Pause ...Consider...African American Actresses can and will open films...

Part 1

Disclaimer...the blog below is not what I intended when I opened the "new post" window to write...but it is what flowed like blood from a fresh cut...

I use the above title not so much as what this whole blog will be about, but I have just noticed that positive and negative thinking seem to work the same way. Have you noticed that the more you say anything the closer and closer and closer it gets to becoming true. Haven't you also noticed that if fact already supports a supposition like the one above, it will not improve if everyone keeps saying it. Repeating it does not make it okay, right or true forever. Consider this...the sooner you stop saying it; it like that dream deferred and that raisin in the sun will shrivel up and die and not continue to fester like a sore and then run...

As some of you know I am a writer and not an actress, but a good number of the stories that I am interested in seeing told or want to tell tend to be a reflection of the personal culture I know extraordinarily well. I am woman. I am Black (or African American). Nearest to my heart is the narrative from and about either or both groups.

I appeal to readers, listeners, writers and bloggers everywhere to pause and consider the idea that if we lift the veil of this daily "hammered" notion and begin to believe that not only is it possible, but imagine and see it as reality...it could happen. African American Actresses can and will open films to huge box office.

And so it has been with every great struggle: Women Suffrage, Anti Slavery and Abolition, Civil War, Anti Lynching, Black Codes, Jim Crow, Integration (whether we agree that it was for the best or the worst) Civil Rights, Affirmative Action, Roe V. Wade, the Vietnam Wall, Martin Luther King's Birthday (thank you Stevie Wonder and others for Marching in your long fur in Washington, DC) the list of movements is long and wide, but you get it right ? Someone(s) with clout, resource, focus and determination had to have a vision and then an action plan to support that vision to make it happen or as the saying goes to "make it rain". Say it with me...African American Actresses can and will open films to huge box office.

We of course want to shout of all the actresses: Jill Marie Jones, Kerry Washington, Golden Brooks, countess Vaughn, Tracee Ellis Ross, Queen Latifah, Halle Berry, Monica Calhoun, Nia Long, Terri Vaughn, Ruby Dee, Suzanne Douglass, Napiera Groves, Taraji P. Henson, Kim Fields, Erika Alexander, Lisa Bonet, Phylicia Rashad, Sanaa Lathan< Gabrielle Union, Kay Pri Marcus, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Paula Jai Parker, Victoria Dillard, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Tangi Miller, Viveca A. Fox, Vanessa Williams (both of them), Angela Bassett, Regina King, Esther Rolle, Bernadette Stanis, Alfre Woodard, Theresa Randle, Marla Gibbs, Theresa Merritt, Mabel King, Isabel Sanford ....Writers: Judi Ann Mason, Tina Andrews, Suzanne De Passe, Yvette Lee Bowser, Mara Brock Akil, Gina Prince Bythewood, Danna Kiel :-), Teanne Coleman-Chennault; Directors: Euzhan Palcy, Chip Fields, Debbie Allen, Mayeen Bassey, Julie Dash, Neema Barnett, Danna Kiel :-); Producers Kimberly Ogletree, Alyss Dickson, Joyce Washington, Helena Echegoyen, Bridget Davis, Tracey Edmonds, Poppy Hanks, Robi Reed, Holly Davis Carter, Rashida Turner that daily regularly and often make it their business to shift the paradigm and "Move That Bus" on a house that is in need of repair. Say it again ...African American Actresses can and will open films to huge box office.

(these lists are full of known and unknown folks (young women and those making their way) and they are all endless..they are in no order as these women are ALL SIGNIFICANT in contribution)

While the belief, the imagination and vision to shift to the reality that entitles this blog will not be a march on Washington or even a march through Hollywood or Beverly Hills for that matter...I just believe that some positive thinking is in order and so is a new conversation...words do have power... say it ...African American Actresses can and will open films to huge box office.

My prayer is that gate keepers will choose their words more carefully when speaking on the "now" possibility and the future. This is not a rant or even a "somebody done me wrong" blues song. I was yes tried by fire (yesterday), but awakened to press for the multi-prong solution to what is a (corporate model) fact based challenge. (I been aware and worried about this for much longer)

We are all professionals and business is certainly carried on a particular way in Hollywood. I don't think any entertainment industry professional agrees with all of the rules all of the time, but we all know you must work the system as is to carefully, clearly and fairly point out its flaws. Once the flaws are higlighted, SOLUTIONS must replace joints, washers and nuts that are not allowing the system to operate properly.

Growing in Going in Creativity
Ashe
Amen
Danna Kiel