Here is an audio message from moi about what you can do while you wait on part III of Why You Should Burn the June 2009 Issue of ESSENCE magazine. Kadijah over at Muslim Bushido has been having some very interesting discussions that have picked up where I left off earlier this year about a need for a creative movement… a different kind of creative movement. Don’t be left back at the station, there is something everyone can do. This should hold you over until I have time to post. Also, keep commenting. There were some comments left today that crystallized some of the thoughts I have been mulling over for the past week.
The Sojourner As An Artist: Extended Reader’s Money Quotes From Evia
Tools For The Filmmaker’s Craft: “Rebel Without A Crew” by Robert Rodriguez
20 comments ↓
Hi Gina,
BJ Rouse is the up and coming filmmaker of whom I referred in Khadija’s blog. She is struggling to make it and needs support. She is making a movie to increase mental health awareness in the black community so it is a very worthwhile effort. Here is a personal request that she sent out and if any of you can help, and or pass this on, please do so.
Thanks you in advance.
Lorraine
May 12, 2009
Friends and Family,
We write to you today to request your support of a short film that is to begin filming in mid June 2009. The film, Queen Victoria’s Wedding, has been coined a mental health awareness piece.
The emotive story of Queen Victoria’s battle with mental illness, while caring for a teenaged daughter, was specifically written as a social awareness module to assist in educating the Black community of the affects of mental illness if left untreated.
T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh (“That’s So Raven”) is set to star with up and coming teen actress Nieko Mann (“Friday Night Lights”) in Queen Victoria’s Wedding. The film was written (and will be directed) by Cosby Program alum BJ Rouse for Rouse House Entertainment in association with Mighty Moore Entertainment.
Adding to the cast with Keymáh and Mann are co-stars Monica Calhoun (“The Best Man”), Dwayne Adway (“Bad As I Wanna Be: The Dennis Rodman Story”), Shenita Moore (“Grey’s Anatomy”), singer/actress Carmen Twillie (“Six Feet Under”), Tyreese Burnett (“Drumline”), Poetri (“House of Payne”), newcomer Todd Moore, and a special appearance by writer/director Antwone Fisher.
Our goal is to raise $6,000 over the next several weeks!
We truly need your support, and appreciate anything you might offer to help us get this wonderful project made. Wouldn’t it be exciting to see your name in our THANK YOU credits?!?
…
Funds can be sent by way of mailing your check/money order to:
Rouse House Entertainment
P.O. Box 2494
Venice, CA 90294
Or, by using the PayPal link below:
Mighty Moore Entertainment
(a division of TKMO Worldwide Enterprises)
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5362899
P.S. The script for Queen Victoria’s Wedding is available upon request.
Thank you so much!
This is great Gina. Thanks for promoting BW’s creativity. Sistaloves should check out the Black Women’s Arts Festival which will be held on July 30 to August 2 in Philadelphia. For more information, visit http://www.bwaf.org. I participated as a facilitator last year and had a great time. It was very powerful. I also would encourage BW to support other indie BW authors who are writing books by purchasing their work. There are so many great indie BW authors that most of us miss. You can find a talented group of BW on Black Authors Showcase – http://blackauthors.ning.com. If you are looking for indie BW musicians and entertainers … sistas with some wonderful music, check out Liberated Muse – http://www.liberatedmuse.com. Liberated Muse also features BW artists. We have the power to make the changes and support who we think tells our stories and reflects our lives and dreams in their work. All we have to do is take some time to find out about the indie BW artists, writers, musicians, etc.
Just don’t burn the page with Maxwell in it
I would love to make movies with African-American females as the lead not just drama’s and romance but science fiction and fantasy too.
black womens art festival website is actually
http://bwafphilly.homestead.com/
Um…been there done that…it was called the Harlem Renaissance…lol
I don’t like this train of thinking…when I’m better able to articulate the whys…I’ll be back.
Alright,
There are already plenty of working black women artists.
Plenty.
The main issue many don’t have the support they need, or interests of the black community as a whole.
Many artists who may be able to support themselves are doing so on the patronage of white folk who have the income and appreciation for art work.
Of the folk here talking about starting a creative arts movement…how many are willing to come out of pocket (i.e. money) to support said artist?
Now if the idea is to have a creative movement that supports a certain set of values or what have you…that’s different, but once again bumps up against the idea of who is going to support this movement.
How about folk find the artists that are there…and they are they…and help support the work that’s already being done so artists can support themselves form their art.
@JJ did you read the comments from her first post. YES there is material out there, but it tends to focus on suffering and masochism. Pain. Pain. Pain boo, hoo. hoo.
I am surprised you are opposed to this since you are such a vehement supporter of women expressing themselves on a pole.
As far as the Harlem Renaissance, How’s that working for us these days.
Interesting that you, a writer would be against a campaign to get Black women to focus on creating. Is it competition you fear?
How do you know that there isn’t a Black woman who is participating in this discussion that won’t be the SOUTHWEST airlines of movie making?
Just because ppl have failed in the past doesn’t mean everybody else has to stop trying.
If you don’t believe in what she is talking about fine! No skin off your back if the discussion takes place.
How do you know that through collaboration current artists won’t be supported?
hmmm “interesting”
Why can’t one support someone else, as well as create your own art at the same time. Isn’t that what the artist community do? They go to each others shows and book each other when they are putting on events. I am not a artist myself, but I haves some friends who are and I go to various events around town and you will eventually start seeing the same faces.
And the Harlem Renaissance, that was decades ago, why say been there done that? Lets do it again. We have different subject matters in 2009.
Lets do less of the downtrodden black girl stories. But something tells me PUSH is going to be a hit movie and the imitators will soon follow. I hope you ladies are ready!
There is a lot of art going on where I live (NYC). I have seen some great one woman shows (I guess thats a writer on a budget). There A LOT of black women alternative music artists out there. Women like Santigold and Janelle Monae have been able to garner some mainstream attention. There is gonna be an Afro Punk festival in Brooklyn in July, there are some black women you can support there
Robert Rodriguez’s book changed my outlook on filmmaking. I suggest anyone who is interested in the industry read that book.
Gina, have you seen “Sisters in Cinema?” I saw it while I was in high school; it had a profound impact on my career as well.
Check it out:
http://www.sistersincinema.com/
~Rebecca
@Gem
You always crack me up when you go off the deep end.
Read what I said…and try to comprehend this time…as a writer, whose friends with writers, actors, musicians etc. I know for a fact that MOST of the work out there isn’t on suffering, super-rich etc.
PLENTY of the work focuses on the everyday or the offbeat or scifi or fantasy it’s just the work that gets PRESS and EXPOSURE is often regulated to many of the above themes because it’s what sales.
And hell I can name several “mainstream” black authors whose work focuses on the thick sista who ends up with the cool blue collar dude…or whatever…I can also name some black scifi stuff…my point is and remains that these artists already exist, they need support, they need the dough to get their movies made, they need a community that will support them and, to be honest, the black community isn’t known for doing such.
I don’t want to talk about the lack of support for REAL black theatre but all the money that’s turned out for the chitlin circuit and Tyler Perry.
Folk will go to church to watch miming and liturgical dancing, but won’t shell out the dough for August Wilson and Alvin Alley.
That’s the big issue NOT the lack of a creative movement…hell you want some artists who are doing different things….I can rattle off a list…I am actually trained in theatre (stage managing, production and directing, playwrighting) and film (screenwriting, producing) so I know what I’m talking about and worked in theatre a good portion of my life as well as doing documentary work…etc.
And clearly you know nothing about me if you honestly beleive I’m in the least bit worried about competition.
That made me laugh all by itself.
People the Harlem Renaissance comment was a joke…lighten up.
Good lord…
Pole dancing is a sport…you didn’t know. Don’t hate on those girls…they’re doing the damn thing…and it ain’t easy.
@JJ so glad we were able to inject humor into your day. If you have the names of someone who has written a scifi short do forward it along, after BWB, I’ll be reviewing scripts.
Go chat with Angry black woman…sci-fi is her thing I’m not sure if she does film shorts but if I remember correctly she writes short stories that could easily be turned into a screenplay if she was interested.
On a side note: Doing a documentary on black women MC’s – and the dearth of women hip hop artists…if anyone is interested in collaborating on hte project hit me up tsjohnson5@gmail.com
To support an arts movement one needs the interest and concern but also $$$$$.
We are a group of people who are 2 maybe 3 generations away from segregation and oppression. Many of us have grandparents or great grand parents who were struggling to survive so there was no time for anything else but teaching survival tactics.
Though we have a black middle class it has much less disposable income than its white counterparts.
Patronage of the arts is practiced by the upper classes or those who have grown up within communities that have an understanding and appreciation for the arts.
You can be a young white writer with moderate writing skills…yet you can make a living working at small regional theaters, writing for online blogs and so on. You won’t get rich but you can survive.
Black artists and creatives are a small group emerging from a minority whose numbers are dwindling rapidly. At this time we do not have the numbers or the consciousness to support an arts movement.
The only way to change this issue in the black community is for there to be an arts movement that focuses on children. Clearly the majority of blacks today are lovers of the chitlin circuit and all things coonish.
Patronage of the arts is practiced by the upper classes or those who have grown up within communities that have an understanding and appreciation for the arts.
Exactly my point…Michelangelo wouldn’t have existed without the Medicis and Shakespeare had the patronage of a King and a Queen…Dollars is and remains the issues for many black artists (I speak from experience).
With the bulk of black folk being poor and working there isn’t the appreciation of or the money to support finer art.
Amongst most of my black friends appreciation of the arts is a recent learned experience.
I remember a few years ago, an African GF of mine was deathly afraid to tell her father she was dating a musician. At that time she was in law school and I never forgot her saying to me that in her father’s eyes a musician was “someone to whom you tossed coins in a bowl at the market”…
Whereas “real” professions where those like medicine, law or politics.
Telling your parents you were interested in art or music would only bring a flood of tears.
I find this exchange interesting. The post is about people who might not already be involved in an arts movement, but all of the people who are already involved in an arts movement appear to be coming up with all the reasons why the new blood would be destined to fail.
All the barriers and roadblocks. What if we moved forward believing that we could not fail. What if we had the same attitutude that the REGIME has?
What if we stopped looking at enlightened entertainment as some sort of community service project? What if, as I stated earlier, someone from a completely different perspective figured out how to make it work differently this time?
So this is why I ignore everybody who wants to tell me “How Its Done” or “How hard it is” or “Why this won’t work.”
where have I heard that before??
@knockoutchick…I’m loathe to date an artist or musician myself and I’m in the arts.
It’s rough going and I need a man with insurance.
lol
@Gem
No one is saying it can’t be done…we are saying it is ALREADY being done.
Now if someone can come up with a way for artists to make a living wage from what they do that doesn’t involve waiting tables then I am all ears.
But it boils down to money not lack of talent.
Hello All,
I am one of the producers for Queen Victoria’s Wedding. Long story short, we are still in need of donations to get our film made.
If you have interest in donating, please find the information below for your convenience. We truly appreciate anything you can do to help.
Rouse House Entertainment
P.O. Box 2494
Venice, CA 90294
Or, by using the PayPal link below:
Mighty Moore Entertainment
(a division of TKMO Worldwide Enterprises)
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5362899
Feel free to visit our FAN PAGE on FB for additional information about the project.
If you have questions, comments, or concerns please contact me directly.
Thanks so much!
Shenita Moore