By Funnel Cake Flowers, The Urban Chameleon News Reporter
USA today calls Black Man Holiday I mean Best Man Holiday a
Race-Themed film
Awww snap white people you done messed up again and let me
guess you have no idea why.
Allow me to explain, to translate. You see Black people want
nothing more than to fit into the fabric of society here in the United States of
America. You know the country that was built on the backs of our ancestors but
yet and still we are considered outsiders. I know you keep telling us, “That’s
bullshit! You gotta Black president, what more do you want, everything is
equal.
But it’s really not and USA Today’s comment was evidence of
that. For if we were really considered equal, and Black people in Black films and
non-Black films were common I guarantee you we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
There would be no need to point out that The Black Man Holiday, (excuse me) I
mean TheBest Man Holiday is a “race-themed film.”
And the thing that really hurts is that I’m sure, NO! certain,
that the Black people involved in Black Man Holiday (excuse me) The Best Man Holiday were not striving
to make a Black film…just a film…people…just a film. And you ruined it white
people.
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by today's Urban Chameleon contributor Ayoka Chenzira
There is a disconnect between
the lived experiences of contemporary Black America and the movies.
One reason is that there simply aren't enough films featuring the lived
experiences of people of color that are greenlit for production. Not that the stories or screenplays aren't there -- they are not being made.
This period of what is being called "slave films" is discomforting. On
the one hand so many people are unfamiliar with that period in American
history. Common thought also suggests that so many of us think that
slavery was such a long time ago -- so we do need films that show that
part of the county's despicable history.
That said, in many
ways, the films about slavery are not telling us anything new and in
fact continue to highlight the same premise and archetypes -- that
slavery was terrible not because people were stolen from their
homelands, bought and sold and insured (by still surviving U.S.
insurance companies) but because the white slave owners were sadistic.
Cut to -- let me show you how sadistic. The sadistic (often well to do)
slave owner and his seemingly powerless wife are finally challenged by
the well-meaning white man who will essentially become the turnkey hero
through an act of kindness or bravery. This of course disallows for the
historical evidence of how many slaves survived, rebelled and escaped.
It also closes the door on a deeper visual rhetoric about how slavery
was part of a knotty American fabric -- common -- ubiquitous -- often
without fanfare. It's residue still has death grip on modern day
America.
You can tell a great deal about a culture through
its art and specifically through its national cinema. Not only by what
is produced but what is absent. Timing is everything -- so the question
does remain -- why now are "slave films" being produced? We often hear
that screenplays by African American filmmakers cannot be found. I have
a science fiction film and am adapting the novels of Pearl Cleage to
the screen, others that I know have dramas, comedies and historical
pieces. What they have in common is a modern day take on African
American lives -- and points of view that we seldom see expressed in
American cinema. The absence of this work on screen is very telling
about American culture.
The phrase "Out Here In These Streets" came to life for me and a good
friend of mine while traveling to South by South West in Austin Texas this past
March 2013. The festival is a stomping ground for entrepreneurs
, innovators, independent thinkers and creative and technology lovers. People like us just doing our thing...out here in these streets.
In Black culture we identify with the term "streets" as a
game, a jungle even at times a matrix; it basically sums up, a very real hustle; whether you're a drug dealer or
an entrepreneur.
Several years ago, separately and at different times, me and my friend decided
to take a leap of faith and dedicate ourselves to building something, being our
own boss, being in control of our time while trying to make this world a better
place.
As sexy as that sounds it's not always. In fact at times I wonder if I picked
the harder hustle, ‘cause selling drugs has got be easier than keepin' it legal.
There is an illusion to being an "entrepreneur." You actually think
you're in control. But you are not in control. I'm not even sure if god is in
control. This was confirmed for me just the other day while watching for the
first time the movie, Daddy's Little Girl
starring Idris Elba. Lou Gosset’s character tells Idris' character at a moment
where he’s down and out that's he's going to need the help of “God and two more
white people.” That's real.
Most of the time being an entrepreneur is a pride swallowing, ego-deflating
journey and that's not even the worst part. The worst part is continuing to
actually pursue the damn journey; seeking the word "yes" in a world
of "no. " But you do it anyway.For an entrepreneur knowing and
understanding this is what it means to be out here in these streets. Are you out here? Get at me.
Fresh from the Atlanta Fringe Festival, FUNNEL CAKE FLOWERS & THE URBAN CHAMELEONS created by Emmy nominated writerHaJ and directed by Award-winning filmmaker Ayoka Chenzira comes to Washington DC! This multimedia, interactive exposé highlights
black-white relations by outing the lives of people of color who, as code-switchers,
choose when to reveal their accents and attitudes in front of white people,
creating a shocking and hysterical Saturday Night Live style mock of the
human condition while “living in color in a white man’s world.” Check out the
promo here
SHOW
TIMES:
Tuesday July 2nd at 8:00PM
Wednesday July 3rd at 8:00PM
Location:
Katzen Center
American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington, DC 20016
Ticket's are $12 for adults $10 for students and seniors.
Purchase online here or at the door. If you can't make it TELL
A FRIEND! You won't be sorry
Follow on Twitter @Ticklestv @UrbanChameleons
Become a fan on Facebook! Tickles.TV https://www.facebook.com/Tickles.TV
Six
years ago when I had my son I knew it was my responsibility to provide
him with the best that I could. When he was three someone told me about
progressive education, which peaked my interest. These are
schools that teach critical thinking as oppose to following orders. A
huge difference between how poor children and rich children are
developed. Outliers: The Story of Success written by Malcolm Gladwell, explores these and many other dissimilarities. Poor
kids are usually taught to follow authority where rich kids are
encouraged to be inquisitive. They are more likely to go to a doctor and
ask questions that they have a right to know, like why are you putting
that instrument in my ear?
The school that I ended up enrolling my son in teaches kids
to be thought leaders and citizens of the world. This entails asking
questions and exploring different answers until they make sense. The problem is, this makes for a difficult relationship between my son and his Trinidadian grandmother, (my mother).
One weekend I left him with her. She sent me a text telling me to pick him up earlier than we discussed before she wrings his neck. He called to tell me that my mother is very negative.
My
mother is old school, children don't get to have conversations with
their elders about why they can't do something. The answer is, because I said so, and if you question me again I will beat your ass. That's the thing about being an Urban Chameleon and raising one, it's always about trying to figure out how to navigate the cultural conflicts that nobody prepares you for.
Oh well, maybe when he becomes president of a company or nation my Trini grandmother will appreciate his independent mind then;)
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"If technology doesn't see race, that's actually a problem."
by HaJ
Left to right: Ayo, HaJ, Pamela Jennings, Sabrina Harvey and Nicole Valentine
This past March I was invited to speak
on the Blacks in Technology (BiT) panel at South by South West (SXSW), Elevate the Game: Maverick Women
Recode the Future, along with Pamela Jennings, CEO of Noble
Wire, Sabrina Harvey, CEO of Art of Genius Tech Education
& Women Interactive, and Nicole Valentine, President of Synergy Business
Development and Ayoka Chenzira, filmmaker and interactive digital media artist
as well as my co-creator and director of HERadventurean
interactive, sci-fi movie. Ayoka and I developed HERadventure, which also debuted at SXSW.
Left to right: Denver Louis, Mary Pryor, Nicole Valentine, HaJ, Ayo
On the first day of the festival that
takes place every year in Austin, Texas, we ran into social media guru Michael
Street and urban socialista Mary Pryor at Whole Foods. I guess a gathering of
people of color was unusual here for minutes into our conversation an older
white woman came up to us super excited expressing that she had never seen
anything like “this” before. She admired Mary’s Afri-centric head wrap and
complimented how beautiful everyone was while continue to stare in awe at the
brown people before her. She then returned to finish drinking wine with her
male friend who was about 20ft away. Even after returning to her table she kept
staring at us. This woman’s perspective seemed to be a reflection of our
presence at SXSW. Out of thousands of attendees you could probably count the
number of people of color on one hand and have fingers left over. Ayo and I
were apart of a smaller number of people of color who were presenting a project.
One could argue a number of reasons as to why that was but it certainly isn’t
because people of color aren’t innovative.
During out BiT Panel, meaningful
conversations came about as it related to the importance
of women and people of color advancing in the field of technology, specifically
gaming and coding. However if the funding and information is only being distributed to largely one
group of people then the experiences developed from new technologies will not
reflect diversity of ideas and perspectives. Remember the YouTube video of the Black guy pointing out that the HP face recognition technology didn’t seem to recognize his blackness?
This is
why initiatives like Black Girls Code founded by Kimberly Bryant are so
crucial.
BiT has taken a tremendous step in the right direction with
creating panels and programming to provide information from people of color in
technology and entertainment that's innovative at SXSW. We can only hope that initiatives alike
will continue to be embraced, supported and expand into an integrated
experience for everyone (including white people).
A friend of mine said to me that the Internet does not see
race, it just calculates information according to zeroes and ones. I would
argue that NOT seeing race is a problem. Or, being so in shock like the woman
at Whole Foods because you’re not used to seeing a group of people of a
different race is a
problem.
Being a part of a woman and gaming panel and presenting HERadventureour interactive,
sci-fi movie starring a reluctant, female, alien, superhero who also happens to
be a woman of color allowed us to continue pushing
(or rather opening up) the envelope to empower those who seem to have gotten lost in
the zero and ones. To find more about HERadventurevisit the website
www.heradventure.com
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In early 2010, not long after the release of Quentin Tarantino’s
Second World War revenge epic, “Inglourious Basterds,” I began teaching a
course on American history at Moscow State University. When a Russian
friend asked me what I thought of the film I told him I loved the way
the director created an alternate history in order to make a larger
point about the universal nature of heroism. My friend and, as I later
learned, lots of other Russians took issue with the film for precisely
that reason. “Is this,” he asked, “how Americans really perceive World
War II?” In Russia, where the annual May 9th celebrations of the German
surrender dwarf those of the Fourth of July in this country, the
sacrifices that were crucial to defeating Hitler are a point of huge
national pride. The history department at the university features a
marble monument to hundreds of university students who died defending
the country. Because many Russians feel that the world—and particularly
the United States—has never properly recognized the scale of their
losses, they tend to see “Inglourious Basterds” not as a revenge fantasy
but as an attempt to further whitewash their role in Hitler’s demise.
The alternate history in “Inglourious Basterds” failed there because the
actual history had yet to be reconciled. The movie’s lines between
fantasy and the actual myopic perspectives on history were so hazy that
the audience wasn’t asked to suspend disbelief, they were asked to
suspend conscience. With “Django Unchained,” Tarantino’s tale of
vengeful ex-slave, what happened in Russia is happening here.
The theme of revenge permeates Tarantino’s
work. If the violence in his films seems gratuitous, it’s also deployed
as a kind of spiritual redemption. And if this dynamic is applicable
anywhere in American history, it’s on a slave plantation. Frederick
Douglass, in his slave narrative, traced his freedom not to the moment
when he escaped to the north but the moment in which he first struck an
overseer who attempted to whip him. Quentin Tarantino is the only
filmmaker who could pack theatres with multiracial audiences eager to
see a black hero murder a dizzying array of white slaveholders and
overseers. (And, in all fairness, it’s not likely that a black director
would’ve gotten a budget to even attempt such a thing.)
