Latest news with #JudyBlume
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
5 Songs With ‘Forever' Music Supervisor Kier Lehman
Music supervisor is a job that is part professional music nerd, part aural detective and part crate-digging business affairs exec. 5 Songs is a Deadline series that highlights the work of these below the line workers through songs and stories. Forever is an adaptation of the 1975 Judy Blume novel, but set in Los Angeles rather than New Jersey. It tells the story of two young athletes, played by Justin Edwards and Keisha Clark, who reunite, after going to grade school together, and fall in love but face the pressure of sports, academics and college prep. More from Deadline 'Nobody Wants This' Creator Erin Foster Talks Season 2 Timeline; Leighton Meester And Adam Brody Together On Screen 'Big Mouth' Creator Nick Kroll On Animating Puberty & Destigmatizing The Experience: "It's All Weird And It's All Normal" 'Mindhunter's Holt McCallany Teases "A Chance" David Fincher Will Revive Series As Film Trilogy From Mara Brock Akil, the series, which has already been renewed for a second season, features a of music, particularly songs from L.A.-based artists that were on the scene in 2018. 'We're making sure that we're representing the key moments and key artists from that time period that really tell the story of that time and bring people back to the nostalgia of that time with songs people remember,' music supervisor Kier Lehman told Deadline. Lehman has worked with Brock Akil before on series such as OWN's Love Is_ and BET's Being Mary Jane and said that all of her shows have a ton of songs in them. 'That's something that she's always really thinking about and conceiving as a part of how she's telling the story,' he added. He noted that some songs such as 'Within' by Daft Punk were in the script. 'She has a pretty clear vision of the general style of music and probably a handful of artists and songs. Then I get to really build off of that and bring her new ideas, things that maybe she didn't know and delve deeper into research, especially with a period piece,' he said. WHAT WAS THE FIRST SONG YOU LICENSED FOR 'FOREVER'? The first song we licensed that actually ended up in the show, finally, was the Daft Punk song 'Within' because that was scripted. It's not that they say any lyrics or anything from it in the scene, but it was just really important that we knew we could have that song from the beginning. We're talking pre-production. I'm probably one of the early people that they hire on the show. We're talking from the beginning about ideas and sending music back and forth, reading early versions of the scripts. I knew what this was going to entail, a lot of music. Those are exciting projects, because it means that the music is going to be a really important character in the show, and it's going to be highlighted and upfront and featured. That's exciting for me. THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SONG IN 'FOREVER'? That's a tough one to answer because there's so many songs in there. There are so many moments that where the songs really drive and help tell the story of the show. If I had to pick one, I'd have to go with 'Blessed' by Daniel Caesar, which plays in episode five, when they finally kind of realized that they're coming together. She's searching for him on Martha's Vineyard, and they finally connect and have that moment together. It continues to play through them connecting as a couple. From the reaction that I've seen from fans, that seems like one that really people are connecting with. Daniel Caesar became kind of a theme for them and that's a really big moment for them. I thought it might be Daniel Caesar or Frank Ocean' 'Moon River', which plays at the end of the season. That was the second one on my list. It's the end credit. People have been responding to that one a lot too. THE MOST UNEXPECTED CUE IN 'FOREVER'? We have a little bit of a range of genres in the show. It's definitely heavily R&B and hip hop from that time but there were a couple of scenes, where it was important to include the parents' music. I don't how completely unexpected it is, but one song that I wouldn't necessarily expect to hear in any kind of TV show was Charles Earland's 'Brown Eyes', which was this great jazz piece that played as the parents are in Martha's Vineyard hanging in the house, and it follows them as they walk through the house, looking for Justin while he's making beats. That was one where I was really proud that we were able to use a piece of music like that. In a lot of cases, jazz music doesn't get that kind of placement, doesn't get featured that way, and it usually gets replaced by a cheaper version of something like that, so we really wanted to honor that music of the parents and make sure that we used the real, best, authentic version of what those people would be playing. Is jazz any more of a challenge for you to license? For the most part, it's been pretty good. We worked on the show The Changeling, which is an Apple show, where we used Alice Coltrane, and that was a tricky clearance. At first, she didn't want to approve the use and we had to work through that a little bit to explain the context and the way that it was used in the show and how meaningful that use was. We did eventually get the clearance, and the song is in the show. Sometimes there's a little bit more gathering of information to make sure that the music is being presented in the best light. I think a lot of times people, especially jazz musicians, they're excited. How many artists need to know exactly how their song is going to be used? I'd say it's a pretty small number these days. When we approach, we explain what the show is about, generally, and tell them the scene and how the song is used. There's some information that everybody gets, but I'd say it's maybe 10% to 15% of artists that want to dig deeper and maybe want to see a clip of the use, or have a conversation to know a little bit deeper about the context, and are they going to be presented in a negative light. Sometimes there may be a scene where a character reacts to the music, and then you might have to explain the context of a scene. I had a film, Los Frikis, where we used Barry Manilow, and there was a moment where a character reacts negatively to Barry Manilow's music, but then by the end, there's an arc where Barry Manilow's music comes back, and everybody appreciates it and talks about how cool he was. THE HARDEST SONG TO LICENSE FOR FOREVER? The hardest one in Forever was Travis Scott's 'Butterfly Effect'. It wasn't that he didn't want to approve the song or had any questions of how it was used, but really more he's hard to get to, and he was hard to nail down the approval and get the response from his label. I was trying for weeks, months, probably. Through a mutual friend, I had to get to his manager, who still took a while to respond, and then they were very gracious about it. He was in the middle of doing a huge project and preparing for something, and didn't have the time to focus on something like this, so we just kept at it and pushed the episode delivery as late as we could, so that we could give as much time to do this. Fortunately, with my friend's help, we were able to finally get the approval for the use of that song, and it was really important to have his music in the show. It was important to Mara and important for these characters, because of how his music really resonated with the angst of young black boys. That's something that our character was going through a really tough moment and feeling really bad and wanting to be angry and lash out., Travis Scott's music really carries that emotion for a lot of young kids. I imagine one of the challenges with a soundtrack like this is there's quite a lot of samples and different rights. It's definitely better than it was. I've been doing this for a while and worked on shows that used a lot of hip hop over the years, so I've dealt with a lot of those kind of situations with agreements not being finished, songs being brand new, and having those negotiations worked out. Depending on who's making the show, some people are a little bit more willing to wait and get approvals, as long as those things get figured out. Some people a little bit more strict about that. Those things can go on for a very long time, into the future, after the show gets released. Some of those emails will pop up in my inbox every once in a while, but usually they get resolved over time. One of the benefits of this show being set in 2018 is that like the music has been around for a few years, at least by now, some of these songs have been licensed already, so a lot of that had already been worked out. When I was working on Insecure, we were getting brand new music, fresh out of the studio, people creating for us, or wanting to get us their music immediately, because they wanted to be on the show and have it part of their release, and that was a huge amount of work dealing through clearing songs. [With samples], the labels are really cautious of that but they also know that they have catalogs, and they want to be able to monetize those catalogs, and if something is held up by a tiny little sample that they may or may not know about, they have to weigh the risk of granting that approval or not. They're obviously trying to work through how they can either fix those things, replace them, get them cleared, have somebody redo the tracks. Sometimes they just don't want to know, because they would rather be able to license it and keep things moving as they have throughout the years. Music from the '80s and '90s, there was so much sampling, and there was like ten songs within one song so it's just impossible to parse through all of that. People are obviously way more aware of that now. Newer things don't have that going on, which makes things a little bit easier for us. But, of course, that's always going to be something with hip hop and producers try to sneak things in and get it past everybody. FAVORITE SONG ON 'FOREVER'? This was also very hard to choose because a lot of this music, I personally love. I think my favorite is 'Do 4 Love' by Snoh Aalegra. It's a cover of one of my favorite songs, Bobby Caldwell's 'What You Won't Do For Love'. I love that song and her version is incredible. She's just got an incredible voice and incredible style as an artist that I love, so I think I have to pick that one out of all of them. The way that it's used in the show is also really significant. It plays twice in two different episodes, and kind of helps finish their relationship when they kind of decide, spoiler alert, that they're going to separate at the end of the show. Episode 1: ReunionProne by MasegoPainted on Canvas by Gregory PorterBad and Boujee by MigosWithin by Daft PunkMight Be by Anderson .PaakTime Moves Slow by BadBadNotGood feat. Sam HerringLight and Soul by Foam CollectivePretty Ugly by Tierra Whack Episode 2: GhostedSee You Again by Tyler, The Creator feat. Kali UchisFree (Re-Record) by Deniece WilliamsCall Me by NeikeDrowning by A Boogie Wit A Hoodie (feat. Kodak Black) Love Scars 3 by Trippie ReddJuice by Lady LeshurrNew Love by Victoria MonetButterfly Effect by Travis Scott Episode 3: Fourth QuarterImperfections by Starrah & Diplo Grinding All my Life by Nipsey Hussle Can't by NaazFocus by Tour Llif3 by Lil Uzi VertPlain Jane by A$AP FergWhile We're Young by Jhene Aiko Gangsta by Kehlani Episode 4: Run It BackPrivate Parts by J*DaveyNormal Girl by SZAMoney Longer by Lil Uzi VertGirls Need Love by Summer WalkerTomorrow's Interlude by Until Tomorrow Episode 5: The VineyardThis Feeling by Alabama ShakesMake Me Feel by Janelle MonaeBrown Eyes by Charles EarlandDo 4 Love by Snoh AalegraInto The Ether by Leif VollebekkBurn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) by The Gap BandBlessed by Daniel CaesarMoonlight by XXXTentacion Episode 6: The HoneymoonJapanese Denim by Daniel CaesarNew Whip, Who Dis by Daz Rinko8TEEN by KhalidRiver by Leon BridgesBITTA by Eskeerdo Episode 7: Deep EndTadow by Masego, FKJHey Mr DJ by ZhanéOne Wish (For Christmas) by Whitney HoustonHave Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Leslie Odom Like Summer by Childish Gambino Episode 8: Forever…Cutie Pie by One WayYou're the One by Kaytranada, SydI'm The One by DJ Khaled (feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo)My Type (Remix) by Saweetie (feat. City Girls & Jhene Aiko)Every Kind Of Way by Ain't Gonna Work Out by Mayer HawthorneI Don't Mean To by Sabrina ClaudioDo 4 Love by Snoh AalegraYou're The Only Thing I've Got Going For Me by Bill WrightMoon River by Frank Ocean Best of Deadline 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Griff To Sabrina Carpenter
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Check out the Used Book Sale and other upcoming events at Manitowoc Public Library
MANITOWOC – The Friends of Manitowoc Public Library Used Book Sale returns June 26-28. The event will be in the second-floor Balkansky Community Room at the library, 707 Quay St. Hours are as follow: June 26 — Noon-7:30 p.m.; June 27 — 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; and June 28 — 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. with $4 'stuff a bag.' Cash or local check only are accepted. An ATM is on the first floor near the main entrance. Read more: Manitowoc's Rahr-West Art Museum to host free summer exhibit tour series starting June 18 Here's what else is coming up at the library. For more details, call 920-686-3000 or go to Summer Reading Program — Runs through Aug. 9. Read or be read to a total of 30 days to complete the program. Every six days read earns you a prize. Participants have until Aug. 16 to pick up prizes, while supplies last. Register on the Beanstack app or pick up a paper tracker at the library. More details: Baby Storytime — 9:30 a.m. June 19, 25 and 26. For ages 0-2 and their siblings. Preschool Storytime — 10:30 a.m. June 19, 25 and 26. For ages 2-5 and their siblings. Judy Blume Book Club — 6-7 p.m. June 19 in the second-floor board room. This final gathering of the season will focus on 'In the Unlikely Event.' Although Blume is an author in the Young Adult genre, the club is for adults only. Teen Hang-Out: Summer Sips! — 6-7:30 p.m. June 19. Join Chef Andrew Dunbar in creating a summer drink with syrups and sparkling water. Registration is required at 'An Evening with Michael Perry' — 6-8 p.m. June 19 at the UW-Green Bay, Manitowoc Campus, theater, 705 Viebahn St. Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author and Wisconsin Public Radio contributor. No advance reservations are required. Storytime on the Road — 10 a.m. June 20 at Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center and 10 a.m. June 24 at Lincoln Park Zoo. For development ages 2-5 and their siblings. No registration is required. Glowforge badging dession — 2-3:30 p.m. June 20. The Glowforge uses a laser to engrave designs into different material types like acrylic and wood. Library staff will demonstrate how to use the Glowforge. Upon completion, participants will be 'badged' so they can use the Glowforge at their leisure. Space is limited and registration is required at Department of Workforce Development employment assistance — 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays in the Franklin Street Room. Includes résumé writing, assistance with online applications, assistance registering in Job Center of Wisconsin and more. No appointment needed. Learn About Libby: The Online Reading App — 6-7:30 p.m. June 24 in the second-floor board room. The class is free for all ages and no registration is required. Contact Brandon Reid at breid@ This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc library's Used Book Sale is June 26-28: Hours & more details
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'My queer book being banned was a horrible experience, not a badge of honour'
Abdi Nazemian is an author, screenwriter and producer whose notable work includes Like A Love Story and Call Me By Your Name. The author joins Yahoo's Queer Voices to discuss his latest UK release Like A Love Story, and the experience of it getting banned in some states in America. Like A Love Story is a coming of age tale of three teens during the AIDs crisis in America, including Iranian immigrant Reza who is coming to terms with being gay and the shame and fear he feels. My book Like a Love Story has been banned in many districts in America, and it was recently banned statewide in Utah. That's the first statewide ban it's been a part of, mostly in the United States banning happens school district by school district, the law that Utah passed — which many other states are probably studying to see if they can do the same — bans it in all public schools along with, I believe, now 16 other books. The majority by women, including such huge names as Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume, and then queer authors as well. The experience of being banned is horrible. Usually people congratulate you and say it's a badge of honour, and I suppose in a way I understand why people feel that way but in reality it is bad for you as an author because it brings down sales and scares people out of inviting you to their schools. But more emotionally it reminds me of the whole reason I wrote the book, which is that when I was young books like this would never have been available in the school I was in. I thought the fact that this book could come out and be taught in schools was a sign of all the progress we have made, and now it's become a symbol of how they want to bring us back. It's very, very hard. It feels very shaming, and it breaks my heart. Because I know from all the amazing classrooms I visited in the United States that young kids want to know their history, especially young queer kids. I really find if, as a young person, you don't feel your connection to those who paved the path for you, you feel very lonely. And so it is very much a goal of mine to make these stories available for young kids, for them to know that they have people — elders who fought for them, who care for them, who paved the path. I say this in the 'author's note' of Like a Love Story: I feel like when we teach history to young people we often focus on the worst of history and say let's not repeat it, and the whole idea of Like a Love Story is to teach the best history. Let's teach about the heroes, let's talk about Act Up and how they fought back, how they organised. Let's talk about the artists who spoke truth to power like Madonna, who stood up for the queer community back then. Let's talk about how a community came together when everyone, from governments to families, were turning their backs on them. There's so much to learn, we're in another little moment right now and I think if we study the heroes of that moment we can hopefully meet this moment better. It was very important for me to draw on my own personal stories when I was writing my books. I very much felt the absence of any story that mirrored my own. Growing up there were very few queer stories available to me, full stop. But if there were a few that became available to me they mostly represented Western White gay communities, and they didn't mirror my experiences as an Iranian immigrant. And in terms of Iranian stories there were virtually none as well, and certainly none that dealt with the modern life about an Iranian who had moved to the West and was coming out of the closet and finding a whole community there. So I felt like that intersection between the two core parts of my identity, Iranian and queer, had never been written about. The first book I ever had published, I have been told and no one has corrected I believe, is the first novel to have a male Iranian gay lead, which only came out a decade ago, so that tells you how new these issues are from the community. So for me, there's a real drive to represent my experience because I know other readers, especially young readers out there, are feeling that lack of representation. Like a Love Story is set during the AIDs crisis in America. All of us grow up with certain world events that impact us in ways that take a lifetime to unravel, I'm sure today's young people are going to be unravelling so much that is happening right now. For me, the biggest world event was the HIV/AIDS crisis. It impacted me in so many ways throughout my life, first in the way that I write about it in Like a Love Story, through fear, shame, stigma. I was growing up at a time when there was very little available information about the queer community, and for me as a kid moved to the suburbs of America — I did not move to New York City like my character Reza in the novel, I moved to the suburbs and I had a pretty conservative, very culturally conservative home. We didn't have the Internet, we didn't have queer books and libraries. And so all I knew of being gay was AIDs, and there was this fear that being gay just meant death, it really did. For much of my younger years I just felt like I was going to die young and all my friends felt the same way. And then we worked our way out of that fear through community, through art, through action, and so much of Like a Love Story represents that. The part of the book that matters most to me is that it's about a community fighting back through both anger and love to create real change, and Act Up is the group that the book really pays homage to. They created huge systemic change in the United States around how drugs are approved, who's included in clinical trials, how long they take, changes that have impacted us today. In terms of how we deal with health policy. I look at queer rights group Act Up's work through the character of Uncle Stephen, who is the uncle of one of the main teen characters. He's a person living with AIDS, he's an Act Up activist, and I wrote him because I wanted to show people how important it is to find mentor figures for young queer kids. It's something we don't talk about enough, I think, the importance of how if you have a child whose identity doesn't mirror your own as a parent it's your responsibility to find mentors for them within that community so that they can have an adult to look to for inspiration or ask questions. And the whole idea of Uncle Steven and his friend Jimmy is that these are two gay men who are sharing their experience and their history with young people. One of my favourite things Uncle Steven does is he makes note cards for the characters that are kind of passing on queer history, queer culture, queer terminology, reclaiming words like love. I wrote those because when I was young it was unfathomable that queer history would be taught in schools. And like I said about book banning, I felt like, at least in the US, there was this magical moment where we saw it start to happen that queer history was taught and now the push back begins, which is not entirely surprising because if you study our history every time we seem to be coming into our human rights they start to try to erode them again. And so I think, for me, Uncle Stephen really is there to hopefully show every reader how beautiful and essential it is to have mentorship. I started working in Hollywood because it was the industry that lit up all my dreams as a kid. Movies were my biggest passion so I became a screenwriter and began working as a producer for films like Call Me By Your Name. But Hollywood's resistance to my most personal stories is also why I started writing books. It is very hard in Hollywood to get a story about a queer Iranian teenager made for reasons that have to do with the way the business is run. It takes more money to make a movie or TV show, you need more budget, your audience has to be bigger — I'm not making excuses for the industry that I work in and I still love what I learned after about 8 to 10 years of screenwriting but I knew I was going to have to find a different way to tell my stories. I started to read a lot of the Young Adult books that were coming out of the time books like Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe came out. My cousin was a school teacher, now she's a school administrator, but she was sending me a lot of YA books, and I was so inspired by the stories that were being told, by the cultural specificity and the intersectionality, that's when I had this 'aha' moment of making Young Adult books. I felt it was a place that would really welcome my stories, and I was right. I think as an artist you can find an audience that is craving the stories you need to tell and that becomes this magical relationship. And I've learned as much about myself through writing these stories and revisiting all those emotions and talking to young people about why they're still relevant to them, I've learned as much as readers have. It's always hard to talk about the impact my work has had on others without sounding like I'm full of myself. People say things to you that are so moving, I've had young people tell me that my book is the first time they've learned about HIV and AIDS because a lot of schools don't teach it, and that inspired them. I had someone recently in Texas telling me that because of Like a Love Story he started his own group called the Queer Liberation Network, which he's now asked me to be involved in, and it's modelled after Act Up. It's exactly what I had hoped for, which is that some young person might study the way Act Up modelled themselves and then bring it into the future. One young girl told me she was reading the book and spoke to her dad about what happened during those years and that's how she found out her uncle died of AIDS, which had been a family secret because there was so much shame. Conversations like that to me are what matter the most because they show me that a book like this can really have a huge impact on young life, especially if it's the first time they're hearing this history. Growing up through my teen years there were very few out queer people. There were many people that I knew were queer even if they didn't necessarily talk about it, like George Michael or even Boy George. I didn't know, but I knew somewhere deep down. The biggest role model for me was certainly Madonna, who at a very young age I became obsessed with, really from her first video and I forced my parents to take me to the Virgin Tour when I was eight in Toronto and then forced them to take me to the Blonde Ambition tour when I was 13, and they become fans of their own. But she was so embedded in our home that when she started to really be more overt about including queer culture in her work with Vogue and Truth or Dare, and that era of her work, it was really life changing for me because there was no way to edit that out of our home. It was really the first time, the first time I saw the Gay Pride parade was in Truth or Dare, the first time I saw a gay kiss was in Truth or Dare. The first time I saw queer men who were not white was in Truth or Dare. And the Vogue video presented a version of queer culture that was celebratory, that was diverse, that showed me the life I would be chasing when I was an adult. As I got a little older, I discovered more queer authors and James Baldwin was certainly the one who changed me the most. Again, that was the first time I read a book that was by a queer man who wasn't white. The way he explored intersectionality in books like Another Country really affected me, and there were plenty of others like Armistead Maupin and Andrew Holler, and that original generation of out authors who really inspired me. What young people have to understand is that — although we are facing such immense challenges both in the US and the UK and worldwide when it comes to human rights, queer rights, and how people's rights are being taken away worldwide — I think when it comes to free representation they have to understand what we have now feels like a miracle to someone like me who grew up in a time when there was virtually nothing. When it was the assumption that everything you saw in a movie theatre, on TV, would be filled with homophobia. I mean the homophobia in that era, I was young in the 80s, it would hit you from the strangest places. I have so many memories of going to see what felt like a mainstream comedy and then there's all this homophobic humour in it. So for me to see everything from something like Heartstopper, which is so life affirming for young people, to Baby Reindeer that deals with queer sexual abuse in a way that felt unheard of when I was young, to one of my favourite shows: the Spanish limited series called Veneno, which tells the true story of a Spanish trans woman. So much of the trans representation is something we couldn't have imagined at the time. And many people I'm learning from seeing what young people are making, learning about the way our community is expanding. As a young person, I didn't have that many queer role models. I was very lucky in that when I went to boarding school there were some queer teachers. The teacher who really took me under his wing, he was my English teacher, was not queer but he was the first person that I came out to. It's a very close relationship that a lot of teenagers develop with their English teacher. If you are a literary minded kid, if you are a queer kid, I've talked to many fellow members of our community about this and that relationship can feel so intimate as through the books you discuss your own identity, your own experiences. And for me, it felt very safe to come out to my English teacher more than anyone else. So he matters a lot to me, despite not being queer, there was a queer teacher who showed many of us documentaries like Paris is Burning and the Life and Times of Harvey Milk, and that was very important. But I never had a mentor that was queer in the way that Uncle Stephen is a mentor in my book, which is part of why I wrote that, to model what it might have looked like because it's what I wanted. It's what I wished for but never really happened. I think there's still a lot that can still improve in terms of queer storytelling. I still think we're seeing the majority of queer stories be about white gay people, when it comes to representation of members of our community who are trans, non-binary, from communities of colour, it's still very few and far between. But at the same time, I do think the representation has improved in such huge ways that it also feels like we should celebrate what has been done while still pushing for better. The magic of storytelling in all its forms is that it opens people's hearts through allowing you into how a person experiences the world, and this has been studied and proven. If we don't know someone or a certain community personally it's very easy to be bigoted toward them, as you get to know people of a community you suddenly realise they're human just like you and you see that the bigotry is unwarranted. And so I just think we need more open communication, both through storytelling but also through real conversations, and I think that has to happen in schools, that has to happen in families. We just need more openness to hearing others' experiences of the world. Part of my advice to young people is to stay strong, to hold tight to the community. As a queer person, I know how important it is at every age to find a community that mirrors your values, because often queer youth don't have that in their families or in their school administration, so you have to really hold tight to those bonds. But I also always want to say, because I think so much is expected from this generation and they're growing up so much more engaged in the world because of social media and the way the world is structured, I really do believe young people also need to be young and shouldn't put too much pressure on themselves to change the world. If they can that's great, if it naturally comes to them, but young people should feel OK if all they're doing is focusing on learning, building knowledge, building core relationships, building those foundations so that when they're a grown up they have a strong core from which to spread their wings and do the things they love to do.
Washington Post
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
‘Forever' is supposed to be a teen romance. So why are Black moms obsessed?
The messages in my mom group chat kept multiplying. First there were 10 unreads. Then 12. Now 20. What episode are you on? Catch up! When can we discuss? Cocktails! We were all suddenly and unexpectedly hooked on 'Forever,' the Netflix teen romance adapted by executive producer Mara Brock Akil from the 50-year-old Judy Blume novel of the same name. Brock Akil had already painted the fullness of the Black experience on TV in both multi-cam sitcoms ('Girlfriends,' 'The Game') and hour-long dramas ('Being Mary Jane,' 'Love Is __'). Her shows offer dimension and something to chew on. It's no surprise that her sumptuous take on 'Forever' is teeming with Black life. What was surprising was how 'Forever' — a story known for tackling love and sex from two teens' perspectives — snuck up on us. We're middle-aged mamas after all. We should've been getting precious sleep that Thursday in May when the show dropped, not bingeing until 2 a.m. But hidden inside the show's meet-cute plot was an emotional snare rigged specifically for Black mothers. Set in Los Angeles in 2018, 'Forever' follows high-schoolers Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.) as they trip into a first love that's confusing, all-consuming and life-changing. But what continues to spark discussions among the Black women I talked to wasn't the drama between those star-crossed lovers from the opposite sides of the 10 freeway. No, they focused on the mothers of 'Forever' — particularly Justin's 'catastrophic' parent, Dawn, who reared her children from a place of fear, protection and a deep love that so many in my mom group recognized. For them, watching Dawn (Karen Pittman), an upper-class Black mother trying to safely and successfully launch her child into adulthood while navigating the meteors of adolescence and the minefield of being a Black man in America, was a gut check. It was like looking into an iPhone camera and a crystal ball, the images familiar and a little fear-inducing too. Is that what I really look like? Sound like? ''Forever' is hitting me hard,' messaged one friend, whose son is on the cusp on puberty. Another was particularly moved by 'how our dreams for our children and for who they will be can become their biggest challenges and obstacles,' she wrote. Others saw themselves in Dawn as the mother of neurodiverse son, an athlete, a child raised in privilege they didn't have. 'When I tell you I'm this mama!!!' texted another friend. When we first meet Dawn, she establishes herself as a mother who is 'not one of your little friends.' It's New Year's Eve and Justin wants to go to a party. But Dawn, husband Eric (Wood Harris) and their younger son already have family game night set up. Draped in a silk robe and holding court at their kitchen island, she grills Justin about this 'party' like a prosecutor: Was he invited specifically? Where is it? Who all's going to be there? Blank stare. 'No information, no party,' says Dawn, emphasizing her stance with a 'not gonna happen' hand slice across her neck. 'We got cops out here shooting Black boys like it's open season and I'm tripping?' Dawn says incredulously. Justin argues that some of his fancy private-school classmates don't even come home on the weekend. Dawn fires back that they're mostly White and he is most definitely not. The conversation devolves. Justin gets sent to his room, where eventually Eric, the straight-talking dad, throws his son a lifeline with some conditions. But the lines are drawn. Dawn's boundaries are clear. She isn't budging when it comes to her son. Why were we gobsmacked? It's not as if Black mothers haven't been fixtures on mainstream television, from Julia Baker ('Julia') to Rainbow Johnson ('Black-ish'). They've been single, married, widowed, poor, bougie, homemakers, doctors, lawyers and English professors. Sure, there have been a handful of Black TV mothers who occupy a particular social stratum on the small screen — married, professional, outspoken. Clair Huxtable of 'The Cosby Show,' to start. But Dawn — with her elite degree, quiet-luxury closet and type-A kung-fu grip on her son's future — felt familiar to us but distinct on TV. Not because of her CV (but there was that), but because her brand of parenting was so uniquely tied to her identity as a Black woman raising a Black son in America today. She isn't a Clair or an Aunt Viv or a Rainbow. 'Those characters feel real, but they also feel like a TV show, right?' sociologist Mia Brantley said. 'When you watch Dawn, there's a realistic aspect to her. I see my friends. I see my own mother. And now that I am preparing for motherhood I see parts of myself. I see conversations me and my spouse are having about raising a son.' The obstacles Black children and the parents raising them (particularly the mothers who still in 2025 take on the lion's share of the emotional labor) can't be resolved in three acts and three commercial breaks. 'There's a realistic nature to the way these conversations are being depicted. These conversations are messy,' said Brantley, who should know: An assistant professor at North Carolina State University, she researches Black mothering in the United States, particularly how women imbue their children with their own racial identity. Brantley said Dawn's heightened concern regarding Justin's physical (and emotional) safety could have been pulled directly from a chapter in her forthcoming book, 'Mothering on the Defense,' which examines the long-term affects that the stress of raising Black children can cause their parents. But the hypervigilance is understandable, Brantley said. The overprotectiveness that flat-out avoids milestones such as getting a driver's license or staying out past midnight is rooted in love. 'Mara did an amazing job of depicting what reality is like for Black parents,' Brantley said. Brittany Packnett Cunningham, an activist and mother of two, saw herself in both Dawn and Justin. 'Black upper-middle-class children are raised really tightly,' said Packnett Cunningham, who grew up in St. Louis attending predominantly White schools but whose parents did the 'extra work' of making sure she was rooted in African American culture. She had a stricter curfew than her White peers. The idea of a gap year? Pfft. The only colleges on the table were elite institutions. Once Packnett Cunningham started watching 'Forever,' she couldn't stop. Soon she texted her husband, Reggie, 'I need you to see this.' 'Forever' put a bullhorn behind the common conversations happening in living rooms in Baldwin Hills, Shepherd Park and Park Slope — about the pitfalls of sending Black children to mostly White schools, tasking your child with being 'undeniable' despite knowing how impossible that is, the adultification of Black girls, the genuine excitement that your Black son is dating a Black girl, all the specific anxieties that only Black mothers experience. 'There's just so much there about how our villages function for our children. To be able to access a story about that as a parent and as someone who was once young, dumb and in love is a really special thing,' Packnett Cunningham said. 'So much of this writing is just healing people,' she said. 'I'm prepared to watch is as many times as it takes me to get what I need from it.' Meanwhile, Pittman — Dawn herself — has seen your DMs, the good and the bad. She's gotten so many notes from women who love the character that the veteran actress is thinking of putting 'I am Dawn' on a T-shirt. (Among my mom group, she'd have some buyers.) 'Even if we don't always agree with what Dawn does, we do look at her and we think, 'Gosh, I understand,'' Pittman said. 'I'm deeply compassionate, where this woman is concerned. I know why she's making every choice she's making. I have a very serious take on her. I have a very deeply felt take.' Yes, Pittman has kids, including an adult son. What kind of mom does she think Dawn is? In show, the character says she's been told she has a 'catastrophic parenting style. I damn near have a panic attack if my child wears a hoodie.' But off screen Pittman struggled to define Dawn's mothering, which can be as soft as it is sharp. When Justin needs a mental health day, she recognizes it instantly and gives him space. And when he's shirking on his college application? She lectures him on being 'undeniable.' 'She appears to be very antagonistic in the story,' Pittman said. 'She presents as the villain. She must be, you know, heavy in the role. Her behavior must be much more … angular?' 'Elbows out?' I suggested. 'She's elbows out! And she has to be, you know. Dawn is the supervillain. And that's a steep fall to go, from the superhero to the supervillain,' Pittman said, explaining from her own experience what it's like to parent a young man versus a little boy. Your child's perception of you shifts. 'I'm telling you it's painful,' the actress added. Pittman, who is a series regular on 'The Morning Show' and appeared in the first two seasons of 'And Just Like That,' had been waiting for a role like Dawn. She wanted to play a very specific kind of mother. Not one who's marginalized in the plot, or limited to setting up punch lines for the funnier dad. 'We've been nestled behind our husbands as Black woman on American television, to support them and support the kids. But this character elbows her way to the front, you know what I mean?' For the actress, Dawn isn't alone in the cultural zeitgeist as a professional and outspoken Black mother — she contains some Ketanji Brown Jackson, some Michelle Obama. To that point, Pittman is also very interested in those other DMs she gets, from folks criticizing her character — she's way too aggressive, she's not submissive to her husband, she's racist because Dawn wants her son to date a Black girl. Obviously Karen is not Dawn, but she'll accept that award thank you very much. 'I feel like we could actually be having a cocktail talking about this,' Pittman said when we spoke. Funny she should say that. The same week Netflix announced 'Forever' would get a second season, the thread of the mom group chat was getting too long to read. We needed to process in person, so we congregated one Friday night after putting our kids to bed to process together until the wee hours. Of course our hostess had notes and talking points, and we kicked off what would turn into a late-night conversation by naming our favorite characters. We couldn't all say Dawn. But she was in the room with us, snacking on prosciutto and grapes, because we felt she was us. That was Pittman's goal. 'I want you to just lean in,' she told me, 'and before you know it you see you.'
Forbes
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Creating Costumes For Teen True Love In Netflix's 'Forever'
Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) and Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) star in "Forever" on Netflix. Credit: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix © 2024 Elizabeth Morris/Netflix Tanja Caldwell designed the wonderful costumes for Mara Block Ali's Netflix series, Forever. But before that, it feels important to mention the source material on which the series is based. The novel, which has almost the same name, was first published in 1975, by beloved American author Judy Bloom. (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret was also by Blume.) Forever-the-book won the Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1996, for its 'significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature,' and in 2019 was included in the BBC's list of the 100 Most Inspiring Novels. But regardless of its many commendations, the novel, intended for older teenagers, remains one of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books according to the American Library Association, 50 years after its original date of publication. Why? Because the book discusses sex and acknowledges that teenagers might be competent to both engage in the act and be able to deal with whatever consequences might arise afterwards. The reason the book resonated with teens in the 1970s and the 1990s is the same reason that the series resonates with viewers right now; it is a story that respects the voices of its young characters. In her adaptation, Ali made a point of conveying that respect, and of never looking down on her characters simply because they are young. Tiffany (Paigion Walker), Christian (Xavier Mills), Brittany (Adriyan Rae), and Shelly Clark (Xosha Roquemore) . Cr. Elizabeth Morris/Netflix © 2024. Elizabeth Morris/Netflix 'That was very important to Mara,' Caldwell told me, 'it was very important to Regina, who directed the first episode and was one of the executive producers, and all the directors that came on. Everyone, with Mara's lead, was about making it real and genuine to the time and to the people, the adults and especially the young people who are our main characters in this series. It was important to show that growth throughout. I think it's important to show young people in the diversity that they have, even at a young age. I think that gets them interested in their own storytelling, when we tell them in a way that's real and genuine to them.' [Caldwell, I need to tell you, was an assistant costume designer on Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, working under the incomparable Ruth Carter. It is so cool, I had to make sure you knew this.] Forever takes place in 2018 and 2019, a time which, post-Covid, feels almost technicolor in its innocence. These are also years that many members of Gen Z, the generation immediately following us millennials, spent in high school. Seven or eight years later those kids are all adults. Caldwell understood this, and she worked very hard to make her costumes Los Angeles in exactly those two years. Her research was incredibly extensive and the costumes reflect this fact, they are better for her diligent attentions but they never pull from the action occurring in a scene. Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.), Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone), Chloe (Ali Gallo), Aunt Katherine (Polly Draper) , Uncle Michael (Tim Bohn), and Jeanine (Sherri Saum) at the beach in episode five. Credit: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix © 2024 Elizabeth Morris/Netflix 'There are significant fashion differences between 2018-2019 and today,' Caldwell said, 'but there are also a lot of similarities. It was really important to make some distinguishing wardrobe options and choices, but we also were able to still play with more modern fashion, which helped us out a lot. The process for me really is discovery and research, about these different characters from the script, but also what young culture was in LA at that time.' Wardrobe on any production is a blend of apparel purchased, rented, tailored, remade, made from scratch. This show was no different, but needing clothing that was from a specific window of time, less than a decade old, meant the costume designer spent a lot of time in Los Angeles vintage stores. 'It was fun to dabble in vintage things, archive things, rare sneakers, rare t-shirts, things of that nature,' she told me when I asked about this. 'It was really fun to dig. When I was a teenager, I really loved vintage, I loved shopping for vintage. I think what I loved more than anything was the hunt, when you were able to find something really beautiful, really amazing, or more than one piece, and it was in great condition, or if it was a designer piece and in your size, so you just so happen to be able to fit it in.' Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) and Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) begin to bond in "Forever." Credit: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix © 2024 Elizabeth Morris/Netflix Figuring out who each character is, what they would wear and why, is something worked out between more than one person. The script might be specific about clothing, the showrunner and/or director will have thoughts, the production designer and the scenes they stage will impact how costumes read. Actor spend a lot of time figuring out who they are portraying, and for some performers that involves collaborating with the costume designer. It's a lot to think about and remember. 'Part of what I love about costume design is the research,' Caldwell said to me with a smile, deflecting my praise with precision. 'The discovery, who these characters are and how we see them through a lens of fashion, what will be distinguishing about their characters. One thing I talked about with Mara was creating somewhat of a uniform for Justin. Not that he was wearing the exact same thing, but if you look, you'll see most of the time he has a certain uniformity to what he's wearing.' 'He's always in Dickies,' the designer continued, 'different colors, some may be shorter or longer or more narrow or a little more aged. But he's always in Dickies, some form of a t-shirt, whether it's a plain shirt or it's a band shirt or something with a subliminal message on it. Then he's got a flannel shirt or some type of second layer, which I think is really indicative of Los Angeles culture. Layering is a big thing out here, just with the change of the weather.' Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) in an awesome Dr. Dre tee from Episode 1 of "Forever." Credit: Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Netflix © 2024 Hilary Bronwyn Gayle, SMPSP/Netflix When she was reading the script, the costume designer told me, she could feel the influence on Justin's character from his parents. She thought this might be something that would peek into his wardrobe, a tiny bit. 'His mother, especially,' Caldwell said. 'Whether he wants it or not, her influence, her hand on him is extremely close and heavy. I thought, if she's buying his clothes and she's watching him that closely, she's make sure he does his homework, she's got a tutor for him. She stays in touch with everything that he has going on. She's going to have some hands on his clothes. He's not going to have ripped distressed jeans with a lot of holes, w he's always going to look clean and put together, but still having his thumbprint on it some way, somehow.' 'With Karen Pittman's character, Justin's mother, having to be so strict because she loves him so much, maybe even a little bit to her fault, maybe a little bit overbearing. I think she still wants her son to show up in the world a certain way, that's how my parents were. You have some freedom to express yourself. But there are certain things in fashion, certain trends that you're allowed to do at this age and others you're not allowed to do, that's not the type of image you want to present yourself at this age or under my roof. These are the standards. I feel like that was more or less the way Justin's mother influences his style. His dad, I think he's the good cop. He doesn't say a lot, but when he speaks to his son, he always says something really profound and you just get it and there are some similarities in even the way that they dress. Even in the sweatshirts and hoodies, dad usually is very well put together, but he has this laid back feel. He's never super buttoned up or stuffy, but he doesn't look drabby or disheveled either. I think that's part of him being a chef and also an artist. I think that's why he may understand his son a little bit better.' Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) and Darius (Niles Fitch) in personalized variation of their school uniforms. Credit: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix © 2024 Elizabeth Morris/Netflix As my regular readers will know, I am fascinated by uniforms, by the many, many ways there are to make or source garments en masse. I do love the challenge of military uniforms, but the sort worn to private schools offer similar challenges. 'We bought a ton of uniforms in the beginning,' Caldwell told me, 'because we knew we were going to need a multitude of them for background. We got a multitude of sizes. But before we even did that, we locked down with production, Mara especially, what the colors of the school are. Because there's a whole lot of work that goes into just clearing the name of a school and the colors that you use.' This is what I mentioned a little earlier, how no decision can be made independently of others. Telling stories on film is, by the nature of the medium, a collaborative art form. 'Once we decide what the colors are and what the name of the school is,' Caldwell told me, 'then we go out and we purchase from a uniform store. Then we go out and buy things for the main characters, just to add a little zhuzh to their particular uniform. But in this case, we tried to keep it really true to what it really is in LA. And a lot of private schools give you certain guidelines, on certain days you can wear this, and on certain days you can't. We were modeling their school off of a school that Mara and her nieces or nephews had actually gone to in Los Angeles. We tried to keep to what those standards and rules were. They all had their own little something because I think that's important.' Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) in her school's uniform. Courtesy of Netflix Our main characters, Justin Edwards and Keisha Clark, don't attend the same high school, though they both do go to schools in LA. 'So, different colors and also two different standards of what the procedures are for those uniforms,' Caldwell reminded me. 'We did that research, and then we came about it organically. We tried on a bunch of different versions, the vest with the skirt, the vest with the plain skirt versus the plaid skirt. Her school didn't have a blazer. His school did, but didn't feel right for him but it felt great for Darius.' I asked the designer what she was concerned about most for Forever, what part of her job seemed to be most vitally attached to the arc the characters follow. 'For me, it was about trying not to draw so far outside the lines. I wanted to still be real and honest. And I love that the kids can wear their own sneakers, we definitely played that up with both of them. We definitely went in on the shoes. I think that was important, I think It's important to see representations of ourselves at every stage of life. If art is to imitate life, and vice versa, we have to show all those different stages, and we need to show it in the rawest, realest way. I think that sometimes we can be persuaded or influenced to show things in a way that we think we know it to be, not what it really is. So it is all about discovery and asking questions and observing people.' While I watched the series I kept noticing small things, like the way that the sportswear the teens wear after school at practice is carefully curated to the character who wears it. 'That's the thing about costume design,' Caldwell told me when I asked her about this,'just about everything is intentional, whether the viewer is aware of it or not.' How did this work practically? I was very curious, because things never happen on screen by accident, and when I see consistency across time, like I saw over and over in this series, I know it is because a person made certain that it did. The designer told me how she used color to subtly nod to the character wearing each costume. Tammy (Emyri Crutchfield) and Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) in Episode 1 of "Forever." Credit: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix © 2024 Elizabeth Morris/Netflix 'For Tammy,' Caldwell explained, 'we put more in these darker muted colors, but they were still rich. We kept Keisha in the bright fluorescents, just because she's the star not only of the show, but she's also the star of the team. She's really pushing herself to get on a university track team and get that scholarship so she can attend. So I wanted her to stand out, even amongst her peers, when she was running. Even when she was with Christian at the Nike camp, I wanted her to seem bright. When she's at the Canyon, which worked really well because it was dawn, she's in a fluorescent orange, two-piece sports bra and matching shorts. When she's first running against Tammy and wins, she's in a fluorescent yellow Nike bra top and Nike shorts.' I asked Caldwell if she would tell me about something she was really proud of, something she figured out or made happen for Forever. There are so many more solutions than we are conditioned to see, and costume design is excellent proof that I am correct. A dozen costume designers presented with the same challenge would come back with a dozen different ways of making it happen. So, while working on this Netflix series, Caldwell generously told me this story, 'This was a really crazy story and something you don't see as much. We were doing interstitials, towards episode eight, Instagram shots that you see really quick that helps us pass time. There is a shirt that we actually made, one that we found, that was vintage,' the designer told me. 'We had to get it made because we needed multiples of it. And later we ended up revisiting it in a scene with Keisha and with Justin. ' 'In those shots,' Caldwell explained, 'Mara was putting them at a Little Uzi Vert concert. We went and found the Little Uzi Vert tour t-shirts from 2018, 2019, saw what those shirts looked like, and we really tried to get them. We only found one or maybe two. Scouring the world, you know, Etsy and vintage shops online and here in LA. The one thing about vintage is that when you're not looking for it, that's when you find it. If you look for something, you never find it. A few of them we had to recreate because we didn't have enough to place on all four actors. Costume designer Tanja Caldwell. Courtesy of Tanja Caldwell 'What's great about our process is in the beginning of prep, we were able to just start collecting a lot of beautiful vintage things. LA still has quite a few really great vintage stores that still collect, an assortment of really great tees in great condition. That was something from the research, in 2018, 2019, what did band tees look like? What concerts were going on? What artists were big then that teenagers were listening to?' Would she be willing to share any names of the places she likes to shop for vintage. 'I'm not a gatekeeper,' the designer said to me with a laugh. 'I like to share information because I like to get their information back. 'We found some really good t-shirts at American Rag on Melrose,' she continued. 'They're always really helpful and were really great, especially with Justin's band tees. They have a great assortment of vintage; skater, hip hop, old vintage Ralph Lauren… It was a really one-stop shop that we could go to. There's a really great shop, Virgo, that I love personally. It's in downtown LA and the owner is this really special young woman who started it. I go there to shop and I love their stuff.' When the last episode of Forever came to a close, I desperately wanted to warn the characters that Covid-19 was coming. That is how real these characters and story feel; the suspension of disbelief is as seamless as the costumes Tanja Caldwell designed for the series. 'I'm just really fortunate that I was able to be a part of it,' said the designer. All episodes of season one of Forever are available to stream on Netflix.
