Cynthia Erivo
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#BlackExcellenceWeekend: BET, NAACP Image Awards and ABFF to Pay Tribute to Us in the Same Weekend
Now that the Oscars and most major awards shows are out of the way, the American Black Film Festival and the NAACP are bringing us the recognition we deserve—not by requiring us to ask for a seat at the table, but rather creating our own with the ABFF Honors and the 51st Image Awards taking…
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Stand Up! The Oscars May Not Give Cynthia Erivo Her Flowers (Yet), But We Will
Did you watch the 2020 Academy Awards? No? Was it because the #OscarsSoWhite? I mean, they were (and accordingly, we’re going to have our lightest Oscars slideshow ever today), but in a year that denied both people of color and women their nomination shine (shoutout to Natalie Portman for having the names of this year’s…
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Oscars 2020: 80 Years After Hattie McDaniel Became the 1st Black Academy Award Winner, Hair Love Somehow Became The Night's Only One
On February 29, 1940, Hattie McDaniel, arguably the most well-known black actress in the entire world at the time, took to the podium at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the legendary Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to accept her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress—the first ever for a black entertainer. Adorned in a dazzling…
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Oscars 2020: Matthew A. Cherry Manifests #HairLove Success and Janelle Monáe Welcomes Us to the Neighborhood
It’s the biggest (and whitest) night of film once again and we’re here to give you the scoop. The 92nd Academy Awards marks the conclusion of awards season (but not really because there are at least two big award ceremonies I’ll be attending later this month as Los Angeles loves to pat itself on the…
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Where Was the Color at the 2020 SAG Awards? On the Red Carpet!
No, Cynthia Erivo didn’t snag the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture (say that seven times fast) for her titular role in Harriet. But she did win one of The Glow Up’s Best Dressed nods for the incredible custom Schiaparelli couture ball…
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BAFTAs: No Nominations for You Cynthia Erivo (or Any Non-White Actors), but Can You Sing at Our Ceremony?
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has quite the audacity and the unmitigated gall. Following a PR nightmare with its all-white acting nomination list for the EE British Academy Films Awards (known as the BAFTAs), it looks like the academy’s nerve went even further than you can imagine. According to Variety, the…
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George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People. Neither Do the Golden Globes
Have you ever spent New Year’s Eve in Denver? The champagne and laughter are inescapable, and you’ll find more color in a carton of eggs, but if you’re “lucky,” you’ll stumble upon a familiar soul trapped inside of a trust fund baby—kind of like last night at the Golden Globes. Actually, New Year’s Eve in…
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Golden Globes 2020: Eddie Murphy, Cynthia Erivo, Beyoncé, Billy Porter Score Noms. Plus, When They (Don't) See Us, We Got a Problem
Before the sun rose on the morning of Dec. 9, 2019, Hollywood was abuzz with the official start of 2020’s awards season! Susan Kelechi Watson, Tim Allen and Dakota Fanning gathered at the Beverly Hilton and announced the nominees for the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Let’s get right to this shit. Nominees Cynthia Erivo…
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‘I Wanted to Show Her as a Woman’: Cynthia Erivo Talks Harriet for Essence's Digital Cover
“Though she be but little, she is fierce!” wrote William Shakespeare, and the phrase proves equally true for fellow Brit Cynthia Erivo, the multitalented phenom currently dominating the box office in the titular role of Harriet, the black-helmed Harriet Tubman biopic, released on Friday. Erivo was handpicked by producer Debra Martin Chase for the role,…
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Despite Controversies, Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman Proves to Be a Winner at Box Office
There’s a famous quote that has been attributed—perhaps falsely—to Harriet Tubman through the years about how she would’ve been able to free many more slaves only if they realized they were actually enslaved. Or something like that. I bring that up to say that despite some racially-charged, micro-aggressive attitudes (some by blacks) towards the new…