And I'm trying to figure out what it means for me not just the show but the black girl thing in general.
I have no disagreements with the premise, but why we rock ,what we rock and who we encourage little black girls to be , bigger black girls to continue to be , and thank older black women for being is disturbing.
Because I felt like it was one large Jack and Jill meeting( or Links tryout) combined with a sell athon.
( I saw a commercial for AMBI?!?!?)
Very little about it made me want to rock .
And I am all for ALL FOR honoring women ( Oprah's Legends ball was NECESSARY NECESSARY and bit me if you think it wasn't but have f all to say at every other award ceremonies)
but when I listened to the honorees something that came through in their telling of their stories that didn't come through at all in the ceremony.
Missy Elliot, the female general Marcelite J. Harris, Iyanla Vanzant got up and spoke of difficulties . Of rewarding difficulties of aloneness and singularity
that were rewarded not by being proper, or not being the " half nekkid girl ( which came up a lot on the show and damn near had me wetting myself at the hypocrisy but i digress)
These women had a world (s) bigger and more involved than merely being angry, or love having a limit ( an " anthem" that was played)
but having loves that didn't get you a lot of love
of writing lyrics on your wall when no one believed in you and your family wondered if you needed mental attention
or having an admiration for mechanics in a way that still leaves you breathless talking about it in a dress on a stage in some heels ( and please yes know i have anti war qualms all up over and through)
or of loving your ancestors and reminding a room of them because it is NECESSARY.
I love my sisters. I do . I also don't like a lot of em , can't agree with many of them and good LORD know that if left in a room with some of em we might get to SCRAPPING
but I don't think "special" is enough. and I don't think dictates about what and what is not special are useful or let's be honest interesting.
"Mad black woman" and "anthem" aren't popular in our slang and our lexicon because of nothing. We need/have needed / will continue to need them.
I wondered about teh lack of inclusion of artists, of queers, or regular Black Girls Who Rock.
Currently reading the Narcicissm Epidemic my mind is probably to prompted to look for self indulgence and self congratulations , but I kept asking well what about this makes me want to go.
makes me want to continue ?
If the most we can come up with is that we rock ?
And if what we rock is our ability to be included not pioneer , not change and shift not truly change the game but merely to attain and give " special"
( and that this special comes with taking pictures of expensive stuff , ambi complexion correctors and lacefront wigs and expensive shoes)
And how much of that is pushed by people who let's be real aren't us.
In her interview with the griot Ntozake Shange gives a scathing and I do mean SCATHING ( and in so few words as to be fantastic, if you look up cutting her words and photo should be next to it
)
You recently authored a new book "Some Sing, Some Cry" and said to the NYT "I don't see any complicated, thought-provoking depictions of black people in a multilayered way," what do you say to the new generation of artists of writers, playwrights, filmmakers, and musicians to encourage them to step it up?
I don't and I haven't since Roots.
It is easy to define good girl bad girl, rock girl not girl. But in terms of art of how we look at relate and help each other , What do these simplistic terms and answers for our greater questions?
We can chastize and demonize Nikki Minaj but how is she created, how does she create herself and what does it say that a channel that features her and girls like her will then on it's day celebrating women , make sure to take shots at that kind of sexuality every chance it gets?
Or the fact that black girls who treated themselves as special , who did all the right things are losing funds , job opportunities and subject to crushingly unfair business practices in an unfair economy ? "Special" won't save them there
That our violence , or bodies being violated or attacked are often unable to drive the force and support that our brothers may ? Not that they don't need it but that WE need it as well?
"Special" isn't enough being a brand isn't a solution no matter how good it sells
But there were moments that shone as is expected because well Black Girls Do rock
Monica's Still Standing end " You can't take my joy because you didn't give it to me"
OF COURSE OF COURSE Four Women by Marsha Ambrosious. Ledisi, Kelli PRice and Jill Scott .
Yes Lord
I think what interested me most that over this FIYAH performance played videos of Black women who many of whom , were not discussed or mentioned whose fields were over looked in this celebration , and at least two or three ( Toni Cade Bambara Angela Davis) who would have given it hell
but it wasn't lost that the four women singing would have a hard time getting their videos on mainstream BET
regardless of the talent and firepower they have
This was what Rocking meant to me . I wanted to write a play sing a song and do a jig . The idea that art could move us to make it not just consume
Kym Whitley talking about her Body Magic AND Spanx and providing the necessary black girl hair moment
but more than anything the idea that black women can have hair that isn't there's be hoisted by more rigging than the goldengate
and TELL YOU
and still be beautiful.
and isn't that how we LIVE as well not unblemished special anointed princesses but real women who do fantastic things
and that we honor THAT that sure we throw a BIG DAMN party but for ALL of us
like i said still working on it Not the show but teh black girl thing
