Please pardon the cross-posting as I began using my other blog more, but good news: Speaking of the archive, my screenplay Rain Come Soon, which relies in-part on the Ballard Papers as revealed in my book Remember Me to Miss Louisa, was just table read by professional actors in London. Thank you Angela, Londonshire Films & the lovely… Continue reading Rain Come Soon Table Read
Zora must be hitting those drums for me out there beyond planet earth. Just learned I am a Stowe Story Labs finalist! One more round. I am so excited. Anyone in the film industry knows this is huge. I am trying not to pinch myself too hard!!! And last night, I met the students who… Continue reading woo hoo!!!
I am screaming. My television drama script on Zora Neale Hurston in 1940s Honduras is a Maven Screen Media semifinalist in Stowe Story Labs! Stand by for more updates!! This latest honor is an affirmation of 30-plus yr effort. I recently told an LA producer about a screenwriting professor at the U of Miami who… Continue reading Hurston in Honduras television drama script a semi-finalist! Yes!
I digitally knitted together the images my husband took of me wearing the $8 Goodwill skirt on Orange Beach. The results are the short below. The text heard was written several years ago and reflects my curiosity about a number of things while I was moving between graduate programs. The feel of this work in… Continue reading water just the same, an experimental short
It has been a little over a year since I posted on this blog. I was on sabbatical during the 2020-2021 school year. I returned to teaching this past August. It has been good getting back inside of the classroom. A lot of amazing things have happened in the meantime. I completed research on Zora… Continue reading script placed in film festival
We have just under two weeks left in my “American Swagger” class. This week’s assignments include watching the 2005 documentary How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It). It concerns the life of filmmaker-composer-playwright Melvin Van Peebles. The Chicago native is the only African American to have had two shows on Broadway at… Continue reading bringing it all together
One of the things I loved the most while working on the book and film about Grant was discovering the things that happen onstage and behind the scenes to musicians and the people in their lives. In clubs. In studios. And beyond. I learned even more about these things while living in NYC early this… Continue reading the eddy and grant
Rest in peace, John Singleton. I used your Poetic Justice in the classroom on the eve of making a transition into higher education. The twin towers had just fallen. New York City’s Washington Irving High hired me to teach English after I was laid off by BMG Entertainment amid the uncertainty in that day. Students… Continue reading rest in peace
What a night. Regina King, Best Supporting Actress winner and Ruth Carter for Costume Design and Hannah Bleachler for Production Design and Mahershala Ali for Best Supporting Actor and Spike Lee for Best Adapted Screenplay! About time on the Oscar tip (School Daze and Mo’ Betta, my all-time favorites from you.) Hats off to Barry… Continue reading o-s-c-a-r
Still thinking it through, but moved by Rashid Johnson’s Native Sun. Two fellow Sundance Film Festival volunteers and I were able to get into a press screening. The film is still tragically relevant. I have mixed feelings about Richard Wright owing to my love for Zora Neale Hurston, but tipping my hat to a story… Continue reading sundancing
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