Black Lightning’s Nafessa Williams Calls for Hollywood To Confront Inequality In Personal Essay

Nafessa Williams is a changemaker. On The CW’s drama Black Lightning, she’s designed heritage as television’s to start with Black, lesbian superhero. However, for actress, her character’s strength and courage are no act. After all, offscreen, she is just as set on breaking barriers by shifting the market. Here, the Philadelphia indigenous particulars her expertise with the Black Lives Subject motion and her fight in opposition to inequality in Hollywood—and outside of.

As we’re talking on the Black Lives Subject motion and the current landscape of the enjoyment market, I will begin with this quote by John Lewis, may he relaxation in peace: “I want to see young men and women in The usa sense the spirit of the 1960s and uncover a way to get in the way. To uncover a way to get in problems. Fantastic problems, vital problems.”
 
Black Lives Subject. Breonna Taylor‘s everyday living mattered. George Floyd‘s everyday living mattered. These have been my views as I headed out to protest on a cloudy working day in L.A. final thirty day period. As I approached the protest, I saw automobiles on fireplace, protestors hurt from rubber bullets and armed armed forces on every single corner. I felt like I was shooting a scene on the established of Black Lightning, besides there wasn’t a director yelling “action” and “slice.” I speedily snapped out of my flashback of being on established and understood this was true everyday living. On this working day I had relatively of an understanding of the spirit of the 1960s. I needed my voice to be heard by producing “good problems.”