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Hail to the Queens, VIOLA DAVIS and ANGELA BASSETT- Who Received No Oscar Nods at this year's  95th Academy Awards?

5/2/2023

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NOTES
[1] The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominated Davis for Best Leading Actress along with Prince-Bytewood in the category of Best Director.  The Warrior King also received nominations from the Film Critics Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Satellite Awards, American Film Institute (AFI) Awards, the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Choice Awards, among a voluminous list of others.  Wins were received from the Black Film Critics Circle Awards, the Critics Choice, NAACP Image Awards, Black Reel Awards, and AFI, to name a few--wins for Best Picture/Movie of the Year, Actress (Davis) and Directing (Prince-Bythewood), with members of the ensemble cast, and those working behind the scenes in editing or cinematography also garnering accolades. ​

[2] Bassett won the NAACP Image awards for both 9-1-1 and Wakanda Forever, along with the BAFTA, Hollywood Critics Association, Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and Black Reel Awards for her lead role as Queen Ramonda.  

[3] The Black female actresses who have received Oscars, all for a supporting role:  
Hattie McDaniels (Gone With the Wind (1945)), Whoopie Goldberg (Ghost (1991)) Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls (2007)), Mo’Nique (Precious (2010)), Octavia Spencer (The Help (2012)), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave (2013)),Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk (2019)), and Ariana DeBose (West Side Story (2022))​.
Works Cited
9-1-1.  Creators Brad Falchuk, Tim Minear, and Ryan Murphy.  Reamworks/Ryan Murphy Television/20th Century Fox Television, 2018-2023.

“Afrofuturism:  A History of Black Futures.”  National Museum of African American History and Culture.  Smithsonian.  https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/afrofuturism.  Accessed 2 May 2023.

American Horror Story.  Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy.  FX Network/Brad Falchuck Teley-Vision/Ryan Murphy Productions, 2013-2018.

Black Panther.  Director Ryan Coogler.  Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures, 2018.

Black Panther:  Wakanda Forever.  Director Ryan Coogler.  Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures, 2022.

Boyz n the Hood.  Director John Singleton.  Columbia Pictures, 1991. 

Braveheart.  Director Mel Gibson.  Icon Entertainment International/The Ladd Company/B.H.Finance C.V., 1996.

Chi-Raq.  Director Spike Lee.  40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks/Amazon Studios, 2015.

Cho, Kelly Kasulis.  “The Oscars were a milestone for Asian artists:  ‘This is a beacon of hope.’”     Washington Post.  The Washington Post, 1996-2023.  https://                        www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2023/03/13/oscars-michelle-yeoh-asian-winners/#.              Accessed 25 April 2023.  

Contact.  Director Robert Zemeckis.  Warner Bros./South Side Amusement Company, 1997.

Doubt.  Director John Patrick Shanley.  Goodspeed Productions/Scott Rudin Productions, 2009.

The Elephant Whisperers.  Director Kartiki Gonsalves, Sikhya Entertainment, 2022.

Everything Everywhere All at Once.  Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.  A24/IAC Films/AGBO, 2022.

Fences.  Director Denzel Washington.  BRON Studios/Escape Artists/MACRO, 2017.

Green Lantern.  Director Martin Campbell.  Warner Bros./De Line Pictures/DC Entertainment, 2011.

Glory.  Director Edward Zwick.  TriStar Pictures/Freddie Fields Productions, 1989.

“Halle, Denzel Make Oscar history.”  March 24, 2002.  ABCNews.  ABC News Internet Ventures, 2023.  https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/halle-denzel-make-oscar-history/story?            id=101254.  Accessed 25 April 2023.

The Help.  Director Tate Taylor.  DreamWorks/Dreamworks Pictures/Reliance Film & Entertainment, 2012.

The Last Samurai.  Director Edward Zwick.  Watner Bros/Bedford Falls Company/Cruise- Wagner Productions, 2004.

London Has Fallen.  Director Babak Najafi.  Millennium Films/G-BASE/Gramercy Pictures, 2016.

Malcolm X.  Director Spike Lee.  Largo International N.V./JVC Entertainment Networks/40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, 1992. 

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.  Director George C. Wolfe.  Escape Artists/Mundy Lane Entertainment/Netflix, 2021. 

Mission Impossible:  Fallout.  Director Christopher McQuarrie.  Paramount Pictures/Skydance Media/TC Productions, 2018.

Montalván, Karla.  “From Best Actress to Best Picture, Hispanics And Latinos Have Taken Over the Oscar Nominations.”  Febrero 09. 2022.  People.  Meredith Latino Network, 2023. https://peopleenespanol.com/chica/hispanic/.  Accessed 25 April 2023.

Napolitano, Laura, ed.  Preview.  Spring/March-May 2023.  North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA).

Olympus Has Fallen.  Director Antoine Fuqua.  Millennium Films/G-BASE, 2013.

The Patriot.  Director Roland Emmerich.  Columbia Pictures/entropolis Entertainment/Mutual Film Company, 2001.

RRR.  Director S.S. Rajamouli.  DVV Entertainment, 2022.

Supernova.  Director Walt Hill.  Hammerhead Productions/Metro-Goldyn-Mayer (MGM)/ Screenland Pictures, 2000.

Vampire in Brooklyn.  Director Wes Craven.  Eddie Murphy Productions/Paramount Pictures,         1995.

Waiting to Exhale.  Director Forest Whitaker.  Twentieth Century Fox, 1995.

What’s Love Got to Do with It.  Director Brian Gibson.  Touchstone Pictures, 1993.

The Woman King.  Director Gina Prince-Bythewood.  TriStar Pictures/Eone Entertainment/TSG Entertainment, 2022.

     Angela Bassett and Viola Davis are two exceptional actresses with extraordinary careers:  Bassett with over a hundred productions in film, tv, and voice-over work, while also directing and producing;  Davis with similar hallmarks as both an actor, director, and producer, while providing voice-/sound-work. Aptly, audiences watched to see the acknowledgements the Academy would confer on them this year. 

​   Shockingly, Davis, a member of the coveted EGOT world--those awarded the highest achievements in entertainment:  Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony--was shunned.  Being the most nominated actress of African-descent to receive Oscar nominations:  Best Actress in a Leading Role for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2021) and The Help (2012);  and Best Supporting Actress for Fences (2017) and Doubt (2009), she walked with the golden statue for Fences.  However, she has, yet, to join Halle Berry as another Women of Color to be recognized for work in a leading role.  Considering these accolades, it is all the more disconcerting that Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King did not receive multiple nominations, not just for Leading Actress, but also, Directing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Picture, Writing (and so on)?  The film did receive such recognition from other venues.[Note1]  I offer such a thought because similar new historicist films like Braveheart (1996), The Last Samurai (2004), The Patriot (2001), Glory (1989) did receives nods from the Academy, not only in terms of nominations but also with wins.  What is the difference...female director...chronicling the height of civilization on the continent of Africa at the start of colonization...the military leadership of women? 

    Clearly, if we allow the facts to speak for themselves, Woman King defies every patriarchal norm, captured in the oxymoronic nature of the film’s title.  We have woman queens and male kings, not the inverse, and so even though Prince-Bythewood’s text offers a factual context for how/why the mythical monarchy of Wakanda would have a Dora Milaje, such truth may have been too unsettling for the Academy membership--at least to be recognized and rewarded.  What a disappointing revelation to have in 2023.  For, in terms of big screen action, storyline, character relationships and development, and most significantly for Davis--the daunting physical, psychological, and emotional demands on the lead actor--there is little difference between elements found in The Woman King that resulted in big wins for other films (ex., Gibson’s combat scenes in a kilt;  Washington’s race across the battlefields, dropping his weapon to pick up the American flag;  Cruise’s mastering of a samurai sword, and so on). 

       In regards to Bassett, who could not understand her disappointment in hearing Jamie Lee Curtis’s name announced for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role?  Mind you, I, too, am a Curtis fan, having watched her father’s films on tv as a child and seeing fans gravitate to every reiteration of the Halloween plot-twists.  In this regard, I am happy for Curtis, who also has a loooong movie career with some interesting roles, but is Deidre Beaubeirdre’s character really that enduring or memorable?  No one will forget Queen Ramonda and the legacy she reflects as Queen-Mother of the Black Panthers:  T’Challa and Shuri!  Here-in, Bassett may have happened upon that once-in-a-lifetime, pinnacle,  “je ne sais quoi” moment in her career.  I, certainly, will never forget her bereaved speech about “having given everything.”  You could hear a pin-drop in the theater, and all were equally overcome when she gave her life to save Riri Williams/Ironheart.  Were such spellbinding moments created by Curtis in Everything Everywhere All at Once?  In addition, Bassett’s rendition of Queen Ramonda comes after so much other, brilliant work:  Athena Grant in 9-1-1 (2018-2023);  Marie Laveau, Desiree Dupree, Ramona Royale, Lee Harris, and Monet Tumuslime in American Horror Story (2013-2018);  Erika Sloane from Mission Impossible:  Fallout (2018);  Lynne Jacobs in London Has Fallen (2016) and Olympus Has Fallen (2013);  Miss Helen in Chi-Raq (2015);  Doctor Waller in Green Lantern (2011);  Dr. Kaela Evers in Supernova (2000);  Rachel Constantine in Contact (1997);  Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993).  What these roles have in common--and note, I haven’t mentioned her celebrated roles as a mother, wife, or love-interest in popular Black films like Boyz n the Hood (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), or Waiting to Exhale (1995)--are representations of powerful, enduring, and endearing women who are unwavering in the face of insurmountable odds.  Do you see the point?  In essence, Bassett has played indomitable personalities for decades and, finally, she happened upon a striking part that was perfect for her and this moment in time.  (Consider Ruth Carter’s receiving a second Oscar for her costuming designs for Black Panther:  Wakanda Forever, with productions on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC) special exhibit on Afrofuturism (“Afrofuturism”), along with North Carolina’s Museum of Art (NCMA) displaying her work from April-August of 2023 in their “Ruth E. Carter:  Afrofuturism in Costume Design” (Napolitano)).  For these reasons, the Academy must be commended for Bassett’s nomination but why not the win, accolades she did receive elsewhere? [Note 2]

    Yet, again, I don’t want paranoia and conspiracy theories to reign, but it seems as if the status quo does not want women of African-descent to have a monarchal presence.  Even so, we are rightful heirs to this unprecedented fact.  We are Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Makeda, Sheba.  They are our cultural and historical ancestors, and no matter how much the image is thwarted or transferred to another (casting these characters as non-representative women of African-descent), the remnants remain.  For me, then, it was disheartening to not see Davis’s face with Michelle Yeoh’s, when the majority group of Anglo-descended women were named for Leading Lady and for Bassett’s name to not be read for the winner in the role of Best Supporting Actress.  Such an observation takes nothing away from the brilliant performances the other actors gave in their range of riveting roles.  The conundrum remains, however;  there seems to be a comfort in seeing and applauding women in the trials that they surmount, but Women of Color, especially those who are African-descended, should not reflect royalty.  [See NOTE 3, which lists the Black female actresses who have received Oscars, all for a supporting role.]. Thus, whether this is the intended message or not, an impression is being sent that 1) Women of African-descent can't be Oscar-award-winning Leading Ladies, and 2) they can't be captured as sovereign.  Such an impressions is only compounded by the absence of Oscar nods to two queens, literally and figuratively (or one queen and a woman king) at the 95th Academy Awards celebration. 

    Fortunately, for the Asian-American community, this was a laudable year, with wins for an Actress in a Leading Role (Yeoh);  Supporting Male Actor (Ke Huy Quan);  the many other wins for Everything Everywhere All at Once (7 oscars, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director); along with Indian artists, M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose, for “Naatu Naatu” (from the film RRR);  and another Indian documentary, The Elephant Whisperers, which “made history as the first Indian documentary short” (Cho).  Honestly, I might have voted for Yeoh, myself, but Davis definitely should have been a contender.  Embracing diversity along these lines is valuable and necessary, but the precedence remains:  why must it be one or the other--Black wins (ex. Halle Berry’s Lead Actress, Denzel Washington’s Leading Actor in 2002, the same year that Sidney Poiter was given a second Oscar for Lifetime Achievement (“Halle, Denzel”)), an overwhelming number of nominations for LatinX creators in 2022 (Montalván), and Asian achievement (this year)?  Such a conundrum was all the more pronounced in having Berry--in Will Smith’s absence--announce this year’s winner for Lead Actress.  In other words, in light of Smith’s debacle last year--for which he should have been ejected from the ceremony with no chance to deliver an acceptance speech and, perhaps, anticipating the acrimony that would arise in shunning Davis, Bassett, and Prince-Bythewood--the Academy leadership subtlety and problematically sent a message that said, “Let’s not forget the history that was made at the 74th Awards ceremony, twenty-one years ago, when Black Excellence was celebrated.  Unfortunately, in 2023, we should no longer have to look at achievement in such divisive terms.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see talent applauded without the woeful appearance of one demographic being singled out over another.
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An Addition to the Legacy of Black Female Vampires:  La Femme Blacula and Netflix's The Invitation (2022)

2/7/2023

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    Recently, thanks to Don Solomon, Director of Communications at the National Humanities Center, I watched Netflix’s The Invitation (2022).  What a wonderful addition to an interesting tradition of African-descended women in the roles of vampires.  Going back to Ganga, played by Marlene Clark in Ganga and Hess (1973);  Katrina, performed by Gail Jones in Vamp (1986);  Rita, portrayed by Angela Bassett from Vampire in Brooklyn (1995);  and Queen Akasha, depicted by popular R&B singer, Aaliyah, in the adaptation of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned (2002), La Femme Blacula--my term--has had a fraught appeal on her audience.  This love-hate attraction is further explored through literature:  Octavia Butler’s Fledgling (2005), Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories (1991), L.A. Bank’s The Bitten (2005), Pearl Cleage’s Just Wanna Testify (2011).  Certainly, if this is an area of interest, you might want to peruse  Kendra Parker’s Black Female Vampires in African American Women’s Novels:  1977-2011:  She Bites Back (2018).  Another useful read could be The Paradox of Blackness in African American Vampire Fiction (2019) by Jerry Rafiki Jenkins.  In addition, there is Nicole Givens Kurtz’s Slay:  Stories of the Vampire Noire (2020) and Uriah Derick D’Arcy’s The Black Vampyre:  A Legend of St. Domingo (2020).  Moreover, I have a chapter on girl vampires in Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls:  Watch It! (2023), whereby I focus on the televised series, The Passage (2019)--books by Justin Cronin--and the film, The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)--adapted from a story and novel by Mike Carey/M.R. Carey.


    So what is up with this fascination with the Black female vampire, who first appeared in Blacula (1972), starring William Marshall in the titular role, directed by William Crain, with her reappearance in Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973) starring Pam Grier?  Why is she enduring in literature and on the screen?  I think The Invitation, directed by Jessica M. Thompson, offers some insights.  For even when infected by the monstrosity--the tainting of her blood with vampire venom—some of her humanity remains--at least in the ones we love who were human at first and not, ostensibly, the monster genetically from the onset (ex., Jone’s Katrina in Vamp).  There are some exceptions to this thought (Ganga from Ganga and Hess , for instance), but let’s focus on Evie and her backstory.


    Evie Jackson (aka Evelyn Alexander) is the only female descendent in the Alexander family-line.  Unbeknownst to her, her ancestors are part of a vampire quadrumvirate.  Walter “Walt” DeVille (aka Dracula) is the “Master” of the group and to ensure his--and their--immortality, he is wed to a woman from three human families:  The Alexanders from London, The Billingtons of Whitby, and The Klopstocks in Budapest;  “[they] have served the DeVilles for years."  The Klopstocks monitor his money, and he has been joined to Viktoria for 500 years.  His second bride is Lucy Billington, to whom he has been wed for 100 years;  the Billingtons offer Dracula/Walt his legal representation.  The Alexanders manage his real estate.  Evie’s grandmother, Emmaline, was the last Alexander bride.  However, having fallen in love with a Black footman with whom she had a child--she yearns for normalcy and has no desire to fulfill the family’s contract.  Committing suicide, she hopes to end Walt’s coven, literally saying, “It all ends here...with me.”  However, even in extricating her descendants from an eternal bond to Walt DeVille, they are not safe.  


    One hundred years have passed, and now orphaned, Evie longs for connection and a sense of purpose.  As a result, when she works as a server at an “Unlocking Your Past”/“Find Yourself” DNA event, she leaves with a grab-bag--commandeered by her best friend Grace--and decides to check her genealogy and ascertain if she has any surviving relatives.  A cousin from England, Oliver Alexander surprises her with an email, wanting to meet.  Over lunch, he invites her to the UK, coaxing her to attend “the wedding of the century”--between Martin Alexander and Cecile “Cece” DeVille.  He also tells her that “[she] is part of the family scandal,” yet despite her great-grandmother’s affair, “everyone is utterly overjoyed” to meet her.  Of course, Oliver lies to her, as Martin and Cece do not exist.  The purpose of her travel is to complete the quadrumvirate pact, whereby Evie fulfills her family’s polygamous union with Walt DeVille.  Thus, on the first night of her reunion with the Alexanders, Great Uncle Alfred, “the patriarch” acknowledges her with a toast, welcoming “Eve”lyn into the family:  “What a gift” and a “bless[ing]….So many boys;  we thought we were done for” (The Invitation).   
        
     Here-in begins the poignant iteration of an African-descended, woman vampire.  Evie/Evelyn/“Eve”lyn is the family’s Eve, and we will discover that she is a metaphoric Eve to Walt’s entire coven.  Even though she will not sire any children, literally, she is the , figurative, key to “pro”creation, fortifying Walt’s, Viktoria’s and Lucy’s immortality while ensuring the continued dominance and wealth of the three families—particularly the Alexanders.  She is also the key to death for neighboring humans, as her completion of the circle ensures the demise of more generations of servants who clean the DeVille home, attend to his guests, and are murdered for their nourishing blood.  Once these issues are revealed in the film, the sight of Evie, standing in the midst of a majority, white male audience, literally being called “Eve”lyn, it makes sense to link her to the Christian matriarch, Eve, the “womb-man” charged with birthing the origins and downfall of all humanity (Genesis 3:1-4:26).  For that matter, just as Eve was vital to her partnership with Adam (the biological father of humanity) and mother to Cain and Abel (who unleash a spirit of murder and jealously upon the earth), so too is Evie destined to walk a similar path, keeping vampires alive and damning humanity with an immortal threat.  Moreover, akin to the original Eve, Evie is tempted by the serpent in the garden or, in this case, the snake on the estate.  Over the next few days, Walt courts her with a romantic fervor, and anyone attracted to men will swoon at his dizzying gaze and alluring smile.  
         
    Is he really a monster at all?  On the night when Viktoria sneaks into Evie’s room to frighten her--she is not “playing nicely,” as Walt demanded of her earlier in the day--Walt comes to Evie’s aid.  Comforting her, he drops his guard, asking of her deepest hopes and fears and sharing his own.  She vents that she has been “treading water,” “barely scraping by” and “wan[ts] to live life fully...throw[ing] caution to the wind.  He reveals that “[He’s] tired of the facade....[He wants] someone to see [him] for who [he] truly [is].  Doesn’t try to change [him] into an idea or into a concept or an itch that they need to scratch.  Someone that accepts [him].”  After disclosing, he looks to Evie for affirmation and understanding, but she has fallen asleep.  Is he being honest or telling her what she wants to hear?  On the one hand, it would seem as if Viktoria and Lucy are giving him the love and support that he needs;  certainly during Evie and Walt’s courtship and during the wedding ceremony, Viktoria seems to have genuine concern for his well-being.  However, particularly after what Walt reveals above, we have to recognize that Viktoria and Lucy are fulfilling their families’ pacts--not actually, certainly not initially, marrying him for “love”--but Evie knows nothing about this ancestral arrangement, so her attraction to and interest in him was sincere.  Hence, his statement at the dinner that “[his] old heart [wa]s beating again” (The Invitation).  
         
    This intimate scene is a curious one.  First, it conveys that Walt finds in Evie, something that he has not found in his other wives.  The “‘je ne sais quoi’ quality” that Oliver describes when talking about Evie to Viktoria (The Invitation).  In essence, this black woman captures a civility that has been missing on the DeVille grounds, such humanity that is on display when she first arrives.  She is only on the grounds for minutes when she bumps into a servant who is carrying a crate with glasses.  Instead of reprimanding her--as the butler Renfield does--or pretentiously stepping over the women and the mess, as they try to clean up, Evie bows down and helps retrieve the broken glass.  Such a gesture of concern for the “help” is unfamiliar in this environment, and this genuineness is what Evie shows Walt, who is obviously used to people being afraid of him and only responding to his “beck and call” without question or hesitation.  This lack of humanity and true civility is on display during the wedding feast when, in stark contrast to Evie, Walt stands as the “Master” of New Carfax Abbey.


    At the feast, when Evie inquires about the bride and groom, Martin and Cecilia “Cece,” Walter ends the ruse.  He explains that “someone has been missing” from the table and that there has been a “strain” and “imbalance” on the four families for some time:  “The once broken-bond [is being] renewed,” whereby his “lovely mortals [the Alexanders, Billingtons, and Klopstocks]” have fulfilled a pledge to him, “a pact” that was made “many many moons ago.”  Next, he announces his impending nuptials to Evie and the male servers, cut the throat of a woman-servant, filling a crystal punchbowl from which they dip a ladle to fill three cups:  Walt’s, Viktoria’s, and Lucy’s (The Invitation).   In spite of her shock, Evie remains composed and walks to the entryway in an effort to leave.  To his credit--truly, I use this term fleetingly--Walt goes to her, reminding her that they had agree to be their “true selves” and have “no secrets,” and so even though she is “embarrassing [him],” he kisses her gently, saying “It’s me” (The Invitation).           
          
    This is yet, another, difficult moment.  On the one hand, Walt seems troubled by the turn of events.  He had thought he found his soul-mate.  Someone who would truly see and accept him for who he is without pursuing the relationship for what s/he could get out of it or for what the union will do for her family. (Note1)  In other words, in an ideal world, if Evie had been allowed time to fully fall for Walt--and vice versa--the DeVilles might stop murdering servants identifying another blood-source?  Of course, such a turn of events is not in the plot of The Invitation, but such an outcome is feasible, considering the humanity shown by La Femme Blacula in other texts, such as Shuri's deference for humans in Fledgling and Amy's defense of them in The Passage.  (See Chapter Five in Jeffrey-Legette’s Watch It!.) Let’s, however, return to our analysis of The Invitation, as shown.
         
    Once, the rehearsal dinner is finished, everyone is clear about what is transpiring on the DeVille estate.  Evie is passed on to the bridesmaids, Viktoria and Lucy, who are tasked with giving her a “bachelorette party.”  They explain the transition from human to vampire and what Evie must expect going forward.  During this exchange, Viktoria retorts that Emmaline was “not as difficult” as Evie is being, and Lucy, who is truly trying to console our femme-fatale, reveals that she, Viktoria, and Emmaline “were such great friends.…”  What matters, and why Evie must join the trio, is the rare blood types that the four families share:  “[T]he combination…makes [Walt, Viktoria, Lucy, and Evie] all-powerful[, and i]mmune to the effects of time."   Lucy goes on to describe the wedding ritual, which binds the women to each other and “to the Master.”  First, the bride must drink Walt’s blood, gaining his power and sealing the union.  Then, after he drinks her blood, the four acquire “eternal life,” and they can only die when he does  (The Invitation). 
        
    The next day, during the wedding rite, Evie says “Yes” for “I do.”  All expect her to fulfill her great-grandmother’s task, but she has other thoughts, aspiring to complete her ancestor’s wish to “end” it all.  Evie drinks Walt’s blood, emaciating him.  Only Viktoria, his longest bride, seems concerned, knowing how much energy Evie is drawing from him.  Here-in, we see the Black woman become the most powerful entity in the room, stronger than Walt who she impales and who, first, appears to die in the arms of his wives.  However, Viktoria, the first wife, will avenge him or allow him time to heal, for she knows that if Evie had given him a death wound, she and Lucy would not still be vampires.  Lucy rescues Evie, impaling herself and Viktoria, so that the horror can end.  Now, Walt has one bride, Evie, and he must begin anew, for without the three women, he lacks immortality.  For that matter, having not ingested Evie’s blood, he is definitely vulnerable.  When she fights him, Evie decries, “I would rather die than be a part of this.”  She calls him a monster and after cutting off a hand, and kicking him into the fire that is blazing throughout the mansion, the oldest, most horrifying fiend is destroyed. Evie quickly regains her humanity, losing the fangs and claws, and when the film ends, she has become a vigilante-hero, endeavoring to exterminate the family members who enabled Walt/Dracula.  She stands with her sister-friend, Grace, another mortal, Black woman, across the street from Oliver’s law practice.  They are going to “beat the F out of him” (The Invitation).  Evie has regained her humanity, literally, although, figuratively, it never left her.  She embraces and founds her strength on--perhaps--one of the most endearing qualities of La Femme Blacula, her humanity, which has destined her to become the woman warrior we see at the film's conclusion.


Notes
1. I would love to have this optimistic view.  However, he is a vampire, the father of deception, so I think about Edward Cullen’s statement to Belle in the first Twilight film—based on the books by Stephanie Meyers--how “everything about him draws you in”;  he is the superior predator who attracts his prey.  Yet, particularly because of the Twilight films, I wonder if Evie might have “loved” Walt, and if allowed to join the family willingly--not in the coerced way shown in the film--might she have humanized the vampires, as Carlisle does with his coven (Twilight).
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Blacula's wife Tina/Luva
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Pam Grier/Lisa Fortier in Scream, Blacula, Scream
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Katrina in Vamp.
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Rita from Vampire in Brooklyn
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Amy in ​The Passage
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Evie in the closing minutes of ​The Invitation
Works Cited
Bank, L.A. The Bitten.  New York:  St. Martin’s Griffin, 2005.

Butler, Octavia.  Fledgling.  New York:  Grand Central Publishing, 2005.

—-.  Mind of My Mind. 1977.  New York:  Grand Central Publishing, 2020. 

Carey, Mike R.  The Girl with All the Gifts.  Orbit, 2015.

Cleage, Pearl.  Just Wanna Testify.  One World, 2011.

Cronin, Justin.  The Passage.  Orion, 2018.

D’Arcy, Uriah Derick.  The Black Vampyre:  A Legend of St. Domingo.  Gothic World Literature, 2020.

Ganga and Hess.  Directed by Bill Gunn.  Kelly/Jordan Enterprises, 1973.

The Girl With All the Gifts.  Directed by Colm McCarthy.  BFI Film Fund/Creative England/Altitude Film Entertainment, 2016.

Gomez, Jewelle.   The Gilda Stories.  1991.  City Lights, 2016.

The Invitation.  Directed by Jessica M. Thompson.  Screen Gems/Mid Atlantic Films, 2022.

​Jeffrey-Legette, Karima.  
Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls:              Watch It!  Landham:  Lexington P, 2023.

Jenkins, Jerry Rafiki.  The Paradox of Blackness in African American Vampire Fiction.  Columbia:  Ohio State UP, 2019.

Kurtz, Nicole Givens.  Slay:  Stories of the Vampire Noire.  Mocha Memoirs P, 2020.

Parker, Kendra.   Black Female Vampires in African American Women’s Novels:  1977-2011:  She Bites Back.  Lanham:  Lexington P, 2018.

The Passage.  Created by Liz Heldens.  Scott Free Productions/6th & Idaho Productions/Selfish Mermaid, 2019.

Queen of the Damned.  Directed by Michael Rymer.  Warner Bros/Village Roadshow Pictures/NPV             Entertainment, 2002.

Twilight. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke.  Summit Entertainment/Temple Hill Entertainment/Maverick Films, 2008.
​
Vamp.  Directed by Richard Wenk.  New World Pictures/Balcor Film Investors/Amaretto Films, 1986.
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What happened to a Black Spider-Man/Woman in No Way Home (2021)?

1/8/2023

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   Many, like me, may have been disappointed with the lastest Marvel Spider-Man film, No Way Home (2021).  When seeing the previews and hearing about the cinematic venture, especially the story’s trek into the Multiverse, I immediately thought about our Latinx wall-crawling crusader.  How could I not?  Spider-Man:  Into the Spider-Verse (2018) is all about traveling through parallel universes, meeting other Spider-People and them coming together to do what?  Realign the Multiverse/Spider-Verse, so the various Spideys can return to their rightful plane.  In Into the Spider-Verse, such a realignment results in the death of Peter Parker and the rise of Miles Morales as Spider-Man in a parallel universe.  How could this important
Afro-LatinX hero not appear in another storyline about Spider-Man standing at the crux of events that will either destroy or redeem every universe in the Multiverse?  Moreover, with a plot and visual renderings that splinter time and space, was this not an apropos venue for allowing the animated character to interact with his counterparts across the franchise?  How could I and others not be offended by such an erasure when such concerted efforts were made to integrate three, other, cinematic versions of our friendly, neighborhood web-slinger?  Of course, when actually watching No Way Home, I became increasingly more excited and moved closer to the edge of my seat when Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man (2012, 2014) met Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man (2002, 2004, 2007), and the two sought out Tom Holland’s grieving personage.  Of course, Miles would show up soon!  Right?  WHAT A LET DOWN when there was not only no appearance of Miles but not even a cameo mention of his name!  Electro’s snide comment—played by Jamie Foxx— “There’s gotta be a Black Spider-Man somewhere out there” (No Way Home) was not enough and, quite honestly a cop-out to the problem.  


    Really, Marvel?  You couldn’t even figure out a way to write Miles out of the script, meaning have Tom’s, Tobey’s, or Andrew’s rendition meet him in the Multiverse, OR mention having crossed Miles’s path in their own treks across the Spider-verse?  Such questions are all the more pervasive, when seeing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) navigate digital/animated universes in addition to “real” planes.  Furthermore, Stranges’s [I]n the Multiverse of Madness called attention to a Black Superhero in the portrayal of Captain Marvel/Spectrum/Photon when he, America Chavez, and the Scarlett Witch traveled to another parallel reality.  Thus, when filming No Way Home, Marvel missed an important opportunity, one that makes even more sense as a possible predecessor to filmic stories about Riri Williams/Ironheart and Shuri in Wakanda Forever (2022), Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s depiction of Black Adam (2022), or Ava Duvernay’s CW viewing of Naomi (2022).  Where was Miles Morales and, seriously, how could you leave him out of the Spider-Man franchise?  What a problematic oversight, not only in terms of the representations of Spider-Man/Woman and Black heroes in the Marvel Universe but, also, when thinking about the promise of inspirational representations of a Black, male child/adolescent hero. Along these lines, it is important to consider the rise in such characterizations recently:  Netflix’s Dion (2019-Season 1 and 2022-Season 2) or Kin (2018) and Cyborg’s position with the Teen Titans (cartoon) and Justice League (films).  Obviously, such an oversight in No Way Home was intentional, and such an erasure becomes all the more problematic, when contending with the existence(s) of a Black Spider-Man/Woman in the comic’s history. 

    Thanks to BlackComicLords.net (BCL), I have discovered that there are other Spider-People of African-descent—not just Miles Morales—and to my purposes and concerns, these individuals are Black women/girls.  In a YouTube video, “Black Spider-Woman Decades before Miles!  Spidey Stories #11,” we are reminded of two, original Spider-Women.  The popularly known character with her own cartoon that aired on tv from September 1979 to January 1980 (disneyplus.com), Jessica Drew, first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #32-Spidey Super Stories comic in 1978.  However, prior to her introduction, there was an interesting friend to Peter Parker and fan of Spider-Man.  Valerie, the librarian, debuted in August of 1975 (Decades before Miles), and she took center-stage in the August, Issue #11 of  Marvel Comics and The Electric Company Present Spidey Super Stories:  Doc Ock and Spider-Man in a Fight to the Finish (
BCL Ladies Live).  As our Black Comic Lords narrator for “Decades before Miles” explains with supporting visual evidence, Peter left his costume hanging from a rooftop.  It falls into Valerie’s lap.  Taking full ownership, she adds suction cups to the gloves and heels, develops her own webbing, and takes to the streets, helping Peter defeat the Vulture.  The book ends with her declaring, as she swings from an apartment window:  “So look out, Crooks.  Here comes Spider-Woman!” (Decades before Miles)  What an amazing find?  I had no knowledge of Valerie, until coming across this video homage on the BCL YouTube channel.  


    Moreover, in another BCL presentation, attention is given to two modern day Spider-Women;  both happen to be Women of Color.  In a BCL Ladies Live conversation (Episode 4) in October of 2022, viewers are given information about Valerie the Librarian and introduced to two characters from the Edge of Spider-Verse series:  Spider-UK 2022 and Spinstress, who was also introduced in 2022.  The commentators do not mention No Way Home, but acknowledge that prior to Jessica Drew’s character, there was another Spider-Woman, significantly but problematically, an athletic individual with no super-human abilities—akin to other depictions of Black people in comics in the 1970s—who were able to fight alongside superheroes, often helping to defeat the super-villain.  For them, it is not only noteworthy that Valerie has been lost to the Marvel Universe—especially when friendships and other, peripheral characters have been unearthed over the years—but that Spidey Super Story issues were co-sponsored by Marvel and The Electric Company carries further importance.  (
BCL Ladies Live)  In the book’s conclusion, Valerie defeats the Vulture—who has subdued and tied up Spider-Man.  The encounter takes place in front of an imagined rendering of the actual Electric Company Theatre, where the show was recorded and produced in New York City.  In essence, the librarian who by the very nature of her vocation is linked to knowledge and learning is depicted as an African-descended Spider-Person in a collaborative issue between a comics publication and one of the strongest and most reputable televised educational outlets for young people at the time.  Clearly, the writers were thinking about knowledge/information-gathering and the tackling of ignorance when introducing Valerie into the storyline.  Not only can women be superheroes, but a Black woman and a librarian can—not just within the fictional pages of the comics but arguably in real-life too—be the hero!   


    Next, the BCL Ladies reveal our new millennium Spider-Women who traverse the Spider-Verse.  First there is Spider-UK '22, Zarina Zahari, who debuts in Edge of the Spider-Verse #2 (2022).  She is not to be confused with the 2014 Spider-UK, William “Billy” Braddock of Earth 833, who premiered in Amazing Spider-Man #7 (2014) where an Edge of the Spider-Verse appeared and was killed in Spider-Geddon #1 (2018).  Zarina is especially important, the BCL discussants highlight, due to her full representation of diversity.  She is a Black British Muslim, thus uncoupling presumptions around “race,” ethnicity, and culture while also presenting a female Spider-Man.  (
BCL Ladies Live)  Interestingly enough, this Zarina is not seen in trailers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) (Baculi), although the African-descended Jessica Drew--voiced by Issa Rae--has similar powers to Spider-UK '22. 


    The second character, Spinstress, is “fashioned after a Disney princess.”  She is Princess Petra and her Fairy Godmother is the Goblin.  Spinstress appears in Edge of the Spider-Verse #4 (2022) (BCL Ladies Live), and not unlike the construction of Tiana in The Princess and the Frog (2009), Brandi as Cinderella (1997) or H.E.R. in the 30th Anniversary Celebration of Belle from Beauty and the Beast (2022), the comic provides youth with a Black princess to admire, one who chooses to be a hero over a romantic love-interest.  


    Unquestionably, the largest producers of popular comic fiction—Marvel and DC—continue to diversify their cast of characters and storylines.  Unfortunately, Marvel—-now owned by Disney—-missed an opportune moment with this most recent, Spider-Man film, requiring People of Color to yet, again, wonder if racist bias led to Miles Morales’s absence from No Way Home.  For such an impression is a likely and logical inference when considering the other African-descended Spider-People who have existed—or now do exist.

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Spider UK'22-Zarina Zahari                      Spinstress-Princess Petra

Works Cited
The Amazing Spider-Man.  Director Marc Webb.  Columbia Pictures/Marvel Entertainment/Laura Ziskin Productions, 2012.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  Director Marc Webb.  Marvel Enterprises/Avi Arad Productions/Columbia Pictures, 2014.

Baculi, Spencer.  "First Trailer for 'Spider-Man:  Across the Spider-Verse' Confirms Black Spider-Woman." Bounding Into Comics.  Bounding Into Comics, 2022.  
https://boundingintocomics.com/2022/12/13/first-trailer-for-spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-confirms-black-spider-woman/. Accessed 11 January 2023.

Batman vs. Superman:  Dawn of Justice.  Director Zach Synder.  Warner Brothers/Atlas Entertainment, Cruel and Unusual Films, 2016.

Black Adam.  Director Jaume Collet-Serra.  Warner Brothers/New Line Cinema/DC Entertainment, 2022. 

Black Panther:  Wakanda Forever.  Director Ryan Cooler.  Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures, 2022.

Beauty and the Beast:  A 30th Celebration.  Director Hamish Hamilton.  ABC.  December 15, 2022.

“Black Spider Women!  BCL Ladies Live Ep. 4.”  October 22, 2022.  Black Comic Lords.  YouTube.  Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id4TSymQy4Y

“Black Spider-Woman Decades before Miles!  Spidey Stories #11,”  Black Comic Lords.  YouTube.  Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUbwF0a_mgw

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.  Director Sam Raimi.  Marvel Studios, 2022.

Justice League.  Director Joss Whedon.  Warner Brothers/RatPac Entertainment, DC Entertainment, 2017.

Justice League.  Director Zach Synder.  Warner Brothers/RatPac Entertainment, DC Entertainment, 2021.

Kin.  Directors Jonathan Baker and Josh Baker.  Summit Entertainment/21 Laps Entertainment/Hurwitz Creative, 2018.

Naomi.  Creator Ava Duvernay.  CW, Season 1  (2022).​

The Princess and the Frog.  Director Ron Clements and John Musker.  Walt Disney Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures, 2009.

Raising Dion.  Creators Carol Barbee and Dennis A. Liu.  Netflix, Season 1 (2019) and Season 2 (2022).

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.  Director Robert Iscove.  BrownHose Productions/ Citadel Entertainment/Storyline Entertainment, 1997. 

Slott, Dan.  Amazing Spider-Man #7.  Marvel.  October 8, 2014.

Slott, Dan, and Chris Giarrusso, Ramsey Hassan, Mallory Rosenthal.  Edge of the Spider-Verse #2.  Marvel.  August 17, 2022.

Slott, Dan, and Jordan Blum, David Hein, Tee Franklin.  Edge of the Spider-Verse #4.  Marvel, September 21, 2022.

Spider-Man.  Director Sam Raimi.  Columbia Pictures/Marvel Enterprises/Laura Ziskin Productions, 2002.

Spider-Man 2.  Director Sam Raimi.  Columbia Pictures/Marvel Enterprises/Laura Ziskin Productions, 2004.  

Spider-Man 3.  Director Sam Raimi.  Columbia Pictures/Marvel Studios/Laura Ziskin Productions, 2007.

Spider-Man:  Across the Spider-Verse.  Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson.  Sony Pictures Animation/Marvel Entertainment/Arad Productions, 2023.

Spider-Man:  Into the Spider-Verse.  Directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman.  Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures/Marvel Entertainment, 2018.

Spider-Man: No Way Home.  Director Jon Watts.  Columbia Pictures/Pascal Pictures/Marvel Studios, 2021.

Spider-Woman.  Creators Stan Lee and Marie Severin.  Marvel Productions, 1979-1980.

Salicrup, Jim.  Spidey Super Stories #32.  Marvel.  December 27, 1977.

Teen Titans.  Creators David Slack, Bob Haney, and Bruno Premiani.  Warner Brothers Animation/DC Comics/Williams Street, 2003-2006.

Thomas, Jean.  Spidey Super Stories #11:  Doc Ock and Spider-Man in a Fight to the Finish.  Marvel, May 27, 1975.
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A Black Jessica Drew - from Spider-Man:  Across the Spider-Verse trailer (2023)
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Black Targaryens?!?!?

10/5/2022

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    How exciting and equally tragic to see people of African-descent as members of the aristocracy in HBO’s newly imagined House of the Dragon (HotD), a spinoff from Game of Thrones (GoT).  Obviously, in watching previews, which shared visuals akin to what is pictured above, it is ever so clear that HotD integrates People of Color into the GoT world.  Thus, in sitting through the first episode, I had a visceral reaction to the image of a Black Targaryen: brown-complexions with blond/white dreadlocks standing next to their kinsmen with pale white-skin and ashen-blond tresses.  As a matter of fact, I sat on the edge of my seat, picking at my fingernails—akin to a young Alicent Hightower as she is so often seen doing in the initial episode.  For, as minutes passed in Episode #1-“The Heirs of the Dragon,” I recalled split-second images of Corlys in previews (second from the left), and I was anxious to learn more about him and the other faces that quickly flashed across the screen in the lead-up to the debut?  What would his relationship to Daenyrs (GoT) be?  


    As the opening credits rolled and the new series began, it became clear that Corlys is a distant, blood relation to Daenyrs, and as we will learn, he is the patriarch of the lost family of Black Targaryens.  He is husband to Rhaenys, “The Queen Who Never Was," and arguably, the fall of the House Targaryen began with her, or with her partriarch, Jaehaerys I.  What goes awry?  Being the eldest granddaughter and the only child of of Jaehaerys I’s first-born, Aemon, who is deceased, Rhaenys was the rightful heir to the throne. However, as the King’s Council would not support seating a woman on the Iron Throne, Rhaenys is displaced by her cousin, Viserys I, the eldest child of Aemon’s brother, Baelon, who has also died.  Thus, Corlys, the Black man, fathers an estranged monarchal line.  For, clearly, had the Targaryen succession progressed properly, Rhaenys would have been Queen of Kings Landing, and upon her death, the crown would have passed to either her daughter Laena (the elder of the two--cut out of the frame above but depicted below in the caption to the left) or her son Laenor (standing behind Coryls above in the middle of the shot), should Laena have not wished for or accepted her duty.  Then, if Laena was still wed to Daemon, the line of succession would have fallen to Baela or Rhaena—their children (the two girls pictured below on the right).  Cool!!  Right?  Long before Daenyrs, viewers could have met, possibly, three dragon-riding, Targaryen Queens, powerful women and rightful inheritors of the “Game of Thrones”—two of them being Black or Mix-“raced” Women of Color—based on the HotD rendering airing on HBO, which does differ from George R.R. Martin’s original vision--although they are referred to as "The Blacks," which becomes indicative of Rhaenyra's Black and Red as opposed to Aemon II's Green dragon sigils (Kawakami).   


    Thus, for me—someone intrigued with how women/girls of African-descent are captured in SF material—I find it curious that the above outcome never came to—could not come to—fruition in our visualized GoT dimension.  For it is a fact that no “African-blood” appears to run through the veins of any surviving Targaryens, when we meet them in Game of Thrones.  So, I am wrestling with the bittersweet positioning of characters like Laena, Baela, and Rhaena in House of the Dragon.  First, in a rather exciting way, Rhaenys is the matriarch of a line of Black Targaryen Queens.  Wow, let’s wrap our minds around that thought and, remember images of Laena riding the back of the biggest dragon, Vhagar (captured in Episode 6-“The Princess and the Queen”).  Yet, as the rules of the Old World would have it, no one is ready for such a contingency, and quickly the monarchal line is disrupted.  Is it paranoid to think that part of the realm’s unease with supporting Rhaenys’s bid for the throne, was a realization that the power would pass to a Person of Color, moreover, quite possibly, another woman/women?  Albeit that there is no evidence of George R.R. Martin penning these characters as Black women, HotD forces viewers to contend with such an option as a result of the casting choices.  Second, if gender remained a primary concern and people grew wary of a woman’s leadership, especially following Rhaenys’s leadership, the throne could have passed to her son, Laenor.  However, placing a Black gay man in the line of succession complicates the matter further.  Again, this reading is based on the televised/streaming HBO Series.  Even though Laenor is a reputable fighter, avid adventurer, able seaman, and dragon-rider (as shown in the Battle with the Crab-King (Episode 3-“Second of His Name”), within the hyper-masculine, masochistic, patriarchal society of this imagined world (the brutal tournament scenes, knights, princes, a Kingsguard, and plenty of swords-play and other fight-scenes), the failures of Laenor’s rule are only all too obvious.  Unlike his virile father, Corlys—the “Sea Snake, known for his strategic mind, wealth, and masterful leadership (“Character Guide”), who Rhaenys charges with being obsessed with legacy (Episode 7-“Driftwood”)—Laenor is not interested in the power or position that he inherits when marrying Rhaenyra.  As shown from the start of the season and elucidated so well in Episode 7—when Rhaenyra talks with her betrothed and decides to free him from this obligation—viewers learn that the couple consummated their vows, but Rhaenyra does not get pregnant.  Moreover, aware of her own sexual appetites and a need for males heirs, she pursues a relationship with Ser Harwin Strong--heir to Harrenhal, giving birth to Jacaerys and Lucerys, her surviving sons.  Laenor is too busy cavorting with friends, fellow seaman, or guards, thus not only disinterested in but, possibly, unable to procreate with his wife.  Herein is where the introduction of  “race” in these characters becomes exceptionally problematic.


     Again, it is untenable for a Black woman to ascend to the throne, hence the removal of Rhaenys, preventing the inheritance from passing to Laena.  Next, even with the façade of a Black man being the Princess-Queen’s Consort, Laenor is not the young sires’s biological father.  Thus, they look nothing like Corlys and his other descendants (melaninated skin and, what has now become, the iconic bleached-blond dreadlocks that are worn so proudly by their grandfather, father, aunt, and cousins).  Consequently, Rhaenyra’s children have no blood-ties—to Laenor or Corlys, even though they carry the Velaryon name.  Do you see the trouble that I am having here?  The Black women are removed from the line of succession, and when it is doled out to the males, these individuals are not People of African-descent.  What is happening here?   


    Obviously, the creators of House of the Dragon recognized a significant oversight in the original Game of Thrones series.  Unquestionably, GoT mirrors a European-descended world,   harkening back to Arthurian themes repeatedly set on the fields and arial views of worlds like  Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, and the like.  In this regard, it is interesting to see HotD creators aspire to remedy this oversight in their prequel.  However, as I have set forth above, the inclusion is rife with disturbing complications.  For, no matter what unfurls on HotD, viewers cannot ignore an irrefutable fact.  There are no People of Color—except, conceivably the citizens of Dorn or those living in Penthos or across the Narrow Sea in the imagined GoT timeline—certainly not within the hierarchal ruling families.  Furthermore, as displayed on Vox’s Targaryen Family Tree, Laenor, Baela, and Rhaena do not have children (Romero), and so, by the time we meet Daenerys, there are no visible Black Targaryens remaining.  Therefore, no matter how thrilling it is to see the diversity evidenced in HotD, the absence of such plurality in GoT only reinforces the problematic erasure of People of African-descent in Old World Fantasy Fiction.


Works Cited
“Character Guide.”  HBO Original.  Game of Thrones.  House of the Dragon.  Home Box Office, Inc. 2022.  https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide.  Accessed 5 October 2022. 


“Driftwood.”  House of the Dragon, season 1, episode 7, Home Box Office.  October 2022.  HBO.  https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GYtp0KQgCF73DYAEAAAAJ:type:episode
Accessed 5 October 2022.


Game of Thrones (8 seasons).  Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.  Home Box Office.  Television 360, Grok! Studio, 2011-2019.


“The Heirs of the Dragon.”  House of the Dragon, season 1, episode 1, Home Box Office. October 2022.  HBO.   
https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GYsYeyA2EnHmangEAAAPc:type:episode.  Accessed 5 October 2022. 


“The Princess and the Queen.”  House of the Dragon, season 1, episode 6, Home Box Office.  October 2022. HBO.  
https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GYs1wfgSiqkqupQEAAAVB:type:episode.  Accessed 5 October 2022.


Romero, Aja.  “This Targaryen family tree explains Jon Snow’s parentage—and sets up House of the Dragon:  Untangling one of Game of Thrones’s biggest secrets.”  August 19, 2022.  Vox.  Vox Media, LLC 2022.  https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/17/15982450/house-targaryen-family-tree-fanart.  Accessed 4 October 2022.

Kawakami, Robin. 
"The Black vs. Greens in 'House of the Dragon,' explained:  who has the edge?" October 16, 2022.  Today.  NBC Universal, 2022 https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/house-of-the-dragon-greens-blacks-explained-rcna51664.  Accessed 10 November 2022,.

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Nichelle Nichols (In Memoriam 1932-2022)  and  Her Implicit Connections to a Larger Discussion of Diversity, Science, and Speculative Fiction

8/10/2022

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     Truly, honor is due to the late, great Nichelle Nichols.  Born December 28, 1932 in Robbins, IL.  Nichols passed recently on Saturday, July 30th.  Honestly, this website would not exist without her presence in the original Star Trek television series, where she played the incomparable Nyota Uhura, one of the first—and now quite popular—images of an African/Person of African-descent in SciFi.   
   

    When Star Trek aired in September of 1966, it had an ambitious vision.  First, it was an important technicolor endeavor for Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball’s Desilu Productions, and over the decades, it has become one of their most popular shows.  The list includes I Love Lucy, Mission Impossible, Mannix, and The Untouchables--with Star Trek, of course, reigning at the top in syndication (Lucy Desi Museum).  Second, Star Trek aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).  With its iconic peacock logo—appearing in 1956 (CGHNCY)—which was apropos for its technicolor features, Star Trek, ostensibly, fit quite neatly into a niche that both Desilu and NBC were forging, innovative television programming that could also embrace multiculturalism while presenting powerful leading ladies.  Such efforts were obvious in the comedic antics at play in Lucy’s relationship with her Cuban husband, Ricky (I Love Lucy),[NOTE1] important and successful depictions that persisted in Mission Impossible and its cast of diverse action heroes:  Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), and Barney Collier (Greg Morris), for example.[NOTE2]  In addition, NBC—with its peacock insignia—included shows with stunning sets and colorful costuming.  Again, Star Trek led, in this respect, capturing diversity as an ideal with the  Federation of Planets representing all nations on the earth along with interstellar species and the crew wearing color-coded uniforms.  Another, visually thrilling text was the original Batman series:  with its cadre of visually distinct villains, examples being the Joker (chalk-white skin), Penguin (wobbly, round-figure), and Catwoman (played by a Black woman, Eartha Kitt, in the last season).  Arguably, Kitt’s rendition laid the foundation for the 2004 film, starring Halle Berry, and Zoe Kravitz’s reprisal of the antihero in the recent, 2022, film, The Batman, starring Robert Pattison.[NOTE3]  Irrefutably, Kitt’s Catwoman (debuting in 1968) and Nichols’s Uhura (first seen on tv screens in 1966) are muses to many.  (For more information, see Catwoman discussion in Chapter Two of Jeffrey-Legette's Watch It!.) 


    These are the first, enduring renderings of Black women in speculative roles, and just as they have been inspirational to me, I have no doubt that others have been inspired by their legacies:  writing Speculative Fiction (SF) for the page, the screen and the stage;  pursuing careers in theatre/performance;  arduously working behind the scenes as directors, producers, costumers, etc.; and even compiling individuals to not only consider but seek experiences in S.T.E.A.M. fields as animators, engineers, architects, physicists, and the like.  In this regard, it is so very important to remember Nichols’s training as a singer, dancer, and actress, as well as her efforts to recruit for NASA (uhura.com).  I am reminded of the astronauts who have trained for and/or have actually endeavored to “go (or do) what no [hu]man has done before!”  I smile when visualizing her face and thinking about how pivotal Uhura was, whose very presence advocated for greater media representation, in an industry that could reflect the experiences of People of Color, women, other marginalized groups, especially when imagining the future.  In a retrospective, Nichols wrote:  “the universe of Star Trek…lay the groundwork for what we might actually achieve by the 23rd Century,” “…[a] vision of a bright future for humanity,” one that was initially a “fantasy” but something she was able to help conceive and develop when portraying Uhura (uhura.com).  Now, it is not uncommon to imagine People of Color traveling to space, nor is it unusual to see their innovations behind the scenes, working for NASA or appearing on shows like Nova, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the like, sharing insights about current and developing S.T.E.M. innovations.[NOTE4]  I think about the plethora of female writers who have developed interstellar tales with African-descended leading ladies and men (ex., Okorafor’s Binti).  I see the faces of actors, producers, and directors who are broadening the nature of visual narratives (ex., Duvernay’s A Wrinkle in Time).  What a sphere of influence?  What tremendous dividends for a life lived well! Yet, what might have transpired had Uhura not been written or if Nichols had left the part, as she initially desired?

    Many of us have heard about her encounter with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967 at a fundraiser in Beverley Hills for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.).  Days before this chance meeting, Nichols had given her letter of resignation to Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator.  She was frustrated by the underdeveloped character, who was silent in far too many of the first season’s episode,[NOTE5] and she was ready to return to her first love, a passion for music and Broadway/ live theater.  Disheartened, Roddenberry took the letter, without accepting her resignation, and asked her to take the weekend to reconsider and talk with him the following Monday.  He wanted her to comprehend his vision for Star Trek:  “You can’t, Nichelle. Don’t you see what I’m trying to do here?”  At the N.A.A.C.P. event, Nichols met King, “her biggest fan,” and it was in this moment Roddenberry’s hesitation resounded with her.  King expressed:  

          "Don’t you see what this man is doing..? This is the future. He has established us 
          
as we should be seen…. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as 
          intelligent and beautiful and proud.” “Three hundred years from now, we are here[,
 
          so we keep] marching. And this is the first step….You turn on your television and
          
the news comes on and you see us marching and peaceful, you see the peaceful civil 
          
disobedience, and you see the dogs and see the fire hoses, and we all know they 
          cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd century.” 

          (“Nichelle Nichols Remembers Dr. King”)

    So, today, I salute Nichelle Nichols, a trained performer, who took a chance with a forward-thinking show, sponsored by a diversity-minded production company, that aired on an innovative broadcasting platform.  Even though the original Star Trek series only debuted for three years, Gene Roddenberry’s imagination created a franchise that continues to garner favor with viewers.  Currently, Paramount+ carries two spinoffs:  Star Trek:  Picard and Star Trek: Discovery (in its fourth season).  What better way to pay homage to Nichols and the legacy of Uhura’s character than to have the Star Trek series finally debut a Black female lead in Michael Burnham?!?! 

    For the reasons stated above, I had to acknowledge Nichols’s extraordinary contribution to Black SF, not only for me as a fan and scholar, but also as an educator, who, for the past three years, has had students complete research projects on African-descended actors/characters in the Star Trek franchise.  I am indebted to them, from whom I learned much about Nichols/Uhura and her enduring legacy. 


Works Cited 
“About Nichelle.  Uhura.com.  Nichelle Nichols.  https://uhura.com/about/.  Accessed 8 August 2022.

“Actresses Who Have Played Catwoman Through the Years.”  People.com.  Dotdash Meredith.                  September 1, 2022.  https://people.com/movies/actresses-who-have-played-catwoman/.  Accessed     5 August 2022.

Batman:  The Original TV Series.  Creator Lorenzo Semple Jr., William Dozier. With Adam West, Burt Ward, Alan Napier, Neil Hamilton.  1966-1968.

“Desilu Studios History.”  Lucy Desi Museum.  2022.  https://lucy-desi.com/desilu-studios-history/.  Accessed 1 August 2022.

“The Development of Radio.”  American Experience.  Public Broadcasting Station.  WGBH Educational Foundation.  1996-2022.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rescue-development-radio/.  Accessed 5 August 2022.

“Elaan of Troysius Turns 50.”  Star Trek.com. CBS Studios Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, and CBS Interactive Inc.,  2022.  https://www.startrek.com/article/elaan-of-troyius-turns-50.  Accessed 10 August 2022.

“The Fabric of the Cosmos: Quantum Leap.”  Director Brian Greene.  Nova.  Public Broadcasting Station.  WGBH Educational Foundation, 1996-2022.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-fabric-of-the-cosmos-quantum-leap/.  Accessed 8 August 2022.

I Love Lucy.  Creator Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  1951-1957.

Mannix.  Creator Richard Levinson and William Link.  1967-1975.

Mission Impossible.  Creator Bruce Geller.  1966-1973.

“Mission Impossible.”  Paramount+.  Paramount, 2022.  https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/                mission-impossible/.  Accessed 6 August 2022.

“National Broadcasting Company.”  Cgynyc.com.   Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.    
    https://cghnyc.com/work/project/nbc.  Accessed 5 August 2022.

“Nichelle Nichols Remembers Dr. King.”  Startrek.com.  CBS Studios Inc., Paramount Pictures                 Corporation, and CBS Interactive Inc., 2022.  https://www.startrek.com/news/nichelle-nichols-            remembers-dr-king.  Accessed 8 August 2022. 

“NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds.”  Nova.  Public Broadcasting Station.  WGBH Educational Foundation. 1996-2022.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/?                            s=“NOVA%20Universe%20Revealed:%20Alien%20Worlds.” Accessed 8 August 2022.

“NOVA Universe Revealed:  Black Holes.”  Nova.  Public Broadcasting Station.  WGBH Educational Foundation. 1996-2022.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/?                            s=“NOVA%20Universe%20Revealed:%20%20Black%20Holes.”  Accessed 8 August 2022.

Okorafor, Nnedi.  Binti.  Tordotcom, 2015.  

Star Trek:  Discovery.  Creators Bryan Fuller; Alex Kurtzman.  2017-2022.

Star Trek:  The Original Series.  Creator Gene Roddenberry.  1966-1969.

Star Trek:  Picard.  Creators Akiva Goldsman; Michael Chabon; Kirsten Beyer; Alex Kurtzman,                 2020-2022.

The Untouchables.  1959-1963.

A Wrinkle in Time.  Director Ava Duvernay.  Legend3D, Walt Disney Pictures, Whitaker EntertainmentI, 2018.


Endnotes
1 I Love Lucy debuted in 1951 and ran for six seasons (Lucy Desi Museum).  Ironically, spanning a transition in American Popular Culture from the Golden Age of radio (late 1920s to the early 1950s) to the watching of colorized programming on televisions sets at home as a daily pastime.  (The Development of Radio)


2 The original Desilu Mission Impossible ran for seven seasons, from 1966 until 1972 (“Mission Impossible”).


3 Julie Newmar was first cast in the role, appearing in the televised show for the first two seasons.  She was followed by Lee Meriwether, who carried the part in the first, Batman featured film.  However, in the final season of the tv show, Kitt was imfamous villainess.  (“Actresses who have played Catwoman Through the Years”)


4 I want to call attention to shows like “Nova Universe Revealed:  Black Holes,” “NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds,” “The Fabric of the Cosmos: Quantum Leap” and the cast of scientists/astrophysicist contributing to the content:  Hakeem Oluseyi (George Mason University), Tana Joseph (University of Amsterdam), Sylvester James Gates (Brown University).


5 If you don’t recall the token ways in which Uhura was initially depicted, rewatch some of these earlier episodes.  It is impossible to ignore the ways in which director’s framed Nichols/Uhura in various scenes, even though the focus was not on her.  Rather, attention was directed towards Captain Kurt and his antics/adventures.  However, Uhura was consistently positioned behind (or near) the Captain’s chair, or she was framed in the scene another way.  Even with the dearth of speech, her presence was absolute and her placement in the chain of command, as the lead Communications Officer, underscored her value as more than a pretty face.  Thus, her inclusion in landing party missions and the development of Uhura’s character and culture in subsequent seasons was not only apropos but welcomed.  I think about the “Elaan of Troyius” episode (Season 3-Episode 13), for example, where African masks, tapestries, and other artifacts are on display in her quarters.



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