Lisa Marbly-Warir 7/24/2017 Starring Queen Latifah, Jada Pickett, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish. When four lifelong friends travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival, sisterhoods are rekindled, wild sides are rediscovered, and there's enough dancing, drinking, brawling, and romancing to make the Big Easy blush. Credit IMDB Before seeing this movie I read on a social media site about a YouTube video by Boyce Watkins and a forum where Black men were talking despairingly about this movie. (According to them—showing Black women in a negative, stereotypical light) The majority of women who took exception to their words were upset because they felt it was just a blow against Black women trying to be happy, carefree and living life on their terms—and men being upset because they weren’t the center of attention etc. (don’t know how true that is, that’s just an example of what I read online) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXNJqzSCqvE Boyce Watkins video I listened to what Boyce Watkins had to say—but wasn’t going to let it be a deterrent. I still wanted to see and support this movie. I enjoyed the movie, it was well done, it was LOL funny and it had some touching moments—pretty predictable. ~~Possible Spoilers~~ Now, as much as I liked this movie, Boyce Watkins does have a point—the over-sexualization of the characters in this movie and the subliminal message of what it is sending to young Black girls and young Black ladies in general—a demographic that is already high risk for STD’s and adding to the OOW epidemic. At the same time, part of me says, it’s just a movie and we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. At the end of the day this is a movie Black women wanted to see and didn’t we come out and support this movie? We sure did. 30.4 million opening day. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel that we as Black women are almost starved for a movie that shows us as something other than a slave, asexual, the Black *man-less token friend or the struggling downtrodden Black woman trope that I am so tired of. This movie was a breath of fresh air to me but I do see the pros and cons of the movie. *Speaking of man-less, ironically all of the women were man-less in this movie except for Regina Hall’s character and even then her husband was a cheating so-and-so. But that is another point for another day.
Pros—funny, seeing 4 beautiful Black, educated, successful women, living life on their terms, sisterhood, a throwback to the 90’s—did I mention funny? Cons—for me it was age appropriation, some of the antics showcased in this movie would have been better suited for younger women (even still it was a bit much at times) Having 40-something, educated women acting irresponsible over sex and drinking wasn’t cute. As a matter of fact some of the lingo was definitely of a younger generation. The swearing, I know people swear. But I was never a swearer and neither is my family. However, I know its common place for many homes. I give the movie ★★★★☆ Get your girlfriends and support this movie Twitter @Lwarir Facebook Destinee Romance Novella www.shimmergirlbooks.com
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Lisa Marbly-Warir 7/17/2017 This question “What is your favorite book that you wrote?” was posed to me the other day at a book fair. Fair question, but I was stuck like a deer in the headlights. I’m used to asking people what their favorite book is, or people asking me what my favorite book is—you know, a book written by someone else. So when the question came my way about one of my own books I was slightly taken aback and had to think about it. I pointed to the book cover with my character Destinee on it A Love Worth Waiting For—Destinee’s Story. I said, well she is my first published work—I put my heart into her character. To the point where some readers asked me if the book was about me. It isn’t, but I do think a lot of writers put some of themselves into the books they write. A writer and an author would understand. When you write, the book becomes a part of you, or maybe you become a part of that book—it’s a tossup. You eat, sleep and dream these characters and sometimes it’s hard to separate from them. They’re always in your mind doing or saying something. I was glad for the question because it gave me a chance to answer a buyer and reader about what makes me tick, in a sense. I also told the reader, I was torn between my very first book A Love Worth… and my newest release The Millionaire—Diamonds are Forever. These two books and the main characters Destinee and Quisha are opposites for the most part—although similarities are there. They are both college students, reared by single mothers. Each character had a wealthy man take a liking to them. Isn’t there a Cinderella in all of us?
But that’s where the similarities end in regards to—to be blunt, sex. Destinee wants to maintain her virginity until marriage, and of course that hinders her dating prospects in modern dating. Quisha on the other hand, doesn’t have that constraint hanging over her head; she ends up working as a stripper to pay for college. I chose these two books as my favorites because I think both characters, while different in some aspects are similar in that they want love, respect and happiness just like any other woman. Plus, I like their male counterparts. Perhaps one day I will do an article about which of my heroes I like the best. Edward (Destinee) or Chad (Quisha) hmmm. By Lisa Marbly-Warir Charley from Queen Sugar First of all I would like to start off with, I absolutely love this show. So what I’m about to talk about isn’t a diss, but an observation I’ve witnessed a few times on TV in regards to well-to-do Black female characters. I’ve even seen it IRL. Taking the Black woman down a peg or two—that’s how it seemed to me in the My Soul’s High Song 7/5/2017 Queen Sugar episode. I could see—or at least it was my perception of disapproval on Remy’s face when Charley was looking at that beautiful stately home in gasp—the Landry’s, her competitor and nemesis’ community (I personally wouldn’t want to live down the street from an enemy especially the Landry’s) However, I understood the message conveyed during that short exchange between Charley and Remy—Remy’s reasoning why Charley acquiring a big fancy house would be deemed audacious to the Black farmers in the area the very people she wants to help. Or was it something deeper, subconsciously? Was it a way to keep a Black person of means, especially a Black woman in her place? I mean, how dare this successful Black woman buy a big house that she can clearly afford at the risk of offending the people in the area—both Black and White. I can’t think of a successful White female character, or successful White woman in general having to explain why she wants a big beautiful home in the area that she wants. So why is it a problem for Charley? Why does she have to downplay who she is? Was Remy right to question her about her choice? It’s like we as a race have this idea that if one Black succeeds they should feel guilty about having more than the average or less fortunate Black and if a successful Black person is fortunate they must downplay it—as not to front or stunt on people still trying to get their piece of the American dream. A few years ago I wrote about a successful Black hair care entrepreneur Jewel—A Chance at Love http://amzn.to/2u9qBlN who had the same type of scenario Charley had with Remy. Jewel wanted to purchase a home in a gated community. Her own business was in an urban area that she had helped revitalize and she wanted a home to reflect her new status in life. She was instantly met with haters who accused her of forgetting where she came from. So when I saw the same thing happen to Charley it struck a chord with me.
At the end of the Queen Sugar episode I did like the moving into the mill scene with her family rallying around her. Even after all that I just wrote, Charley and Micah living in the mill just made sense but I didn’t like that she had to be questioned about her original choice first. If you haven't watched this show please check it out. If it helps it's got some eye candy. I do not own the image above By Lisa Marbly-Warir 6/27/2017 Got me to thinking about the main characters in my books and would they get along in real life? Reality TV—particularly The Housewives, draws in millions of viewers each week. We all have our favorite show(s) and our favorite ladies. My favorite reality TV shows are, #The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Kenya, Cynthia, Kandi) RHOC (Heather) Beverly Hills (Lisa, Kyle, Erica) #RHOP (Giselle, Monique, Robin) and honorable mention #Married to Medicine (Dr. Heavenly, Dr. Jackie, Dr. Simone, Lisa) I know these shows are mostly scripted, but for the off chance they are real to a certain degree—I came to the conclusion a while ago that some of these women can’t possibly be real friends. Real friends lift you up, they don’t throw shade and little digs. Maybe I’m late to the party and missing the point. I guess we wouldn’t be tuning in if everything was always roses and sunshine. Is strife and shade throwing the new norm in friendship? Or has it always been like this? I think yes for the most part. In high school I could differentiate between my real friends and the fake ones, or the ones who were wolves in sheep’s clothing. You would think the older you get some of the trivialities of high school behavior would be water under the bridge, but sadly that is not the case. I know my characters because I wrote them and while I would like to think they are kindred spirits—it isn’t likely they would be true friends. Some of them come from similar backgrounds and would ultimately run in the same circles; but they all have different life experiences, life goals and beginnings that probably wouldn’t sync with one another. I get it, at the end of the day the women in the reality TV shows do what they do for a paycheck. The messier and more conniving they are gets them fans and a following and we tune in every week for their antics. But would we put up with some of those behaviors in real life? Me? No. So that brings me to the main female characters in my books—would they get along if they were in a reality TV show? Let’s explore this—we have,
Destinee (A Love Worth Waiting For—Destinee’s Story) #1 She is the good girl out of all of the women. She, as with the other women I will mention have their own little antagonizer that is unique to them in their stories. Destinee is really no stranger to ridicule for upholding certain standards about herself. She would get along with the other ladies for the most part, but she wouldn’t take their crap. I don’t see her as hanging with people she didn’t like just to hang with them. Jewel (Jewel—A Chance at Love) Jewel is the second oldest of all of the ladies (late thirties into her forties). Pettiness and phoniness is behind her. She’s an entrepreneur, and is about her money. So she wouldn’t have time to hang with messy women who would take her down. Evermore (Under The Irish Moon) Evermore follows the beat of her own drummer. She is a reader and an adventurer. She’s open-minded. She could possibly give the ladies a run for their money. She won’t start anything, but she will attempt to finish it if you start with her. Quisha (The Millionaire—Diamonds are Forever) Quisha is like Evermore, they are about living their own lives on their terms and not really caring what people think. She and Evermore would probably be the real friends of the group. Jazzlyn (Born Out of Lust) #3 Jazzlyn is the oldest of the ladies and she is the hungriest for money and status. She would definitely be cutthroat for the things in life she wants. Jazzlyn would be the messiest of all the women. In my opinion these women would not be true friends. They would hang in the same affluent circle. Most of them brought there by the men in their lives—however, Jewel is the only one who is a self-made millionaire and would possibly look down on the other women for using men for their come up. Amazon.com: lisa marbly warir www.Shimmergirlbooks.com |