I am still thinking about it, you? @Sarah Jones @Alexander Skye @Davina Kerrelola @Amy Maez

The first Black performer to front her own TV program arrived in a medium that barely existed—and exposed the limits America was already trying to impose. Read the full story at https://www.kolumnmagazine.com/2026/06/02/ethel-waters-show-and-the-black-history-of-being-seen/

ANNA LAMBE, Siaja on NORTH OF NORTH wins the Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Performer, Comedy. In landscape of rarely told and disappearing stories, North of North shines through.

Lupito Nyong’o broke her silence on the racist backlash surrounding her casting as Helen of Troy in “The Odyssey," a woman who is said in the myth to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Nyong'o said she wasn’t letting the backlash affect her or her experience and dismissed concerns that a Black woman couldn’t play the role. “The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.” This isn't new: Ariel can't be Black I couldn't grieve Rue's death in the Hunger Games because she was Black. Hermione can't be Black. Captain America can't be Black. You can't cosplay (insert Japanese Anime charecter) because you're Black. (Despite most anime characters looking white, they are usually Asian, unless defined otherwise.) I could go on but I think you get it? Btw Lupita is: Racially: Black (racialized/social category) Ethnically: Kenyan (ethnic/cultural heritage tied to Kenya, specifically Luo heritage) Nationally: Mexican (citizenship/national identity through birth in Mexico) So... Nationality/Citizenship: Kenyan and Mexican (she was born in Mexico to Kenyan parents and has dual Kenyan–Mexican citizenship) Ethnicity: Luo (more specific ethnic group within Kenya) Race ≠ Ethnicity ≠ Nationality Someone can be racially Black, ethnically Luo/Kenyan, and nationally Mexican at the same time. Read more: https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/lupita-nyongo-responds-the-odyssey-helen-casting-backlash/ Photo: Getty Images

A new essay is now up on The Director’s Notebook: “The Politics of Consequence” Black Criminality and White Redemption in Television "This piece has been sitting with me for a while! I started thinking about it while rewatching Ozark, then Your Honor, Snowfall, Top Boy, Queen & Slim, Sons of Anarchy, Get Out, and most recently Sinners. I kept returning to the same question: Why are white antiheroes so often allowed tragedy, myth, emotional continuity, and symbolic survival, while Black antiheroes are more frequently reduced to collapse, humiliation, or total narrative annihilation? This essay is not about arguing that Black characters should never suffer consequences. It is about the difference between consequence and erasure. It is about the politics of narrative punishment. Inside the essay I write about: • The Byrdes surviving Ozark both literally and narratively • Franklin Saint’s ending in Snowfall and the difference between tragedy and degradation • The emotional architecture of white antiheroes like Jax Teller • Why Queen & Slim haunted me • Jordan Peele interrupting the expectation of Black punishment in Get Out • Ryan Coogler preserving dignity, memory, myth, and emotional afterlife in Sinners And ultimately, I write about the responsibility Black filmmakers inherit inside an industry that has historically distorted, criminalized, caricatured, and contained Black life. One of the central questions of the essay became: “What does it mean when Black freedom repeatedly becomes narratively unimaginable beyond suffering, sacrifice, or death?” And perhaps even deeper: “Who is American storytelling still struggling to imagine free?” This is one of the most important pieces I’ve written for The Director’s Notebook so far." Link https://open.substack.com/pub/staceymuhammad/p/the-politics-of-consequence?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2hjxio