Monday, December 02, 2019

Quote of the Day

If [my writing always makes it clear what’s right and what’s wrong], I’m not doing a good job. I don’t like movies that are that black and white. I don’t like movies that tell me what to think. Let me wrestle with that. I can’t tell someone what to take away from my art. That’s not my job. . . . [I still have a point of view though]. And I have to put myself in the work. I have to put my spirit, my soul, my body, my skin, my fingernails – that needs to be in it. But it’s not a good scene unless two people in it have conflicting points of view. It’s Writing 101. Depth. Complication. That’s how the world is.

– Lena Waithe
Excerpted from “Lena Waithe’s Art of Protest
The New York Times
December 2, 2019


Related Off-site Links:
Queen & Slim Is Another Tale of Outlaws on the Run, But Also Much More Than That – Ann Hornaday (The Washington Post, November 25, 2019)
Queen & Slim Review: Love on the RunThe New York Times (November 26, 2019).
Queen & Slim: A Heartbreaking Road Trip – Johnny Oleksinski (New York Post, November 25, 2019).
Queen & Slim's Beautiful Betrayal – Cate Young (Jezebel, December 2, 2019).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The Purpose of Art
Art and Resistance
The Potential of Art and the Limits of Rigid Orthodoxy to Connect Us to the Sacred
Praying for George W. Bush
Real Holiness

Image: The poster for the film Queen & Slim, directed by Melina Matsoukas, screenplay by Lena Waithe, and starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith.


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