Pam Grier, from Blaxploitation to Black Excellence

'Before Pam Grier, there were no movie stars like Pam Grier. She arrived in Hollywood in the late nineteen-sixties, just before a new genre of film called blaxploitation hit theatres. Outrageous and raunchy, these movies pushed boundaries and drew big audiences—and Pam Grier was one of blaxploitation’s biggest stars. In her titular roles as Coffy and Foxy Brown, Grier invented a character type that viewers had never seen before: funny, sexy, and empowered Black women who could take care of themselves. Grier served as a kind of cultural avatar for Angela Davis and the Black Power movement, and her films have influenced generations of artists. Grier insists that, however outlandish her characters might have seemed, they were drawn from real life. “When a woman takes out her earrings and her shoes, she’s going to whoop your behind, O.K.? So that’s in my movies”.' -- New Yorker Radio Hour