"To be an artist, you must imagine and create and world build. To be an activist you must do the same because an activist must imagine a world that isn’t there and make it so. Activism is art, and art is activism."
You were phenomenal from the start. You began your film career in an unorthodox way from the moment you first picked up a camera at thirty-two years old. Upon your entrance into the film industry, concepts have been challenged that have ultimately brought more women of color to the screens in ways we have never seen and humanized black voices that have for too long fallen on deaf ears. Stories all of which have profoundly shaped my own purpose in film as an actress.
It has often been said that we must know our history so that it will not repeat itself. But so many are unwilling to be confronted by its ugliness. James Baldwin said, "the story of a negro in America is the story of America and it is not pretty". With the release of When They See Us came a much-divided response between people watching and having their eyes opened and the people who could not watch it. I was at first one of those people. Upon watching the first episode I knew what was coming and could not fathom sitting through what I knew was coming! It was not until we were discussing the film in one of my classes that I was met by the fact that we must confront and remember the simultaneous past so that we can keep challenging the injustices we are facing as a people. The first step in resolution is acknowledgment. It is knowing. I started my quest for knowledge by finishing the series.
It was down the rabbit hole from there. Then came the string of films, books, and tapes with our pain being blasted through megaphones. How has it been ignored for this long? My own pain did not feel so alone anymore. But that became its own problem. A MASS problem.
Your work as a film director not only delves deep into the harsh realities black people in America face, but you also offer us a black narrative wherein we hold all of the power in the universe as is seen in A Wrinkle in Time.
A Wrinkle In Time broke so many records. Firstly, it was the first film in which a budget of 100 Million Dollars was helmed by an African American Female Director. MAJOR. Secondly, it was the first time in a sci-fi film that the lead was an African American girl. And not just that but the Misses were a band of incredibly powerful women tessering about the universe. It is a film with such a statement. That we as people of color can exist in a world wherein we happen to be of color. That was the magic that you created for me. I was Meg, the insecure girl with a missing father, hair that I had not fallen in love with yet, and constant negativity that was plaguing my experience in life. I was on that journey into self-discovery. This film was a light showing me that I, a black girl, with all the "flaws" that I may have, am unstoppable in redefining the black narrative. One story at a time.
Sincerely,
Kayla Mary Jane
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