The Deculturalization of Love

The introduction to bell hooks’ 2001 national bestseller, Salvation – Black People and Love, contains a disturbing belief she uncovered while lecturing in the public schools during her tour for a previous book, and hearing a number of young black people proclaiming, “there is no such thing as love.”

I was drawn to this book in reading its introduction, powerfully entitled, Love is our Hope, and then seized by the disheartening belief these young people have towards love.  

What’s more disheartening is that today, (twenty years later since hooks discovered this nihilistic attitude) it’s easy to understand the cynicism, hearing the profane anger and frustrations coming from young people who are growing up in hostile environments where the absence of affection is replaced by verbal attacks on the state of the family-dynamic.

The elegance of Salvation, is hooks’ solution and urgency to restore the “love-ethic” where it may be absent. This nurturing custom, grounded in spiritual guidance is what has built strong communities, families, and young who grew into respectful adults – a nurturing custom that has been dismantled by broken homes where childrearing is replaced with rage caused by hardships that turn the focus on self, amidst emotional neglect that makes love invisible when not modeled before the young or afforded the agency to be modeled, living in brokenness that has no oxygen for the act. 

The deculturalization of the word, beaten down by shame, impoverishment, fear, vulnerabilities, and the myth that it subverts strength in the face of weakness has paralyzed some from moving into its embrace.

For love to be our hope, regardless of race, it needs to be modeled through simple acts as brave professions, healing language … and the “reculturalization” of affectionate music, anthems, and conversations that soothe the soul.

Links to Excellence – A Legend to See

Toni Morrison and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders  TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM, a Magnolia Pictures release. 

© Timothy Greenfield-Sanders / Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders brings to us Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, a documentary on the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and her paths to an extraordinary career with comments from Ms. Morrison and other luminaries.

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www.tonimorrisonfilm.com
Film Trailer

Beyond the Bed of Nola Darling

The most prolific feelings are what holds our attention and form our convictions beyond physical encounters, seizing us to awaken to the world around us and taking courageous steps to become greater human beings. 

This is what I observed in Season 1 of the She’s Gotta Have It Netflix series, which compelled me to interview one of its lead-female writers, Radha Blank, who talks extensively about her journey to the SGHI writers’ table, and what we can expect for Season 2, starting May 24.

The Radha Blank Ms. magazine Interview

                        “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. …”

 
                                                                                   – Helen Keller                  

An Essential Love Story

Photo Credit: Tatum Mangus/Annapurna Pictures

When beginning The Interiors of Man six years ago, I acknowledged James Baldwin as a possible muse, having read his works over the years and living with the constructs of his voice, talent, and ability to express humanity in various measures.

Among the novels Baldwin has written, If Beale Street Could Talk was a quiet gem with cultural relevance, addressing the incarceration epidemic and inadvertently addressing the state of black love as it stands today in comparison to the past.

As the first director to bring Baldwin’s words to film, Barry Jenkins has unveiled an image of black love that is drowning amidst intra-racial violence, crime, and cultural assaults within the black community.  Through Baldwin, Jenkins has turned a lens on sacred, loving relationships that steer from a fantasy-aesthetic to one that’s organically rooted in community struggle and family solidarity. 

If Baldwin were alive, I’m sure he would not be alarmed by the current state of “the village,” having had the insight to foresee its future.  The nurturing love he sowed in this novel through family unity and sacrifice is the underlying message, which needs tending.  A community cannot survive without love for one’s community, and without human love the village will perish.

“We must not give ourselves to those sayings which will not solve our problems.”

                                                                                                          – Martin Luther King Jr.

Making Art out of Truth – the Legacy of Ntozake Shange

Image Ownership: Public Domain

The recent passing of the feminist playwright, Ntozake Shange, has expanded my appreciation for artists who extend their voice to the most creative realm, fearlessly expressing truth through art and surviving waves of criticism that usually shadows great work conceived ahead of its time.

Even today – while there are many women who applauded Shange’s 1976 “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered …,” Obie Award-winning play, contrasted to the majority of critics having been men at that time – a number of millennials did not embrace the artistry and feminist commentary that the film conveyed when adapted by Tyler Perry eight years ago, which, in my opinion was his best art to date.

The positive reception from the twentysomething generation of the 70s in contrast to the indifference from those millennials of the 21^st century brings attention to the generational mind shifts that have developed over three decades.

Looking at the social traumas addressed by Shange’s characters, and mirrored in Perry’s film are still experiences realized by today’s females, but, as I observed, the alarming indifference was as if some could not relate to the characters’ experiences, which was possibly due to the inability to bear the gravity of these experiences as visualized on film, thus their affinity to relate were numbed or blatantly negated in a non-conscious state.

As the Me Too Movement has found its voice, we are in a haze of female empowerment, and misogynistic conditioning that have some women thinking they are not women unless they can successfully compete in providing male pleasure at the expense of their souls.

In the voices of her characters, Shange arrested this concept, and should always be remembered for creating her masterwork in her twenties.  I believe "For Colored Girls ...," saved her life in having the courage to address various female realities and their ill encounters, leaving such women with no place to turn but within to find their esteem and embrace the tenets of self-love and respect.