Janelle McDermoth

I'm a Christ-follower, multi-platform creator, dreamer, student, member of UPenn's Off The Beat and currently 'letting the sunshine in' in the 2013 National Tour of HAIR! www.janellemcdermoth.com Instagram/Twitter: @janellemcdrmth facebook.com/janellemcdermoth youtube.com/janellemcdermoth Grace & Peace, Janelle

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FACE! (aka when Saturday night turns into a makeup tutorial). 💁🏾💋👍🏾 #face #makeup #eyeshadow #lip

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RANGE A CAPPELLA presents: EVOLUTION of KELLY CLARKSON.

LOVE, SHARE & GET YOUR LIFE 

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I woke up at 3:30AM to be in Central Park for this. WORTH IT. #FlorenceGMA

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DREAMS.

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But my man is going in though... #MTA #SubwayJams #turndownforwhat #trainsmaybe

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Joy and reunions at the High Maintenance Premiere Party! @antleeme123 @helpingyoumaintain @vimeo #genghis

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Today: First rehearsal of #TheLIFE with @11thhourtheatreco! Catch it Oct 4th and 5th. Philadelphia, I am coming for you.

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I'm going to need a respirator...

#SHONDALAND does it again!

Here's Viola Davis's response to the NYTimes "Less Classically Beautiful" foolishness:  "I'm glad that Shonda Rhimes saw me and said "Why not?" That's what makes her a visionary. That's what makes her iconic. I think that beauty is subjective. I've heard that statement (less classically beautiful) my entire life. Being a dark-skinned Black woman, you heard it from the womb. And "classically not beautiful" is a fancy term for saying ugly. And denouncing you. And erasing you. Now...it worked when I was younger. It no longer works for me now. It's about teaching a culture how to treat you. Because at the end of the day, you define you."

That being said, 

The Season Premiere of How to Get Away With Murder was AMAZING. Pete Nowalk can just take my money. He WROTE that! Stressful, sexy, mysterious and just EVERYTHING!!! This AND Black-ish?

ABC is ready to snatch these network wigs.

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re: NYTimes's portrayal of Shonda Rhimes as an "Angry Black Woman"

Don't expend energy reading Alessandra Stanley's specious racist foolishness. The responses and think pieces are far better and include highlights.

Personally, I am ALL KINDS OF PRESENT for the media drag of "journalist" Alessandra Stanley. Her employment of the "Angry Black Woman" stereotype is quite literally, just the beginning. Shonda Rhimes is one of television's most powerful figures, but Shonda was not interviewed for this review that essentially became a racialized piece about her psyche. Stanley was CLEARLY reaching for this ABW thing by omitting all of Shonda's other characters, male or female, who demonstrate a full range of emotion (anger included). Where is Cyrus or Mellie or Meredith Grey or Cristina Yang? Is anger more acceptable on non-black bodies? And we really had to use Michelle Obama and Clair Huxtable as counterpoint here?

Privilege afforded by whiteness, Harvard education, and a shiny job allows Stanley to utilize--in codified, but not slick, language--additional historic tropes such as the Jezebel and Sapphire. As if that is not enough, the same allows for the dismissive language that saturates: "Sassy," "Intimidating," "Histrionic" "Bossy," "Rant" and, my PERSONAL FAVORITE description of dark-skinned black women: "Less Classically Beautiful."

Who doesn't love when white women reinforce white standards of beauty at the expense of women of color? Classic.

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A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Mordor.

I made this to cheer up my friend Joe. But really, It had to be made, 

I'm not sorry.

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Something shiny.

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Queen @liannelahavas slaying on her 25th birthday! 🎶🎸🎶🎸🎶🎸🎶 @afropunk gave me life!

[rhomeporium]

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Michael Brown's Mother on the loss of her child. Pray for #Ferguson, family.

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Penn Sisters and Dance Theater of Harlem's dope block party? Ayeeeeee. (at Dance Theatre Of Harlem)

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Just incase you haven't heard about queen Misty Copeland.

you are welcome.

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[jalwhite]

A woman-of-color who writes poetry or paints or dances or makes movies knows there is no escape from race or gender when she is writing or painting. She can’t take off her color and sex and leave them at the door or her study or studio. Nor can she leave behind her history. Art is about identity, among other things, and her creativity is political.

Gloria Anzaldúa, Making Face/Making Soul: Haciendo Caras — Creative and Cultural Perspectives by Women of Color  (via jalwhite)

Well...