#barbadian writers

[yourdailyqueer]

Rinaldo Walcott

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Queer

DOB: Born 1965

Ethnicity: Afro Caribbean - Barbadian

Nationality: Canadian

Occupation: Writer, professor, academic

[sexypinkon]

Sexypink - express yourself.

[rhysdarbinizedarby]

“I Love Taking Risks”

Returning for the second season of his hit comedy series Our Flag Means Death this month, Rhys Darby chats to us about becoming ‘The Gentleman Pirate’.

It was the surprise hit of 2022 no-one had on their bingo card. Loosely based on the real-life exploits of Stede ‘The Gentleman Pirate’ Bonnet (Rhys Darby), Our Flag Means Death tells the hilarious and heartfelt story of the wealthy Barbadian landowner who gave it all up for life as a pirate in the 1700s.

After encountering the actually not-so-terrifying Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) of legend, who teaches him how to be a fearsome pirate – to little effect – in exchange for wisdom about the finer things in life, the two formed an unexpected romantic connection.

Of course, with the first season ending with the pair sadly going their separate ways, creator and writer David Jenkins previews things will be challenging for our star-crossed lovers in season two: “I think [we’ll be] watching… both reorient themselves. This is their first love… You’re rocked when that happens. You go into a crisis.” With the second season premiering this month, picking up a short time after the first, Darby sat down with FOXTEL magazine to give us the lowdown.

What’s your take on ‘The Gentleman Pirate’?

It’s an interesting role because this is a guy who has a midlife crisis, leaves his wife and kids, just runs out in the middle of the night and creates a pirate crew, heads off into the sunset. And in order to sort of get to grips with who would do that, you need to have someone play the role that you’ve got to root for but, at the same time, you go, ‘Is he crazy? Why has he done this? Does he not love his wife and kids?’ So, you know, I did a bit of reading about him and tried to get into that mindset as to why he would do such a thing. And I think what I got to was just midlife crisis and boredom, and he had the wealth to change his life.

Are you a risk-taker yourself?

I love taking risks; I could drop everything and suddenly fly to Mars, but I’d be sitting in the spaceship before launch and thinking about my kids and I would have opened the door and run back to them.

So there was something there, some deep-seated darkness in his soul that led him to that point. He’s a complicated guy. I’m glad I had to rise to the challenge and try to pull that off.

Will Stede ever be respected by his crew, do you think?

Yes. I think he will be. People did respect him eventually because he did become a decent pirate. If you look in the annals of the pirates and all the booty they took, there’s lists of who did the best and all that kind of stuff, and Stede’s up there.

Do you think he had any regrets about choosing that life in the end?

That’s a good question. If I was to guess I would say no, because he wanted the adventure. He regretted, in the end, not taking the pardon when he could have – the King put out a pardon and he said, ‘If any of you pirates come in and drop your swords now, you’ll be spared.’ A lot of them did sign that they would do it and then just went back to pirating.

Even in the end, Stede tried to get out of it – he really begged and pleaded and wrote letters to the King saying, ‘Please, I’ll do anything.’ But they wanted to make an example of him: it doesn’t matter how wealthy you are, you do what you did, you’re gonna hang. So they got him in the end. But they won’t get me!

You seem to have a knack for picking great roles. What does your process entail?

Yeah, it depends what you’re doing. You know, I’m not at a point where offers are rolling in left, right and centre. So you still do things because you need the money. But I’ve been lucky that my uniqueness has only really gifted me roles that suit me, for the most part. Usually they’re smaller roles and I do a lot of guest starring on comedy shows. Also, I have been lucky enough to do a lot of voicework through various animation channels and video games and things.

A few years ago, people started to realise that, and it’s through working with Taika and a few others in the comedy industry, that if you’re going to hire me, he’s going to give you a bit more than what’s on the paper. And he’s going to do it in his manner and his way, and that’s what you’re sort of paying for.

And so that meant that I wouldn’t get a lot of roles, but the ones that I did do, I would always shine in. So thank you, universe, for giving me anything.

Source: Foxtel Magazine Australia (October issue)

[kemetic-dreams]

  The Igbo in the Atlantic slave trade

Bussa, Barbadian slave revolt leader of Igbo descent

Edward Blyden, Americo-Liberian educator, writer and politician of Igbo descent

Paul Robeson, American actor and writer whose father was of Igbo descent

Aimé Césaire, Martiniquais poet and politician who claimed Igbo descent) argues that many of the slaves taken from the Bight of Biafra across the Middle Passage would have been Igbo. These slaves were usually sold to Europeans by the Aro Confederacy, who kidnapped or bought slaves from Igbo villages in the hinterland. Igbo slaves may have not been victims of slave-raiding wars or expeditions but perhaps debtors or Igbo people who committed within their communities alleged crimes. With the goal for freedom, enslaved Igbo people were known to European planters as being rebellious and having a high rate of suicide to escape slavery. There is evidence that traders sought Igbo women. Igbo women were paired with Coromantee (Akan) men to subdue the men because of the belief that the women were bound to their first-born sons’ birthplace.

It is alleged that European slave traders were fairly well informed about various African ethnicities, leading to slavers targeting certain ethnic groups which plantation owners preferred. Particular desired ethnic groups consequently became fairly concentrated in certain parts of the Americas. The Igbo were dispersed to colonies such as Jamaica, Cuba, Saint-Domingue, Barbados, Colonial America, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, among others.

Rihanna is also Igbo

Colonial Nigeria

The establishment of British colonial rule in present-day Nigeria and increased encounters between the Igbo and other ethnicities near the Niger River led to a deepening sense of a distinct Igbo ethnic identity. The Igbo proved decisive and enthusiastic in their embrace of Christianity and Western-style education. Because of the incompatibility of the Igbo decentralized style of government and the centralized system including the appointment of warrant chiefs required for British system of indirect rule, the period colonial rule was marked with numerous conflicts and tension. During the colonial era, the diversity within each of Nigeria's major ethnic groups slowly decreased, and distinctions between the Igbo and other large ethnic groups, such as the Hausa and the Yoruba, became sharper.

The establishment of British colonial rule transformed Igbo society, as portrayed in Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart. Colonial rule brought about changes in culture, such as the introduction of warrant chiefs as Eze (indigenous rulers) where there were no such monarchies. Christian missionaries introduced aspects of European ideology into Igbo society and culture, sometimes shunning parts of the culture. The rumours that the Igbo women were being assessed for taxation sparked off the 1929 Igbo Women's War in Aba (also known as the 1929 Aba Riots), a massive revolt of women never encountered before in Igbo history.

Aspects of Igbo culture such as construction of houses, education and religion changed following colonialism. The tradition of building houses out of mud walls and thatched roofs ended as the people shifted to materials such as concrete blocks for houses and metal roofs. Roads for vehicles were built. Buildings such as hospitals and schools were erected in many parts of Igboland. Along with these changes, electricity and running water were installed in the early 20th century. With electricity, new technology such as radios and televisions were adopted, and have become commonplace in most Igbo households.

A series of black and white, silent films about the Igbo people made by George Basden in the 1920s and 1930s are held in the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection at Bristol Archives 

[denimbex1986]

'Writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah has died aged 65, after being diagnosed with a brain tumour eight weeks ago.

A statement posted on his Instagram account confirmed he died in the early hours of Thursday.

The statement said Zephaniah's wife "was with him throughout and was by his side when he passed".

"We shared him with the world and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news," it added.

Zephaniah was born and raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. He was dyslexic and left school aged 13, unable to read or write.

He moved to London aged 22 and published his first book, Pen Rhythm.

His early work used dub poetry, a Jamaican style of work that has evolved into the music genre of the same name, and he would also perform with the group The Benjamin Zephaniah Band.

As Zephaniah's profile grew, he became a familiar face on television and was credited with bringing Dub Poetry into British living rooms.

He also wrote five novels as well as poetry for children, and his first book for younger readers, Talking Turkeys, was a huge success upon its publication in 1994.

On top of his writing work, Zephaniah was an actor and appeared in the BBC drama series Peaky Blinders between 2013 and 2022.

He played Jeremiah "Jimmy" Jesus, appearing in 14 episodes across the six series.

Zephaniah famously rejected an OBE in 2003 due to the association of such an honour with the British Empire and its history of slavery.

"I've been fighting against empire all my life, fighting against slavery and colonialism all my life," he told The Big Narstie Show in 2020.

"I've been writing to connect with people, not to impress governments and monarchy. So I could I then accept an honour that puts the word Empire on to my name? That would be hypocritical.

He often spoke out about issues such as racial abuse and education.

When he was younger, Zephaniah served a prison sentence for burglary and received a criminal record.

In 1982, Zephaniah released an album called Rasta, which featured the Wailers' first recording since the death of Bob Marley.

It also included a tribute to the then-political prisoner Nelson Mandela, who would later become South African president.

In an interview in 2005, Zephaniah said growing up in a violent household led to him assuming that was the norm.

He recalled: "I once asked a friend of mine, 'What do you do when your dad beats your mum?' And he went: 'He doesn't.'

"I said, 'Ah, you come from one of those, like, feminist houses. So, what do you do when your mum beats your dad?'"

In 2012, he was chosen to guest edit an edition of BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Zephaniah was nominated for autobiography of the year at the National Book Awards for his work, The Life And Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah, which was also shortlisted for the Costa Book Award in 2018.

During a Covid-19 lockdown, Zephaniah recited one of his poems in a video for the Hay Festival.

"Benjamin was a true pioneer and innovator. He gave the world so much," the statement announcing his death said.

"Through an amazing career including a huge body of poems, literature, music, television and radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy."

A statement from the Black Writers' guild, which Zephaniah helped establish, said: "Our family of writers is in mourning at the loss of a deeply valued friend and a titan of British literature. Benjamin was a man of integrity and an example of how to live your values."

Others paying tribute included author Michael Rosen, who said: "I'm devastated. I admired him, respected him, learnt from him, loved him. Love and condolences to the family and to all who loved him too."

Actress Adjoa Andoh posted: "We have lost a Titan today. Benjamin Zephaniah. Beautiful Poet, Professor, Advocate for love and humanity in all things. Heartbroken. Rest In Your Power - our brother."

Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy said in a statement: "Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being.

"A generational poet, writer, musician and activist. A proud Brummie and a Peaky Blinder. I'm so saddened by this news."

Broadcaster Trevor Nelson said: "So sad to hear about the passing of Benjamin Zephaniah. Too young, too soon, he had a lot more to give. He was a unique talent."

Singer-songwriter and musician Billy Bragg added: "Very sorry to hear this news. Benjamin Zephaniah was our radical poet laureate. Rest in power, my friend."

Comedian, actor and writer Lenny Henry said: "I was saddened to learn of the passing of my friend Benjamin Zephaniah. His passion for poetry, his advocacy for education for all was tireless."

Writer Nels Abbey said: "To call this crushing news is a massive understatement. He was far too young, far too brilliant and still had so much to offer. A loss we'll never recover from."

The X/Twitter account for Premier League football club Aston Villa, whom Zephaniah supported said everyone at the club was "deeply saddened" by the news.

"Named as one of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008, Benjamin was a lifelong Aston Villa fan and had served as an ambassador for the AVFCFoundation. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time."'

[dear-indies]

Hey! I hope everything is going well with you! When you have time - completely understandable to take time for yourself given everything - do you think you could give a list of your fave body diverse fcs over the age of 35, if any? I would greatly appreciate it!! All the best ❤️

Non-binary:

Ser Anzoategui (1979) Argentinian and Paraguayan - is nonbinary (they/them).

Ericka Hart (1986) African-American - non-binary (she/they) - is a breast cancer survivor.

Third-gender:

Yolanda Bonnell (1982) Ojibwe, Unspecified White / Indian - two-spirit (she/they) - is bisexual - has OCD and ADHD.

Gloria May Eshkibok (?) Mohawk, Ottawa, Irish, French - two-spirit (she/her) and wears an eye patch.

Gender questioning:

Kristin Chirico (1984) Cayuga, Seneca, Italian, and Irish - questioning their gender, explaining it as “encompassing a lot of things” but is not yet sure if she’s non-binary or a gender non-confirming woman - is bisexual and demisexual - has OCD.

Women:

Joanna Scanlan (1961)

Melissa McCarthy (1970)

Keala Settle (1975) Māori.

Michelle Buteau (1977) Haitian [African, some Lebanese] / French, Jamaican [African, Indian, possibly other].

Itziar Castro (1977) - is a lesbian.

Brooke Elliot (1978)

Dana Gourrier (1979) African-American.

Chrissy Metz (1980)

Natasha Rothwell (1980) African-American.

Beth Ditto (1981) - is queer.

Jana Schmieding (1981) Miniconjou Lakota Sioux, Sicangu Oyate Lakota Sioux.

Jordan Raskopoulos (1982) - is trans.

Denisse Ojeda (1982) Chilean.

Gabourey Sidibe (1983) Senegalese / African-American.

Yola / Yolanda Quarty (1983) British, Ghanaian, and Barbadian.

Ella Smith (1983)

Heather White (1983) Mohawk / Nakoda Sioux.

Jolene Purdy (1983) Japanese / English, Scottish, Irish, German, Ashkenazi Jewish.

Anna O'Brien (1984)

JB The First Lady / Jerilynn Webster (1984) Nuxalk and Onondaga.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph (1986) African-American.

Amber Riley (1986) African-American.

Nicole Byer (1986) African-American - comedian, television host, writer and actor - "doesn't identify as straight", but is uncomfortable with the labels "bisexual" or "queer."

Aidy Bryant (1987)

Men:

Mark Addy (1964)

Taylor Wily (1968) Samoan.

Jack Black (1969) Ashkenazi Jewish / German, as well as Northern Irish, Scottish, English, remote French and Welsh (converted to Judaism).

Nick Frost (1972)

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (1973)

Matt Berry (1974)

Kristian Nairn (1975) - is gay.

K. Trevor Wilson (1981)

Josh Gad (1981) Afghan Jewish and Ashkenazi Jewish.

Brian Tyree Henry (1982) African-American.

Matty Matheson (1982)

Sam Richardson (1984) Ghanaian.

Cooper Andrews (1985) Samoan / Ashkenazi Jewish.

Charley Koontz (1987)

Atkins Estimond (1987) Afro-Haitian.

Thank you so much for being kind and understanding, anon! I have a masterlist HERE too but you're always welcome to send asks as I know going through long lists can be overwhelming.

[lboogie1906]

Lodie Maurine Biggs (March 1, 1895 – March 1971) later Lodie Biggs Moore, was a bacteriologist, bookseller, and civil rights, activist.

She earned a BS in chemistry at the University of Washington. She worked as a bacteriologist at Crescent Biological Laboratory in Seattle. She worked for the city of Seattle and the state of Washington and ran her commercial laboratory. She moved to New York and worked as a city bacteriologist there.

She helped to revive the dormant Seattle branch of the NAACP, serving as its president, and helped found and lead the Seattle branch of the National Urban League. She attended the annual convention of the NUL in Minneapolis.

She offered to resign from the Seattle UL’s Health and Recreation Committee when it moved to sponsor an all-Black baseball team, which she felt was counter to the goal of racial integration: The committee’s chair agreed that she had a point, and set a policy against segregated teams.

She was living in New York and was secretary of the Harlem Citizens’ Committee to Aid the Striking Seamen. She served on the committee that became the Harlem Tenants Association that year. She worked with Richard B. Moore, the Barbadian-born writer, and activist based in Harlem. She and Moore were both members of the Harlem section of the Communist Party, and both were expelled from the Party. The pair founded the Frederick Douglass Book Center, a bookstore and community space in Harlem. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #womenhistorymonth

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 1.23

Beer Birthdays

John Carling (1828)

Leopold Schmidt (1846)

Emily Banks, Miss Rheingold 1960 (1933)

Charlie Papazian (1949)

Brian Reccow (1970)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Gary Burton; jazz musician (1943)

Jerry Kramer; Green Bay Packers G (1936)

Edouard Manet; artist (1831)

Walter M. Miller Jr.; science fiction writer (1923)

Django Reinhardt; jazz guitarist (1910)

Famous Birthdays

Ray Abrams; jazz saxophonist (1920)

John Luther Adams; composer (1953)

Richard Dean Anderson; actor (1950)

Lou Antonio; actor & director (1934)

David Arnold; English composer (1962)

Jean-Michel Atlan; Algerian-French painter (1913)

Georg Baselitz; German painter & sculptor (1938)

Frances Bay; Canadian-American actress (1919)

Rutland Boughton; English composer (1878)

Jonatha Brooke; singer-songwriter & guitarist (1964)

John Browning; weapons designer (1855)

Muzio Clementi; Italian pianist, composer, & conductor (1752)

Camilla Collett; writer (1813)

Otto Diels; German chemist (1876)

Abraham Diepraam; Dutch painter (1622)

Dan Duryea; actor (1907)

Sergei Eisenstein; film director (1898)

Gertrude Elion; pharmacologist (1918)

Gil Gerard; actor (1943)

John Hancock; politician, revolutionary (1737)

Mariska Hargitay; actress (1964)

Rutger Hauer; actor (1944)

Joseph Hewes; signer of the Declaration of Independence (1730)

Ernie Kovacs; comedian (1919)

Doutzen Kroes; Dutch model & actress (1985)

W. Arthur Lewis; Saint Lucian-Barbadian economist (1915)

Boris McGiver; actor (1962)

Jeanne Moreau; French actress (1928)

Walter Frederick Morrison; businessman, invented Frisbees (1920)

Alois Negrelli; Tyrolean engineer & railroad pioneer (1799)

Gail O'Grady; actress (1963)

Anita Pointer; singer-songwriter (1948)

Marty Paich; pianist, arranger (1925)

John Polanyi; German-Canadian chemist (1929)

Claire Rankin; Canadian actress (1971)

Tom Reamy; author (1935)

Chita Rivera; actress, singer, & dancer (1933)

Randolph Scott; actor (1898)

Ieva Simonaitytė; Lithuanian author (1897)

Richard T. Slone; English painter (1974)

Lisa Snowdon; model (1972)

Stendhal; French writer (1783)

Potter Stewart; supreme court justice (1915)

Tiffani-Amber Thiessen; actress (1974)

Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist and mathematician (1864)

Derek Walcott; Saint Lucian poet & playwright (1930)

Fred Williams; Australian painter (1927)

Hideki Yukawa; Japanese physicist (1907)

Robin Zander; rock musician (1953)

[seawomanbds]

World Poetry Day 2021

To celebrate World Poetry Day on March 21, as declared by UNESCO, Caribbean Writers and the Barbados Creative Economy Network in conjunction with The Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management, present “The Impact of Poetry" in a Zoom forum.

by Sandra Sealy World Poetry Day 2021 – “How #Poetry Impacts Our Society” World Poetry Day 2021 – “How Poetry Impacts Our Society” #WorldPoetryDay2021 as declared by UNESCO is this Sunday, March 21st. Imagine that Caribbean Writers, the official Facebook presence for this blog – is more than thriving. I thought, for the members of this amazing online fam I founded in 2007, it was time to step…

[note-a-bear]

For anyone curious about Galaxy Game, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s the follow-up/non-sequel-sequel to Best Of All Possible Worlds (a travelogue style, in the vein of Ursula K. Leguin, political drama) by Karen Lord. Galaxy Game picks up with the same universe and various elements already introduced in the first book. According to googlebooks:

For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning - and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite. But Rafi soon realises he’s playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution - involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game.

It came to mind courtesy of @ultralaser and @princessnijireiki talking about that /classic/ and its recent adaptation. Some of the structure and plotting are recognizable from the Ender series, but the overall mission and focus on relationships–as opposed to isolation–shifts the moral anchor into one of healing rather than destruction. Similar to Worlds, Game is about restoring sense of self and identity, rather than domination or retaliation.

Anyone, big rec from this bear

[thechasefiles]

Kamau Brathwaite Is DEAD

Acclaimed poet Edward Kamau Brathwaite, one of the godfathers of modern West Indian literature, who coined the term ” nation language” in championing creolisation in Caribbean culture and thought has died, four months short of his 90th birthday. He is credited with extensive writing and thought in developing the concept of Creole identity, a predominantly Afrocentric mindset.Poet, scholar, and editor, Brathwaite was a towering figure in Caribbean literature and intellectual life for half a century. Rest Easy Kamau.....89 years of pure light. Shine On in the afterlife.

[yourdailyqueer]

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Gender: Non binary - Agender (she/her)

Sexuality: Queer

DOB: 23 August 1982

Ethnicity: White, Afro Caribbean (Barbadian)

Occupation: Astronomer, writer, activist

[ablaqmajic]

So... this award came in the mail yesterday. ...right at a point in my journey, as a #writer, where I'm struggling to write. The universe is saying keep pushing forward... So... let's. Not sure what your struggle is today. But let's keep trying, together. às̩e̩ #writersofinstagram #blackPoet #blackAuthor #publishedAuthor #barbadian #wordsmith (at Saint George, Barbados) https://www.instagram.com/p/BucneErHBS4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1pct0t99jtkwv

[lolipops2marsh]

Some complaints, some rambling, some praise~

Before you read further, This will be random, I am just finding a place to comfortably complain and think out loud. If it helps you and gives you an idea then you are welcome. If it’s rubbish to you, well… My bad. Recently I became busy. I published a book online and sold a few prints. I decided that with all my grammatical errors I’d need some outside help, and since I have no patience to…

[everlastingrandom]

This is sea shanty discourse all over again.

There's been some posts saying that Our Flag Means Death is antiblack for being ahistorical. But a fair amount don't sit well with me, a black person. So I'm gonna pull an ADHD and go on several tangents about it. Also, marginalized people aren't a monolith and when I see "listen to black people" from nonblack people, I get sus about who is doing the loudest talking and how, why, etc.

Also this is mostly about the show textually. Taika had a lot of creative influence on OFMD (and he directed the pilot episode) but he is not the creator of the show. David Jenkins is the main show runner, producer, and writer. That said, I'm gonna read more on both of their track records because I did see some important points that were made by others, so bear with me.

Anyway, this post will have heavy spoilers!

TL;DR Personally, I don't think this specific comedy/romance show is antiblack for choosing to not highlight the transatlantic slave trade in relation to their reimagined protagonists. However, OFMD feeds into the swashbuckler genre and I definitely think we should deconstruct that as a whole. Also I wish more people would put their righteous anger into substantially supporting Black creators.

The MEAT

OFMD doesn't shy away from depicting white people as racist: the British Navy refer to Stede's BIPOC crew members as "savages" when aboard Stede's ship. The show acknowledges the atrocities committed against the Native populations of the Caribbean and American mainlands. The tribesman who guards Stede literally says, "you [white people] keep killing us." Nor does it shy away from colonizers exoticizing people from lands that are now former victims of imperialism. Oluwande and Frenchie's scam of being an African prince relies on of the ignorance of the foppish, rich white people that they swindle.

But OFMD is not a documentary, it is a comedy/adventure show with a romantic subplot. It genre bends quite frequently, occasionally dropping the comedy to have serious moments. But the main characters are a white englishman and a white barbadian being played by a white new zealander and a maori new zealander. The conceit is that none of this is supposed to be taken seriously. No one's accent is the same. A man gets weird with some seagulls on more than one occasion. We are having fun in muppet treasure island. There are dummy mechanics in use. This is not a place of honor.

I went into watching OMFD with mental blinders fully up, because I knew pirates + caribbean = oh potential yikes. But as it progressed through S1, the fear that slavery would be depicted in an upsetting way slowly dissipated. And then it just wasn't there really. I think the choice to not explicitly depict the relationship between piracy and the transatlantic slave trade—especially in regards to Stede and Blackbeard—made sense for their tone, but ended up being an oversight in their worldbuilding. If the showrunners continue into s2, they should bring in Black/Afro-caribbean consultants to give insight on what those depictions might be, if addressed.

The swashbuckling genre is distinctive due to 1) shenanigans on a boat 2.) romance. A lot of OFMD is about the romanticization of pirate life, but it also challenges those romantic notions directly. Add two historical figures with radically opposing methods of piracy and THERE WAS ONLY ONE BOAT. That's not true, there was a max of three boats. And you end up with an untapped hotbed of creative potential. The Gentleman Pirate was a narrative figure in Stede's own lifetime and Blackbeard is a goddamn legend. There's only so much influence you can draw before people claim you're blatantly ripping something off.

Slavery is a pretty hard sell, generally. Like, commit a whole episode and tread lightly from there, hard sell. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were efforts to address it in media rez, that just didn't make it to the final cut (but this is me speculating.) TV shows are not made in vacuums, hundreds of people were involved in this production. My point is that sometimes media is not here to trick you into believing that real-life terrible people were actually good and admirable. (Sometimes it is.)

But I feel strongly that OMFD expects you to be on the side of the characters of color from the jump. Catch the implicit, "Can you believe these white people?" in the way they roll their eyes and sigh and give each other looks. The way Oluwende and Frenchie include the African servants(?) into their scheme in Ep. 5. The way the Elder pities Stede when he has a breakdown, but at the same couples Stede with every other white person who's attacked the tribe. I think OFMD seeks to depower the image we have of colonizers as inhuman forces of nature, when they were all very painfully human.

Why did fans not background check this show?

I knew the history of Stede Bonnet prior to watching OFMD, which I'm guessing was not the majority experience (?) I was interested in watching the show when I first heard about it, mainly because the costumes looked nice.

From the number of "Here's the TRUTH about Stede Bonnet" posts circulating, it's clear he's a relatively un-talked about figure. Honestly, that's fine. It happens to be that we will not learn about everything about everyone in human history. But the history of piracy + the slave trade—THAT should've been more widely known. When there's a widespread deficit in knowledge, that's a systematic issue more than an individual one.

That said, if you do not currently connect piracy with slavery, hello, here's your wake up call.

You should be able to infer that Stede, being landed gentry in Barbados, gained his wealth from slave labor. That these characters were inspired by real people who existed in and benefited from a slave labor economy. That chattel slavery ballooned during this time period. The show does not go out its way to acknowledge this. And because it didn't, where does that leave us? Filling in the gaps? Doing our own research?

(The answer is yes.)

It's Just Hamilton 2.0

I didn't make this connection like others did, and at first I was annoyed by it but now I'm kind of like. Yah.

25 year old me understands that the problems at the root of Hamilton extend deep into the entertainment industry: the way white historical figures continue to be romanticized, who we let spearhead big productions, and the histories of actual Black historical figures that were completely excluded from the narrative.

19 year old me thought, "Omg, Black people in major broadway roles! Songs that I and other Black theater kids can perform! An accessible way for me to learn more about American history!" I was in a black theatrical ensemble in college. We had that play m e m o r i z e d.

25 year old me looks at OFMD right now and thinks, "Omg, a show that shows a smart Black woman in a compelling role, a fat, Black man as a compelling love interest, and show that openly says White imperialism was fueled by greed and ignorance. Also!! Good LGBT+ rep!! HOLY SHIT!" 25 year old me also understands that we cannot scrub away the scars left by colonialism. Not even in silly Blorbo show. All media will become problematic with time, and we will never be able to get ahead of it.

But for now I would love for folks to take a step back and touch grass because fanon woobifies historical figures waaaay worse than canon does. Lin did not curse us with Miku Binder Jefferson. Y'all did that yourselves and I mine eyes will never be scrubbed of the memory. Also the lack of love towards dark skinned characters does not go unnoticed don't think I don't see y'all sleeping on spanish jackie.

If you don't want to consume OMFD, cool! Please seek out and endorse media actually helmed by Black people. If someone wants to present a counter-argument to this that isn't an angry stream of consciousness and has paragraph breaks, I will weep for joy.

[dabblingindreams]

had a dream about a family vacation, and a mechwarrior game hosted on a porn site. it was a perfectly normal and legitmate game but it was only hosted on and could only be played on this very prevalent porn site that i was embarrased to have an account for. i don't remember if the entire game focused on the Battle of Mescale III, in the vein of mechcommander, or if that was simply one planet you could fight on, but either way both times i played that battle it was a total rout versus clan forces who had bid only 3 stars verus 2 companies but had resorted to very unclan like ambush tactics, waiting for the bulk of inner sphere force to engage through a narrow gap between mesas and subsequently demolished the vanguard, then passed through the gap themselves to mop up the remaining forces. either way i didn't want anyone to see me playing but it turned out my brother had an account on the same site

i was at a small convention, with little attendance due to covid, and with so little attendance from vendors that most of them got to have an entire room to themselves, including this artist named sapphobaphomet [or some variation of that], who had tables laid out with her prints that she was giving away for free. her art, mostly of demons, so moved me, i collected almost one of each. she was happy to have a fan so she took me back to her actual merch table, and had me sign a contract to commission her once i came up with a suitable idea. i didn't have enough money for one at the con, but i decided to go back to my car and load my backpack up with the booze i had to share it with her and other congoers, but my old backpack started to tear under the weight of the heavy glass bottles.

a horror movie, very 60s and 70s, it started with the creation of the earth, but then focused on a very pastoral modern day life of a woman, seemingly just out of high school who thinks she was abducted by aliens and is destined to give birth to a human alien hybrid. there is a town meeting in the school about what to do about various monster attacks but she keeps having visions about what to actually do in these situations. she imagines herself fighting and killing the principal after it is revealed he is the devil, another has one of the townspeople strung up in the auditorium by their own ligaments. prominent townsfolk gather in the hotel library in secret as they are actual devil cultists. the leader is played by vincent price. he has a large orb weaver spider crawling down his face and onto the raven perched on his shoulder. as the townspeople leave the meeting after dark, there is a large explosion in the air. it turns out a prominent terrorist has hijacked a plane with a famous family or actors on it, and blew it up with a timed explosive. he said he was close enough to nyc to do another 9/11 [despite the town looking like rural japan mostly] but he knew more people would see it if he blew up the plane at altitude and so chose to do that. the next morning the girl's mother and father are discussing the fact that the principal was forced early in his career to be a porn writer, with his most famous work being the adventures of an unfaithful high class Barbadian woman and how she'll sleep with almost any man but her husband. she also considers drinking cows milk to be cheating for some reason. the mother was about to pose a question but decided to preface it with a story but was interrupted by their neighbor, either Andre the Giant or played by him, who helped himself to some of the breakfast they had prepared.

i woke up.