lashanalynch Black women. That’s the caption 🖤

BLACK CAKE SEASON ONE EPISODE ONE: COVEY

"We couldn't look back. Covey was dead. Or so I thought. It didn't take long for me to learn that you can't run from the truth. You can't run from who you really are. Eventually, the truth will surface. And when it does, you must reckon with it."

Black Cake | Official Trailer | Hulu

The story takes place in Jamaica, Rome, Scotland, England and Southern California. Cerar wrote the adaptation and serves as showrunner on the series, which spans decades. In the late 1960s, a runaway bride named Covey disappears into the surf off the coast of Jamaica and is feared drowned or a fugitive on the run for her husband’s murder. Fifty years later in California, a widow named Eleanor Bennett, loses her battle with cancer, leaving her two estranged children, Byron and Benny, a flash drive that holds previously untold stories of her journey from the Caribbean to America. These stories, narrated by Eleanor, shock her children and challenge everything they thought they knew about their family’s origin.

Based on The New York Times-bestselling book by Charmaine Wilkerson, “Black Cake” is a family drama wrapped in a murder mystery, from Marissa Jo Cerar, Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, and Aaron Kaplans’ Kapital Entertainment.

Watch Black Cake on Hulu!

THE WOMAN KING

Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu, Sheila Atim, Adrienne Warren, and Gina Prince-Bythewood — for ESSENCE, photographed by: Lelanie Foster (Sept ‘22)

The Woman King

Your tears mean nothing. To be a warrior, you must kill your tears.

The Woman King, Gina Prince-Bythewood (2022)

Sheila Atim, Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Adrienne Warren and Lashana Lynch Covers Essence Magazine, September 2022

Cynthia Erivo (in a brief cameo role in the show) and Adrienne Warren at Gutenberg!, September 16.

Book Review

Oh, Tina 🥰. This is a treat. What a beautifully written and encouraging book.

Offering thought-provoking lessons and sweet gems along the way, Tina Turner reflects on the power of spirituality and intention as we travel down her life's journey and pivot from deep depression into her awakening with Buddhist practices. Believing in a higher purpose while living intentionally is a dynamic shift where you do not pursue happiness; it pursues you. Happiness becomes you. 

As usual when it comes to memoirs, I read this book along with the audiobook that’s narrated by the lovely Adrienne Warren, who Tina handpicked for the TINA musical. Tina herself is also on the recording, but only where she includes some of her chants. 

In conclusion, this book makes me feel warm that I could hug it.

Aaron Tveit and Adrienne Warren presenting the best actor in a musical award to Myles Frost

The Woman King Official U.S. Poster

The story is inspired by true events as it "follows the emotionally epic journey of General Nanisca as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.

In theaters Sept. 16.

My favorite thing about Six is that it tends to cast younger, more unknown names. But if you had to cast incredibly established Broadway/West End names as each of the queens who would you pick (personally I’m DYING for a Shoshana Bean!Seymour haha)

So I was debating on how established to go with, partially because I'm always a horrible judge of how much someone is established vs someone I just keep up with a lot and partially because Broadway has not always prioritized women of color enough in their casting. But I generally included actors with at least one lead credit on Broadway and usually at least one Tony nom (w/ a few exceptions).

Emmy Raver-Lampman as Aragon Ashley Park as Boleyn Philippa Soo as Seymour Ariana DeBose as Cleves Denee Benton as Howard Adrienne Warren as Parr Mariand Torres as A/S/C Eva Noblezada as A/H/P Aisha Jackson as B/C/P Hailey Kilgore as B/S/H