#ivysole

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma (2021)

Being a Charter Subscriber of The Criterion Channel has been a wonderfully beneficial experience as a film lover.  The catalog may be intimidatingly large, but the good people at The Criterion Channel do a great job of helping people discover films and curate tastes via their themed collections, social media presence and direct e-mail campaigns.  It was through an e-mail, in fact, that I learned about Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma, and it hit me in the feels like a dart hitting a bullseye to win a match.  I will be telling any and everyone willing to listen about this film moving forward, as I cannot fathom it not speaking to them in the same way it spoke to me.

Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Mama feels like a creative spark too grand, ambitious and deeply personal for relegation to a single medium.  Born from the mind of Topaz Jones, directing duo rubberband and a number of other collaborators, Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Mama takes place over the span of an album and a New York Times Op-Doc selected short film full of home video footage, interviews, music video vignettes and short narrative slices of life.  All of this film footage is centered around the concept of The Black ABC’s, a flashcard-based initiative created in the 1970s by a group of Chicago educators, which is updated to fit a modern day sensibility and aesthetic while still feeling deeply aware of the cultural and historical contexts from which the idea was birthed.  At just over half an hour long, the piece is long enough to play like an HBO special, but short enough to not venture into the realms of preaching, punching down or feeling didactic, choosing instead to be deeply relatable to all who are receptive, and doubly so for those of a particular age raised in the quote-unquote Black experience. 

The framework of The Black ABC’s is integrated masterfully, with each short connected vignette managing to almost immediately get it’s intended main point and subtext across, the majority without the use of dialogue.  For example, W is for Worldstar emulates the relatively recent phenomenon of viral internet fights, with Topaz Jones serving as the recipient of a collective beatdown presented via rapid-fire cuts between handheld footage that makes it hard to discern exactly what’s going on.  This sequence not only captures the main idea of just how dangerous and overly aggressive a hood setting can be for a young man, but it manages to illustrate the secondary point of these very personal and humbling experiences serving the carnal need for entertainment via the new technology of cellular phone cameras, with many bystanders choosing to get close to and film a fight (unfair or otherwise) rather than insert themselves and break it up.  Several letters are also assigned to be brief segments of songs from the Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Mama album, playing out like trailers for music videos that manage to hold together and represent the broader ideas within the short film due to their equally important status within Topaz Jones’ personal hierarchy of influence and inspiration.  Sprinkle in some candid childhood memories and testimonies from older members of the Jones family, and you’ve got an emotionally and visually visceral gumbo.

What really sets the ideological boundaries for the film, however, are the interview segments.  Each of these sequences manages to get some lofty but important ideas across in regard to the betterment of the collective Black community without coming off as standoffish or overly intellectual.  Rather than flex for self-importance, each of the interview subjects opts to appeal to logic, intellect or emotion (if not all three) while speaking on ideas like educational reform, self-sustainable living, understanding the importance of intellectual property, following your heart versus following the pack, political and personal activism and so on.  Be it poets like Ivy Sole or Black Thought, educators like Rodney Jackson, activists like Francis Perez, Kaity Rodriguez or Keith White, or even family members like Emma Janice Jones, each of the unique and deeply personal shares all have a uniform intention : knowledge of self that leads to empowerment and, eventually, freedom. 

I was not familiar with Topaz Jones prior to today, but after seeing this film, I will most certainly be spending a part of my day tomorrow listening to the Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma album.  Interestingly enough, I am anticipating it to inform the film, meaning that I will likely be returning to the film, which will likely lead me back to the album, and so on and so forth.  If this isn’t nominated in the Short Film categories this award season, I may lose faith in that system as a whole.  If you’re a fan of shows like 2 Dope Queens, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Random Acts of Flyness, That Damn Michael Che, United Shades of America or Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas, and you don’t mind (or are into) a little extra flair and style, then definitely check this one out via The Criterion Channel, the New York Times YouTube channel or the official website of Topaz Jones.  

[gurji]

(Ivy Sole)

[demurmagazine]

This week we have London based Parisian artist @daylaspace spreading all kinds of positivity right here on our #demurdecks featuring @christineandthequeens @yehanjehan @ivysole @lolozouai and more. www.demur.co #NewMusic #quarantena #linkinbio #dayla #quarantineandchill #quarantineplaylist #nyx #badhoney #pyjamaparty #jamesblake #mustafa #lolozouai #drake #toosieslide #elevatorgirl #ivysole #fauxreal #yehanjehan #christineandthequeens https://www.instagram.com/p/CAnnKi6AfgO/?igshid=1ntqi7ubff455

[thomasleatherboi]

I was just chillin wif one of my music heros!!! Ivy Sole, artist who wrote dope tunes like Eden, RollerCoaster and All Mine. . If you haven’t heard @ivysole sing you must live a sad life cause her music puts words in places I didn’t think could be verbalized. She got my 💜 with her 🎼 🎶. . #MusicLover #BayArea #Charlottesville #Interstate #InterstateMusicLovers #IvySoul #Ivy #IvySole #CannabisMusic #RadicalQueer #InTownForPride #ThanksForComingThrough #SFLovesYou (at Brick & Mortar Music Hall) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzPuIQ7BKPv/?igshid=1so5gba4cjgzf

[prettyawesomelitmusic]

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@vansiretheband get their 2-step on in their brand 🆕 video for “That I Miss You.” These visuals come from their April 2018 album Angel Youth. Find more about Vansire on PALM! Link in bio! • • • #Vansire #prettyawesomelitmusic #NewMusic #Stonesthrow #lowendtheory #MacDemarco #indiemusic #indiecurrent #newmusicalert #musicvideos #musicblogger #musicjournalist #pigeonsandplanes #stereogum #pitchfork #dmformusicpromo #Minnesota #twincitiesmusic #quellechris #IvySole @ivysole @quellechrist @guiltysimpson #groovytunes (at Minnesota)

[magnification]

(Ivy Sole)

[her-exgifriend]

i promise you need this song in your life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3WBClTs7FY&ab_channel=IvySole

[themoodismusic]

Episode 3: We attend a live show featuring Parisalexa and Ivy Sole at the end of their West coast tour

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On the tail end of pride month in Seattle, “The Mood Is Music” visits the Crocodile in the neighborhood of Belltown in Seattle, to catch the end of the Femmtapes tour featuring Ivy Sole and Seattle's own rising star songwriter-producer Parisalexa. The guys discuss their experience at the Crocodile show and their experience so far with the live music scene in Seattle, WA. Parisalexa Ivy Sole

[raised-ina-sandbox]

👂🏾👂🏾 🎼 Queendom Minded Playlist Via UhHuhyaa.com link in bio ! All female HIP HOP so actual bars no Nicki on my shit 🙅🏾‍♀️!!! Like! Support ! Tell A Friend! We promote music too! ✊🏾 : : : : . . . . . #ivysole#bbymutha #lexiialijai #blacklivesmatter #femalerapper #consciousrap #hiphop #music #rap #love #beats #goodmusic #song #spotify #bestsong #songs #newsong #jam #favoritesong#

[vidamouremortem]

#ivysole #lovethelyrics #lovethebeat #music #blogger #vidamourmortem (at Los Angeles, California)

[gumbosoul]

#morningkickstart @ivysole #reppinphilly 🔥🔥Lost 🔥🔥Available on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ivy-sole/id1108168670 #ivysole #phillysoul #hiphopsoul #freshandlocal #controllerise #savagefampro #RunTheStreets (at Forte Fitness)

[goldbishfish]

This is the most exciting thing that has happened to me this week

[serenaderadio]

(Ivy Sole)

[klutzandprezley]

Ivy Sole - All Mine Follow Klutz and Prezley on SoundCloud