August Recommendations

There's also lots to look forward to in September but not enough time or energy to get it all in this newsletter!

Yrsa Daley-Ward

TV: H/Jack (Apple TV): I watched this for Idris Elba. And it was totally enjoyable and also ridiculous. A great time pass. And it didn’t do all the horrible tropes it could have. Worth the 7 episode watch!

DOCUMENTARY SERIES: Last Call (Max): This 4 episode series was educational, engaging and a better approach to True Crime - the focus being on the victims, their families, and the LGBTQ community that worked their hardest to support and protect their own and get law enforcement to pay attention, take the crimes seriously despite rampant Homophobia. It also does a very good job placing these crimes, the law enforcement and media response in the historic context of the late 1980s and early 1990s US and NYC. Watching it this past month, it was heartbreaking to see that the community group, the Anti-Violence Project (AVP) that worked so hard to protect their community members 30 years ago, is at the forefront again now after the murder of O’Shae Sibley by a homophobic teenager in NYC.

PODCAST: The Retrievals (Podcast): This is only 5 episodes, but they are worth a listen - it’s about the opioid epidemic in this country, it’s about disparate punishment in the drug war based on race, it’s about institutions that protect themselves, it’s about how the medical system allows these things to happen, it’s about the lengths that women will go through to become mothers - and what they will put up with to do so, it’s about how society judges lack of fertility and then lack of ability to deal with pain as a weakness or failure. But above and beyond all of these, it’s about women’s pain and how it is not researched, how it’s ignored, how it’s diminished, and how it’s dismissed.

“…all these stories revealed something about women’s pain. How it’s tolerated, interpreted, accounted for, or minimized…”

MOVIE: Joyland (Amazon): This is a wonderful, quiet, loud, moving and funny movie about family, desire and conformity in society. I was lucky enough to see it with the director and actors in a talkback in NYC a few months ago. It was banned in a few provinces in Pakistan, included the largest, Punjab, because it involves Queer and Feminist storylines, with a trans lead as well. The cast was wonderful (in their performances and in person).

“The right way to feel love, and the right way to feel part of a family, are the insoluble difficulties at the heart of this mysterious, sad and tender movie from Pakistan, a drama brimming with life and novelistic detail, directed by the first-time film-maker Saim Sadiq…This is a movie about people who find their inner lives and sense of themselves don’t match up to what is expected of them. Their feeling of wrongness is part of what they have to suppress, from day to day.” - Subtle Trans Drama from Pakistan is Remarkable Debut

TV: Wonder Years (Hulu): I watched the original Wonder Years back in the day and have really enjoyed this new Wonder Years in its two seasons. It’s Dulé Hill as the dad! Don Cheadle as the voice over! It is both reminiscent of the original and entirely different with a Black family in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1960s. And all that brings. The music is fantastic, the cast of young adults is charming, and I hope it gets a third season. The guest stars are AMAZING - Patti LaBelle, Bradley Whitford, Tituss Burgess, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, and more! And they do a great job of connecting the original in the storyline.

Crash Course: Black American History with Clint Smith (YouTube): With so many jurisdictions (not only in red states) banning books, and real historical facts, And imposing false history in our schools, we should ensure we know real American history. Please check out Clint Smith’s Black American History, for factual, contextual and easy to understand Black American History - this is for all ages education, including those of us who need to be re-educated on this! There are 51 episodes and it started in 2021 and just ended! Smith is one of my favorite poets and writers!