DEEP WATERS

Last night, I finished the final episode of the History Channel's TV miniseries Roots . To say I was pleasantly surprised at the historical and emotional depth of this remake of Alex Haley's 1977 miniseries Roots, based on his personal genealogical history and biography, would be an understatement. I was a young girl when I watched the first Roots with my family, and I'll never forget how much that movie impacted me so many years ago. As a matter of fact, as I watched the first episode of the remake, I sadly thought, My parents would have loved this movie. I'll miss talking about this with my Mom tomorrow. Well, in honor of my sweet parents, and my other ancestors that have gone on before me, today I want to share three themes from Roots that moved me. I could probably list ten, but here's just a few that spoke the loudest to me. 1. We African Americans were blessed with strong and brave ancestors I loved the focus on the pre-slavery era of African s...

As much as I love movies, I don't write about them very often. Usually, I watch a movie, give it a thumbs-up or down, ponder it for a short while, then go on my way. But... Every now and then, I watch a movie that sticks with me. That's when I HAVE to tell everybody who cares to listen about it. "Belle" was that kind of movie for me. Set in 18th Century England, "Belle" shares the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a biracial girl born to a slave woman of African descent and a Caucasian Royal Navy Captain. Wanting a better life for his daughter, the Captain delivers young Dido to the mansion of her aristocratic great uncle, Lord Mansfield, who serves as Lord Chief Justice. Dido must navigate the paradoxes of her life. Her mixed race vs. her family's race. Her legacy of slavery vs. her present wealth. Her social limitations as a Black woman vs. her social privileges as a member of the English aristocracy. She is a woman with a weighty inher...

Last night I completed my latest read, a book that I'd been hearing about for months - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd , author of The Secret Life of Bees . This was a good read - a great one even. The Invention of Wings tells the story of Sarah Grimke, the daughter of Southern slaveowners in early nineteenth-century Charleston, South Carolina and Hetty, a.k.a. Handful, a slave girl owned by the Grimke family. On her eleventh birthday, Sarah receives a special gift from her parents - her very own slave girl. That girl is Handful. This story follows both women as they come of age in the early 1800's, as they share the sense of powerlessness they both feel as women, and for Handful, as an African American slave woman. We dip into the valley-lows with the women as they experience loss, betrayal, rejection, and paralyzing fear. But we also follow them to their mountain-highs as they embrace purpose, friendship, love and courage. We witness them finding their voic...

When my husband Anthony and I left the movie theater after seeing 12 Years a Slave  this past Saturday evening, I KNEW I had to blog about this movie. Even though I don't feel like I have much to say - that hasn't already been said - I feel like I MUST speak. I MUST write. Because  12 Years a Slave  shook me to my core in way that hasn't happened in a very long time. I left the theater thinking, I've got to tell THE WORLD to go see this movie. Four days later, I do have a few more thoughts. So here you go... I. US slavery was a brutal, evil part of our country's history: The US slave trade is said to have begun in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia (my parents' home-state). For over 250 years, human beings were sold as cattle for the purpose of financial gain for their slave masters. 12 Years a Slave  handles this period of time with fervor and brutal honesty. It is very painful to watch, but it is an authentic portrayal of one man's story . It a...