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Fire Shut Up in My Bones The Met’s First Black Opera
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When it comes to breaking down barriers that open the door for others to follow behind, the owner of Du Nord Craft Spirits, Chris Montana, is a trailblazer. While his goal is always to create the best tasting products possible while creating opportunities for others, his successful launch of the first Black owner distillery in America is a groundbreaking achievement!!
Du Nord Craft Spirits BY MALCOLM RASHAAD BANKS
Du Nord Craft Spirits offers several unique spirits known for being highly attentive and ultimately memorable spirits and building equity for all in the process. From inclusive hiring practices to the newly established Du Nord Foundation, which focuses on supporting under-represented business owners. Along with his wife Shanelle, Montana has created a product that isn’t hiding behind a compelling story or marketing campaign but instead pouring its energy and efforts into the best tasting products possible. Montana believes the award-winning products prove that making good spirits is less about profits and more about passion.
UPTOWN recently caught up with Montana to talk about the idea of Du Nord Craft Spirits, emphasizing the taste of his products and his ambitious goals for the brand moving forward. UPTOWN: Tell us about your company? Where did the idea originate? Could you share some of your history with us? CHRIS MONTANA: I always wanted to start my own business. That’s not to say that as a kid I knew that I wanted to be a distiller, but I knew I wanted to do something. I wanted to build something for myself and grew up with this thinking. In a culture where people look at business as the problem, not the solution, I didn’t think it had to be that way. I felt that there is a way to own a business and still be a good person and be suitable for your community and be good for people. Back in 2013, I settled on a distillery, which was an evolution from what I had initially thought I would create—a brewery. There are several reasons for not doing a brewery, but mainly because what the beer crowd was drinking wasn’t all that balanced or all that good, and I didn’t want to make a brew that nobody wanted to drink. A friend of mine in law school suggested a distillery. It’s half the process of a brewery. You just have to layer up the process. For some reason, my wife was on board with the idea. I think she was okay with it because it was an opportunity to bring her background in and mesh it with mine because we were going to use corn from her family farm. It started back then just as an idea—if nobody is doing this, why not us? We like spirits; why can’t we be that next distillery that pops? UPTOWN: What are some obstacles you faced in the beginning stages of getting the idea off the ground? MONTANA: Plenty! The first obstacle that anybody has starting up a business is money, and we didn’t have any. I grew up not independently wealthy. We had a hard time getting funds for it. In the end, banks didn’t want to mess with us. We didn’t have pathways to investors or know how to do that. At the time, the only way that we could get this done, we had one community development organization say they’d give us a $60,000 loan. That might sound like a lot of money, but to put it in context, if you were to go to a distillery consultant today and say, ‘I want to start up a distillery,’ they would probably tell you to have at least $2,000,000 in the bank. We couldn’t get close to that number. We were, without doubt, the cheapest distillery to start in a time when there weren’t any distilleries in the Twin Cities. So there was no model for it. That was the other challenge that we didn’t have the money, so we couldn’t hire consultants to come in and tell us how to do everything. We had to figure it out. While that was a challenge, it also ended up being an asset because it’s why we had to learn so much and so fast. After all, we had to be our own maintenance crew. We had to be our own designers. We had to build the place with our own hands. That process taught me a ton about the industry and what’s good and what’s bad about it. UPTOWN: Tell us about your products. What makes them unique? 1 0
MONTANA: The first thing that we lead with, and the first thing everybody leads with, is quality. We wanted it to be good. We recognize that no matter how good of a gin you make, they are going to be people who don’t like it. If you’re going to drink, which you don’t need to, but it should be good if you’re going to do it. Maybe you don’t like ours. That’s fine. If you like ours, that’s why you should support us. That’s at the foundation. I understand you cannot please all people all of the time, but whatever it is that we put out, we want it to be good. We sell nothing that hasn’t won awards, and most of them have won double gold. When we first started, as I said, we didn’t have any money. My initial passion was whiskey, but to do whiskey, you need to invest in cooperage barrels, and you need to be able to not sell that product. Something else has to keep the lights on. We didn’t have that other thing at the time. Just being a whiskey distillery was not possible. It’s not possible to do that unless you’re well-capitalized and come through the door with money. So the first thing we had to make was vodka, and with the vodka we wanted to offer something a little different; we didn’t want something that was filtered to death. We put out a full flavor vodka. That vodka immediately started picking up awards. We knew we were on to something because our process left over to this neutral spirit that didn’t taste like anything, a kind of byproduct of making our vodka. We knew we needed to build something off of that. Then that something ended up being our gin. That was our second product. Our gin is a mash-up of different styles. I made hundreds of different variations before settling on the one we have, but it’s essentially a Dutch gin botanical. It has a lot of juniper and other botanicals around it, including angelica root, ginger and orange peel. It’s distilled like a London dry, so it’s not as heavy as a Dutch gin. It’s also macerated. Most gin you can put in and finish in a day, but ours takes a week. Most people think gin tastes like a pine tree, but there’s more to it. There’s an earthiness, and there’s a sweetness. We can get that flavor because of the way that we distill it. It’s not efficient, it’s massively inefficient, but it produces, in my mind, a superior and unique product because we’re not here to make something that’s already on the shelf. After that, we made an Apple accord, which we can only make seasonally. We offer it year-round as long as supplies last. It is made with older heritage apples, mostly Haralson, but also Cortland apples. We don’t use apples that have been developed in the past 20 years because they’re all too sweet. We need baking apples, tart apples, and no preservatives or additives in anything that we make. There’s never going to be an artificial flavor. We are all about creating spirits that are real. The last liqueur is the coffee liqueur. We named it Café Frieda, named after a teacher of mine. The only discount that we ever give, and we’ll ever give in our cocktail room, is to teachers. It’s always Happy Hour for teachers because they deserve a drink. They are the only people I know who are heroes by vocation—not police, not firefighters. They’re doing their jobs. But teachers are heroes to me, so we decided to name this one after my favorite teacher, a particularly well-caffeinated individual.
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That coffee liqueur is a mix of cold-pressed coffee. We can make a super coffee with it because we don’t want to dilute the flavor. Then there’s also roasted chicory root in there, and we sweeten it as much as we need to find the right balance. We are always kind of hesitant to put too much sugar into things. We just won double gold for both liqueurs in the best-of category for liqueurs. The last one is Mixed Blood Blended Whiskey. It’s our whiskey that’s blended with other whiskeys. The reason why it’s called Mixed Blood speaks to another one of my pet peeves that became a pillar of a company, which is transparency. So few companies make everything and just slap new labels on it. We didn’t want to be that. We wanted to be transparent and for people to trust what we did and know that whatever we put on that label, we are not trying to mislead you or lead you down a path. So when we decided that we would take the whiskey we had and blend it with other whiskeys, we needed to have a name that could identify with that. That’s where we came up with Mixed Blood. It’s a blended whiskey with our Longfellow bourbon. We take some other whiskeys that we think help balance it out to a very approachable whiskey. UPTOWN: What’s your favorite cocktail? MONTANA: My answer never satisfies anyone. I love spirits, and I love trying them. I think everyone should try every spirit independently at room temperature in a glass with no ice. There are zero substitutes for that. Generally speaking, if you can’t drink it that way, trying it is one thing; everyone should try it that way. Vodka doesn’t need to be chilled, and your taste buds don’t get any better when they’re cold. Try it at room temperature in a cup, and it doesn’t have to be a fancy cup. Drink it like warm water and see if you like the taste. If the answer is no, you shouldn’t drink it in any other cocktail either because then all the cocktail is doing is hiding things. You should like the spirits that you consume. One thing that pushed me towards the recipe in our Fitzgerald gin is that I didn’t drink gin. My wife did. She told me, ‘You need to make a gin.’ I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ So when I set out to get educated, I bought every gin I could find, and I made it into the drink that most people drink: gin and tonic. I noticed that I couldn’t taste the gin, I could only taste the tonic, and it tasted like an alcoholic tonic. That defeats the purpose. Why spend any money on any good gin if you can’t taste the gin. I wanted
to make a gin that you would know damn well it was our gin. I wanted it to be big and bold. Otherwise, what’s the point? I typically would try it with gin and tonic with my gin or just on the rocks with lime. If anybody’s trying any Du Nord Spirits product and quite frankly any other product, it should be neat, nothing else going on, and just drink it. You don’t need any special training or anything like that. Just drink it. UPTOWN: I’ve never heard someone say that in terms of like, you know, just plain junk history and see if you like the taste. But, when you strip everything else down, that’s, and that’s what it’s all about. MONTANA: Well, you know what’s funny about this industry? It frustrates the hell out of me. When we open our cocktail, it’s to be approachable because what we see in a lot of the cocktail culture is becoming less and less approachable. You could go to your local bar and get a mixed drink. But if you want a cocktail, it’s almost like you already need to know something walking in the door. You had to have read up on the products ahead of time. It’s a massive hole in the industry, and it does not need to be that way. You do not need to know anything. Most of us are just trying to find things that we like. You don’t need a special glass. A lot of people are out buying some special glasses, why? A plastic cup will get the job done. The cup will not change the spirit’s flavor, and I believe spirits should be good and accessible. Your average person should be able to feel confident picking it up and saying, ‘yeah, I’m going to try this.’ The only reason I think they don’t is because of the industry, and I understand why you do it because you want people to feel like this is just premium. It’s worth the money, and it is all of that. But if it’s not available to the common man and woman, who cares? UPTOWN: It seems like a big responsibility to create a product you believe in and then sell it to the masses. Is there ever any added pressure to keep producing the best products possible? MONTANA: Well, there are multiple ways I could look at that question. I don’t feel any pressure to create anything new. I’m not trying to catch the next fad or be the next best anything. We make five different products. That’s a lot. I speak to other distillers, and they’re talking about how they have 45 skews and anticipate that it’ll be over 50 and then over 60. www.uptownmagazine.com 1 3
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If that’s what you do, and you’re good at it, more power to you. That’s not me. I want to make the absolute best of everything that I have. If we put something out and cannot win a gold medal, we probably shouldn’t be making it. Now I know there are Black cane farms that I want to work on because I want to make a rum. But you know, until I find the right partners to do that working directly with those cane farms, I don’t feel any particular pressure. As far as staying at the same level of quality that we have now, yes, I feel the pressure. I think that our staff feels that, too. I’m not the only one who takes pride in what we do, and we have a fantastic team that is always looking to make things better. I think that’s a difference between a craft distillery and one that’s been around for 150 years. If you have been doing it for 150 years, the challenge is remaining the same. When you have a craft distillery, I don’t care who you are; the first batch you put out should not be as good as a batch you put out eight years later. You should always be in the process of trying to figure out how you can do this better. Our gin is better today than when we first made it, and it’s not created the same way either. It used to be slow because my steel was busted. Now, it’s slow because my production manager came in and said, ‘hey, we’re getting better flavor off of this,’ and if we do it this way and that’s supposed to happen, you can see a progression. For me, It’s not about trying to stay right there. It’s about how we can make it even better? How can we make our vodka better? How can the whiskey be better? We’re always experimenting. That’s the fun side of it. Otherwise, it just becomes a factory, and you’re cranking out booze, and who can get excited about that? UPTOWN: What’s it like being the first Black owner of a distillery? Are there barriers you face being a Black owner of a spirit brand? MONTANA: When I started, I couldn’t raise any money, and I watched people around me who were no more qualified managing to raise millions. Walking into a room, nobody looked at me and said, ‘That guy looks like a distiller.’ It’s because they never saw a distillery owner that looked like me. After all, there couldn’t have ever been one. Once you get past that, access to capital is a huge deal. It’s tough to grow when you’re behind the eight-ball on day one. There’s no room for error. We spent years and years and years and years up until the last couple of years until COVID-19 hit and wrecked everything. We lost money every single year. My wife was working a job. I was working two jobs. That’s what makes it hard. We know that it’s harder to raise money for Black people in America. A statistic states the average V.C. raise is about $1,000,000, but for Black women, it is less than $50,000. That’s all you need to know. That, I think, is the most significant part. Once you get past that, I don’t care who you are once you have a product in the bottle. You can be a Black brand, and If the product is no good, I’m not going to buy it. I don’t care. I know some struggles you might have had to get open, but that doesn’t mean I will spend my money on it or put it into my body if you don’t make it quality. L once you get something in the bottle, it’s up to you to take it from there. I think getting started is a hard part. That’s the reason why we are doing all this work with business incubation. If we can incubate Black and brown-owned businesses, if we can get them over that initial hump, and get it to the point where it’s just going to be about their work ethic and their creativity, then we can compete with anybody. that’s why we’re creating these food and beverage incubators all over the Twin Cities because it shouldn’t be as hard as it was when we started UPTOWN: Where can interested consumers find your products? MONTANA: You can order our products online in most states. You
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can go to our website or go to reservebar.com. We are going through a rebranding, which will move us from the Du Nord Craft Spirits to Du Nord Social Spirits. In the past year post-George Floyd, with all the work that we’ve been doing, the launch of our foundation, incubator projects, the social aspect of the company has become more important. We want to make sure that we tell that story. In the latter part of this year, that will be the name that will be out there. I’m very excited about that because it’s hard to rename your baby. But at the same time, I just want to make sure that people know that. So that’s where you can find us now. We distribute in Minnesota, California and Louisiana, and we’ll be adding on. We have distribution agreements with about 10 other states, and we’ll make more announcements soon. UPTOWN: Where do you see the company 5,10, 15 years down the line? MONTANA: I want to continue to grow the brand. Once upon a time, I was very content to be a little company hanging out in Minnesota. Now, I use that company as an engine to fuel other work that needs to get done because nobody needs alcohol, but they do need to have an actual real equitable shot at the American dream. Now I’m not content with it being a small local company. I don’t think anything less than a national company is acceptable. I believe that there is an interest out there in our stuff. Our staff does an excellent job. My goal is that, at least in most of the states in the country, you should be able to go to your liquor store and find one of our bottles. I’d like it to be more than just most states. I’d like it to be more like three quarters and then 10, 15 years, I’d like it to remain the same. Maybe somebody gets on their flight to France at some point, they can have our products on the flight, and then when they get to a bar in France, they can have it there, too. If we see that kind of success, that means that our foundation will do more positive work. One of my fears of having a foundation is that I’m all about for-profit companies; that’s how I want to do for people. I want them to build wealth for themselves. I fear with my nonprofit, with the Du Nord Foundation, is that if it becomes reliant only on donations, then we can be the flavor of the month, and then it goes away. Something else comes up, but the work will never stop in my lifetime. So by tying it to our for-profit business and using those profits to prop up and expand what the foundation does, that gives me a whole new drive. It also does the same for my team because, ultimately, none of this will work if they aren’t on board.
11/27/21 5:21 PM
A pancreatic cancer diagnosis can bring about many emotions. Hope is finally one of them.
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Photos By Koury Angelo & Matt Winkelmeyer
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Rum has long had a complicated history. One that has often oversaturated the market with images of pirates, plantations and sea monsters. While rum can hardly be overlooked as a popular spirit, as Marc Farrell puts it, it is more closely associated with fairy tales and hungover college nights than something much more sophisticated. Farrell, Founder & CEO of Ten to One Rum, sought to create something that can shift how we view the spirit as a whole.
Ten to One Rum BY MALCOLM RASHAAD BANKS
Ten to One Rum is a brand that Farrell launched in 2019, consisting of a dark and white blend. The dark blend is best described as a masterful combination of 8-year-old Barbados and Dominican column still rums, combined with high ester Jamaican pot still rum and Trinidadian rum, aged in American white oak ex-bourbon casks. The white is rapidly redefining the category with its unique flavor profile as an unaged blend of column still rum from the Dominican Republic, with high ester pot still rum from Jamaica, to yield a beautiful extraproof expression. With each blend, the brand aims to challenge expectations, and reinvigorate the way people taste, experience, and talk about rum. Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Farrell has seen the perception of rum from two vantage points: one with a more positive view from his native land and the other less-thrilling outlook during his American adulthood. Where rum has long moved past postcolonial vestiges in the Caribbean, he seeks to help accomplish the same in America today.
UPTOWN recently spoke with Farrell about the idea of Ten to One Rum, debunking old narratives surrounding the spirit and his vision for the company moving forward. UPTOWN: Tell us about Ten to One Rum. Where did the idea originate? Could you share some of your history with us? MARC FARRELL: I was born and raised in Trinidad. I spent the first 16 years or so of life living there before moving to the U.S. My entire adult life is here in the U.S.—and that’s what shaped my experience as a consumer. The idea for Ten to One Rum came about from observing this massive gap between the way that rum culture and even Caribbean culture come to life. The way they come to life in Trinidad versus how I see them being often brought to life here in the U.S. I’d walk into a bar on the Lower East Side with my buddies, and what you see over the course of a few years is that your friends who are fans of other spirits could have this continuous evolution or elevation of their taste. You move from the plastic bottles and tequilas and vodkas you’re drinking in college to the more curated, higher-end spirits. As a rum consumer, I shouldn’t have that same experience. I think a lot of consumers still think about rum as a low-end spirit. I always talk about this whole notion of the sugary cocktails and spring break daiquiris and things of that nature, and you know, I think there’s a massive opportunity to change how people think about rum. Having them understand that rum is very extraordinary and versatile. I want to do more to celebrate the culture that surrounds it. That is all about shining a different light on Caribbean culture in a much more authentic and much more contemporary fashion. That’s where the inspiration [was born]. I think it’s a unique opportunity to give rum its moment in the sun by showcasing and highlighting the story of the Caribbean and its culture in a significant way. UPTOWN: You spoke in the past about the complicated history of rum. Can you expound on that statement? FARRELL: If you look at the narrative around rum, I will describe it as very limited and narrow. The way that I described that is through the lens of pirates and plantations. Why is rum branding often tied to the story of some old fable, pirates, and sea monsters? There are so many ancient postcolonial vestiges, which certainly we, as Caribbean people, 1 4
have long moved past. I think there are so many more authentic stories. I believe a far richer narrative, with a more optimistic view of the Caribbean and its culture, can be introduced. When I talk about the complicated history, that’s what I’m alluding to. [The notion of ] how do you get people away from some of those old caricatures in their minds and bring them to a more authentic place that they can feel excited about and a story that they want to participate in themselves. UPTOWN: That’s interesting because, as I think to myself at the moment, plenty of rums do market themselves after pirates and fictional characters. Can you tell us about some of your products? What makes Ten to One rum different? FARRELL:Yes, they really do. For us creating a successful business and, hopefully, an iconic brand, in this case starts with the product. Ten to One Rum is the most awarded rum in the U.S. today. I think [we’ve won] 35 awards within the last year, and we’re proud of that. Winning all those awards is a reflection of what we’ve done to set [Ten to One] apart. One thing that’s unique about our two core expressions is that they are both Caribbean blends. We thought that this idea of bringing different distillation methods in a single blend could be compelling. If you look at a rum from Trinidad, it’s a different composition versus what you have in Jamaica. So how do you find ways to harness different characteristics from around the region and bring them together in this blend in a unique, exceptional, undulating experience. Our dark rum is a blend of Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. It’s an eight-year-old rum. It’s aged in ex-bourbon barrels, which we bring up often because finding ways to build bridges to consumers in other categories is important. If you’re a bourbon lover or a rye whiskey drinker, you will find some resonance in Ten to One Rum. We don’t add anything, so it’s super unique, many other rums have either added sugar or color. There are no additives of any kind, and we pride ourselves on our rum being extremely versatile. By that, I mean you could drink on the rocks, maybe a splash of water, coconut water, or tonic water if you want. The same thing is true for our white rum as well. It’s also a blend of pot still Jamaican rum alongside Dominican column still rum. It is an extraordinary rum. You know you’re going to get some grassy herbaceous, fresh citrus that you kind of pickup from that Jamaican pot still rum—married alongside the Dominican rum, which gives it a great body. It’s a white rum that stands up exceptionally well in a cocktail,
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which is a challenge that many white rums have and makes this unique. It’s a rum that I think a lot of folk call a category ‘game-changer.’ I would say that the uniqueness of the Caribbean blends high-quality, with no additives of any kind. Both blends are exceptionally versatile, that can find a home just in your traditional rum cocktails but in a whole host of other applications beyond those. UPTOWN: Do you have a go-to cocktail that you would recommend? FARRELL: My every-day favorite is the old-fashioned. I would recommend rum and coconut water just as a very standard easy mixed drink with dark or white rum for the summer. It’s refreshing and good for the detox/ retox crowd. The other one that I love at the moment is the spicy watermelon daiquiri. That one’s awesome. We found that the folks who love spicy margaritas and things in that family, believe this one to be exceptional. It has a little jalapeño liqueur. It makes for a dope, unique, colorful summer cocktail. So that’s one that I’ve been making a ton of for my friends. UPTOWN: It’s a big responsibility to create a product you believe in and then sell it to the masses. Is there ever any added pressure to produce the best products possible? FARRELL: I think it’s less pressure and more of a responsibility. It is super important to create something that I feel anybody who has Caribbean Heritage can point to and feel proud. You want to be a great ambassador for the things you believe in. Ten to One Rum is a story of who I am and what I care about, and what we’d love to share with the world. I don’t view that as pressure. I think it’s a responsibility and a core expectation, so you’re going to want to put your best foot forward. You’re going to want to create an outstanding product that resonates with folks and gets them excited about not just diving into themselves, but hopefully sharing it with their friends and other folks as well. That’s more how I tend to view the pressure to create an exceptional product. UPTOWN: What’s it like being a Black owner of a spirit brand and building a company in this industry. Are there any challenges that you can speak to that come with that?
FARRELL:Many of the challenges are similar to being a Black man in many other industries, especially consumer-facing. I think any time you are one of the few or one of the early ones trying to do things in different ways, there’s a question of how that message will be received. I talked to you a bit about trying to change the narrative around rum and rum culture. Are consumers open to it? Are they ready for it? How’s it going to be presented? I think that’s just an added hurdle. For me, I’ve gone into the category with my eyes wide open; that’s what’s important to me. It’s more of an exciting challenge than it is a burden. I have already seen in the year to two years in this market and what we’ve been able to do in changing people’s perceptions. Not just for rum as a spirit, but also in some elements of culture surrounding it. I’m going to keep hustling, I’m going to keep trying to fly the flag, and I think I can set an example for all the folks who want to come up behind us because that’s super important too. We will keep things moving forward with that intention. UPTOWN: What’s your overarching mission for Ten to One Rum as we head five, 10, or even 15 years down the line? FARRELL: I want to create something iconic and meaningful. That’s my ambition. We can all think of examples in our own lives of different products, different brands, which changed how we felt about something. Maybe it’s tequila; perhaps it’s sneakers; maybe it’s high fashion. We can think about a moment when we thought about a category as X, and now we think about the category as Y. For me, Ten to One Rum has a massive opportunity and responsibility to find a way to help do that for rum. Five years from now, I would love for it to be an internationally known craft brand. I would love for it to be that brand that people sort of walk into a bar and to their friend’s apartment, and they see some tables, and they say, “Oh yeah, whoa—That’s the brand that helped us change how we think about rum.” We want people to think about the pirates, plantations, spring break hangovers in past tense and look at rum as a more authentic, more optimistic and more contemporary spirit. Like they’ve helped to re-imagine rum, that’s how I measure our success. That’s how we frame a lot of our goals. www.uptownmagazine.com 1 5
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Traveling With Denella Ri’chard New Season: As the World Reopens
The Wiggins Agency announced today that Traveling with Denella Ri’chard season four will premiere Sunday, November 7, 2021. Season four is appropriately themed “As the World Reopens”, featuring destinations that are open and welcoming tourists again. The television show will air globally Sunday evenings primetime on the CJC Network, twice at 8:30pm EST / 5:30pm PST and again at 11:30pm EST / 8:30pm PST. On Sunday mornings, the show can be seen at 10:00 AM EST on the CW South Florida (WSFL) with an audience reach of 1.7 million households. Denella stated, “I am having a fantastic time traveling the world again and bringing each destination’s story to life on television. This season we travel to Ecuador and The Galapagos Islands, the South Coast of Jamaica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Martinique, Miami and Fort Lauderdale to name a few destinations. I am blown away with the things to do in each of these destinations. Travel is back.”
“Season 4 will air November 2021 through February 2022. The timing is perfect to give our destination and tour operator partners’ television exposure domestically, globally and in-flight during this period to position them for success during the first quarter, which is historically the high booking period of the year (also known as WAVE season). I’m thrilled to be a part of the continued growth and expansion of the television series, Traveling With Denella Ri’chard. Also, the show can now be seen on Canadian air carrier, WestJet Airlines”, said Don Wiggins, Executive Producer & CEO of The Wiggins Agency. Traveling With Denella Ri’chard is a 30-minute weekly television series which airs on Sundays. Traveling With Denella Ri’chard can be seen globally on The CJC Network at 8:30pm EST / 5:30pm PST and again at 11:30pm EST / 8:30pm PST via several CTV and OTT “LIVE TV” platforms which are accessible via SmartTV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV, Android
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and iOS”: Download apps to watch LIVE TV: Distro TV channel 170; Local Now; TikiLIVE channel 54, PLEX; SimulTV channel 32, SelectTV channel 424 and Atari VCS channel 33. Denella Ri’chard is a world traveler, television personality, travel industry executive, public speaker and travel writer. Her numerous industry awards and recognitions include The Network Journal’s “25 Influential Black Women in Business” and Legacy Miami’s “50 Most Powerful & Influential Black Business Leaders”. Black Meetings & Tourism Magazine honored her with the “APEX Distinguished Service Award”. Luxury Travel Advisor Magazine named her as one of their “2019 Road Warriors and Industry Trendsetters”. The Wiggins Agency is a worldwide full-service marketing, advertising, promotional, public relations firm that aids businesses, events, corporations, municipalities, public figures and ministries. They are located in Lauderhill, Florida. WSFL, The CW South Florida affiliate, channel 39, is owned and operated by The E.W. Scripps Company. The station’s signal reaches South Florida television households representing more than 4 million people in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties. CJC Network and CJC LA is a broadcast television channel running 24 hours a day, featuring blocks of music videos, movies, original series, and more. CJC is available in over 5.1 million homes in Los Angeles and surrounding cities. Currently, CJC reaches +100 million homes globally. CJC is owned and curated by Carl Jackson Media Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Carl Jackson Entertainment LLC, also known as Carl Jackson Motion Pictures Studios. www.uptownmagazine.com 1 7
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Fade to ‘black•ish Anthony Anderson reflects on a superb eight-season sitcom run and looks forward to more acting and his behind-the-camera marathon. by BRYNA JEAN-MARIE
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have always thought that the seven-time Emmy-nominated actor and comedian Anthony Anderson is hilarious. Whether he is on the hottest primetime television show, in a blockbuster film, or standing in front of me making a gut-busting remark, his impeccable comedic timing always amplifies the laughter. Not forcibly. Organically. His sense of humor, wit, and dramatic acting have landed him on screen and in rooms with some of the most powerful creators in Hollywood. And there’s no end in sight for this “kid from Compton” who intends on paying it forward. Taking control of your destiny and expecting new adventures everyday is a dream catcher. And so is being intentional and having a vision so clear that it’s palpable. This was the head space of Anderson when he and ABC’s sitcom Black-ish creator Kenya Barris finally came together in West Hollywood at Laurel Hardware for cocktails. Anderson (who would eventually portray the lead character and family patriarch Andre Johnson on the hit series) didn’t know Barris at all, but they shared the same management, so the two were finally able to connect after trying to sync schedules for months. They quickly realized all of their similarities. Being at the center of first-generation success stories, being the only African-American families living in their neighborhoods, and being one of the few Black faces at their respective private schools were some of the commonalities they discussed. This wouldn’t just be a random great conversation over Smirnoff on the rocks. They were unknowingly revealing the makings of one of the most notable Black television shows of our time. “We started talking about the trappings of our success and what was missing from the landscape of television for us as viewers, he and I in particular,” said Anderson. “I told him the story of how my son came home one day and told me
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he didn't feel Black. I couldn't believe I was really having this conversation with my 12-yearold son.” Anderson, who also has a daughter, explained to his son that although his Black experience is living a life in the suburbs, somewhat of privilege, and not having a need or want, doesn’t make his Black experience any less Black than his cousins who live in the hood in South Central LA. Or any less than those young Black men around the country who are being gunned down by the police and racially profiled. That isn’t your Black experience, he explained. Yours is just different. The exchange between Barris and Anderson went on. And Anderson’s story culminated in his son asking for a Bar Mitzvah for his 13th birthday. Anderson explained to his son that they couldn’t do that because it wasn’t their culture, history, or religion, but that he would happily throw him a “Bro Mitzvah.” The hugely successful and ingenious party was fully equipped with an airbrushed 16 x 20 step-andrepeat of his son in a B-boy stance holding $5,000 cash and wearing a Kangol hat, Adidas sweatsuit, and gold chain. “I called Kangol and had them send his entire 8th grade class Kangols,” says Anderson, who also had an airbrush artist on hand to paint white Ts for guests. “And I called Adidas and had them send shell-toed Adidas to his entire 8th grade class.” And the party just wouldn’t have been complete without two DJs and two breakdance crews. His son is 21 now. And until this day his friends say that was the best Bar Mitzvah they have ever attended. Andre’s son Junior (played by Marcus Scribner) not feeling “Black enough” was the pilot for the show. Those early talks between Anderson and Barris led to the phenomenal subject matter that the acclaimed series has rolled out for nearly 200 episodes. Barris is credited as the creator, but Anderson notes that the stories are about both of their families, and that everything you’ve seen over the last eight years is art imi-
tating life. Towards the end of their conversation Barris said, “You know, I went from raising a Black family to a Black-ish family,” recalled Anderson. They continued to laugh and then talked about shows they grew up watching like All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times and The Cosby Show.” Black-ish has a place right next to these iconic sitcoms that shifted the culture of television and brilliantly tackled issues of race, religion, parenting, marriage, sexism, politics and more. These topics laid the groundwork for what Anderson describes as “staying true to the complications of everybody trying to fit in some place… everybody trying to find their way in a world that is trying to label us who we are.” Three generational perspectives under one roof coming from four different perspectives (grandparents, parents, children and a biracial wife) allows each storyline to delve into multiple complex layers of issues. Most viewers are not even aware that they are engrossed in a social/racial/familial/political lesson. You can thank comedy for that. “We decided to talk about what really affects families and our community, and how we deal with it through our lens,” says Anderson. When he and Barris discussed social commentary shows with unapologetic lead characters, Archie Bunker’s name was front and center. “He was a racist and a bigot, but you knew where you stood and you had to respect him for his conviction,” says Anderson. “Let's say Archie Bunker and Andre Johnson sat down and had a conversation about how they view the world and each other. Hopefully, at the end they would have a better understanding of one another than what they did when they first sat down. They may not agree wholeheartedly on everything but they may find some common ground. And I believe that's what our show is about. Finding the common ground and having teachable moments.” And, of course, the cast will always find the hu-
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mor in it because getting the audience to laugh and crack themselves up makes the conversation easier to have. Anderson is not a comedian though. Well, not in the traditional sense of the profession. He is formally trained as a dramatic actor and gives all due respect to those who have earned the comedian title. He understands the discipline that it takes, and how hard you must work to tell a joke a minute to keep people laughing. “A lot of people thought that I’m from the stand-up world because when I first came onto the scene I worked with Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac, Jim Carrey, the Farrelly brothers in some huge comedic films and I was able to hold my own,” says Anderson, who lives for the day that he will be able to command an audience of thousands of people. “I take that as a major compliment because I know what it takes to be a comedian -- when it's just you, the mic, and the light on stage. So, whenever someone mistakenly thinks I come from the comedic world, I quickly correct them.”
about those days on set. “Going to work it was like, ‘Can we get a joke?’ Even though there were jokes going on around us with other characters and whatnot. You know it was like, ‘OK, can Rainbow get a drink?’ But I think that is what endeared us to the public. That we were willing to go there as a half-hour family comedy and talk about something that isn't funny.” Anderson shared how a few hours prior to our interview, a gentleman stopped him in the hotel lobby and said, “I'm sorry to bother you but me and my wife watch your show and we love it. It saved our marriage. We laughed together and we cried together.” The fact that 50 percent of marriages end in divorce was reason enough to focus on that topic and so many others like postpartum depression, sexism, and colorism. “Why not speak about what's really affecting a lot of families that has nothing to do with color?” says Anderson. “It has everything to do with relationships and love. At the time we may have wondered, ‘How are we going to get
years-old, and his role of the ruthless heroin dealer, Antwon Mitchell, on The Shield gave the world their first dramatic sampling of his chops. Now he feels free to dance between the two genres. He says that he didn't get nominated for an Emmy for his role on The Shield, but Hollywood definitely took notice. “So now I can do broad comedies, and then come back and dance in Martin Scorsese's The Departed. Or I can do Barbershop 3, but then Law & Order for two and half years, [land on] Guys with Kids, and follow that up with my Netflix movie Beats. Now there's no question. It's just like, ‘When are you gonna do this again?’ as opposed to ‘Can you do that?’” While Anderson is contemplating his next move, he and his mother Doris Bowman are having lots of fun. Mama Doris appeared with her son in one of his Smirnoff spots staying true to their jovial mother-son banter. “It has been a great relationship with Smirnoff and I appreciate all of their support,” says Anderson who has shared hilarious cameo appearances with Bowman on Instagram Live. They are also co-hosting To Tell the Truth, a show that has been through several iterations since its inception in the 1950s. We can see where he gets his funny bone. Mama Doris keeps viewers in stitches with her comedic side comments on the show, and she has won her own following by simply being herself. “Season seven just finished airing,” says Anderson. “Hopefully we have seven more seasons to give you. And we're looking at doing some things together in the reality space.”
“I BELIEVE THAT’S WHAT OUR SHOW IS ABOUT. FINDING THE COMMON GROUND AND HAVING TEACHABLE MOMENTS”.
He drew heavily from his training in drama and his real life when the cast of Black-ish dove headfirst into some serious subject matter that extends far beyond Black culture -— separation and divorce. When Dre and his wife Rainbow (played by Tracee Ellis Ross) found themselves facing some bleak marital issues, simply put, there was not a lot to laugh about on the set. Anderson says those days were rough and he often found himself looking for relief. But he understood that this was something that viewers, and even the crew, needed to see and process.
“[Executive producer] Larry Wilmore, Kenya, and I we're separated [from our wives] at the time [that we shot those episodes],” says Anderson. “Larry ended up getting divorced from his wife. I stayed separated for three years. And Kenya was separated for a while. These were the things that we were going through. And if we're really talking about life, everything isn't always rosy. There are people watching our show religiously and they are going through these problems. So why not talk about it and maybe find the humor?” They tackled the sensitive episodes with care and comedy. They moved through a three to four arc series with a family who people have grown to love over the years. Audiences have watched the Johnsons go through a lot of personal turmoil. “It was heavy,” Anderson recalls
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through this?’ But when we came through on the other side, we were glad that we did.” The Juneteenth episode was another significant experience for Anderson and the show. The storyline was turned into a musical and focused on the historical prevalence of the AfricanAmerican holiday that had not been widely celebrated prior to the episode. “Our educational performance helped usher in Juneteenth as a national holiday,” says Anderson who recalls that not long after the show aired, Apple put Juneteenth as a holiday on its calendar. “I had never seen that [type of show done] and when it happened, I was like, ‘This is phenomenal.’” A few years later, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would establish June 19th as Juneteenth National Independence Day, a national federal holiday. “I’m not saying that it was solely because of us but I believe we helped it cross the line. ”
Anderson is focused on ushering the next actors and producers to their seats at the table. He recognizes that his TV children, who he helped handpick for the show, have grown into young phenoms. And he is invested in them, as well as the futures of new filmmakers and actors. “My [next] thing is more so behind the camera, as well as in front to give other people the opportunity to tell their stories,” he says. “And also to leverage the relationships that I have with the studios around town and the networks. And bringing great people to the table to tell their stories.” Stories that will continue to shed light on the way we live, grow, and learn as a culture and as a world that accepts our differences, as well as, our similarities.
Two-stepping between comedy and drama is a rhythm that feels good to Anderson. He began training as a dramatic actor when he was nine-
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50 Ye
gic Ma
Disne f o s r y a
...and it’s only the beginning
Guardians of the Galaxy Rewind exterior.
When Walt Disney purchased numerous lots of land in Central Florida (through numerous corporations), he did so to preserve the guest experience for what would become Walt Disney World Resort. In doing so, he created a “world” that oozes creativity and inspires dreams while also educating. As Disney Historian, Stacia Martin explained: “Walt Disney World is so special, because it’s not something that Walt did here, it’s what he began: Showing itself to be something that has its own life force—that can roll along even after he’s gone.” Fifty years later, Walt’s lasting dream is even stronger—and this comes as a direct result of a world-class assemblage of talented Disney Cast Members (which is what Disney calls all of their employees—because they are always “on-stage” when working for the company).
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Cinderella Castle in all of its 50th Anniversary finery.
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tarting October 1, 2021—and for the following 18 months—Walt Disney World will celebrate its 50th Anniversary in grand style with “The World’s Most Magical Celebration.” This 18-month event will bring new attractions, nighttime spectaculars and other magical experiences to The Most Magical Place on Earth! Welcoming guests to the celebration with gleaming gold bunting, sparkling golden embellishments, a 50th anniversary crest and other enhancements is Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom Park. Cinderella Castle takes center stage—in radiant style—for a nighttime spectacular that took 20 years to develop and execute which is certain to amaze! “‘Disney Enchantment’ is a great story about joy, wonder, adventure and most importantly, empowerment” says David Stewart, Production Manager with Walt Disney Live Entertainment. Narrated by Angela Bassett, “Disney Enchantment,” is a nighttime extravaganza that takes guests on a journey filled with adventure, wonder and it inspires everyone to believe in themselves. “Disney Enchantment” features stunning fireworks, powerful music, enhanced lighting and, for the first time, immersive projection effects that extend from Cinderella Castle all the way down Main Street, U.S.A. The show’s stirring soundtrack is anchored by an emotional original song, “You Are the Magic,” written and performed by multiple
Grammy-winner Philip Lawrence, whose musical career began as a Disney cast member performing in Walt Disney World shows. “I am humbled to have a played one small part in the vision Walt Disney had for creating these long lifelasting memories,” said Philip Lawrence. Roger Butterley, Senor Music Producer for The Walt Disney Company stated further, “Philip’s “You Dining in space at Space 220. Are the Magic” song encapsulates exactly everything we were looking for in ‘Disney Enchantment’—right off the bat, from the first demo we received, and the song helped to drive how the rest of the show progressed from there.” Debuting in EPCOT’s newly expanded France Pavilion in World Showcase is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. This exciting new trackless adventure (which also opens on October 1, 2021) invites guests into the flavorful world of Disney and Pixar’s Academy Award-winning film Ratatouille. As Tom Fitzgerald, Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering explained, “This new ride system allows us to tell a story in a different way than the filmmaker
can; So that we can immerse you in the story in a way that really makes you feel like you’re in the movie, so you can be Remy and be one of his pals.” In this family-friendly attraction, guests will “shrink” down to the size of Chef Remy and scurry through Gusteau’s Parisian restaurant for a host of surprises in this unique 4D attraction. Every night, the waters of EPCOT’s World Showcase Lagoon come to life in a vibrant and memorable way with “Harmonious,” which is one of the largest nighttime spectaculars ever created for a Disney park. This new show brings the globe together at World Showcase Lagoon in a celebration of Disney music that will inspire www.uptownmagazine.com 2 3
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A line queue scene from Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
Katrika Rodriguez, who was recently installed as Vice President of EPCOT, expressed how excitement for what is to come to EPCOT: “It’s great to see what Disney’s amazing Imagineering team has done—their creativity is just phenomenal!” And Katrika speaks the truth: Opening in 2022 as part of the continued historic transformation of EPCOT, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will be the park’s first “other-world” showcase pavilion. This family-friendly adventure features a new storytelling coaster that rotates 360 degrees to focus guests on the action, including the first reverse launch on a Disney coaster. “This will be one of the world’s longest enclosed rollercoaster systems and we are hope2 4
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ful that it will deliver the pack and the punch that the Guardians of the Galaxy movies brings,” says Ashley Levine, Senior Project Controls Specialist at Walt Disney Imagineering. One of the most highly anticipated new experiences at Walt Disney World Resort will debut in 2022 as part of the 50th anniversary celebration. Beginning March 1, 2022, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will immerse its first official guests with and experience beyond anything Disney has created before. As Jared Sell, Assistant Project Manager at Walt Disney Imagineering explains: “Star Wars: Galatic Starcruiser is a 2-night immersive experience where guests will jump aboard a ‘Launch Pod’ which will take them to a galaxy far, far away where they will board the Halcyon Starcruiser to commence their voyage. In addition to tasting different flavors from around the galaxy, guests will also be able to wield lightsabers and use The Force just like a Jedi.” As a part of this first-of-its-kind vacation experience, guests become the heroes of their own stories over the course of their two-night adventure where they see, feel and live all things Star Wars. General bookings for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser begin Oct. 28, 2021 (and yes, meals are included on-board the Starcruiser).
New daytime entertainment is stirring at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, as Disney KiteTails comes alive several times daily. Performers fly windcatchers and kites of all shapes and sizes. While out on the water, elaborate three-dimensional kites—some stretching to 30 feet long—depict Disney animal friends, including Simba, Zazu, Baloo and King Louie. These colorful creations dance through the sky to the beat of favorite Disney songs in an uplifting, vibrant experience for the whole family. Walt Disney World continues demonstrate how food and drinks are key ingredients for a fun day at The Most Magical Place on Earth. New menu items for it 50th anniversary celebration offer nods to the past while pushing culinary adventures to exciting new places. Of the 150plus new items available, examples include: The Toad Burger at Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park (no toad meat is used btw), Cheese Fries (with a chili recipe that was a favorite of Walt Disney) at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, Filet Mignon with Walt’s Hash at The Hollywood Brown Derby in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EARidescent Croissant Doughnut at EPCOT, 50th Celebration Soufflé at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and more. As Chef Edson with Walt Disney
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everyone. It is a grand, powerful tribute to the unifying power of story and song, embracing new technical magic that incorporates pyrotechnics, choreographed moving fountains, lighting, massive LED panels and media in new ways. “Harmonious” features new interpretations of classic Disney songs in more than a dozen languages, performed by a diverse group of 240 artists from around the world, including legendary Gospel artists Karen Clark Sheard and Kierra Sheard, vocalist Bryson Camper, Luis Fonsi, Joy, Danny Gokey, and the Ndlovu Youth Choir.
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World Food & Beverage explained: “We do a lot of research to make sure that we provide the right flavor balance within all of our dining offerings before presenting them to guests.” And this particularly evident with the culinary offerings at Steakhouse 71 which is housed within Disney’s Contemporary Resort. The dining experience is one which hearkens back to 1971 where such tried and true favorites reigned supreme: Lump Crab Cakes, 12-oz Roasted Prime Rib with Classic Yorkshire Pudding and Ambrosia. The new Space 220 Restaurant is a culinary experience offering the celestial panorama of a space station, including daytime and nighttime views of Earth from 220 miles above the planet’s surface. This unique experience provides culinary offerings which are curated by Patina Restaurant Group. Apropos to its proximity to EPCOT’s Mission: SPACE attraction, guests board a space elevator for a simulated journey to the Centauri Space Station, where they experience the “height of dining.” The views of Earth, while dining on uniquely curated delectables, is quite an experience (reservations are recommended). Drawn to Life, the new family-friendly show coming to Disney Springs, is an original creativecollaboration between Cirque du Soleil, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Imagineering. As Tim Bennett, Artistic Director Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group stated, “This show is a love letter to animation.” Premiering Nov. 18, 2021, during “The World’s Most Magical
The Harmonies evening extravaganza at Epcot.
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Above/Below: Disney & Cirque du Soleil “Drawn to Life” show.
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Celebration,” Drawn to Life is a live acrobatic journey telling the story of Julie, a determined girl who discovers an unexpected gift left by her Disney animator father: an unfinished animation. As she dives into the inner world of animation guided by a surprising pencil, Julie embarks on an inspiring quest filled with her childhood Disney memories, brought to life through Cirque du Soleil’s innovative design and dazzling performances. “To have this opportunity to collaborate with such a creative powerhouse, that is Cirque du Soleil, is amazing!” says Natalie Woodward, Vice President of Production with Disney Live Entertainment. As Walt Disney World celebrates its 50th anniversary, Walt Disney Imagineering is continuing to enhance the storytelling at the vacation destination’s two original Disney Resort hotels, Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. Let’s begin with Disney’s Contemporary: Incredible rooms are all
you will find now at the iconic A-frame property. All guest rooms are being completely refurbished, blending a sleek Monorail motif evoking Tomorrowland with some favorite characters from Pixar Animation Studios’ Incredibles films. In the lobby, guests see a collection of modern art pieces as well as historical, behind-the scenes photographs of Disney’s Contemporary Resort in development and under construction. Over at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, guest rooms were recently reimagined with a color palette inspired by the Pacific Ocean and its necklace of islands. Their fresh new look draws on the details, textures and patterns found in Disney’s “Moana,” with characters and references to the film’s rich storytelling. The resort also boasts a dramatic new Porte Cochere to enhance the experience as guests arrive at the resort’s Great Ceremonial House. The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resorts are now joined by the brand-new 14-story
Walt Disney World Swan Reserve. This property boasts luxury offerings in an upscale and boutique environment, and it’s designed to offer an intimate and tranquil oasis for guests while experiencing Walt Disney World Resort. Featuring 349 guest rooms, 149 spacious suites and two presidential suites, each accommodation is lavishly appointed and features floor-to-ceiling windows with stunning views. The experience at Walt Disney World is magical for one simple reason: It’s all about the guest. 30-year Disney Legacy cast member Christopher Stewart said it best: “The more things change, the more things remain the same. The spirit of what we do here for guests hasn’t changed. When I came in, the first thing I was taught was about taking care of the guest: Making sure they feel special and making sure they feel like an individual. And that has not changed. This is still exactly how we train our cast, every single day.”
“WALT DISNEY WORLD IS SO SPECIAL, BECAUSE IT’S NOT SOMETHING THAT WALT DID HERE, IT’S WHAT HE BEGAN: SHOWING ITSELF TO BE SOMETHING THAT HAS ITS OWN LIFE FORCE— THAT CAN ROLL ALONG EVEN AFTER HE’S GONE.”
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Fire Shut Up in My Bones: The Met’s First Black Opera Takes Center Stage Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the Metropolitan Opera House’s first opera by a Black composer, was inspired by Charles M. Blow’s memoir of the same title. by BRYNA JEAN-MARIE
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I
t took my mother to help me recall the details of when I went to see my first opera in elementary school. A select few straight A students at Saint Bartholomew were ushered to our box seats at The Academy of Music in Philadelphia. We were there to see Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. A rare and first-time experience for these young, gifted, and Black native Camden scholars. Butterflies danced in my belly as I watched the figures glide across the stage and sing in an unfamiliar language. I finally got over the fact that I left my glasses home and could barely see their faces. The clear visual just didn’t matter. Because the emotion, the art, and the story — made up in my 8-yearold mind — took me over. It was the love story of an Ethiopian princess and a general. And it was glorious.
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Blanchard became an immediate favorite of mine when I was initially exposed to his music in college through Spike Lee’s first films. Hearing his brilliant score — by the internationally renowned Canadian Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin — was beyond delightful and one I could listen to for hours on end. The
I settled into my seat and lost myself in the gorgeous characters and a rarely told yet universal story. “Mommy, everybody is Black,” my daughter excitedly said, above a whisper, after waking up from a quick nap during the first act. Neither of us could barely contain ourselves when actors dressed as the brothers of the distinguished Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated appeared on stage. What an epic moment. I almost regretted not shouting a loud Delta Sigma Theta Sorority call but didn’t want to scare the lovely white elderly men seated next to me. The surprises on stage kept coming because I intentionally did not read a single thing, other than a headline or two, about the show prior to attending it. I did feel slightly uneasy when I asked my daughter what she thought the next day. The subject matter was mature, and I wondered how it may affect her.
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The night of Wednesday, Oct. 13th was comparably thrilling as my 13-year-old daughter Devi and I made our way to the Metropolitan Opera House at New York City’s Lincoln Center to see Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Of course, I was gobs more excited than she was to put on a gown and thirstily view the show through opera glasses (from my sixth-row orchestra seat). Who wouldn’t want to see the sweat on the brow of every beautiful Black person on stage at this 138year awaited event? Yes, it has taken forever for this moment to arrive. But it has. And we are grateful and proud.
opera was adapted from the exquisite work of the brilliant journalist, author, and commentator Charles. M Blow’s memoir, Fire Shut Up in my Bones. Will Liverman (adult/Charles), Latonia Moore (mother/Billie), and Walter Russell III (young/Char’es-Baby) are magnificent and lead an ensemble that will captivate you as you’re whisked through the life of a man desperately coming to terms with his childhood trauma.
“What did you think of the opera?” I asked
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Above/right: Scenes from Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera
her the next day as she entered the door from school. I was careful to give us some time to process the moment, the magic, and the significance of the night. “I really liked it mommy,” she said with a smile as she hugged me, then looked into my eyes before kissing my cheeks. Mission accomplished. She was introduced to another way that our stories can be shared with the world. And that’s all I wanted, for us to celebrate an evening of history and for the next generation to be exposed to a lovely art form — just like me nearly 45 years ago. But this time, the vision was even better. It was in color.
Walter Russell III as Char’es-Baby and Will Liverman as Charles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera
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LA RESIDENCE HUE HOTEL AND SPA
Vietnam 3 2
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m Rising Vietnam, once only known by Americans for the devastating war that ended 40 years ago, is now one of the world’s most popular luxury locales. UPTOWN Editor-in-Chief Isoul Harris gives the lowdown on a few of his favorite five-star properties.
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SOFITEL LEGEND METROPOLE HANOI
Getting There Cathay Airlines is one of the top carriers in the world and when travelling to Vietnam, the ease and comfort of business class is priceless. The airline offers daily non-stop service from eight North American gateways (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Newark, New York JFK, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver) to Hong Kong, where a connection with sister airline Dragonair will transport you to Vietnam’s top cities: Da Nang, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City. While waiting for your connection, enjoy The Wing: the airline’s flagship lounge, situated high above the terminal with open ceilings and unobstructed views, is regarded as one of the best in the world (think endless cham-
pagne, delicious hot and cold fare and luxurious shower suites). Voted “The Best Transpacific Airline of 2014” by Skytrax World Airline Awards, Cathay is the only airline in the world to win this award four times—19 million travellers that voted all agree.
Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi The Metropole is the first in the Sofitel collection to gain the “Legend” distinction. Since opening in 1901, this 5-star FrenchColonial style hotel has hosted celebrities such as Graham Greene, Charlie Chaplin, Jane Fonda, Mick Jagger, President Bill Clinton, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and many more. The property is split into two wings, each with their own distinct personalities: the Metropole wing is the original space (harken-
CATHAY AIRLINES BUSINESS CLASS
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ing back to the early 1900’s with French classical finishings and Vietnamese nuances). Choose between Luxury and Grand Luxury suites—(the former with slightly more space, an additional room and daybed). The Opera Wing is the modern side with neo-classical luxury. The 5 suite types range from premium to Grand Prestige—the top tier accommodations of the hotel. Vietnam is known for its adventurous and flavorful food and, so be sure to indulge in the street bites and abundance of top restaurants. However, the hote l options are great as well. Le Beaulieu is known for its celebrated wine list, Angelina (also a local hotspot) serves rich Italian eats and for traditional Vietnamese cuisine, book a reservation at Spice Garden and experience a toothsome mix of dishes from the north and south regions. The hotel is also steeped in history. In 2011, a wartime bunker was discovered in the back of the garden and is available for a tour (warning, it is not for the claustrophobic). Walking is the best way to experience the city. Stroll from the hotel to Hoan Kiem Lake (where you will likely notice couples outfitted for weddings surrounding the lake, taking photos months before the ceremony; it’s a popular tradition). Also check out the Old Quarter--it’s Hanoi of a bygone era. Shop for gifts at Dong Xuan Market; visit the temples and pagodas in the surround area; or simply grab a Beer Hoi on Ta Hien Street and sit out and drink while people watching. You’ll feel like a local. Sofitel. com/Hanoi
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THE NAM HAI HOI AN
The Nam Hai Hoi An The Nam Hai must be the most stunning resort in all of Vietnam. With expert design based on the principles of Feng Shui, you first encounter the gorgeous infinity pool that seemingly extends into Ha My Beach, the breathtaking coastline on which the 100 villas making up this property lie. Recalling the touches of the old world Vietnamese garden house, each villa features an elevated platform bed in the center of the room . The Restaurant serves a decadent breakfast spread that’s only heightened by the view of the enormous infinity pool and Ha My Beach. And The Beach Restaurant serves casual fare for lunch and midday, while transforming its nightly menu into one full of traditional and innovative Vietnamese dishes. Enjoy the official tour of the property and take a solo stroll along the beach basking in the early morning sunrise or evening sunset. Ride one of the complimentary bicycles to the spa (where the treatment rooms are alsovillas, albeit atop water in a pond). Arrive early: the more time you have at this space the better. Take advantage of the hotel’s shuttle service to the ultra-charming ancient port city of Hoi An, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Vietnam has a large motorbike culture—being that cars are too expensive for most of the Vietnamese—however, from 3-9pm there are
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no motorbikes allowed in the Ancient City. Therefore, spend a morning or afternoon walking: visit the Chinese temples, merchant house or the countless expert tailors waiting to customize a garment or accessory. While tourism traps do exist in the form of souvenir shops and boutiques, if you continue past them, walking farther in, you’ll discover more beauty and fun excursions (such as bicycling or boating). On the 14th of each month, the lights are turned off and and are replaced by the warm radiance from Hoi An’s signature silk lanterns. Foodie Alert: While in Hoi An, order Cau Lau—a dish made of locallysourced greens, thin slices of pork, noodles, cilantro, basil, mint and water drawn from Hoi An’s ancient wells. ghmhotels.com/en/nam-hai
La Residence Hue Hotel & Spa Leaving Hoi An, hire a driver and make the scenic 3-hour trek on Hwy 1 to Hue. Be sure to stop and climb the Hai Van Pass on National Route 1A—the views of the mountains, valleys and ocean view are breathtaking. Once in Hue, check-in to the lovely La Residence Hue Hotel & Spa (La-residence-hue. com), overlooking the Perfume River. Originally built as a private, government residence in the 1930s, La Residence became a hotel shortly after 1975 and struggled as a 3-star
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property until the early 2000s when it was purchased by a group who not only renovated but built additional wings based on the original structure. Today, the boutique hotel (only 122 rooms) is one of the top three hotels in Hue. Take one of the complimentary bicycles and ride over to the gargantuan Forbidden City. Tthe traffic in Hue is a bit terrffying , but braving it on a bike is exhilarating. See the massive Citadel. If lucky, witness the monks chanting at the Thien Ma Pagoda (Heavenly Lady) which is over 400 years old. Vietnam’s history is both magnificent and tragic, but the Vietnamese people refrain from focusing on the past. With hardly any ill feelings towards US citizens over ”The American War”, they welcome everyone with open minds and hearts. Plan away: beauty, history and luxury awaits.
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Africa AT THE WHEEL
Contributing Editor Angela Bronner Helm visited the southwestern African nation of Namibia and drove through its beautiful wide-open country. Here she details the trip she experienced on her own terms.
A
frica. Each region of the massive continent has its own intrigue and pull. The southern tip has been dominated by the country of South Africa—these days better known for its fine wine and “first world accommodations” than for the apartheid state many of us vowed to dismantle many moons ago. Which is a good thing.
Yet, there is a lesser known country in Southern Africa that promises its own wonder—the burgeoning country of Namibia, which gained its independence from South Africa in 1990. Namibia is a country of 2.3 million, but it is one of the least populated territories in the world – you may not see people, but you’d be hard pressed not to find a gaggle of baboons in the middle of the highway, or a pea-brained ostrich running in front of your car, cracking you up. Namibia is new but it is imprinted with the ancient, from the Etosha salt pan formed around 1000 million years ago to the nomadic tribes who 3 6
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to this day maintain the same way of life as their ancestors. It is a hodgepodge of peoples who mostly speak English: colonial German, British and Afrikaners mixed with the 12 distinct African tribes there. By driving through the country, I truly was able to experience Namibia on my (and its) own terms, commandeering expansive, mostly paved roads, and quickly figuring out metric distances and the “wrong” side of the road (turns are weird at first.) As with any road trip, and especially this one, there are some absolute rules. One: Have lots of snacks. Two: Ditto on toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Three: Always have a camera at the ready. Four: Bring tunes (I was partial to Nina Simone, though Kanye drifted in quite a few times.) Five: Roll with an open heart. Cost: For 2 people in a 4x4 double cab automatic including first rate accommodations, meals, and activities, including safari and day trips: (N$49,848.00/US$4,156 in total). Prices vary during season. Average airfare between the US and Namibia is $1,900.
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Rivendell Guest House
Opposite Page: The majestic African bush elephants of Namibia on safari; Above: The rare desert-adapted elephants of Namibia are similar to the African bush elephant, but smaller, and with larger feet and longer legs.
Detroit or Kingston; their dances reminiscent of ciphers on any dance floor this side of the world. (grootberg.com)
Etosha Safari Lodge
Doro Nawas
The next morning we drove out of the city to Etosha Safari Lodge, with accommodations actually set in the 6,200 acre Etosha National Park. I was never a National Geographic kind of girl, but Etosha Park was beyond. On safari, we were sometimes feet away from elephants, majestic giraffe, scores of springbok, impala, and gorgeous bird species. We even spotted a rare black rhino, and happened upon the weirdest creature ever, a baby pangolin, a small scaled mammal with a tongue that runs longer than its body. Etosha is large enough that you can be alone with the animals (in the comfort of your own car) and not see more tourists than wildlife. Your photos will be the envy of all. (etoshanationalpark.co.za) Giraffes on safari at Etosha.
Huab Huab is an off-the-beaten-path accommodation run by a gregarious Dutchman named Jan and his wife Suzi. Our first night there, Suzi gave us a fabulous laser light show, backed by a cold glass of champagne, fresh popcorn and antelope sausage. Under an inky African sky, mine eyes did see Scorpio, the Southern Cross (only visible in the Southern hemisphere) and the Milky Way. Jan also gave us an early morning walk, tracking animal prints, and identifying various flora and fauna. Add to that a real hot springs (and cool plunge) and the best olive cheese bread served at our communal dining table, and it’s obvious why Huab remains one of my favorites. (huab.com)
Doro Nawas, in the area of Namibia commonly referred to as Damaraland, is one of the most rugged and uninhabited areas on the African continent. On the way there, we passed a roadside table brimming with all sorts of geodes: hollow rocks with beautiful amethyst and other colorful gemstones inside. Unbelievably, you purchased these gems by honor system and so we left our money in a can and kept it moving. Doro Nawas is a camp with 16 chalets, each with a large bedroom and double bed. On warmer evenings, one has the option of wheeling your bed out of the room, to enjoy a night under the stars (I passed on that both because of the cold and because I’m not so keen on animals being anywhere near me while I sleep.) It was at Doro Nawas that we were able to track the rare desert-adapted elephants of Namibia, where we left at about 5 a.m. driving through cold mist to look for this rare species. We found them! And were able to observe from feet away dozens of these majestic, matrilineal creatures living life. (wilderness-safaris.com/camps/doro-nawas-camp)
Erongo Wilderness
Grootberg Perched on the lip of the Grootberg Plateau, with an infinite view down the Klip River Valley, Grootberg’s vista is so vast and old, that you literally expect a dinosaur to peek from beyond a mountain. The lodge consists of 16 thatched chalets, with hardwood verandas that project onto the view. One of the best offerings at Grootberg is a guided day trip to visit the Himba, a nomadic people who today still live without a semblance of modernity. Most fascinating is the Himba women, who still practice rituals like rubbing brightly-hued red cow fat on themselves for both sun protection and as a beauty ritual; their hair styles are as elaborate as any you’d find in
Himba women.
Our last night was at Erongo Wilderness, which for lack of a better word, are the most fancy treehouses imaginable. The bathrooms are actually built into boulders blending into the landscape. The rooms are all linked by walkways meandering between the boulders, overlooked by the main lodge building perched above. Dinner is served in the partially open, thatched dining room with a central fireplace for cooler evenings, complete with magnificent views, well-stocked bar and good wine cellar. (erongowilderness-namibia.com)
PHOTOS BY DEBBIE OLSEN; HIMBA WOMEN: ANGELA BRONNER HELM
We began our sojourn in Windhoek, the country’s largest city, where we stayed at Rivendell, a compound of guest homes in a residential area of the capital. It was here that we met with David Cartwright, president of ATI Holidays (infotour-africa. com), who delivered the cars and maps the morning after our arrival for our planned self-drive itinerary. After about an hour-long orientation including detailed instructions on how to change a flat tire (which we actually needed!), it was time to hit the road! Facilities at Rivendell include satellite TV lounge, swimming pool, self-catering kitchen, honesty bar, free WiFi and rich continental breakfast. (rivendellnamibia.com)
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TREKKING THROUGH
tokyo
Tokyo will overtake your senses with its beauty, cleanliness, and modern sensibilities. Here’s our guide to experiencing one of Asia’s crown jewels. By Isoul Harris
Tokyo is arguably the cleanest (litter is nonexistent, and the cab drivers don white gloves) 3 8
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and one of the safest urban areas on earth (leave your iPad at the coffee shop and you can return three hours later to find it waiting for you).
There are nearly 100,000 restaurants in the metro area, including ubiquitous ramen noodle spots (from cheap fast food versions to gourmet interpretations from top chefs) and more Michelin-starred eateries than any other city in the world. Whatever you desire, Tokyo can satisfy. It’s a city readymade for dreamers, as well as those simply enjoying the creations of those dreaming.
GETTING THERE
American Airlines has a great direct flight from JFK to Haneda International Airport, which is only 20 minutes from downtown Tokyo.
I traveled in their Business Class cabin (which allows access to the airline’s comfortable Admirals Lounge). There is nothing like being able to leave New York on 6:55 p.m. Friday evening— enjoying premium amenities inflight , including lie-flat seats, full
entertainment library—to wake up in Tokyo Saturday at 10:15 p.m. ready to attack the night. After spending Sunday and Monday exploring the city, you can depart Tokyo at 6:50 a.m. Tuesday, and arrive back in New York at 6:40 a.m. on the same day. aa.com
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Pharrell is right. Tokyo is a dream. From the blitzkrieg of neon illuminating its skyline to the enviable style of its citizens, forget never sleeping, it’s a city that never bores. Indeed, because the Japanese refuse to accept no in anything, they surpass in just about everything, including their food, architecture, and indelible style (luxury cordons like Louis Vuitton specifically make products and build stores for the wildly forward Japanese consumer).
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WHERE TO STAY A celebrated international city like Tokyo has plenty of tony hotels, but most will fall short of the skyscraping glamour of the Shangri-La. On this page: Relax, Relate & Release at the Shangri-La Tokyo ‘s pool and fall into luxury in one of the rooms overlooking Tokyo.
Shangri-La Tokyo. The 202 rooms and suites of this hotel, located in the financial district, occupy the top 11 floors of the Marunouchi Trust Tower Main building. The result: Guests enjoy electrifying views of the city’s best attractions, including the Imperial Gardens, Tokyo Bay, and even Mount Fuji on a clear day. If you’re not flying into Haneda, and are arriving instead from Narita International Airport (American Airlines partner JAL flies daily into Narita) via the Shinkansen Bullet train (certainly an experience), disembark at Tokyo Station, adjacent to the hotel, and take advantage of the complimentary “Meet and Greet” service, where a hotel representative will meet you on the platform and escort you to the property. Here, you will be greeted warmly
by the attractive hotel staff, who will continue to address you by name through the duration of your stay. Walking through the lobby, your eyes will involuntarily gravitate to finds from the property’s exquisite 2,000-piece art collection and the Herculean chandelier cascading from the lobby ceiling (imagine a shower of handmade crystals in the shape of ginkgo biloba leaves—the symbol of Tokyo— falling from above.) A miniature museum of sorts, the hotel offers a guided tour of its works, and everyone in guest relations is qualified to conduct an art tour. Rooms here range from the modern Deluxe to Premier City View (corner appointment). Then there are the gorgeous Executive, Shangri-La, and Presidential suites, which come with
access to the Horizon Club, including amenities such as complimentary breakfast, evening cocktails, and even shopping service at Takashimaya Department Store with an interpreter. As you would expect from Shangri-La, the food provides its own experience. Piacere offers an Italian menu complemented by the stunning views from its 28th-floor location (enjoy the Lobster Cake Benedict for breakfast while ogling at the gorgeous view of the city sprawl). Nadaman is the hotel’s signature Japanese restaurant. With fare bought fresh daily from Tokyo’s world-famous Tsukiji Fish Market, enjoy delicious traditional sushi, as well as specialty dishes such as Kano eggplant wrapped in Wagyu beef. Also, do yourself a favor and order the Shizuoka melon for dessert—it’s the most delicious melon you will ever taste in your life. Pinky swear. shangri-la.com/tokyo www.uptownmagazine.com 3 9
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THINGS TO DO You will never experience a fraction of what Tokyo offers during one visit. Advice: Choose specific sights, areas, and interests and focus on them. Here are a few suggestions.
Tsukiji Fish Market As the largest wholesale fish market in the world, this is a definite must-see. Handling over 2,000 tons of marine products a day, Tsukiji is a bustling city of its own. Workers in tailor-like fit cargo pants and vests complete with Marc Jacobs–esque black rubber boots frantically scurry about on scooters, trucks, and carts. There’s a seeming absence of method to the madness; but with closer inspection, the reason why most of the world looks to this aquatic bazaar for tuna is evident. The tuna auction is ultra-popular, and visitors are limited to 120 a day (you must apply at the Osakana Fukyu Center beginning at 5 a.m.). Be sure to partake in a sushi breakfast at one of the surrounding eateries—it certainly beats the Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity at the local IHOP. tsukiji-market.or.jp
In Style
In stark contrast, Omotesando is the Champs-Elysées of Tokyo. For those with a haute addiction, this tree-lined luxury retail area is for you. The five floors of Louis Vuitton’s Omotesando location, once the brand’s largest store in the world, mimic a stack of LV trunks. Omotesando Hills is a sixstory shopping complex that was once the Dojunkai Aoyama Apartments. In its new incarnation, Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent, and Jimmy Choo are the residents. For another dose of runway-ready fun, head over to Ginza, the city’s most famous area for luxury shopping. Lanvin, Prada, Hermès, and basically every other label is in Ginza. Dior’s Ginza store sports a façade of white and gray artistically placed abstract lines. On This Page: (Above)Tsukiji Fish Market is the largest wholesale fish market in the world covering 57 acres with 1,500 stalls. (Right) Stylish girls roaming around the Harajuku Station district. 4 0
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TSUKIJI: DANIEL BEREHULAK/GETTY IMAGES; HARAJUKU: JOHN W BANAGAN/GETTY IMAGES
Tokyo consists of several districts, each the gatekeeper of particular interests. Harajuku is the area surrounding Harajuku Station, which lies between the streets of Shinjuku and Shibuya. The city’s world-renowned teenage street culture and fashion reigns supreme (Gwen Stefani’s hit “Harajuku Girls” and Nicki Minaj’s fleet of fans, Harajuku Barbz, originated from these young people and their extreme style). Take a stroll down Takeshita Dori, the thin street robust with boutiques, shops, and fast food joints. Hang a right, and head to Shibuya for Don Quijote (“Donki”)—a festive Japanese discount store featuring everything from clothes to tech items. It’s a rite of passage. donki.com
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Party Like A… In Tokyo, the party is never-ending and is always changing, depending on who you are and the mood you’re in. To Party Like A Foreigner: Head to Roppongi, an area replete with clubs and bars; Feria is a high-end post offering up tasty cuisine and sounds from the world’s most famous DJs. In the same area, The Pink Cow is a hybrid resto–art gallery–club in Shibuya, and is popular among expats. Lowkey fun atits best (thepinkcow.jp). Party Like A Native: The neighborhood of Shinjuku (Kabukicho) possesses what seems like an infinite row of destinations for the adventurous. The area is also popular for what the locals call couple kissa or “happening bars,” which are exclusive, with members vetted beforehand. But there is plenty of other fun in the area, which is akin to Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Party Like A Fashionista: M Event Space & Bar in Daikanyama is an open event space that’s typically booked for parties packed with shoulder-to-shoulder chic. Come like the Sartorialist is manning the velvet rope and your night is on. m-event-bar.com
On this page: (Top) Isoul Harris hanging with his new Sumo wrestler friends after a practice session in Tokyo. (Bottom) Jiro Ono is the Sushi master and the wait for his 10 seat sushi counter is over 2 years.
Party Like You’re in the ’70s: Roppongi’s Bar Funky boasts that it’s all about “Black Music & More For Funky People”; and it’s pure truth in advertising. Walk in and you’re instantly transported back to a time of Afro puffs and bell-bottoms, but in a laid-back den—more Shaft than Soul Train. Expect ’70s memorabilia, including posters of an Off the Wall–era MJ and 45s blaring rarities such as Sharon Redd’s top-of-the-’80s groove “Can You Handle It?” ’Nuff said.
CULINARY CAPITAL
Three must-visit eateries Two Rooms Grill/Bar: This rakish resto, situated in Roppongi, is outfitted in sleek wood and leather and serves up simple yet sophisticated dishes such as Foie Gras French Toast with Chestnut Honey and a mouthwatering Iwate Iwachu Pork Chop. It’s a scene—from CEOs to models—so show up like you belong. tworooms.jp Bice Ristorante: This Italian eatery is famous among natives. After working up an appetite shopping in nearby Ginza, have the confit of rabbit or mushroom risotto beloved by Tokyo celebs and corporate high rollers. With only 37 tables available, be sure to have your hotel concierge secure a reservation early in the day. bicetokyo.com Sukiyabashi Jiro: This sushi counter in the bottom of a building adjacent to the Ginza metro station would be considered a hole in the wall in most cities. Not in Tokyo. With merely 10 seats, three Michelin stars, and a reservation harder to get than the President’s missile codes, sushi master Jiro Ono’s spot is a legend. He serves you 20 pieces of sushi (that he selects), one at a time, and once he’s finished, you are done as well. Price? Approximately $375. Yes, it may be the most expensive 15 minutes of your life; but think of the story you’ll have for the peeps back home. sushi-jiro.jp www.uptownmagazine.com 4 1
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Whatever
Happened to the
BLACK LOVE STORY?
High-quality films about black romance are hard to find these days. Several Hollywood insiders offer their theories about why there’s a void on the big screen. BY TOMIKA ANDERSON
T
here is a scene in the 1997 romantic drama Love Jones that never fails to give me fever. You know the one. It’s when aspiring author Darius Lovehall (Larenz Tate) knocks over his drink at the bar of an upscale Chicago nightclub while attempting to put the moves on sexy photographer Nina Mosley (Nia Long). He redeems himself minutes later with “A Blues for Nina,” a sultry spoken-word tour de force. “Say, baby, can I be your slave? / I’ve got to admit, girl, you’re the shit, girl, and I’m digging you like a grave.” There’s so much to savor about this moment—the passion in Lovehall’s proposal, the seductive pulse of the bass, and the sea of buppies nodding their approval. But what I love most is that I can see myself in these characters. Darius and Nina are part of the same young, urban, educated, upwardly mobile crew I belong to. They play pool instead of cee-lo, recite poetry instead of rap lyrics, and throw house parties with live jazz. In short, they’re cool—just a little on the bourgeois side. Unfortunately, they’re unlike most characters I’ve seen on the big screen within the past several years. That’s because Love Jones is essentially the tale of two ordinary black people falling in love—a universal concept that black filmmakers say is not explored enough in mainstream movies.
“The fact that black people can love and be boring and normal—that’s an alien concept in Hollywood,” says Charles Stone III, who directed the 2002 flick Drumline. “If you’re black, it’s all about extremes— extreme fucking, extreme violence, extreme action, extreme comedy or extreme drama. It’s the mundane, ordinary stuff that makes our stories real. But white studio executives don’t see that or don’t agree with it. That’s the problem.” In many ways, Love Jones “was the right script at the right time,” says Malcolm Lee, who directed the 1999 wedding dramedy The Best Man. Movies involving black romantic relationships, such as Love Jones, Brown Sugar, and Love & Basketball, marked a shift in values from violent, urban dramas like New Jack City, Boyz N the Hood, and Menace II Society that drew audiences in the early ’90s. Lee compares the former subgenre’s rise to the black romantic movies of the ’70s—Claudine, starring Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones, and Mahogany with Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams— which helped usher in a new day at the cinema for African-Americans
Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Diana Ross struts her stuff in Mahogany; Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in the classic film Carmen Jones; Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps heat up Love & Basketball; Larenz Tate and Nia Long share an intimate moment in Love Jones. www.uptownmagazine.com 4 3
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as the Civil Rights Movement drew to a close. “Black people were hungry for something positive—they wanted to see movies about family and relationships,” he says.
Morris Chestnut up for three more installments of Two Can Play That Game. While there may be a market for those types of romantic comedies, artistically they’re not in the same league as Love Jones.
However, black moviegoers having a desire to see such themes on the big screen doesn’t mean a film will perform well at the box office. The money at stake is just another reason why it can be difficult to get films made today about black romances, or to get films made with all-black casts in general.
Stone, who’s working on a black romantic comedy about two former college friends who fall in love at their class reunion, has a viable solution. “We need to start looking to our sugar mommies and daddies, like [BET founder] Bob Johnson or [Edmonds Group CEO] Tracey Edmonds for support,” he says. “We need to tap into our own financial purses or work with people who are willing to support our visions. If we work together, we can get it done. It’s about time we show Hollywood our capacity to love.”
“Love Jones was a great movie with a great soundtrack, but it didn’t make a ton of money,” Lee says of the film, which only brought in just under $4 million its opening weekend. “What happened was, the soundtrack [which featured Maxwell, Lauryn Hill, and other singers aligned with the emerging Neo-soul Movement] blew up, and so the [movie studio] decided to rerelease it in theaters. Black people also went out and picked up the DVD.” Filmmakers say the perceived risk of trying to appeal to a predominantly African-American audience has turned white studio execs gun-shy, and has made them more likely to invest in interracial romances featuring bankable black stars—like Will Smith and Eva Mendes in Hitch. “We live in an era where studios expect a big bang for their buck,” explains Stephanie Allain, producer of such small-budget films as Something New, an interracial romance starring Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker that made a modest $11 million at the box office. “Studios aren’t willing to take the risk that their movies won’t also appeal to a white audience. In the ’90s, we weren’t dealing with this ‘blockbuster’ mentality, where executives focused on building these multimillion-dollar behemoths. Because of that, it’s been difficult to push smaller movies through. So many of the resources are being sucked up by these larger projects. But now [filmmakers are starting to say] ‘hold up.’ ” One of these filmmakers, says Love & Basketball director Gina Prince-Bythewood, is, of course, Tyler Perry. He has proven that you can get popular black actors to appear in a film made for just $5 or $6 million and score box-office gold each and every time.
Carmen Jones (1954)—Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, and an all-black cast star in a remake of the famous opera.
The problem is, she says, he’s not producing love stories as much as he is making films with a broader spiritual message. “When you say romance, you’re talking movies like When Harry Met Sally or The Way We Were,” she says. “The majority of [Perry’s] films aren’t love stories, even though they may have a love element in them.” Still, Allain insists that the secret to putting black romances back on the map is to follow Perry’s budget-conscious lead and not always insist on the big payout. “We did Hustle & Flow for $4 million, and Terrence Howard only made $14,000,” she says, recalling the John Singleton–produced 2005 movie. Allain has five black romance films in development, including a biopic on black country music star Charlie Pride and his wife, Rozene. “I say, as long as we’re working, living, and paying our mortgage, doing what we love, God bless us.... We can destroy the business by demanding exorbitant rates.” Still, some filmmakers insist, the answer is not to go the safer route and just sign go-to black-romance veterans Gabrielle Union and 4 4
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Boomerang (1992)—Robin Givens and Halle Berry form a love triangle with Eddie Murphy, who is challenged to abandon his doggish ways in the pursuit of real love.
PREVIOUS SPREAD: ROSS: © STEVE SCHAPIRO/CORBIS; LOVE & BASKETBALL: NEW LINE/THE KOBAL COLLECTION; LOVE JONES: NEW LINE/THE KOBAL COLLECTION/WEINSTEIN. THIS SPREAD: CLAUDINE: THIRD WORLD PRODS/20TH CENTURY FOX; MAHOGANY: © STEVE SCHAPIRO/CORBIS; BOOMERANG: PARAMOUNT/THE KOBAL COLLECTION; JASON’S LYRIC: GRAMERCY/THE KOBAL COLLECTION; LOVE JONES: NEW LINE/THE KOBAL COLLECTION; THE BEST MAN: UNIVERSAL/THE KOBAL COLLECTION; DISAPPEARING ACTS: HBO/AMEN RA FILMS/THE KOBAL COLLECTION; SOMETHING NEW: FOCUS FEATURES/THE KOBAL COLLECTION.
Filmmakers say the perceived risk of trying to appeal to a predominantly African-American audience has turned white studio execs gun-shy, and has made them more likely to invest in interracial romances featuring bankable black stars—like Will Smith and Eva Mendes in Hitch.
www.uptownmagazine.com
12/17/21 10:28 AM
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HEARTS AFIRE
dd these films to your et i queue the ne t time you’re onesing for a little romance.
Claudine (1974)—This Oscar-nominated romance follows a single mom named Claudine (Diahann Carroll) who’s trying to care for six children in 1970s Harlem. While moonlighting as a maid, she meets the guy of her dreams—an affable garbage man (James Earl Jones).
Jason’s Lyric (1994)—A hardworking television shop repairman (Allen Payne) sweeps a hardworking waitress (Jada Pinkett Smith) off her feet with small but meaningful gestures.
The Best Man (1999)—One of the first black romances ever built around a wedding, the romantic comedy stars the black brat pack—Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, Terrence Howard, and Sanaa Lathan.
Mahogany (1975)—Diana Ross plays a scrappy fashionista from the ’hood who falls for a budding politician (Billy Dee Williams) in this iconic film.
Love Jones (1997)—Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl give love another shot in this urban fairy tale starring Larenz Tate and Nia Long.
Disappearing Acts (2000)—Emotional fireworks and steamy love scenes fuel HBO’s film adaptation of Terri McMillan’s best-selling novel about a professional woman (Sanaa Lathan) confronting class and culture issues with her blue-collar man (Wesley Snipes).
4 6 www.uptownmagazine.com
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12/17/21 10:28 AM
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