WBEZ | diversity

It's OK to love Shonda Rhimes' television shows

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:01:00 -0500

Shonda Rhimes is important. She is critical. That it has taken the mainstream media this many years to discover and talk about this speaks to the ways in which we discuss the creation of entertainment and the systems within the entertainment industry itself. The entertainment industry is male-dominanted, exclusive, and isolationary.

Shonda Rhimes – a writer, producer, and showrunner who at one time maintained three successful television shows (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal) at the same time on one network – bucks this industry standard, instead creating work that is inclusive, unique, feminine and fun. These traits are not typically used to describe Important Television, but Rhimes’ rate of success over failure, fandom over derision, deserves further examination and praise.

Shonda Rhimes is a feminist. She might not say it explicitly, but it can be seen in her shows. They stem from a female perspective. This is a reflection of Rhimes herself. She is a female writer, producer, and showrunner, an extreme rarity seen only in a handful of recent examples (Lena Dunham and Mindy Kaling most notably). Rhimes controls the content of her shows. They are born out of her vision.

And it is her vision that turned many from indifferent to appreciative. Rhimes’ shows feature female lead characters. This strong vision can be seen through the actions of her characters – their decisions to openly discuss and have abortions, their struggles over life choices in work and home life – and even the conceit of the shows themselves. She explores their inner lives, desires, wants, and concerns and takes them seriously.

Audiences witnessed Grey's Anatomy's Christina Yang’s (Sandra Oh) forthright desire to have an abortion when pregnant. The first time, she suffered a miscarriage before the procedure. The second time, years later, she underwent the procedure, never wavering from her desire to not be a parent. That millions of viewers saw this on primetime television and the world did not implode shows that Rhimes’ vision is a reflection of the very real inner lives and actions of many contemporary women. Her audiences can appreciate such storylines because they are true and because they are given the respect they deserve.

As well, Rhimes’ shows are diverse, something that is still a rarity on mainstream television and in Hollywood in general. Her latest show, Scandal, features a black female lead portrayed by Kerry Washington. Earlier this year, when reflecting on the importance of Scandal’s Olivia Pope, I wrote:

Depictions of black characters in film and television especially usually fall into one of a limited number of tropes: the tragic, the sassy, the perfect. Olivia does not fit neatly into any one category. She is a woman in the wrong kind of relationship, one that is forbidden and heartbreaking. She is smart and authoritative and strong in self-assuredness. When she is right, she is very right and she will let you know it.

This same characterization can be seen throughout her shows. The characters are messy and complicated. Their decisions are often riddled with holes and major consequences. Like real life, Rhimes understands that these are choices people make – white or black, young or old – and the things we normally consider their otherness have little bearing on the matter. She does not treat diversity as if it’s something to dwell on. The experiences of the average person of color do not revolve around their race, ethnicity, gender, or other factor that makes them a minority. Rather, their experiences are just like those considered a part of the mainstream. When race is brought up, it is done casually and pointedly, not overwrought.

But most importantly, Rhimes’ shows are fun. Although Grey’s Anatomy has diminished in quality the longer it has been on the air, the show in its earliest state (and Scandal in its current state) was an engaging, exciting, and unique program. Grey’s Anatomy, currently in its ninth season, continues to outperform many new and established broadcast television shows. Scandal reached its series high this week.

Important Television can and should be fun. Yes, audiences desire something plot-driven, well thought-out and rich, but they also desire something to keep them coming back week to week. Rhimes succeeds where others fail. If we desire a future entertainment industry that reflects the diversity and stories of the world we live in, we should do more to praise those such as Rhimes who actively work to reflect that world.

Britt Julious blogs about culture in and outside of Chicago. Follow Britt's essays for WBEZ's Tumblr or on Twitter @britticisms.

State government lags in hiring Asian-American workers

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:21:00 -0500

State agencies are starting to plan how they’ll hire more Asian-American workers. Tuesday, a new Asian-American Advisory Council, handpicked by Governor Pat Quinn, meets with agency representatives to identify barriers to Asian-American employment and promotion in the state labor force.

The council will also chart out how they’ll recruit, retain, and promote more Asian-Americans.

The effort comes from the State Asian-American Employment Plan, passed in the General Assembly and signed by Quinn last year.

The effort is similar to other plans for Hispanics and African-Americans, aimed at ensuring the mix of state employees reflects Illinois’ diversity. A report released in February shows that although Asian-Americans represent about 5 percent of Illinois’ population, they comprise only about 2.5 percent of the state’s workforce.

The report surveying Asian-American employment in state agencies is the first of its kind in Illinois, mandated yearly by the underlying legislation.

“We do want to make sure that the workforce reflects the diversity of the state and that everyone in the state, regardless of their background or language ability, has the ability to access services provided by state government,” said Theresa Mah, Senior Policy Advisor and Director of Asian American Outreach to the Governor.

Mah said the Advisory Council will meet quarterly to follow through with state agencies on the plan’s implementation and results.

“There might be misconceptions about the availability of positions, or just not enough word-of-mouth that there are opportunities,” she said.

The Asian-American Employment Plan was one of several recent political victories by an ethnic group that is growing in both population and political clout in Illinois. Several organizations, including the Asian American Institute and the Pan Asian Voter Empowerment Coalition have lobbied state legislators lately to create an Asian-American caucus in the General Assembly and to consider Asian-American concerns in the legislative redistricting process.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ's North Side bureau reporter. Follow her @oyousef.

The Joffrey's Choreographers of Color

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Contemporary dance is an underrated art form, even in Chicago, where the breadth of companies and performers is as diverse as the population it seeks to entertain. For many people, dance performances are inaccessible because of stereotypes regarding social class and age. Unlike theater or film or art, the most visually recognizable and misunderstood genre of dance is ballet. This identity, born out of the precision of the movements and its long history as an evening activity of the upper classes, overshadows the multitude of dancers and choreographers creating unique, experimental, and important new works.

One such company that seeks to showcase emerging performers and choreographers is the Joffrey Ballet. On Sunday, March 10, the Joffrey will premiere their "Choreographers of Color" program featuring performers from a new generation of dancers in the Joffrey Training Academy. The show begins at 4 p.m. and tickets may be purchased online. In its third year, the Joffrey’s Choreographers of Color Award recognizes young minority choreographers in order to provide a unique perspective to the world of dance. Featuring four world premieres, this annual performance is both a welcome introduction to the world of dance as well as an important moment for the choreographers and the Joffrey.

High above the constant frenzy of the corner of State and Lake, Chicago native William McClellan spoke briefly about the influences in his work, Rise/Rebuild to the Occasion. Bill T. Jones, dancer, choreographer, and artistic director once said, “When the gauntlet falls, how do we rise to the occasion?” This quote became a driving basis for McClellan’s work, a reflection of the numerous recent social, cultural, and environmental tragedies such as the Japanese tsunami, the earthquake of Haiti, and the recent shootings in Chicago. McClellan, a South Side native, asks, “How do we build ourselves back up?”

As evident from the earlier preview, moving on requires a total immersion of the body. Rise/Rebuild to the Occasion is a deeply athletic and strong work featuring forceful and powerful movements from its dancers. Featuring elements of ballet, modern dance, hip-hop, and what (at times) looks like footwork, the piece is almost aggressive in its visuals. It is a way to explore and explain the severity of what has happened and to counter what is ultimately needed to move forward. McClellan understands something fundamental to the human experience. One imagines that progress comes easy, but the everyday is not as easy to maneuver as one would like. Moving on takes the whole body; it takes everything you’ve got and then some.

In many ways, the work ties into Black Iris, another chosen choreographic work by Jeremy McQueen. Featuring a moving lead female performance by Nardia Boodoo, McQueen’s work is a tribute and testament to Black womanhood. Like McClellan’s work, McQueen asks how one navigates the world around them. It is about change and our reactions to the changes and world we can not control. McQueen’s work is in dedication to the women he grew up who “exemplify the perseverance, determination, confidence, and faith that is uniquely Black and woman.”

It is a work about what it means to be a modern Black woman, the push and pull of the beauty and the groundedness, and the pursuit of a fulfilling existence against adversity and struggle.

In the debate about the need for more diversity in varying artistic fields, it is encouraging to see the Joffrey both attempting to address this issue and doing so on a regular basis. For a field that is often maligned for its inability to connect with younger or different audiences, the ongoing presence of the Choreographers of Color Award is a refreshing treat for Chicago audiences.

One might wonder why it's only a one-off performance once a year and why such a diverse line-up is relegated to the its own show rather than incorporated into the regular line up from the company or the Academy. As a whole however, some effort is better than none at all. As long as other companies and artists refuse to acknowledge their homogeneity, we will continue to see the same degrees of storytelling. It is a cycle that needs to be broken.

Follow Britt on twitter @britticisms.

Girl problems: Why Lena Dunham gets scapegoated for TV's lack of diversity

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:00:00 -0600

If you’ve logged on the internet at all in the past year (or even passingly know what Jezebel is), you know that a lot of people have a big, casually racist bone to pick with Lena Dunham. As the writer/producer of Girls, Dunham was being billed as the “voice of a generation,” one that would revolutionize the ways in which we talk about women in the media.

The problem for many with Dunham is the inclusion of young, privileged white women—about which there are many shows—speaks to the disinclusion of women of color, who have no one speaking for them. The show continued to marginalize anyone not of Dunham’s background and social status (as the daughter of a famous artist), and as the show was marketed as a representation of the Millenial Generation, many felt it was a damaging and problematic representation. Rather than pushing things forward, Girls represented a nudge in the right direction—or more like a plaintive tiptoe.

But to many, it looked like more of the same. It was White Girl Problems all over again.

In interviews, Dunham hasn’t been shy about speaking to the show’s race problem. She mentioned that, when casting the show, race was not much of a consideration, which speaks the ways in which both white feminists and the television industry often don’t recognize racial inclusion as being an issue.

With the new season, I was looking forward to Dunham taking the internet’s criticisms and learning from them, and lo and behold, the premiere practically opens with Dunham carnally knowledging Donald Glover, the black comedian known best for his role as Troy on Community. While they’re getting all up in each other, Glover and Dunham keep repeating phrases like “You wanted this” and “It’s about damn time,” as an overt message to the show’s fans. Dunham gets it, y’all.

Many were concerned that Glover was being cast to as a “token black friend,” and the fact that the show opened with them sexing each other didn’t help much, as it looked like just another image of the hyper-sexualized black male. The fear was that Glover wouldn’t be presented as a character but an essentialized object, a vehicle of desire. To an extent, that was exactly the case.

However, Dunham did something interesting: she used Glover’s character to call her on her bullshit—criticizing her for tokenizing him and not being truly interested in getting to know him. Dunham’s Hannah was the kind of girl who would date a black guy to feel cool and get to go to the “scary” part of town. Basically, Glover’s character was calling her a hipster racist, which was the major charge against Girls last year. Dunham literally put all of her critics’ words in Glover’s mouth.

True to her character’s narcissism, Hannah ignores them and creates a narrative in which she’s in the right in the break up. She’s the savior. Life is like The Blind Side, guys.

Q: Is this progress?

A: Not so fast. Let’s examine.

Last year, Dunham mentioned that she wrote for white girls because she wanted to write from her own experiences, and this scene serves to narratively let her off the hook for not writing a black actor into the show or doing the work of inclusion. Part of being a good writer is pushing yourself to write outside of your world. Was Dave Eggers an African refugee when he wrote What Is the What? No, but he pushed himself to get inside someone else’s head and see the world from someone else’s point of view.

Martin McDonagh, the playwright and director’s newest film, Seven Psychopaths, comments on this phenomenon through his lead character, played by Colin Farrell. McDonagh has often been criticized for not writing roles for women, and his lead, a screenwriter, grapples with the same issues in his work. As a part of this meta-commentary, the film’s two female characters are vastly underwritten, and actresses Abbie Cornish and Olga Kurlyenko maybe share ten minutes of screen time between the two of them.

However, McDonagh calling himself on his own bullsh*t lends him an easy out, as he still doesn’t have to write a female character. The same is true for Dunham, who gave herself a nice Get Out Of (Hipster Racist) Jail Free card by casting Glover for two whole episodes.

But what does give me hope is that Dunham has the courage to take responsibility for her show’s representation of gender, race and sexuality in a way many shows do not. Shows like How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men have repeatedly bashed transgender people for years, using the idea of transitioning as a cheap ploy for ridicule and laughter. Two Broke Girls, That 70’s Show, Sex and the City, Family Guy, Outsourced, Modern Family, Seinfeld and Homeland have gotten away with trafficking in overt racial stereotypes, and shows like Nashville, Mad Men, Raising Hope, The Middle, Enlightened and my beloved Cougar Town have little to no POC representation.

Even reality shows aren’t much better. Food for thought: Neither the The Bachelor nor The Bachelorette have ever starred a minority.

Last year, television critic Maureen Ryan argued that shows like Girls highlight the ongoing racial disparities on television. The problem isn’t that Dunham is racist. Television is racist. Currently, the only primetime network sitcom about a black family is The Cleveland Show, which is a) animated and b) crazy problematic. In the 2000’s, network TV saw shows like the traditional family comedy My Wife and Kids and the critically lauded Everybody Hates Chris come and go.

A television landscape that makes room for A Different World, Cosby and The Fresh Prince is largely a thing of the past, and unless it’s Kerry Washington on Scandal, people of color are our black friends or casual flings—like Glover or Idris Elba on The Big C. Remember: Washington was the first black female lead on a network show in almost forty years. Clearly, TV has a race problem—or else Ken Jeong wouldn’t be allowed to be in things.

However, Americans aren’t often trained to see structural racism—although we’re good at pointing out individual acts. (See: the movie Crash, which only looks at racism as a personal problem that can be overcome with a little shaming, yelling and Sandra Bullock falling down some stairs. Inequality solved!) Scandal showrunner Shonda Rhimes spoke to this tendency when she called out ABC Family’s Bunheads for not including girls of color, which sparked fervent response from creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.

However, Sherman-Palladino also worked on Gilmore Girls, which championed both women of color and full-figured women in its seven seasons. At a time when the Ally McBeal body was the norm, the show was practically bursting with big girls, and it was awesome.

I find it interesting that whereas showrunners like Larry David, Ryan Murphy, Michael Patrick King, Mark Brazil, Steven Levitan and Seth MacFarlane are often let off the hook for their race problems or lauded as champions of equal opportunity humor, Dunham and Sherman-Palladino are made to pay for our media sins. In my critiques of King and Murphy, many were quick to defend them and defend them as refreshingly un-PC, willing to say what others are not. Sex and the City was actually about that sort of thing.

However, almost no one has jumped to defend Dunham for the same reason to defend Sherman-Palladino’s right to make a show about white girls. In film, directors like Wes Anderson have, for years, gotten away with making movies with all-white casts—with almost no one criticizing his right to completely leave people of color out. Anderson’s lone black character was The Royal Tenenbaums’ Danny Glover, who had almost no lines, and his most racially inclusive movie was The Darjeeling Limited, a film that could have been called Orientalism: The Movie. It was a neo-colonialist fever dream.

And remember Pagoda? He won’t be winning Anderson POC awesome points anytime soon.

The major difference between Dunham and Anderson is that one is male—and the other is not. Although the criticism of Dunham is accurate, one of the things that’s made her so easy to critique is the fact that she’s a woman and, thus, free game for public scrutiny and paternalism. In a tabloid- and blog-driven media, women's bodies are an avenue for debate, whether that’s Jennifer Lawrence’s “fatness,” Madonna’s arms, Angelina Jolie’s legs, Willow Smith's hair, Lindsay Lohan’s plastic surgery, Megan Fox’s thumbs or Jessica Simpson’s pregnancy body. We look at women to ask “Who wore it best?”—to hold some up while others are destroyed.

If you look at shows like Revenge or the Real Housewives series, we root for women to be taken down or torn apart—to be called out and shown for the frauds they are. For instance, check out that Buzzfeed article on Anne Hathaway, which bashes every single facet of her career (and her "stupid face")—but for what gain? Even if someone is gracious, hard-working and seemingly perfect, as Hathaway is, we can despise her anyway. As Slate put it: "Why do people hate Anne Hathaway? One simple reason is sexism."

And our media culture of lady hate sets up a discourse where we feel free to tear Lena Dunham apart—for her privilege, her non-normative body and the fact that she doesn’t live up to our expectations who she’s supposed to be. A parody of the show’s poster—which re-titled the program as “Nepotism”—went viral before the show even aired, before Dunham’s work even got the chance to speak for itself. The backlash against her was almost built-in, like the media’s dogpiling on Diablo Cody and Kathryn Bigelow.

Compare the constant criticism of Sofia Coppola for “always doing the same thing” to Woody Allen who gets awarded for it. The Oscar-nominated Match Point was lauded as a return to form and his best film in 25 years, despite being a virtual remake of his own film, Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Of course, I don’t think the fact of her gender lets her off the hook for the criticism lobbied against her. In her Golden Globes speech, Dunham thanked HBO for letting a misfit like her into their space, as girls who look like Lena Dunham aren’t often allowed to sit at the table. However, Lena Dunham needs to use her power of representation to allow others the same privilege and use that power for good. Rather than taking the easy way out, her show needs to do the actual work of inclusion by letting others sit at the table, too. Dunham needs to realize she isn’t the only girl in the world and make room for the Issa Raes and the Mindy Kalings.

However, the burden of change isn’t on Dunham alone. The industry itself needs to see racial inclusion as an issue, and we as a public need to hold ourselves accountable to seeing the bigger picture. While critiquing Lena Dunham, we need to hold the industry to the same standards and ask why one of our Two and a Half Men can’t be black or our Two Broke Girls can’t be Asian. If we’re serious about making TV a better place, we need to expect change out of more than just one show and one girl and stop asking women to make it better while the rest of us sit back and watch.

Dunham has clearly got girl problems, but fixing all of ours isn’t one. We all need to call ourselves on our bullsh*t.

Nico Lang blogs about LGBTQ life in Chicago for WBEZ.org. To talk more about Gilmore Girls, follow Nico Lang on Twitter @Nico_Lang or find Nico on Facebook.

Experimental Sound inspires local musicians, artists

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Although my twenty-something generation prides itself on being oh-so original and anti-mainstream, fitting in with the right crowd is just as important now as it’s ever been. We still worry about people judging our taste in music (“you actually like neugrass?”) or discouraging the unique and alternative ways that we choose to make art.

Thankfully, Experimental Sound Studio in Ravenswood is a safe haven for eccentrics: a place where out-of-the-box musicians, artists and audio engineers can explore their craft and also belong to a community that supports them.

Founded in 1986, Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the production, preservation and continued advancement of the sonic arts. Several events are held throughout the year to integrate more experimental sounds into the public, as well as to promote atypical composers, musicians and improvisational artists in a gorgeous studio setting.

Fortunately for music lovers and listeners, one of the studio’s most eagerly anticipated events is only weeks away. Outer Ear returns this spring with a diverse array of workshops and concert performances, many of them featuring female artists who specialize in experimental or improvisational sound.

The series begins on February 23 with Renee Baker Artet, a brilliant Chicago instrumentalist and composer of over 900 creative works. More show dates for Spring 2013: NbN Trio on March 16, Volcano Radar on March 23, SyntJunton on April 5, Ed Herrmann on April 20, Laurie Amat on April 27 and Hard R on May 4.

Other events sponsored by ESS include Sunday Solos (held bi-weekly), SummerSonic (an annual series held in the studio’s beautiful outdoor garden) and Florasonic (audio art projects featured at the Fern Room of the Lincoln Park Conservatory until January 31). Additional exhibitions, workshops and concert performances are hosted on special occasions in the studio’s Audible Gallery.

ESS also directly supports local artists by providing fiscal sponsorships, artist residency programs and one-on-one tutorials with experienced audio engineers. For audiophiles who want hands-on experience inside a professional soundtrack and mastering suite, overdub booth and 800-square foot multi-track recording studio, ESS is the ideal place to learn.

And for the music-makers themselves, the studio offers a space to perform, interact and connect with listeners on an unusually intimate level.

Dhalgren, a Chicago synth-rock band with sci-fi influences, combines ambient drones and processed vocals with an ethereal gong-bath of electronic noise. Their sound is perfectly suited for ESS, which is perhaps why the keyboard quartet began hosting a monthly performance series at the studio called “Dhalgren Days.”

On every first Sunday for the forseeable future, Dhalgren will compose a piece and then record the session live in front of a studio audience that same evening. Their next concert, the third performance in the series, is scheduled for February 3.

Follow Leah on Twitter @leahkpickett