BLACK PEOPLE FLOURISHING: ELLE LORRAINE

BY: ARAMIDE TINUBU

Black people are well acquainted with loss. This year, which started so full of promise, has in many ways suffocated humanity. We are sitting in a moment when isolation and distance are necessary for survival. From personal loss to the deaths of titans like Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, we have all been staring down a barrel into the unknown. Yet, despite the struggle, Black storytelling is emerging like never before.

This year has delivered the first Black-led Disney/Pixar film, Soul, starring Jamie Foxx, and romances like, The Photograph. Spike Lee has blessed us with his first Joint of the new decade, the Vietnam-set

Da 5 Bloods, and Black women’s stories like Miss Juneteenth, The Forty Year-Old Version, and Beyoncé’s Black Is King have been a significant part of the film conversation. We are no longer asking for permission to tell our stories; we present them on our own terms.

Despite the successes of the past year, things are not perfect. Colorism, stereotypes, and the struggle for representation are all battles we are still fighting. However, in a year that has given us Jingle Jangle, a Christmas-themed film with a smiling Black girl at the center, and brought Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me to the small-screen, there is much to celebrate.

Filmmakers Regina King and Justin Simien have put their stamps on complex projects like One Night In Miami and Bad Hair, which have spotlighted a whole new generation of actors. One such newcomer is Elle Lorraine.

Though many Insecure fans will undoubtedly recognize Lorraine as Trina, Issa’s loud and no-nonsense neighbor in the HBO sitcom, with Bad Hair, she gets to spread her wings. In Simien’s layered horror, cultural commentary thriller, Lorraine stars as Anna, an ambitious executive assistant at a fictional 106 & Park-like TV Show, Culture, who is pushed to cover up her soft and pillowy coils for a weave. Set in the late 1980s, Bad Hair captures the nuances of Black Womanhood and our centuries-long obsession with our hair.

Except for the ‘90s, there has never been a moment when films like Bad Hair, and the forthcoming 1950s -set romance Sylvie’s Love could exist in the same year. But something is changing. Amid the chaos and confusion of our current social and political time, Black people are demanding to be heard. One thing remains certain — we are just getting started.