Latest news with #LenaWaithe
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
LGBTQ+ Americans fight for the American flag in a new documentary
In the early minutes of the short documentary 'Reclaim the Flag,' actor and writer Lena Waithe rests her head in her hand and takes a few moments to consider the small American flag that she's been handed and that now rests in her lap. 'If you're a person that feels like you belong, that you've been embraced, then you'll wave it with pride,' she said. 'If you feel like your people have been killed, wronged, been able to be seen as less than human under the flag, you're going to be triggered by it. But yet still be born under it.'
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
2025 Humanitas Prize nominations: ‘The Pitt,' ‘The Studio,' and ‘The Last of Us' among those honored for exceptional storytelling
The 2025 Humanitas Prize nominations have been announced, once again honoring television and film writers who masterfully explore the depth of the human experience. This year's awards will be presented at a Sept. 7 ceremony in Hollywood hosted by actress and comedian Fortune Feimster (Fubar, Zootopia 2). On the TV side, drama nominees include Emmy contenders The Pitt, The Last of Us, The Handmaid's Tale, and Brilliant Minds. Comedy contenders include The Studio, The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh, A Man on the Inside, and Clean Slate. Limited series being honored include Dying for Sex, Interior Chinatown, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, and Say Nothing. More from Gold Derby Why buzzy new soap 'Beyond the Gates' isn't eligible at the 2025 Daytime Emmys, how the number of contenders is determined, and more burning questions answered Everything to know about 'Wednesday' Season 2 as trailer drops: New mysteries, returning cast, and big surprises In the film categories, last year's Oscar contenders Conclave, Nickel Boys, and Sing Sing will battle it out for Best Drama Feature, while Dìdi (弟弟), My Old Ass, and A Real Pain compete in comedy. Inside Out 2, Out of My Mind, and The Wild Robot are nominated for Best Family Feature. Beyond the competition, the evening will spotlight visionary writers with one of the event's highest honors: the Voice for Change Award. This year's recipient is Emmy winner Lena Waithe, who will be presented the award by acclaimed filmmakers Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King) and Mara Brock Akil (Forever). Waithe was chosen as this year's recipient because it 'honors those who have created or championed visionary and courageous storytelling,' the Humanitas organization shared in their announcement. The Humanitas, which has handed out over 450 prizes since its founding in 1974, continues its mission to 'honor and empower writers of film and television exploring the human experience." ''This year's group of nominees is an inspiring group with an admirable oeuvre, and we're eager to gather with them in September to celebrate,' said executive director Michelle Franke. In a historic move for the awards, this year debuts two separate categories for documentaries: one for feature documentaries and another for episodes in docuseries. Overall, the 2025 Humanitas Prizes will honor writers across 10 competitive categories, including Drama Teleplay, Comedy Teleplay, Limited Series Teleplay, Children's Teleplay, and three feature film categories (Drama, Comedy, and Family). The event will also celebrate the next generation of storytellers through the New Voices Fellowship, a six-month mentorship program designed to connect early-career writers with industry leaders. High honors will also be presented through the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award and the Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award, both of which include a $20,000 prize, mentorship opportunities, and professional feedback sessions. Additionally, the Starz #TakeTheLead award will return this year, celebrating a writer who has emerged from either the Humanitas Fellowship or College Screenwriting Award programs and who has demonstrated a commitment to improving representation in their storytelling. See the complete List of 2025 Humanitas Prize Nominees below. Drama TeleplayBrilliant Minds ('The Man From Grozny'): Michael Grassi, Shannon LooneyThe Last of Us ('The Price'): Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross, Craig MazinThe Handmaid's Tale ('Finale'): Bruce MillerThe Pitt ('2:00 P.M.'): Joe Sachs Comedy TeleplayClean Slate ('Chrome Jesus'): Simran Baidwan, Shantira JacksonA Man on the Inside ('Tinker Tailor Older Spy'): Michael SchurThe Pradeeps of Pittsburgh ('Interrogation Log #1'): Vijal PatelThe Studio ('Casting'): Alex Gregory Limited Series TeleplayDying for Sex ('It's Not That Serious'): Kim RosenstockInterior Chinatown ('Generic Asian Man'): Charles YuLockerbie: A Search for Truth ('Episode 1'): David HarrowerSay Nothing ('Do No Harm'): Clare Barron Children's TeleplayHeartstopper ('Journey'): Alice OsemanMarvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur ('Full Moon'): Liz HaraMe ('Pilot'): Barry L. LevyPrimos ('Summer of Silencio'): Natasha Kline Drama FeatureConclave: Peter StraughanNickel Boys: RaMell Ross, Joslyn BarnesSing Sing: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar Comedy FeatureDìdi (弟弟): Sean WangMy Old Ass: Megan ParkA Real Pain: Jesse Eisenberg Family FeatureInside Out 2: Dave Holstein, Meg LeFauveOut of My Mind: Daniel StieplemanThe Wild Robot: Chris Sanders Short Film'Babka': Serena Dykman'The Cockroach': Mary Pat Bentel'Hour of Blood': Marcella Ochoa'Neither Donkey Nor Horse': Robin Wang, Jesse Aultman Documentary (Feature)Cutting Through Rocks: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza EyniDeaf President Now!: Nyle DiMarco, Davis GuggenheimThe Last of the Sea Women: Sue KimPatrice: The Movie: Ted Passon Documentary (Docuseries, Single Episode)30 for 30 Shorts ('Motorcycle Mary'): Haley WatsonDown in the Valley ('Saints and Sinners'): Nicco Annan, Katori Hall, Shoshana GuyTurning Point: The Vietnam War ('The End of the Road'): Brian KnappenbergerVow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae ('Wounded Knee 1973'): Yvonne Russo Best of Gold Derby Everything to know about 'Too Much,' Lena Dunham's Netflix TV show starring Megan Stalter that's kinda, sorta 'based on a true story' Cristin Milioti, Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Williams, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actress interviews Paul Giamatti, Stephen Graham, Cooper Koch, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actor interviews Click here to read the full article.
Fox News
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
LGBTQ celebrities divided on Stars and Stripes in new documentary 'Reclaim the Flag'
LGBTQ celebrities gave mixed reactions to the American flag in a trailer for the upcoming documentary "Reclaim the Flag" on Tuesday. The trailer opened with a voice-over asking interview subjects what the American flag symbolizes to them. "Depending on how the United States feels about you will depend on how you feel about the flag," actress and writer Lena Waithe answered. Others were more cynical, saying the flag represented "trauma" and that they were "not welcome here." "If I'm on Grindr and I see an American flag emoji in somebody's bio, I think that is a Republican," content creator Matt Bernstein joked. The plot description on YouTube said that the American flag had begun to symbolize fear for citizens whose rights were in an "uncertain flux." The 30-minute short will aim to answer whether the flag could be reclaimed and how LGBTQ people can do it. Despite some concerns that their community is under attack by people who wield the American flag, other documentary subjects were more optimistic about what the flag could mean to the LGBTQ community. "The American flag is not their flag. We should be proud of the American flag. We're Americans," Interview magazine editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg said. The documentary will feature approximately 50 LGBTQ community members, ranging from content creators and writers to political figures such as former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. It is set to premiere on the documentary's YouTube channel on July 17. In a comment to Variety, designer Alexis Bittar, who helped produce the short, described the significance of the documentary in helping shape a path for LGBTQ people to reclaim the flag again. "Over the past decade, the American flag has increasingly become a symbol of division. I wanted to make a documentary about reclaiming it for all Americans — by bringing together 50 leaders from the LGBTQ+ community to share their reflections and hopes," Bittar said. "Speaking with a historically marginalized group offered a powerful lens for shaping a blueprint toward actionable steps to reclaim the flag."
CBS News
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
How Lena Waithe and Phylicia Rashad blend personal truth into 7th season of "The Chi"
Lena Waithe and Phylicia Rashad bring new energy to "The Chi" in Season 7 The most-streamed season premiere in "The Chi" history has brought together an talented duo: Emmy winner Lena Waithe and Broadway legend Phylicia Rashad, who are exploring how three generations of Black women navigate love, family and Chicago's South Side in the hit Showtime drama's seventh season. The drama series, which follows characters from different walks of life on Chicago's South Side, has been renewed for an eighth season following the most-streamed season premiere in the show's history. "You can't make a TV show without a loyal audience, and you also want to create characters that people fall in love with, that they can relate to," said Waithe, who serves as creator and executive producer. "Being a daughter of Chicago, we understand the responsibility of making sure people know that Chicago is a community." Rashad, who won Tony, Emmy and NAACP Image Awards throughout her career, joined the cast this season as Renee, a mother dealing with family dynamics including her ex-husband's attempts at reconciliation. Rashad recently made her Broadway directorial debut with a production that earned six Tony Award nominations. The 76-year-old actress praised the welcoming atmosphere on set. "Everybody was so bright and warm and welcoming," Rashad said. "We had fun at that dinner table." Waithe said she specifically wrote Rashad's character to explore generational perspectives on relationships and social issues, drawing from her own experience growing up in a three-generation household. "I kind of found that even though we were all speaking English, we were speaking different languages," Waithe said, "We encountered three different countries and three different worlds." "The Chi" airs Friday nights on Paramount+ with Showtime and is produced by Showtime, a division of Paramount Global, which also owns CBS.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lena Waithe and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins on How Pulitzer Winner ‘Purpose' is in Dialogue With ‘A Raisin in the Sun'
The Emmy-winning writer-actor Lena Waithe ('The Chi,' 'Master of None') recently sat down with the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to discuss his Pulitzer Prize-winning new play, 'Purpose,' now up for six Tony Awards including best play. Waithe was interested in talking through all the ways that Jacobs-Jenkins' drama about a Black family in Chicago can be seen as a work in conversation with Lorraine Hansberry's landmark 1959 play 'A Raisin in the Sun.' The duo bonded over their shared reverence for Hansberry and picked apart the themes and ideas in 'Raisin' that are refracted through a contemporary lens in 'Purpose.' LENA WAITHE: The night of the Met Gala, I was home and watching the carpet and feeling such positivity, and I did something that I do every year: I revisited 'A Raisin in the Sun' — the film, but I also have the text of the play as well. The film really moves me in a lot of different ways. I had the honor of being at the opening night of 'Purpose,' and it was such a phenomenal evening. I couldn't help but feel the conversation that was happening between 'A Raisin in the Sun' and 'Purpose.' More from Variety Original 'Hamilton' Cast to Reunite for Tony Awards Performance Why Pulitzer Winner 'Purpose' Had Its Tony-Nominated Cast 'Sh-ing Bricks' Michelle Williams on Returning to Broadway With 'Death Becomes Her,' Her Tony Snub and Beyoncé's Backstage Visit As a person who has studied Miss Hansberry, who has obsessed over Miss Hansberry, I think that oftentimes we, as younger-generation artists, are descendants of these writers. What was really fascinating to me was the fact that both these plays, 'Purpose' and 'A Raisin in the Sun,' take place in a home. We never leave the house. It's also a Black family inside of a house. BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: And they're both Chicago families. LW: Exactly! What I also love about 'Purpose' is the conversations that are happening between these different generations that are having a difficult time understanding each other. And there's an idea, with Black families in particular, about how we're being perceived. What will our family name say about us? Watching 'A Raisin in the Sun' again, I learned something new. I realized that the play is not just about a Black family being brave enough to move into a neighborhood and to integrate into white America. But rather, it's about Walter Lee becoming a man, and realizing that you can't put a price on dignity. You can't put a price on your family's worth. And in your play that's happening as well. The adult sons in this family are trying to understand who they're supposed to be. I say all this to ask: What does it mean to you, Brandon, to be a man? BJJ: That's just a daily question. It's one of the questions that's at stake in every generation. What are you choosing to inherit or not inherit? No one teaches you how to be anything but the people in your life. My father passed away at the beginning of this year, right before we started rehearsals. He was actually the same age as the patriarch in my play, Solomon Jasper. That was not something that was intentional, but I could feel that I was, in a quiet way, trying to talk through things with him, through the play and with the play. My father also had other kids. I have all these half-siblings in the world. When I talked to him about it, he said to me, 'You know, everybody I knew had an outside family or outside kids, and part of it was that none of us thought we were going to live past the age of 55.' He was witnessing these evolutions and social progress over the course of his life, and suddenly having to renegotiate his relationship to what he thought his future would look like. When you live like that you are making it up as you go. You don't have an idea of how to be an older man. I think about how blessed I am to have these models who've lived that long, who've survived a lot of political and social violence. I don't even know how to answer that question of what being man means to me, because I feel like I'm still receiving new models in real time. There's just so much at stake and its feels like it's particularly tricky. Black masculine life is tricky. LW: One of the things I was thinking about when I left 'Purpose' was the patriarch, and asking myself who taught him what it meant to be a man. BJJ: This is the generation where Walter Sr., the patriarch in 'Raisin' who has passed on, could have lived, right? The implication is that in that time period, when 'Raisin' was written, that man worked himself to death. Worked himself to death to become this bag of money. And Solomon is the generation after that. He was given access to a different sort of agency and political movement. He could make a living for himself in a way that Walter couldn't. Thinking about 'Raisin,' another thing I love about that play is the women and how those three female characters are a triangulation of three kinds of femininity in that era. In some ways I've also repeated that with 'Purpose.' LW: In your play, Kara Young's character, Aziza, is very close to the daughter, Beneatha, in 'Raisin.' Yes, Aziza is queer… but Beneatha is definitely exploring some shit! BJJ: There's a radicality to her. I hate when people do this to writers, but I think Lorraine sees herself in Beneatha, and in some ways Kara's character, her biography most closely hews to mine. No one is shaped more by history than women, honestly, and at least if you look at every decade of the 20th century, there's a different kind of lady for each decade, and 'Raisin' is just so incredible at capturing this pivotal moment in the culture. LW: One thing that really stood out to me when I was thinking about the three women in 'Purpose' is that Claudine, the matriarch, is very much in dialogue with 'A Raisin in the Sun' and with the matriarch in that play, Lena Younger. They are both there to uphold the husband — for Lena it's upholding her late husband's memory and inheritance. They are each responsible for their husband's legacy. I'm thinking specifically of Black women here, but it could be said of women in general: It is a woman's job to uphold the male while he becomes himself, to help him become himself. And there is no one there to do the same for women. Something I think that's really stunning and beautiful about 'Purpose' is Aziza, a queer woman, is brought into the frame in a way that it's not in 'A Raisin in the Sun,' even though we know now that Lorraine Hansberry was a queer women. Her queerness was not able to be brought into the frame, not at that time. BJJ: If you look at Lorraine's notebooks, she really struggled with that identity. She didn't have the tools to be free in that way. LW: That's why I think 'Purpose' is bringing us into a new generation, bringing us into the future. When Kara's character walks into the door, it's almost you giving Lorraine's ghost, that part of her, permission to come onto the stage. Aziza, and I say this about myself too, we do not live under the male gaze. There's a freedom. BJJ: What doesn't go directly questioned in 'Raisin' is Mama Younger's devotion. Her whole perception of herself, as an extension of loving this man, is to take care of this family. That was her whole purpose in life. That's real. That's a real person in the world, and they have a whole philosophy that backs that up. And I was interested in putting that on stage. For me, the three women in 'Purpose,' they're all different iterations of, or riffs on, or responses to that idea of: Stand by your man. There's Claudine, and then there's also Morgan, who is married to Claudine's son and going to jail for something he did. Morgan's whole thing is: Why did I stand by this man? Because now I'm literally going to jail and nobody's throwing me a party. And then Aziza, who's going to have a baby on her own, she's like: I'm gonna do this by myself. LW: I love that Aziza and Nazareth, the family's younger son, ride off together. They end up getting the same car to exit this house, which, in my opinion, is also a metaphor for a different time in our history and our culture. I was also thinking about how it takes more than just men to uphold the patriarchy. Women often have a hand in it as well. One thing I picked up on is that you don't really see the grandchildren in 'Purpose.' In 'A Raisin in the Sun' we see Walter Lee's son and we know that he is the future of this family, and we see how Lena treats him and how she wants to take care of him and help raise him. But in 'Purpose,' with the grandchildren, you're aware of them, but they're invisible. Morgan is keeping these kids away from the family. Even though we don't see them in this play, I am thinking about those sons. BJJ: They're like little princes locked in a tower. I'm always interested in gesturing towards the ways that families wind up shaping themselves inadvertently. Where do these branches start to break off? What creates the moments of renegotiating the lines of the family? A lot of the energy of this play is about these two mothers, Claudine and Morgan, who are very different, but who I also think of, honestly, as the same person who just happen to be born in the exact wrong times to be able to see each other. But they're who makes the story of the family. They're deciding: Well, this can't be part of my kids' life. To me, that's the reality of how families are negotiated, now especially. LW: I want to ask about secrets within the family. I think what resonated with me about your work is the fact that oftentimes Black families are really good at keeping secrets, and I'm curious about what that means to you, and how that clearly erodes everything in the home. BJJ: I've said that this play is attached to my play 'Appropriate,' which was on Broadway last year. 'Appropriate' and 'Purpose' are both family secret plays. For me, ultimately, it's about how shame is toxic. If there's one thing I want people to take back into their lives, it is this idea that shame is the worst thing you can encourage and introduce into your family. Because what really motivates that secret-keeping is individual shame. The best thing you could do for the generations rising up in your family is to be transparent, and think of family as the place where you can be your fullest self. Black families and Black folks in general, our emotional range and our affect is so policed — in pop culture, privately, socially. And so you do have these families that are deep in fear of somehow being in reality with each other, because they think that's going to make them lesser-than, rather than celebrating the fact that everyone's present together, that love can happen in spite of these things. That's the moral, guys. Shame should have no place in the family. Every psychologist will tell you that. Never shame your children. That's how you build monsters. LW: One thing I've thought about since seeing the play, and it's haunted me a little bit, is about male sexuality, and particularly Black male sexuality. You've depicted that with the youngest son, Nazareth. BJJ: There's so much more to conversations about sexuality and desire. We all live with desire, and it's so complicated, and yet our representation is always on a binary. I wish there was more nuanced wrestling with it. That's why I love Tennessee Williams. All that work was about: We don't even know what we're talking about when we talk about desire, yet it is the thing we all live with and wrestle with. LW: My last question is about family and the idea of it. I've come to find that I'm not a believer in blood. The people that I'm closest to are not my blood relatives, and the people I feel the most distance from are actually related to me. You write so beautifully about different kinds of families, and how those family dynamics operate. And you are one of the patriarchs of your own family. So I wanted to ask you: What is your definition of family? BJJ: For me, family is about relationships and people. It's about love and a commitment to love, in spite of everything. And I think it's about respect. Ultimately the reason families fall apart is that people lose that respect for each other. They stop seeing the humanity and they project their own traumas and psycho-battles onto each other. Life is hard enough, and family gives you the unit to get through it. It's supposed to be a place of sanity. Ideally. Often it's not. I'm gonna make a huge sweeping statement: I teach a lot, and I see kids showing up where I'm like: Oh, you don't have to find your family. There's culture-changing stuff where there are parents on TV now talking about how much they love their kids. That was not what I had growing up at all. LW: Me, either. I mean, you saw the Thanksgiving episode. BJJ: Families and found families are necessary, especially to get through social moments that are antagonistic to your being. Family is the people who show up and who keep showing up. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Sci-Fi Surges, FYC Crunch Pressure, and Comedy Category Shakeups Across 94 Races
