Tiffany Haddish - Taji Mag

Netflix’s “Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” is an introduction to one of the most celebrated Black female business owners in history, Sarah Breedlove. This project is directed by Kasi Lemmons (Harriet) and Demane Davis (Queen Sugar). NBA Superstar, LeBron James, and businessman, Maverick Carter, have joined the project as Executive Producers. Taji Mag was able to check out the series before its release on March 20th and here’s the review.

Visuals

Once again Kasi Lemmons has provided the audience with the vision of a powerful Black woman taking on a form that transcends reality. In this instance, whenever Sarah has a vision of or is faced with adversity, the audience is presented with colorful dance routines, mocking female logos, and even a boxing match with her adversary, Addie Monroe (I assume this character is based off of Annie Malone). I really found the boxing scenes with Addie to be quite enjoyable. I also found myself waiting to see Sarah give Addie a one-hitter quitter for her trifling ways.

Octavia Spencer as Madam C.J. Walker and Carmen Ejogo as Addie Monroe

*Spoilers Ahead*

The Walker girl logo that mocked Sarah (and was created by Sarah’s husband, C.J. Walker) was also an interesting concept. It paid off in the end when we learned that the Walker girl was not only designed by C.J. but it was also his ideal woman. This is discovered towards the end of the series when C.J. cheats on Sarah with Dore Larrie.

Performances

Octavia Spencer does an amazing job of portraying one of the most celebrated Black entrepreneurs. She was able to capture the excitement in her facial expressions whenever an idea manifested. Spencer also was convincing when her character was met with doubt or fear, a prime example is whenever she was haunted by her past self with “bad hair”.

Tiffany Haddish also did pretty well as Leila, the daughter of Sarah. I found it very interesting how the character’s liberal lifestyle was introduced to the audience. It made me want to research Leila’s entrepreneurial success with her business, The Dark Tower, in New York.

Kevin Carroll as Ransom was a standout to me in the series. His performance as Madam C.J. Walker’s legal advisor had very compelling moments. I wasn’t really familiar with his work but, after viewing the series, a thorough Youtube and Google search went underway. I just had to see his other accomplishments.

Another notable character was Ransom’s cousin, Sweetness, played by Bill Bellamy. This role was well written and was a great example of “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Sweetness can be seen as a smart conman who always sought out a quick buck, but in reality he was a man of integrity who only wanted to make it in the world legally. We learn this at the end of the series when Ramson explains his demise.

Gender Roles

Before recalling what I’d already known about C.J. Walker, I was feeling the support he was giving his wife: uprooting his life with Sarah and moving to a whole different city to help support her haircare business. I bet it was seen as very impractical at the time, but nonetheless he did and they were successful. Toxic masculinity and society’s infatuation with the lighter complexion existed heavily during the 1900s. I’m sure this greatly influenced his decision to cheat on Sarah; however, it doesn’t give him a pass to do so. Blair Underwood did a great job of portraying C.J., then again he always does a great job of portraying the conniving, cheating husband (i.e. Madea’s Family Reunion).

Unity Over Racism

Blair Underwood as CJ Walker, Octavia Spencer as Madam CJ Walker and Kevin Carroll as Ransom.

This series explores racism, colorism, and gender discrimination in a thought-provoking manner. I kept thinking to myself, what if I was trying to build a business for haircare in the world Madam C.J. Walker lived in? Not only was racism still a major issue at the time, but to fight within my own race about my gender and skin color? Talk about hurdling obstacles! The series really provided some in-depth perspective on how difficult it was to achieve what Madam C.J. Walker did. Seeing the pain she had to go through was quite an eye-opening experience.

The death of Sweetness (played by Bill Bellamy) gave a sense of closure for Sarah and her rival, Addie Monroe. It made the characters reflect on their biggest threat: racism and gender discrimination, not each other. Sweetness’ lynching was touching, to say the least, as the Director gave the audience first perspective scenes that can only be described as heart-wrenching.

Conclusion

“Self Made: Inspired By The Life of Madam C.J. Walker” is a beautifully told story. The creatives in charge did a great job of pacing the story and supplying just enough conflict to make the viewer want to binge-watch the whole series on a Sunday night. I am glad I was able to speak with Kasi Lemmons about this project and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the series. I highly recommend giving it a watch. Of course it’s not completely accurate; however, it’s still very entertaining. While we celebrate women’s month at this time when self-distancing is in place, this Madam C.J. Walker series will allow the viewer four hours to escape the current troubles of the world.

Academy Award® winner, Octavia Spencer, stars as Madam C.J. Walker, the trailblazing African American haircare entrepreneur who was America’s first female self-made millionaire. Inspired by the book, On Her Own Ground, written by Walker’s great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles, the Netflix original series “SELF MADE: INSPIRED BY THE LIFE OF MADAM C.J. WALKER” brings the uplifting story of this cultural icon to the screen for the first time. Against all odds, Walker overcame post-slavery racial and gender biases, personal betrayals, and business rivalries to build a ground-breaking brand that revolutionized black haircare, as she simultaneously fought for social change.

Dave Chappelle as the Mark Twain Award Honoree
Photo by Tracey Salazar

Mark Twain once said, “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” A quote that is the embodiment of what comedians do in an, of course, humorous and entertaining way. Comedians past, such as Richard Pryor and Red Fox, have perfected this craft, but none today are doing it like Dave Chappelle. He has taken truths of political correctness, social psychology, politics, media, etc., and turned them into thought-provoking topics in joke form. I would even argue that he could be considered the greatest and most brilliant comic living today.

Celebration!

It comes as no surprise that Dave Chappelle is an honoree of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Award this year as he is debatably this century’s funniest comic. The ceremony included a variety of celebs that included Erykah Badu, Yasiin bey (Mos Def), Michael Che, Common, Morgan Freeman, Tiffany Haddish, John Legend, Q-Tip, Kenan Thompson, Chance the Rapper, Chris Tucker, Grant Hill, Tamia Hill and Marlon Wayans. All came with stories about the honored guest who always provides memorable moments.

Duke Ellington School Band.

The Duke Ellington School Band opened the evening with a performance of the Prince song “1999,” the song that Dave Chappelle can be heard singing in his Netflix stand up, Dave Chappelle: Sticks and Stones. Chappelle also played the iconic role of Prince in a story by the late Charlie Murphy. They had the whole place rocking as Morgan Freeman’s voice echoed the Kennedy Center introducing the evening festivities. Morgan Freeman served as the announcer the whole night.

Every story told from the perspective of each featured guest in their experience with Chapelle had one thing in common, Dave Chappelle made sure to make every moment memorable and full of laughter. Tiffany Haddish came out in a green jumpsuit with her last name on the breast of it, mimicking the same jumpsuit that Dave Chapelle wore during his shows and even sung “1999” in Chappelle fashion.

“The hardest thing to do is to be true to yourself, especially when everybody is watching.” – Dave Chappelle

A montage of clips played featuring Dave Chappelle from his movies to his stand up, some that I recalled being so hilarious that I couldn’t breathe. A moment that revealed to be unscripted was the adlib of Dave Chappelle’s character, Clayton Bigbsy, the white supremacist. Then Kenan Thompson and Michael Che both brought jokes about the comedic legend while Common, John Legend, Erykah Badu performed hits from their collections. They were all important as Dave Chappelle had a deep connection with the group, Soulquarians, he even had them all perform at his Dave Chappelle Block Party that he filmed.

Q-Tip came out later in the night to discuss Dave Chappelle’s importance to the music community as he was known to incoperate hip-hop/soul acts into his work from the Chappelle Show to his comedy tours. Q-tip then brought out Yasmiin Bey to re-create the hilarious moment when he and Dave Chappelle tried to invite themselves in the White House.

In Closing

Dave Chappelle receiving the Mark Twain Prize Award. Photo by Darrel R. Todd.

The night ended in Dave Chappelle fashion with a cigarette in hand and a bunch of hilarious jokes – including one where he mentioned having ‘leverage’ to smoke in the Kennedy Center. He thanked all who have supported him from family to friends and pointed to the woman responsible for existance, his mom.

He even spoke about how at times comics sometimes don’t see eye to eye, in some cases he found a comic to be racist and even bought them drinks to talk about it. Chappelle mentioned that there’s a protected first amendment but there’s also a second amendment in case the first don’t work out.

Chappelle expalined how his mother called him a griot from African tribes. Griots were story tellers that were in charge of keeping the oral tradition and his mother made sure that she filled him with a lot of history, which he then later turned into deliverable entertainment. This is what makes Chappelle an amazing talent, being able to provide jokes that are informative and thought provoking.

He also spoke about the times his mother would work all day, then go watch him perform stand up, at times falling asleep from exhaustion, but she wanted to show support for the up and coming comic.

Dave Chappelle and wife, Elaine. Photo by Darrel R. Todd

As Chapelle ended his speech, or, as I like to call, an improv short set, he brought out Yasiin Bey and Thundercat to perform “Umi Says”. This award ceremony is another moment that can be cataloged in the memories of everyone as it celebrated the comic icon, who has many more years left of providing laughter and much needed comedy.

Previous recipients of the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize are Richard Pryor (1998), Jonathan Winters (1999), Carl Reiner (2000), Whoopi Goldberg (2001), Bob Newhart (2002), Lily Tomlin (2003), Lorne Michaels (2004), Steve Martin (2005), Neil Simon (2006), Billy Crystal (2007), George Carlin (2008), Bill Cosby (2009; rescinded in 2018), Tina Fey (2010), Will Ferrell (2011), Ellen DeGeneres (2012), Carol Burnett (2013), Jay Leno (2014), Eddie Murphy (2015), Bill Murray (2016), David Letterman (2017), and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (2018).

The celebration will be televised on January 7, 2020 on PBS.