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 Run – The 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.