the latest photos of the latest glam gatherings!
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Okay, let’s cut right to the chase. Erykah Badu’s video “Window Seat” has been heating up Facebook pretty much for the past couple of days. I was hit with an onslaught of links and “whadya thinks?” since March 29, 2010. To say the least, people were “vexed,” distraught, titillated, mortified and stupefied.
Comments ranged from questioning her sanity, to outright anger, and to kudos.
Though Miss Erykah is one of my favorite music (and performance) artists, I hadn’t taken two minutes to watch the video because I’m just not one for a hard sell (no pun intended). I like people to get all of their nutty comments, talk show appearances and morning show battles out of the way before I actually feel compelled to view something objectively.
In this case, it was the subject matter that was so compelling that I had to finally watch: the perceived exploitation of the Black woman’s body, and controlling the image of the Black woman’s body. (What could it hurt, right? Plus it’s free, so stop complaining.) I click on the one of many links and sat, and sat, and sat.
First, I wasn’t that blown over by the song itself. It was pretty standard, and I felt it was more of a “filler” song. There were no vocal pyrotechnics, or note gymnastics, but it was listenable.
I started getting that Coldplay feeling like, “Oh, here we go again. Another film school experiment in an attempt to make some big –albeit undecipherable– artistic statement.”
For those who haven’t seen the video, Ms. Badu is in the same location as President Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas. (OK, keep that point in mind.) Dallas is also Ms. Badu’s hometown. (Point number 2.) The film is grainy and shaky. (Nothing good can come from that given the first point.) The camera is unflinching and Erykah is never out of view.
But wait… there’s more!
As Miss Erykah is walking down a busy Dallas street, she is slowly taking off clothing. By the time she takes off her top, you’re pretty sure it’s going down a slippery slope. (No pun intended, again.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS3ikrTJTqk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Yes, she strips down to nature’s own scuba suit… in public. And, no, there was no permit to for the filming.
In the end is a simulated assassination.
Wow. I didn’t see that coming… given the first point. But for many Am(erykah) it was just a little too much.
As someone who still cringes at nude scenes in film, I was a little floored, and somewhat impressed that she dropped it like it was hot. One side of me thought, good for her! The other side thought, now that was just unnecessary.
Of course people are outraged, including the City of Dallas. Folks in Texas don’t take to kindly to public nudity, especially when it’s filmed.
Talk shows, including the “Early Show,” went 5150. (That’s city code for “crazy.”) Morning co-host Maggie Rodriguez almost lost her breakfast while spewing out her distaste for the video, even bringing President Kennedy and how Ms. Badu disrespected the assassinated President. (Maggie, chill the f– out.)
My own mother had an interesting (and funny) comment, “You can’t expect a child not to be traumatized by seeing a nekkid Black woman… or man!” (Of course it was said in the humor.) We laughed because it was definitely in the humor of one of my favorite Mel Brook’s movies, “Blazing Saddles”: “Excuse me while I whip this out!” Aaaaaagh!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYlDbv7MqE8[/youtube]
It also brought to light a bigger issue: How does America (still) respond to the Black body?
Erykah responded via Twitter to everyone’s ire:
@fatbellybella character assassination due to mob mentality/ groupthink is the theme of the window seat video . The message is encoded.
OK, I got that, but I think that a deeper message about the Black body, America’s perception of it, and the fear, fascination and loathing it still possesses for people who never have an opportunity to see it in a positive light.
Hopefully the video will deliver a larger message and start a larger dialogue. Read Natalie Hopkinson’s take on the video and the Black woman’s body at “The Root,” and visit Erykah Badu’s Twitter account for her deeper insight into the controversy.
Event: T’Keyah Crystal Keymah in the CJP’s “Ella to Mandela”
“The Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Concert”
What: Concert
Start Time: Tomorrow, March 11 at 7:00pm
End Time: Tomorrow, March 11 at 9:30pm
Where: Auditorium Theater
More Info: http://auditoriumtheatre.org/wb/pages/home/performances-events/performances.php?event_id=284
Beautiful Brit singer Leona Lewis was recently featured in British fashion magazine, “Grazia.” A wonderfully shot layout featured the season’s newest trends in pale pastels, and included a ballet theme.
What was the issue?
Well, Ms. Lewis is not as well known in the United States, so no one would necessarily remark on her extreme weight loss. But one thing we can remark on is the extreme washing out of her skin tone.
Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue. However, there are several issues going on with this particular layout:
1. It’s still a little to close to “Beyonce-Gate” when cosmetics giant, L’Oreal, was accused of intentionally lightening the already light performer in order to appeal to a wider audience
2. The pale pastel wardrobe selection for Spring 2010 is reminiscent of Vanity Fair’s recent “pastel cover” featuring “New Hollywood” …and not one Black woman (or Asian) was featured, and
3. Why is the media obsessed with making Black, multi-racial, and Latina women lighter than they actually are…even considering how lighting can change your skin tone?
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Brit blog Stylelist seemed more concerned with Ms. Lewis’ weight loss, but readers were a touchstone to the other issue of skin lightening, or at least the perception of skin lightening, to make non-white women appear more acceptable, even to their own community. Although Leona Lewis is multi-racial, one reader writers:
Leon is black, regardless how she is airbrushed to look more caucasian. Black is beautiful and nothing can change that! Why change her colour when she was more beautiful before. A paler skin does not prove anything….
I know very few examples (outside of the late-Michael Jackson) of this same principle being applied to Black men in fashion magazines. Hopefully, film, television and media will understand that women of African heritage come in a multitude of shades, colors, hues, and ethnicity, and we don’t need someone else defining what is beautiful to us.
For all of you danceophiles and balletomanes, you’ve watched that quintessentially American modern dance company, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (click link for videos and more!), flourish, wane, and then flourish again over its 40 year history. The company started in 1969, under the leadership and artistic vision of dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey. His company was revolutionary for its time because: 1) there were virtually no modern dance companies with Black dancers, 2) he used Black dancers in his company and 3) though the dance vocabulary was strictly from the modern genre, he infused the dances and the body language with Black vernacular themes and movements.
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From his company, Judith Jamison became the Ailley’s version of a prima ballerina. She was not the usual dance type of that time (or this), which was short, waif-like, and, invariably, white –or passably white. Ms. Jamison was tall and lithe, curvy, and dark-hued. She was also a strong, aggressive dancer who attacked each movement. Audience members seemed to understand that her dance was speaking to a much larger issue than just movements.
[picappgallerysingle id="2622406"]Mr. Ailey created a dance to highlight her essence and her long limbs, and it became a standard dance for the company, and can still be seen today. She performed the solo Cry, which was supposed to be a piece within the larger dance called Revelations. Her performances brought audiences to their feet, and her fierce dancing spoke about the struggles and life of a Black woman –a topic that was never approached previously.
The Ailey company also produced such renowned dancers as Carmen De Lavallade and Masazumi Chaya, in addition to Ms. Jamison.
Unfortunately, in 1989, Mr. Ailey passed away. The company faltered while it tried to get its foothold. There were struggles regarding the direction of the company, and who should lead. During that same year, Ms. Jamison became the Artistic Director of the company.
Under her direction, the company grew, and continued Mr. Ailey’s vision, while also acquiring a new, state-of-the-art facility on West 55th Street.
According to AOL Black Voices, the company has been seriously searching for a new director for the past three years. Ms. Jamison is trying to gradually move on, while she is committed to a seamless process of knowledge transfer. From the same article, she states, “This company is about past, present and future, and I’m seriously reaching into the future,” she shared. “I am not going be around here forever. I want 50 years more for this company, and while I am here, I really want to do this process.”
Regardless of who they select, the vision of Ailey has been in capable hands for 20 years. Hopefully, the vision will continue, as will the spirit of Alvin Ailey, himself.
Normally I don’t comment on the foolishness of today’s “celebrities,” but Sean “Diddy” Combs recent comments about Jennifer Lopez are starting to become nauseating and publicly humiliating for his so-called girlfriend and “baby mama” Kim Porter –especially since he just threw Ms. Porter a birthday party less than a week ago in West Hollywood.
Though they’ve been on-again-off-again for more than a decade, and though they have three children together, he still openly pines for his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez. It wasn’t enough that when he *was* with La-Lopez, he wasn’t yet “through” with Ms. Porter, yet and still, he made such outrageous proclamations that he was “in love” with J-Love, and went as far as to purchase signage in NYC to proclaim it.
The message this is sending is not about unrequited love, or “two ships sailing in the night,” it’s obviously about setting a dollar sign on a relationship and placing a social hierarchy on a relationship –and the Black woman is still the lowest valued in both. This also sends a message to young, Black women about their personal worth, and can only chip away at the delicateness of young, Black, female self-esteem. Imagine the countless hip-hop fans who are young, Black women who are witnessing this repeated public disrespect of Ms. Porter? To have our magazines hold up this dysfunction as a “healthy relationship,” while one of the partners publicly declares his love to another on gossip blogs, gossip magazines, and in Playboy Magazine, is too much. (Read The Dish here…)
Please, let’s stop co-signing on this kind of public humiliation of Black women and stop feeding into its dysfunction and self-hatred.
I’m officially off of the soap box…
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