[TV Review] Scandal Re-cap and Mid-Season Premiere

“Hi Livvie, I know you must be angry with me, but I just wanted to hear your voice.  Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ll see you real soon.”

Those would be the last words we would hear from Scandal’s fall mid-season finale. The ABC drama following Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) as a DC-based fixer known for her dictum, "it's handled," took us on a whirlwind of ride, leaving us with three ridiculous cliffhangers to think about going into 2014. We see everything from vice president Sally Langston murdering her philandering closeted husband, to Quinn ready and willing to slay Eli, and finally Olivia realizing “mother dearest” is not the angel she thought. 

But the wait is over. Twelve weeks later we can now finally say, “Gladiators, It’s Scandal Thursday!!” Finally, Olivia Pope & Associates are making their way back into our lives via the television screen. It has been so long.

Now, it has been quite awhile since the last episode aired, December 12^th to be exact. So just in case you do not feel like logging into ABC.com, Hulu, or Netflix and watching last year’s episodes here is a quick recap to get you ready for tonight:

a)     The Last Word: Probably the most disturbing event that would take place during the fall season was the epic fight between Sally and Daniel Douglas over his rendezvous with James, resulting in the infamous line from Sally,
 “I cannot wait until you meet your maker. I cannot wait until you are judged for your lies,” and a letter opener in Daniel’s back leading to his unfortunate demise.

b)     Not Everyone is Your Friend: Quinn must deal with the regret of letting Charlie into her life as she suffers daily, mentally and physically (pulling out the chip in her tooth with a paper towel dispenser). Just when she thinks she can make her way back into Olivia Pope & Associates, she is met by Huck who informs her: “You’re not a Gladiator anymore.” After hearing those shell-shocking words, Quinn runs back to the Devil to try and figure out how she will get herself out of this dark, sinking pit. But on a brighter note, at least Eli lived to see another day.

c)     Don’t Mess With Daddy Pope: In what might be seen as a dysfunctional heart-to-heart, Fitz, who is holding Eli hostage, proceeds to tell his mistress’ father all the naughty and nasty things he has done to his little girl. “The things I could tell you about the way she tastes…” BUT, in the words of Daddy Pope who would so eloquently put Fitz into his place, “You love that she is a door marked exit… Don’t use the person I made to make yourself into a man. You are a boy!” [drops mic]

d)     An Angel Dressed in the Devil's Clothes: Meanwhile, while Fitz and Eli are showing off egos, Olivia has other family drama that she must tend to dealing with her mother who has now been identified as a terrorist. “She fooled you like she fooled me, didn’t she?” Maya is beginning to shows her true colors as both Eli and Olivia have been duped by a woman they each loved dearly at one point in time.

e)     The Revealing Phone Message: Let’s not forget the woman in David Rosen’s office with the tape of Sally’s phone call to Cyrus after killing Daniel. That will not end well for anyone.

f)       A New Sheriff in Town: Let’s just say Jake has taken over the ranks of B613, and his dismissal of Eli is quite epic, “If you’d like a job here at Wonderland, you can take our aptitude test.”

Needless to say, after these first ten episodes we are still in limbo as to what is going on in the life of Harrison, despite having the various breadcrumbs sprinkled throughout the episodes.

All in all, the mid-season finale would pose as many questions as it attempted to answer. Here are just a few questions that would surface, and we hope will be resolved:

1)     What kind of B613 leader will Jake be?

2)     Will David team up with Olivia Pope & Associates for his investigation of Daniel Douglas’ murder?

3)     What does the future hold for the show’s unlikely couple, Quinn and Charlie?

4)     Will we delve deeper into Maya’s dark past and how will affect the already fragile relationship between her and Olivia?

Tonight’s episode is titled, “Ride, Sally, Ride.” In these 60 minutes viewers will see how the White House deals with a mind-blowing announcement from Sally Langston, while Olivia finds herself taking on a challenging new role. Even more exciting, we might even get to see Mellie step into the role as a “fixer.” Although the winter Olympics have officially ended, the Scandal games are just beginning. We have waited long enough Gladiators, it is time to suit up!

Going Against the Grain with a Purpose: Brother Outside: The Life of Bayard Rustin

Long before Martin Luther King, Jr. became a national figure, Bayard Rustin routinely put his body—and his life –on the line as a crusader for racial justice. Rustin’s commitment to pacifism and his visionary advocacy of Gandhian nonviolence made him a pioneer in the 1940s, and captured King’s imagination in the 1950s. In 1963, with more than 20 years of organizing experience behind him, Rustin brought his unique skills to the crowning glory of his civil rights career: his work organizing the historic March on Washington, the biggest protest America had ever witnessed. –PBS.org/POV

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin is a truly inspirational film highlighting the life of Bayard Rustin, one of the most important and influential Civil Rights activists. Rustin was not only African American in a time of segregation, but he was also unapologetically gay.[i] However, Rustin’s open homosexuality forced him to remain in the background, marking him repeatedly as a “brother outsider.” Directed by Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer, Brother Outsider was part of the 15th anniversary season of the POV (documentaries with a point of view) series, which runs on PBS. 

Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rustin was determined to increase  tolerance and seek social justice  through non-violent approaches. In fact, the viewer learns that Rustin was brought in to further tutor King in non-violent strategies. His acumen helped the Civil Rights Movement to gain great momentum that it finally developed. His work organizing the 1965 March on Washington was one of the largest protests America had ever seen. Directors Kates and Singer are able to capture the full scope of Rustin’s complex, 60-year career as an activist, advisor, and public advocate via this award-winning documentary. Using archival material would serve as a bonus for the film as it added to the overall success of the documentary, and allowed us to see Rustin in action. The controversial topics in this film, which include his sexuality, his politics, her personal values and beliefs all make for an intriguing and captivating documentary film.

Kates and Singer uses Rustin’s extensive FBI records as a method of narration. Other rare archival footage includes ardent debates between Rustin and such highly politicized figures as Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and Malcolm X. Also in the documentary we are able to see the Rustin in the later years as he continued to champion human rights including gay rights in campaigns around the globe. As King’s aide and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young recalls in the film, “His commitment to justice was always very strong and very consistent. It was easier when he had allies like Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph, but when they were gone, he didn’t stop.”
All in all, Brother Outsider is a great first step in getting familiar with the late Bayard Rustin.
It is an important documentary that informs and acknowledges one of the great leaders of the civil rights who has often been overlooked and overshadowed by some of the other more prominent figures. “Bayard Rustin was an extraordinary American who’s been slighted in the historical record because he was gay,” says filmmaker Nancy Kates. Both Kates and Singer make great efforts and successfully correct the record, but also examine Rustin’s amazing life and how he taught the world about issues of equity and the fight for social justice.

*Netflix subscribers, you can stream this title anytime. 

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[i] Rustin’s sexuality would be challenged on various occasions, particularly during the 1960 Democratic Convention: One of the most interesting aspects of the film highlights Rustin’s determination and unwillingness to give up. Adam Clayton Powell tried to hold Rustin’s sexuality against him during the 1960 Democratic Convention. Powell threatened to spread rumors about Rustin’s sexuality if the Civil Rights activists did not stop protesting. Martin Luther King Jr., would be made aware of this threat, but this did not scare Rustin. He maintained his stance and continued to fight for what he believed in.

Afrofuturism: Reimagining the Past, Present, and Future

“In Afrofuturism is an exploration and methodology of liberation, simultaneously both a location and a journey.” ~D. Denenge Akpem ”


So what is Afro-Futurism? Music critic and writer Mark Dery (1994) coined the term to describe the self-conscious appropriation of technological themes in Black popular culture, particularly in rap and other hip-hop modalities. The term is more than just being “weird” or following different trends, but it is, as sociologist Alondra Nelson says, “to explore futurist themes in Black cultural production and the ways in which technological innovation is changing the face of Black art and culture” (Nelson & Miller, 2006). The appropriation of science and technology by marginalized groups (Eglash & Bleecker, 2001). As a whole, Afrofuturism is a free space that allows the option to explore, imagine, and discover Blackness tangent to science and technology. Afrofuturism, much like cyberfeminism, uses science fiction and cyber culture in a speculative manner to escape the traditional definitions of what it means to be Black or African (in exotic terms) within western culture (Bristow, 2012).
This week at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to take part in a 2-day colloquium called “AstroBlackness: Remaking and [Re]Mixing Black Identity Before, Now, and Beyond.” During this colloquium writers, artists, filmmakers, and scholars worldwide are coming together to discuss Afrofuturism from various angles. The colloquium serves as a “space” where the intellectual, creative, literary and even visual expressions of “the black experience” are examined through the prism of Afrofuturism, in a manner that is both abstract and plausible and no longer dominated by monolithic tropes perpetually tied to an urban landscape or exclusively earthbound. The first day's topics and panels included The Black Imagination: Issues and Ideas of Afrofuturism as an Aesthetic; Science Fiction and Race; and Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Animation, and Afrofuturism.

In particular during the panel discussion on “Science Fiction and Race” many of the panelists such as Fantasy and Science Fiction writer Nnedi Okorafor would explain the many difficulties in maintaining the culture and race of their characters [i], while not allowing the narratives or characters be conscripted to “whitewashed” storylines. One question that would spark a huge debate from the panel and the audience dealt with whether or not Afrofuturism should be inclusive of everything that is outside of the box that is black and is sci-fi related. Some scholars such as University of California-Riverside’s Sherryl Vint felt that as a whole critics spend way too much time policing the boundaries of science-fiction, and not allowing it to be a free flowing entity. From its inception Afrofuturism and Science Fiction are genres that have always been unapologetically ‘outside the box’, but yet so many want to prescribe it to a particular formula. As Professor Reynaldo Anderson of Harris Stowe State University mentioned, “Afrofuturism, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and the Speculative [are] all about bending racial categories and rethinking these genres as forms of resistance.” Each of them serve as another transportation mode to a particular space, which allows for this creative resurgence of [astro]blackness on futuristic terms.

As for Day Two, topics from will range from Critical Literature and Radical Race in Science Fiction, to Gender and Race conversations and issues dealing with the Black Imagination and Science Fiction, and finally “The Future of the Afrofuture”. All in all, Afrofuturism continues to serve as this intersection between imagination, technology, the future, and liberation (Womack, 2013). As a genre it not only allows, but also encourages, individuals to unashamedly experiment, re-imagine identities, and activate this sense of liberation (LaFleur, 2011). Using these various avenues mentioned above, Afrofuturism continues to redefine Black culture and notions of Blackness for today and the future.

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[i] Several creators and authors at the colloquium spoke about having to change the race of their characters, lightening their complexion, or adding non-black characters (i.e. white males), because the “higher ups” feel that audiences will not understand, it’s too political, or because it is so-called not marketable.  

References

1. Bristow, T. (2012). We want the funk: What is Afrofuturism to the situation of digital arts in Africa? Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, 10(1), 25-32.
2. Dery, M. (1994). “Black to the Future”. In Flame wars: The discourse of cyberculture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
3. Eglash, R., & Bleecker, J. (2001). The race for cyberspace: Information technology in the black diaspora. Science as Culture, 10(3), 353-374.
4. Nelson, A., & Miller, P. D. (2006, June 28). “About Afrofuturism”: Afrofuturism. Retrieved from http://www.afrofuturism.net/text/about.html
5. Womack, Y. L. (2013). Afrofurturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books.