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Ava DuVernay

  • Oprah Winfrey, Ava DuVernay and Queen Sugar Cast Discuss Season 2 and Diversity on TV

    About eight women gathered in a circle and waited patiently for Oprah Winfrey and the stars of Queen Sugar to walk into a hotel room at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills in Los Angeles during a press junket sponsored by OWN. As we all sat there, trying to prep ourselves, there was a buzz of…

    By

    Yesha Callahan

    Published

  • Watch: Queen Sugar’s 2nd-Season Trailer

    It looks as though the three Bordelon children in OWN’s Queen Sugar have some major drama brewing in season 2. In the new trailer that dropped this week, siblings Nova (Rutina Wesley), Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) and Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) aren’t on the same page when it comes to cultivating the sugarcane farm, from a…

    By

    Yesha Callahan

    Published

  • Who Could, Should and Will Win at the 89th Academy Awards 

    I have a complicated relationship with the Academy Awards. As I’ve said before, when we need the approval and validation of the dominant group in order for us to see our own work as valuable, we engage in a form of internalized racism that centers whiteness even as we engage in the subversive work of…

    By

    Lawrence Ware

    Published

  • Watch: Ava DuVernay on 13th, Her Life's Work and Magnifying the Beauty of Black People

    Some might call Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th prophetic. In just over 90 minutes, DuVernay traces the decisions, going as far back as the end of slavery, that led to the creation of the monstrosity known as the prison-industrial complex—and, thus, explains how it is that modern-day slavery exists. Telling the stories of black and brown…

    By

    Felice León

    Published

  • The Winners of 2016

    Flatly, 2016 as a staff, record label and as a motherf—king crew has collectively sucked. Far too many people have died, and a spoiled, mango-colored racist man surrounded by a bunch of like-minded bigots and sycophants will soon make life hell for many who have survived. However, as draining as this year has felt for…

    By

    Michael Arceneaux

    Published

  • As A Dad, Queen Sugar Hit Me Right In The Feels

    I love Queen Sugar. Let’s start there. I’d take Queen Sugar on a $200 date, juju on the beat with it, and cook greens, beans, tomatoes and potatoes just so it would have something to take home in case it got hungry. For those who aren’t familiar, the Ava DuVernay-helmed show is the story of a Louisiana agricultural family—the Bordelons—dealing with…

    By

    Panama Jackson

    Published

  • Queen Sugar Hits This Dad Right in the Feels

    I love Queen Sugar. Let’s start there. I’d take Queen Sugar on a $200 date, juju on the beat with it, and cook greens, beans, tomatoes and potatoes just so it would have something to take home in case it got hungry. For those who aren’t familiar, the Ava DuVernay-helmed show is the story of…

    By

    Panama Jackson

    Published

  • Ava DuVernay's 13th Is The Only Recent Release You Absolutely, Definitely MUST See

    Last week, Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th premiered on Netflix. The film documents America’s history of incarceration since the passing of the 13th Amendment and examines the political prowess that has precipitated our country’s prison industrial complex. It’s a visceral dissection of how slavery has evolved from a barbaric labor system to a privatized structure of…

    By

    Morgan McDaniel

    Published

  • 13th and the Invisibleness of Black Women

    Acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th was released on Netflix last week. Masterfully produced and directed by DuVernay, it is a poignant documentary detailing white America’s continual, desperate and ever-changing attempts to maintain racial and legal domination over black people. What has emerged as common knowledge through the Movement for Black Lives is laid out clearly and…

    By

    The Root Staff

    Published