I don’t have to tell you how supremely tough 2017 was to deal with. Like, I’m sure we all could go on and on about how terrible this year truly was to each and every last one of us. Still, the year had some high points, which we pointed out earlier this week, but in the spirit of balance and equilibrium (it took me…
2017 was a great year for black movies and TV shows, but one would not know it if one looked only at most critics’ year-end top 10 lists.
Legendary actress Angela Bassett hopes to raise awareness of the connection between Type 2 diabetes and heart disease with her campaign For Your Sweetheart. Her mother, Betty Jane Bassett, was diabetic and passed away from heart disease in 2014. Since then, Angela Bassett has been working steadily to raise awareness.…
When news came that WGN was canceling Underground, fans of the show were in shock, but as the shock wore off, fans and its creator, John Legend, called out to one person to help save the show: Oprah Winfrey. But unfortunately, Winfrey says she can’t bring Underground to OWN.
Last week, WGN America announced that it had canceled the critically acclaimed and riveting historical drama Underground. Allegedly moving in a more conservative, programming direction, the network is leaving behind a show that introduced millions of viewers to the relatively unknown network.
For those who were hoping to find out whether Rosalee and Noah were ever successful in freeing the rest of their friends and family from the Macon plantation, a satisfactory resolution to the story of the Macon Seven may come only if another network picks up Underground. WGN America has announced that it is canceling…
Call her Moses or call her Minty. Just know when you call her, you headed for freedom.
We’ve reached the end of the second season of Underground and it seems like just yesterday that we were wondering what the future would hold for our remaining Macon Seven. Some characters have reaffirmed my hatred (See: Cato’s janky ass) while others have pleasantly surmounted my low expectations and have evolved into…
“A sense of safety transforms the spirit.” —- Georgia
Bokeem Woodbine’s Daniel has been blinded since we saw him running from the overseer raid from last week. As a skilled craftsmen who depends on his eyes in order to create intricate granite work, it’s particularly disgusting that he would not only be punished in this way for knowing how to read but have the thing he…
After dedicating last week to the one-woman show that was Aisha Hinds’ Emmy consideration reel, Underground returns to form with “28”. We check back in with my favorite character whose story-line has yet to be connected to any other character, Daniel. Looks like he’s changed his mind about not teaching other slaves to…
This week’s episode of Underground, “Minty” came at a special time. Yes, it literally aired two hours earlier than it usually does and was rebroadcast throughout the evening by WGN but it also ran during a time in this nation’s history where Harriet Tubman’s words struck with such fervent urgency that it played dual…
This week’s episode of Underground was titled “Whiteface” and it was so jam-packed with plot that I half-way expected the little boy from that one episode of Atlanta to make an appearance. He doesn’t, by the way, but with the season at the midpoint the show has a lot of ground to cover so I guess it’s for the best. We…
The sixth installment of the second season of Underground will be a solo performance by actress Aisha Hinds, focused on her portrayal of Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad, who led many enslaved black people to freedom.
This week’s episode is all about choices. The choices that we make. The choices that we sometimes convince ourselves we have no other option but to make and the disparity that lies between those who choose to hide behind their choices and those who choose to stand in their truth. Cato is the latter, a character you’re…
Black stories told by black people. A novel concept, I know. But here we are all the way in 2017, our year in the lawd Beyonce, and the idea that the folk best-equipped to tell the empowering, perfervid, often-complicated stories of the real-world and fictionalized experiences of black people would be other black…
I’m 1:30 into episode two of WGN’s Underground and I’m already crying. Sure, Venus is in Retrograde, my car is stuck in the ice and I’m craving salty snacks but I’m mostly crying because Bokeem Woodbine’s Daniel has been teaching himself how to read and write. This is courageous AF for any slave to do but his…
Whenever I hear skinfolk exclaim that they are exhausted by slave-related stories, my immediate reaction traditionally is to extend to them the invitation to shut their black asses up. About a year ago, though, I inadvertently behaved like the kind of people I have written about. The kind who more or less profess to…
The cast of Underground has to come to work every day knowing they’re about to portray slaves whose main goal in life is freedom for themselves and their families. That is no simple task, even for the best of actors.
The 45th president of the Unites States of America, Donald Trump, is a lot of things. So many venomous words come to mind. But I’m not here to Trump-bash (today). I’m here to shine some light on what we already know: America is changing under his rule, and while many of us protest and speak up against the…
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