The Saint (light) was truly put in St Valentine’s Day 2014 @ the Castro Theatre with the screening of the film, THE COLOR PURPLE. This event was produced by Marc Huestis & featured Academy Award nominee, Margaret Avery, in person, to meet friends of this film, and to later discuss her experiences in being part of this film project on stage prior to the screening.
You Tube Trailer for Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth-directed by Pratibha Parmar
If asked what it is that sets this film based upon Alice Walker’s novel apart from others, my answer would be simply this: Alice Walker told the truth. To elaborate, she went against the grain of what seemed to be generally expected of a writer from the African-American community: she made critical observations about domestic violence & extreme brutality within that community. Up until she wrote her book, there was almost no one outside of the black community who had any understanding or concept of what was going on. The subjugation of women, was sub rosa, understood only from the perspective of being a well-kept secret. Prior to her work, the standard of much African-American based writing was within a framework of being victim, victim of a hostile dominant culture, which had been the culture of slavery. There is plenty of reason for this. However, by stepping out of this confinement, and by writing about other profound problems that could not be wiped away by casting blame upon the slave system, she opened doors that had never been considered, let alone opened. By exposing the concept that African-American people were harming each other, she took huge risks & paid dearly, in terms of her peace of mind & personal safety. She became the target of personal attacks. From the standpoint of many African-American leaders, she let ‘her people’ down & made them look bad. From her perspective, she was simply giving a voice to cries that had gone unheard for generations. It was time for these wounds to heal, and the only way that this could happen was to tell about the hurts that were being inflicted upon black women, particularly those whose life experiences locked them into silence & reluctant submission: a daily denial of their personal identity. Incest & rape were a given, a given in the rural Deep South that was locked away from the eyes of a more socially & financially affluent world. Alice Walker had vision enough to imprint a series of images of women who had remained invisible. Within that context, there was also the subject of lesbian relationships. For women to love each other & express that love on a sexual level was the deepest kind of secret that so many endured in total silence & could never talk about or share with others. Alice Walker gave light to this darkness, a voice to this conspiracy of silence, allowing, eventually, for these quiet sufferers to be heard & understood, and accepted. Her writing about this helped pave the road to personal freedoms unheard of 30 years ago, even outside of the Deep South. Today, light shines for all of us, in part, because Alice Walker told the truth. Once told, the truth would expand, and set us all free, day by day, year by year, state by state.
The women who loved each other in The Color Purple posed no threat to anyone, except that threat that is based upon fear-based thinking. Fear-based thinking by definition denies the truth, and when exposed to light, shrieks & screams, as the ugly lies fall away. The simple facts of Universal Law show us that hate has to be taught, drummed into the head, word by word, day by day. Once exposed, it must die.
YOU TUBE: The Color Purple, The film based upon Alice Walker’s telling the truth & showing us all that darkness cannot stand before light, lies cannot stand before truth.
Margaret Avery You Tube About Facebook
Oprah Winfrey Talks About The Color Purple & Surrender-
The impact of this book & the film is still being felt, discussed, and lived since its publication in 1982. Whoever would have imagined how this book would open doors & provide careers for the talents of so many of its film cast? That the special screening on St Valentine’s Day was sparsely attended in no way diminishes the importance of how this book opened up life for millions of those who were touched by the book & film, both by providing information to the dominant white culture about a life they could not have possibly known about, and by providing hope & inspiration for those who had lived the kind of life that The Color Purple tells about. We all learned something from this & the freedoms that have been recently gained are a testament to its profound message.
Levity: Her Imperial Highness, The Princess Melita Bonaparte Poses as “Shug” Avery outside the Castro Theatre prior to the screening.
Princess Melita Bonaparte is waiting to be called to audition for the remake of this film. She may have a very long wait, But don’t tell her. The less she knows the better off we all are!
The Bonaparte Double Whammy!
The Princess has a sort of “double whammy” in terms of her career. She wants to be taken seriously as a member of the Imperial Family (who refuse to see her) & to be taken seriously as an actor (who is never called to audition). She cries about all this, but somehow keeps on trying, refusing to be defeated.
Thomas Outt 