Lifestyle/Culture
Black-Owned KweliTV is Bringing Authenticity & Access to Streaming By Ineye Komonibo Refinery29
DeShuna Spencer
IN THE AGE of the streaming service, TV and film lovers are spoiled for choice. There are more than 200 different streamers currently available on the market with thousands of different titles to binge. But if you’re looking for platforms that cater to a more… melanated experience, the number of offerings decreases drastically. Though conversations about diversity and representation in Hollywood are ongoing, we just aren’t seeing enough significant
institutional change in the landscape; Black creatives, actors, and stories are still being put on the back-burner. If you look hard enough, however, there is one corner of the entertainment industry that is all about Black business: kweliTV. As one of the only streaming services on the market to cater specifically to the global Black community, kweliTV’s mission is to create a pipeline through which Black filmmakers can connect directly with Black viewers. Launched in 2018, the Black-owned interactive streaming service is home to over 600 unique original films and series — many of which you’ve likely never heard of before — brought to life by Black creatives from all over the diaspora. Its catalog boasts a rich selection of for-us-by-us content across all genres, running the gamut from spellbinding documentaries like Seeds: Black Women in Power to hilariously entertaining cartoons (Vanille) to everything in see page 108
Adeagbo made history as the first Black African woman to compete in the sport at the Olympics. Curtis said that while role models were few and far in between, she held onto the ones she could in hopes that she would one day join that illustrious league of athletes. “I didn’t really have too many people to look up to in the skeleton world, but I did in bobsled. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants and trying to inspire the next generation,” Curtis explained. In 2017, Nigeria made history, debuting their first ever women bobsled team in the Olympics. Jamaica has also made a return in the Winter Olympics, their bobsled team returning to compete for the first time in over two decades. Representation like that is what kept Curtis going, seeing other people performing in 107
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similar sports. Now, she gets to become the next role model for a newer class of athletes. Curtis will join veteran Olympic athlete Katie Uhlaender and Andrew Blaser, the three representing the U.S. at the Winter Games. The three-man skeleton crew is the smallest the U.S. has ever sent to compete in the sport since the 2002 Olympics. Still, Curtis is excited, getting ready to live out a longtime dream, something she says she won’t be able to believe until she hits the ice. “I’m still not going to believe it until that green light goes for Race Day 1,” said Curtis. https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/ botwc-firsts/kelly-curtis-is-the-first-black-u-sskeleton-racer-to-compete-in-olympics Image credit: Molly Choma, uskings.us
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