Kibkabe Araya's Blog, page 31
July 22, 2019
Why is Oprah still only major celeb of color with notable book club?
July 21, 2019
Book Review: ‘We Are Never Meeting In Real Life’ by Samantha Irby
July 20, 2019
Well-Read Black Girl Founder Glory Edim On ‘Cultivating Joy’ In Her Growing Book Club
July 18, 2019
‘Younger’ TV Review: Stiff Competition
July 17, 2019
Gabrielle Union shines light on books by black women with screen projects
Currently a judge on America’s Got Talent and a creator behind a fashion line at New York and Company, actress and author Gabrielle Union has an astounding number of book projects in the works. Her future screen adaptations over the past year have been separated by articles, but when seeing all the upcoming projects come together, she’s clearly becoming a leader in bringing books to another medium.
The New York Times best-selling memoirist, with 2017’s We’re Going to Need More Wine (a must-read, especially with her voicing it on the audio book), is creating these projects via her production company I’ll Have Another (a play on her memoir’s title), which is wrapping up the first season of Spectrum’s L.A.’s Finest co-starring Jessica Alba.
Unlike Reese Witherspoon who buys rights before a book comes out on shelves, Gabrielle instead is taking novels by black women that reached a belated award-winning, best-selling status. For example, Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO was originally self-published three years ago, but its sales catapulted it to a top publisher and is being re-released this month while The Perfect Find was published under a black woman-owned company. Even Coffee Will Make You Black was a top book for black women readers two decades ago, but may enjoy a resurgence for a new generation when it comes to screen.
Below are snippets about the projects in development.
Tallulah The Tooth Fairy CEO
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In March, I’ll Have Another and 5 More Minutes Productions announced they had acquired the rights to Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO, a children’s book written by Dr. Tamara Pizzoli and illustrated by Federico Fabiani.
The book was published under Tamara’s Texas-based, Italy-managed publishing house The English Schoolhouse in 2016 and now with Macmillan’s Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers. The story stars Tallulah, the tooth fairy mother behind Teeth Titans Inc. and National Association for the Appreciation and Care of Primary Teeth, the NAACP-T.
Yamara Taylor, a writer and producer who’s worked on Black-ish and Boondocks, is attached to the project to turn the book into a live-action modern family comedy, according to Deadline.
“Yamara was the perfect choice for us when choosing a writer to bring Tallulah and her story to life,” Gabrielle said with 5 More Minutes’ John Sacchi, who are producing, in a press release. “She is a working mom herself who strives to tell authentic stories that her daughter can relate to. Her interpretation of Tallulah and the world she lives and works in was so grounded and real yet had all of the fun and fantastical elements you need when telling a story about a fictional character, in this case the Tooth Fairy.”
Coffee Will Make You Black
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February marked the announcement of Gabrielle’s production company is partnering with Oscar-winning actress and producer Octavia Spencer’s Orit Entertainment to bring Coffee Will Make You Black to the screen with director Deborah Riley Draper and producers Tate Taylor and John Norris. Both actresses will star in the film as well, according to the film’s Facebook page.
The 1994 debut novel of April Sinclair was named Book of the Year in Young Adult Fiction by the American Library Association and received the Carl Sandburg Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library. The story follows a teenage Jean “Stevie” Stevenson as she navigates race and sexuality in the 1960s.
On the Facebook page, the team wrote: “This coming-of-age story of an African-American girl confronting race, class, colorism, sexuality and gender roles will be authentic, tender, funny and complicated. Special shout out to novelist April Sinclair who penned this seminal 25 years ago this month. We are proud to announce this important production in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the publication of the book and Black History Month!”
Book rating: Reading this as a teen, I remember how impactful this book was in the 1990s. With LGBT Pride Month recently celebrated, I’m wondering how this missed those book lists as Stevie is trying to discover herself in a time when a young woman, especially a black one, is discouraged to do that.
The Idea of You
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On Dec. 19, news broke that the 2017 novel, The Idea of You, by actress Robinne Lee had been optioned by I’ll Have Another and CEO Welle Entertainment Cathy Schulman to be developed into a feature film. Robinne, Eric Hayes, and Jeff Morrone will join the production team.
According to the fan website, the director and stars have not been announced yet.
Book rating: A teen’s mom falls for the younger boy band heartthrob. At first, it sounds like an unbelievable scenario, but Robinne really emphasizes how this is turning the protagonist’s life upside down. And the traveling takes the reader all over the world as the romance hits a fever pitch. Full review here.
The Perfect Find
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Top black chick lit author Tia Williams will see her latest novel become a film with Gabrielle in the starring role as a 40-year-old magazine editor who falls for a 20-something aspiring videographer. The Perfect Find was published by Brown Girls Books in 2016.
Book rating: Preordered this book because I loved Tia’s first novel, The Accidental Diva. Tia is probably the foremost author on sophisticated black chick lit, especially with The Perfect Find, which brings the reader into the world of fashion and beauty journalism through a black woman editor battling her nemesis in the workplace and falling in love with someone she feels is too young. Brilliantly written and descriptive.
July 16, 2019
‘Queen Sugar’ TV Review: Face Speckled
Still in the throes of Nova (Rutina Welsey) revealing family secrets in her best-selling memoir, the Bordelons are picking up the pieces as the book climbs the charts.
The episode opens with Nova having nightmares with her younger self, an image of how her memoir is impacting her as family relationships deteriorate.
Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner), Nova’s sister, gets a call from her ex-husband Davis (Timon Kyle Durrett) about his past affairs resurfacing in Nova’s book. Charley says she doesn’t want to be seen in public with him but knows her cleanup skills are impeccable, so she goes to help him.
Meanwhile, Nova is at a fireside chat for her book when a woman in the audience asks why Nova didn’t back her anecdotes with data. The woman argued the anecdotes as just Nova’s experiences are “self-aggrandizing” assumptions about the African-American community. She then calls Nova’s dismissal of data and theory a telltale mark of amateurism. Nova claims to be an “everyday black American,” and that is resounding with audiences.
It turns out the critical woman is Nova’s college professor (Cree Summer!). She was mad she got a sentence of nameless recognition in Nova’s book. She blames Nova for making a conscious effort to not mention her. Then they start making out on the table.
While packing up food from a catering gig, Violet tells Hollywood she’s scared again after Jimmy Dale returned in a previous episode.
Another kid told Blue (Ethan Hutchison) that Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) is not his father, the secret revealed in Nova’s book. Ralph Angel and Darla (Bianca Lawson) comforts Blue with saying he’ll never abandon him though he’s not his biological father.
One non-book reference that was a meaningful point in the episode involves immigration. Charley sees a thriving health care clinic for immigrants that her boyfriend doctor is running in the Bordelon warehouse. Until ICE shows up and families are separated. It could be said that Charley strives to be more charitable with the sugar cane business to prove its black ownership roots, something Nova criticized in her book.
In the next episode on July 24, Nova is shortlisted for the National Book Award.
‘Younger’ TV Review: An Inside Glob
July 14, 2019
Book Review: ‘Season of the Witch’ by Sarah Rees Brennan
Season of the Witch by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
* Giveaway win from I Read YA*
“Season of the Witch” by Sarah Rees Brennan is the prequel novel to the “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” exploring what happens to Sabrina the summer before her 16th birthday when she’s supposed to assume her destiny as a witch and give up her mortal lifestyle.
If you’re familiar with the dark version of Sabrina The Teenage Witch thanks to Netflix, then you know Sabrina Spellman lives with her two aunts, Zelda and Hilda; a cousin Ambrose, and her cat Salem. Her friends, who all conveniently have witchy descendant ties in Greendale, are Roz, Susie, and Harvey, her boyfriend. As Sabrina upholds her regular life, she’s battling the satanic forces bound by her family where she’s expected to give up on her mortal best friends and Baxter High for the Academy of Unseen Arts and battle with the three witch sisters: Prudence, Dorcas, and Agatha.
In this story, Sabrina worries Harvey doesn’t love her since they’re not officially in a relationship after a year of dating. Since she’s about to come into her witching ways, she asks Ambrose to help her cast a love spell. Except Ambrose takes over the spell with Sabrina forgetting the words. Then Harvey starts to act strangely with showing his affection for Sabrina, who keeps worrying that Ambrose may have tricked her with putting the wrong spell on Harvey. As she worries, Sabrina befriends a water spirit in the woods that seems to understand what’s at stake. But Sabrina realizes more is at stake as she comes into her own magic.
My copy is an uncorrected proof, so this scene might’ve been cut out. But the scene of Ambrose’s blackness being singled out while he’s flirting with a mail carrier stuck out to me. The carrier is surprised to see Sabrina as Ambrose’s cousin and explains the surprise since Ambrose is “African-American.” Which he’s not. He’s from Britain, but later Prudence, who’s also black in the TV series, is just described as having a dark complexion. Race is irrelevant to the story except for Roz, who is African-American with a preacher father and genetic blindness from her slave descendants relevant to witchery. It seemed like an awkward moment yet expressed a bigger issue of how nonwhiteness has to be pointed out in a kid’s book when the character’s race is not central to the story.
Overall, the book is a fun, dark young adult read that pairs well with the Netflix series. It gets wordy in the descriptions to the point where the book felt a tad longer than it needed to be. There are black-paged chapters in the book to describe backstories to the other characters though not all backstories become a strong thread in the book but maybe will in later novels.
July 13, 2019
Book Review: ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth
Grit: Passion, Perseverance, and the Science of Success by Angela Duckworth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Grit” by Angela Duckworth is a great analysis on why we do what we do and what drives us to do that. Through her studies of different groups to just noticing her family and friends, she opens up your mind to how our passions define our purpose.
One point in the book that stands out is how we use certain tools like a career path to really explore our passion and how those tools itself may be misconstrued as the passion. She used the example of a journalist I admire, Jeffrey Gettleman, who was the longtime East Africa bureau chief and correspondent for The New York Times. In college, he fell in love with East Africa. It wasn’t until a professor told Jeffrey his writing talent could translate into a journalism career. That career path never crossed Jeffrey’s mind until he realized he could tell stories throughout East Africa. So Jeffrey’s passion is East Africa, not journalism, but journalism is the vessel able to carry his passion.
As a journalist myself, I realized not everyone is passionate about the field itself but more with what they’re covering. I’m a woman of color in the very white male-dominated environment of business journalism. Though I try to convince other journalists of color to join less diverse newsrooms like mine, they’re not interested. But they might just be interested in covering their own culture and using journalism as a vessel. I, on the other hand, use journalism for my love for writing, so I can write about any news stories (as long as I’m getting paid) and be fine with the content I’m producing. It’s evident in my career where I’ve reported on various topics, which tends to be unusual for a journalist of color because many decide to restrict their topics to what they’re passionate about. This book helped me piece this understanding together.
Overall, it’s a detailed analysis of passion and purpose, but with the scientific and experimental factors, you can also see how it plays out in your life. Are you following your passion? Have you abandoned projects though you thought it was for your passion? The author emphasizes how it’s OK to quit a project when the “natural stop” arrives. I ran a list of things in my mind that I thought I was passionate about, but apparently I wasn’t. It’s about finding that vessel to pursue passion. Sometimes, we’re using the wrong vessels due to our environment, e.g. a parent wanting us to play piano but we don’t practice then piano lessons are wasted. The book is an analysis that could help with your analysis on figuring out your passion and purpose and if it shows in your grit.
July 12, 2019
How Disney’s original ‘The Little Mermaid’ perpetuated the white mermaid image
Disney’s 1989 animated interpretation of The Little Mermaid brought the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale alive through Ariel with her manufactured white beauty that has become the trademark for mermaid images. But one book made me realize mermaids can be black and any other complexion our imaginations want us to see.
It was Sukey and the Mermaid written by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by Brian Pinkney. Sukey is forced to work on the farm by her stepfather, but she befriends a black mermaid, Mama Jo, who gives her hope her life can be better. I loved the story, reread the book over and over. The mermaid in this story was black and older with long silvery strands and an undersea attire that looked like armor made of gold. Ariel’s juvenescence may have enhanced her magic, but Mama Jo possessed a more sage magic, a majestic presence.
Black mermaids conquered conversation on July 3 at the news of Halle Bailey from Chloe x Halle and Freeform’s Grown-ish nabbing the part of Ariel in the Disney live action remake. The four-day Fourth of July weekend prolonged the uproar on social media where supporters who applauded a black Ariel clashed with those who slammed a black Ariel with the argument she can only be white due to the author’s Danish roots.
Since I’ve been working on a young adult novel about black girls cosplaying as nightclub mermaids, I’ve noticed Disney’s imagery has even warped the marketplace for mermaid-centric merchandise, further emphasizing these mythical creatures can only be accepted as white.
Sukey and the Mermaid fell into my hands after my Ariel doll disappeared. Ariel, with her ketchup red hair and shimmery purple bra and green fin, was found under the Christmas tree when I was five-years-old. I would stick her under the faucet for her to swim in the ocean I created in the sink, put her beside my head at night in bed. Then she went missing.
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Me and Ariel on Christmas before she met her untimely demise.
Years later, I learned Ariel was tossed in the trash. My mother despised the attention the only white doll she would ever buy me received over my black dolls. The black doll experiment conducted by psychologists Dr. Kenneth Clark and Dr. Mamie Clark in the 1940s found the participating black children preferred white dolls and used more positive adjectives to describe them. This informed how my mother would raise my sister and me with only black dolls since she knew a time when she could only get white dolls.
But she caved with Ariel, since I was obsessed with that mermaid. Ariel topped two birthday cakes in a row and became an epic Halloween costume complete with the shimmery green fin. Eventually Ariel was replaced by book mermaid Mama Jo and my Disney obsession moved on to brown-skinned Jasmine in Aladdin.
The controversy around Halle’s casting will hopefully die down as we accept a new image of a mermaid who could be reflected in more stories, products, and images for girls and women of various complexions.
