#johnsingleton

[cartermagazine]

Today In History John Singleton was a renowned screenwriter and director born in Los Angeles, California on January 6, 1968. His 1991 feature film debut, Boyz n the Hood, garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Singleton followed with Poetic Justice in 1993 and Higher Learning in 1995. Subsequent works include 1997’s Rosewood, 2000’s Shaft remake, 2001’s Baby Boy and 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. In 2005, he produced Hustle & Flow and directed Four Brothers. John’s last creation Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles, California in 1983. CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #johnsingleton #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke https://www.instagram.com/p/CnEnQy0O2ye/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[theculturedone]

Poetic Justice, 1993.’

[boogietitia]

[ciarameghan]

“Love is a juice with many tastes. Some bitter, others sweet. A wine which has few vineyards.” #poeticjustice #nevergetsold #tupac #janetjackson #thosesmiles #myheart #pitterpatter #johnsingleton #90smovies #fave #comehere #iwannawhispersomethingtoyou https://www.instagram.com/p/CCsC8PqALaK/?igshid=1fd72g2m3zm1r

[innervisionfilms]

Saturday afternoon #movie of the day. #BoyzNDaHood #classic powerful film dir. by #JohnSingleton 🙏🏾 Had to revisit this film. I’ll never forget the impact it left on me as a young black man. #increasethepeace ✊🏾 “Either they don’t know, don’t sho’, or don’t care about what’s going on in da hood” - Doughboy https://www.instagram.com/p/B_a1IkLJqze/?igshid=5a9jznoddy6t

[bootiesbooksandtheblues]

BOYZ N THE HOOD...released 28 years ago today. #JohnSingleton #beautifulisBLACK https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz0OLLSnKWH/?igshid=1decp1duedwqj

[scholarshit]

John Singleton Tribute (pt.3) What’s In YOUR Heart: a Portrait of Lucky (Poetic Justice)

This week we lost acclaimed director and filmmaker John Singleton. Known for classic films like Boyz N The Hood, Poetic Justice, Baby Boy, Higher Learning, Rosewood and many more. Reflecting on his dynamic body of work, I realized just how much of my own perspective of the world has been directly influenced and shaped by his stories, his portraits of Black masculinity. Never flat, his Black male characters were always nuanced and complicated. For the next couple days, I’m highlighting a few of those portraits in tribute to this great story-teller.

Full disclosure, I never saw Poetic Justice, well, not before this morning that is. It’s not my favorite Singleton movie. Honestly, I abandoned my endeavor at least twice as the pace of the film was arduous and the story a bit heavy-handed throughout. But I made it through and I’m glad I did. Poetic Justice centers on a young woman name Justice (Janet Jackson) who is reeling from the trauma of witnessing the killing of her first love. When she meets Lucky (Tupac Shakur) she’s cold and bitter, his dirty fingernails and his cocky approach doesn’t help the situation very much. However, forced together on a road trip between L.A. and Oakland something eventually begins to shake loose.

Lucky, like most of Singleton’s characters, is anything but one-dimensional. But what captured my attention is the fact that for much of the film, Lucky attempts a kind of one-dimensionalism. Like many young Black men, he hides behind a mask of virility and deference, feigning indifference and disconnect. He twists his postal uniform cap to the back while delivering mail, sips 40s from a paper bag as he chops it up with a car full of gang bangers, and refers to women as ‘bitches and hos’ with nearly every other word. Yet his character (as his mother acknowledges) has an ‘honest job’. He is a doting and dutiful father, even going as far as to rescue his daughter from her basehead mother. He also has ambition and vision. At one point he lashes out at his quasi-homie Chicago (Joe Torry) for downplaying the efforts of another man trying to do something with his life. It isn’t until deep into the fateful road-trip that the façade Lucky exudes begins to dissipate. As he strolls through an African festival with Justice, she questions his sudden silence and introspection. “I’m just thinking,” he replies, “It’s hard to think in the city”.

Lucky doesn’t really appear until this moment, when he begins to abandon the stereotypical facade. When he begins to be vulnerable. He becomes and example of what happens when we ultimately let our guard down. And we get to experience this trip with him. The further away they get from L.A. you can observe Lucky transform, almost like the changing landscape of the California coastline. And the backdrops perform as elegantly as the actors in the film. Throughout the road-trip, scenes of lush parks, mountains, and the Pacific Ocean crashing against the cliffs, contrast starkly to the arid cityscapes. Early on, the violence implicit in the remnants the L.A. riots, drug-infested projects, and a police presence so constant that they bleed into the background help us understand what Lucky means when he says it’s hard to think in the city. That violence is reiterated when Lucky finally arrives in Oakland to find his cousin and creative partner Khalil has been shot to death. 

It is this constant violence or threat of violence which explains why Lucky (and many Black men) performs a kind of hyper-bravado, despite the contradictions of his actual being. The violence is a glaring and tenuous reality and for Black men, and it is more often than not, a hindrance to any kind of respite one might discover by way of being vulnerable. But as revealed in the end, that kind of emotional nakedness is equally essential for survival. The one-dimensional version of Lucky was too rigid, to committed to an idea of himself that he stood in his own way. As he softened, he grew almost exponentially.

When things finally cooled between Lucky and Justice, she returns once more to his dirty hands. She pulls out her kit and begins to give him a manicure. Though the conversation centers on her own traumatic story, at that moment, Lucky’s submission to Justice becomes a rare moment of intimacy. And perhaps a subtle reminder that despite the fact that this world is harsh on us it’s important to remember that self-preservation also includes allowing those who love us to help take care of us.  

© Fahamu Pecou 2019

[cartermagazine]

Today In History John Singleton was a renowned screenwriter and director born in Los Angeles, California on January 6, 1968. His 1991 feature film debut, Boyz n the Hood, garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Singleton followed with Poetic Justice in 1993 and Higher Learning in 1995. Subsequent works include 1997's Rosewood, 2000's Shaft remake, 2001's Baby Boy and 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. In 2005, he produced Hustle & Flow and directed Four Brothers. John’s last creation Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles, California in 1983. CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #johnsingleton #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke https://www.instagram.com/p/CYY23PKrk-d/?utm_medium=tumblr

[lskye29]

We celebrate you always! #johnsingleton #nipseyhussleforever #johnwitherspoon (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4aLKeKHCF6/?igshid=136z155dqj2t3

[blckvnyl]

Thank you, Mr. Singleton. May you rest in enternal peace.

[boogietitia]

[respectthewest]

Them Boyz N The Hood is always hard... 28 years ago the soundtrack to one of the most classic films dropped!

[twotrey23]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michael Dequina (@twotrey23)

repost via @snowfallfx : "Trailblazer. Artist. Mentor. Friend. Remembering the legend, #JohnSingleton @johnsingleton ." #Snowfall #SnowfallFX #tv #television #filmmaker #filmmaking #writer #director #producer #film #cinema #movie🎬 #movies #films (at South Central LA) https://www.instagram.com/p/By3yKDKlKu_/?igshid=1l5t6vn51vu27

[neiltaffe]

R.I.P. John Singleton. Thank you for being a mighty force in black culture. #johnsingleton #boyznthehood #poeticjustice #higherlearning (at North Hollywood, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw494PClPXj/?igshid=1jddkpqr1epn4

[bootiesbooksandtheblues]

Classic. #JohnSingleton #beautifulisBLACK https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw2vlYMALTK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=y6jt13yj0txz

[scholarshit]

John Singleton Tribute (pt.2) DUMB LUCK: a Portrait of Ricky

This week we lost acclaimed director and filmmaker John Singleton. Known for classic films like Boyz N The Hood, Poetic Justice, Baby Boy, Higher Learning, Rosewood and many more. Reflecting on his dynamic body of work, I realized just how much of my own perspective of the world has been directly influenced and shaped by his stories, his portraits of Black masculinity. Never flat, his Black male characters were always nuanced and complicated. For the next couple days, I’m highlighting a few of those portraits in tribute to this great story-teller.

John Singleton’s first film was so epic, so jarring, so incredibly visceral that it became an instant and undeniable American classic. In 1991, Variety described it as ‘an absorbing, smartly-made, dramatic encyclopedia of problems and ethics in the Black community’. And it’s true, Boyz N The Hood was and is an outstanding work.  There’s so much depth in the characters, the story, and even the directing that it’s almost difficult to imagine that this was Singleton’s directorial debut. I could pluck out and unpack any of the characters for this essay, however, I’ve chosen to focus on Ricky, played by Morris Chestnut. Ricky is another one of my favorite Singleton characters, but rather than strength or intelligence or emotional depth, what makes Ricky so compelling is his lack of agency.

Unlike Trey (Cuba Gooding Jr.) or even Dough Boy (Ice Cube), Ricky is virtually a hat rack. He doesn’t have charm or ambition, he’s not a threat and in life, he’s rather forgettable. If it wasn’t for the football in his hand, he might not serve a purpose at all. This is what makes his character so potent. Ricky is the sheep, the sacrifice. Every other character in the story, in his universe, is in place to protect and care for him. Ricky in many ways is the sum total of the impact of our marginalization.

That might sound like a leap but hear me out. Rick’s whole plan in life is based on dumb luck. He’s staked his entire existence on the hopes of playing in the NFL. When pressed by the college recruiter Ricky has no idea that he’s even supposed to have a major once he gets into college. His dreams and ambitions are small, because, well, his imagination is equally diminutive.

Ricky is not an outlier, nor an exception. There are far too many Rickys out here. And not just in the hood, but in the corporate world, in the entertainment and arts industries, as well as classrooms from kindergarten to college–and I’m not just referring to the students. The conditions of racism and oppression have inspired successive generations of Black men with little ambition who merely hope to get by, hope to make it through. Men of great potential hoping for a break.  And herein lies the problem: luck is not a plan.  

I spent many years during my high school and college days sliding by. I knew what I was capable of, but I was comfortable doing the bare minimum because as luck would have it, that’s all most of the world expected of me. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college, when I met Professor and artist, Dr. Arturo Lindsay, that my luck ran out. Arturo was clear that my basic ass efforts had no place in his class and would get no respect from him. He demanded more, and eventually (and thankfully), I obliged. “There’s no such thing as luck,” he would admonish, “You have to be prepared when your opportunities arise.”

In one of the most powerful and indelible scenes in cinematic history, Ricky stops to scratch a lottery ticket despite the fact that he and Trey are being actively hunted by a car full of trigger-happy bangers. We all know how the scene plays out. What makes the Rickys of this world most tragic is the willful ignorance of their own potential (just ask about Ricky’s SAT score). I think Singleton was deliberate in that the tragedy of Ricky is really a warning. Dumb luck can’t outrun the real.

©2019 Fahamu Pecou