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Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.

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Speaker 2: Breakfast Club Morning, everybody is j n V.

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Speaker 3: Just hilarious. Charlamagne the guy, We are to Breakfast Club.

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Speaker 4: La La Rosa is here as well, and we got

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Speaker 4: a special guest in the building, legendary.

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Speaker 3: That's right, Miss Mark brock a Kill.

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Speaker 1: Welcome, thank you, good morning, good morning. Nice to be here.

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Speaker 2: How are you, bless Black and Holly favorite. How's your energy?

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Speaker 1: It's great? Okay, I'm really I'm floating.

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Speaker 2: How does it feel to have yet another hit TV show?

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Speaker 5: Another another hit TV show? But this is global? This

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Speaker 5: is like the first time I have been on a

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Speaker 5: stage this big. Normally my shows are on up and

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Speaker 5: coming networks, So I feel like an angen new Actually

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Speaker 5: I feel I feel both veteran and both.

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Speaker 1: I'm also in awe. You know, it's just an idea.

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Speaker 5: Is a global conversation that it's kind of I'm sitting

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Speaker 5: in that. Mostly my career, I've been thinking about a

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Speaker 5: national conversation, but this is a global one. And I mean,

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Speaker 5: I've always known that our stories are global, but for

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Speaker 5: it to be a reality, it's pretty special.

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Speaker 1: And another hit, right to be at it. Thirty years

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Speaker 1: in the game, thirty years in the game.

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Speaker 2: But let's talk about it.

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Speaker 4: Of course, for people that are just tuning in, you

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Speaker 4: created shows like Girlfriends, the Game.

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Speaker 3: Being Mary Jane.

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Speaker 4: You've written on The Jamie Fox Show and so many others,

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Speaker 4: but this one.

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Speaker 5: Is so many, see so many see you.

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Speaker 3: This one's on Yeah, this one's on Netflix.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So how did the next the Netflix play come together?

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Speaker 5: We're doing for I had a deal, you know, my

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Speaker 5: career did garner me a really wonderful deal out of

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Speaker 5: that deal?

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Speaker 1: I did stamp.

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Speaker 5: From the beginning, I hope you guys all saw that

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Speaker 5: amazing documentary that Roger Ross Williams directed, but about doctor

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Speaker 5: Abraham Kindy's work about the racist lies, I mean, the

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Speaker 5: myths of racism.

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Speaker 1: That was my first offering in my deal, and this

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Speaker 1: was the second.

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Speaker 5: It took a minute, strikes and executive changes and whatnot.

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Speaker 5: It took a minute to get this one out, but

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Speaker 5: it was it was special. From the beginning, I met

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Speaker 5: Judy Bloom somebody Else's come on, come on, two.

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Speaker 6: Of my favorite storytellers, come.

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Speaker 1: On, I mean, I mean, and that's God. First of all,

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Speaker 1: I didn't even realize that the book was going to

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Speaker 1: be fifty years old.

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Speaker 5: By the time re released, it was not even in

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Speaker 5: my thinking of that time seventy five. But yeah, it

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Speaker 5: took us a minute to get it out, but we

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Speaker 5: got it out. And so when Netflix heard that that

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Speaker 5: my take on her story she was about, they were like,

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Speaker 5: we are about that too.

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Speaker 1: So it was a beautiful synergy.

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Speaker 5: One thing I will say about Netflix, when they're behind something,

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Speaker 5: they are behind it completely supported, resourced. I think that's

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Speaker 5: what's important to me in this this moment of this

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Speaker 5: hit show is that it was my vision was supported financially.

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Speaker 5: And also the episode ye we went to the vineyard,

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Speaker 5: taking your crew across the country in the middle of production.

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Speaker 5: That is another level of support and in a place

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Speaker 5: that the infrastructure is not there. Thank you so much. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: so it was it was amazing to feel like, wow,

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Speaker 5: I'm supported, to got money, to have the vision that

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Speaker 5: I want and to get the people that I need,

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Speaker 5: the collaborators. It's been amazing. So short answer is Judy

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Speaker 5: bluem is marlbacker Kill Netflix wanted all of that.

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Speaker 4: We approach Netflix, do you approach it differently? Because you

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Speaker 4: know what a lot of the shows that we spoke

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Speaker 4: about is you have to wait for next week right,

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Speaker 4: So it's almost like you can't wait, you schedule it,

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Speaker 4: you write it down. Well, Netflix, a lot of times

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Speaker 4: it's a lot differently because everything is right there, smacking,

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Speaker 4: you can binge watch it is.

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Speaker 1: At your own leisure.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, correct, when you know that's I think that's what

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Speaker 5: I'm thankful for, or to know how to make television

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Speaker 5: and be able to stretch the canvas differently given different circumstances.

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Speaker 5: And so my job is to keep those keep you

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Speaker 5: on those eight episodes.

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Speaker 1: I learned that back in the day when we.

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Speaker 5: Used to have to do cliffhangers for the season, like

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Speaker 5: you know, doing Girlfriends or even Moesha.

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Speaker 1: We had to get you watching.

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Speaker 5: For the you know, for the end of the season

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Speaker 5: or if there was a break in the middle of

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Speaker 5: the season. So I learned how to craft that shout

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Speaker 5: out to my mentor, I'm always gonna shout out my mentor,

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Speaker 5: Ralph Farquhar. I learned how to make TV that way,

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Speaker 5: how to keep you engage, how to keep.

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Speaker 1: That binge going.

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Speaker 5: So I understood that, but it also was it was

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Speaker 5: also sort of just a fun way to play in

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Speaker 5: their sandbox. How do you win on their with their rules?

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Speaker 5: And so that was for me as a creative is wonderful.

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Speaker 5: But there's an like that athlete spirit in me, like

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Speaker 5: I want the ball, Like all right, I'll with the ball,

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Speaker 5: let's go. So that was fun to figure out.

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Speaker 2: You said Judy Bloom was your first permission slip as

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Speaker 2: a story tell.

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.

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Speaker 6: So how does your in a child feel knowing that

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Speaker 6: you have done such justice to win her iconic works?

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Speaker 5: Why does my innery she feels on cloud nine. She

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Speaker 5: is twirling, she is Cartwill I to cartwell, back in

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Speaker 5: the day, I could cartwheel, backband, all the things she's doing.

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Speaker 1: All of that. I'm very proud of myself.

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Speaker 5: It was interesting because my body of work, or I

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Speaker 5: approached my work, I don't ever I never saw myself

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Speaker 5: as needing ip. I'm like, I'm full of stories. I'm

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Speaker 5: full of original stories. So but when the opportunity to

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Speaker 5: reimagine one of her books, there was no thinking. My

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Speaker 5: hand just went up and I feel like it was

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Speaker 5: a little protective as well. It was like I want

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Speaker 5: to protect that story. I want to be able to

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Speaker 5: tell that story. But my little girl is like she's

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Speaker 5: she cabbage patches.

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Speaker 2: Does she feel like she made it.

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Speaker 5: Do you feel like you felt like she's felt like

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Speaker 5: she's made it a long while ago. I think this

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Speaker 5: is different in that it's a full circle moment.

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Speaker 1: I feel I often.

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Speaker 5: Say that you become a writer as a reader first,

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Speaker 5: and so I used to get lost in the pages

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Speaker 5: of Judy Blue, and so for me to be just

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Speaker 5: the divinity of it, like the divineness of it, that

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Speaker 5: I would come full circle fifty years later, like those

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Speaker 5: kinds of things, right, It's almost like it was written

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Speaker 5: for me. It was written for me and Judy. Matter

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Speaker 5: of fact, I'm going to get a chance to meet

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Speaker 5: her personally.

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited going down to Key with yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, ok,

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Speaker 1: yeah yeah.

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Speaker 5: You live this life once and I'm gonna live in

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Speaker 5: that dream. So I'm excited to meet her. We met

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Speaker 5: at the time on zoom and talked on the phone

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Speaker 5: and emailed, but just to meet her and say thank

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Speaker 5: you and have her signed my book. I'm just that

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Speaker 5: twelve year old girl is running to Key with.

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Speaker 2: It. I've done it a couple of times.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, just to mess Blue, Yeah, just to you know.

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Speaker 5: That's why what I really would love is for people

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Speaker 5: to honor more of their story, the craftsmanship sitting in

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Speaker 5: the chair and writing.

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Speaker 1: That woman sat in the chair and wrote.

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Speaker 5: I mean it's like she never got out of the chair,

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Speaker 5: just writing and that and what it would do just

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Speaker 5: someone sharing the story, just my own testimony is it

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Speaker 5: ignited something in me. And I think that even the

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Speaker 5: feedback I'm getting from the show, not just the show,

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Speaker 5: but the shows I've had in my career, it has

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Speaker 5: ignited other storytellers. And I want us to do I

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Speaker 5: want us to do more by that. We have so

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Speaker 5: many stories in us that will die in us if

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Speaker 5: we don't even start crafting them and writing them down.

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Speaker 5: And I appreciate like social media and we can do

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Speaker 5: things video and content. I get that too, and that's

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Speaker 5: a beautiful expression. But to literally craft story from a

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Speaker 5: writing perspective, to have those layers of theme and complexity,

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Speaker 5: and understanding that her book is still through this show now,

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Speaker 5: is still it still lives, It's universal, it's forever.

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Speaker 1: But I'm bumped when I live there.

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Speaker 7: The original book was written in the seventies, Yeah, seventy five.

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Speaker 7: Why did you choose to specifically set this story in

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Speaker 7: twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 1: Well, I had to look.

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Speaker 5: At what would make it fresh today and what to

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Speaker 5: maybe have to look at?

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Speaker 1: What where the kids are today?

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Speaker 5: And Judy and I talked about, well, they know a

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Speaker 5: lot about sex, like there's so much you could just

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Speaker 5: hit Twitter, hit hit whatever.

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Speaker 1: There's no Twitter anymore. You get the point.

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Speaker 5: But intimacy, connection, those things, I think we're further away.

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Speaker 5: Even though we are more technical technolo I can't get

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Speaker 5: this word out technologically advanced.

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Speaker 1: We don't have.

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Speaker 5: Though these tools are meant to connect us, we are

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Speaker 5: using them in very disconnecting ways. And I think that

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Speaker 5: to bring the phone into the conversation, one of it

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Speaker 5: is an opportunity to talk about something unique to this culture.

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Speaker 1: I mean, excuse me culture, but this generation.

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Speaker 5: Excuse me, what it is doing to them personally emotional,

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Speaker 5: their emotional self there there, and then how it's even

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Speaker 5: affecting their physical self and then affecting their future. And

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Speaker 5: that's what the book was about, how do we explore

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Speaker 5: our emotional self, our physical self while maintaining a healthy future.

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Speaker 5: And this was my conversation today. Also between I also

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Speaker 5: wanted to talk about in the black family. By by

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Speaker 5: changing the white family to black, it allowed me to

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Speaker 5: also talk about a time that I think is very

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Speaker 5: important for us to document between Trayvon Martin's murder and

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Speaker 5: George floyd murder. George Floyd's murder, we as black people,

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Speaker 5: we as black families, as mothers and fathers, we were

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Speaker 5: screaming into a vacuum about the fear over our children.

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Speaker 5: And there was no amount of fancy zip codes or

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Speaker 5: education that can save your child, you know, And that

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Speaker 5: was scary and I wanted, I needed a place for

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Speaker 5: me as a mother to release all of that fear.

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Speaker 1: And then also then look at how much.

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Speaker 5: We are We are out of love, but we are

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Speaker 5: raising our children from that fear, and how that is

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Speaker 5: hurting our children and their inability to have a natural

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Speaker 5: right of passage, to explore again their emotional their emotional self,

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Speaker 5: their emotional maturity, their physical self, their physical maturity, to

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Speaker 5: have sex or not have sex, who to have it with,

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Speaker 5: what's the right conditions, all of those choices that they're

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Speaker 5: supposed to be making right now to protect the beautiful future.

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Speaker 1: And that's another thing.

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Speaker 5: We need to open up some space because our children

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Speaker 5: also need a future and it's tough out there, and

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Speaker 5: I couldn't imagine being them today thinking about what do

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Speaker 5: you want to be with your grow up, Well, what's

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Speaker 5: out there and so and we adults need to get

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Speaker 5: it together. And so this is a part of my offering.

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Speaker 8: When the when the book so and back in the seventies,

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Speaker 8: it was controversial because of the things that it explored.

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Speaker 8: Today it's not controversial because we are so open. Like

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Speaker 8: what you talk about when you were crafting, like what

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Speaker 8: the storyline would be and how you would redo it.

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Speaker 8: Were there things that you were like, I want to

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Speaker 8: make sure I get to or make sure I get

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Speaker 8: in this storyline. Because you also made it feel closer

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Speaker 8: to home for like black teens. You know, now forever

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Speaker 8: feels like it's our story. But you had to do

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Speaker 8: it a different way.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 5: I think it's controversial black male vulnerability. It's just there's

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Speaker 5: no room for it. I think there's no images for it.

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Speaker 5: And yet when I'm looking in the world, within my

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Speaker 5: own children, their friends, and the community beyond that, a

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Speaker 5: lot of boys, and more specifically black boys, they're not

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Speaker 5: all that hard, you know. They don't have any room

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Speaker 5: for their complexity, they don't have any room for their feelings.

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Speaker 5: Like it's always funny to me, especially by the group

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Speaker 5: of boys I'm around, they're all privileged. They live a

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Speaker 5: great life. Time to take a picture. They were laughing

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Speaker 5: two seconds ago, you trying to take the picture, and

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Speaker 5: then they get that stoic.

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Speaker 1: What you mean mugging for?

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Speaker 7: You know?

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Speaker 5: And if you realize how much that's imparted on young

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Speaker 5: black boys all the time about what is manly? What

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Speaker 5: are those images of what a man is? And I

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Speaker 5: wanted to make a room.

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Speaker 1: For the real reflection. I'm actually looking at the real thing.

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Speaker 5: It's just what gets on that bigger screen and how

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Speaker 5: important it is. I know, we talk about representation matters.

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Speaker 5: That's why it matters. You got to see yourself in

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Speaker 5: order to decide is that beautiful?

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Speaker 1: Is that how I want to look?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 1: Is that right? That type?

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Speaker 5: You know?

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Speaker 1: I can't see it?

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Speaker 5: And I think I also think boys and working on

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Speaker 5: this project, it made me look at something I hadn't

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Speaker 5: looked at before.

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Speaker 1: I think boys are getting their heartbroken a lot sooner.

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Speaker 1: I felt so bad for justin the whole time.

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Speaker 8: Why because I just felt like some of the things

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Speaker 8: that they were experiencing, Like I mean, I remember being

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Speaker 8: that age and going through.

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Speaker 1: Like my first like relationship things. But I don't know.

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Speaker 8: I just felt like a lot of times the characters

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Speaker 8: they were yearning for this like space of like I

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Speaker 8: don't know, to just be okay, and the things would

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Speaker 8: be going good and then something what else would happen.

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Speaker 8: It'd be something small would be like for Kesha, like

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Speaker 8: the video gets sent to her phone and she's finally

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Speaker 8: in this relationship, you.

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Speaker 1: Know what I mean.

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Speaker 8: Like things were just like happening, and I'm like, they

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Speaker 8: need kids, Like why can't they just be and not

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Speaker 8: you deal with these things?

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Speaker 1: But yes, life, and it's also technology that we didn't have.

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Speaker 5: We got some freedoms without you know that they don't

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Speaker 5: They're not afforded. And so that's what I want to

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Speaker 5: talk about. It's like, are we making any room for them?

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Speaker 5: Like one of the things that I love when we

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Speaker 5: every production meeting, I said, we're making an epic and

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Speaker 5: intimate love story within a love letter to Los Angeles, right,

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Speaker 5: And what that meant to me is that we need

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Speaker 5: to see them in scope and scale and epic. I

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Speaker 5: need to see them their bodies in the space in

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Speaker 5: Los Angeles. What that means is that they it's a

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Speaker 5: feeling cinematically that I'm making you feel that they belong here,

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Speaker 5: and when they belong here, they.

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Speaker 1: Belong to us.

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Speaker 5: And so you would engage with our children differently psychologically, emotionally.

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Speaker 5: Those things are important in our image. On the details,

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Speaker 5: the details on anyone makes them feel more human to you.

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Speaker 5: So I want to make just room for their humanity

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Speaker 5: so that we think about the measures around technology, we

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Speaker 5: think about what the rules are for these kids. I mean, like,

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Speaker 5: these kids are being told today that you make one

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Speaker 5: false move, you won't get a scholarship.

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Speaker 3: I mean, come on, it's the truth that follows them

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Speaker 3: for the rest of their lives and the.

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Speaker 5: Rest of their lives, and that where is any room.

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Speaker 5: There's no humanity in that.

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Speaker 8: That's how I felt. Maybe that was the yes at

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Speaker 8: the humanity part. I'm like, yo, she's young, she made

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Speaker 8: a mistake.

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Speaker 1: Yep.

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Speaker 8: Now it's following her, and it's like he's in love

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Speaker 8: and he just doesn't how to navigate it. Now he

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Speaker 8: feels like he's not a good person or not not

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Speaker 8: a good person. He doesn't feel like he can win

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Speaker 8: the girl in the beginning of things, and I felt.

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Speaker 5: Bad for that, Like, but you know what, back in

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Speaker 5: the day, back in the day, boys have to walk

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Speaker 5: across the room to ask you to dance.

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Speaker 1: Did you ever have you ever done that?

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Speaker 3: This course?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: How did did you ever get rejected?

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Speaker 3: No?

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Speaker 4: Before you, because I'll be honest, I only went when

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Speaker 4: I knew I was going to be received. If I

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Speaker 4: knew I was gonna get rejected or there was a

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Speaker 4: fifty to fifty chance, I wasn't gonna try. Of course,

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Speaker 4: remember it wasn't you know back then it was a

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Speaker 4: party and everybody standing on the wall and you have to,

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Speaker 4: like you said, you.

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Speaker 3: Have to walk across.

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Speaker 4: And if I knew this person wasn't feeling me, didn't

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Speaker 4: weaken me, didn't have a crush on me, didn't write me,

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Speaker 4: I wasn't going.

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Speaker 3: But if I knew that I got that little stair,

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Speaker 3: that little smile, I was gonna go.

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Speaker 5: So it was all those social duds that you have

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Speaker 5: to learn in real time. We're not learning that.

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Speaker 1: There's no space for that.

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Speaker 5: So I'm advocating for I want the kids to be

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Speaker 5: back outside, like it's even sad we shot on Fairfax

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Speaker 5: Avenue right it's.

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Speaker 1: A ghost town right now.

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Speaker 5: But back in twenty eighteen where it was depicted, that

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Speaker 5: was a place for them to be, but there's we

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Speaker 5: are where are kids allowed to be?

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Speaker 2: But that's why I love the scene. I love the scenes,

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Speaker 2: and I.

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Speaker 6: Love Oh God, especially at the prom, because I feel

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Speaker 6: like in that moment, Justin was you know, everybody talks

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Speaker 6: about he's chasing the young lady.

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Speaker 2: To me, it felt like he was chasing his blackness.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, thank you for seeing that.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, one of the things I was trying

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Speaker 5: to say, trying to keep your son, trying to keep

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Speaker 5: our children safe. Sometimes we're isolating them. He had a

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Speaker 5: pretty prison, but it was up on the hill, isolated,

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Speaker 5: and he's looking for more. But I can also understand

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Speaker 5: don she's so scared to put him outside, you know,

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Speaker 5: also scared is he going to measure up to where

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Speaker 5: they are? You know, I'm saying she's probably not saying that,

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Speaker 5: but that's psychologically, it's kind of it's under there.

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Speaker 1: But fun fact, I was so proud as.

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Speaker 5: A producer to put all those black and brown kids

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Speaker 5: taking over the Pantamtica Peer. I don't you know, I

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Speaker 5: found one of the location. I think that's I think

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Speaker 5: the last time someone took over the Peer at that

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Speaker 5: scale was.

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Speaker 1: I was like, okay, but That means something to me,

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Speaker 1: That means something.

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Speaker 5: That we how we take up the space, the epicness

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Speaker 5: and the beauty of us. These these kids are looking

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Speaker 5: like this all over our country and we see it

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Speaker 5: on Instagram or TikTok or things like that. But to put

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Speaker 5: it on that scale, that level of beauty, Anthony Hemingway

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Speaker 5: directed his butt off in that.

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Speaker 1: You know, the kids were just beautiful.

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Speaker 5: The our costume designers amazing, our production design was amazing,

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Speaker 5: Our cinema tigraphy was amazing.

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Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. We had we had the

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Speaker 1: thing lit up.

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Speaker 5: I was on cloud nine that day that we shot

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Speaker 5: and we got out of their safe and sound.

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Speaker 1: That's also important.

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Speaker 5: But it's uh, our kids having space in the world,

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Speaker 5: chasing their chasing themselves, figuring out who they are, including

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Speaker 5: of their blackness, including of their you know, what they like,

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Speaker 5: just who they are.

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Speaker 1: Even the making room for I know, I get a

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Speaker 1: lot of comments around.

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Speaker 5: He likes Naruto. Yeah, a lot of black kids love Narto.

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Speaker 5: You know, we're a part of the world.

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Speaker 1: So that was fun.

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Speaker 6: And as much as it's a story about the kids,

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Speaker 6: it's a story about the adults, right, Like like the

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Speaker 6: way Judy Bloom made people feel seen at thirteen, it

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Speaker 6: feels to me like you're making us feel seen at

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Speaker 6: forty something fifty something. So what do those ages need

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Speaker 6: that nobody's writing about.

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Speaker 5: I'm going to keep saying this over it just more complexity,

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Speaker 5: more of our human side. Like don't you know, I've

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Speaker 5: said before, I don't you know. I don't really believe

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Speaker 5: in positive images. I think they can be just as

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Speaker 5: damaging as negative images.

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Speaker 2: Really found on that break down.

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Speaker 5: Because okay, so the negative image is is a product

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Speaker 5: of a lie, going back to the documentary, like it's

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Speaker 5: the perpetuating the lies and the mists of us that's

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Speaker 5: been out there. So a lot of black people want

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Speaker 5: a positive image because they want to rewrite the wrong

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Speaker 5: of somebody else's view of me. But what that doesn't

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Speaker 5: as an artist, it keeps me behind the eight ball.

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Speaker 5: I'm chasing up and trying to clean up somebody else's mess.

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Speaker 5: I'm from the Zori nil Hurston school of thought. I

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Speaker 5: know my people, I see my people. I want to

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Speaker 5: be able to talk about them fully and in the

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Speaker 5: spectrum of our humanity, there is light and dark. We

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Speaker 5: are not we are not perfect to be perfect. That's

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Speaker 5: just as hard to be perfect as it is to

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Speaker 5: be bad.

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Speaker 1: Like I want to. I want the spectrum of my humanity.

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Speaker 5: I want to be able to make a mistake and

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Speaker 5: have my village patch me up and put me back

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Speaker 5: out there.

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Speaker 1: I deserve that.

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Speaker 5: You deserve that, We deserve that, And so I want

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Speaker 5: the spectrum of who I am. And sometimes i'm you know,

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Speaker 5: sometimes I'm not great, and sometimes I am in the

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Speaker 5: same day, in the same hour.

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Speaker 1: And I deserve that that.

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Speaker 5: Sort of exploration of who I am as a human being,

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Speaker 5: and I give that to my characters. I think Dawn,

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Speaker 5: for instance, you know, people there's a lot of conversation

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Speaker 5: about her as a mother, but that black mother has

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Speaker 5: raised a lot of kids to get them, to keep

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Speaker 5: them alive. Does she does serve looking at herself? Yes,

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Speaker 5: my high my name is Marb Barack and Kill and

437
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Speaker 5: I'm a former Dawn. I put my pain on the screen.

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Speaker 5: I think, you know, I wanted to out of love.

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Speaker 5: I'm trying to overprotect my children and rightfully so.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, But and you end up, well, she ended up

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Speaker 6: raising her child out of fear and not love. And

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Speaker 6: that's a question I always ask because I feel like

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Speaker 6: my father raised me out of fear and I love,

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Speaker 6: not meaning that he didn't love me.

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00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:27,000
Speaker 1: Yes, oh they love and the kids know that. The

446
00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:29,720
Speaker 1: kids know that they love. But it still feels constrained.

447
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:31,639
Speaker 6: But that dynamic was amazing though, the way you had

448
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:34,639
Speaker 6: don you know, being the overprotective parent who was raising

449
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:36,080
Speaker 6: her son out of fear and our love.

450
00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:41,200
Speaker 2: But then the father Wood Harris character was, you know, high.

451
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:44,800
Speaker 6: Emotional like you, you know, very vulnerable, soft with his

452
00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,560
Speaker 6: son in a way that we don't really see on TV,

453
00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:51,240
Speaker 6: especially between black men and between black men period.

454
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:52,760
Speaker 2: You thought that was incredible.

455
00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:55,960
Speaker 5: Thank you, I really, first of all, shout out to

456
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:58,040
Speaker 5: Wood Harris and Karen Pittman.

457
00:20:57,840 --> 00:20:58,119
Speaker 2: Thank you.

458
00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,760
Speaker 1: Kill You couldn't cat did it any better?

459
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:04,040
Speaker 5: No, I mean that, I mean as soon as we

460
00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:07,359
Speaker 5: met Lovey and Michael and put them together, it was like,

461
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:10,119
Speaker 5: come on, chemistry off off the jump.

462
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:15,160
Speaker 1: Their chemistry was amazing. Karen and Woods, you know.

463
00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:20,359
Speaker 5: That I did want to depict two types of black

464
00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,719
Speaker 5: families that are that we that we recognize, right but

465
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:28,919
Speaker 5: speaking about the Edwards for a moment, it just shows

466
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:31,320
Speaker 5: you the need to have two partners in a home.

467
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:35,160
Speaker 1: Just the balance of it all I think that Eric.

468
00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:38,720
Speaker 5: Could be that because he has such a solid foundation

469
00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:42,679
Speaker 5: in down and vice versa. I'm saying, I feel like

470
00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:46,359
Speaker 5: he had his emotional maturity is because how much he

471
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:51,840
Speaker 5: is loved also by her and so and he can

472
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:54,800
Speaker 5: allow for her fear in a moment like this. Keep

473
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:59,359
Speaker 5: in mind, he's also aware of her worries about her

474
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:04,240
Speaker 5: children were in a hoodie, So he understands and boys,

475
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 5: and he understands how how assertive she is, and he

476
00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:09,880
Speaker 5: knows all that stuff about her. And that's a lot

477
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:13,120
Speaker 5: of my backstory when I'm writing those characters, and how

478
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 5: much it's and it is irritating in parenting when you

479
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,760
Speaker 5: have different approaches at a very crucial moment when now

480
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:22,959
Speaker 5: the kids can talk back, you know, I mean, when

481
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 5: they're younger, it's a little you know, it's a little

482
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:29,840
Speaker 5: easier on the parenting different dynamics sometimes, but the stakes

483
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:32,320
Speaker 5: being high right these these children are about to be out

484
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,399
Speaker 5: of the house, those things get a little bit, you know,

485
00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:36,679
Speaker 5: we all react a little differently.

486
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:38,480
Speaker 3: We'll talk about the importance of that. I think we

487
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:39,359
Speaker 3: missed that a lot.

488
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:41,919
Speaker 4: We've seen it a lot more with my parents, But

489
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,000
Speaker 4: I think in these days, people don't.

490
00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:44,880
Speaker 3: I don't think.

491
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:49,800
Speaker 4: Care to really respect a two parent household. It just

492
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,560
Speaker 4: seems like it's it's very loose, and people forget about

493
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 4: what it means to kids and how important it is.

494
00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:56,879
Speaker 5: Well, it's just another witness to the you know, to

495
00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,639
Speaker 5: the witnessing in a lot of ways, like you know,

496
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,760
Speaker 5: one of the in my own parenting, I used to

497
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,960
Speaker 5: get frustrated about why the kids seem to act up

498
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:08,879
Speaker 5: a little bit more with me than they did with

499
00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 5: their father.

500
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:12,080
Speaker 1: And I was like, and I would complain this lame

501
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:12,639
Speaker 1: all the time.

502
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 5: And then later I realized, Wow, what a privilege it

503
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:21,080
Speaker 5: is that your children are the safest with you to

504
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 5: act that you know what out you know, and you're

505
00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:27,439
Speaker 5: just like, oh, I am the safest place in the

506
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:30,000
Speaker 5: world for them to be to just show they ask.

507
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:36,000
Speaker 5: And when you realize that honor, it's like, oh, okay,

508
00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:38,239
Speaker 5: so then how can I then how can I just

509
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,400
Speaker 5: be fortified, you know, in order to take those moments right?

510
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:44,919
Speaker 5: When I realized then I feel like the father or

511
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 5: the second parent is the first bridge to the outside world,

512
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,240
Speaker 5: and how needed that role is because they kind of,

513
00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:56,320
Speaker 5: you know, they they rise up a little bit, they

514
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:58,640
Speaker 5: you know, they they act, they act a little bit

515
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,080
Speaker 5: better for dad, you know time and in the case

516
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 5: of our home, right, and so there's a bridge to

517
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:07,560
Speaker 5: that emotional uh maturity that they can.

518
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:12,239
Speaker 1: Move through. And then then you drop them off at

519
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: somebody's house and they come back.

520
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,359
Speaker 5: Your kid is amazing, they did this, they did that,

521
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:18,600
Speaker 5: and you're like, oh, so you do know how to act.

522
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:22,680
Speaker 1: And that that just rhythm.

523
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,080
Speaker 5: And then sometimes you know, when I would be upset

524
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 5: about things, I did have someone there to tell me.

525
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 5: Are you're fine, they love you, You're you're you're you're

526
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 5: tripping a little bit. You just relax a little bit.

527
00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:44,640
Speaker 5: But that level of care, that level of the dance

528
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 5: between the parents and the child is actually beautiful when

529
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:51,240
Speaker 5: you finally settle down into it and get into the roles.

530
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 5: They're just rolled and it's okay to it's okay to

531
00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 5: lean into them. And then and then there's sometimes that

532
00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 5: like I get things that.

533
00:24:58,400 --> 00:24:58,960
Speaker 1: They don't get.

534
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,679
Speaker 5: I get not just the acting out, I get those

535
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:04,880
Speaker 5: I get those intimate details, you know, I get those

536
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:07,400
Speaker 5: real when they're really really safe and they're telling you things,

537
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:09,399
Speaker 5: You're like, oh, shoot, I'm trying to remember it so

538
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:11,480
Speaker 5: I can so I can go back and tell.

539
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:15,360
Speaker 7: Don't tell that and something you don't yeah for a while,

540
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:18,080
Speaker 7: I know, well my wife, my wife will say, well,

541
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 7: I'm gonna tell dad, but he's not gonna judge.

542
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:21,720
Speaker 4: You're not getting in trouble or you know some things.

543
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:26,160
Speaker 4: But I have the most difficult time with really being

544
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 4: understanding right, And the reason being is similar to what

545
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 4: you just said, Like my wife will yell at my

546
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,760
Speaker 4: kids every day, right for something small. I yell once

547
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 4: a week, yes, and it's the worst thing ever. And

548
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 4: I'm like, my mom doesn't yell like it.

549
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 2: Was the same yell.

550
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:43,440
Speaker 4: But they feel like Mom is that safe place they

551
00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:45,679
Speaker 4: can open up, they can be comfortable. But dad is

552
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 4: the barrier to the outside.

553
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: World, barrier to the outside world. And to see that.

554
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 5: And then on on Keisha's side, being you know, having

555
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 5: a single mother, how much you need a village. So

556
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 5: she's very resourced and you know, the Edwards were more

557
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:04,200
Speaker 5: resourced finance, They got nannies and housekeepers and stuff. She's

558
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 5: got the bills, she's got cousins, she's got her grandfather,

559
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 5: her dad. And then we that was that was purposeful.

560
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 5: We revealed that the dad's been around. We just he's

561
00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,640
Speaker 5: not physically there all the time, and he's not carrying

562
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 5: his complete share, but he is present.

563
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:24,400
Speaker 2: I would just.

564
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:28,919
Speaker 6: Say that everybody is represented in this show. What's the

565
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 6: most uncomfortable truth you had to face?

566
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:32,160
Speaker 2: The right forever? Honestly?

567
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,320
Speaker 5: Just you know, you'd like to think that you're an

568
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:42,879
Speaker 5: amazing mother, just with my shortcomings as a mother. I

569
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:46,359
Speaker 5: think when I acknowledge that, I think not only my

570
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:50,159
Speaker 5: children and then our our community of children need more space.

571
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:52,680
Speaker 1: We had to look at where I was allowing that.

572
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 1: I think that was uncomfortable. I think the other part

573
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:58,360
Speaker 1: was the depiction of.

574
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 5: Getting into the nitty gritty around these like the sex

575
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,760
Speaker 5: tapes and then the betrayals that are happening with these

576
00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 5: children whose brains aren't fully functioned yet and making bad.

577
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:17,400
Speaker 5: Wanted to make sure I protected Keisha by also allowing

578
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 5: the truth to be told. You know I'm saying, and

579
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 5: the way it is experienced, and it can be the outcome,

580
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 5: you know, even and it's and he's he made a

581
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,920
Speaker 5: horrible choice. I actually think Christian is not I don't,

582
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 5: I don't. I know he messed up royally right, but

583
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:42,199
Speaker 5: I also think that there's room for him but I

584
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 5: know that people are like no.

585
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:45,760
Speaker 8: So when he came back into this not that I was,

586
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,320
Speaker 8: I was like, why did Why is he backing around

587
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 8: and all these things?

588
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: And she's dealing with so much stuff right now. We

589
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 1: don't make And that's the other thing too.

590
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 5: I've seen grown women not make great decisions, I'm saying,

591
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,880
Speaker 5: and we just put all this pressure. She's sixteen, you're young,

592
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:01,560
Speaker 5: and we're trying to negotiate a lot.

593
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 1: One of the things that I was trying to arc

594
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 1: out what the.

595
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:07,679
Speaker 5: Keisha character is what would it be like to be

596
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:12,480
Speaker 5: invisible at a PWI for most of your life, not

597
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 5: I think, not be reflected back that you are beautiful?

598
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,320
Speaker 5: And then the first time you get attention from the

599
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:22,159
Speaker 5: ball or I'm saying that, who is How are we

600
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 5: making those decisions? How are we making those choices to

601
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:27,400
Speaker 5: be seen, to be loved, to.

602
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:28,080
Speaker 1: Be cared for.

603
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:35,439
Speaker 5: In a time when speaking about sexuality, especially that period

604
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 5: and on, young women are saying, hey, I have sexual urges.

605
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: I mean girls need love too.

606
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 5: There they're the ones leading sometimes the blowjob conversation.

607
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 1: They're like, we can do so you're.

608
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 5: In this world that some things are really okay to

609
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 5: do and just trying to negotiate all of these things.

610
00:28:56,480 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 5: It's she made, she made a batch, he made a

611
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 5: bad choice. Everybody's trying to impress, somebody trying to do.

612
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 5: These kids are managing a lot, and then the public

613
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,720
Speaker 5: record of it and the forever record of it.

614
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: It's very hard to live with.

615
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 5: So I think that faith your question was what some

616
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 5: of the hardest things, trying to be honest about the

617
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 5: times and honest about why people are making the choices

618
00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 5: that they are making, even when you are I know

619
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:32,400
Speaker 5: that it's no not a lot of compassion for the

620
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 5: Christian character, and I'm aware of that, and that was

621
00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:40,360
Speaker 5: very That was a very tough choice to make, trying

622
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:44,000
Speaker 5: to make it as honest and grounded as possible and

623
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 5: so that it can be the thing in the middle

624
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 5: of this love story that they actually moved through. What's

625
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 5: great to me about the Justin and Keisha's that they both.

626
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: Come from love.

627
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 3: They know it.

628
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 5: It may be a little complicated, it may not be

629
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 5: you know, ideal and times, but they know they're loved.

630
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 5: And what's beautiful is to watch two young people choose

631
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 5: love from having been loved. And I think what's beautiful

632
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 5: for us as a community, especially family, especially as parents,

633
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 5: is our ability to witness our children's choices while they're

634
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 5: still in our home. What it's also happening in society.

635
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:23,880
Speaker 5: They're calling it late bloomer. I think that's a new term.

636
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 5: I mean, young people are not even getting to feel

637
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 5: desired until they're like damn, they're thirty.

638
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:33,840
Speaker 1: They're not even know like that reciprocal like he liked me,

639
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:34,480
Speaker 1: I like her?

640
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 2: What they got to go outside? You got to get off.

641
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 5: Well there for that, I think there's that's there's that too,

642
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 5: and then and then, and that's the other layer we're

643
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 5: putting on it.

644
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: We go outside.

645
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:46,440
Speaker 5: But some of our kids and some you know, that's

646
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 5: I wanted to talk about putting our kids in private

647
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 5: white institutions. They go through most there's a there's an upside, right,

648
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:56,760
Speaker 5: you're trying to give them the best education, set them

649
00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 5: up for the best you know, future.

650
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,040
Speaker 1: But the consequence of that is they're not being seen.

651
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 1: That's social.

652
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:07,200
Speaker 5: They don't feel beautiful, they don't feel handsome, they don't

653
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 5: feel important, there's nothing marrying them back.

654
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 1: Oftentimes that's what I feel.

655
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 5: Like that So that so when you say they have

656
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 5: to get outside. They are outside.

657
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 8: To that party in the stairs, and Justin tells her

658
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,360
Speaker 8: that she's beautiful, yes, or gorgeous, and she stops and

659
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 8: I'm like, I mean, but to your point what you

660
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:27,560
Speaker 8: just said, they're like the only black kids.

661
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 1: Yes.

662
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 8: For her to hear that from him, it probably was

663
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 8: a whole different type of your gorgeous or you're beautiful,

664
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 8: whatever you had said to her. But I didn't even

665
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 8: think about that point of it. I just thought it

666
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 8: was just our first time interacting with a boy. She like, yeah,

667
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 8: you know, yeah, there's not enough to sort of like.

668
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 8: And it may be that maybe other kids like them,

669
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 8: but maybe they're conditioned not to for race reasons or

670
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:45,960
Speaker 8: things of that nature.

671
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 1: But I don't know that.

672
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:50,960
Speaker 5: Our kids sometimes they're outside, but they're not always connected.

673
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:53,160
Speaker 5: That's why we've spent a lot of time and money

674
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 5: trying to get to the vineyard.

675
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 1: But that's two weeks. Yeah, that's two weeks.

676
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 3: But it's funny that you said it.

677
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 4: That's you know, my daughter had the same problem, and

678
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 4: I wanted her to go to HBCU because of that.

679
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,040
Speaker 4: I went to Hampton and she didn't. She went to

680
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 4: great schools. A lot of white kids but nobody ever.

681
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 3: Approached her, so she didn't feel beautiful, she didn't feel away.

682
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:13,719
Speaker 2: And then when she should there approached her.

683
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:17,160
Speaker 4: No, nobody proud now, But the problem is she never

684
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 4: felt that love, so she a little depressed. She felt

685
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 4: like she wasn't as beautiful as she is. And then

686
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 4: when she finally when she got when she went to

687
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 4: n YU, there's no campus, so she felt even worse.

688
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 3: And then COVID hit.

689
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:32,280
Speaker 4: So now if you you know Manhattan, Manhattan is your campus,

690
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 4: so there is no campus, so you're going to venues

691
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 4: and clubs with everybody. And that made me nervous because

692
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 4: now she's not well equipped. And thank god she found

693
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:45,040
Speaker 4: somebody that that did find it. But at first black, yeah,

694
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 4: but at first she.

695
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,400
Speaker 8: Was You have to say that, y'all kids are going

696
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:51,440
Speaker 8: to very nice schools, so it might not always be black.

697
00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:52,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know, it was very difficult.

698
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 4: But I felt guilty about that for years because I

699
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 4: was like, am I setting them up for failure?

700
00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 3: Am I setting them up for somebody not to love them?

701
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 4: Because I went to a black school, I lived in

702
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 4: a black neighborhood, so I'm seeing love all day long.

703
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:07,200
Speaker 3: And she didn't have that feeling. She didn't have those friends.

704
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 4: Which which is probably why she's so close to me

705
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:11,000
Speaker 4: now and I'm kind of like her best friend. Like

706
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 4: we go out and we do things like right now,

707
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 4: she just text me Dad, what time you coming home?

708
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,400
Speaker 4: And she's twenty three years old? What is just that relationship?

709
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 4: But give me it gave me a guilt as a parent.

710
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:21,240
Speaker 1: It's funny when you asked me what I have to face?

711
00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 1: That's that, that's that's.

712
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 5: I know we made choices for a certain reason. But

713
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 5: you're thinking, ooh, what you know, my kids are fine,

714
00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:33,000
Speaker 5: But also that's what you moved through when you're just

715
00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 5: trying to give them the world, the best, the best

716
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 5: you can give them, and you realize, oops.

717
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 1: I missed that part.

718
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 5: So they are getting outside and then La specifically, you

719
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:44,719
Speaker 5: know these kids don't want to drive it Like I

720
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 5: was at the DMV, like at nine am on my birthday.

721
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 5: They are not so I mean that. So it was

722
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 5: how are they even seeing each other? And that goes

723
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 5: back to where are the spaces. I was at the

724
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 5: skating rink, I was at this, there was I was

725
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 5: at the mall, I was here. That's not happening that

726
00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 5: much anymore, and so that concerns me as well. So

727
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 5: I'm hoping that some of these images on the show

728
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 5: makes people want to connect, get outside, be back outside.

729
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:16,160
Speaker 1: I think we need that.

730
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:18,080
Speaker 2: I mean, the beauty of it is.

731
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:23,239
Speaker 7: Let me get a damn question, miss k how the

732
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,160
Speaker 7: whole town knew about the sex tape?

733
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: But Keisha mother, Well, now it's funny.

734
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 5: That's why we were in la That's why I did

735
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,839
Speaker 5: above the ten and below the ten certain communities can

736
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:37,880
Speaker 5: know it and hold it and let you know it

737
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 5: when they feel like it.

738
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,480
Speaker 1: But below the ten, she was able to keep that.

739
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 5: She was able to keep that going, and that shows

740
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:47,479
Speaker 5: the disconnect of the village. There was no parent from

741
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:51,359
Speaker 5: those communities that thought to call Shelley.

742
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 1: That is all, you know. That's the other thing I

743
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:55,320
Speaker 1: did make.

744
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,840
Speaker 5: A commentary on that, being a black parent, sometimes in

745
00:34:57,880 --> 00:34:59,960
Speaker 5: these schools, you're you're a parent, but are you really

746
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:02,479
Speaker 5: part of the community. Sometimes, and now I'm not saying

747
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 5: it's one hundred percent like that, but sometimes that's where

748
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 5: things do part. You know, when when there is judgment

749
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:13,759
Speaker 5: or or maybe that's the right wrong word, when there's

750
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 5: not real community, when there's not real connection, when there's

751
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 5: not real care that you're just seen as a part

752
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:23,239
Speaker 5: of this, like a sprinkle on top to our communities.

753
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:26,760
Speaker 5: And I say that in a generality, I think there's

754
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:29,759
Speaker 5: certainly some families who are figuring that out. But so

755
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 5: it's not please don't come for me that we can't

756
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:37,359
Speaker 5: figure that out. But what I've also noticed in these

757
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:42,080
Speaker 5: communities is sometimes I mean in these worlds because Shelley's

758
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:45,799
Speaker 5: from a different economic backets she's lived, she doesn't live

759
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 5: anywhere close to where these communities are. She's further away

760
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:53,919
Speaker 5: from the information. And it took Dawn to find out

761
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:54,839
Speaker 5: to bring it.

762
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:55,359
Speaker 1: Back to her.

763
00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 6: You know, black love has been so commodified lately, right

764
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:01,799
Speaker 6: Like I feel like, you know, you see people doing

765
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 6: the matching outfits on the ground, or you know, they

766
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:05,200
Speaker 6: have Black love weddings.

767
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:08,920
Speaker 2: But what makes Forever feel real and not curated?

768
00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 1: I would ask you, what did you feel.

769
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:16,240
Speaker 2: That I actually saw myself?

770
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,400
Speaker 6: I saw me and my wife, you know, I saw

771
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:24,400
Speaker 6: my teenage daughter and her friends. I saw how I mean,

772
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:26,920
Speaker 6: It's a little simple things like the conversations they was

773
00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:30,439
Speaker 6: having it to cookout, like arguing about you know Kanye, Yeah,

774
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:32,360
Speaker 6: they're smoking the weed and then the kids come and

775
00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:33,400
Speaker 6: they try to put it out, but you know, they

776
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:35,640
Speaker 6: dance into their own music. I just felt like, that's

777
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:40,359
Speaker 6: just real aesthetics. That's what real black love and black

778
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,400
Speaker 6: relationships look like. And even things like, you know, not

779
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 6: arguing it or trying not to argue in front of

780
00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 6: the kids, or even if you and you and your

781
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 6: significant other disagree, not showing that in front of the child.

782
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 6: It was times that Wood would be like yo, yea,

783
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:55,560
Speaker 6: and then she would know, and then he would say

784
00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 6: what he said, all vice versa, and I just I

785
00:36:57,719 --> 00:36:59,480
Speaker 6: just thought that was powerful.

786
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 1: Thank you.

787
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:02,799
Speaker 5: It's just be paying attention to my own life, the

788
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,920
Speaker 5: life around me, just paying attention to us. I think

789
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:09,839
Speaker 5: that's my job as a storyteller, you know, Nina Simone says,

790
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 5: I'm here to reflect the times. It's for me to

791
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 5: look at us, look at each other, and find all

792
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,879
Speaker 5: those I know about your guilt because I have it.

793
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:19,600
Speaker 1: And I have my own.

794
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:21,399
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. I know about these things.

795
00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:25,839
Speaker 5: I know about how how beloved by a black man

796
00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 5: who can be very strong in his opinions. But it's

797
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:29,959
Speaker 5: not intimidating.

798
00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:32,439
Speaker 1: It's you know, he might feel intimidated to the world.

799
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:34,640
Speaker 1: He's not intimidating to me. You know what I'm saying.

800
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:37,239
Speaker 5: I know there's love there. And also and he knows

801
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,240
Speaker 5: I'm strong black, a strong black woman. She's got an opinion.

802
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:44,120
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say something. I can say it without losing

803
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:44,920
Speaker 5: my softness.

804
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:47,520
Speaker 2: I want your kids to bring home a black significant other.

805
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, not because of racism, but because you want

806
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,680
Speaker 6: somebody to understands. You want somebody that's gonna understand you

807
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 6: and what you will.

808
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:56,319
Speaker 1: To protect you and protect you and protect you. That's

809
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:56,600
Speaker 1: what I mean.

810
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 5: Think at the core of a parenting, we want to

811
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 5: be we want to love our kids, and we want

812
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 5: our kids loved, and we want them protected.

813
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:04,719
Speaker 1: We want them safe in the world. And so.

814
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 5: You know, our history will tell us that it just

815
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:09,919
Speaker 5: seems like the odds are better that way.

816
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,880
Speaker 8: Keisha's story, well, first to bring home the black significant

817
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:19,200
Speaker 8: other when Dawn she's upset, she and Justin doesn't have

818
00:38:19,239 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 8: his phone or whatever. But then at one point she's

819
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:23,000
Speaker 8: open to him getting back into the world and having

820
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,840
Speaker 8: the phone or whatever. Because wood Harris is like, you know,

821
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 8: he met a girl like you know, ease up on

822
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:30,080
Speaker 8: them a little bit when they had that conversation when

823
00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 8: she findances down with him and she's trying to like

824
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 8: get in his business about who he's dating and who

825
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 8: the person is. As a mom yourself personally, what did

826
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 8: you put into that conversation that you do with your

827
00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:42,040
Speaker 8: own kids when you're trying to enter into their world

828
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 8: and like make sure that even though they're at the

829
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 8: white schools and all these things, the blackness is still

830
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 8: there without being like you got to be black because

831
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 8: she was very like soft, but she was also it

832
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:52,640
Speaker 8: was obvious she wanted him to be with a black girl.

833
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: We just talk real, you know.

834
00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 5: We've always just been honest with our kids from the jump.

835
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 5: They're from their level of understanding, you know what I'm saying,

836
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 5: using their language for their entry into the conversation, you know, uh,

837
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 5: being very honest.

838
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 1: Why, I mean, why I want you to be with

839
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:15,520
Speaker 1: a black woman?

840
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 5: You know, even though that could be challenging, even though

841
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:19,840
Speaker 5: it's like I can, yeah, you can date whoever you

842
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 5: want to date.

843
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,240
Speaker 1: This is going to be your life. But I'm gonna tell.

844
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 5: You why, and just I just why. I think it's beautiful.

845
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:27,520
Speaker 5: I just think I just give my opinion, but make

846
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:30,200
Speaker 5: room for theirs. That's I think that's what's important, is

847
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 5: for me to make room for theirs for so I

848
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:38,839
Speaker 5: use that, I use you know, it's funny because even

849
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 5: the music, I think one of the things. Music is

850
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 5: a big part of the show, and it's funny. In

851
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:50,839
Speaker 5: my car, I let them have the OX. I just

852
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:52,880
Speaker 5: want to know. I just want to witness them. I

853
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:55,399
Speaker 5: want to know what they're thinking about. So every like forth,

854
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:57,600
Speaker 5: you know, like if you get like a Spotify account

855
00:39:57,600 --> 00:39:59,399
Speaker 5: and you don't you do like the base, you got

856
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 5: to get a commercial like every four songs. So in

857
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 5: my car, you get a lecture every four songs. And

858
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:07,400
Speaker 5: we used to debate about, Okay, if I don't let

859
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:09,800
Speaker 5: you eat McDonald's all the time because of x y Z,

860
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:13,439
Speaker 5: I need you to understand what these lyrics are doing,

861
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 5: what you're eating, and so.

862
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 1: He's like, mama's just to beat, just to beat. Well, no,

863
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:17,200
Speaker 1: it's more than a bee.

864
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:19,719
Speaker 5: So we talked about that. They push back because we

865
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:21,759
Speaker 5: talked about misogyny and things like that. He was like, well,

866
00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:24,359
Speaker 5: the women, some of the female rappers that got I said, yeah,

867
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:26,720
Speaker 5: misogeny is not particular to one group of people.

868
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 1: Massage he's misogyny.

869
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:30,839
Speaker 5: It's just like you know, racism is racism, it's it's

870
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 5: it's so you get to talk to your kids and

871
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:39,719
Speaker 5: find out who they are and and give them your

872
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 5: point of view while the world gives them gives them

873
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 5: their point of view. And so I think if you

874
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 5: remain a trusted place, they are going to hear your voice,

875
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:51,520
Speaker 5: God willing, they will hear it before they get themselves

876
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:53,920
Speaker 5: in any kind of danger or you know that kind

877
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:54,200
Speaker 5: of thing.

878
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 1: But I feel like just giving them my opinion, what

879
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 1: emotional space, and then show my.

880
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:02,360
Speaker 5: Life, you know what I'm saying, living my life, you know,

881
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 5: like even like with even like your career paths or

882
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,399
Speaker 5: your future path, teaching them how I recognize that I'm

883
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:13,319
Speaker 5: a writer? I reminded, how did I know that I

884
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 5: was a writer? How did I know what my path was?

885
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:18,840
Speaker 5: Teaching them those things, what it's going to feel like

886
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 5: in your body, what it's going to look like, how

887
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 5: you're going to act, you know, when it's going to

888
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:27,040
Speaker 5: take discipline.

889
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:29,960
Speaker 1: Where's the sacrifice in these ideas? You know what?

890
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 5: Even like you know, yes, mom and Dad, we made

891
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:38,600
Speaker 5: a lot of money, but understand we're built on a legacy.

892
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:41,279
Speaker 5: Let's go back to grandma and granddad and grant grandparents,

893
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 5: and let me tell you where you came from. This

894
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,440
Speaker 5: is you know, us owning more than one home is

895
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:46,480
Speaker 5: not new to this family.

896
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:48,400
Speaker 1: It happened over here. Understand that.

897
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:52,400
Speaker 5: Understand So you got to give them history, opinion, knowledge,

898
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:56,920
Speaker 5: show it be it. You know, even when we talk

899
00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 5: about dreams, I talk about my dreams. I still got

900
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:02,759
Speaker 5: dreams and so and dream take resources.

901
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:05,640
Speaker 1: So are you going to hit that basketball train or not?

902
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:09,320
Speaker 1: Because I could use that money.

903
00:42:09,719 --> 00:42:11,200
Speaker 6: I want you to stay there for a second, like,

904
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 6: how was your own evolution spiritually, emotionally as a mother.

905
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:17,360
Speaker 2: How did that influence the writing of.

906
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:20,719
Speaker 1: Fel Oh completely?

907
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:23,839
Speaker 5: So my writing styles I tend to muse off of

908
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,399
Speaker 5: I find them. I tell the truth through fiction. I'm

909
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,560
Speaker 5: a journalism major. I went to Northwestern. Shout out to Northwestern,

910
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:32,520
Speaker 5: I allus called shout out. I love Northwestern. One of

911
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 5: the best choices I've ever made. I went to medil

912
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:36,359
Speaker 5: So A lot of my.

913
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:40,160
Speaker 1: Approach to a to a story, I start to lock in.

914
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:43,160
Speaker 5: On there'll be a muse and then I open up

915
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 5: to see what what is happening in the zeitgeist?

916
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:46,800
Speaker 1: What is happening.

917
00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:51,279
Speaker 5: At strong sociology classes, like what's where are we at

918
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:54,080
Speaker 5: as a people? So I figure out where the teenagers

919
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 5: were where we're at today. So my children were my

920
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:01,160
Speaker 5: muse because that's what I was concerned about. So I

921
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:05,799
Speaker 5: came into this this project just as a concerned mother.

922
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 1: My guilt.

923
00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:09,440
Speaker 5: Am I doing this right? Am I giving enough space?

924
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:11,160
Speaker 5: Did we pick the right schools for them?

925
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 1: We pay?

926
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:13,919
Speaker 5: Did we set up our life in a way that's

927
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:19,000
Speaker 5: really going to support them as you start to think

928
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,799
Speaker 5: about the more complexity parts of their life as and

929
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:24,879
Speaker 5: life was changing fast because of technology as well. Right,

930
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:28,080
Speaker 5: So that's where I was at the same time that

931
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 5: the Judy Bloom opportunity came. And that's where my big

932
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:34,840
Speaker 5: bang happens. Wow, And that's how I put those So

933
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 5: I'm musing off of my own parenting. So I started

934
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:39,400
Speaker 5: therapy because of parenting.

935
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 1: I realized.

936
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:43,560
Speaker 5: People are your amazing mom. But I was like, I

937
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:45,400
Speaker 5: need to feel like a better mom. So let me

938
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:48,759
Speaker 5: start unpacking some of the things, all these sort of

939
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 5: all the things that therapists take you through. And so

940
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 5: I started doing that and realizing how I was parenting

941
00:43:56,560 --> 00:44:00,440
Speaker 5: from a catastrophic place a fear, not just because of

942
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:03,279
Speaker 5: the times, but just all the things, and you realize, Okay,

943
00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 5: I need to let this go in order to be

944
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:08,360
Speaker 5: a better mother. And I think the best way I

945
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:10,839
Speaker 5: can do that is offer it in my work and

946
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:14,399
Speaker 5: mirror myself and allow. And I think that's the power

947
00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:17,839
Speaker 5: of storytelling. When you share your story or a testimony

948
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 5: in church, it actually hits the hearts and souls and

949
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:25,040
Speaker 5: spirits of so many other people. But that's why sharing

950
00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:27,200
Speaker 5: of the story is so important. It's not just about you,

951
00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 5: It's about the collective us, right, and so bringing all

952
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:35,920
Speaker 5: those things to bear and having this amazing opportunity with

953
00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 5: the book to place all of these things.

954
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:42,600
Speaker 1: Even in the translation of the book.

955
00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:44,920
Speaker 5: I got to talk about what it's like to be

956
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:47,520
Speaker 5: black parents, you know, Judy got to talk about what

957
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:49,120
Speaker 5: it's like to be white parents of that time.

958
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 1: But let me tell you what it's like to be

959
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:52,719
Speaker 1: black parents in America.

960
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 5: I don't it's probably not that different from you know,

961
00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:57,960
Speaker 5: other generations. But this is the These are the details

962
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:00,719
Speaker 5: of our time, and this is what it looks like.

963
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:02,920
Speaker 5: And this is why we love our kids just as

964
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:03,959
Speaker 5: much as you love your kids.

965
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 1: But they have it. They don't have as much freedom sometimes.

966
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:09,160
Speaker 1: And here's why.

967
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 5: Black boys are just as vulnerable and actually are just

968
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:18,279
Speaker 5: as I'm nervous mostly about black boys when it comes

969
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:22,200
Speaker 5: to sexuality, because before they can even say they love someone,

970
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:26,879
Speaker 5: they're considered enemy number one because of their They're they're

971
00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:29,880
Speaker 5: not little boys anymore. They are their bodies just getting

972
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 5: bigger muscles on their body, having a penis, They're suddenly

973
00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:34,600
Speaker 5: like a threat.

974
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:37,719
Speaker 1: You have to talk about rape. You got to talk

975
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 1: about that with black boys. Just your presence.

976
00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 5: Sometimes it may not be what you and the young

977
00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:46,440
Speaker 5: woman consent it to, but you are and still in

978
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:49,359
Speaker 5: the time if their parents say, we witness that in

979
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 5: real time, these things are happening. So we've got to

980
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:54,799
Speaker 5: be we can be real clear on consent. We've got

981
00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:58,640
Speaker 5: to be real clear on these sorts of things. Wanting

982
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:02,360
Speaker 5: to put that not for wanting to not only protect

983
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:04,640
Speaker 5: my own sons, but all of these beautiful black boys

984
00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:08,600
Speaker 5: that I get to, you know, be in community with

985
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:10,440
Speaker 5: that I love, and I don't want to see hurt

986
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:13,640
Speaker 5: and I don't want to see miss understood and misjudged

987
00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:17,319
Speaker 5: just by their physical presence, nothing more than that. And

988
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 5: because they don't like to smile because you know, they

989
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:23,479
Speaker 5: want to keep it real. I want them to see

990
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:25,040
Speaker 5: I want them to see beyond that. I want to

991
00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:28,040
Speaker 5: see black boy vulnerability. I want people to see them

992
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:31,360
Speaker 5: as they're fuel that that that they actually can cry

993
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:33,600
Speaker 5: and Michael jokes, Michael Cooper jokes and goomore, I gotta

994
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:33,960
Speaker 5: cry again.

995
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:36,959
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, you gotta cry again. He's hurt.

996
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:40,239
Speaker 5: He's more sensitive, I said, the character sensitive. I said that, so,

997
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:44,240
Speaker 5: but yeah, because I just want to Yeah, black boys

998
00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:48,360
Speaker 5: cry and they also ball, and they also go for

999
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,600
Speaker 5: their dreams, and they want the girl, and and they

1000
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:53,440
Speaker 5: they get the grades.

1001
00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:54,040
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.

1002
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 5: They do all they struggle, you know, they they're frustrated,

1003
00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:00,040
Speaker 5: they're all of those.

1004
00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:01,759
Speaker 6: Things, and then when they finally get what they want,

1005
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,160
Speaker 6: it scares them for some reason. Because he know he

1006
00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:05,879
Speaker 6: didn't mean none of that stuff he said. I don't

1007
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 6: want to give it away, but he ain't mean none

1008
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:09,040
Speaker 6: of that stuff on that last episode.

1009
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:10,799
Speaker 2: I don't think he really want I know he didn't

1010
00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:11,520
Speaker 2: want to walk away.

1011
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 1: Why I think no.

1012
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:16,400
Speaker 6: I think he was just afraid of what he was.

1013
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:19,719
Speaker 6: He was afraid of losing it. So he feels like

1014
00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 6: letting it go would be less painful than just losing it.

1015
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:27,080
Speaker 5: You know what I love about storytelling because it meets

1016
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,840
Speaker 5: the viewer where they're at. You're going to see it

1017
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:32,439
Speaker 5: that way, and someone's going to see that. While he

1018
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:37,760
Speaker 5: understood that, he did not have the capacity to let

1019
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:43,080
Speaker 5: go of her and choose himself, so he needed to

1020
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:46,239
Speaker 5: choose himself, he would have just stayed up underneath her.

1021
00:47:46,719 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 1: And a lot of people do that. A lot of

1022
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:51,560
Speaker 1: young people do that because it feels good to be loved.

1023
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 1: It feels good.

1024
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,640
Speaker 5: For somebody to call you and want to see you

1025
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:59,399
Speaker 5: and hug you and kiss you, and you can get

1026
00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:02,120
Speaker 5: lost in that and you can lose time. I think

1027
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:06,520
Speaker 5: he understood time is ticking, and that's a reality to

1028
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:10,319
Speaker 5: being young and making that leap in the especially in

1029
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:13,279
Speaker 5: the capitalistic democracy.

1030
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:17,440
Speaker 1: You gotta go. He understood that, and she helped him

1031
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:18,200
Speaker 1: understand that.

1032
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,760
Speaker 6: It felt to me like he didn't He wasn't chasing

1033
00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 6: her by the end of the series though, he was

1034
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:29,360
Speaker 6: literally just chasing an identity that he hadn't felt before,

1035
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,279
Speaker 6: like that, like that real blackness, like the blackness that

1036
00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:35,160
Speaker 6: you know his mom and his dad wanted him to

1037
00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:36,440
Speaker 6: have and not lose.

1038
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:37,600
Speaker 2: By growing up the way he grew up.

1039
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 6: By the end of the show, he felt like yo

1040
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:41,960
Speaker 6: going to that prom with her and just being around

1041
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:43,560
Speaker 6: her and her and her friends and hearing her say

1042
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 6: she wanted to go to Howard. It didn't feel like

1043
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 6: he was just he was chasing her. He was chasing

1044
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:47,800
Speaker 6: his blackness.

1045
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:52,160
Speaker 5: To me, I think all can be true, all can

1046
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:55,120
Speaker 5: be true, But also imagine you get to Howard and

1047
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:56,080
Speaker 5: all you know is Keisha.

1048
00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:59,840
Speaker 1: He might just be all up underneath Keisha. Yeah, and that,

1049
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:00,759
Speaker 1: and really, I.

1050
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:04,560
Speaker 5: Mean, hey, I'm sure he played those scenarios out.

1051
00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:07,080
Speaker 1: I know he did, because we do as a writing team.

1052
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:12,920
Speaker 5: But what I again, what I love about storytelling is

1053
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:16,919
Speaker 5: that it meets the viewer where they are. And this

1054
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,280
Speaker 5: is what's beautiful about the show, and all the different

1055
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:22,040
Speaker 5: conversations that are coming up, all the different opinions that

1056
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:22,640
Speaker 5: are coming up.

1057
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:23,720
Speaker 1: This is us.

1058
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:25,799
Speaker 5: This is the best dinner party you can ever have,

1059
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 5: and you just this is what we think. And everybody's

1060
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:31,480
Speaker 5: got opinions, and what sticks to you is for you,

1061
00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:34,880
Speaker 5: and what sticks to you is for you, what irritates you.

1062
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:38,319
Speaker 5: It's also for you what irritates you as a writer.

1063
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 5: This is some game I give. It's like a lot

1064
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:43,359
Speaker 5: of times people like I don't like that. I don't

1065
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:46,000
Speaker 5: like that is just as important as the what you

1066
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:49,640
Speaker 5: do like in writing, because I say, what sticks to

1067
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:54,160
Speaker 5: you is yours. That's your examinations. That's for you to examine.

1068
00:49:54,640 --> 00:49:57,239
Speaker 5: It's called your attention. You can't shake it, you can't

1069
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:01,839
Speaker 5: let it go good or bad. Look into that, investigate there,

1070
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:05,359
Speaker 5: dig there. I think that's what I think. That's why

1071
00:50:05,480 --> 00:50:07,719
Speaker 5: my I think that's why I keep getting hits after

1072
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 5: hits is because I like digging deeper into to us

1073
00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:15,759
Speaker 5: and I think, who doesn't want to be seen? And

1074
00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:18,720
Speaker 5: I think a lot of our stories either they're missing

1075
00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:21,920
Speaker 5: or they've been distorted, like it said the negative, like

1076
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:24,560
Speaker 5: they've been distorted. I think when you start to really

1077
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:27,239
Speaker 5: see yourself, you know, you might want to tighten up here,

1078
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:29,360
Speaker 5: little tighten up. They for the most party, like I'm cute,

1079
00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 5: I'm cute, I'm doing okay.

1080
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:32,040
Speaker 1: I'm doing all right.

1081
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:35,800
Speaker 5: I can lose five pounds whatever, but for the most part,

1082
00:50:36,239 --> 00:50:37,040
Speaker 5: I'm doing all right.

1083
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:37,719
Speaker 1: I think that.

1084
00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:44,799
Speaker 5: Those ideas of ourselves or what we're stuck on, that

1085
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:46,279
Speaker 5: may be for you to examine.

1086
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:49,400
Speaker 1: You to look at. And I think that's why we

1087
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:50,799
Speaker 1: need more storytellers out there.

1088
00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:53,359
Speaker 6: I got three more questions if you've got to, Yeah,

1089
00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:56,440
Speaker 6: what emotional space does Forever occupy than none of your

1090
00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:57,120
Speaker 6: previous shows.

1091
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:01,919
Speaker 5: What emotional space is it occupy that? I think the

1092
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:05,040
Speaker 5: cross generational idea. You know, for the most part, I've

1093
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:08,879
Speaker 5: written at adult conversation, though that I've had parents come

1094
00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:12,759
Speaker 5: into those stories. They're not They're like drive bys in

1095
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:17,600
Speaker 5: a lot of ways. I just think the complexity of

1096
00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 5: family and the and the generational.

1097
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:28,480
Speaker 1: Connection and that I just really enjoyed that.

1098
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:34,160
Speaker 5: I think also the scale emotionally, it allowed me to

1099
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 5: really scale.

1100
00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:41,360
Speaker 1: Us that I enjoyed that. And it you know, the

1101
00:51:41,440 --> 00:51:44,160
Speaker 1: kids say, take up space. It allowed me to take

1102
00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:46,920
Speaker 1: up space for us and for myself.

1103
00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:51,400
Speaker 6: And what did Judy Bloom teach you about softness? And

1104
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 6: how does that show up in your characters now?

1105
00:51:54,480 --> 00:52:02,600
Speaker 5: Well, softness is details, I think, especially in the book Forever,

1106
00:52:03,320 --> 00:52:10,840
Speaker 5: most of the book is about Catherine's internal feelings, thoughts,

1107
00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:14,840
Speaker 5: and to use that much time on the internal space

1108
00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:23,040
Speaker 5: is really a privilege, a luxury. Oftentimes, most of our

1109
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:27,759
Speaker 5: storytime we're more observed than we are explored, and I

1110
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:32,080
Speaker 5: enjoyed being able to explore. And that's what Judy taught

1111
00:52:32,200 --> 00:52:35,359
Speaker 5: in her in her writing all the books. She's an

1112
00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 5: internal writer, and then she allowed us she gave as

1113
00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:45,080
Speaker 5: young people reading her books, you're validating these feelings inside

1114
00:52:45,080 --> 00:52:47,600
Speaker 5: that I don't necessarily show because I don't want to

1115
00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:50,239
Speaker 5: be embarrassed or I don't want to be judged, or

1116
00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:52,120
Speaker 5: I don't want to be misunderstood.

1117
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:54,840
Speaker 1: So kids are keeping a lot to themselves. And she

1118
00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:56,400
Speaker 1: was being honest on the page.

1119
00:52:56,960 --> 00:53:00,640
Speaker 5: So I believe I've been doing that in my body

1120
00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:03,200
Speaker 5: of work, and I got to do it again to

1121
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:08,400
Speaker 5: give young people a view of themselves today like she

1122
00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:10,760
Speaker 5: gave us, you know, fifty years ago.

1123
00:53:11,680 --> 00:53:14,959
Speaker 6: My last question is forever about love you've had, love

1124
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:17,000
Speaker 6: you've lost, or love you still believe.

1125
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:17,800
Speaker 1: In all the above.

1126
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:22,520
Speaker 5: I believe in love. I believe in love. One of

1127
00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:24,759
Speaker 5: the things I'm really proud of with the ending. I

1128
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:27,319
Speaker 5: know there's a controversy about the ending, but what I

1129
00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:30,760
Speaker 5: love that Justin and Keisha showed us is how love

1130
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 5: endures and it takes its shape, shifts, can it's dynamic,

1131
00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:39,560
Speaker 5: can change, but love can stay present. And they showed

1132
00:53:39,680 --> 00:53:44,560
Speaker 5: us how to let go and keep love in that

1133
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:51,320
Speaker 5: in that ending, I think we could learn a lot from.

1134
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:55,319
Speaker 1: Justin and Keisha. You know, the question, you know.

1135
00:53:56,760 --> 00:53:59,320
Speaker 5: Is someone is this Is this a forever love or

1136
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:02,400
Speaker 5: the one you rem forever? And I would like to

1137
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:05,560
Speaker 5: think that we as we move through our lives as

1138
00:54:06,040 --> 00:54:10,040
Speaker 5: human beings, that when we choose to use that word

1139
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:13,279
Speaker 5: right I loved you, that you there's a present that

1140
00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 5: you were so present and so loving that even if

1141
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:20,120
Speaker 5: you don't last, the couple doesn't last, the love can last.

1142
00:54:20,400 --> 00:54:21,799
Speaker 1: It just it might shift to.

1143
00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:25,879
Speaker 5: Wow, it might just shift to we always just sort

1144
00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:30,000
Speaker 5: of text each other on each other's birthday that you

1145
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:30,799
Speaker 5: matter to me.

1146
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:31,239
Speaker 7: You know.

1147
00:54:31,320 --> 00:54:33,640
Speaker 5: One of the fun things you realize when you're re

1148
00:54:33,719 --> 00:54:39,560
Speaker 5: visiting the work, especially as young people. Oftentimes that's where

1149
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:44,759
Speaker 5: our big dreaming happens, and those young loves that a

1150
00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:47,160
Speaker 5: lot of times the best part of you is packed

1151
00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:48,759
Speaker 5: in somebody else's memory of you.

1152
00:54:49,560 --> 00:54:53,239
Speaker 1: And so to have access back to those people actually is.

1153
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:56,279
Speaker 5: Good for you to remember who you are when you

1154
00:54:56,320 --> 00:55:00,120
Speaker 5: lose your way, because you're gonna lose your way, so

1155
00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:02,760
Speaker 5: love holds you there. So it is about the past,

1156
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:05,439
Speaker 5: the present, and the future. And I think that love

1157
00:55:05,560 --> 00:55:08,480
Speaker 5: can take many different forms, you know, And you know,

1158
00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:12,080
Speaker 5: I have my young one plays baseball and I've learned

1159
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:16,239
Speaker 5: a lot about watching him sit in the stands play baseball,

1160
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:19,440
Speaker 5: long games, long games. But what's beautiful about it is

1161
00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:23,479
Speaker 5: everybody who walks into that batter's box has a different fight.

1162
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:31,319
Speaker 5: And so I often think about relationship. Right, did you

1163
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:33,759
Speaker 5: swing the bat? Did you have a they call it?

1164
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:36,799
Speaker 5: Did you have a good at bat? And sometimes you're

1165
00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:39,239
Speaker 5: at bat, you strike out, but you still had a

1166
00:55:39,239 --> 00:55:42,120
Speaker 5: good at bat. And I think that's what I think

1167
00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:44,479
Speaker 5: love is about. Are we having a good at bat?

1168
00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:48,279
Speaker 5: Are we swinging? Are we using our technique? Are we

1169
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:52,239
Speaker 5: using all the knowledge we've spent all week learning for

1170
00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:54,960
Speaker 5: this one to two times we get to walk in

1171
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:57,560
Speaker 5: that batter's box and are we using it?

1172
00:55:57,680 --> 00:55:58,440
Speaker 1: Are we do we?

1173
00:55:58,600 --> 00:55:58,839
Speaker 2: You know?

1174
00:55:59,239 --> 00:56:01,360
Speaker 1: Do we whatever the shoulders and the hips.

1175
00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:01,719
Speaker 3: And all that kinds of.

1176
00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:06,000
Speaker 5: All those things, all those things you gotta do with

1177
00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:09,959
Speaker 5: this ball coming at you eighty ninety miles an hour.

1178
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,400
Speaker 5: That's love And I think that I would like to

1179
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:18,759
Speaker 5: think that we can all approach it at a good

1180
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:19,000
Speaker 5: at that.

1181
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:21,720
Speaker 2: Wow.

1182
00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:25,760
Speaker 8: I have one final question Regina King in her directing, Yes,

1183
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:29,120
Speaker 8: thank you for asking. Yeah, because okay, so I was

1184
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:31,319
Speaker 8: trying to look to see what the conversation around it

1185
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:33,160
Speaker 8: was online. But I remember when I first found out

1186
00:56:33,200 --> 00:56:34,680
Speaker 8: that she was doing it, my first thought was, I

1187
00:56:34,680 --> 00:56:37,319
Speaker 8: wonder what their conversations were like, like what changes she

1188
00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 8: made and what she brought to the screen, because I

1189
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:40,919
Speaker 8: heard you say a lot of it was about gear

1190
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:42,080
Speaker 8: life as a parent as well too.

1191
00:56:42,080 --> 00:56:45,319
Speaker 1: But no, it's you move. Let me be very clear.

1192
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:46,920
Speaker 6: I muse.

1193
00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:49,960
Speaker 5: I have a muse entry point, and then once I

1194
00:56:50,040 --> 00:56:52,800
Speaker 5: go into that entry point, then I become a journalist

1195
00:56:52,840 --> 00:56:56,520
Speaker 5: almost and look at the world around and then that's.

1196
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:58,000
Speaker 1: How I sort of craft my stories.

1197
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:02,759
Speaker 5: That said it's beautiful about the art form is that

1198
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:07,759
Speaker 5: the art form is a collaborative art form. I had

1199
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:09,480
Speaker 5: to sit in that chair. Judy had to sit in

1200
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:11,480
Speaker 5: that chair to write that book. I go look at

1201
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:12,799
Speaker 5: the book. I had to sit in that chair and

1202
00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:17,800
Speaker 5: adapt that book. But one of the first phone calls

1203
00:57:17,840 --> 00:57:21,280
Speaker 5: you make after you have a script, you call your

1204
00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:25,160
Speaker 5: casting director Kim Coleman, and then the second immediate is

1205
00:57:25,280 --> 00:57:27,560
Speaker 5: who is going to direct? And I called Regina King

1206
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:30,880
Speaker 5: and said, I think it's time for us to collaborate again.

1207
00:57:30,960 --> 00:57:34,440
Speaker 5: She first Regina I first worked together when in early

1208
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:38,080
Speaker 5: in her directing career she directed episodes of Being Mary

1209
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:42,080
Speaker 5: Jane and she went off to have a really wonderful

1210
00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:43,760
Speaker 5: directing career, and it was like, okay, I need you

1211
00:57:43,800 --> 00:57:46,919
Speaker 5: to help. This's helped me reset the tone. We both

1212
00:57:46,920 --> 00:57:52,160
Speaker 5: are mothers, we both love our sons. I needed Regina King,

1213
00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:56,760
Speaker 5: I need that chemistry, her iconic performances as an actress.

1214
00:57:56,800 --> 00:57:59,680
Speaker 5: I would love them rooted in these characters, especially helping

1215
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:04,240
Speaker 5: us launched this love story within these two young actors,

1216
00:58:06,680 --> 00:58:10,120
Speaker 5: anchoring them and their chemistry and everybody knowing where they

1217
00:58:10,160 --> 00:58:14,040
Speaker 5: are in this play, in this world. Then, of course

1218
00:58:14,080 --> 00:58:16,760
Speaker 5: we built out the team and the decisions that we

1219
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:20,120
Speaker 5: make together, you know, finding Combio, who is our DP,

1220
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:24,840
Speaker 5: Suzuki our production designer. We collaborate on the ideas of

1221
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:28,720
Speaker 5: our you know, our costume, Minka and Tanja, these are

1222
00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:30,560
Speaker 5: the principal storytellers that.

1223
00:58:30,480 --> 00:58:32,160
Speaker 1: We need to help tell our story.

1224
00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:35,800
Speaker 5: Just helping to make those decisions together, it was really

1225
00:58:35,840 --> 00:58:38,280
Speaker 5: lovely to help set the tone for it so that

1226
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:40,680
Speaker 5: we can take off and run. I mean, you know,

1227
00:58:40,800 --> 00:58:45,520
Speaker 5: Anthony Hemingway coming in, Timby Banks, all of these major

1228
00:58:45,560 --> 00:58:49,760
Speaker 5: decisions are editors, you know, Carolina and Naomi and just

1229
00:58:50,200 --> 00:58:54,400
Speaker 5: Gary gunn Our composer kier Lehman. We put like it's

1230
00:58:54,440 --> 00:58:57,120
Speaker 5: almost like speaking of baseball references, almost like you have

1231
00:58:57,120 --> 00:58:59,480
Speaker 5: your baseball cards out, You're like, we should bring this

1232
00:58:59,480 --> 00:59:00,840
Speaker 5: for this I got this for this thing. You kind

1233
00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:03,000
Speaker 5: of put it together and it's fun to puzzle together.

1234
00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:06,240
Speaker 5: It's fun to sort of collaborate on that level. So

1235
00:59:05,640 --> 00:59:10,240
Speaker 5: she and my company Story twenty seven Hers Royal Ties,

1236
00:59:10,280 --> 00:59:15,520
Speaker 5: we've come together to help set a bar of excellence

1237
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:18,960
Speaker 5: that we want the show to live in and thrive from.

1238
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:20,640
Speaker 2: And you know what Season two is going.

1239
00:59:21,960 --> 00:59:22,280
Speaker 1: I do.

1240
00:59:22,320 --> 00:59:24,920
Speaker 5: I'man, I have ideas. I still have to go through

1241
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:25,560
Speaker 5: the process.

1242
00:59:25,680 --> 00:59:25,880
Speaker 1: You know.

1243
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:29,160
Speaker 5: Part of well, I think another thing that makes me

1244
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:34,480
Speaker 5: successful is how I honor my partnerships and I come

1245
00:59:34,560 --> 00:59:40,520
Speaker 5: into it respectfully and really to always garner that to

1246
00:59:40,600 --> 00:59:43,000
Speaker 5: garner that energy back to me. But I have a

1247
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:44,880
Speaker 5: concept of what I need to do. I won't share

1248
00:59:44,920 --> 00:59:48,040
Speaker 5: it until my partners are signed off on it. But

1249
00:59:48,800 --> 00:59:53,480
Speaker 5: my next steps are me coming into a meeting ready

1250
00:59:53,520 --> 00:59:57,640
Speaker 5: to talk to Netflix around Hey, this is where I

1251
00:59:57,640 --> 00:59:59,840
Speaker 5: see it, and this is where I think it should go.

1252
01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:06,160
Speaker 5: Hearing their feedback, their concerns, taking that in consideration, sometimes

1253
01:00:06,160 --> 01:00:09,880
Speaker 5: debating it for a while, but finding a way to

1254
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:12,400
Speaker 5: communicate why I think it's the way it's to go,

1255
01:00:13,440 --> 01:00:15,920
Speaker 5: and if not, where is the compromise in that, and

1256
01:00:16,840 --> 01:00:20,280
Speaker 5: feeling good about the artistic flexibility that I have to

1257
01:00:20,560 --> 01:00:24,400
Speaker 5: craft story to figure that out. So I'm looking forward

1258
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:27,480
Speaker 5: to that and success especially. You know, sometimes success can

1259
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:28,520
Speaker 5: make people tighten up too.

1260
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:32,120
Speaker 6: Right, it's not playing tomorrow. Yeah, I hit after hitt

1261
01:00:32,440 --> 01:00:36,840
Speaker 6: in multiple decades. Okay, streaming services, the linear television, give

1262
01:00:36,880 --> 01:00:39,160
Speaker 6: her what she wants, that's right, including the fifty million

1263
01:00:39,160 --> 01:00:41,920
Speaker 6: dollars for girlfriends we need.

1264
01:00:42,920 --> 01:00:43,640
Speaker 2: It's that simple.

1265
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:46,560
Speaker 1: It's that simple. We've been talking about this. It's real.

1266
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:50,040
Speaker 5: It's really that simple, and I'm excited. I think it's

1267
01:00:50,040 --> 01:00:51,800
Speaker 5: gonna come. I don't know, I feel I feel it

1268
01:00:51,880 --> 01:00:53,440
Speaker 5: like I don't know. Last time I was here, we

1269
01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:56,440
Speaker 5: talked about it, and I think what was beautiful in

1270
01:00:56,480 --> 01:00:59,040
Speaker 5: my journey at that time was for me to claim

1271
01:00:59,080 --> 01:01:02,960
Speaker 5: the value and understand the boundaries and understand what it is.

1272
01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:05,160
Speaker 1: I don't know, just I think.

1273
01:01:05,200 --> 01:01:08,360
Speaker 5: And also this success breeds more success, so I kind

1274
01:01:08,360 --> 01:01:10,640
Speaker 5: of feel, oh know, I kind of feel like I

1275
01:01:11,440 --> 01:01:11,920
Speaker 5: think it's.

1276
01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:14,000
Speaker 2: Time and a success Girlfriends just had on Netflix.

1277
01:01:14,120 --> 01:01:16,439
Speaker 8: Oh my god, oh my god, like they should see

1278
01:01:16,520 --> 01:01:18,240
Speaker 8: generational success and people watch it.

1279
01:01:18,280 --> 01:01:18,800
Speaker 1: I watch that.

1280
01:01:18,880 --> 01:01:20,720
Speaker 8: I rewatched the whole thing with my mom and I

1281
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:22,160
Speaker 8: was like, this is so different, But.

1282
01:01:22,160 --> 01:01:22,760
Speaker 2: You know, it's fine.

1283
01:01:22,840 --> 01:01:25,400
Speaker 5: Finding out people are putting girlfriends on for their go

1284
01:01:25,520 --> 01:01:28,760
Speaker 5: to sleep. It's their they call it their comfort TV

1285
01:01:28,880 --> 01:01:31,200
Speaker 5: show that they put on and they just let it run.

1286
01:01:31,240 --> 01:01:33,040
Speaker 5: And some people let it run while they go to sleep.

1287
01:01:33,280 --> 01:01:38,040
Speaker 5: Blows my mind. Secondarily, my youngest son. I noticed that.

1288
01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:41,200
Speaker 5: He will tell me like his friends are watching it

1289
01:01:41,520 --> 01:01:44,040
Speaker 5: and they think, I'm your mom is cool.

1290
01:01:43,800 --> 01:01:47,479
Speaker 1: Because she does girl. So I still got street cred jobs,

1291
01:01:47,520 --> 01:01:49,920
Speaker 1: I still got it in the game. I'm up and

1292
01:01:49,960 --> 01:01:53,120
Speaker 1: down all that up and down for thank you, thank you,

1293
01:01:53,160 --> 01:01:53,440
Speaker 1: thank you.

1294
01:01:53,600 --> 01:01:57,000
Speaker 6: And I don't know if people know, but nine to

1295
01:01:57,000 --> 01:02:01,880
Speaker 6: eleven of this year marks twenty five years of Girlfriends

1296
01:02:01,880 --> 01:02:02,520
Speaker 6: ago this.

1297
01:02:02,560 --> 01:02:05,160
Speaker 5: Year, so we need to make that announcement, right, it's time.

1298
01:02:05,720 --> 01:02:07,120
Speaker 5: That would be the announcement today.

1299
01:02:07,360 --> 01:02:09,400
Speaker 2: It only makes sense. The first episode was nine eleven,

1300
01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:09,960
Speaker 2: two thousand.

1301
01:02:11,240 --> 01:02:15,560
Speaker 7: Still looks so good, all of them still looks.

1302
01:02:15,720 --> 01:02:16,920
Speaker 1: I saw Tracy recently.

1303
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:20,040
Speaker 5: We went to go see the Wiz went back on

1304
01:02:20,080 --> 01:02:20,480
Speaker 5: the screen.

1305
01:02:20,520 --> 01:02:22,400
Speaker 1: Did anybody see it on the screen?

1306
01:02:22,480 --> 01:02:25,880
Speaker 5: Oh, you guys, I've seen the Wiz over and over,

1307
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:28,720
Speaker 5: you know, but the Wiz on big screen. I haven't

1308
01:02:28,760 --> 01:02:31,960
Speaker 5: seen that since I was a young girl. And Tracy

1309
01:02:31,960 --> 01:02:33,800
Speaker 5: and I went together to go see it and we

1310
01:02:33,880 --> 01:02:35,880
Speaker 5: had a ball. And it was also really fun to

1311
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:39,000
Speaker 5: watch her watch her mom. It was kind of like, oh,

1312
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:43,000
Speaker 5: this is like very meta, right, So that was amazing.

1313
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:47,760
Speaker 5: Then Jill, Yeah, Jilly gold birthday party. So to your point,

1314
01:02:47,920 --> 01:02:49,720
Speaker 5: they look smashing.

1315
01:02:51,240 --> 01:02:53,200
Speaker 2: To it has to happen. It's going to happen. I

1316
01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:54,040
Speaker 2: know what's going to happen.

1317
01:02:54,160 --> 01:02:56,800
Speaker 6: Yes, because it's like the one black sitcom that we

1318
01:02:57,040 --> 01:03:00,240
Speaker 6: really did not get any closure on whatsoever, and there's

1319
01:03:00,240 --> 01:03:02,560
Speaker 6: so many loose ends to tie up.

1320
01:03:02,720 --> 01:03:04,280
Speaker 5: You know. It's really it's not just loose ENSEI it's

1321
01:03:04,280 --> 01:03:06,920
Speaker 5: actually very relevant. I think it's a very karmic idea

1322
01:03:07,120 --> 01:03:11,080
Speaker 5: to have the show have a ending in a film.

1323
01:03:11,520 --> 01:03:15,440
Speaker 5: I just want to do a movie because of where

1324
01:03:15,600 --> 01:03:19,480
Speaker 5: we as a society have grown around the importance of relationships,

1325
01:03:19,600 --> 01:03:24,000
Speaker 5: and Tony and Joan breaking up I think has been

1326
01:03:24,040 --> 01:03:27,480
Speaker 5: the hardest thing on the audience even over Joan not

1327
01:03:27,600 --> 01:03:29,360
Speaker 5: getting her man, you know what I'm saying, And so

1328
01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:34,400
Speaker 5: I think that that's an interesting thing to put back

1329
01:03:34,400 --> 01:03:35,040
Speaker 5: in the chat.

1330
01:03:35,280 --> 01:03:37,000
Speaker 1: So it's still relevant to this day.

1331
01:03:37,080 --> 01:03:40,400
Speaker 5: It's like, how does friendship come back together or not

1332
01:03:40,520 --> 01:03:44,680
Speaker 5: come back together? Right? Can you still find that love

1333
01:03:44,720 --> 01:03:47,800
Speaker 5: of your life when you choose? You know what I'm

1334
01:03:47,800 --> 01:03:50,600
Speaker 5: doing all right? By myself, I'm doing nothing. There's nothing

1335
01:03:50,640 --> 01:03:52,800
Speaker 5: wrong with me for not having had a husband like

1336
01:03:52,840 --> 01:03:55,680
Speaker 5: we But that was a different conversation back at the

1337
01:03:55,720 --> 01:03:58,880
Speaker 5: time we were producing that show to where we have

1338
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:00,840
Speaker 5: progressed today twenty five years later.

1339
01:04:00,880 --> 01:04:02,080
Speaker 1: There's a different.

1340
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:08,920
Speaker 5: Value in society around relationships and friendship and how important

1341
01:04:08,960 --> 01:04:12,920
Speaker 5: friendship is and the you know, the the sustaining of it,

1342
01:04:13,080 --> 01:04:16,720
Speaker 5: the care of it, the beauty of it, the complexity

1343
01:04:16,800 --> 01:04:17,120
Speaker 5: of it.

1344
01:04:17,480 --> 01:04:19,040
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, look at us grow.

1345
01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:21,960
Speaker 5: And then and then also this idea that you're not

1346
01:04:22,120 --> 01:04:26,480
Speaker 5: broken because you're not in partnership romantically. It's not to

1347
01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:29,280
Speaker 5: say that you don't want that, but understanding that there's

1348
01:04:29,320 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 5: a different there's a different you know, entry point into

1349
01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:37,720
Speaker 5: that that it's not just being married to be married.

1350
01:04:37,840 --> 01:04:41,240
Speaker 5: You want to be really partnered with your soulmate or

1351
01:04:41,240 --> 01:04:43,200
Speaker 5: your you know those was a twin flame?

1352
01:04:43,240 --> 01:04:44,960
Speaker 1: Which one it did? Whatever joy fair one it is,

1353
01:04:45,040 --> 01:04:46,080
Speaker 1: whichever one's the hot one?

1354
01:04:46,160 --> 01:04:47,320
Speaker 2: That one? No one.

1355
01:04:48,240 --> 01:04:51,520
Speaker 8: I was gonna say, So Joan is, you can't say anything,

1356
01:04:51,560 --> 01:04:54,040
Speaker 8: but Joan is, actually she does still want to be

1357
01:04:54,320 --> 01:04:55,880
Speaker 8: married and be with a person or she's just gonna

1358
01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:55,960
Speaker 8: do it.

1359
01:04:56,000 --> 01:04:58,000
Speaker 5: But I'm just talking about where we left her. And

1360
01:04:58,040 --> 01:05:00,320
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna give it. It's funny because like it

1361
01:05:00,320 --> 01:05:03,040
Speaker 5: sounds like you're not doing all by herself still. I'm

1362
01:05:03,120 --> 01:05:07,120
Speaker 5: just talking about where we are in society again, because

1363
01:05:07,120 --> 01:05:09,160
Speaker 5: she would be shared with you guys very openly that

1364
01:05:09,240 --> 01:05:11,720
Speaker 5: my writing process, My writing process is like who am

1365
01:05:11,720 --> 01:05:14,080
Speaker 5: I musing on? And then you open up to seek

1366
01:05:14,080 --> 01:05:16,760
Speaker 5: where society is the journalist in me, And that's where

1367
01:05:16,760 --> 01:05:18,880
Speaker 5: we are. And that's all I'm sort of commenting on

1368
01:05:18,920 --> 01:05:23,600
Speaker 5: in that where we left the show twenty five years,

1369
01:05:23,600 --> 01:05:27,640
Speaker 5: where society is. I feel the relevance of girlfriends is

1370
01:05:27,720 --> 01:05:31,000
Speaker 5: almost matched to where our ending was. Yeah, wow, and

1371
01:05:32,360 --> 01:05:36,160
Speaker 5: so and even and we've talked about their physical beauty

1372
01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:40,840
Speaker 5: even that I'm saying, even how as you know that's important,

1373
01:05:41,000 --> 01:05:44,000
Speaker 5: you know, and and and also how do we get

1374
01:05:44,000 --> 01:05:46,920
Speaker 5: there and what are we doing even my generation of women,

1375
01:05:46,960 --> 01:05:49,520
Speaker 5: which is also the generation of those women on girlfriends,

1376
01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:53,560
Speaker 5: We've pioneered a whole new conversation around We're openly going to.

1377
01:05:53,560 --> 01:05:55,360
Speaker 1: Talk about paramenopause and menopause.

1378
01:05:55,480 --> 01:05:59,240
Speaker 5: We're not going down like the previous generations being oki doped.

1379
01:05:59,000 --> 01:05:59,960
Speaker 1: By the lies over there.

1380
01:06:00,280 --> 01:06:02,560
Speaker 5: So it's like those there's so much to talk about,

1381
01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:06,560
Speaker 5: I think in a new a new iteration of the

1382
01:06:06,680 --> 01:06:10,000
Speaker 5: ending that we're still holding on to from twenty five

1383
01:06:10,080 --> 01:06:10,400
Speaker 5: years ago.

1384
01:06:10,520 --> 01:06:11,440
Speaker 1: So it's an interesting thing.

1385
01:06:11,320 --> 01:06:13,840
Speaker 5: To hold on to in terms of like the details

1386
01:06:14,000 --> 01:06:16,800
Speaker 5: of what I would do. I'm not going to share

1387
01:06:16,880 --> 01:06:20,800
Speaker 5: that because that's my currency, you know, My ideas are

1388
01:06:20,880 --> 01:06:24,040
Speaker 5: my currency. My craftsmanship is how I make you know,

1389
01:06:24,040 --> 01:06:25,840
Speaker 5: everybody got a dressed, but it's how I make the

1390
01:06:25,920 --> 01:06:26,920
Speaker 5: dress right, you know.

1391
01:06:27,040 --> 01:06:27,439
Speaker 1: And so.

1392
01:06:29,120 --> 01:06:31,960
Speaker 5: I'm excited for that opportunity. I just I don't know, energetically,

1393
01:06:31,960 --> 01:06:35,040
Speaker 5: I just feel it differently. I mean, because I'm on

1394
01:06:35,080 --> 01:06:37,440
Speaker 5: your show now. See it's like it's like even that

1395
01:06:37,600 --> 01:06:40,360
Speaker 5: is a beautiful omen right because we talked about it

1396
01:06:40,400 --> 01:06:41,920
Speaker 5: last time I was there, and now I'm back and

1397
01:06:41,960 --> 01:06:42,960
Speaker 5: we're talking about it again.

1398
01:06:43,120 --> 01:06:44,600
Speaker 1: And yeah, I.

1399
01:06:44,520 --> 01:06:47,120
Speaker 2: Mean there's nothing guaranteed, but the girlfriends is a guaranteed.

1400
01:06:47,320 --> 01:06:50,560
Speaker 2: I don't care what nobody why global easily.

1401
01:06:50,680 --> 01:06:52,520
Speaker 6: I want to show you this opposedly this last week,

1402
01:06:52,680 --> 01:06:55,240
Speaker 6: now that we're grown, which friend was the most toxic?

1403
01:06:57,560 --> 01:06:58,640
Speaker 1: Why did you leave?

1404
01:06:59,400 --> 01:07:01,480
Speaker 6: Because we're her own now, so we have a different

1405
01:07:01,520 --> 01:07:02,920
Speaker 6: perception of all of them.

1406
01:07:03,000 --> 01:07:03,520
Speaker 1: What do you think?

1407
01:07:05,640 --> 01:07:06,400
Speaker 2: Uh Todd?

1408
01:07:10,040 --> 01:07:10,320
Speaker 3: Todd?

1409
01:07:10,400 --> 01:07:15,280
Speaker 6: Todd had no business, You had no business maritime, But honestly,

1410
01:07:15,320 --> 01:07:18,840
Speaker 6: people always leave Lenn out. Lynn would be considered very

1411
01:07:18,880 --> 01:07:21,800
Speaker 6: toxic nowadays because she didn't have no boundaries.

1412
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:23,960
Speaker 2: She didn't respect nobody's boundaries.

1413
01:07:24,520 --> 01:07:26,840
Speaker 1: I think she was the most at one with herself,

1414
01:07:28,040 --> 01:07:28,280
Speaker 1: was the.

1415
01:07:28,200 --> 01:07:32,320
Speaker 6: Only one that was unproblematic to me. But Lynn didn't

1416
01:07:32,360 --> 01:07:37,280
Speaker 6: respect anybody's boundaries. I have interesting theories about Joan and

1417
01:07:37,400 --> 01:07:38,080
Speaker 6: uh Tony.

1418
01:07:38,480 --> 01:07:41,520
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, why did you use the word toxic?

1419
01:07:41,920 --> 01:07:42,080
Speaker 5: Oh?

1420
01:07:42,120 --> 01:07:44,400
Speaker 2: I reposed to me that was just a conversation starter,

1421
01:07:45,080 --> 01:07:45,479
Speaker 2: I know.

1422
01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:48,120
Speaker 1: But why did you repost that conversation starter?

1423
01:07:50,120 --> 01:07:52,240
Speaker 6: I think I think that they had traits that could

1424
01:07:52,280 --> 01:07:53,840
Speaker 6: be considered toxic.

1425
01:07:54,120 --> 01:07:55,320
Speaker 1: You know what I want to say about that?

1426
01:07:56,640 --> 01:08:00,280
Speaker 5: What I love about the vulnerability and the complex city

1427
01:08:00,320 --> 01:08:06,880
Speaker 5: of the characters that later they can be analyzed yes,

1428
01:08:07,320 --> 01:08:10,560
Speaker 5: and give some language about what they were brave enough

1429
01:08:10,560 --> 01:08:15,000
Speaker 5: to be. And what I look at between the generations

1430
01:08:15,080 --> 01:08:18,280
Speaker 5: is that when we there's this generations, we have more

1431
01:08:18,360 --> 01:08:22,960
Speaker 5: language to label things, to label it. I feel like

1432
01:08:24,240 --> 01:08:27,800
Speaker 5: those characters and so the word toxic, I just sort

1433
01:08:27,840 --> 01:08:31,639
Speaker 5: of underscore, highlight and circle because that can be this

1434
01:08:31,800 --> 01:08:34,840
Speaker 5: blanket over them that doesn't deserve to be there.

1435
01:08:36,160 --> 01:08:40,599
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm saying is that we are complex. Now.

1436
01:08:40,840 --> 01:08:44,000
Speaker 5: I'm not saying that the complexity means you need to

1437
01:08:44,040 --> 01:08:47,120
Speaker 5: be friends with them for a lifetime. You may only

1438
01:08:47,160 --> 01:08:49,680
Speaker 5: complex for a while, you know. I'm not saying you

1439
01:08:49,720 --> 01:08:52,000
Speaker 5: can't grow from them. I can't say you might, like

1440
01:08:52,520 --> 01:08:54,120
Speaker 5: I said, you might not have a good at bat

1441
01:08:54,160 --> 01:08:54,920
Speaker 5: and strike out.

1442
01:08:55,400 --> 01:08:58,639
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I just I want to be

1443
01:08:59,920 --> 01:09:00,719
Speaker 1: I think it's.

1444
01:09:00,520 --> 01:09:08,640
Speaker 5: Important to examine, but not hold the label true and

1445
01:09:08,760 --> 01:09:11,559
Speaker 5: what because one of the things that Lynn represents to

1446
01:09:11,720 --> 01:09:14,439
Speaker 5: me and what she I think represented to the generation

1447
01:09:14,560 --> 01:09:16,320
Speaker 5: that was actually beautiful.

1448
01:09:17,520 --> 01:09:17,960
Speaker 1: Is that.

1449
01:09:19,880 --> 01:09:23,519
Speaker 5: At the time that I was writing that series, all

1450
01:09:23,600 --> 01:09:26,880
Speaker 5: black women were presented that they knew exactly who they

1451
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:29,000
Speaker 5: are what they needed to be in.

1452
01:09:29,080 --> 01:09:36,360
Speaker 1: Order to be accepted. Lynn represented she didn't know but

1453
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:39,720
Speaker 1: she was still loved even in her sexual like she was.

1454
01:09:39,960 --> 01:09:41,599
Speaker 8: That was probably like the first time I ever saw

1455
01:09:41,600 --> 01:09:44,719
Speaker 8: a woman, black woman on camera that she was queer,

1456
01:09:44,920 --> 01:09:47,120
Speaker 8: but like, we didn't know really what that was.

1457
01:09:47,240 --> 01:09:51,360
Speaker 1: We didn't know that. Yeah, I just thought Lynn was

1458
01:09:51,400 --> 01:09:52,920
Speaker 1: just like the girl who just did whatever she wanted

1459
01:09:52,920 --> 01:09:53,080
Speaker 1: to do.

1460
01:09:53,120 --> 01:09:56,000
Speaker 8: And everybody has that friend, yes, and those friends they

1461
01:09:56,040 --> 01:09:57,920
Speaker 8: have to be strong in themselves to a certain extent

1462
01:09:57,960 --> 01:09:59,679
Speaker 8: because you're so different than everybody else.

1463
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:01,880
Speaker 5: And if you think about len and you put it

1464
01:10:01,920 --> 01:10:04,760
Speaker 5: in this new drugs, she was break the no boundaries.

1465
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:08,400
Speaker 5: She was actually instead of it being toxic, she was

1466
01:10:08,560 --> 01:10:14,439
Speaker 5: actually being progressive. Most people would align queerness to progressive thought, right.

1467
01:10:16,280 --> 01:10:22,800
Speaker 5: She was challenging notions why one could say the way

1468
01:10:22,920 --> 01:10:25,240
Speaker 5: she lived her life was communal living, which is now

1469
01:10:25,240 --> 01:10:26,839
Speaker 5: a conversation for the future.

1470
01:10:28,080 --> 01:10:29,799
Speaker 1: I'm just saying how.

1471
01:10:29,560 --> 01:10:33,000
Speaker 5: We look at things and being careful not to I

1472
01:10:33,000 --> 01:10:37,080
Speaker 5: think it's beautiful to analyze because that's how we progress,

1473
01:10:37,520 --> 01:10:41,640
Speaker 5: but be careful not to then blanket everything with labels.

1474
01:10:42,360 --> 01:10:46,559
Speaker 5: Let's go back to forever. In twenty eighteen, we were

1475
01:10:46,560 --> 01:10:50,879
Speaker 5: saying ADHD. Twenty twenty five, we're saying you're divergent. Language

1476
01:10:51,000 --> 01:10:55,160
Speaker 5: keeps changing as we understand ourselves. And I think that's

1477
01:10:55,160 --> 01:10:58,160
Speaker 5: an interesting thing about the power of language. And one

1478
01:10:58,160 --> 01:11:01,559
Speaker 5: of the things I want to be mindful of, especially

1479
01:11:01,600 --> 01:11:05,519
Speaker 5: in our community, is how quick we are to say, Oh, he's.

1480
01:11:05,360 --> 01:11:07,400
Speaker 1: Toxic, she's toxic, toxic, toxic, toxic.

1481
01:11:07,880 --> 01:11:10,640
Speaker 5: I would love to say, Okay, maybe that aspect of

1482
01:11:10,640 --> 01:11:18,479
Speaker 5: that person needs some development, needs some growth. Don dj Mbi, Mara, Don,

1483
01:11:18,520 --> 01:11:21,120
Speaker 5: we are in this, Okay, our guilt fear. Maybe as

1484
01:11:21,200 --> 01:11:24,599
Speaker 5: parents we need to release that, understand what it is,

1485
01:11:24,680 --> 01:11:25,320
Speaker 5: and let it go.

1486
01:11:26,800 --> 01:11:30,160
Speaker 1: But just be careful not to keep blanketing us.

1487
01:11:31,400 --> 01:11:38,439
Speaker 5: And our desire to grow and our desire to urge,

1488
01:11:38,600 --> 01:11:42,080
Speaker 5: you know, and get whole. So that's what I would say.

1489
01:11:42,560 --> 01:11:45,360
Speaker 5: I think what I love about the collection of those women,

1490
01:11:45,520 --> 01:11:51,519
Speaker 5: those characters is as complicated or toxic as they were,

1491
01:11:52,760 --> 01:11:56,799
Speaker 5: even in that we deserve love and they were trying

1492
01:11:56,840 --> 01:11:59,960
Speaker 5: to figure it out, and they're different ways to stay

1493
01:12:00,080 --> 01:12:03,160
Speaker 5: together and their friendship and then their respective relationships, you know,

1494
01:12:03,320 --> 01:12:07,000
Speaker 5: and and that how do we move forward together in

1495
01:12:07,080 --> 01:12:08,200
Speaker 5: the complexity of us.

1496
01:12:08,400 --> 01:12:10,479
Speaker 1: Just Carrie and Samantha fell out and nobody called them

1497
01:12:10,520 --> 01:12:11,160
Speaker 1: toxic when they.

1498
01:12:11,680 --> 01:12:15,040
Speaker 8: They did know people people so toxic. You to the

1499
01:12:15,080 --> 01:12:17,479
Speaker 8: first person I can remember say that. People feel like

1500
01:12:17,600 --> 01:12:20,479
Speaker 8: Carrie is like was wronged by Samantha, and Samantha is

1501
01:12:20,560 --> 01:12:22,599
Speaker 8: just his free friend who just eventually. They still want

1502
01:12:22,600 --> 01:12:24,280
Speaker 8: to see him get back together as friends. People want

1503
01:12:24,320 --> 01:12:25,679
Speaker 8: Jill to never speak to Jone again.

1504
01:12:25,760 --> 01:12:26,920
Speaker 2: No, that's not true.

1505
01:12:27,080 --> 01:12:28,960
Speaker 1: People feel like they were bad friends to each other.

1506
01:12:29,960 --> 01:12:31,519
Speaker 6: Maybe, but that's not true. We definitely want them to

1507
01:12:31,560 --> 01:12:33,320
Speaker 6: get back together. That's part of the closure. We want

1508
01:12:33,320 --> 01:12:35,320
Speaker 6: to see if Jill and Joan become friends again.

1509
01:12:37,280 --> 01:12:44,559
Speaker 1: Arguing do you guys know? But I'm asking you guys,

1510
01:12:44,600 --> 01:12:46,599
Speaker 1: do you really? I know you do? Charlayne, you are

1511
01:12:46,680 --> 01:12:48,880
Speaker 1: very clear about wanting to see a movie.

1512
01:12:48,640 --> 01:12:49,240
Speaker 2: You are sixteen.

1513
01:12:52,680 --> 01:12:54,400
Speaker 5: I want to also say I'm always going to take

1514
01:12:54,439 --> 01:12:56,960
Speaker 5: a moment to say thank you because you also that

1515
01:12:57,080 --> 01:12:59,080
Speaker 5: means a lot to me as a storyteller, Like wow,

1516
01:12:59,120 --> 01:13:01,760
Speaker 5: that that level of impact on you and even the

1517
01:13:01,800 --> 01:13:04,720
Speaker 5: fact that me and Judy Bloom are the same thing.

1518
01:13:04,720 --> 01:13:06,920
Speaker 1: So I'm a thank you.

1519
01:13:07,000 --> 01:13:09,760
Speaker 5: Now, you three you want to are you going to

1520
01:13:09,800 --> 01:13:12,040
Speaker 5: go spend some money at the theater to go see

1521
01:13:12,080 --> 01:13:13,479
Speaker 5: a girl walk to the theater.

1522
01:13:14,400 --> 01:13:21,559
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be in the damn Yes, I agree.

1523
01:13:21,640 --> 01:13:23,160
Speaker 3: My wife is taking me there so fast.

1524
01:13:23,160 --> 01:13:27,880
Speaker 6: It would be an event. There's not too many events anymore.

1525
01:13:27,880 --> 01:13:28,639
Speaker 6: It would be an event.

1526
01:13:28,840 --> 01:13:30,720
Speaker 1: I think so too. I think peopleoul dress up.

1527
01:13:30,840 --> 01:13:33,600
Speaker 3: I think people on this nice dress and.

1528
01:13:36,160 --> 01:13:36,559
Speaker 2: Be something.

1529
01:13:37,520 --> 01:13:39,840
Speaker 8: You asked on Sherry Shepherd for her to open her phone.

1530
01:13:39,840 --> 01:13:42,280
Speaker 8: She knows somebody with fifty million dollars these too, Yeah.

1531
01:13:42,080 --> 01:13:44,880
Speaker 1: Who you got in your phone? Let's call somebody. Yeah,

1532
01:13:46,200 --> 01:13:52,360
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say, let's call somebody. Yes, thank you

1533
01:13:52,400 --> 01:13:54,320
Speaker 1: for joining us, thank you for having me.

1534
01:13:54,360 --> 01:13:57,240
Speaker 4: It's on Netflix now. We appreciate it. It's a long conversation.

1535
01:13:57,280 --> 01:13:57,760
Speaker 4: We appreciate it.

1536
01:13:57,840 --> 01:13:59,639
Speaker 2: I loved it, and I love what you say.

1537
01:13:59,800 --> 01:14:00,479
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you.

1538
01:14:00,479 --> 01:14:04,200
Speaker 6: You've always been so intentional, and you're right. Girlfriends gave

1539
01:14:04,280 --> 01:14:06,000
Speaker 6: us a lot of a lot of vocabulary.

1540
01:14:06,560 --> 01:14:06,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, so.

1541
01:14:08,400 --> 01:14:10,040
Speaker 5: I had another question, but it gave us a lot

1542
01:14:10,080 --> 01:14:13,000
Speaker 5: to It gave us a lot to have a conversation about.

1543
01:14:13,080 --> 01:14:16,040
Speaker 5: And I think that's really where everything is at is communication,

1544
01:14:16,640 --> 01:14:20,280
Speaker 5: have conversation, share ideas. Were not all we're going to agree,

1545
01:14:20,439 --> 01:14:22,040
Speaker 5: but I think we all get to know each other.

1546
01:14:22,200 --> 01:14:23,360
Speaker 2: But what do you want for ever? To get people

1547
01:14:23,360 --> 01:14:23,960
Speaker 2: permission to do?

1548
01:14:24,000 --> 01:14:26,200
Speaker 1: And that's my last question, I promised, what do I

1549
01:14:26,240 --> 01:14:27,519
Speaker 1: want forever love?

1550
01:14:28,600 --> 01:14:32,320
Speaker 5: I want people to think more about love in every

1551
01:14:32,360 --> 01:14:35,320
Speaker 5: aspect of their life. And actually, even if we're older,

1552
01:14:36,080 --> 01:14:39,000
Speaker 5: that it's okay to want that that first love kind

1553
01:14:39,000 --> 01:14:40,880
Speaker 5: of feeling. Like what do we need to do to

1554
01:14:40,920 --> 01:14:41,719
Speaker 5: get back to that.

1555
01:14:41,640 --> 01:14:44,600
Speaker 1: First love kind of feeling? I don't know.

1556
01:14:44,640 --> 01:14:47,040
Speaker 5: I just think it's I think as a human spirit,

1557
01:14:47,080 --> 01:14:52,320
Speaker 5: having a human experience, dancing with love all the time, it's.

1558
01:14:52,120 --> 01:14:56,280
Speaker 1: Got to be our top endeavor. So that's what I want.

1559
01:14:57,000 --> 01:15:02,439
Speaker 2: Marl Rocker Kill. We appreciate you so much. We love you,

1560
01:15:02,520 --> 01:15:05,040
Speaker 2: we value you, appreciate you and all your work.

1561
01:15:05,160 --> 01:15:07,720
Speaker 1: That's right, Thank you. I really appreciate being here. Thank you.

1562
01:15:07,800 --> 01:15:08,519
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club.

1563
01:15:08,560 --> 01:15:09,400
Speaker 2: It's the breakfast Club.

1564
01:15:09,439 --> 01:15:12,320
Speaker 3: Good morning, wake that ass up in the morning.

1565
01:15:12,439 --> 01:15:13,479
Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club.