In one of the most spot on casting matches in recent history, Viola Davis is set to portray Michelle Obama in Showtime’s upcoming anthology drama series First Ladies. Written by Aaron Cooley, the project will also be executive produced through JuVee Productions, Davis and her husband Julius Tennon’s company. The two will team up with […]
Last year, we featured Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel Freshwater in JARO’s curated list of books to read by women of color in 2018. After becoming a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel and receiving various other accolades, Freshwater is now in early development for television by FX. According to Variety, who […]
Shortly following the second season pickup of Lena Waithe’s Boomerang reboot, BET has ordered yet another series, Twenties, from the Award-winning screenwriter. Waithe, who said she wants to change the face of BET “by being phenomenal,” is surely making her mark on the network and beyond. Created by Waithe back when she was in her […]
For his second project under his deal at Lionsgate TV, Common will adapt Zora Neale Hurston’s recently published non-fiction book, Barracoon, into a limited television series. The critically acclaimed Barracoon is based on Hurston’s interviews from 1927 with 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis, the last known enslaved person to survive the Middle Passage. The profound story was […]
Mother and son Betty K. Bynum and Joshua Drummond co-wrote I’m A Brilliant Little Black Boy back in 2016, and now the children’s book is being turned into an animated series. The influential book has landed a deal with entertainment mogul Reginald Hudlin of Hudlin Entertainment, and the series will be titled Brilliant Boys. The […]
ABC has given the green light to a new drama written by Rosewood’s Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Deadline reports. The currently untitled drama will highlight a North Carolina town whose criminal justice system is run exclusively by women of color. Chelsea Barnum, the show’s protagonist, is seeking a fresh start after a failed marriage and recently […]
OWN’s Love Is ___ is the true story of Black Hollywood Powerhouse couple Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil. The format takes place like a present-day interview of the married couple as they recall the details of how they met. The episodes then flashes back to a younger Nuri and Yasir, recent Los Angeles transplants trying […]
I am about 25 episodes into the 80 episode long telenovela Celia, loosely based on the life, love, and music, of the legendary Celia Cruz. When I told a friend about my recent binge obsession, she asked me a simple question: why? All I could think of was that Celia did something for me and […]
The following review contains spoilers from season 3 of Queen Sugar. “Don’t lead with the fear of what might be, lead with the strength of who you are.” – Charlie to Nova. “You gotta understand that I don’t need no pedestal. I aint gone break. I got wings, just like you.” – Aunt Vi to […]
N.K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award-winning science fiction fantasy novel The Fifth Season is currently being developed into a television series at TNT. Shortly following the announcement of Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death novel being adapted for television, the news is yet another exciting victory for black authors telling distinctive stories. The Fifth Season is an epic drama series set in a […]