Poet | Actress| QWOC | Brit in LA "I can only share my vision with you of the future, about what freedom is. The way I see it, freedom is - is the right to grow, is the right to blossom. Freedom is the right to be yourself, to be who you are, to be who you wanna be, to do what you wanna do." Assata Shakur
Naomi Campbell, Adut Akech Bior, Liya Kebede, Yasmin Wijnaldum, and Aube Jolicoeur photographed by Steven Meisel for Moschino Spring/Summer 2018 styled by Carlyne Cerf De Dudzeele, with hair by Guido, and makeup by Pat McGrath
‘Queen Sugar’ Star Tina Lifford Is Slaying & Radiant In These Stunning New Photos
There’s no shortage of characters to fall in love with on Ava DuVernay & Oprah Winfrey’s hit TV series Queen Sugar, and one of our favorite ladies from the show is giving us even more reason to think she’s amazing.
When she’s not creating unforgettable moments as “Aunt Vi” on Queen Sugar, actress Tina Lifford is apparently slaying like no other as an official ambassador for the latest collection from her stylist J.Bolin’s fab clothing line.
She’s come a long way since the old FOX show “South Central.” I loved that show.
This post blessed me fam:
During the week I got a job, a place to stay, booked my 21st birthday trip, finished my classes, got a test extension, saw me sister and she bought me food, vibed with some beautiful black people
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ERYKAH BADU BLESSED ME AND TOUCHED ME AND SANG TO ME.
An exclusive interview with the creator and star of the hit series.
You wrote every word of Chewing Gum. Why is it important to have black women write for black women?
I think it depends on what kind of black girl you’re talking about because right now I’m doing a show that isn’t written by a black woman but it’s about a black woman. This black woman is just very different to me. However, I think the idea is very similar to the fact that women should write women’s stories. It doesn’t mean that only women should write women’s stories so I don’t think that only black women can write about black women. I will say that. But I think there are hardly any black female writers and the black female experience on every continent – you know whichever that person comes from- does not exist on TV. Especially in Britain. I don’t see the experience of the black woman on TV. In order to write that, you have to understand it and I think it’s really hard to understand what it is to be a black woman unless you’re a black woman. It’s really hard. When I say black, I’m talking black, my dark– darker than paper bag skin. To live this life and for me, a working class, black female’s life, you can’t write that story unless you live that story. I think that we deserve to add our portrait to the gallery of life, to the gallery of television and we want that portrait to be accurate. In order for that to happen, we have to write those stories ourselves.
Let’s talk about Beyonce. She is very important to me and it seems like she is to you too because of Tracey’s obsession with her.
I love Beyonce but Beyonce is very important to Tracey. I just have to make that clear. [laughs] I have to be careful because I know there is a mafia out there. What I wanted to highlight is that she is worshipping two things she will never be. She will never be Jesus – she will never be a white man. And she will never be Beyonce. Neither of those things can be her god. Tracey has to be her own god.
I think part of Beyonce’s importantance to me is because I grew up watching her. So, I want to know about the black women you grew up watching. Can you tell me about the black women you watched on TV and how they influenced you?
It was never black British women because they didn’t exist on TV. I saw Moesha. Moesha is very strong in my brain. The black women on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air are very strong in my brain. What was that show? Not Different Stokes.
A Different World? With Denise Huxtable?
A Different World! Even though I could hardly remember the name, I do have the images in my head which is very interesting. Seeing visually black people living in a house with braids and stuff has somehow been left very much in my memory.
Did you try to emulate Moesha? How did these characters influence you?
No, I didn’t to be honest with you. In Britain, in London, in working class London – although we are a group of people all very confused about our identity, we are very strong in that confusion so there was very much a style here that I was trying to emulate. I was walking around looking like a fool trying to be this very cool London black girl. Dreadful.
You tweeted a while ago that as a black writer that you get criticism from black women about Tracey and the character and how she should act. Tell me more about that and how that has affected you and your writing.
I don’t know what it’s like in America or Canada but here, we are still very much – our parents are first generation immigrants. We are the first generation of black people born really in this country so we’re carrying a lot of stuff on our shoulders. This is our parents telling us that we should never have sex, we should never mention anything to do with sex. “Don’t come here talking about boys, don’t bring any boys back here. Don’t look at boys. Do your studies, do your studies, do your studies! Go to church, go to church, go to church!” This is what we know. It’s not cool to be sexual. All of this is just oppression. I think Chewing Gum is like a mockery of that entire thing. I think people struggle with the idea of black women being sexual. I had someone come up to me and say, “why do you think it’s OK to write a story about a 23-year old girl who just wants to have sex? I’m 25 and I’m still a virgin. I kept my virginity.” Keeping your virginity is like keeping a plastic bag after you go to Costco. It’s like, so what? It’s all bullshit. Tracey is so free and so unoppressed and so unaware of everything and I think it’s very uncomfortable for some women to watch. Her sex scenes are not sexy. This is a comedy. Her sex scenes are embarrassing. It’s the kind of embarrassing that everyone has gone through once and they don’t want to remember it. So when they see it on screen, it’s like “no no no no no shut that shit down.” [laughs]
Do you think black women feel ownership over Tracey because she is one of the only – if not the only – black woman like her on TV?
Yes, and I love it. The people who have a kinship with this show, Tracey is inside of them and they are inside of Tracey. Tracey is in their house. She is in their brains. She is all up in there. That is my dream come true, that people feel like they own Tracey and the characters in this show and they identify with them. I couldn’t have a dream come more true than that.
What still needs to be done to have black women fully represented on TV?
In Britain, we need to start presenting the option of being a writer in front of black women. We need to present the idea of being a writer into poorer communities because the majority of black people in this country are working class. We need to let working class people know that their voices are important. We need to encourage black women to know that they are authors of their own destiny, that they have important stories to tell and that they are capable, so magically capable, of writing them and creating important pieces of work that will live forever in history. We are never taught that. For me, this was never an option. I found myself here by complete and utter mistake. Imagine if I knew from when I was young I was going to be a writer? Imagine the shit I would be writing. How old was I when I started writing TV? 25? 26? Once we plant the seed into the heads of young black women and young poor people then we will start to see our stories more prevalent on screen.
2087
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