There was a survey circulating the internet towards the end of the year, asking people what place have they missed going to the most during the Covid-19 restrictions? I had three; museums, bowling alleys, and the show, aka the movie theater. I’m an avid museum-goer, bowler, and have gotten into movies a little more nowadays. One of the reasons I’ve become more interested in movies is because of the diversity of Black stories that are being told now. Part of the diversity stems from the fact, we as Black people are telling our own stories, whereas in the past they were being told from other people’s perspectives. From the likes of Lena Waithe and Ava Duvernay, to Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, and Nate Parker, they each have brought a unique way of Black storytelling to TV and the movie screen. Nate Parker seems to be the rebel of the bunch, and his latest film, “American Skin,” is a great depiction of where he stands. 

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When Malcolm D. Lee made his directorial debut with The Best Man, he was prepared to have stardom set in stone. Starring actor Taye Diggs and written and directed by Lee, audiences liked what they saw. Opening weekend scored the movie $9,031,660 in U.S. box office revenue. Now, Lee is releasing his debut’s sequel The Best Man Holiday. On November 15, we will see if audiences are still craving the writing and directing that he introduced to us 14 years ago.

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There is something interesting about the climate of racial injustice and its relationship with technology, specifically cameras. The idea of a post-racial society is a myth and a quick Google search will make this apparent to anyone who took the time to look it up. The hatred isn’t more prevalent, it’s just being recorded. It’s sad to say that it took these atrocities to jolt a nation that had become too desensitized into action.

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In a time of heightened activism and social change, minority groups are demanding what they deserve. The gatekeepers of various industries are typically privileged white men. Without an influx of new perspectives the same redundant narratives will continue to be told.

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Autobiographies are usually approached in the form of a hardcover book that authors sell to libraries and bookstores to spread awareness about their success stories. However, screenwriter Kenya Barris decided to depict his life story through a comedy series on ABC, and it has won three awards so far.

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Sixteen is an age that kids all over the United States excitedly anticipate: the age they are given the opportunity to take their driving test, borrow their parents’ car, and experience their very first taste of freedom. Kalief Browder’s sixteenth year differed starkly from the “American Teenage Dream.” He was falsely accused of stealing a backpack, the young high school student from the Bronx was sent to New York’s infamously violent Rikers Island in 2010 to await trial when his family was unable to pay the $3,000 bail.

What was supposed to take just a matter of hours- clearing Browder of the unfounded hearsay against him- took three years. Approximately two of those years spent at Rikers were  in solitary confinement, where the bright, easygoing teenager sank into a desperate, depressive state. He was supposed to be going to school, playing sports, and spending time with friends; instead, Browder was enduring the physical and psychological consequences of being placed in a six by eight foot cell by himself for 23 hours every day. When he attempted suicide, the methods of which he learned from watching other inmates, Browder reported being denied food from guards as punishment. This is only a fraction of the cruelty and abuse inflicted on the youngster by both correction officers and other inmates when he wasn’t  in solitary confinement.

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