The Shields McIlwaine Award Winner: movie pitches by the bitter black woman - Caylah Graham
pitch i: the media
let’s make a movie
he says –
so she strips and walks and turns and fucks and sits and barks and
lets him do it
because he is white male and everything that she is not.
the media wants to see her on her knees
begging.
panting.
this is how the black women is seen in each scene:
identified as your plaything,
a toy to break
glue
repeat
reuse
attention!
the tickets have sold.
credits:
we praise
the effortless acting
of the dark-skinned
woman who has sold
herself to the highest
bidder
pitch ii: motherhood
let’s make a movie
they say.
less nudity,
more empowering –
the single mother with five kids from different seeds
who struggles and fights and in the end she wins...
something.
the gift of silver pins that strike down her kin
a dime of green to feed her kids
she gets it out the mud
right?
she’s strong so she can do it
with her village
of wet dirt and grass and everything and nothing and no one
she doesn’t want to struggle but
there is no elegy
for the single black mother.
mama doesn’t get the love
ebony men saved
to rescue the
peaches of the world
attention!
the tickets have sold.
credits:
a special thanks
to the white damsel
stealing the obsidian
to create
the perfect stone
pitch iii: the black girl
let’s make a movie
about the black girl.
intelligent, beautiful, and dark skin
we won’t treat her like we did Aunt Viv.
she is not here to be loud and obnoxious,
used as comedic relief to make you smile
she is not your black poster child
this little girl is thick with hips,
she is cute wide eyed and chunky
scarred by baby phat
no slim-thique wavy hair and yellow bone
she is not somebody’s mama
or somebody’s slave or somebody’s best friend
or somebody’s somebody
she is the black girl –
my black child who gets to be a child,
wonder in her eye,
who doesn’t worry about wondering eyes.
attention!
the tickets are not selling.
credits:
to the little black girls
that still choose
the blonde dolls.
and to the directors
who have Zendaya on speed dial.
let’s watch a movie.
the following preview has been approved for
the appropriate audiences by the black
motion picture association of black people
everywhere.
The film advertised has been rated
B (black)
disclaimer this movie does not include
slavery, drugs, guns, violence, racism,
prisons, abandonment, jim crow and
affirmative action.
the show will now begin...
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