Wakanda Forever, But Better with Dr. Sheena Howard

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Jay dot Im a production of I Heart Radio. Okay, okay, we've been going down quite a rabbit hole of of thoughts and I guess just just frustration over all awful and and and it's time for a beam of light. Okay, it is time for being like looking looking for a superhero. I'm looking, honey, O. Yes, we got somebody on the line. Ladies and gentlemen, please clap your hands for Dr Sheena Holly. If anybody knows how to find a superhero, it's I can create one. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Weird our man as a collective, we could just create a superhero with our minds right now, somebody that was real, you know, just a real superhero. Yes see, this is what Dr she No Howard does. She is a brilliant comic book expert and author, a director, a professor, a mom. Yes, so the stakes are high around here. Okay, you created a comic book called superb Your leading character has uh down syndroms. That is yes, correct? Correct? Okay, so you were going all out the box. Yeah yeah, I mean, you know, I like to challenge the dominant narrative, the kind of like the single dimension iconography that we always see, right. So, when I'm thinking about writing, because I'm a writer, so I don't like, I don't do the art, but I write, I'm thinking about different family structures that we can high and like, you know, different types of superheroes, like superheroes with down syndrome. Um, you know, I want to see more stories with single fathers. Right in the media, you would think single fathers don't exist, right, or or single black mothers who are raising their children but also succeeding right, Like they're not. They're not being punished for being a single mom in some way, right. So I'm always thinking about how we can can challenge the dominant narratives through that. That's my lens through which I write bless you, thank you, I love it. I'm curious to know, like what led you to to to having that be at the core of your belief system. I mean, was there some sort of life changing moment, Was there a process to which you went through Is something that just blew your mind to where you're like, yeah, I gotta do something differently, Yeah, you know, I just never really felt represented growing up in Philadelphia, Um, you know, I was raised in a single parent house whole, like a lot of people in Philadelphia, unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, and um, you know, just all my identities and who I was and how I wanted to express myself, and like thinking just about role models and representation that I would see growing up, I just never felt I just always felt like it was the same story, just package differently, the same type of family, just package differently. And so, I you know, representation is powerful. Seeing people do things that look like us are powerful. You know. I had someone tell me, um here at the coworking space, you know, that I was like a unicorn because I'm a black woman and I'm a professor. Like he was like he's like he's like, he's like, you don't like exist in my right. And that's kind of true because I had one black professor my entire college career until I went to Howard University. Then I was like, everybody's a black professor. Yes, yeah, exactly. So Howard, it's like, oh, like there are thousands of black and thousands of black professors, right, and so just sometimes you don't kind of see a representation of who you can be and so I'm trying to really trying to make these stories mainstream that I tell from from a different perspective. So can I ask you this? Because we talked about we had we wanted to do come on this show for so many reasons. We also wanted to talk about black women and these unfamiliar spaces, thriving and being no being being leaders and the spaces. But I'm so curious, since you are about inclusion and diversity, like how you fell in love? I don't know if I ever asked you how you fell in love with the genre and what what did you fall in love? What story did you first fall in love with? Yeah, so so comics, particularly in writing comics. I fell in love with the Boondocks comic strip, the Boondocks comics. Yes, so, like you know, I wasn't reading comic books as a kid, Like this comic book world is really serious, Like you know they have kids have been reading comic books in twelve thirteen. You know you can tell you what pages what. I'm not that person. At Howard, I did my dissertation on the boot Dots comic strip. I wrote a hundred and sixty pages on the boon docks yet and I like the comic strip, but actually, in analyzing the comic strip, lots of gender issues and oh yes, yes, like where's the mother? Anytime they talked about a black woman, it was that the it was like the butt of a joke, like there's one joke in there, like your mama is so fat when she jumped, she got stuck in the air, like and so that was like the narrative in the strip, and I had to step back, like, man, I've been consuming this for years. I love it. But like when you really do and those things stick with us, like when you may not actively understand how representation is gonna us, but but those those images stick with us. Even thinking about little jazz men and the bone, I just really thought about that little jazz and a little white girl update but a little mixed girl that he was, and she had all types of identity issues, right, she was confused complictly, I'm telling you, all of the women in color in the Boondocks are like negative representation. So how do you how did you feel? How did you feel about um? Like critiquing something that is really culturally important and a lot of people from our generation, I mean especially as it pertains to gender. Tell me what kind of feedback you got. I mean, I can imagine that you've got a lot of criticism for that. Yes, who are you? You didn't even start exactly exactly, especially in the male dominated field of comics as far as who's creating them and who gets to tell the story. But I felt great about analyzing the Boon Dots. And I'll tell you, like when I go on shows, and especially when I when I talk to men, They're like, oh my god, what do you mean? Like what do you mean the Boon Dogs has issues? And I'm like, listen, like, I'm just I'm just, you know, I'm just I'm just telling you the story. I'm pointing it out. I'm just showing you where we can do better. And I think that I think all media is up for critique, right, I think us how we pushed the boundaries and how we get better. I think I think that's how we get to a space of inclusion. And the vision of the world I want to see is you know, we're we're all coexisting happily, right, We're all we can we can all co exist together and happy with all of these different types of identities. And family structures and whatever it may be, right and did you know Okay, I'm sorry, last question about the Blue Dogs, because I'm just did you know that the last season that that Angela Nizzle had did a lot of the writing from Philip like a black woman from Philadelphia had did a lot of writing for the comic strip or the tele actual strip, but the actual cartoon, because the cartoon, so listen, the comic strip was at least witty and smart. The show. I couldn't even watch the show. I mean, you're talking about Granddad's dating a stripper, and like it was, it was. It was too much for me. It was too much for me. I tuned out. I tuned out once granddad was dating the stripper, like that was actually all damn And that was last season more real talk after the break. I'm so impressed, or you know, I am, because I think the joy you have and the joy that you're that you're exhibiting in this moment about giving this critique is even more impressive than the critique itself, because it's not even allowed a lot of what I know you've gotten the result to make you angry, upset, whatever, You're so unbothered and I love this. I love this because we need to be able to critique our own stuff. Now Black Panther, we love it sometimes. But you know there's some Black American representation in the it's not it's not positive for us Black Americans. And you wrote the book on that too. I did. I just just finished Why What kind of Matters? And you know it's it's lots of positive fatigue, collective identity, you know, womanhood, all of that, But are there are some chapters in there where it's like, hey, but this is not looking good for Black Americans. For Black Americans, it's just all trauma. Like the movie is traumaic for Black Americans. If you really go back and whit, like read Why What kind of Matters? And then go back and watch that movie. You're the whole conversation to you about like are you you're gonna help them because y'all got everything? And I'm Black Americans saying yeah up, you know, and then when then when kill Monger you know, dies and goes back to his ancestral plane, it's just trauma, right. The moment that black people return to is trauma. The moment that you know, to Challa, the African returns to his all beautiful. He got his lineage there, So it's it's it's actually it's and and what kinda doesn't go back and help the rest of Africa exactly? And then and then if the rest of Africa doesn't have its own traumas as well, it's like it's just like, oh, we're just gonna go. Yes, But look, I don't know what's going to happen to Oakland because at the end of the movie, you know that you know it's going but it sounds like it's just gonna be drinking gentrified to me. I don't know. So I don't know. I don't know. So we got we can you talk about can you talk about the Whiz? Next? Can you do about who ages? You don't have people in the comments like, man, I'm talking about the monkeys. That's too soon. It's a lot of things. You know. We have watched The Whiz maybe a thousand times. Really really, I thought from the I took the wids to show and tell so and that was like in the third grade anyway, some critiques were prepared for is somewhere not. That was like we talking about the wisdom this mug I will show I want to be open. I'm absolutely open to it. I feel like that's a great conversation. It was, it's so much. That's the richest musical that I've ever seen period. Y'all. Just give me my next book topic. Let me write that down. It's thick. And also do the color purple ply? Oh yes, because you know these are things that we absolutely love. You know, not to speak for all black people because you can't do that, but I will say that the majority of folks love, you know, a particular kind of story and the Black Panther people. Though, haven't you been contacted about your opinions and things in that nature? I was, oh so so. Actually, the concept design artists for for the film Black Panther wrote the forward, why what kind of matters? But you know, I'm not I'm not that deep in with them. But you know, I didn't get invited to the premier, so I'm not very yet. But maybe the next one. Maybe the next that's all right, you mean your own character? So yes, I like the idea of like, okay, so everyone, you know, the being word right now is like afro futurism and people talking about imagining the blackness in the future and blackness outside of you know, what we know to be quote unquote reality and all these things. And my my kid is especially like hyped up about the movie Children of Blood and Bone that that's that that's coming soon, God willing? Does everybody know? Does everybody notice listening right now? Just making sure well, it's a it's a book that the third book is has I think just been finished in the series. This is it's a book about um, black people with special powers and there their Uh it's like this epic story of a journey and this girl and it's it's the central character as a girl, and and uh, it's just a lot it's involved. They all have powers tied to different like elements and things like that. But but the reason why I brought it up is just because I just wanted to kind of hear your thoughts about um these I feel like this new generation of kids has you know, is into anime. They're into so much more kind of really creative stuff. They're into comic books. They really can see themselves in different ways than we didn't really grow up seeing ourselves. And so like, how are you, you know, how do you feel as parents we need to be like addressing these more imaginative, imaginative groups of kids, and what type of material can you even suggest that we can expose them to that would push these kind of you know, these these these thoughts forward and ingrain them in their minds. Yeah, you're absolutely right. So, like you can get kids to read a lot of deep stuff by putting it in like a comic book or graphic novel form, like this book that I just wrote for the Philadelphia public school system called Black Lives Always Mattered. It literally was. It's not even for sales, literally written for their curriculum. It's all about black leaders that are from Philadelphia or who have come through Philadelphia and their profile pieces. But it's a graphic novel. So instead of you know, giving them like a book feature, you know, Frederick Douglas's book, or you know, these are graphic novel stories where they can read them and they can enjoy them, and they still can get the same in formation. But and they don't even all the time realize that they're learning history because they have the images in the in the in the text. And so I'm really proud of that book because it's like literally in every public school in the city. Um, but the applause, congradulations, thank you. I think you probably love this. I don't know. We'll see Dr Howard. I I love Wild Seed. It's one of my Yeah, book turned that into a graphic novel. But Kendred Is is a is a graphic novel, Yes it is, and that's a New York Times bestseller. Yeah. John Jennings did um that Kendrick book. And he actually does a lot of my book covers from my for my edited books. Um so yeah, John Jennings is a great person to check out in terms of work, Like if you were asking, like we're, um, you know, stories for kids that are like afro futurism based and helping us to reimagine the future, like imagine the future with black people in it, right, black people in it, you know, in a positive way. Um So that's a great place to start to John Jennings. Like, John, I'm just not Yeah, your energy, your energy is doing a lot for me personally right now. Yeah. Like literally I can't tell the people like I literally had you know on another podcast and I was like, this energy is needed for jd Il. I was like, and Jail is gonna eat this up and fit and we need another tribe. This is gonna tribe. If you are my tribe. You know, I'm just grateful. I'm just gonna remember the next time I'm next time i'm critiquing something through the lens of gender, I'm gonna smile really big when I do it, because that is I'm telling you. I'm gonna pull that from you, because honestly, I think a lot of times when we're doing something, when we're offering a critique of about something that people love, they automatically feel this sense of that you're an adversary and not their partner, or they're you're not in it with them. You're not also saying I love the piece too, I'm just singing, you know, or I just love I love this part of us. But I'm just gonna tell you just maybe point out some things that maybe you need to see. And I've gotten so frustrated with that many times. So I feel like your energy. I can't imagine somebody listening to you about that. And you said you're a mom, So I'm just like curious, like when your kids do wrong stuff, like they're probably like okay, so you know, he's he's still a little he's still a little young. But um, but yeah, like you know, I love black media. I love black content, but we also need to create, you know, push it. We need to we need to push it. We need to critique it so we can so we can, you know, do better right understand what we're consuming a little bit. Can you tell us, tell us three things that you need that you can put people on it. They need to be looking at right now, whether it be reading or watching. I don't know if you also taught me I also have to make this knowing that she didn't makes it. Know that like comic book and the TV stuffs separate fans, separate storylines. So yeah, yeah, and a lot of times the writers of the comic books and graphic novels don't necessarily don't work on the movies like they are there too, which I don't understand. We had that converse. I don't understand why you do that to fans, Like why don't you just bring them together? I don't know. Like, yes, it's kind of tough because you know, I wrote on one Woman, the Black wonder Woman. The story is called fresh Air in Philly because you know, I represent But you know, when those things get to you know, you get paid to do that and then you're there, you're out, like you're out the picture. So that story became something more, was turned into a movie. They don't they're not necessarily going to ask me to you know, to be in that room something that you create it. But but six, I didn't create it. I just wrote it, right, So d C Comics, Ah, this is these things, they own the characters. It's just like any other industry. That's why we push for creator own content. And you know the music industry is the same the same way. Uh you know, you know it's called work for hire. You these companies play you to write the story, then you're done. That's why. That's why try and tell the writers like sometimes the thing that you're trying to get does not always come with what you think it comes with. Like, yeah, people are just you know, writing to be like New York Times bestsellers or right for d C and Marvel, And I'm like, when you hit that, it's not what you think it is. So here's just what it is. They pay you. They pay you to write these large companies. So now I can go out and say, hey, I wrote Wonder Woman, Right, that's impressive, right, So I can, if you're smart, you can use it as a marketing and a promotional tool because for comics that's the top of the line right right, for DC or Marvel. So it's how you use it, but setting that as your goal. And some people think certain things come with fitting for these major companies, and they don't. They just give you your check, you write the story, and it's kind of like it's not gonna guarantee you anything. You know, visibility, You have to you have to understand marketing and promotion of your of yourself. I'm going to say this that I was. I wrote for harm Hallmark a year and a half, and I really thought that that it was gonna be like a household thing. I really thought out of lines that really you were. I had no idea how difficult writing cards is exactly just just the seven what is it? Thirty six characters? Uh? Non binary was slightly romantic. Uh um. The list of adjectives and how to create things where it was very challenging. So, like you said, it may not always be what you think is called exactly. It doesn't always give what it's supposed to get exactly. I thought it was gonna get Well, here's here's one last question. Dr Shena Howard. What's on your heart? So I'm really excited about um this new song that I just co wrote that's on my heart right now. I wrote a book called Nina's Whisper. It's basically a psychological thriller about a toxic relationship because we've all been in one at some point. Um, and I just co wrote my first track and it's called Nina's Whisper. And I connected with the vocalist. Her name is Sonny out of Philadelphia. She's amazing Sonny. It might be the same because she's pretty. She's pretty, she's pretty popular. Her Instagram is funny as you. And then I e UM and I co wrote it with another music artist named brother Zim. And so I'm really excited about that because I'm trying to raise the bar for what an author can do. So like when my books out, you're not coming to a book signing event, You're coming to like an album release party. Right, I'm trying to brand this, you know, take taking this to the next level of how we can collaborate and cross industries. Yeah, sister, that's what's up all the days thank you guy, that you are in these spaces representing us, like I just appreciate it. And that's why I very great. Yeah, having I have a household with four girls and to two of which we are fourteen years old. And you know they just went to comic Con they you know, yeah, and they there that's all they talk about and you know they they're into so much of this material themselves. And you know, to meet you today and for me to be able to take that into the conversation with them is Glenn feel I feel like it's gonna give me a lot. I'm gonna come up this season child between you and us talking to a still universe. I'm the best mom on the like giving me all kinds of street cred. If you want comic books signed wonder Woman comic books and yeah, you know where to find what I do I do? Just email me. For sure you didn't give us our book list, but I was like, did you give us a quick one? Yeah? Yo, that's hard because like I got so many writing projects. I haven't I've been listening. You don't have to be involved. It could just be other people who are doing how you are. I love that. I don't play like the branding company. So I don't play. I please, so yo. I'm not even. I'm not even reading anything right now. I can't. I can't even. I can't even. That's so sad. Sometimes when you're working on your own stuff. I didn't even listen to anything else. You can't because that's taken away time from these three books. I gotta finish one, like we're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be right back. Don't watch Billy Davy, you do. Oh wow? I live well Okay, they don't call it Southwest anymore, but I do live there. It's also cute. The jestification just hard to keep up. It's so cute. Yeah. I was telling them a couple of weeks ago that my old neighborhood is poodle Town. Poodle poodle Town Where and are Yeah? Yeah, wow, the Spring Garden area that's going through something some changes. Yeah, the blocks and block block block. So somebody told me that I had to tell um mentioned to Jill the five spot they were. Make sure you make sure you mentioned the five Spot. I used to be up in there. I used to see they was, they were real hype. But you tell all of us on tour. I was like, yeah, Jill was working mostly please, I was standing next to you. I don't know what you was on. I thought you was working that I was up in the five spot. Everybody. I feel like everybody was all everybody, that's a shame. Well I think you babycause you're a baby. Maybe, but it was around when I was maybe you didn't maybe you probably yeah, yeah, how did you miss it? If you're I'm a total nerd. I went, I went to school, and I came home. Look shout out to all the total nerds. We were talking earlier about having this revolutionary, this this brazen imagination. These are the things that are required in order to change the place that we're currently living in. UM. I want you to be inspired all the time. Uh. And we acknowledge our feelings and appreciate the fact that here we are, there, we are on the swing. Isn't going as high as we wanted to go, but it's still moving. Thank you so much, Dr Sheina Howard for being a part of our conversations and telling us what's on your heart. And thank you everybody for listening to Jay dot Ilga podcast Blessed. How do you Eat an Elephant? One by it time. Hello, dear listeners, it's Amber the producer here. I hope you are soaking in all of this melon and magic from today's episode. I am so inspired by the light that is Dr Shena Howard. What a gift, and as promised, she is the gift that keeps on giving. She left us with an incredible summer reading list. Just a few titles that she mentioned Our March by John Lewis and The Black Panther Party, a graphic novel by David F. Walker. And do not forget to check out her first music project, Nina's Whisper. The full reading list and music as linked in the show notes. Hi, if you have comments on something we said in this episode called eight six six, Hey Jill, if you want to add to this conversation, that's eight six six nine five four five five, don't forget to tell us your name and the episode you're referring to. You might just hear your message on a future episode. Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents Jay dot Ill the podcast. Thank you for keeping your ass in the house. And she ain't come to the box part. You might have to talk to her right now. Stop why you was at school doing what you opposed to be so that you can be here with us, stories for these babies and being revolution. This is the re is revolution words. I love y'all. I love y'all too. J dot Ill is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.