#might take this opportunity to go for a futuristic fantasy thing

[mynameisnowwyrm]

Spoiler warning

TL;DR horrible adaptation, but very enjoyable on it’s own

(Also just wanted to say I was so sure I was going to hate this bc of what’s different but they changed so much the cartoon and the live action are barely connected in my head)

Okay my review will be split up into two parts: fate: the winx saga as an adaptation and as a standalone work

As an adaptation:

0/10. Maybe 0.5 if I’m being generous.

The things that were unchanged from winx club:

There are characters named Bloom, Stella, Musa, Aisha, Sky and Riven

Aisha, Bloom, Stella and Sky resemble their cartoon counterparts

Riven is an asshole

Bloom is a dumbass

Magic exists

The specialists exist

Main characters go to schools for magic and specialists respectively

The dragon flame is a thing

Witches exist

Other than that it’s a completely different show. The plot vaguely resembles season 1 of winx club only in that Bloom is trying to discover her true heritage. Musa, who is supposed to of East Asian descent is not, Flora was not included and in her place is a different character with similar powers, Tecna was excluded entirely ( I believe this was to distance the show from the futuristic elements of winx club and focus only on fantasy, which doesn’t make sense since they changed Musa’s powers ).

The magic system was changed. Fairies don’t on the regular transform since in the show the know-how to do so was lost, though Bloom does unlock the ability in the finale. Instead of each being a fairy of an individual concept, everyone’s powers ale element based, with Musa’s powers being changed to her being an empath. While this does feel more generic, it makes more sense from a world building perspective and I can see why they changed it.

The fashion is horrible. You will never be able to convince me teenagers dress like that. One of the reasons the original cartoon was enjoyable was all the colourful, fun clothing. The clothes feel dated and too mature for the characters, like I can see a twenty-something person in 2013 wear some of those outfits. It especially feels like a missed opportunity since 2000’s fashion is coming back into style.

The characterization of some of the characters compared to winx club was hit and miss. Riven was an ass and Bloom was impulsive and naive, which is accurate, but Stella, oh Stella was a disappointment. Stella was a jealous, manipulative bitch, which in context of her character backstory makes sense, but is so far from her original portrayal. Cartoon Stella was spoiled and at times self centered, but she was also genuinely kind, helpful and bubbly. To see her character take a 180 and become the all too familiar jealous ex archetype was upsetting.

Now, aaaaall that being said, I don’t believe we should judge this as an adaptation. They changed so much that it is quite literally a new story. So let’s see how it stands up on it’s own.

Summary, taken from the wiki

The series tells the story of Alfea, a fictional boarding school where teenagers study. The world inside this universe is not only magical and full of monsters, but it is also a world of real teenagers who do the most common things: make friends and enemies, go out and of course... fall in love. They are eager to find their place in this world. This universe is different from the one we have all known for a long time.

The attention is focused on a group of proud teens, also well-designed female characters. Sometimes they are heroines, sometimes weak girls. Sometimes they are friends, sometimes rivals. Of course, they are not perfect, but they are real. A group of girls who did not know each other until they are included in the same team inside a school that is strange to them. They will meet forces that are beyond their control and things they do not understand. But, throughout the series, they will find themselves, form an indestructible bond, and transform into powerful and strong girls, ready to change not only the supernatural world, but also ours.

Character summary:

Bloom is a newly discovered fairy from the human world who is attending Alfea college in the otherworld. There she meets her new roommates: chatty Terra, athletic Aisha, uptight Stella and stand-offish Musa. She also meets Sky, Stella’s ex, who is training as a specialist.Shortly before coming to Alfea, Bloom discovers she has magic powers by almost burning her house down and killing her parents. She is distraught over this and it is why she is eager to gain control of her powers.It is discovered that Bloom is a changeling, a barbaric practice where a fairy baby is exchanged with a human one. This leads Bloom on a quest to discover her true heritage.

Musa is an empath, she can feel the feelings of everyone around her. To shut them out and escape she listens to music through her headphones. This leads to her initially coming off as uncaring when Terra tries to get to know her better.

Terra is an earth fairy with a particular talent for making plants grow. She is very nice and chatty, eager to make friends, but not afraid to stand up for herself. She struggles with finding someone to like her and compares herself to “cool girl” Beatrix who has boys following after her.

Aisha is a water fairy who swims twice a day every day. She comes off a a good person who wants to make friends and do the right thing. She also tries to do everything in her power to protect her friends.

Stella is a light fairy and princess of Solaria, the realm in which Alfea resides. She is repeating her first year due to an event prior to season one where she lost control of her powers and blinded her best friend. She is very uptight due to her perfectionist mother and tries to exert control in every other area of her life, when this doesn’t work, e.g. when someone flirts with her on-again-off-again boyfriend she gets jealous and causes trouble. She is also generally rude to the people around her.

Sky is a specialist legacy and Stella’s on-again-off-again boyfriend who has an interest in Bloom. His father was a famous specialist and he was raised by his father’s best friend.

Riven is Sky’s roommate, best friend and a genuine asshole. He insults and antagonizes everyone around him and gets involved with Beatrix. He seems dissatisfied with the life of a specialist.

Beatrix is an air fairy with a lightning powers. She seems mysterious and looks to be the villain of the season. She has enlisted the help of Riven and Dane.

Dane is a first year specialist who first seems to be friendly with Terra but gets sidetracked after spending time with Riven and Beatrix.

What I didn’t like:

The world building is sparse and the magic system is generic. I feel like things could have been better expanded upon. Throughout the show they bring up archaic fairy magic but it’s never really explained how that’s different from current fairy magic.

The interactions between Riven and Dane come off as a bit queerbait-y although they could be setting things up for a second season.

Everyone is constantly so rude towards Terra. Even her supposed friends are mean to her. What gives?

Stella was constantly rude to everyone but by the end they are all the best of friends when she really hasn’t changed much. Also Stella being the jealous controlling ex archetype and not enough people calling her out on her bullshit.

What I did like:

For a Netflix teen drama there is surprisingly little sex between the teenagers. This might be subjective but it was refreshing for me.

Again subjective but I could definitely relate to Bloom’s antisocial teen flashbacks

Beatrix was a fun villain

Though the story might be a little generic, I felt it was compelling throughout. I genuinely wanted to know what happened next.

The story was well paced. It never felt like anything was dragging along

Overall:

The show was definitely enjoyable to watch. There is a lot of room for improvement. It sometimes felt like different plot lines were unconnected and the costume choices leave a lot to be desired. Aside from that they set up a solid story and likable characters (some of whom I love love and love to hate) which I very much want to see further developed in the future. As a stand-alone work 6/10

#fate the winx saga #winx club #winx stella #winx bloom #winx sky #winx #winx riven #winx musa #winx terra #bad adaptation #good show #fate the winx saga review #winx review #fate the winx saga spoilers #winx spoilers

[monysmediareview]

Shadowhunters (Freeform show) Review

Review #2!!

In case you missed it, I wrote a review on the Mortal Instruments book series books 1-3 (they’re the only ones I read because a chapter into book 4 and I was over it). I had mixed feelings on it, as I do with most things - including the Shadowhunters TV show, which is what this review is about!

Casting

Let’s talk about the casting in this show. First of all, I think the cast matched the physical descriptions of each character in the books and I very much enjoyed that. I do like when shows take liberties with casting, especially for the sake of things like diversity but there’s something very satisfying about seeing the characters exactly as they were written. 

I don’t think all of the acting was fantastic, but it’s FreeForm so I really didn’t expect much. It did get a lot better as the series went on and I think the actors really found their footing with these characters. It’s one of the reasons that I love series so much more than movies for things like this because there’s growth and the chance to really explore characters as they exist. These characters really took on a life of their own in a way, but we’ll get into that as I go through the rest of my points here. 

One thing I will say is, while this show did much better than others in terms of diversity it is not lost on me that the BIPOC characters in this show (and in the book series as well) were all “other” characters. As is often the case, people of color in fantasy media are usually portrayed as animals such as werewolves, or other “undesirable” characters. This is an incredibly complex part of casting, creating, and writing, and I will not get into it here, but I didn’t want to not mention it. 

Gay Pride & True Love

If you read my review of the Mortal Instruments series then you already know that I love love love Alec and Magnus, but that love grew exponentially when I watched the show. Magnus was an interesting character in the books but Harry Shum Jr. really brought the character to life and that show especially in the scenes with Alec. The show also gives Alec a ton more depth than in the books and I love that they didn’t keep him hung up on Jace (a straight man) for most of the story. He fell for Magnus and he fell for him hard. Magnus is the one that broke through Alec’s shell and encouraged him to be himself. By cutting away all the petty teenager shit that was in the books we were able to see this real, complex, but honest and deep love story that rivaled the main love interests immensely. I would watch this show over and over just to watch these two again. 

Representation and diversity are two huge factors when I think about whether or not I liked a piece of media. These kinds of things are what makes media so relatable, real, and ultimately enjoyable in a lot of ways. This show didn’t make the characters gay-ness a main factor of their relationship; they just showed a relationship as they would with a straight couple. They didn’t ignore their gay-ness either, though, and acknowledged the difficulties within that. By making this normal, they took huge strides in showing these kinds of relationships on TV and I adore that. And I just cannot get enough of this pairing in general - there are so many contrasts and compliments in their relationship and it’s what I honestly consider to be a perfect OTP relationship in any kind of romantic plot. 

10/10 would watch the show just for Alec and Magnus. 

I like Clary better in the show than in the books

Clary is by far, not one of my favorite characters in the fantasy genre. I find her to be selfish, martyr-like, and just kind of annoying but I really felt like the show was able to redeem the decent characteristics that she has and shed off most of the aggravating ones. 

As a whole, I am not a fan of how stupid the books make Clary out to be. Clary falls into the category of characters I don’t like because there is ultimately nothing very special about them yet they end up with a guy who is completely out of their league in every way who is head over heels in love with them. It infuriates me so much and Clary is not an exception to this rule. Her character is still this way in the show but it is much less evident because she seems to be more of an active participant in her own life and I don’t have to sit through her endless internal monologues about how attractive or strong or whatever Jace is. Thoughts that she still has while she thinks they’re siblings. At least in the show, these characters seem to draw a strong boundary here when they think they’re related rather than making out in a field like they did in the books. 

Clary also has a much stronger sense of self in the show and often reflects on what her life was and what it has become, how she’s grown. And I think that’s a huge part of it - that she has grown when in the books she was just constantly such a dumbstruck teenager who only thought of herself. I absolutely love the difference in her character here so I’ll give the show a star for that. 

Her relationships with other characters is also so much stronger. I believe this is in part because we don’t know her every inner thought about them and we also aren’t distracted by her distraction that is Jace. Her relationship with Izzy is so much better and stronger. I’ll always give good reviews to strong female relationships! Even her friendship and relationship with Simon is more in depth in the show. Their book friendship is very baseline; they constantly say they’re best friends but that’s not really reflected in the way they act around each other. In the show they have anecdotes about the past we never see in the books, they talk in a comfortable way and even show their relationship with each other’s families a lot more. This plays into her being an active participant in her own life as well. 

The Lightwood Family Drama

This might be something that happens later on in the books (however I don’t think so because of some spoilers I’ve received on my main account) but I really liked the Lightwood family subplot. I would imagine they have some marital problems after Max’s death in the books but considering they don’t kill him in the show, divorcing them earlier and giving Maryse a second chance was a fantastic choice. I kind of wish they had kept Max’s death because to me, it was the driving force between Izzy and Simon, but overall I don’t mind the way they did it. It just felt like a missed opportunity for drama and angst.

Back to the point at hand - families are complicated and the only “normal” or rather, nuclear family we see in this series is the Lightwoods. Clary was raised by a single parent, as was Simon, and no one else really has parents that we’re introduced to to be able to judge their family life. By making their family story a complicated one, rather than the “ideal”, it becomes not only more dramatic, which is fun and interesting, but real. And it may seem counterintuitive to make things seem real in a fantasy genre show/book series but that, in my opinion, is what makes it easier to believe the fake stuff. I can focus more on the magic and the demons and the end of the world as we know it if it’s grounded in something that’s familiar to me. The Lightwoods feel like a very real family with complicated relationships between kids and parents, adopted children/siblings, and marital issues that affect everyone differently, which invites us as an audience to relate to them and doesn’t make the Shadow world so different from ours. 

A scene I loved specifically is when Izzy brings the doctor she’s seeing to the Hunter’s Moon and they’re all messing with each other, eating, drinking, laughing, talking. They really felt like a family there, like adult siblings which can be a really difficult feeling to capture but I think it was done very well. I didn’t want to go through this review without mentioning that part since it was something very special for me. 

Design Choices

Changing topic just a little bit, I wanted to talk about the design of the show. First thing I noticed was that the runes were not at all how I pictured them. Now, that may be a fault of the writer because they weren’t very well described so it all landed on imagination which is different for everyone. The show design gave me kind of Henna tattoo vibes, whereas the books gave me full black ink vibes. 

The clothing was also something very strange to me. Izzy was always described as wearing long silvery skirts. I very much imagined her as wearing borderline rave outfits in most of these scenes but she mostly just wore crop tops and low cut shirts. I also noticed that as the series went on she dressed in a bit more of a conservative way compared to the first half of season 1 when I recall her wearing literally just a sports bra as a shirt in a few scenes. It was apparent to me in the books that the way Shadowhunters dressed was something that separated them from humans, made them stand out, and the show lacked that. I think this also took away the idea that Shadowhunters are a whole race of people with a history and culture separate from being human (they are, in essence mixed raced, but this comes with a lot of implications and is not a complete statement or comparison in any way). My point with this is mostly that I wish there had been more of a separation visually between Shadowhunters and humans beyond their runes. 

I also pictured the Institute to have a very non-human, Catholic type of design and instead just got pseudo-futuristic feel. I didn’t hate it, it just feels overdone in these kinds of shows and movies. For example, the Divergent series or Maze Runner or even Tomorrowland all have this type of vibe and I was hoping for more of a DmC: Devil May Cry approach. 

Jace Wayland is a beautiful character

I had mixed feelings about Jace in the books; he felt stale and like every other straight, white, male, romantic lead. In the show, however, I think Dominic Sherwood did him a great deal of justice and gave him the depth that actually made him a desirable person that I could understand someone being in love with. He’s charming, and a little cocky but we also get to see a deeper side of him than we do in the books. We see his emotions, especially his unconditional love for Clary (whether I agree with that or not). 

The Owl plotline was a waste of time in my opinion, but the scene when Izzy and Alec go to save him from inside his mind and we see him break down is absolutely beautiful. Jace is introduced to us from the start as hard, strong, calloused and here we see him vulnerable and scared with two of the people he trusts most in the world. I will accept the Owl plotline if only to keep this scene because I think it is absolutely essential to his character arc. 

I also found that scene to be indicative of his relationship with Izzy. In the books it’s often alluded to that he and Izzy had been together in one way or another but that’s not the case for the show (thank the angel) and here you can really see them as siblings more than in any ther scene, I think. But this takes me to his relationship with Alec as well. 

Parabatai 

I don’t remember Parabatai being mentioned much in the books but it is a huge deal and talked about quite a bit. I this this is super cool, personally and it’s not something I can really think of too much in fantasy outside of sires or singers or the like in many vampire novels but that has a whole “owner” vibe that doesn’t exist with Parabatai. I am super intrigued by this idea and I loved how much they played with it being a strength and an essential part of their existence. 

The relationship between Alec and Jace is obviously stronger than just brothers, but it also isn’t quite love in the romantic sense. It’s something else and it makes them vulnerable to each other. They feel everything the other person feels, sometimes literally, and while that can weaken them they use it as a strength. It’s really beautiful how honest and open these men are with each other. I feel like the Parabatai bond breaks down a lot of the toxic masculinity traits these characters might have otherwise and I will always be in favor of tearing down those walls. A+ characterization if you ask me. 

I thought Izzy deserved better in the books - the show gave it to her

In the show Izzy is way more badass than in the books, which I wasn’t sure was possible. They made her so much smarter, gave her important roles at the institute like head of weapons and she even did autopsies? In the last episodes we even see her as Head of the Institute. Beauty, brains, and brawn simply can’t be beat. 

Her love life was even more interesting! She wasn’t boiled down to just a slut who slept with everyone regardless of species: she was a lover who fell quickly and saw the best in people despite what people might tell her about “their kind”. She’s strong and very sure of herself; she doesn’t need a man in her life but she wants love and I think that’s a really amazing trait they gave her that deepens the character. 

They made her an activist, too in a way. She’s found really standing up for her beliefs in the show and challenging the way things are. In the books Izzy is pretty stuck in the way Shadowhunters do things but in the show she speaks up when something isn’t right. Her connections to downworlders does a lot of really great things for the Shadow world as a whole. They certainly could have beefed this up a little bit, but it wasn’t a huge part of the show in general so I’ll allow the pass on it. 

Her Yin-Fen addiction was so interesting! Again, I don’t know if this is something that happened in later books in the series but this is just another layer to Isabelle that I really loved. No one is perfect, even her, and it built her relationship with Rafael (another plot I was a huge fan of) which was incredibly complex. 

All in all, I would die for Izzy. Please give me shows and books about her and more characters like her. 

This series was steamy as hell

I can’t write a review on this series without mentioning all of the steamy scenes with so many of the characters. I mean, of course, I expected as much with Jace and he got a lot but so did everyone else. We got saucy scenes with Alec, Magnus, Simon, Izzy, Maia, everyone. (Not all at the same time, thankfully). But they were all very well directed and acted and I enjoyed them quite a bit. What can I say? Sex sells. 

In conclusion, I liked this series a lot. I really was not expecting to. I was warned that it was bad, and to start off it was but I found myself unexpectedly enjoying a lot of it. There’s still work to be done and it is by no means perfect but it was entertaining and had some really good moments. I also give so much credit to the actors and creative team for doing so much with material that didn’t give them much depth in the first place. 

Would recommend for something to enjoy but maybe not think too hard about.

xoxo

Mony

#shadowhunters #mortal instruments #series #cassandra clare #freeform #izzy lightwood #alec lightwood #magnus bane #harry shum jr #jace wayland #jace herondale #dominic sherwood #clary fray #clary fairchild #clary morgenstern #shadow world #writing #review #series review #tv show #monyreview

[tisfan]

Take this Job (and Shove it out the Airlock)

Title: The Worst Job Interview Ever Square: A2 - AU: Sci-Fi/futuristic Warning: non consenting drug use, drinking Pairing: WinterIron (after this part) Summary: All Tony needed was a job…. But really, press-ganging wasn’t his style. Link: A03 Word Count: 1,487 For: @tonystarkbingo

A/n - I’m estimating 2-3 more chapters for this... 

Tony tapped his flexi against the bar, summoning another whiskey. The sum on the flexi flashed red for a moment, deducting the creds for the drink. He didn’t really care much for the whiskey on the outer rim planets, but he was trying to avoid attracting attention, and flashing enough flex for Terran casked whiskey would be the opposite of staying on the downlow.

He wasn’t sure if it was the casks made from other planetary trees, or the various synth grains that had been produced to grow well in alien soils didn’t lend themselves well to making whiskey.

There were days when Tony would have slit a few throats for a good cup of whiskey. Those days were gone, and if it didn’t taste good, it at least numbed the pain. At least it was actual alcohol. The last four jobs Tony had were on dry planets -- bathtub gin could get you two years in a tank, and no one wanted that.

He needed a job now, honestly.

He was about two days worth of creds from not having a roof over his head. His last job hadn’t gone so well, and he’d had to jump ship on this podunk world, leaving a hefty contract payment behind. And having another shit mark on his work record.

He took a sip of the shitty brew, trying to ignore the stale black pepper taste.

“You look like a man who’d rather drink piss,” someone said, and Tony blinked up at the blurry man. A few concentrated blinks and Tony managed to congeal the person down to base characteristics. Dark skin, no hair. One eye. A penchant toward black, tight fitting clothing and a flapping black coat over it.

“Are you real?”

“Son, I’m the realest damn person you will ever meet. You’re Stark.”

“You looking to hire me, or cash in on the bounty?” Tony shifted his hand, the nanotech forming a repulsor on his palm.

“I don’t care about the price on your head,” the man said. “I’m Fury.”

“And I’m a fan of lust, if we’re going for the seven deadly sins.”

“I would like to consult you on a special project.”

“Am I supposed to look at the eye or the patch? I might be a bit drunk here,” Tony said.

“Natasha, take him,” the man said.

Sudden pain jabbed into his throat and he turned to see the redheaded waitress standing there. “Could you just-- not do something awful for five seconds while I figure out what’s going on? Am I gonna wake up in a bathtub full of ice with my organs missing?”

“I’d apologize, but I have urgent business and--”

“You’re not sorry,” Tony slurred, slumping into the arms of the redhead and the bronky blond she seemed to summon with a jerk of her chin. “Help, I am being press-ganged!”

“No one cares,” the blond said. “They don’t mess with us.”

Tony knew there was some witty repartee somewhere, but he lost consciousness before he could think of something clever to say.

(more under the cut)

Tony woke up with a headache and a girl in his bed. Neither of these things was unusual. The fact that the woman was fully dressed and pointing a gun at him, that… well, it wasn’t even that unusual, albeit disappointing.

“Why do I feel like the first words out of your mouth are along the general theme of, we have ways of making you do as we wish? Come on, really. Get new material,” Tony said. He was not, apparently, chained to the bed. Or restrained in any manner.

He’d had worse mornings, although he might just about go for broke unless there was coffee in his immediate future.

“Well, then I don’t need to say it, do I?” she quipped. He thought her name was Natasha, or at least that’s what Fury called her. It would do, at least for a while. “Far be it from me to destroy your fantasy escapade of mouthing off to the bad guys until you have your moment.”

“There’s always a moment.”

“And I always step on it,” she said.

There wasn’t much in the room; simple bed, dresser, bedside table. Boring, white walls, industrial tiling floor. Could have been anything from apartment to a hotel to a hospital. At least it wasn’t a coffin hotel; those sucked.

“So, why don’t you tell me what you want me to do before I tell you to stick it,” Tony said. “And, aside from general firearm safety, could you point that somewhere else? I’m generally more pleasant to talk to when I’m not being threatened.” They wouldn’t get what they wanted from him; Tony never gave in to threats, but they might as well at least start out with the illusion of courtesy.

“What-- oh, this? I’m sorry, I forgot,” Natasha said, and if Tony hadn’t thought that was preposterous, he might actually have believed her. Her delivery was great. Excellent, really. “I just didn’t want you to jump me when you woke up.”

“Happens a lot, does it?”

“Sometimes, Mr. Stark,” Fury said, coming into the room. He hadn’t unlocked the door, as far as Tony could tell, which might mean the door was open for the escaping, although there were two of them and Tony was--

Huh. Still in all his gear, including his repulsor gloves. This might be easier than he thought.

“Well,” Tony said, hesitantly, “I’m sure I’m flattered, but I don’t want to join your secret boy band. The rock-glam look is just bad on me. Why should I deny the universe the opportunity to look at my face.”

“Mostly because it’s all over wanted posters everywhere?” the blond guy said, following along. “Got breakfast for you.”

“If there’s no coffee, I don’t want it.”

“Is there such a thing as no coffee? I would cry,” the guy said. “Here.”

He poured Tony a mug, then sipped out of it, as if to prove it wasn’t poisoned or anything, although even Tony knew how that went. There were all sorts of poisons that had pre-dosing antidotes.

But whatever. It smelled good enough that Tony wasn’t sure he cared. “This is awfully nice for people who had to kidnap me.”

“No, we had to make it look like we were kidnapping you,” Fury corrected. It was getting a little crowded in Tony’s-- whatever it was. Bedroom. Not that he minded a crowd or an orgy, but he usually liked to pick his partners.

“Congrats, you succeeded,” Tony said. “I’m growing less inclined to help you by the second.”

“We need your help, and we think the mission’s of interest to you,” Natasha said.

Tony took a sip of his coffee. Damn, actual bean. Fresh roasted, too. “I’m listening.”

Fury tapped his flexi and pushed an image into the air. It was an image he recognized. “This is Captain America. His ship crash-landed on a planet decades ago, along with an item of unspeakable power. The Tesseract.”

Tony’s hand didn’t move to hover over his heart, but he knew the tesseract. His arc-reactor worked on the same, or similar, tech. He didn’t have the original to compare it to, but he’d seen his father’s notes. He’d seen his father’s notes on Captain America, too. The original tesseract could be the key to stopping the palladium poisoning that was slowly killing him.

“Okay, I might be interested, keep going,” Tony said.

“The Captain’s ship has recently been spotted on scanners,” Fury continued. “I’m putting together a team to go down, retrieve the Captain, and get out. Cap’s been asleep for seventy years. You’re the only link we have to his past--”

“Yeah, my father helped invent the guy, and I was held up to Cap’s standards. Not exactly someone I’ve got fond memories of,” Tony said.

“We need Cap, and we’d like to retrieve the Tesseract. Your nanotech is about the only thing we know of that can hope to get people onto the surface. Help us get Cap, we’ll let you study the Tesseract.”

“You know, assuming I don’t die in the process of retrieving him,” Tony pointed out.

“Meet Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton. They’ll be part of your team, so we’ll need you to get to work. Soon.”

“Part?”

“There are a few other members, one a little more reluctant that you. He’s in quarantine right now. I’ll introduce you. Assuming you take the job.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Nothing,” Fury said. “We’ll do what we have to do, and we’ll let you go right back to that dive where you were drinking. Keeping in mind that there’s an AIM extraction team on its way to your location-- they arrived on planet about four hours ago, and there’s not a lot of running room around here.”

“You know, you could have lead with that,” Tony said. “Let’s get to work.”

“Right this way, Mr. Stark,” Natasha said. 

#tonystarkbingo2019 #bingo fill #winteriron is endgame #space opera AU #non con drug use

[fylauraharrier]

What’s most striking about Laura Harrier when she stands to shake my hand in Soho House, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, is her delicacy. She’s slender as a tulip, in high-waisted baggy jeans and a black silk camisole. Her make-up and jewellery are barely-there — gossamer golden threads around her neck and fingers. What makes her gentle vibe all the more remarkable is that, just the night before, I was sitting in a dark screening room spellbound by her fierce, gripping performance in BlacKkKlansman. Directed by Spike Lee and co-starring Adam Driver and John David Washington (Denzel’s son), it’s based on the true story of two cops infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Harrier, 28, plays Patrice, a student leader in the Black Power movement and a force for political awakening for the other characters. Patrice’s look is anything but demure, with her halo-like afro and leather jackets. In particular, Harrier says of the afro wig she wears throughout, it made her hold herself differently: “I felt royal.” She pauses a beat and laughs: “It hit doorways. Sometimes it got skewed.”

She was on holiday in Greece with friends last year, lying on a beach on a “random Tuesday”, glass of rosé in hand, when an unfamiliar number popped up on her phone. She answered. “‘Laura, this is Spike Lee. Vacation’s over. See you in New York on Thursday,’” she says, doing a not completely terrible impersonation of the director. She scrambled off the island and met Lee for an unorthodox audition that included sitting in on his film-making class at New York University, participating in the class discussion, and making a nearly hour-long video. “At one point I got really mad at him and I walked out of the room and slammed the door. I came back expecting him to be, like, ‘And, scene.’ But no. He was still going. I was, like, ‘We’re still acting. OK, cool. When will this end?’ ” She was offered the role the next day and, without reading a script or even knowing much about her character, Harrier jumped at the opportunity, thinking, “I’ll do whatever, it’s Spike!”

The film won the Grand Prix award at Cannes in May, and Harrier and her castmates were given a six-minute standing ovation after the screening. As if a meaty role in the latest Spike Lee film wasn’t a cool enough credential, Harrier has also scooped up contracts with Bulgari and Louis Vuitton, for which she is a brand ambassador. She met Vuitton’s creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière, after a catwalk show a year and a half ago and they “hit it off and clicked”. He featured her in his SS18 campaign, wearing a futuristic take on an 18th-century-style brocade jacket. For Cannes, Ghesquière made her a peach dream of a gown. “It was so beautiful,” she swoons. “I cried when I tried it on for the first time, like it was my wedding dress.”

Harrier spent her formative years in what is perhaps America’s quintessential picket-fence suburb: Evanston, Illinois, the area where John Hughes set Sixteen Candles and his other romcoms about middle-class (and mostly white) teenage angst. Harrier’s father works in insurance and her mother is a speech therapist. Her mother is white — a fact that she says people often find “weird” now, but was a non-issue growing up. “My parents never talked about it,” she says, as she tucks into a veggie burger and fries. “There were no big heart-to-hearts.”

To prepare for her role in BlacKkKlansman, Harrier met Kathleen Cleaver, one of the most famous female leaders of the Black Panther Party, and spent time talking to her own father, whose ancestors were slaves, about the racism he faced growing up on Chicago’s South Side and then going to a boarding school in Michigan where he was the only black student. The movement, he told her, taught him to celebrate and embrace his blackness — a message Harrier finds as relevant to her now as it was to her father back then.

“I’m not surprised that racism still exists in our country,” she sighs. “I think people were comfortable during the Obama years and these things were kind of suppressed, and now everyone who has hateful views has the encouragement to make them known. But also it’s [about] trying to be hopeful and not feel like we’re all in despair.”

Harrier is vocal about activism on her Instagram feed, regularly posting in support of trans rights, anti-gun rallies and gender equality. We are meeting during Donald Trump’s visit to London. “The blimp was hilarious,” she says of the inflatable balloon depicting the president in a nappy.

There is, also, the glamorous stream of fancy coiffures and modelling shots across her social media that she admits is part of her job. “My Instagram isn’t me, it’s a very curated version of things,” she says. “I don’t post myself with zits and cramps and rolling out of bed.” She applauds friends who are more open, but is wary herself. “I think people use it to stalk people,” she says. And she’s tired of the sexual harassment that all women face “across the board” online: “It makes me mad. It’s so gross. I’m, like, ‘I don’t want to see your dick pic.’ ” Though the It girls she poses with — Zendaya, Bella Hadid, Sophie Turner — are her real friends, social media can never convey her real life, she says, which mostly involves being “really f****** busy, honestly”.

She recently moved from New York to Los Angeles, “for work and to escape the winter and some life stuff”, but says she has barely been home. Life stuff? “Just personal bullshit,” she says, waving her hand. A boy? “Yeah,” she admits, with a rueful laugh. “I don’t want to talk about that. Sorry.”

Harrier had been living in Manhattan since leaving home to study art history at NYU. She dropped out to model and eventually enrolled in a two-year acting programme. Success came swiftly: before she had even graduated, she was cast by the 12 Years a Slave director, Steve McQueen, in a pilot for HBO (sadly, the show was never picked up). The career-making role of Peter Parker’s high-school sweetheart in Spider-man Homecoming quickly followed.

The fantasy aspect of fashion has always interested Harrier, even before she began, as she puts it, professionally “playing make-believe”. In fact, she was voted best dressed in high school — although she’s not willing to vouch for her teenage sense of style. “I remember wearing a lot of boots — like, high boots,” she says, pointing to a spot above her knee, “which is such a weird, awful trend.” Her style icons at the time were the women of 1990s black sitcoms: Hilary in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Denise, played by Lisa Bonet, on The Cosby Show. “Those were the people on TV that looked like me, so it was what I identified with. Also they were beautiful and looked really cool,” she says.

Back to BlacKkKlansman. She has no fear about what the reaction to the film might be among white supremacists and fans of Trump, for whom the movie has a pointed message in its coda. “I hope [there’s blowback],” she says, “because that means they saw it and are paying attention. It starts a dialogue. Spike is really taking on Trump.”

However, BlacKkKlansman isn’t just an American story, she says. She’s spent the past few years travelling around Europe and Asia and sees the issues of racism and xenophobia as universal. “How do people treat Muslims? How do people treat immigrants? It’s not just about black and white. We’re seeing the rise of right-wing movements around the world,” she says. “So I think and I hope that people all over the world will see it and identify with it. This is everywhere.”

BlacKkKlansman is out on August 24

#laura harrier #article #spideycentral #she's so wise #also no questions about the boy she's talking about in the end #if you don't want to sign in on the website #the interview is also under the cut now

[superchartisland]

Elite (Firebird, Spectrum, 1985)

Gallup all format charts, Your Computer Volume 6 No. 1, January 1986

[content warning: discussion of slavery and colonialism]

Elite was a year old by the time its Spectrum version hit #1, a conversion developed as a result of its massive success on the more expensive and less popular BBC Micro computer. Yet even for 1985 it still feels preposterously ahead of its time. As with many other games I’m writing about here, I first played it in the early 90s, and its wireframe monochrome 3D spaceflight still felt high-tech and futuristic. Like the map in The Crystal Maze! As recently as 2016, one of the year’s most anticipated new games got there essentially on the promise of an updated execution of Elite’s concepts (I’m scheduled to talk about that one in five years’ time). Elite is a game which did the previously unimaginable and it had a lasting impact.

It’s a game about space travel and trading. You start out on the planet Lave with a triangular-ish Cobra Mk III spaceship and some credits to buy some stuff before you set out into the universe. Pick a destination, hyperspace there via a flashy space tunnel visual effect, and see another planet in front of you. Move around it to its geometric space station, line yourself up with an entrance slot, and you can dock into another planet’s market to buy and sell and upgrade and do it over again.

Well, I make that sound simple, but the space station docking is an incredibly difficult stage to get past. Things can get harder yet later on with pirates or police or aggressive aliens, but the required feat of flight technique is a heavy barrier of its own. I have memories of getting deeper into Elite, of being enthralled by its progression, and I know that 7-year-old me was much more patient with games than me now, but I’m not 100% convinced I ever got past that starting point. My happy memories might be of watching my dad play it. I’m not sure it matters all that much.

Just conceptually, Elite offers so much more than the basic actions of its gameplay. What form it takes is subject to an incredible degree of freedom. Go where you like, trade what you want to, attack other ships and salvage from their wrecks, upgrade your ship as you see fit based on your own priorities -- combat, trade, not having to do the docking waltz yourself any more. Everywhere you go you see other ships going about their business, and in the absence of anything telling you what to do, the sense of the game presenting a world and the player just existing as one tiny part of it is the strongest we’ve seen so far. Of course Elite is built for the player’s benefit too, but it doesn’t remind you of that in-world, where you are just one more of many and it’s possible to imagine the universe carrying on without your tiny contribution and not even noticing. It’s not quite the Total Perspective Vortex, but it’s an experience with a very different flavour to a lot of games where you play as the chosen one.

Elite’s world is one rich in detail. It uses procedural generation -- templates filled in with details based on random number generation -- to create a far bigger universe than would otherwise have been possible with the computers of the time. You can browse a huge galactic map of (eventually) accessible places, and a local one of nearby stars and associated planets, each with their own details to read about. The planet Tionisla is notable for its inhabitants’ ingrained shyness, Leesti is known for Zero-G Cricket and Leestian Evil Juice, while for rich industrial corporate state Zaonce the info screen just notes “This planet is a tedious place”. These details make no real difference to any of the choices available to the player, and yet they bring being in the world of Elite to life.

The details also provide some familiar topics for those familiar with similar fictional settings. Elite gets in references to Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy early and often -- you start off rated as “Harmless” and the first progression on your path to the ultimate rank of “Elite” is of course to “Mostly Harmless” -- and has a nod to 2001 in the delightful version of Strauss’s Blue Danube waltz that plays while your expensively bought docking computer does its thing. (Well, the Commodore 64 version I remember had the last one, anyway; the Spectrum’s crap sound strikes again.) It even came packaged with its own sci-fi novella.

The indication is that Elite’s aspiration is to make the player feel like they’re in the kind of sci-fi story they’re hopefully familiar with, the better for them to fill in details that the game doesn’t have. The high level of incidental background detail, copied with the relatively low level of detail on your actions make for the perfect opportunity to do that construction of additional narrative, on your own, or with others, as described in a lovely post on GameTripper. And that narrative outsourcing is a great move. All the filling in, informed by other science fiction or otherwise, or otherwise, comes easily and offers an even bigger range of possibilities than even such a groundbreaking game could on its own.

For all the freedom, though, players work along some lines set by the developers. And the confines of those lines are revealing. You can’t, at least within actions shown directly by the game, operate as a space Robin Hood and give anything you take from the rich away to the poor. You can’t run your ship as a passenger transport. But you can trade in slaves. The possibility is presented every time you look at the list of a planet’s available commodities, quantities chillingly listed in tonnes alongside computers and minerals and “alien items”.

There is an in-game punishment of sorts if you trade in slaves or firearms or narcotics, a strong possibility that the space police will come after you. But they’re lucrative trades, you can fight the police, and that’s also a new set of possibilities to act as an incentive to the player to make those choices. The gameplay consequences of making the choice might actually be more fun. The two Cambridge students who made this game where players aspire to be the Elite decided that as part of their entertainment those players should be facilitated to imagine owning other people as property. Any thoughts on other reasons not to carry out such an atrocity are another thing left completely to the player.

It makes sense to look at those decisions in the context other games of the era we’ve seen, too. There was Frank Bruno’s Boxing and its vintage racism. Sabreman, the character we’ve seen lead three #1 games already, did so in colonial chic headgear. Fantastical worlds are always mirrors of our own, intentionally or otherwise, and in Elite’s time the British Empire (which 44% of British people surveyed were still proud of in 2016) wasn’t far behind us at all. Elite has you as a lone trader, rather than a representative of the East Galactia Company, but the prospect of travelling to far-flung locations and shooting down their defences to foist your narcotics onto their population can’t help but resonate, too.

It’s not just the experience of playing this game that those resonances matter for. Elite was as loved as it was successful and sets the scene for what is to come, its ideas traceable through to very different future games. Championship Manager would go on to turn its perspective vortex and largely player-outsourced narrative into a magical football story machine. And some other Brits would take Elite’s freedom to go anywhere and do anything as the model for the even more successful Grand Theft Auto, with the lack of morality not only built in as a given but made the whole point. The path towards a particular type of power fantasy dominating games doesn’t start here, but it’s a beautifully built trading post along the way.

#elite #zx spectrum #1985 #gif #space trading #computer games #video games #retrogaming #3d graphics #wireframe #1986 #imperialism #british empire

[affectionforbangtan]

[TIME] j-hope of K-Pop Sensation BTS Has His Own Story to Tell on New Solo Mixtape

Allow j-hope to introduce himself — and to welcome us to Hope World, the K-pop superstar’s debut solo mixtape. J-hope, 24, born Jung Ho-seok, is one of seven members of BTS, one of the most popular boy bands in the world. But the release of his independent project doesn’t spell any kind of end of the BTS reign. In fact, he is the third member of the group to put out an individual mixtape, giving their army of global fans a taste of his own artistic vision — without fracturing the boy band unity.

“The team always comes first, so I focused on our projects as BTS and tried to make time in the hotel room, on the airplane, and whenever I could find a few minutes,” he says of the two-year-long process of developing Hope World, which he considers “my calling card to the world.”

Best known in BTS for his rapping and his background as a former competitive street dancer, the young star was discovered by BigHit Entertainment’s founder and CEO Bang Si-hyuk thanks to his sharp moves. On Hope World, he gets to flex his own voice, crafting a set of songs that fans of rap and pop can enjoy even if they don’t speak a word of Korean. The mixtape opens with an adventure inspired by Jules-Verne, then delves into his personal reflections on fame and success, anthems for positivity and party tracks, all layered over a mix of instantly catchy trap, dance and tropical beats. Here, j-hope shares exclusively with TIME the stories behind this collection of solo tracks, whose messages — despite the language difference — certainly don’t get lost in translation.

TIME: Why did you want to release a mixtape? What sets this apart from BTS music?

j-hope: My fantasy had always been making a music video and performing with music that I had created. I also wanted to put my own story to music and share it with the world. [BTS members] RM and SUGA releasing their own mixtapes was the motivation for my own project. I have been and continue to be deeply influenced by them, from the day we began to where we are today, and I always thought it was awesome that they were telling their own personal stories and making music in their own styles. I started dancing first, but felt I could also tell my story through my music.

There are elements of trap, EDM, Caribbean beats and futuristic funk-soul mixed together across the mixtape. But most of all, you’re clearly leaning in to all forms of rap. What artists and sounds inspired you most?

I actually don’t preoccupy myself with “I’m going to do this kind of rap in this kind of genre” kind of thinking when I work. I went with and got my beats from what appealed to me, what drew me in and what felt good. The way I work is very on-the-spot flow, and I write the rap and the music as I feel them coming. I drew inspiration for this mixtape from artists like KYLE and Aminé. I also have to mention the heavy influence of Joey Bada$$. These are all artists I highly respect, and I’d love to do projects with them in the future.

The first song, “Hope World,” opens up with a water splash sound, and the lyrics mention being under the sea. What’s the journey you’re taking?

I remember being captivated by Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea when I read it as a kid. I think I took myself back to that place for new inspiration and brought back a part of it as the motive to start writing Hope World. It’s an introduction to people who are brand new to [me] with me as Captain Nemo showing you around just as the submarine in the book cruised around the world’s oceans. I know this might sound really corny, but I invite you to pretend to be Professor Aronnax as you listen to this song and take a journey through my world [laughs].

What does it mean to be a “Piece of Peace,” which is the title of one of the songs?

I thought it would be hugely meaningful for me if I can become, like my namesake, hope for someone in the world — not even some grandiose peace but just a small shard of it. I first started out by thinking, “It’d be fantastic to become a part of someone’s personal peace through my music,” and while working on the beats thought about the kind of message I can send out to my own generation living with their worries and burdens. I wanted to talk about peace even though I knew that it was a weighty topic, and I tagged on “pt. 1” to the title because I want to keep talking about it.

The voices of the other BTS members appear on “Airplane.” Did they contribute in other ways?

It was so special. I felt that group vocals for “Airplane” coming from all the BTS members who’ve been together through this journey would create an even more heartfelt song. I first asked our member and my friend RM to do the hook for the song. He agreed and worked really hard to make the recording, but we kept talking and came to the agreement that building the hook with just my voice and ending the song on it would create a deeper emotional impact. I could see it too, so unfortunately our leader’s voice had to stay behind in the editing room. I want to take this chance to thank once again [RM] and all the members. I have the gang vocals and RM’s rap on my phone, and I can’t wait for a chance to put it up on social media and share it with everyone!

Also on “Airplane,” near the end you brush off the haters: “Don’t give a damn, I’m just happy / I made it.” Do you feel that you’ve “made” it as an artist now?

I think “making it,” as you say, means different things to different people. I was sitting in an airplane when I was writing these verses, a first-class seat no less, and it dawned on me that I was in the airplane, in the seat and living the glorious life I’d only dreamed about when I was young, and had somehow gotten used to now. But then and now, I’m still the same person, the same j-hope. My thoughts on life haven’t changed very much. But my world has gone through incredible changes. I think it was that experience of being with my fans around the world and stepping back on Korean soil that it hit me, “Man, I think I’ve made it…” For me, the joy that I have right now and the amazing love I’m getting is how I define my success.

“Base Line” is an intense rap track that sees you flexing over record-scratch sounds. What does this song mean to you? What is your “base line”?

To be honest, I didn’t expect a lot from this track. I was thinking in terms of an interlude between songs, and I think I was as relaxed as I could be writing this song, but then I heard the mix master track and it floored me. It might not be all that to anyone else [laughs]. I just wanted to give a story about how I started, the “baseline” of my life. People don’t really know how I got into music. These days, the baseline that’s behind my life is my deep gratitude for my life and my work. You can see that too in the lyrics. Everything I am comes from this deep gratitude I have.

“Daydream” seems like a particularly personal song — but it’s also a fun beat to dance along with. What story does it tell?

People know me, and I know I’m a person in the public’s eye. I wanted to show that behind this public figure is an ordinary guy named Jung Ho-seok. I wanted to use this as an outlet to talk about the desires and wishes that every person in the world has but that I have to hold down and cover up because of having chosen this line of work. Daydreaming is, of course, dreaming while wide awake about things generally outside our reach. But even if these dreams might never become reality, lining these dreams up in my head still gave me comfort. I thought expressing this topic in the wrong way might make it way too heavy, so I wanted to put it to something bouncy and fun.

You’re now the third BTS member to put out a mixtape after RM and SUGA. Who’s going to be next?

First, it’s such an honor to have the opportunity to make this mixtape. All of our members are interested in creative work and have the deepest passion for music, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a mixtape from anyone. Right now, we’re all focused on the new BTS album. We’re always working on and creating new things, and I hope you can continue to show us your love and stay with us in our exciting journey.

cr. RAISA BRUNER | TIME

#bangtan #bts #jhope #jhope network #raplinenetwork #bts interview #time magazine #hope world #mixtape

[thewestmeetingroom]

The West Meeting Room - Everyone is an Artist: A Conversation with Adeyemi Adegbesan Transcript

SPEAKERS Jessica Rayne, Zoe Dille, Adeyemi Adegbesan (AKA Yung Yemi)

Jessica Rayne   Hello! And welcome to The West Meeting Room. We are broadcasting from Hart House and you're listening to CiUT 89.5 FM. And we're grateful to be taking up space on Dish With One Spoon Territory. I'm Jessica Rayne, Program Associate at Hart House and I'll be your host for today's show, along with my colleague Zoe Dille. Today we'll be discussing art, community and mentorship with Yung Yemi, Toronto-based photographic artist whose practice aims to examine the intersectionality of Black identity. Yung Yemi uses his art as a way of weaving together his connection with his community. He brings us into his creative process where he remixes and samples history with reimagining of the future. We are delighted to have Yung Yemi join us in conversation and take a closer look at his art and the work he's been doing with community. We are also excited to have him engaged in the Hart House Black Futures and Youth Access Programming. If you have not seen Yung Yemi’s work, be sure to follow him @yung.yemi on social media.

Jessica Rayne   So you know, we're so happy to have you Yemi be a part of this. You know, we've been talking since last year around what we can do together. So I'm glad that we get this chance to speak with you. So just to start off, it would be great just like introducing yourself to the world or the listeners that would be listening to this. Like what do you do? How do you describe what you do? Who you are?

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Well, first of all, I appreciate you guys having me on. It's great to be here with you guys today. So for the listeners, my name is Adeyemi Adegbesan. I'm a Toronto-based visual artist. I guess the main theme of my work is Afrofuturism and, and Pan Africanism. And I work in a number of different disciplines. I work with photography, illustration, and I'm getting a little bit into sort of mural making and some sculptural stuff as well. And I guess my background, artistically, I guess, is in photography. I spent a number of years as a commercial photographer before I started sort of going down that path. And before that, I was a youth outreach worker. So it's been, it's been an interesting journey in my adult life. But I'm very, very happy to be here and very, very honored that I get the opportunity to do this and make a living doing what I love.

Zoe Dille   So you, you mentioned a whole lot of things there. But funny enough, I'm listening to you, and I'm like, they all kind of connect in a way, right?

Adeyemi Adegbesan   So yeah, there's definitely a common thread of commonality between where I've been and where I'm at now. It's definitely, it hasn't been like, you know, a traditional path by any means. But um, it's, from my perspective, it's just felt like a pursuit. Like, I've just felt like I've been sort of, sort of chasing a vision for a long time. And I, like again, I just like, I just have a lot of gratitude in this moment, because I feel like I'm a lot closer to it now than I ever have been in the past. But yeah, when I, when I look at all the steps that it took to get here like it, it does make sense, you know. Even though I'm sure like, you know, from another perspective, it might seem like sort of like a random hodgepodge of different endeavors like, it makes sense once it, once it gets broken down.

Zoe Dille   For sure. I mean, I will just say about tradition, I think it's highly overrated. S that’s ok that you did your own path. So we are, we are still in the official decade of African peoples. And you mentioned Afrofuturism and I wonder, I mean, there are a lot of different takes on it. But from your perspective, what does that mean and how do you describe it and in what ways does that kind of help to inform your art work?

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Well, um, yeah. There are a lot of different takes on it, I think. I think like in, in the early 90s, there was like sort of a definition that got popularized, which is basically like this - it was, it was sort of simplistic. It was like traditional sci fi sort of from like a white Eurocentric perspective, but just appropriated by Black people. And it like, it, I guess that makes sense. But it's like, it's sort of, it's very simplistic. But I think like, over the last couple of decades that definition has become a lot more nuanced. And like, you know, here in 2020, the working definition that I'm working from is basically like, it's a fantasy sort of realm, but it's based on African, African and Black spirituality, and sort of, I guess like a reverence for the ancestors’ ancestral knowledge. But yeah, it's positioned in this sort of fantastical, futuristic realm. And, like, the value of that is that it's, it's just a really free creative space. Um, I think like, a lot of Black art gets, like, especially once it gets into the institutions, and you know, the high art galleries, it gets, at times, it gets, like, hyper literalized. And that, and that's cool because it imparts a lot of knowledge of, you know, African culture. And that's an amazing, important thing. But the flip side of it is that it can become somewhat restrictive. In terms of like, the, I guess, just the imaginary, the creative aspect of, you know, of art that I think a lot of people, a lot of just, you know, common people really appreciate. And Afrofuturism kind of like provides a platform for that type of art, that type of creativity that doesn't have necessarily a textbook definition. It doesn't have like a - it doesn't need to have like a super specific historical connection or historic context. It can, it can really just be a place of pure expression, much of the way that hip hop was like, in the late 70’s, and early 80’s. It was just kind of like a breath of fresh air. Where in a culture where people have become heavily jaded towards, you know, modern music and pop cultural music, it was just like this new voice that was just like raw expression. And I think that's kind of like what Afrofuturism as a genre is offering right now in terms of art creation.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Yeah, I mean, you mentioned a lot there. But two things that stuck out to me is like, just this sense of possibility that you have when you think about Afrofuturism, right. And that is the kind of fantasy part, but then it's not all just like something that's out of this world that's totally unattainable, because it is entrenched in this ancestral knowledge and in this self-knowledge of African peoples. And so I think, and we'll talk about this a little bit later on, but I think this is something that is like so needed at this moment, you know, for us to think about all the possibilities and all the strength and all the power and and  knowledge that African peoples and African civilizations hold for us at this really kind of critical time. But I will circle back to that in a bit. Jessica?

Jessica Rayne   Yeah. No, I just wanted to say, like, what you're saying Yemi is very important, I think because when we think about art as expression and a lot of the expression of our people could be sometimes, you know what I mean, a lot of community trauma, right? So a lot of questions through art sometimes are heavier or you know, kind of reflecting on that trauma and pain, often. But this - being able to experience this, and I know there's other artists out there as well that do this, but I mean, it's just Yeah, a fresh breath of air. It's inspiring. It's, it's unique. It's also trenched in kind of just your own identity, right? Like, there's something that it does when you watch, when you actually experience it, or you see your artwork around your African ancestry, right? So I think yeah, this type of art is definitely very important. Even people who are not so into, you know, the, I won't even say, futurism ideas, right. But what that, yeah - So, um, I wanted, Yeah, there's a few things there that I want to circle back on. So I guess, right now, I want to take it back to - you talk a little bit about your journey and how it wasn't really, you know, the straight and narrow path to becoming an artist doing what you're doing now. But I want to learn a little more about that. So what is your story? So take us back into like the time that you -  what sparked you, your passion for the arts? And then what was the journey like actually becoming an artist? Because I know, for a lot of artists, even though they are doing their craft, or doing the work, they may not call themselves an artist until a particular moment in time. So just understanding what that's been like for you, and how you've defined yourself as an artist and when that took place would be great.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Sure. Yeah, that's a - and I totally get that. I think, like, I think everybody really is an artist. But I guess, not everyone is an artist for their profession. And like, not everyone makes a living at it. So that's how I defined it for my, I guess, or just the sort of definition that I made for myself. Like that my goal was to make a living off of my art. So that's, I've always felt like I was an artist, but like, my, one of the things that drove me the most was to be able to make a living off of that art. And that's, you know, that's definitely tricky. Like, my pathway, there was, um, you know, it started - like, my earliest memories are just, you know, sitting in my living room or sitting in my bedroom drawing. Like my mom was a nurse. Like, I grew up with a single parent mother. She was a registered nurse. She worked nights most of the time. So I would be at a babysitter all night. And then I’d come home in the day. She was sleeping and I had to occupy myself. We didn't, we couldn't afford a television. So I - like pen, pencils, and paper was like my go to way of entertaining myself. So like, that's literally like my earliest childhood memories. I drew and painted like a lot all through elementary school up until high school. I took a little break in high school. I got really into sports and like being an artist, like drawing and stuff, like it really wasn't cool. So I took a couple years off from that. But um, you know, like in my late teenage years, I sort of got back into it. I started a little clothing line with a friend of mine. And, you know, we would put designs on T-shirts and hoodies and stuff like that. And then from there, I got into sort of like, graphic design, web design stuff. I started messing around with like video editing. And it was just like one thing after another. Like I tried tattooing for a little while. And like I didn't, I didn't even get into photography until about the age of like, around 28,29 is when I really started taking photography seriously. And I do, like I honestly think that if photography didn't work out for me, like I probably would have just been like, okay, like, this art thing really is not meant to be and I just have to find another path. But, you know, again, like I just feel so fortunate that like the photography thing like - I guess it was just a lot of things clicked once I started trying to look at the world through a camera lens. Like a lot of things just made sense. A lot of the learning I had done in the past for other artistic disciplines, I was able to apply it, apply that learning, that knowledge much more effectively through photography for whatever reason. And that it just opened up for me and that was the beginning of me being able to support myself with my art. And like once I got to that stage, It just allowed me to put all my time and effort and energy into what I was doing. I didn't have to, like moonlight or you know, do it in the evenings or weekends anymore. I could just like do it all day every day. And that, I guess that was sort of like a turning point. Like, my sort of life as an artist is like, centered around continued learning. That always, I always want to be learning, I always want to be picking up a new skill or a new, you know, just like putting time and effort to developing something new. So that's kind of how I got from photography to the place I'm at now is just by experimenting on a consistent basis and just trying to add new things into the mix all the time. Um, but yeah, that’s the pathway in a nutshell, I guess. Like I don't know, I don't really know how else to put it. But yeah, it's, uh, it's been like a really interesting path. Like, I don't have any, I don't have any art, schooling. I never went to art school or anything like that. But it's just a lot of tutorials and a lot of asking questions and a lot of trial and error. And it worked out. I had a couple of mentors, especially with photography. One, off the top, was a gentleman named Taha Muharuma and he's a really dope photographer from Toronto. His Instagram is @tahaphoto. He's just like a really dope street photographer. And he reached out to me, like, out of the clear blue, like, really early on, when I was starting photography. He just saw me on Instagram and just reached out and said, like,”hey, do you wanna go out and take some photos one day?” and I met up with him. And he taught me like, a lot of stuff about photography, you know, just really informally. But it had a huge impact on my development. And another person I definitely have to shout out is Jimmy Chiale. He's like a, he's an abstract painter. He's done, like, his work is all over the city, it’s very, very noticeable. And he, like, he's been a friend of mine for a long time, as well. And just like, he just has this raw creative energy, probably like the purest artist that I've ever been around. Like, it just, it just really flows out of him. And he just always encouraged me to pursue it. Like he, um, I wouldn't call him a mentor from a technical standpoint, because what we do is just like way way different from each other. But from an ideological perspective, like, he was definitely a mentor to me, just in terms of like, just do it till you figure it out. And like his story is amazing, too. You know, he immigrated here from Paris when he was like, you know, in his early teenage years. He was homeless for a little while and he went from selling his drawings and paintings at the corner of like Queen and Bathurst, you know, to having his own gallery space in Toronto a few years ago. It's just been like, an amazing journey for him as well. And, yeah, he's just always, like, throughout the course of our friendship, he's just always been really encouraging and supportive.

Zoe Dille   It's so inspirational, like, just to hear a lot of the things that you're saying, just to pick up on mentors - I mean, something we were, Jessica and I and others on our team were kind of just thinking about a bit - we were tasked with doing these introduction videos for, you know, some new students we were going to be working with, and we had some prompt questions, and one of them was around, like, “Who's your mentor? Or what's the importance of being a mentor?” And, you know, it just made me think a bit about all the people along the path of my life so far who have been important to me. So many of which don't even know they were a mentor to me, you know, or maybe were not the traditional, you know, “I'm going to teach you this craft, or I'm going to job shadow you,” it's just like, wow, I really aspire to have the values of this person or just kind of carry myself the way that this person does. So, super important. But, you know, so, first of all, I’m so not an artist. I'm still on the stick people. That's about where I began and ended my artistic - I'm creative in a thought kind of way, in a writing kind of way, but not anything I do with my hands or whatever. So to be self-taught, I always, you know, have a lot of respect for people who are able to, you know, have that as something that they just sort of pick up, as you mentioned. And then just thinking about you not having a TV, I also grew up pretty much without a TV, just because my parents were really stingy and they didn't believe in TV. Which I thank them for now because I got us all into music and just being outside and all of that, but to think about you, as a child being in the single parent home and almost you know what they call like a latchkey kid because your mom, as you said was working and you had like babysitters, etc… To being where you are now, where your work is really public, where you had this little - Jessica was gonna talk to you a little bit about the show she saw at Harbourfront that she did, but also your latest commission with the Raptors. Like, talk a little bit about kind of, you know, do you sit back at all and say like, wow. You know, do you have like a “pinch me” moment? You know, this latest thing, I saw your T shirt that you did for the Raptors and I was like, where do I get one of those? Which I'll still hit you up about later because I want one. But like how did that all sort of unfold? And you know, how do you feel about your work and being kind of connected to sports at this really pivotal moment with so much stuff that’s going on? And you know, Raptors I think are at the forefront of what's going on with NBA and social justice movement.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Yeah, honestly, like, again, um, I mean, this will become a theme throughout this conversation, I guess. But it's mostly, it's just gratitude. Like, I don't feel like a lot of like a direct ownership over my work. I feel like it's more of a process of channeling. So I'm just, I'm grateful when I get, when I get that inspiration and I'm grateful when it connects with people. I'm grateful when it resonates with people and I'm grateful when it finds its way into opportunities. Like the thing with the Raptors, you know, I'm, I, you know, obviously like growing up being super into basketball, I had like, I had the posters all over my wall. I had a big Damon Stoudamire poster on my wall. I had a big Vince Carter poster on my wall. So to go from that to, you know, to designing shirts specifically for the Raptors to where, you know, as you said, it like it is a super pivotal moment, you know, where they're not only athletes, but they're also embracing their activism and, you know, fighting for social justice. It's an incredible honor. And I'm so grateful to be here. But it's also, it's something that I don't like, I don't really think of it as my thing, as like I, you know, I have ownership over this action or this moment. It’s more just like I just happen to be like a conduit. I'm sort of in the right place at the right time to just channel some of these ideas and some of this energy and bring it over to this, this other space, you know. Um, so that's kind of, that's kind of how I look at it. And when I look at my life from that perspective, I just think of it as a very fluid experience. I'm not, I'm not super attached. Like I was 1,000% I was the definition of a latchkey kid, you know. I literally had a key on a string that I’d wear around my neck. But I like I don't think of it as you know, as this like, personal accomplishment really, like I don't. I just don't choose to view it that way. It's just, it's just more of a fluid experience. And I've had, like, I've had an amazing range of experiences throughout my life. I've been very, you know, growing up in a very low income family, like I've, you know, been to the food bank. I've, you know, had clothing donated to me. I've had that experience. And I, you know, I've been a youth worker. I've been in, you know, all kinds of communities working with young people across the city. And I've been in those experiences and I've experienced loss and I've experienced gain. And, you know, in the last couple years, I've had the great fortune, even to, you know, to get out of Canada and do some traveling. You know, I've been to Europe, I've been to Asia and just experiencing other cultures. And it's all just, you know, part of like one big fluid sort of existence, and I just try to focus on the gratitude of it, you know,

Zoe Dille   Mm hmm. Gratitude is super important and just a way of life. And I think something that people are somewhat waking up to, and since COVID, right. So hopefully, it will continue. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's, again, you know, you reference the posters that you had and being into basketball, and then being able to do this. I mean, it must be pretty amazing. I know. I don't know, Mark, Mark Stoddart that well, but I know he's also an artist. We did a little work with him a few years ago on an event. So it was, just it was really cool to see that both of you guys, you know, were sort of tapped to - do you feel like it was your work? Was that like more of a personal connection? Were they just drawn to your work? Was there a process of submissions for that? How did, how did that unfold?

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Well, yeah, like, I mean, I had a previously existing relationship with the team. Like I've been doing a lot of creative work for MLSE as a whole. Since say 2016 or 2017, I've been part of campaigns for like TFC, the Raptors, the Leafs, you know, even like I designed some of the season tickets for the Raptors last year. So like a lot of, a lot of different stuff like that. So they definitely were aware of who I was and what my style of work was. So I think it was just like, sort of like a natural connection when they, when this opportunity came up, and they started looking for people. And then, you mentioned Mark Stoddart. So I was able to bring Mark Stoddart in to work on this, on this project with me, and like, he's just, he's just an amazing artists. Like he's been, in terms of the Black community here in Toronto, like, he's, he's been a consistent presence, and a creative force in that scene, you know, since like it basically since like, the late 80s, you know, and, and also touching back on the concept of being a mentor, like, he's been a mentor to so many to so many young black artists coming up in Toronto over the past, you know, over the past 30 years, you know, so it was, it was amazing to be able to work with him on this project, because he's like, he's woven into the fabric of, of the black creative community here in Toronto. And it's just, you know, it's an honor to be able to work with him on it.

Jessica Rayne   You know, you mentioned your community work and engaging youth and you work community work, outreach worker, prior to getting your out art out there and making a living off of your art. So if you can talk a bit about that, like, tell us a bit about the work that you did what you do in the community, in the past, but also how you're doing it now on your approach to working with you, and what's the importance of art and creating art for youth? And I don't know if that's, that is how you were engaging with youth prior. But yeah, if you can just share some of that with us.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Um, yeah, absolutely. So like, my educational background is actually in social work. I have a BSW from Ryerson. And that kind of led me into, like, you know - in school, my focus was always on working with youth. Like in a social work program, you're kind of, you're encouraged to sort of pick, like a demographic to, to center your learning around. So I just, I just gravitated towards youth, I guess. I guess, because, you know, when I started at school, like I technically was still a youth, you know, so I don't know but for whatever reason, it just made sense to me, and I just kind of, like, I kept going with that. It started from working, just like summer camps and stuff like that. And transitioned to working after-school programs. And then into the youth outreach work. And yeah, like, my main methods for engaging with youth were always either art or basketball. Like, those are the things that I knew and that I could be sort of like openly passionate about. And that was just like, that was just a huge thing. Throughout my experience, you know, being a youth worker was just to be able to be authentic with the youth that I was working with. Because that's one thing that I learned very, very quickly is that the youth that you're working with will know immediately if you're not being real with them, if you're not being authentic with them. It's like, they just have like built in, a built in like radar, sonar, whatever, that just, like, tells them right away. So I, you know, I could, like, show them something, like, you know, create, like an art program with them or something like that. And like, they could see how into it I was and how like open I could be about it and vulnerable I could be about it. And that would I guess allow them to connect to me. And that was, that was always like a main drawing point. And yeah, like the work - like a lot of the time it was just like general outreach work, like just trying to trying to develop programming that would bring youth into the centers to develop, like they have drop-in spaces that could function as you know, just a place to hang out, but also some programming that could impart life skills and you know, just help connect them to other resources that would help in their own personal developments. So, you know, sometimes that was - it was a lot of art, it was a lot of basketball. Sometimes it was cooking. Sometimes it was like trying to bring a speaker in from youth employment services to speak about financial literacy or stuff like that. And the last couple of years of youth work that I did, I transitioned into working with newcomer youth. So I was working with Access Alliance for a little while. And that was, that was really, it was a little bit of a different experience. It was really eye opening because working with youth that were, a lot of them were like, newly landed. Many of them were refugee claimants and so forth. So I got introduced to this whole other side of things, you know, seeing like youth coming into the center, and they've only been in Canada for like, two weeks or something like that. I actually, you know, I witnessed some youth getting deported. Like the pain of like, you know, kids coming into center, and like their friend is gone on. It's a Tuesday and all of a sudden their friend is gone. It's like, what happened? And like, Oh, yeah, people came to their house last night and put them on a plane, and they're like, they're back in, you know, they're back in Iran, or back in Syria or something like that. And so that, that really gave me a new sort of perspective on life and how much value there is and how much privilege there is in, you know, for me to be here, to be a Canadian citizen and have this opportunity. So yeah, it's just, it's again, it just speaks to the range of experiences. It's, it was really a very eye opening and very humbling experience.

Zoe Dille   We were just chatting about gratitude before. And just based on what you've just said and everything you just said just now, as well as when you were talking, referencing sort of having to be authentic with youth, and how they can kind of sniff that out in a second when you’re not. But I would add that you know, empathy, having a lot of empathy, right, in your work as a social worker, and just as a human being. Like gratitude and empathy, they're good markers to steer you in being a good human being, right.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Absolutely, absolutely.

Zoe Dille   So just I wanted to ask you, actually, because earlier you mentioned about hip-hop being kind of like this liberating and very free form, and just kind of full of possibility when it was initially coming up in the 70s. And kind of linking that to Afrofuturism, how we think about Afrofuturism. And specifically with the Afro, the way that you kind of remade various hip hop women like your Lauryn Hills and your Erykah Badus and all of that in your artwork. I wonder if you could just speak about what made you - I mean I love those two - but what made you choose like those particular figures that you worked with in your artwork? And you know, what is it about those women that kind of made you create the work that you did?

Adeyemi Adegbesan   In a word, I feel like they're liberators, you know. I think music has been a huge influence on my whole life. It's been a source of inspiration. It's been a source of education. And when I do work around these musicians, I just try to honor people that have really had a profound personal impact on me. And through their own artistic creations, you know like Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu. Absolutely. I've done Fela Kuti as well, and a few others. And they're always just like people that I feel embody the same values, I guess, that I'm trying to convey through my work. So it's just trying to, like, sort of put those two things together. But yeah, like they, like those people have all been liberators. And I feel like the way that they live their life has been very unconventional, but just so profound at the same time, that it's just opened up a lot of space for other artists to come up in the footprints that they've created, you know. And that just means so much to me. So it's just like, it's just sort of like a way of honoring that, you know.

Zoe Dille   I mean, listen, those women are fierce. If you throw on Lauryn Hill's Miseducation of Lauryn Hill -

Jessica Rayne   Wooo! My fave! That was my first CD growing up. That was my first, I got a boombox, a CD player - I can't remember if it was my birthday or Christmas, but that's the CD that came with it and it was unbelievable

Zoe Dille   Maaan, listen. I rinsed that CD. And Erykah Badu Baduizm

Adeyemi Adegbesan   A hundred percent.

Zoe Dille   Yeah. I mean, those women are so fierce. And so I was just gonna say like, if you throw on any of those ladies’ stuff today, you're like, Wow, it is totally on point. It sounds like it came out today. It still hits you in the gut, and you know, you're always gonna remember it.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   A hundred percent. Yeah, it's really, it's like, it's timeless. Like, in the sense that it's a, it was, you know, obviously, it had a huge impact when it came out. But like you just said, like, when you throw it on it, you know, 20, 25 years later, it's still - Yeah, it has that same impact. And it's, it's wild to be able to imagine creating something like that as an artist. So, yeah.

Zoe Dille   Definitely. I mean, when Verses, I don't know if you watch Verses at all, but when it first started, and they had Erykah Badu

Adeyemi Adegbesan   And Jill Scott

Zoe Dille   And Jill Scott, yes! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   That was, that was definitely a moment. That was so incredible.

Zoe Dille   For sure. For sure.

Jessica Rayne   I wanted to ask a question around something you mentioned earlier in the conversation about like, us being like, everyone is an artist. And if you can elaborate on that definition. You said that's the definition you kind of work with. That everyone is an artist, but some people decide to make a craft out of their art. Can you share that? Like, what's your philosophy, more about that philosophy?

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Well, like yeah. A hundred percent. I feel like everyone's an artist in the sense that like it, like having this innate creative ability is part of human existence. You know, it's part of, it's part of what makes a human, a human, I think. And I think everyone has that. Like, if you watch children play, like, most children have no problem, you know, if you give them some crayons and paper. Like, they'll do something with it, you know, before they're even aware of like what's good and what's not good, or whatever, like, evaluating it from that perspective. Like they can just innately produce something with those tools, you know, so I feel like everyone's an artist, on various levels. Like, we all have different things that we like to express, you know. Like, some people are musically inclined. Some people like to dance. Some people like to write. Some people like to draw. It really doesn't matter. I feel like gardening is an art form, you know. Like, it really doesn't matter. It's just, it's just how we express ourselves. Um, but yeah, like, there's a, I guess, a group of people that say, “hey, I want to take this to the next level, I want to do this all the time. And I want to generate the income that I need to live from doing this activity.” And that's just like, that for me was the sort of the challenge or the way I put it in my own head. It's nothing like, it's not to say that one person's art is more valuable, or more important. It's just like, I guess, taking on the added pressure and the added responsibility of figuring out how to make this as a living. And to be quite honest with you, like, I think for a lot of artists, a lot of young artists really focus on the craft and on the creative process. And rightfully so. Like, I think they, I think that should be the main focus, but I'll be honest with you. Like, I think the transition that takes you from, from that craft into a profession, a lot of times that transition doesn't happen because of skill level or because of creative output. A lot of times that happens because of just like, business acumen and work ethic and like really boring stuff that's, like, not fun to talk about. But like, that's one thing that I always try to impart on young artists when I'm talking to them or when I'm in a mentorship position. It's like, there's a lot of artists out there that make a living off of stuff that doesn't require a lot of talent, like flatly put. I'm not trying to shade anybody, but they have the, they've put in place the other aspects that you need to put in place to like make a business out of it, you know. And that requires as much attention, in some cases more attention than the actual creative process. Like I think it's, for a lot of young artists, it's a fantasy to just like, you know, do what you do and then just have somebody sort of come out of the clouds and say, “Oh, you're ordained as the next whatever. And we're just going to pay you like $500,000 a year to like to do this for the rest of your life.” But that's like, that happens about as often as people win the lottery, you know, or  probably less so. So most of the time, most of the artists that you see that are professional working artists, they just, they found something that they love doing. And then they said, “Okay, I'm going to build a business around this. And that, like, a lot of the time that they spend, a lot of their weeks are spent doing like non-artistic things. But they just, they're just committed and focused to do those things to support the opportunity to, you know, to put their artwork out to share with the world.

Zoe Dille   I think that's one of the takeaways, as you said, about anybody who wants to, whether you want to be a musician, or you want to be, you know, an artist, creative artist, is that, you know, like, at the end of the day, like, it is a craft and you have to put your time in to work on that. And to do that, like, you would never go out on tours as a musician and you hadn't rehearsed. Or you hadn't created new work, or you didn't, you know, have something. And it's the same thing, like you have to be always creating kind of new works. But at the same time, like if that is your, the way you choose to live your life and you want to just, you know, make a living and survive in this world, then you also have to put some time in and get serious about the other sides of, you know, having a business, like making a business out of your art. So it's not always as easy as you know, as you've said, as a lot of people maybe think that it is or that these sort of stories of overnight success, whether in music or in art, are few and far between. And frankly, I'm not sure there's such a thing as overnight success. Yeah,

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Yeah. Exactly.

Jessica Rayne   I know. You find out like the person that you're like, “Oh, my gosh, how did they do that so quickly?” Well, 20 years ago… you know, it always starts way back.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Exactly.

Jessica Rayne   So I know, we got to wrap up soon, because we're almost at time. I have a question that just came out on the fly. Like, I just need to ask it. But in terms of the work - you know, I went to your exhibit at Harbourfront. And just thinking of the process, specifically around how, I'm assuming there's a lot of research that goes into this too and that you've probably been through a journey of kind of understanding your identity and just creating, you know, a connection to the motherland, Africa, in terms of all of the like – when I look at an image that you've created, I see, you know, a lot of the artifacts and the hair and the meaning of, you know, the tribal symbols. And so, just understanding what has that part been like for you, because I'm making an assumption here, that you must have done a lot of research and just in understanding, I mean, you know, history.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, I, like I've spent most of my life like just trying to understand my heritage and trying to understand, I guess like, African diasporic heritage in a broader sense, you know. I think like, you know, growing up without, like, a direct connection to my African ancestry, because my father is Nigerian, but he wasn't present in my life. So I like, I really had to undertake that journey, you know, on myself. Like, my mother was always super supportive and always encouraged me to pursue that knowledge, but like, I had to kind of come about it for myself. So a lot of it is, has been a lot of, it has been reading and, you know, seeking out connections in my community and just developing it on my own. And then when it comes out, when it comes out in the artwork, it's just kind of like drawing off all these reference points that I've come across along that path. It's kind of just like different synapses firing and I just, I just kind of tried to weave them together into like a coherent sort of visual language that kind of encompasses all of the things that I've come across that have had meaning on my journey and in my personal learning. And I like I don't try to present it in a way where I'm trying to replace the function of a history textbook. Like I never create a piece and say, “okay, like, you're supposed to look at this piece and it represents exactly this and this and this” um, that's not really where I'm trying to come from with my work. It's more like, I just want people to have more of a visceral like emotional reaction to it. A sense of maybe, maybe a sense of pride or at least a sense of curiosity, where they want to dig a little bit deeper. Maybe they'll see a symbol in it that reminds them of something that they grew up with. Or maybe they'll just recognize it and be like, “Wow, I've seen that like three or four times now and I really, I need to find out what that is.” And then they'll look into it a little bit more on their own and just realize, Hey, this is what that means. You know, that's an adinkra symbol, for instance, or something like that. And that's kind of, that's kind of where I'm coming from, with the work. It's a process of re-mixing. My actual, like, technical process is a process of re-mixing. And also like, from an ideological perspective, it's re-mixing, it's sampling. It's very similar, I think, in a lot of ways to what hip-hop music is, in that sense. It's a lot of small fragments woven together. But I really want the entry point to just be like a visceral emotional reaction. Like the same way that a song comes on, and you just feel it. You're like, this is dope. You might not know that the first snare was sampled off of, you know, like this soul record from 1960 or whatever. You might not know that off the top. If it really means a lot to and you want to dig into it, and you start, you look up the producers, and you look up all the sample credits and blah, blah, blah. Like that's, that's what the superfans do. And it sparks like a journey of musical knowledge, right. But that same song can also work for a person that doesn't want to go that deep with it. They can just feel it on like an emotional level. Like you know, “this is my song.” And every time it comes on, it's just like a head nod thing. And it just plays in the background and it’s just like, Yo, this is dope. And I want to be able to connect with people on that level as well. Like, that's really important to me because I feel like in the communities that I grew up in, in the communities that have been a part of in my life, not everyone had the bandwidth. Like I've been around a lot of people in my life that survival is like at the forefront of their existence. Like that's a primary focus, you know. I've also been around people where survival is not a word that comes out of their mouth, it's not really part of the vocabulary as well you know. And so I know what that side of it looks like, but a lot of the people I connected with, especially growing up, like survival was at the forefront, you know. And if that's where you're coming from, you might not have the mental bandwidth all the time to go that deep with a piece of art or with a song that you like. But I still want people like that to have something to connect it to even if it's just like on an intuitive level you know.

Zoe Dille   You've just made me think about the Lauryn Hill picture in like even more of a different way when you're just talking about a re-mixing and sampling and this kind of layering and all these kinds of contexts. And it's just made me, in my mind's eye I'm seeing it like almost all over again. So that was really an awesome way to put it.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Aww that’s dope. That’s dope.

Zoe Dille   And actually I just went to look quickly at it because Jessica and I both have a copy of one of your prints. So I just went, Yeah, it's like, I don't, I don't know if there is a title?

Jessica Rayne   There has to be a name for it. So you had it at your event. It's the person who is like doing a shot? And then there's a dove flying over? What’s it called?

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Oh yeah. The full title is Let It Fly (Prayer for a Black Boy - Reprise). And it was based off like a earlier work. Like, that's actually a photograph. Like the guy in the shot, like that was part of the photographic stuff that I did for that show. So like, I actually, I created his costume. We went out. I think we shot that last October probably. And I had him, I had him just like go through the motions of taking a shot and I took that photograph. The dove was added digitally later on. But other than that, it's sort of unlike, for instance, the Lauryn Hill piece is like all illustrative and collage work. But that particular piece, like is mostly a photograph. But it was based on an earlier piece that I did that was more of like a collage, illustrative piece. Like the concept of shooting the dove like a basketball. Um, and, yeah, it just, it just kind of speaks to that experience I have, you know, a lot of, I just feel like a lot of young men put, a lot of young Black men put like a lot of hope into these very, like tenuous sort of career paths. You know like, whether it's basketball, or another sport, or music or whatever. It's like these things that when you break the numbers down, it's very unlikely. But at the same time these things, they give us hope. They give us something to sort of rally around. They give us, like if you're trying to become a professional basketball player and it doesn't end up working out, it might still get you into a school. It might still get you, you know, out of a bad neighborhood. It might still make you that one student that the teacher puts a little extra effort into. Um, I don't know, like I've just seen just in my personal experience, like I've just seen it do a lot of things for a lot of people even if the overall dream didn't work out. It still provided some hope and some positive energy that helped guide that person to a better place than where they were at. Yeah.

Jessica Rayne   Well, it is very inspirational this piece and I think like, it speaks to me in terms of just like, always take your shot. Like that's what it says to me. Like always - don't ever not take your shot. Amazing. So we are like, a bit over time. So we did you want to ask a few wrap up questions. Basically, I

Adeyemi Adegbesan   A hundred percent, a hundred percent.

Jessica Rayne   Amazing. So we are a bit over time. Zoe did you want to ask a few wrap-up questions?

Zoe Dille   I think the only one, what's next for you Yemi? And like where people who are interested in checking out your stuff, not just online, but like, where could they? I know you've got some street art and stuff. So what would you suggest? What’s the intro to Yung Yemi.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Unfortunately, I think like a lot of what I have planned right now is going to be online for the foreseeable future and just kind of like a result of everything that's going on with COVID. It's been like put on pause, like a lot of in person - you have physical gatherings and especially in the art world, like planning for those things - like a lot of things are moving on online as a response. Um, so in the immediate future, it's gonna be probably difficult to see my work in person other than like, I'm doing a mural right now at Artscape Launchpad. So that will be there in a physical space. But outside of that, probably the best way to experience my work will be online. But I am in the studio full time like creating. Like, I'll be creating a lot of new work this fall and then once things open up a little bit, I'm sure that I'll be able to connect some opportunities to, you know, to do some new exhibitions in a physical space.

Zoe Dille   And so going back to my Raptors T-shirt, where am I getting one of those?

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Okay so the unfortunate truth about that is like these were designed specifically for the players to wear. So there isn't a plan right now to make those available to the public. It was just really for the players to have something to wear in the bubble in Orlando and to express where they're at, to connect to the movement. So the short answer is they're just not available to the public. And that's very unfortunate. But like, there's an outside chance that maybe they might do like a run later on to raise money for a charity or something like that.

Zoe Dille   Okay. All right. I guess I have to suck it up for now.

Jessica Rayne   Well, yeah. This was great. Yemi, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. And we're looking forward to, you know, how we engage in the future at Hart House through the Black Futures program through the Hip Hop Education Program, the Youth Access Program. But for today, we are good. And this was a great conversation. Thank you so much.

Adeyemi Adegbesan   Absolutely. It's my pleasure. Thank you guys so much for having me on.

Jessica Rayne   Thank you to our guest, Yung Yemi. Thank you to my colleague, co-host Zoe Dille. Thank you Braeden and Day for helping produce the show. And most of all, thanks to you, our listeners. To find out more visit harthouse.ca or follow us @harthouseuoft. We're here every Saturday at 7am on CiUT 89.5 FM. And we post all of our episodes under Hart House Stories on SoundCloud. I'm Jessica Rayne signing off as your host for today. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.

#hiphop #hiphopeducation #liberation #storytelling #collage #illustration #photography #creativeprocess #wip #socialjustice #raptors #laurynhill #erykahbadu #artist #work #youth #connection #community #sampling #remixing #experience #journey #mentorship #afrofuturism #africandiaspora #identity #craft

[aftertheworldends-blog1]

My Two Cents On Writing Trans and Genderqueer Characters Without Focusing On Their Bodies

a.k.a. Upping your game in the sci-fi&fantasy inclusivity challenge

(a tale of a genderqueer author figuring it out zerself)

Let’s start with this: my world has no gender binary assumptions. It is a futuristic speculative version of our reality, so the history of the binary is there; therefore, people have an understanding of man and woman, but also an understanding of bi-, tri-, multigender, genderfluid, etc.

Gender norms have been tossed and nobody gives a damn about them anymore. But most importantly, they have an understanding that the body of a person doesn’t define them.

 So, how do you describe FULL gender diversity in a world which doesn’t focus on bodies or gender stereotypes.

Quick answer is: you don’t.

 If you are going to be respectful towards the gender of your characters, then you mustn’t fall into the trap of doing the opposite of what you’re advocating for.

The thing is, that in a world like mine, any and every of my characters could be trans and it wouldn’t matter. There are trans characters I have introduced who have not been explicitly outed, unless you have stumbled upon my online list of transgender and genderqueer OCs.

Here are some of the mistakes authors (and most specifically cis authors) could and have made in order to “reveal” a character as trans:

- have them be misgendered or their identity otherwise disrespected

- have them be the object of a hate crime

- have them “play the role” of who they were assigned at birth

- talk about their bodies

 Let’s get this question out of the way:

But Rori, I write romance/erotica and I want to describe my character’s bodies!

Here’s an actual trans reader and writer who has a brilliant piece about this topic. (Warning: the author is very straightforward so beware the 18+ content, plus use of the *q-word*.)

Their strongest point is: detailed description of body-parts could jolt a trans or gender-nonconforming reader out of the story. If you intend to cater to trans readers, and intend to be respectful towards trans characters, maybe lay off the genitalia talk.

I guarantee reading trans authors would give you better ideas how to handle this, but here’s a quote from a yet-unpublished story from my world:

“My hotel has excellent room service,” I say.

She just nods and kisses me again. As I press against her, working my hips so my desire would show, I could tell by the similar reactions of her body, that these first minutes of exploring each other have been as good for her as they have for me.

~ ‘I Think I Know What Love Is’ by Rori I

 Parts 2&3 of the article above talk more about how to avoid trapping your characters in a box and I think it has something valuable to say about describing a body for SF&F authors as well. (It references “Ancillary Justice” in particular ^^)

  Back to topic.

Mine is not a yes or no solution. There have been trans authors who have successfully included negative experiences of being trans in their stories. (A. Sieracki and Austin Chant come to mind.) But they are trans authors – they don’t need my list of things you could do to respect your OCs. Those are their stories.

 (Quick thing: I identify as genderqueer yet exclusionary attitudes still have me pausing on saying “our stories” even if it shouldn’t.)

 So how do we make space for trans people in writing—or most importantly, how do you represent trans people well—when you shouldn’t be making the mistakes described above.

Well, here’s a thing: you don’t have to have done anything to your body, or to be presenting a certain way, to be trans. Trans people come in all shapes and sizes.

People who use pronouns alternative to “she” or “he” have been by far the easiest.

My solution was to have everybody introduce themselves with their name and pronoun, which supports the idea that there are NO assumptions and no gender norms in my world. This way, I have already introduced a few characters as fluid, and one character who uses “zie” and is multigender.

As for the rest:

Unless you don’t want to focus at all on the character, there are ways to talk about their trans identity without stereotyping.

 1. A change of pronoun.

An example from my world would be when a character (Sergeant Sophronia Ulu) decides she will begin using “she/her”; the others acknowledge that change, and then move on to other things. You could write similar off-hand mentions to demonstrate that such a change is addressed but not obsessed over in your world.

Note: you don’t have to have the character be misgendered to show the change. The character can open the conversation with the news of their new pronouns, or you could have in-world signs that a character uses a certain pronoun.

Nowadays, some people use bracelets or buttons. Even in a fantasy universe, there could be a way to represent that – a symbol sewn into the clothes, a certain type of crown or other jewelry.

I warn you though that this method should still not be used to represent the person’s body. Don’t say “this person had sewn a fox symbol on her clothes, meaning she’d used magic to become female”.  Say “the fox was a symbol of womanhood” or “the fox on the jacket/tunic/whatever directed me to using feminine pronouns”.

Also, don’t single out your trans characters. If they wear a symbol, have cis characters wear it too!

 2. Another way would be to have the character reference their trans-ness in some form themselves.

For contemporary stories, it could be as easy as saying, “I am trans.” If you’re writing SF&F and have chosen to be as ambiguous as I have, here is the way I’ve tried to approach it:

“Well— […] I was supposed to meet my doctor on Tuesday, after this team gathering thing. I missed my last two chances for doctor’s appointment because of work and because I was on a vacation. If this occupation lasts for weeks – which it might – I might miss my next hormone doze. F**k it, I shouldn’t have cancelled my appointments!”

“You can’t miss a dose at all?” Rutherford wondered.

“Well, I could, but I don’t want to, and it makes me nervous. With the implant, I have never skipped one since I was fifteen.”

~ Chapter 27, ‘Blacklight’ by Rori I

 This is not ideal and does make the character uncomfortable, but it doesn’t put them in harm’s way. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to show respect towards the trans experience:

[M]odern healthcare was attentive to patient’s needs and everybody with a hormone implant received regular dosage, pre-programmed and regulated by physicians during scheduled check-ups. Nobody had to worry about forgetting to take a hormone pill – the implant was so much part of them that they never had to think it was there, or so Gareth had been told.

“We’re on an Army base, Suarez,” Gareth reminded. “Somebody could have a look at your implant.”

~ Chapter 27, ‘Blacklight’ by Rori I

 It gives you the chance to make space for trans and genderqueer individuals, to make them a respected part of your world.

This is perhaps the most important question when you include any diversity in your story: how does my world accommodate this character’s needs and if it doesn’t why shouldn’t it?

And let’s make this clear right now: accommodating the needs of anyone, based on their identity, their ethnicity, their race, their physical or mental health, is not a troublesome burden which authors have had forced upon them because of PC culture.

If you however believe it is, you are simply better off not including diversity in your novel. Any identity must be treated with the respect it deserves or left alone.

Therefore, a world must have tools in place to address the needs of any individual it includes. If it doesn’t, there better be a good reason why.

 And here is my last bit of advice:

Talk to trans and genderqueer people. Seek out Beta readers who can help you with representing them correctly. Do your research. Read a lot of literature written by trans authors. Here’s a list of some you can start with.

And when you get all that feedback on your story, don’t take it as “good enough”. 

The implant idea you see described in the above excerpt came from a trans acquaintance. This didn’t mean it put a stop on how far I must go to accommodate trans characters.

 Finally, one more time, and I hope this helps: if any of these steps, ideas, hints, give you a headache and overwhelm you rather than inspire you to change your story-world, then I am afraid inclusivity might not be for you.

And that’s just how it is.

 As always:

Stay readin’!

Ro-ri

#trans character #genderqueer character #genderfluid #nonbinary #transgender #multigender #gender non-conforming #writing #writing advice #writers #writing tips #queer lit #queer literature #queer authors #lgbt characters #lgbt literature #lgbt books #rainbow books #rainbow characters #rainbow authors #author help #writer advice